Paging Gazhekwe

[Jimaz]

All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian.
— Pat Paulsen

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[gazhekwe]

It is about fracking and aboriginal rights as Canadian policy is allowing a Houston company in to frack on native lands. Elsipogtog Mi'kmaq Protectors, including women, children and elders are armed with eagle feathers and hand drums, and fortunately, phones with camera capabilities. RCMP come in with pepper spray, dogs, guns, and one is even caught on camera choking an unarmed man.






Link to news article and comments: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybre...174359282.html

It brings me to the branching path ahead of us now.

Do we choose the path of death, or the path of harmony with the earth, and life? Can we light the eighth fire and learn to live in harmony with each other to the health of mother earth and all her children?

Elder's Meditation of the Day - October 19
"The teachings are for all, not just for Indians... The
white people never wanted to learn before. They
thought we were savages. Now they have a different
understanding, and they do want to learn. We are all
children of God. The tradition is open to anyone who
wants to learn."
-- Don Jose Matusuwa, HUICHOL


In the summer of 1994, a white buffalo calf was born. This
means that now is the time for all races to come together. The
Elders say that at this time a voice from within will speak to
everyone. It will say now is the time to forgive, now is the time
to come together. Are we willing to do this? Are we willing to
quit judging other people? The Elders say, He will be talking
through people of all races and gender. We need to open our
hearts and welcome our brothers and sisters.


Great Spirit, let my ears be open as I walk the path You have chosen for me.

[gazhekwe]

RCMP supported by armed U.S. infiltrators attack First Nations Canadians to cover up Enviroment Canada raid of Irving Oil Canaport

Posted by Paul W KincaidWorld newsThursday, October 17th, 2013

Fracking is to break this up, dirt and rock:



And here are the snipers:



Updated October 18, 2013 – Progressive Conservative Premier of New Brunswick David Alward [[a Crown agent) illegally authorized the RCMP and armed U.S. forces to use force and attack a group of First Nations and New Brunswick Canadian citizens peacefully protesting Irving Oil shale gas fracking operations on Irving Oil owned land just outside of Rexton New Brunswick Canada on Thursday. The RCMP were supported by armed U.S. military infiltrators when they launched the unprovoked attack against First Nations Canadians. Irving Oil contracted the shale gas operations to U.S. Southwestern Energy [[Houston, TX).

Irving Oil solicited the aid [[influence peddling and bribery) of NB Premier David Alward to authorize the RCMP to use force against federally [[treaty) protected First Nations people, to kill a nationally televised story concerning a raid by Environment Canada investigators of an Irving Oil facility.

Environment Canada officer raided Irving Oil Canaport Thursday morning to search for and collect evidence relating to an investigation of a major toxic gas leak that killed 7,500 migrating songbirds at the Irving Oil’s Canaport gas plant in Saint John, New Brunswick. Environment Canada officers arrived at Canaport LNG just before 9 a.m. on Thursday. This Environment Canada [[a federal department ) raid of Irving Oil Canaport was reported on CBC and the National News just prior to the RCMP and U.S. military forces assault against the unarmed peaceful protesters protesting the Irving Oil shale gas operations on Irving Oil land.

Until the national news broke about Irving Oil venting toxic and deadly gas into the atmosphere, killing thousands of migrating birds, the RCMP supported the “lawful” protests [[Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – freedoms of peaceful assembly and association.) and did not enforce a court injunction that Irving Oil lawyers illegally acquired for the U.S. oil and gas drilling company – Southwestern Energy [[Houston, TX).

The RCMP could not enforce the Irving Oil petitioned court injunction because a court injunction is not a law. The provinces do not have the constitutional authority to “enact” law. Laws can only be passed or changed with the approval of both houses of Parliament. A court injunction is nothing more than an prejudicial “administrative ordinance” based solely on a procedural error [[is error within the procedure or steps in the experiment that cause the value received to not be the true one). A court Injunction can never be enforced because it is bias – prejudice. A court injunction is solicited by a “corporation”[[Irving Oil) to influence the opinion of a Crown [[City of London Corporation) judge in favor of the petitioning “corporation”. Irving Oil violated statute law – influence peddling and bribery of Judges or members of Parliament or Provincial Legislative.

U.S. snipers were photographed [[above image) by various news agencies targeting First Nations and Canadian citizens, with RCMP officers watching. Progressive Conservative David Alward and federal RCMP police officers allowed assault rifle armed foreign soldiers [[snipers) to infiltrate Canada and target First Nations and Canadian citizens – an act of war.

David Alward and the RCMP coordinated with heavily armed members of the United States military forces and engaged in an armed attack against First NationsCanadians. David Alward [[representing the Crown a.k.a City of London Corporation) and the RCMP are guilty of high treason and treason – aiding and abetting another state - when they provided aid and comfort to U.S. infiltration forces in an armed attack against First Nations Canadians peacefully protesting a Irving Oil shale gas confidence scheme that is being perpetrated on Canadian soil.

The RCMP stated at least one shot was fired by someone other than police and that police are also investigating suspected explosive devices at the scene. The single shot fired was from the above sniper – a U.S. soldier.

Lots more here: http://presscore.ca/2012/rcmp-suppor...-canaport.html

Is it finally time to wake up and smell the stink from fossil fuels, get clean and sober?

[gazhekwe]

Pokagon Chairman Wesaw Becomes First American Indian to Hold Cabinet Post in Michigan

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Briefs.

LANSING, MICHIGAN – Matt Wesaw, the current chairman of the Pokagon Band Potawatomi, will resign that position effective October 25 and then will become the executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. [That's where I worked for 30+ years -- Gazhekwe]

Matt Wesaw, chairman of the Pokagon Band Potawatomi

Wesaw will be based at the department’s Lansing office in the Capital Tower Building at 110 West Michigan Avenue.

Wesaw becomes the first American Indian to ever hold a cabinet position with the State of Michigan in its 176 year history.

“Matt Wesaw brings a depth and breadth of experience and sound judgment that will be of great benefit to the Department of Civil Rights and the state of Michigan,” said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

“I look forward to joining with him in the important work of ensuring that every citizen of this great state has the opportunity to live, work, and learn in an environment free from discrimination, ready to pursue the opportunities around them.”

“I feel very privileged and honored to have been selected as Executive Director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights,” said Chairman Wesaw.

“Having served on the Commission for several years, Civil Rights is an area that I am very passionate about and I’m excited to focus on it in the final phase of my career.”

Wesaw began his career in public service in 1979 when he joined the Michigan State Police. During his 26 years as a state trooper, Wesaw served at the Jackson Post, Flat Rock Post, and Lansing Post prior to being promoted to uniform sergeant in 1986. He was then transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division, where he became Detective Sergeant and served in the Organized Crime and Auto Theft Units. In 1995, Wesaw became Vice President of the Michigan State Police Troopers Association [[MSPTA), serving in that role until January of 2001, and as the Director of Government Relations for MSPTA until his retirement in March of 2008.

In addition to his positions, during the 1990s he also served as chairman of the Commission on Indian Affairs under then Governor John Engler. Wesaw was appointed by Governor Engler to the Community Service Commission.

In 2004, Governor Jennifer Granholm appointed Wesaw to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, becoming only the second American Indian to hold that position. He served as chair of the Commission in 2010 and 2011.

In 2007, Wesaw was hired by the board of directors of the United Tribes of Michigan which is comprised of the federally-recognized tribes in Michigan whose mission is to support the mutual interests of the American Indian community. He served in this position until his election as tribal chairman of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians in 2009. Wesaw also serves as the president and CEO of the Pokagon Gaming Authority, the governing body that oversees the Four Winds Casinos.

In 2009, Wesaw was elected by the leaders of the Midwest’s 37 federally-recognized tribes to the position of regional vice-president of the National Congress of American Indians, and in 2010 he was selected to the position of Recording Secretary for the organization.

In January of 2011, Wesaw was appointed by Governor Snyder to the Council on Law Enforcement and Reinvention committee. The committee is charged with evaluating the efficiency of the delivery of law enforcement services to the citizens of the state of Michigan.

Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Vice-chair Bob Moody will assume the day to day responsibilities of the chairman's office until a special election is held within three months of Wesaw's resignation. Since Wesaw had more than a year left in his term of office, per the Tribe’s constitution, there will be a special election held during late January 2014 to fill the chairman’s position.

updated 1:40 pm edt; posted October 19, 2013 11:20 am edt

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/pok...-michigan.html

[gazhekwe]

[gazhekwe]

A white man and an elderly Native man became pretty good friends, so the white guy decided to ask him: “What do you think about Indian mascots?”

The Native elder responded, “Here’s what you've got to understand. When you look at black people, you see ghosts of all the slavery and the rapes and the hangings and the chains. When you look at Jews, you see ghosts of all those bodies piled up in death camps. And those ghosts keep you trying to do the right thing.

“But when you look at us you don’t see the ghosts of the little babies with their heads smashed in by rifle butts at the Big Hole, or the old folks dying by the side of the trail on the way to Oklahoma while their families cried and tried to make them comfortable, or the dead mothers at Wounded Knee or the little kids at Sand Creek who were shot for target practice. You don’t see any ghosts at all. Instead you see casinos and drunks and junk cars and shacks.

“Well, we see those ghosts. And they make our hearts sad and they hurt our little children. And when we try to say something, you tell us, ‘Get over it. This is America. Look at the American dream.’

But as long as you’re calling us Redskins and doing tomahawk chops, we can’t look at the American dream, because those things remind us that we are not real human beings to you. And when people aren’t humans, you can turn them into slaves or kill six million of them or shoot them down with Hotchkiss guns and throw them into mass graves at Wounded Knee.

“No, we’re not looking at the American dream. And why should we? We still haven’t woken up from the American nightmare.”

-- Native American perspective on the mascot issue; this is an excerpt from “Wolf at Twilight” by Kent Nerburn.

[gazhekwe]

[gazhekwe]

Sovereign Immunity and the Bay Mills Case: How Tribes Can Prepare, Part 1 of 2
Ryan Seelau & Ian Record, 11/5/13

As regular visitors to this site and other Indian country media outlets no doubt have seen in recent weeks, Native nation leaders, tribal attorneys, and federal Indian law practitioners alike are gravely concerned about a case currently pending before the Supreme Court: State of Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community.

The case involves the Bay Mills Indian Community, a federally recognized tribe located not far from the U.S.-Canadian border in northern Michigan. In November 2010, Bay Mills opened a gaming facility about 125 miles south of its reservation on a small parcel of property it had recently purchased. Situated along an interstate highway, the facility was located just 35 miles from a casino owned and operated by the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians [[LTBBO). Bay Mills’ decision to open the gaming facility caught both LTBBO and the State of Michigan by surprise, as Bay Mills Indian Community decision-makers had not followed the usual formal process of putting the off-reservation land into trust before opening the facility.

In response, in December 2010 the State of Michigan and LTBBO jointly filed an injunction in federal court seeking to prevent the Bay Mills Indian Community gaming facility from operating. In response, Bay Mills Indian Community offered a complex legal defense rooted in the argument that because it had used funds from the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act to buy the property, it could open a gaming facility on the land without first placing it into trust. At about the same time, the National Indian Gaming Commission [[NIGC) – the federal agency charged with resolving disputes involving Indian gaming – claimed that it did not have jurisdiction to decide the legality of the Bay Mills Indian casino since the facility was not technically located on “Indian lands.” The NIGC’s decision basically ensured that the dispute would have to be resolved by the parties themselves or, alternatively, by the federal court system.

A federal district court issued an injunction ordering the closure of the facility in March 2011, prompting an appeal by the Bay Mills Indian Community, which argued, among other things, that it could not be sued by the State of Michigan and LTBBO because it had not waived its sovereign immunity. After listening to Bay Mills’ Indian Community argument on the sovereign immunity question, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, ruling that there was no jurisdiction because the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act [[IGRA) did not abrogate tribal sovereign immunity in this case because Bay Mills’ casino was not alleged to be on “Indian lands.” The only question remaining before the Court was whether any U.S. Congressional statutes provided legal grounds for the case to proceed. After analyzing the law, the Court concluded that no such statute existed and that the case should be dismissed. In October 2012, the State of Michigan requested that the U.S. Supreme Court review the case, and several weeks ago the Court granted that request.

So what is the legal doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity, and why is the Court’s decision to hear the Bay Mills case causing so much trepidation across Indian Country about the doctrine’s immediate viability and long-term prospects? Generally speaking, sovereign immunity is the legal principle that governments cannot be sued without their consent. In the case of federally recognized Indian tribes, sovereign immunity means that Indian tribal governments and any businesses owned by Indian tribal governments cannot be sued unless [[a) they are sued by the federal government, [[b) they unequivocally agree to be sued, or [[c) Congress has explicitly stated in a statute that Indian tribes can be sued in a specific context.

Over the past few decades, a growing number of tribes have deftly used tribal sovereign immunity to protect and exercise their sovereignty and advance their political and economic interests, especially in relation to ever-encroaching state governments. The critical importance of sovereign immunity is perhaps easier to grasp when one understands it as a tribe’s right to define the forum for lawsuits against the tribe, the procedures for lawsuits against the tribe, and any limits on the type or scope of lawsuits against the tribe. Properly used, it can provide numerous benefits for tribes, including: the ability to cap damages on contract, tort, and other types of lawsuits; the ability to limit remedies to non-monetary relief in certain types of lawsuits; the ability to have lawsuits against the tribe heard only in tribal courts; the ability to choose a different type of dispute resolution [[e.g. arbitration or mediation) for certain types of lawsuits; the ability to protect tribal assets from suits through the limitation of damages; the ability to waive immunity in a limited fashion to foster commercial and physical infrastructure development; and the ability to use immunity as leverage in negotiations with state and local governments on multiple fronts, notably gaming and taxation.

Here is what everyone is upset about -- Gazhekwe

The Bay Mills Indian Community case places the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity directly in the crosshairs of a U.S. Supreme Court that has time and again proven to be unfriendly towards tribes and tribal sovereignty and has demonstrated a strong desire to eat away at the doctrine should the right case come along [[Bay Mills appears to fit the bill). For example, in the last three Supreme Court cases dealing with tribal sovereign immunity, several justices have openly disparaged the doctrine, questioning its relevance and utility. Opponents of tribal sovereignty in general -- and the tribal sovereign immunity doctrine in particular -- smell blood in the water, evidenced by the fact that attorneys general from 16 other states have filed briefs in support of the State of Michigan.

The rest of the article is here:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...es-can-prepare

Bay Mills has stood out in front and taken the heat before, putting our fishers in the line of fire ultimately winning our tribal treat rights to fish and hunt, and opening the first Indian casino in 1984, ultimately winning the right of tribes to have casinos on their own land. This case tests the right of tribes to use money paid for lands taken to increase tribal land holdings. On that argument, considering the conditions from the treaty on which the payments were based, and the conditions upon which the payments were granted, I think we were right to take up the fight. These issues are not the ones before the Supreme Court, though, it turns on whether the State can sue us. -- Gazhekwe

[gazhekwe]

21 Statistics From the Census Bureau for Heritage Month

ICTMN Staff 11/13/13

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, the U.S. Census Bureau released the following statistics for American Indians and Alaska Natives:

5.2 million
The nation’s population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including those of more than one race—they made up about 2 percent of the total population in 2012. Of this total, about 49 percent were American Indian and Alaska Native only, and about 51 percent were American Indian and Alaska Native in combination with one or more other races.

11.2 million
The projected population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, alone or in combination, on July 1, 2060. They would comprise 2.7 percent of the total population.
Source:Population projections

437,339
The American Indian and Alaska Native population. [I do not know how this fits with the prior two statistics, have sent note to writers -- Gazhekwe]

14
Number of states with more than 100,000 American Indian and Alaska Native residents in 2012— these states were California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Washington, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Alaska, Michigan, Oregon, Colorado and Minnesota.

