Return Geronimo's Remains From Yale's 'Skull & Bones' Society

Submitted by Editor, Progressive Support Network
Contact@prsupport.net
http://www.prsupport.net

Posted: December 25, 2005
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

SAN CARLOS, Ariz. - American Indians are petitioning Congress to investigate the elite Skull and Bones society at Yale University and return the remains of Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo to Apaches for reburial.

The online petition describes the desecration of Geronimo's grave in 1918 by members of the society, including President George W. Bush's grandfather, Sen. Prescott Bush. The men removed Geronimo's head and a prized silver bridle, which had been buried with him.

''Using acid and amid laughter, they stripped Geronimo's head of hair and flesh. They then took their 'trophies' back to Yale University and put them on display in the clubhouse of the secret fraternity 'Skull and Bones,''' states the petition.

Outraged American Indian tribal members from across the nation and indigenous people from around the world are signing the petition with plans to pressure Congress to act.

Apache leaders want Geronimo to be buried, as he requested, in tribal lands in the mountains of San Carlos.

''Geronimo left his rifle and peace pipe here when they took him away,'' Thompson said. ''When Geronimo was taken from this land, he wanted to come back and be buried on San Carlos in the Triplet Mountains.''

Skull and Bones admitted to San Carlos Apache leaders almost 20 years ago that it was in possession of a skull it called Geronimo's in its secret ''museum'' in New Haven, Conn.

Raleigh Thompson, who served as San Carlos Apache tribal councilman for 16 years, told Indian Country Today that he was among the Apache tribal leaders with whom Skull and Bones officials met in New York in a series of meetings beginning in 1986. He said the society, of which Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, are members, admitted that it held Geronimo's remains.

San Carlos Apache Chairman Ned Anderson and tribal attorney Joe Sparks were also members of the Apache delegation that met with the society in New York. Anderson and Thompson said the delegation met with Skull and Bones officials and Jonathan Bush, brother of George H.W. Bush.

Thompson said Prescott Bush was among a group of six Army soldiers who dug up Geronimo's remains at Fort Sill, Okla., in 1918. The San Carlos Apache Tribe received a copy of a logbook describing the graverobbing and a photograph of a skull on display before meeting with the board in New York.

Thompson said the society attempted to return a skull - that of a child - which the Apache delegation rejected. Skull and Bones members subsequently threatened legal action if the photograph were not returned.

Attorney Endicott Davison, representing Skull and Bones, denied that the society had Geronimo's skull. He claimed the logbook was a hoax.

Alexandra Robbins, a former staff member of The New Yorker magazine and author of ''Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League and the Hidden Paths of Power,'' told ICT that her research supports the Apache leaders' statements. Robbins believes that Geronimo's skull is in the society's tomb.

The petition for the return and reburial of Geronimo's skull states that Skull and Bones is a secret society founded at Yale in 1832. Its history is intertwined with that of the German Illuminati and the Nazi Party, according to the petition.

''They maintain a windowless building called 'The Tomb' at 64 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut. The club's assets are controlled by a front company, The Russell Trust Association Inc. Every year, 15 Yale juniors are 'tapped' for Skull & Bones membership. They are indoctrinated into the cultish society with elaborate rituals steeped in satanic theatricism and latent homosexuality.

''The goal of this fraternity is to create the ultimate network of 'good ole boys' around the world. Their alumni include Prescott Bush's son [George H.W.] and grandson [George W.] as well as heads of state and leaders of numerous intelligence agencies, trading companies, business empires and law firms,'' according to the petition.

Since the initial leak of information to the Apache leaders, other sources have confirmed that Geronimo's skull is, as asserted in the petition, indeed on display in The Tomb and considered the ''mascot'' of this ''club'' on High Street.

The petition further states that the ''undersigned are horrified with this display of elitist, racist witchcraft'' and asks Congress, with the assistance of whatever law enforcement necessary, to launch an immediate investigation into the theft and possession of human remains by Skull and Bones, Russell Trust Association Inc. and any members of the U.S. government involved, past or present.

Stephen Flute, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, signed the petition and said, ''If the situation were reversed, someone would be in jail or would have been executed. It wouldn't even matter to them if the right person were in jail, as long as one of 'us' paid the price.''

Sheri Big Back Bement, Northern Cheyenne/Apache, said Geronimo remains respected. ''You will never see an Indian dig up the bones of the dead. We know what respect is. Their ignorance and stupidity will come back on them and their families.''

Mohawk Sakaronhiotane Ricky Diabo signed with this message: ''When you mess with the spirits you shall be punished by the spirits.''

View the petition and signatures online at
www.petitiononline.com/Geronimo/petition.html.

2256 have signed the petition - Are you one of them?

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Life And Death In The Arctic - What Caribou Mean To The Gwich'in - Part 2

Submitted by Sunshine Archambault

By Robert Collier, Truthdig. Posted December 20th, 2005

Which side is right?
According to scientists who have spent years tracking caribou through the region's frozen wastes and boggy tundra, there is no way to tell which side is right in the debate over oil drilling in the refuge.

"No one knows exactly how much oil will be found there, so we can't predict for certain what the impact will be," said David Douglas, an Alaska wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Unlike the rest of the Alaskan North Slope, which has been exhaustively explored for decades, the Arctic refuge's underground potential is a mystery because the area has been off-limits to oil companies. Only one exploratory well has been drilled, by Chevron in the 1980s, and the company has not released the results.

Scientific knowledge of the caribou, however, is extensive.

The 120,000-head herd that uses the refuge is known as the Porcupine caribou herd because most of the animals spend winters near the Porcupine River, which crosses westward from Yukon Territory into Alaska about 200 miles south of the proposed drilling area. The herd is carefully studied because it performs the world's most concentrated land animal migration after the wildebeest in East Africa's Serengeti Plain -- and because of longtime plans to drill for oil.

"We know more about this herd than any other caribou herd in the world, including reindeer," said Donald Russell, research manager for the Canadian Wildlife Service in the Yukon Territory. "There have been proposals to develop [the Arctic refuge] since the 1970s, and scientists have been studying it more or less ever since."

The highlight of this annual migration is the narrow strip of land on the north side of the Arctic refuge -- especially the 2,344-square-mile zone known as the 1002 Area that would be opened to drilling.

The migration begins in the spring, as snow starts melting, when the caribou move from their wintering grounds to the narrow Arctic coast of Yukon. There, they funnel westward back across the Alaska border into the 20-mile-wide coastal plain of the Arctic refuge.

They arrive with near-clockwork precision in late May, tens of thousands of pregnant caribou cows clustering in large groupings in the coastal plain. The most comprehensive scientific report on the subject, published in 2002 by the U.S. Geological Survey, showed that from 1983 through 2001, 43% of females calved in the 1002 Area, with nearly all the rest calving to the immediate east and south of its borders.

All the calving occurs in a one-week period from May 30 to June 6. The caribou stay in the plain from 34 to 67 days, fattening on cottongrass flowers and young willow leaves. They then begin a long, slow return southward to their wintering grounds.

Wildlife biologists describe the 1002 Area as unique among caribou calving areas in Alaska and Canada. Its vegetation provides about four times as much dietary nitrogen as that of other parts of the North Slope. Predators are few, because bears and wolves stay in the Brooks Range to the south, and breezes from the Arctic Ocean keep away the swarms of mosquitoes and biting flies that in other regions can literally drive caribou crazy.

Drilling supporters note that a smaller caribou grouping to the west, the Central Arctic herd, has flourished in recent decades despite the huge oil activity around Prudhoe Bay, at the northern end of their area. The herd increased from 6,000 animals in 1978 to 32,000. But scientists point out that the coastal plain is more than 100 miles wide in the Central herd area, far greater than the 10-to-20-mile width of the Arctic refuge plain, and thus the Central herd has been able to move to undisturbed calving areas south of Prudhoe Bay.

"The two situations are not comparable," said Douglas.

The only years in which no calving occurred in the 1002 Area were 2000 and 2001, when unusually heavy snow cover forced the migrating caribou to calve in Yukon instead. This displacement caused an average 19% reduction in calf survival -- a rate that, if continued, would cause a dramatic shrinking of the herd.

Studies have shown that caribou keep at least a 2.5-mile distance from oil rigs, roads and other infrastructure, even if drilling is suspended in the summer, as is normal elsewhere on the North Slope. If the entire 1002 Area is developed, calf survival will drop by 8% annually, thus causing a "possibly irreversible" decline in the herd, Douglas said.

However, geological surveys suggest that the section of the 1002 Area most likely to contain oil is the northwest two-fifths -- which also is the section least used by the caribou. If oil development is limited to that area, the impact on the caribou will be statistically insignificant, Douglas and Russell agreed.

"The bottom line is that we don't know what development scenario will be implemented over what regions, not only in the near future but 50 years from now, when who knows what the price of oil will be," said Douglas.

Why the Republicans have fought so hard for the drilling plan despite the uncertain stakes is widely considered a mystery.