19.6 percent
The proportion of Alaska’s population who identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, alone or in combination, in 2012, the highest rate for this group of any state. Alaska was followed by Oklahoma [[13.4 percent), New Mexico [[10.4), South Dakota [[10 percent) and Montana [[8.1 percent). [Michigan ranks 9th in the Nation for Native residents. The largest %age is in metro Detroit -- Gazhekwe]

31.0
Median age for those who were American Indian and Alaska Native, alone or in combination, in 2012. This compares with a median age of 37.4 for the U.S. population as a whole.

325
Number of federally recognized American Indian reservations in 2012. All in all, excluding Hawaiian Home Lands, there are 618 American Indian and Alaska Native legal and statistical areas for which the Census Bureau provides statistics.
Source: Census Bureau Geography Division

22 percent
Percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives, alone or in combination, who lived in American Indian areas or Alaska Native Village Statistical Areas in 2010. These American Indian areas include federal American Indian reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas, tribal designated statistical areas, state American Indian reservations, and state designated American Indian statistical areas.
Source: 2010 Census Summary File 1

566
Number of federally recognized Indian tribes.
Data courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

1,122,043
The number of American Indian and Alaska Native family households in 2012 [[households with a householder who was American Indian and Alaska Native alone or in combination with another race). Of these, 54.7 percent were married-couple families, including those with children.

6.2 percent
The percentage of American Indian and Alaska Natives alone or in combination with other races who were grandparents living with their grandchild[[ren) in 2012.

54.0 percent
The percentage of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native householders who owned their own home in 2012. This is compared with 63.9 percent of the overall population.

20.4 percent
Percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives alone or in combination 5 years and older who spoke a language other than English at home in 2012, compared with 21 percent for the nation as a whole.

78.8 percent
The percentage of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older who had at least a high school diploma, GED certificate or alternative credential in 2012. In addition, 13.5 percent obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher. In comparison, 86.4 percent of the overall population had a high school diploma and 29.1 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

40.9 percent
Single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older whose bachelor’s degree was in science and engineering, or science and engineering-related fields in 2012. This compares with 43.6 percent for all people 25 and older with this level of education.

The assembled graduates at the 2013 Spring Commencement of Navajo Technical College [[now Navajo Technical University).

70,532
Number of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older who had a graduate or professional degree in 2012.

26.1 percent
The percentage of civilian-employed single-race American Indian and Alaska Native people 16 and older who worked in management, business, science and arts occupations in 2012. In addition, 25.1 percent worked in service occupations and 22.8 percent in sales and office occupations.

161,686
The number of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native veterans of the U.S. armed forces in 2012.

$35,310
The median household income of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native households in 2012. This compares with $51,371 for the nation as a whole.

29.1 percent
The percent of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives that were in poverty in 2012, the highest rate of any race group. For the nation as a whole, the poverty rate was 15.9 percent.

27.4 percent
The percentage of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives who lacked health insurance coverage in 2012. For the nation as a whole, the corresponding percentage was 14.8 percent.
Statistics are from the2012 American Community Survey, unless otherwise noted.

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...e-month-152202

[gazhekwe]

Top 10 Tribal Desires at 2013 White House Tribal Nations Conference

Rob Capriccioso 11/15/13

Tribal leaders made abundantly clear at this year’s White House Tribal Nations Conference that they appreciate the good things the Obama administration has done for their tribal nations to date, but that doesn’t mean they are content—far from it. Indian Country Today Media Network was there to compile the following tribal desires expressed at the summit:

1) Get rid of sequestration of Indian treaty dollars.
Money designated for tribes at the Departments of Interior, Health and Human Services and at other agencies across the government is supposed to be protected by the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities to tribes, but the Obama administration and Congress have done nothing to shield Indian funds during their current no-holds-barred austerity approach. Indian programs did not cause the national budget crisis, so Indian programs should not be sequestered, said Aaron Payment, chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, at the conference. Funding for veterans and other programs have been protected, so Indian programs should be as well. “Treaties are not discretionary,” Payment said, to big tribal applause.

2) Get rid of the administration’s proposal to cap contract support cost reimbursements to tribes.
It’s an affront to Indian health and welfare, multiple tribal leaders said, and it shows that the Office and Management and Budget, the Indian Health Service, and the Department of the Interior are more committed to the bottom line than to Indian citizens. Juana Majel Dixon, a longtime leader with the Pauma Band, told federal officials that 100 percent of contract support costs must be reimbursed to tribes, given treaty and trust obligations.

3) Don’t forget about paying the billions back owed to tribes for contract support costs they have already been forced to pay.
The Supreme Court says these payments must be reimbursed. Plus, the administration has chosen to settle theCobellandKeepseaglecases, which both had arguably less concrete numbers for what was owed to tribal citizens than contract support costs that have been dutifully recorded by tribes over the years. Jefferson Keel, Lt. Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, told the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs the day after the conference that many millions are due to tribes in this area. Indian Health Service puts the estimate for what is owed by its agency at $2 billion; Interior estimates over a billion.

4) Support Indian education.
Tribal leaders talked a lot about this issue behind closed doors with administrations officials. They noted that when initially campaigning for president in 2008, President Obama himself promised to make Indian education a priority. Instead, attention has been haphazard, Native student progress has declined, and tribal colleges have received less support than they did under past presidential administrations. Indian youth and families are suffering because of it, said tribal leaders. Bryan Brewer, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, was key in raising this concern, addressing a White House panel about the need for the administration to actively protect tribal college budgets. He also noted the importance and value of tribal colleges and education in fighting poverty.

5) President Obama needs to fervently use his executive powers on Indian issues.
Past presidents, including Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, have pushed more sweeping tribal reforms with executive orders and special messages to Congress on Native issues than Obama. Executive actions can be done without Congress. “We need executive orders to carry out tribal needs,” Dixon said plainly.

6) Federal-tribal energy policy needs a lot of work.
Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, and Ben Shelly, president of the Navajo Nation, both made the case that Indian energy, both conventional and renewable, need much more concerted attention from this administration. “Our oil and gas initiatives are just as important as other oil,” Hall said. Shelly specifically asked the White House Council on Native American Affairs to support Indian energy policies being pushed by Rep. Don Young [[R-Alaska) and Sen. John Barrasso [[R-Wyoming).

7) IRS issues.
Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, said the National Congress of American Indians asked the administration for a commitment to publish IRS General Welfare Doctrine guidelines to clarify tax-exemption for special activities serving cultural and economically disadvantaged tribal citizens, including support for legislation to preserve the status beyond this administration.

8) Get some Native Americans on the White House Council on Native American Affairs.
The first meeting of the new council took place in late-July without any tribal leaders present, and that irked a lot of tribal leaders. Michael Finley, chairman of the Colville Tribes, recommended to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell that the council hire an Indian-focused director to oversee its progress and to seat Native Americans on the council immediately so that paternalism concerns can be quickly overcome.

9) Strengthen consultation—for real this time.
Office of Management and Budget and the Indian Health Service have this year produced budget plans that negatively affected Indian country without any consultation, several tribal leaders lamented, and that’s despite a 2009 memorandum from President Obama requiring it. “I hope the president heard that his Department of Justice team took the contract support cost litigation to the Supreme Court without consultation with tribes, and once the Supreme Court ruled favorably to the tribal position his management team tries to sidestep upholding the intent of the Supreme Court decision,” said Edward Thomas, president of the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes, who chose not to attend the conference due to concerns that it would become a photo op for the administration.

10) Obamacare is not a cure for Indian health woes.
“Affordable coverage is not the same as pre-paid, treaty-based healthcare,” wrote Indian journalist Mark Trahant inhis post-coverage of the conference. “American Indians and Alaska Natives are supposed to have a treaty right – a special right – to healthcare. One that's fully-funded. It's not ‘affordable healthcare just like everybody else's’”—which is what the president said in his speech at the event. The concern here from tribal leaders and Indians is that Obama might not understand the basic special status of Indians in this country today, which serves to undermine everything he does on tribal issues.