Spring Migration
The spring migration started late because of the unusually early snowmelt and river ice breakup, but the herd came through the Old Crow area in full force during May. The hunt was good, and most villagers filled their freezers with meat. In the fall, however, luck once again turned cruel. The herd's southward path from the Arctic refuge swerved westward away from Yukon into Alaska. Most Old Crow residents failed in their hunting trips. It will be a hard, long winter.

Caribou have no borders
Compared to the sparsely populated boreal forests inhabited by the Gwich'in, the narrow plain in the Arctic refuge where congressional Republicans hope to allow drilling is even emptier. The only inhabitants of that area are about 150 people in Kaktovik, a village of Inupiats (also known as Eskimos) on the Arctic Ocean. The Inupiats traditionally are whale hunters, and their leaders have supported oil exploration in the refuge while opposing drilling in offshore waters because of a potential threat to the whales. Recently, however, an anti-drilling faction has emerged in Kaktovik, mainly comprising residents who say the business potential of tourism in the refuge offers a safer lifestyle than the easy money of oil drilling.

The emergence of this anti-drilling Kaktovik faction has robbed the Bush administration of a counterbalance to the Gwich'in lobbying offensive. Gwich'in tribal leaders often take part in lobbying delegations to Washington, pleading their cause to members of Congress and the media. Their bills are paid partly by the Canadian government, in an unusual effort at cross-border political lobbying.

"Drilling in the Arctic refuge would destroy the caribou and the Gwich'in," said Joe Linklater, chief of the Vuntut Gwich'in First Nation, the tribal government for northern Yukon Territory.The Bush administration rejects the charges. Calving "is something that we would have to be careful about, as we would regulate to make sure that the caribou are protected," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in March.

In Ottawa, the Canadian capital, government officials are not shy about telling Americans what not to do in Alaska.

"We oppose development of oil and gas in the Arctic refuge, and we are very disappointed with what is happening in Congress," federal Environment Minister Stphane Dion said in a telephone interview. "We think drilling in this refuge will have a very negative impact on the Porcupine caribou herd, and on the Gwich'in First Nation who rely on caribou for food and a way of life."

Dion rejected suggestions that Canada is interfering in U.S. politics. "The caribou have no borders," he said. "It's also a Canadian resource at stake. I'm sure if the situation were the other way around, with Canadian oil activity affecting Alaskan natives, the U.S. Embassy would not be shy to make public the point of view of the American administration."

Among the Gwich'in, most people I interviewed said they had no political opinions to speak of. "The only politics that people here care about is caribou," said Kassi.

Will they come?
After their failure on the Bell River, Kyikavichik and Kassi drove home faster than ever.

At Lydia Thomas' hut, they were met with tea and a worried look. What happened to the caribou? she asked in Gwich'in.

None this time, she was told.

Will they come this year? she asked. The weather is getting stranger and stranger, she said.

We don't know, she was told. Breakup of the river ice is coming soon. Thomas paused, rubbing her gnarled hands.

"I am afraid," she finally said, switching to English. "We need caribou."

Robert Collier is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sunshine Woman Archambault
Center for Civic Participation
sunshine@ccp.org
http://ccp.org/organizing/groups/nativevote

NATIVE UNITY- A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Life and Death In The Arctic - What Caribou Mean To The Gwich'in

Part 1
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/29838/
Submitted by Sunshine Archambault

By Robert Collier, Truthdig. Posted December 20, 2005

One of North America's most high-stakes environmental battles in years appears to be reaching its final moments in Congress, yet no one has a greater stake in the outcome than a small native tribe north of the Arctic Circle.

In the next few days, Congress is expected to decide the fate of the Republican-led proposal to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (The oil drilling proposal was defeated in the Senate so the Refuge is safe - for the time being). Held in the balance is not only one of North America's most beautiful wilderness areas but a way of life thousands of years old. The 5,000-member Gwich'in tribe of northwest Canada and nearby Alaska depends for its livelihood on the twice-yearly migration of caribou through its lands as the animals travel to and from their calving grounds in the Arctic refuge.

If the caribou population is markedly decreased by oil drilling, as the Gwich'in and environmentalist groups fear, the Gwich'in will lose their main source of food and a crucial part of their culture. For that reason, the tribe has been a frequent fixture in congressional lobbying, with the tribe's leaders often traveling to Washington to join the fight against the drilling plan.

Yet for anyone who makes the journey back with the Gwich'in to their lands north of the Arctic Circle, it is clear that this debate in Congress is both vitally important and almost abstractly remote.

In April, I accompanied two Gwich'in hunters on a 220-mile hunting trip via snowmobile up the Porcupine and Bell rivers, east of the Gwich'in hamlet of Old Crow in northern Yukon Territory.

Out on the hunt, the only thing real was the vast and empty northern frontier, in which uncertainty and sheer chance are constant companions. The thin line between scarcity and plenty is harsh -- an echo, perhaps, of what a new northern oil boom could bring.

Out on the hunt

Wind blew silently up the canyons one late April night, slipping along curled bluffs, across snow and ice toward distant mountains. At midnight, the glow of sunset lingered on the horizon, promising Arctic summer soon to come. But for two native hunters there was nothing but failure.

Robert Kyikavichik's snowmobile had keeled over sideways into the slushy surface of a frozen river. The way ahead had become an impassable quagmire after a sudden thaw. And the big herd of caribou believed to be nearby was nowhere in sight.

Kyikavichik and his hunting partner, Harvey Kassi, would have to turn back toward home, 100 miles downriver in Old Crow, having failed to obtain their families' main sustenance.

"No caribou," said Kyikavichik. "No meat this time."

For thousands of years, the springtime ritual of hunting caribou has been repeated. The 5,000-member Gwich'in tribe of northwest Canada and nearby Alaska has sustained itself by the sometimes generous, sometimes cruel luck of the hunt. Tribal members prosper when the animals are numerous, and they suffer hard times when the caribou are scarce.

The Gwich'in caribou hunt is a ritual nearly as old as human presence in the continent. At a site 35 miles southwest of Old Crow, a village of 310 people, Canadian archaeologists have found stone tools that they believe date from as much as 20,000 years ago -- among the oldest human finds in the Western Hemisphere. That historical period coincided with the last ice age, a time when Alaska and Yukon were the only part of northern North America left uncovered by ice and when a land bridge across the Bering Straits allowed human migration from Asia.

Archaeologists say early inhabitants of the region survived by hunting caribou, woolly mammoths, bison and horses. Another archaeological dig near Old Crow unearthed a spring caribou hunting site 1,200 years old. Modern-day Gwich'in carry out this same tradition with snowmobiles and rifles.

Kyikavichik's and Kassi's hunting trip began in Old Crow, which lies north of the Arctic Circle and is accessible only by air or by river, on snowmobile or canoe. This time, the hunting party's departure was slowed by weather that was freakishly warm for late April -- sunny and in the 40s. "This must be global warming," Kyikavichik said, frowning. "It's too hot, dangerous." (During this period, record highs were reported throughout the region, with Anchorage, Alaska, hitting 70 degrees.)

The hunters' journey began in early evening as they drove east at high speed on the rutted snowmobile track across the frozen Porcupine. Scattered every few miles on the riverbanks were simple wood cabins, where Old Crow families typically spend weekends or entire months at a time hunting or simply enjoying their ancestral lifestyle "out on the land."

The hunters stopped at one cabin about 50 miles out from town where they were met by Lydia Thomas, Kyikavichik's grandmother. She welcomed the visitors with a slight bow and a smile, ushering them inside amid wood smoke and the smell of last fall's dried caribou meat, hanging on a hook in the corner.

She served weak Twining's tea in battered, flowered cups. Then she slipped into the short, clipped tones of the Gwich'in language.

Caribou? she asked. Far upriver, she was told. We will return in a couple days.

Other hunters had reported a herd of several hundred caribou on the Bell River, a traditional wintering spot in mountains to the east.

But Kyikavichik and Kassi would find after they left Thomas' hut that this bonanza had become unreachable. As their snowmobiles sped up the Porcupine -- and later the Bell, which feeds into it -- they came across more and more sections where spring meltwater had seeped between river ice and snow cover to produce a quicksand-like, viscous layer. Whenever the snowmobiles skittered off the packed snow on the track, they bogged down in the slush, requiring quick, grunting excavations by knee-deep travelers.

Kyikavichik's snowmobile finally tipped over and stuck deeper than ever, one tread spinning in the air.

The two hunters conferred, shaking their heads. "Not this time," said Kyikavichik. "We can't keep going. No luck."

The decision to turn around empty-handed was a minor drama in a long, timeless saga, merely one failure amid countless hunting trips by the Gwich'in tribe across the ages. Each season, if the hunt is good, Gwich'in freezers will be full of caribou meat for months to come. If not, it is known as a hard year.

"We eat caribou because that's what we always have eaten, and it's what we can afford," said Kassi. "That's the only meat we eat." He said he killed 15 caribou last year, giving most to other members of his extended family. Kyikavichik said he killed 14 caribou last year. Each caribou can provide as much as 300 pounds of meat.