Honorable mentions:
Tribal leaders made many other requests, including
-asking for a commitment from the administration to resolve the Carcieri and Patchak land-into-trust issues through clean legislation;
-a commitment to reaffirming the federal-tribal government-to-government relationship;
-a commitment to strengthening and improving Indian access to capital through tax-exempt bonds and loan guarantee programs;
-a commitment to addressing the infrastructure needs in tribal communities to enhance Indian economies;
-a commitment to resolving the conflict over the definition of “Indian” in the Affordable Care Act to eliminate conflicting interpretation and avoid dropping Indians from eligibility;
-and a commitment to enhancing tribal law enforcement capacity to implement the newish Tribal Law and Order and Violence Against Women Acts that enhance tribal enforcement authority for public safety.
“Authority without resource is an empty commitment,” Allen noted on this last point.

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ference-152267

[gazhekwe]

I received an e-mail that this story has been corrected. Here is the corrected version:

21 Statistics From the Census Bureau for Heritage Month

ICTMN Staff 11/13/13

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, the U.S. Census Bureau released the following statistics for American Indians and Alaska Natives:

5.2 million
The nation’s population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including those of more than one race—they made up about 2 percent of the total population in 2012. Of this total, about 49 percent were American Indian and Alaska Native only, and about 51 percent were American Indian and Alaska Native in combination with one or more other races.

11.2 million
The projected population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, alone or in combination, on July 1, 2060. They would comprise 2.7 percent of the total population.
Source:Population projections

437,339
The American Indian and Alaska Native population, alone or in combination with another race that is 65 or over.

14
Number of states with more than 100,000 American Indian and Alaska Native residents in 2012— these states were California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Washington, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Alaska, Michigan, Oregon, Colorado and Minnesota.

19.6 percent
The proportion of Alaska’s population who identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, alone or in combination, in 2012, the highest rate for this group of any state. Alaska was followed by Oklahoma [[13.4 percent), New Mexico [[10.4), South Dakota [[10 percent) and Montana [[8.1 percent).

31.0
Median age for those who were American Indian and Alaska Native, alone or in combination, in 2012. This compares with a median age of 37.4 for the U.S. population as a whole.

325
Number of federally recognized American Indian reservations in 2012. All in all, excluding Hawaiian Home Lands, there are 618 American Indian and Alaska Native legal and statistical areas for which the Census Bureau provides statistics.
Source: Census Bureau Geography Division
22 percent
Percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives, alone or in combination, who lived in American Indian areas or Alaska Native Village Statistical Areas in 2010. These American Indian areas include federal American Indian reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas, tribal designated statistical areas, state American Indian reservations, and state designated American Indian statistical areas.
Source: 2010 Census Summary File 1

566
Number of federally recognized Indian tribes.
Data courtesy of theBureau of Indian Affairs

1,122,043
The number of American Indian and Alaska Native family households in 2012 [[households with a householder who was American Indian and Alaska Native alone or in combination with another race). Of these, 54.7 percent were married-couple families, including those with children.

6.2 percent
The percentage of American Indian and Alaska Natives alone or in combination with other races who were grandparents living with their grandchild[[ren) in 2012.

54.0 percent
The percentage of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native householders who owned their own home in 2012. This is compared with 63.9 percent of the overall population.

20.4 percent
Percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives alone or in combination 5 years and older who spoke a language other than English at home in 2012, compared with 21 percent for the nation as a whole.

78.8 percent
The percentage of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older who had at least a high school diploma, GED certificate or alternative credential in 2012. In addition, 13.5 percent obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher. In comparison, 86.4 percent of the overall population had a high school diploma and 29.1 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

40.9 percent
Single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older whose bachelor’s degree was in science and engineering, or science and engineering-related fields in 2012. This compares with 43.6 percent for all people 25 and older with this level of education.

70,532
Number of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older who had a graduate or professional degree in 2012.

26.1 percent
The percentage of civilian-employed single-race American Indian and Alaska Native people 16 and older who worked in management, business, science and arts occupations in 2012. In addition, 25.1 percent worked in service occupations and 22.8 percent in sales and office occupations.

161,686
The number of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native veterans of the U.S. armed forces in 2012.

$35,310
The median household income of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native households in 2012. This compares with $51,371 for the nation as a whole.

29.1 percent
The percent of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives that were in poverty in 2012, the highest rate of any race group. For the nation as a whole, the poverty rate was 15.9 percent.

27.4 percent
The percentage of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives who lacked health insurance coverage in 2012. For the nation as a whole, the corresponding percentage was 14.8 percent.
Statistics are from the2012 American Community Survey, unless otherwise noted.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...e-month-152202

[gazhekwe]

Finally: Spotlight to Shine on Code Talkers From 25 Tribes

Vincent Schilling 11/18/13

On December 21, 2000 the Navajo Code talkers were awarded Congressional Gold Medals as the highest expression of national appreciation for the involvement in World War II. In the years following, several tribes have fought to be recognized alongside the Navajo for similar efforts in the war as code talkers.

On November 20, 25 additional tribes will be recognized for their code talker service members.

For several in Indian country to include tribal leader, Bryan Brewer of the Pine Ridge Reservation, Regional Vice President of the NCAI Lance Gumbs and Cheyenne River Veterans Organization Commander Richard Charging Eagle, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor being given to the families are a long time coming and well overdue.

“We are very excited about this and have five people that will be getting medals,” said President Brewer.

“Though these service members are deceased, their family members will be in Washington next week. This is something that should have happened a long time ago and when they were still alive. But I am glad the families can be here on November 20.”

Brewer, who says he will also be present at the event on Wednesday, said the families will also be honored afterwards by all of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

“After they receive their medals and we return home, we will have an honoring ceremony for them.”

“The interesting thing about these service members is often times the families did not even know they were code talkers,” said Brewer. “Toni Red Cloud, who works for me, said she did not even know her father was a code talker because he never talked about it.”

According to Charging Eagle, he and other veterans of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe have been working for many years to get this recognition.

“This Congressional Medal of Honor is long overdue for these gentlemen. If it weren't for the Native American code talkers World War II would have been lost to the Germans, Japan and China. We could have lost all of it. But our code talkers really won for us and helped our bombing missions,” he said.

“Every reservation supposedly has some code talkers. For many years now the Navajo have always taken the credit as code talkers but the Navajo were not the only ones.

“We have four service members here who went into combat via communications and their families are being honored on November 20. The families always say these code talkers never talked about it and it was kept very classified. That's why a lot of the code talkers never said anything because their involvement was classified,” said Charging Eagle.

Gumbs, the regional VP at the National Congress of American Indians says the presentations of the medals are definitely a good thing.

“This is obviously a positive and it is long overdue. Native people have been involved in the conflicts of this land and the protection of this land since the Civil War. For us to finally be acknowledged and recognized that we played a major role in a war it serves notice to the rest of America about the contributions of Indian people.”

“If you look at the statistics, we have served in a greater ratio of numbers than any other ethnic group in this country throughout all of our many wars,” Gumbs said. “There were many different Native languages and Native tribes among the code talkers.”

Though the presentation of the Gold Medals has taken several years, Charging Eagle suspects one part of the reason for a delay is that there will be 25 separate designs for each tribe being given a medal.

Each medal will be cast in gold, silver and bronze, with the gold one being given to the tribes; the silver given to the families; and the bronze versions for sale to the public. A price has not been announced for the bronze versions to date.

“The Navajo are pretty famous as code talkers, and they get all the publicity, but so many people do not realize that there were a lot of other code talkers from other tribes that worked for this effort during the war,” Brewer said. “We are real happy that these other soldiers can be honored. It is very exciting.”

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...-tribes-152299

[gazhekwe]

Beyond the So-Called First Thanksgiving: 5 Children's Books That Set the Record Straight

Debbie Reese 11/19/13

It’s November, a time of year that many parents, teachers, and librarians look forward to giving children books about what is commonly—and erroneously—called “The First Thanksgiving.” Others seek books that counter the narrative of Pilgrims and Indians warmly sharing a meal together, and still others want to avoid that disingenuous feel-good story altogether and provide children with books that are about indigenous people, books that provide insights and knowledge that are missing from all too many accounts.