In some years, the caribou pass near Old Crow in large numbers, while in other years few come and the main herd goes elsewhere. Each year's migration pattern depends on weather, snowpack levels and sheer caribou instinct.

In fact, the Gwich'in do not live in the refuge; they live in forested areas to the south, spanning the international border in northeast Alaska and northern Yukon Territory.

In Old Crow, the main town in northern Yukon, only about 20 of the 310 inhabitants are white "southerners," mainly members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police garrison and other government employees. There are tiny houses, one Anglican church, and silence broken only by revving snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles.

Few jobs are available other than those provided by the tribal government. All outside products must be flown in to the town's gravel airstrip. Social life centers on the only store, the Northern, part of a chain that is successor to the venerable Hudson's Bay mercantile empire and whose outlets are the anchor of every town and hamlet across the Canadian Arctic.

The Northern's prices are as harsh as the landscape. Hamburger meat costs six Canadian dollars per pound, or about $5.10, and milk goes for the equivalent of $12 per gallon. Motor oil is $8 per quart. At a pump outside, gasoline is $4.90 a gallon. Videos are the best bargain, renting at only $5.20 to take the Gwich'in to other worlds populated by the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Vin Diesel.

Similar prices are reported in other Gwich'in villages, such as Arctic Village and Fort Yukon in Alaska, and Dawson City and Fort McPherson in Canada.

Part 2 of 'Life and Death In the Arctic' will be posted on Wednesday, December 28th

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Tribal Veteran's Representative Program

Vietnam veteran, Verland French of Mesa, Arizona could have obtained inexpensive care for his diabetes because its onset could be tied to wartime exposure to the toxic chemical – Agent Orange but like most Native American vets, he didn’t know how to get help.

French, chairman of the Arizona Inter-Tribal Veterans Association, considers himself lucky because can afford health care and can drive to see a doctor but thousands of his fellow Native vets aren’t so fortunate. French says, “They need transportation, they need trained staff, they need people who are trained on what is available to veterans”.

Meet Buck Richardson, Minority Veterans Coordinator for the Veterans Administration’s Rocky Mountain Health Network and James Floyd, Director of the Administration’s Salt Lake City Medical Center. Floyd is also a Native American with experience in Indian health issues.

The two are on a mission to bring VA benefits to some of the more than two hundred twenty thousand Native American veterans who have served in the military in greater numbers per capita than any other ethnic group in the country.

The two teamed up and decided they needed to spend more time in Indian country. They would seek out Native vets on the reservations. They would seek people trusted by the locals who lived in the area to help Native veterans get their VA benefits with a program called Tribal Veterans Representatives.

The Program has given the VA concrete presence in distant and often almost hard-to-reach communities making service accessible to Native veterans who, in the past, had given up hope of getting the benefits they deserve for having served their country.

Richardson and Floyd often cover hundreds of miles a day between reservations and their meetings with local Tribal Veteran Representatives or “TVRs”. They are volunteers and tribal members appointed by the tribe. They are the representatives that fill out forms, answer questions and make phone calls. The TVRs have a 24-hour direct line of contact with the regional office and there have been more than 100 volunteers trained since the program began.

Native veterans came to the Veterans Information Fair held at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho on November 30th to meet with Richardson and Floyd with hopes of getting answers to their complicated questions about the VA system.

Richardson introduced himself as the Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 Minority Veterans Coordinator. He has had experience with 22 different tribes and helping them with claiming their benefits. He works with Darwin Nito, A Comanche from Crowheart, Wyoming and Lyle Wadda, a Shoshone from Ft. Washakie, Wyoming.

Floyd as director of the VA hospital in Salt Lake City, said he is in charge of making referrals to the VA hospital and utilizes VA health care coverage. He is in charge of regional areas from Burley, Idaho to Salt Lake City. He added he is also coordinating training about the benefits for soldiers arriving home from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The returning soldiers need to know they have 90 days to apply for dental benefits upon their return and they qualify for 24 months of paid health coverage. They need to provide their DD2-14’s and fill out 10-10 EZ as soon as possible. Floyd added, ”Wives and mothers need to get their soldiers in to claim their benefits.”

Jim Vance, Director of Boise Veterans Benefit Administration Regional Office was at the Ft. Hall Information Fair. He mentioned that there is a Prosthetics program that will assist veterans in modifying their existing home to fit their disabilities, but the veteran must be service connected.

This service is not just for Indian vets, it is for all veterans!

To contact W.J. “Buck” Richardson, Minority Veterans Program Coordinator e-mail him - william.richardson@med.va.gov. or call the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Veteran’s Service Representative at 1-800-827-1000.

This column has been edited from articles in the Sho-Ban News bylined Roselynn Wahtomy, The Internet and The Arizona Republic.

MIDWEST SOCIAL FORUM - 2006
July 6-9, 2006 :: Milwaukee, WI
www.mwsocialforum.org
Another World is Possible!

The Midwest Social Forum Organizing Committee invites you to organize activities and submit proposals for Midwest Social Forum 2006.

Previously also known as RadFest, the Midwest Social Forum (MWSF) is an annual gathering of grassroots organizations, community activists, educators, students, and others committed to making a better, more just world possible.

The MWSF provides an open meeting place for exchanging experiences and information, engaging in democratic debate and dialogue, strengthening alliances and networks, and developing effective strategies for progressive social, economic, and political change.

If you would like to organize a workshop, panel, training session, round table, film, retreat, cultural event, or other activity for Midwest Social Forum 2006, go to: http://www.mwsocialforum.org/get_involved/.

There is no hard deadline for registering activities. However, to be assured of advanced publicity, registration and proposal forms should be submitted by no later than April 15. Moreover, while we will try to make room for as many events and activities as possible, please understand that there is a limit to the number that we can accommodate.

Alyssa Macy, Political Director
Center for Civic Participation
1313 SE 5TH Street, Suite 113
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Direct: 612-331-7444
alyssa@ccp.org
Tools for Democracy: www.ccp.org

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Indians Talk To Venezuela About Tribal Low-Cost Heating

Submitted by Sunshine Woman Archambault
Center For Civic Participation
sunshine@ccp.org

BOSTON - The planned delivery of low-cost heating oil from Venezuela's CITGO Petroleum Corp. to Massachusetts and New York state is under way, while American Indians continue talks with CITGO to bring low-cost heating oil and gasoline to tribes.

American Indian activist Robert Free Galvan, who is organizing efforts with CITGO, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is demonstrating to the world that there is another way to engage in the sale of oil and gas.

''CITGO holds very highly their corporate social responsibility and vision; it is an example for tribal corporations to follow,'' Galvan said. ''The recent oil crisis profited billions to oil companies, but which ones have offered communities anything - besides CITGO?''

American Indian tribes throughout the United States, including tribes in Arizona, Nevada and South Dakota, contacted Galvan concerning Chavez's offer of low-cost gasoline and heating oil after Venezuela made the offer earlier this year.

A representative of the Walker River Paiute Tribe in Nevada, Tribal Operations Director Dan Brannum, and Galvan recently met with CITGO and Venezuela's consulate officials in Chicago to begin working toward deliveries to Indian communities.

''Indian tribes are now planning to hold mini-conferences to create visions for new joint ventures and address energy assessments of consumption, facilities and storage capacities,'' Galvan told Indian Country Today.

''I have received hundreds of e-mails requesting low-cost oil and gas from both individuals and communities across Indian country,'' Galvan said, after learning of the offer at the 16th World Festival of Students and Youth in Caracas, Venezuela in August.

''From planners of economic development to tribal chief and councils, all have expressed the great need to reduce their community's energy costs. This is an opportunity for communities to assess their consumption usage and cost and an opportunity to work towards ways that they can reduce that consumption.''

Galvan said tribes are now exploring ways to lower supply and distribution costs. They are also beginning to explore other renewable and sustainable energy sources as part of their tribal community's energy sources.

After meeting with CITGO officials in Chicago, Galvan said Boston, Chicago and New York were identified as the first areas to receive the low cost heating oil and gas. Currently, American Indian involvement focuses on Native communities close to these urban areas that are working with non-profit organizations.

''We are still in the process of exploring and discussing possibilities with CITGO. A big part of all of this is relationship-building.''

While in Chicago, and hosted by staff from the Venezuelan Consulate office in Chicago, Galvan met with Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez and CITGO CEO Felix Rodriguez, along with the Venezuelan consulate staff from New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

Galvan said Chavez is remaining true to his word and directive to have indigenous involvement in many aspects of Venezuela's economy and political processes. Galvan added sovereign Indian nations can follow Chavez's lead. ''For instance, purchasing fair trade coffee at all casinos would go a long way towards an act of solidarity with indigenous people south of the border.''

Galvan said the location and cost analysis of transportation determines the areas where the energy resources for heating oil, gasoline and diesel can be offered from CITGO refineries in the United States.

Since many Indian communities have 50 - 86 percent unemployment rates, he said, there is no question of need. Further, many tribal communities are isolated with increased transportation needs and extreme cold winters.

''The opportunity to address those needs through the energy offer of Venezuela can lead to community empowerment and capacity-building.''