Your local bookstore probably has a special shelf this month filled with books about “The First Thanksgiving.” In most of them, Native peoples are stereotyped, and “Indian” instead of “Wampanoag” is used to identify the indigenous people. When the man known as Squanto is part of the stories, his value to the Pilgrims is that he can speak English, and he teaches them how to plant and hunt. The fact that he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Spain—if mentioned at all—is not addressed in the story because elaborating on it would up-end the feel-good story.

But there is an antidote to these books, and it goes beyond volumes that merely counter the feel-good tale. There are a multitude of works by Native writers who tell stories from their experience and history. While Thanksgiving is a good time to grab people’s attention about Wampanoag-European interactions, it does not need to frame the story. These books give a far more nuanced, and accurate, account of Indigenous Peoples. They will set children and adults alike straight on what really happened around the time of the so-called First Thanksgiving, and what Native life is like today.

1. The People Shall Continue, by Simon Ortiz [[Children’s Book Press, 1977)
The starting point for this picture-book poem, illustrated by Sharol Graves, is not 1492, nor is it 1621. The story begins the moment that “all things came to be,” when “the People were born.” This provides an immediate departure from the typical re-telling of creation stories by non-Native writers, who tend to cast our stories in a romantic and mystical realm.

Right off the bat, Ortiz tells us that the People differ in how they came to be.

Some say, “From the ocean.”
Some say, “From a hollow log.”
Some say, “From an opening in the ground.”
Some say, “From the mountains.”

As the poem progresses, the People start talking about strangers who seek treasure, slaves and land. Across the continent, the People fight to protect themselves.

In the West, Pope called warriors from the Pueblo and Apache Nations.
In the East, Tecumseh gathered the Shawnee and the Nations of the Great Lakes, the Appalachians, and the Ohio Valley to fight for their people.
In the Midwest, Black Hawk fought to save the Sauk and Fox Nation.
In the Great Plains, Crazy Horse led the Sioux in the struggle to keep their land.

Osceola in the Southeast, Geronimo in the Southwest, Chief Joseph in the Northwest, Sitting Bull, Captain Jack, all were warriors.

The People signed treaties, and many were moved. Their children were taken to boarding schools. Throughout, parents told their children:

“You are Shawnee. You are Lakota.
You are Pima. You are Acoma.
You are Tlingit. You are Mohawk.”

Through the years, the People kept their stories alive. Then, they realized, it was the powerful forces of the rich and of the government that made not only them but also others suffer: Black People, Chicano People, Asian People, and poor White people. Ortiz ends with a call to all Peoples to ally against forces that seek to destroy the humanity within each of us.

We must ensure that life continues.
We must be responsible to that life.
With that humanity and the strength
Which comes from our shared responsibility
For this life, the People shall continue.

2. Muskrat Will Be Swimming, by Cheryl Savageau [[Tilbury House Publishers, 1996)
Set in the present day, this book is about a young girl being taunted by schoolmates. Her grandfather helps her cope with bullying by telling her their Skywoman story, which is part of the creation story of the Haudenonsaunee.

3. First Americans, series by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve [[First Americans Books, various years)
This picture-book nonfiction series, similar in scope to Ortiz’s The People Shall Continue, consists of eight books profiling the Apache, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Hopi, Iroquois, Seminole and Sioux. Each one begins with a creation story and concludes with present-day information about each tribe and its people. In each, Sneve provides information about leaders, past and present.

4. Indian Shoes, Cynthia Leitich Smith [[HarperCollins, 2002)
This easy-reader chapter book is about Ray Halfmoon, a Seminole-Cherokee boy, and his grandfather, who live in present-day Chicago.
Indian Shoes is one of six stories in the book. Sprinkled with humor and warmth, each story is rich with details about Native life. Being set in Chicago, it makes clear that Native people are part of today’s America, and that some of us—be it by choice or other circumstances—live away from our homelands.

5. The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich [[HyperionBooks for Children, 1999)
Another chapter book, this one about the Ojibwe people and their early encounters with whites who were moving into their homelands. An award-winning book, it launched a series that now has four books in it: Game of Silence [[2005), Porcupine Year [[2008), and Chickadee [[2013). The fifth book, not yet published, is titled Makoons.

RELATED:Native American Heritage Month: Children’s Books for Your Black Friday Shopping List

Tribally enrolled at Nambe Pueblo, Debbie Reese holds a doctorate in Education and publishesAmerican Indians in Children's Literature.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...traight-152337

[gazhekwe]

[Just for context, using Trail of Tears like this is like taunting a team to Climb into the Cattle Cars, or Head for the Slave Ship. -- Gazhekwe]

Second 'Trail of Tears' Banner Displayed at Tennessee High School Football Game

ICTMN Staff 11/21/13

Another high school football team has used a “trail of tears” banner to allegedly taunt their visiting opponents.

The Dyersburg Trojans played the Northside Indians in the Tennessee High School Football Playoffs on Friday. The Trojans held up a banner that had blue dots in the shape of tears trickled on the word “tears”; and yellow dots, also in the shape of tears, on the word “trail.”

According toMother Jones, a Facebook page, that is managed by the Dyersburg coaching staff, highlighted a half-dozen photos of their students holding up the sign for the visiting team, the Indians.

Their principal, Jon Frye, did not attend the playoff game and said that he was not aware of the photos on Facebook. He also said that he would ask the administrators of the page to take them down. The photos have been removed.

RELATEDPrincipal Apologizes for 'Trail of Tears' Banner—Makes it a Teaching Moment

Earlier this week, McAdory High School in McCalla, Alabama, used a paper sign to taunt their opponents, the Pinson Valley Indians. It said, “Hey, Indians, get ready to leave in a Trail of Tears.” Their principal, Tod Humphries, has apologized for the incident.

These incidents have come to the forefront as the “Redskins” name-change debate continues to be a hot button issue in the NFL. Activists, lawmakers and Native American groups have said that the name is offensive, but the team’s owner, Dan Snyder, has refused to change the name.

RELATEDSome Alabama High School Students Aren't Worried About 'Trail of Tears' Banner

Frye said that “there’s some truth” to the fact that students should have known better than to mock such a tragic event. “I guess you could make the logical connection. If they weren’t named Indians, then you couldn’t have this particular situation.”

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ll-game-152365

[gazhekwe]

JFK Was a Mighty Warrior for Indian Country

Chris Stearns 11/22/13

Today, as the rest of America looks back on the legacy of President John F. Kennedy and his lasting contributions to human rights, we also have the opportunity to honor his lasting contributions to Indian country.

In 1960, in what was to be one of the closest presidential campaigns in American history, Kennedy campaigned on the promise of real human rights. His platform called for a higher minimum wage, medical care for the elderly, higher teachers’ salaries, low-income housing, and an end to chronic unemployment. In a letter to Oliver La Farge, President of the Association on American Indian Affairs, Kennedy wrote that he wanted an America in which “there would be no room for areas of depression, poverty, and disease.”



While Kennedy may be long remembered for his idealistic vision he called “the New Frontier”, he also should be rightly remembered for his contributions to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The 1960 election between Kennedy and a young Richard Nixon closely divided a country coming off of eight years of a Republican Eisenhower Administration. Indian country hadn’t fared so well during those years – sixty-four tribes were terminated by the time the presidential campaign was underway.
Kennedy, however, chose to throw his weight behind Indian country. He called for an end to Termination and he pledged to “end practices that have eroded Indian rights and resources, reduced the Indians' land base and repudiated Federal responsibility.”

During the campaign Kennedy famously promised that:

“My administration would see to it that the Government of the United States discharges its moral obligation to our first Americans by inaugurating a comprehensive program for the improvement of their health, education, and economic well-being. There would be no change in treaty or contractual relationships without the consent of the tribes concerned. No steps would be taken by the Federal Government to impair the cultural heritage of any group. There would be protection of the Indian land base, credit assistance, and encouragement of tribal planning for economic development.”

Kennedy’s platform marked a real change in the direction the Country would take on Indian affairs. His outreach to the National Congress of American Indians, Association on American Indian Affairs, the Friends Committee on National Legislation sparked hope that Indian tribes would soon see the day when they would gain the human right of self-determination. In fact, days after Kennedy’s narrow election victory, the National Congress of American Indians, which was meeting in Denver, called its annual convention “Self-Determination, Not Termination”.

In the summer of 1962, President Kennedy hosted a gathering of tribal leaders at the White House. He greeted them by recognizing that their mission “reminds us all of a very strong obligation which any American, whether he was born here or came here from other parts of the world, has to every American Indian.”

Kennedy demonstrated that he clearly understood the importance of the Nation’s trust and treaty responsibilities by adding that he wished the summit would “be a reminder to all Americans of the number of Indians whose housing is inadequate, whose education is inadequate, whose employment is inadequate, whose health is inadequate, whose security and old age is inadequate – a very useful reminder that there is still a good deal of unfinished business.”

His words were met with a sincere and heartfelt blessing from Dennis Bushyhead, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, who replied, “It is our fervent hope and our prayer that the Great Spirit will put His hand upon your capable shoulders as you guide the Ship of State of this glorious republic through the troublesome waters that lie ahead to the end that someday we will have a healthful, a happy, and a peaceful world.”

The power of Kennedy’s vision originated in his love of ideals. That idealism is fully on display in his 1963 call for the Civil Rights Act, in which he asked, "The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.”

It was that same belief in equality that also guided his Indian policy.

While Kennedy did not live to see his plans for Indian country come to fruition, his message and his ideals lived on. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy, worked tirelessly and campaigned on improving the future of all Indian people. And it was his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, who as president was the first to call for a concrete national policy of Indian Self-Determination in his 1968 Special Message to Congress.

The good news today is that American Indian and Alaska Native tribes are rebuilding this nation from the inside out, that we are restoring their own economies, and that are creating the housing, schools, and justice systems for our own people. And all of this stems from the recognition of the inherent right of self-determination. Which started with President Kennedy. So, as we enter a new age, an age in which we ask the United States to adopt and implement the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, let us never forget power of ideas and the legacy of an idealistic President.

Chris Stearns [[Navajo) is a former two-term Chairman of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, a Washington State Gambling Commissioner, and national Indian rights attorney with Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...indian-country

[old guy]

After selling my newspaper early last year and having a bit more time to pursue other things, I've been studying what a number of presidents signed into legislation. I've found an amazing amount of articles that I never realized.

That Johnson was involved in this surprises me, I'm not sure why, but it does.

Actually, in studying this material I've been amazed at who did what and when. It's truly an amazing study of American history.

[gazhekwe]

It is wonderful what we are capable of when our leadership is concerned with equity and equality and fairness. LBJ was president and instrumental in the passage of Title VII, US Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and Medicare.

[gazhekwe]

Mich. tribes negotiate new gaming compact
20-year deal expires at the end of the month; pact could reinstate gambling revenue for state
By Kathleen Gray Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Millions of dollars for the state and local communities where American Indian casinos are located are at stake as six tribes operating 14 gaming halls across Michigan negotiate a new compact before their 20-year deal with the state expires Nov. 30.

Negotiations are under way to renew, and perhaps change, the terms of the compact that has been in effect since 1993, with the potential for the reinstatement of revenues for the state from the gambling halls. “Everything is on the table,” said Dave Murray, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Snyder. “We’ve worked hard to build a good working relationship with the tribes, and we’re optimistic the discussions will be productive.”

Under the original compact, the casinos were required to provide 2% of the revenues from their slot machines to their local communities, and those payments continue to be made every year. Another chunk of their profits went to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. However, when the three casinos in Detroit opened up and the tribes no longer had an exclusive right to operate casinos in Michigan, they were allowed to stop making the payments to the state — and they did. During the seven years that those first six casinos were required to contribute to the MEDC, the revenues to the state ranged from $436,765 to a high of $46.7 million. Those payments stopped in 2000.

Six additional tribes have negotiated compacts with the state since that initial flurry of Indian gaming. Their compacts, which include ongoing payments to both local governments and the MEDC, aren’t due to expire for more than a decade.

Sean Reed, a lawyer for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in Mt. Pleasant, acknowledged that negotiations are ongoing, but he didn’t want to comment on the nature of the talks. “They’re confidential negotiations at this point,” he said.

But Murray said that revenue sharing for both the local communities and the state are part of the talks. For the local communities — which have received $335.3 million in revenues from the casinos since 1993 — the funding has been a lifeline.

“They’ve been a very good neighbor,” said Ron Popp, supervisor of Whitewater Township, where the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa operate the Turtle Creek Casino. “They are a very important part of our community.”

The township doesn’t receive the full 2%, however: It’s split through an annual grant process among several counties and other communities. But Whitewater has been able to expand its fire-prevention programs, improve domestic water supplies and install a potable water system for Mill Creek Elementary School with the money from the gaming revenues.

“Everyone wants a piece of the pie,” Popp said. “One must bear in mind that every time you put your hand up you, might not get selected.”

Just because the compact expires Nov. 30 doesn’t translate into a shuttering of the casinos if a deal isn’t reached by the deadline. The original compact says that the current compact will stay in place until a new one is worked out.

“No one wants to shut down any of the casinos,” Murray said.

Since the tribes stopped paying the state, the other tribal casinos have picked up the slack, paying $8.6 million to $60.9 million a year to the MEDC. Those funds have been used for tourism and business marketing, talent enhancement programs, corporate research and all economic development programs that aren’t paid for with state general fund dollars.

[gazhekwe]

[gazhekwe]

A Native American holiday: Giving thanks without all the trappings

By Petula Dvorak, Published: November 25

Dennis Zotigh, a cultural specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian, won’t be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday the way most of us are going to. Neither will plenty of other Native Americans.

Surprised? Then you’re way too close to the papier mache, elementary school version of the Thanksgiving feast, presented as a Disneyesque love fest between the Pilgrims and the Indians.

Gallery

Make ahead recipes for Thanksgiving: Casseroles, side dishes, stocks and desserts can all be made a few days in advance to mean less time cooking on Thanksgiving. Here are our best recipes to help you get a helpful head start.

Lots of the country’s 5.2 million American Indians don’t see it that way at all.

“It makes me really mad — the Thanksgiving myth and what happens on Friday,” said Zotigh, who is a Kiowa, Santee Dakota and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo Indian. He thinks the holiday, filled with stereotypes about Native Americans, damages Indians and non-Indians.

“There are so many things wrong with the happy celebration that takes place in elementary schools and its association to American Indian culture; compromised integrity, stereotyping, and cultural misappropriation are three examples,” Zotigh wrote on the Smithsonian museum’s blog.

Think about it: Thanksgiving winds up being a pretty grim day in Native American history. After the Indians helped the ragged colonists survive and introduced them to their tradition of a harvest feast, what did the colonists do in response? Nearly destroyed a civilization.

We like to be all gooey about family and cranberry sauce and football. But the day in 1621 when the Wampanoags feasted with the starving colonists was the beginning of one huge bloody betrayal of the people who were here first.

The National Day of Mourning is what the United American Indians of New England has called it since 1970, when they first led a march and protest to the area known as Plymouth Rock.

Zotigh said he’s heard from Native American parents who sign their kids out of school on the day of their Thanksgiving reenactments. Their children have been punished in class for bringing up the American Indian’s side of the story and demanding that “the national moral atrocity of genocide” be acknowledged. Some simply call the day of national gorging “The Last Supper.”

Zotigh remembers having to bring a paper bag to school to make his costume for the reenactment of the big feast, complete with cartoonish, construction-paper feathers and headdresses.

This week? He’s going to keep it simple and have some chili with friends.
The Native Americans I talked to said they’ve all heard of someone who doesn’t celebrate the holiday the way it’s presented in food magazines and Hallmark television specials. But all the people I talked to said they hold on to the original message that the Wampanoag had that day — a harvest feast to give thanks.

“Thanksgiving is like every day for us. Giving thanks is a big part of the native cultures. So the basic message of the holiday, that’s still part of who we are,” said Ben Norman, 32, a member of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia.

His tribe’s chief, Kevin Brown, said he travels to reservations all across America. and he hears about folks who won’t celebrate Thanksgiving. “But most people I know, we love eating and we love being together with family. And that’s what this day is about,” said Brown, 58.