Chavez, in an interview with Democracy Now!, said the planet cannot stand the current oil and gas model any longer. ''I think developed countries - so-called developed countries - should reflect upon [their] way of living and the waste of energy. And the government knows this. The big trans-nationals know this.''

Meanwhile, in New York state, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-South Bronx, helped broker a similar arrangement connecting nonprofit organizations and 45,000 low-income families in his district with 8 million gallons of discounted heating oil.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest exporter of oil and the United States remains its top buyer. CITGO has 13,500 independently owned gas stations in the United States.

For more information, e-mail Galvan at robtfree@earthlink.net
INDN’s List Applauds DNC

Tribal Sovereignty Resolution

Kalyn Free, founder and president of INDN’s List, said today she applauds the commitment of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to tribal governments. The DNC recently reached out to tribal communities and voters by passing a resolution at the DNC fall meeting that reaffirms support for tribal sovereignty.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean said that tribes and tribal issues belong within the Democratic Party’s platform and ideology and the DNC recognizes the strength of tribal government self-determination.

“We are serious about electing Indian candidates, empowering the people and changing the country. The DNC stands in solidarity with Indian Nations and reaffirms their tribal sovereignty,” said Dean.

Free (Choctaw Nation) said, “Indian Nations must be respected and protected and I applaud the Democratic Party for recognizing the importance of tribal governments maintaining sovereign status, as it was guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.”

As the President of INDN’s List -- an organization dedicated to developing American Indian political candidates – Free, is ensuring tribal involvement within the Democratic Party structure. She was appointed to the DNC by Governor Dean and serves on the Resolutions Committee.

“Only when Indians are effectively involved in the political process will our interests be truly represented,” Free said. “This is an historic step to ensure tribal issues are a party of the Democratic Party’s agenda for America.”

Tribal voters can have a tremendous impact on elections; it has been proven in Washington, South Dakota, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Arizona. The 2006 election cycle will again prove just how important the Native Vote can be.

The tribal sovereignty resolution was crafted by Frank LaMere (Winnebago Tribe), an executive committee member of the DNC, and was passed unanimously in the resolutions committee and on the floor at the DNC general session held on December 3rd.

Signing as co-sponsors were DNC Vice-Chairs Mike Honda (CA) and Lottie Shackleford (AR), the State Chairs of the Wisconsin and Alaska Democratic Party and DNC members from South Dakota.

“This resolution speaks to the commitment of the Democratic Party to Native People. It recognized that the future of the Indian Nations is best secured by their having strong tribal governments and a collective vision,” said Congressman Honda. “The Democratic Party supports that vision.”

LaMere said, “the Democratic Party represents the last best hope for Indian people as we empower ourselves and try to make our own way. The Democrats have always stood with us and they’ll be here long after the Republicans are gone. We are more than novelties here, we are partners and we always will be.”

South Dakota Vice-Chair Dennis Langley said, “tribes have been there for us and we have to be there for them. Tribal governments must be strengthened. We’ve done our part, now where are the Republicans?”

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Legal Clash Shapes Up On Race

Submitted by Daniel Levitas – Native Voter

By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The Mountain States Legal Foundation will represent Fremont County's commissioners and other officials in a voting rights lawsuit filed by five members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We are pleased to be able to represent Fremont County and its elected officials in defending against this baseless lawsuit and the ACLU's attempt to mandate creation of election districts on the basis of race," said William Perry Pendley, president of the Denver-based foundation.

The Fremont County Commission last week asked Pendley and County Attorney Ed Newell to represent the officials in the federal lawsuit filed Oct. 20.

County Commission Chairman Doug Thompson has said the county's at-large system of electing commissioners does not discriminate and that it won't settle with the ACLU, according to reports from The Associated Press.

The county has the financial resources for a court fight, Thompson said."Some of these counties that have been attacked by the ACLU have just rolled over and agreed to a consent agreement," he said. "That's not one of our options."

The American Indians want the court to prohibit the at-large method, or ask the court to implement a redistricting plan and schedule elections so the county complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, according to the complaint.

"The at-large method of electing the Board of County Commissioners of Fremont County was enacted or is being maintained with the discriminatory purpose of diluting the voting strength of Native Americans in violation of plaintiffs' rights guaranteed by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act," according to the complaint.

While the case is new, the issue is not.In 1992, Fremont County voters turned down a ballot initiative proposal to create five commissioner districts.

The county has a five-member board of commissioners who are elected from the county at-large. The four-year terms of office are staggered, and the elections are partisan, according to the complaint.