“I’m too busy eating and watching football to spend my life worrying about the past,” he said.

His favorite part of the meal? “Turkey. Not fried, just plain cooked, Betty Crocker style,” he said. “And venison, we have venison too.”

Ray Halbritter, the Oneida Nation representative who has been the primary spokesman for the campaign to get the Washington Redskins to change its name, takes a similar approach to Thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving comes out of our culture,” said Halbritter, who himself is a stuffing and squash kind of guy. “It’s a wonderful time to reflect on being thankful, to be with family, to celebrate our blessings. It really comes from our harvest celebrations.”

Halbritter’s point, the one he makes when he’s talking football, is that American Indians don’t want to be thought of as relics or mascots. And actively celebrating a harvest feast, rather than dwelling on the injustices by the colonists that came after that day, is one of those ways to keep a culture alive and relevant.

“That’s one of the reasons we do the Thanksgiving parade,” he said. The Oneida Nation has a big turtle island float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York every year. And they say it’s to remind Americans of that first meeting, that day when they helped and trusted.

For Native Americans, Black Friday represents the holiday’s final slap in the face. “You know that’s supposed to be our heritage day?” Zotigh asked.
Yes, the Friday after Thanksgiving is designated as the country’s official day to pay homage to Indian heritage and culture. Somehow, I just don’t think that hand-to-hand combat over a big screen is what the Wampanoag had in mind.

Please, for once, listen to the people who were on this land first. Keep it simple. Just give thanks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...7cc_story.html

[gazhekwe]

6 Thanksgiving Myths, Share Them With Someone You Know

Vincent Schilling 11/28/13

Considering ICTMN has published its fair share of the true history of Thanksgiving, in which 90 Wampanoag shared provisions with the Pilgrims in 1621, we thought we would take a bit of time delving into some of the most common misconceptions about the November holiday, especially since many Americans think it’s the only thing happening in November.

RELATED:Video: Man on the Street—Do You Know What November Is?

Native Americans and the Pilgrims Were “Besties”
The above statement is straight from the mouth of a fifth-grader at Long Elementary School in Ohio, who stated the Indians [[Wampanoag) and Pilgrims were not “besties” or best friends. True to this statement, the pilgrims in Massachusetts were far from friendly. Soon after arriving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Pilgrims went into Indians’ dwellings and cornfields and took whatever they wanted leaving beads behind. But that isn’t the picture that is painted by many accounts of the first Thanksgiving.
According to one colonist’s account in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen:

“The next morning we found a place like a grave. We decided to dig it up. We found first a mat, and under that a fine bow… We also found bowls, trays, dishes, and things like that. We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us, and covered the body up again.”

The Pilgrims settled in an area that was once Patuxet, a Wampanoag village, but it had been abandoned four years prior because of a deadly outbreak of a plague brought by European traders. Before 1616, the Wampanoag numbered 50,000 to 100,000, occupying 69 villages scattered throughout southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The plague, however, killed thousands, up to two-thirds, of them. Many also had been captured and sold as slaves.

This is a popular image of the first Thanksgiving, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. But this is definitely NOT what happened.

Native Americans and Pilgrims Came Together to Give Thanks and Celebrate
In 1621, when the Pilgrims were celebrating a successful harvest, they were shooting guns and cannons into the air. The Wampanoag chief and 90 warriors made their way to the settlement in full warrior mode—in response to the gunfire.

As the Huffington Post’ Richard Schiffman puts it, “It remains an open question, however, whether the Wampanoag were actually invited, or if they crashed the party.”

The Pilgrims were most likely nervous—the Wampanoag outnumbered the Pilgrims two to one, but it certainly wasn’t the happy picture put forth in many history books.

According to Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Ramona Peters, “It was Abraham Lincoln who used the theme of Pilgrims and Indians eating happily together. He was trying to calm things down during the Civil War when people were divided. It was like a nice unity story.”

RELATED:The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story

They Ate Turkey, Sweet Potatoes and Cranberry Sauce at the First Thanksgiving

According to many historical accounts, there is no proof of turkey gobbling at the 1621 meal, but there was wild fowl [[most likely geese or duck). Sweet potatoes were not yet grown in North American and cranberries are not a likely dessert food because sugar was an unaffordable luxury. Other items on the table included such things as venison, pumpkin, succotash and Indian corn.

RELATED:1621: The Original Surf & Turf Meal

Europeans Appreciated Squanto’s Help
Many have heard the story of the friendly Indian Squanto who learned English from fishermen and later taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn and other vegetables. But what many history books don’t share is that Squanto was kidnapped as a boy and sold into slavery in Spain. After several years, Squanto struggled to get back to Cape Cod.

When he returned to his village, he discovered he was the only member of his tribe that remained—the rest were either killed in battle or died of disease during his absence.

Another myth here would be to note that Squanto did not learn English solely to help the colonists—it was a necessity to facilitate his escape so he could return home.

This 1911 illustration shows Squanto or Tisquantum teaching the Plymouth colonists to plant corn with fish. [[Bricker, Garland Armor. The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School. New York: Macmillan, 1911/Wikimedia Commons)

Pilgrims Taught Indians About Thanksgiving
The Pilgrims did not introduce the sentiment of Thanksgiving to the Indians.

According to Loewen, “Thanksgiving is full of embarrassing facts. The Pilgrims did not introduce the Native Americans to the tradition; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries. Our modern celebrations date back only to 1863; not until the 1890s did the Pilgrims get included in the tradition; no one even called them ‘Pilgrims’ until the 1870s.”

The Thanksgiving Day Celebration Originated From a Massacre
In 1621, though the Pilgrims celebrated a feast, it was not repeated in the years to follow. In 1636, a murdered white man was found in his boat and the Pequot were blamed. In retaliation settlers burned Pequot villages.

Additionally, English Major John Mason rallied his troops to further burn Pequot wigwams and then attacked and killed hundreds more men, women and children. According to Mason’s reports of the massacre,

“We must burn them! Such a dreadful terror let the Almighty fall upon their spirits that they would flee from us and run into the very flames. Thus did the Lord judge the heathen, filling the place with dead bodies.”

The Governor of Plymouth William Bradford wrote:

“Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them.”

The day after the massacre, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, William B. Newell, wrote that from that day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanks giving for subduing the Pequots and

“For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a Governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.”

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ou-know-152475

[gazhekwe]

Stakes high as Supreme Court hears Mich. tribal case
By Todd Spangler Detroit Free Press Washington Staff 12-2-2013

WASHINGTON — A small, shuttered casino in a tiny Up North town is at the center of a case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court today that could redefine when American Indian tribes can be sued and under what conditions.

A decision — if the court makes one — could impact all sorts of commercial activities taken by tribes, from casino gambling to payday lending, and give state governments more leeway to sue Indian groups.

As it stands now, the federal government can file suit against a tribe, but states are largely barred from doing so unless a tribe has either agreed to waive its sovereign immunity or had it abrogated by Congress.

But the Michigan Attorney General’s Office is arguing that immunity shouldn’t stop its suit to block the Bay Mills tribe from opening a casino outside tribal lands, because the federal government has, so far, declined to act. Otherwise, the state claims, the law seems to set up a contradiction in which Indian casinos are governed by federal and state authorities on tribal lands, but are outside their reach off-reservation.

“The sky will not fall if blanket tribal immunity goes away,” state lawyers said last week in the case against the tribe, which in 2010 tried to open a casino in Vanderbilt, a small town about 50 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge.

Tribes see it differently, however, with worries that a Supreme Court decision could open them up to a flurry of lawsuits discouraging off-reservation activities. The implications are so great that the National Congress of American Indians [[NCAI) — the oldest tribal rights group, representing hundreds of tribes — asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to settle the case before the court hears it.

But the federal government has largely stayed out of the matter, other than declaring the Vanderbilt property — more than 100 miles from the tribe’s Upper Peninsula reservation in Brimley — not to be “Indian lands” for casino purposes. In a court brief, the federal government said there should be other means of settling the argument but counseled against any change to sovereign immunity, a policy that furthers tribal “self determination and economic development.”

Without the federal government stepping in, tribes are anxious the court will accept Michigan’s argument — more than a dozen other states are in support of the state’s position — and reinterpret the immunity doctrine.

“The state is really asking for a deep intrusion into tribal unity. ... You could be sued for anything,” said John Dossett, general counsel for the NCAI. “The federal government has really kind of punted on this thing when they shouldn’t have.”

Tribal sovereignty
Even the NCAI considers Bay Mills’ move to be a test case of the law. Using interest from a settlement with the U.S., the tribe bought the Vanderbilt land. The tribe — which has long pursued casino sites in the Lower Peninsula, including in Port Huron — argued that the land should be available for tribal gambling because it was purchased through the proceeds of a land settlement.

Under the settlement, interest was to be used “for improvements on tribal land or the consolidation and enhancement of tribal landholdings through purchase or exchange.” Any land bought was to be “held as Indian lands are held.”

But the U.S. and Michigan deemed the new property not to be “Indian lands” for the purpose of gambling, a fact that has revealed an apparent contradiction in the law: The relevant law controls gambling on reservations, not off of them.

While no one questions the federal government’s authority to bring suit, the state’s authority — the tribe argues — is nonexistent under tribal immunity. To that, the state says it’s nonsensical to think Congress intended to limit gambling on tribal land but not off-reservation.

State Solicitor General John Bursch, who will argue the case, said he knows others suggest the issue could be settled through arbitration or alternative means, but that tribal immunity would trump any deal reached those ways, too.

“Sovereign immunity by the tribe would bar our ability to enforce any ruling,” he said. “We’d be right back where we started.”

Balancing rights Bursch said it wasn’t the state’s intention to move into the question of tribal immunity, but that the tribe, in defending itself, raised the issue. Now, it appears to be about the only one remaining. The court could be asked to draw a delicate balance between self-determination in Indian country and the rights of states to regulate their own territories.

Absent an overt congressional directive, the state said in its most recent brief, there is no reason for the court to avoid considering the boundaries of immunity — if only to settle contradictory findings in courts across the U.S.

Bay Mills, meanwhile, brings a team with it today led by Neal Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general with a long history before the high court. Tribal leaders and lawyers didn’t return calls seeking comment.

But in its filings to the court, the tribe has argued that Michigan has no right to sue, that the “doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity bars all claims against an unconsenting tribe, regardless of the character and location of the ... conduct.”

“As the court has done repeatedly when asked to narrow tribal immunity,” the tribe’s lawyers wrote, “it should reject Michigan’s position as contrary to longstanding and well-founded precedents.”

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or tspangler@freepress.com  

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Bay Mills' position in the case reported above is based in part on historic legislation and court rulings that remedied some of the impact of Manifest Destiny. Claims filed in 1947 for payment for land taken a hundred years earlier were valid, and payment for those lands occurred in the mid-90s. Interest from this money was used to buy the land in Vanderbilt, Port Huron and Flint.

On This Day: In 1845 US President James K. Polk announced to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West, ushering in U.S. Manifest Destiny.

Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean.

Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only wise but that it was readily apparent [[manifest) and inexorable [[destiny).

Under Manifest Destiny millions of acres of indigenous land were taken, often without any legal justification, compensation, or consent. — with Mark Garner.
By: Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - December 3
"Listen to the howl of our spiritual brother, the wolf, for how it goes with him, so it goes for the natural world."
-- Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders

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Bay Mills at Supreme Court; Tribal Sovereignty Under Trial

Rob Capriccioso 12/4/13

Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court wants to use the Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community case to severely limit tribal sovereignty.

That much was clear from oral arguments before the court on December 2 to a packed courtroom. Members of the general public who wanted to watch the case were turned away because the high court was already filled to capacity with interested parties, including tribal leaders and citizens, lobbyists, lawyers, and politicos, including former U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee [[D-Michigan).

The case was petitioned before the Supremes because Michigan wants the tribe’s sovereign immunity to be waived, so that the state can prevent the tribe from re-opening a casino on off-reservation lands the tribe claims have become protected Indian lands under rules of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because the tribe purchased the land with money it received under the Michigan Indian Land Claims Act of 1997.

Tribal sovereign immunity is the legal principle that prevents tribes from being sued, much like state federal governments are immune from many lawsuits. If the state can’t sue the tribe in this instance, and it continues to want to quash the tribe’s ability to open an off-reservation casino, it would have to find some other legal way to do so.

Four justices – Scalia, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, and John Roberts – asked questions and raised points that seem to indicate they would like to limit either the tribe’s sovereign immunity or sovereign immunity for all tribes.

Scalia, it was clear from his tone, wants to use the case to limit immunity and sovereignty for all tribes. At one point he asked lawyer Ed Kneedler, arguing on behalf of the U.S. government for the tribe, who gives tribes sovereignty.

“This court,” Scalia said, answering his own question. “So I assume that this court could also determine the scope of their sovereignty.”

The U.S. Congress has previously considered and rejected a number of proposals, including ones by former Sen. Slade Gorton [[R-Wash.), to limit tribal sovereign immunity. Tribal advocates have long thought that Congress was the place for this battle to be fought, and they were pleased with Gorton’s defeat in this area.

Breyer appears inclined to look to the limits on foreign sovereign immunity for commercial activities to inform the scope of tribal sovereign immunity, despite important differences between tribes and foreign nations.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruther Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagen, and Anthony Kennedy asked questions and raised points indicating that they have problems with at least some of the state’s legal arguments.

“Counsel, before you go on, could you address the jurisdiction question for me?” Sotomayor asked of lawyer John Bursch, representing the state, early on. “I'm not sure why you're here.” She noted the district court expressly did not include the state in the denial for an injunction against the tribe’s off-reservation casino.

Ginsburg also said the case should not be at the court. “[C]an you tell—tell us why Michigan didn't resort to the dispute resolution means that the compact [between Michigan and the tribe] provided?” she asked Bursch. “The compact said if there's a dispute it'll be decided by arbitration. Michigan bypassed that.”

Bursch told the justices that “all roads lead to tribal immunity,” but several tribal and federal interests dispute that notion, saying that Michigan and other states want tribal sovereign immunity limited with the high court so as to limit tribal sovereignty and gaming—and competition to state gaming interests.

Justice Clarence Thomas asked no questions, as is the norm for him.

Before oral arguments, tribal lawyers and lobbyists largely feared that a majority of the court would use the case to limit sovereign immunity and/or Indian gaming for all tribes. Many D.C. based Indian-focused lawyers put pressure on Bay Mills citizens and lawyers to waive the tribe’s immunity to avoid the justices altogether, but Bay Mills would not relent.

RELATED:Supreme Problem: One Tribe Pressured to Disregard Sovereignty for Good of the Whole

Beyond the obvious signs of where Scalia and Sotomayor are leaning, the rest of the oral arguments gave little indication of a final outcome, which is not expected until spring.

Judging from interviews and Facebook postings, some Bay Mills tribal citizens who reviewed a transcript of the arguments were optimistic; others were fearful. Bay Mills tribal lawyers and leaders have not responded to requests for comment on how they feel the proceedings went.

Joseph Webster, a partner with Hobbs Straus who filed an amicus brief supporting Bay Mills on behalf of several other tribes, assessed that the arguments were “intense,” but he saw reasons for optimism.

“[I]t was encouraging that a number of the justices recognized that the state of Michigan has remedies available that do not require a change to the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity, including the negotiated dispute resolution provision in the [gaming compact between the tribe and state],” Webster said. “Based on the questions, there are reasons to be optimistic that a majority of the justices will agree that any substantial change to the doctrine should be left to Congress, which has repeatedly recognized the importance of sovereign immunity to tribal sovereignty and economic development.”

Regarding Scalia’s views, Webster was judicious. “Justice Scalia appears to have an expansive view with respect to the court's role in recognizing and limiting tribal sovereignty,” he said. “His focus on using changed circumstances to justify modifying the law is certainly surprising in light of his analysis in other non-Indian cases.”

Chris Stearns, a Navajo lawyer with Hobbs Straus, meanwhile, was less hopeful. “I can't think of a real reason for optimism except that we may one day live to see a court with Chief Justice Kagan.”

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...r-trial-152570