Fremont County has 35,804 residents. Of those, 7,113 or 19.9 percent are American Indians. Native Americans comprise 16.3 percent of the voting-age population of the county, according to the complaint.

Indians are numerous enough and geographically compact so that they would constitute a majority in at least one single-member county commission district, according to the complaint.

However, Pendley said no evidence exists that Fremont County or any of its officials have prevented American Indians from registering, voting or participating in the political process.

"The Voting Rights Act requires that a racial group's failure to elect its candidate be the result of bias in the electorate against that group," Pendley said. "That is not the case here."

The Mountain States Legal Foundation represented rural Western counties in similar cases when in 1999 the U.S. Department of Justice sued Blaine County, Mont., and in 2001 sued Alamosa County, Colo., Pendley said.

The federal government prevailed in the Blaine County case, which involved American Indians, he said.The Mountain States Legal Foundation prevailed in the Alamosa County case, which involved Hispanics, and the federal government did not appeal, Pendley said.

But ACLU attorney Laughlin McDonald said the problems with American Indian political representation in the West, such as claims an election system is not racist, mirror those of discrimination against blacks in the South.

Scores of political districts in the South have been successfully sued under the Voting Rights Act amended in 1982 to create single-member districts, and civil rights groups have prevailed in lawsuits by American Indians in the West, he said

."Congress said you did not have to prove that (an election system) was discriminating in its purpose, but that the result is discriminatory," McDonald said. Assertions that race isn't an issue in these at-large districts is "desperately inaccurate," McDonald said. "Race is already in the process."

Reporter Tom Morton can be reached at (307) 266-0592, or at
Tom.Morton@casperstartribu

Dear Hanup Community
Submitted by Elk Richardson – Native Voter

We are pleased and excited to announce the publication of the Fall 2005 HUNAP Newsletter, now available on-line at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hunap/prospective_students.html. The HUNAP Newsletter provides information about HUNAP's most recent activities in research and teaching, community outreach, and student development . The Fall 2005 issue features the following news stories:
-- The Archaeology of Harvard Yard: Probing Links to the Harvard Indian College
--Faculty Profile of Malinda Maynor Lowery, Assistant Professor of History for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.
-- Recruitment and Student Affairs: Representing Diverse Backgrounds and Experiences by Steven Abbott, Associate Director for Recruitment and Student Affairs, HUNAP
-- Congratulations to 2005 Graduates
-- Navigating College: The Native American Experience- College Horizons at Harvard University
-- Harvard Graduate School of Education: Exploring the Transformative Power of Education, Student Profiles: Jarrid J. Whitney (M.Ed. '06) & Malia Villegas (Ed.D.)
-- The Emergence: Native Studies at Harvard University by Carmen Lopez (Navajo), Executive Director, HUNAP

We hope that you enjoy this issue and encourage you to reply with your feedback, comments or questions. Thank You,
Natasha BakerStaff Assistant
Harvard University Native American Program
John F. Kennedy School of Government79
JFK StreetCambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-4923
FAX – 617-3312

INDNS LIST SUPPORTS NATIONAL
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY IN TULSA

The Staff of INDN’s List joined more than 100 men, women and children gathered at Hillcrest Hospital in midtown Tulsa Saturday to show solidarity with the Hillcrest workers who have been struggling without a contract for six years, due to the hospital’s anti-worker stance on contract issues.

“There was no better place for INDN’s List to be on Saturday that standing arm in arm with our union brothers and sisters, in their efforts to ensure a fair and equitable contract for the nurses that provide such a high level of care for their patients,” said INDN’s List President Kalyn Free. “We support the workers at Hillcrest to be sure, but this is really about the ongoing struggle that working men and women face throughout America and the world.”

In addition to the INDN’s List staff, Hillcrest families gathered to support the cause, as did labor union representatives, including Teamsters Local #523, several Oklahoma State Representatives, and Democratic Party officials. All echoed their support for the rights of the workers.

President Randy Campbell of Teamsters Local #523 spoke about the long hard road the registered nurses have endured in trying to improve working conditions at Hillcrest, with the simple goal of providing better care to their patients by giving the nurses the critical time they need to provide quality care for their patients.

“These workers voted six years ago to become part of Teamsters Local #523, and now six very long years later, they still labor without a contract, under working conditions that deprive their patients of the kind of care that these dedicated and professional RN’s want to give them – if Hillcrest will do the right thing here, the patients will be the real winners because they will receive the quality of care they need and deserve,” Campbell said.

Free said Indian Country knows all too well the struggles workers face on a daily basis. “Too many families in Indian Country struggle on a daily basis just to provide the basic necessities of life for their family,” Free said. “INDN’s List believes that building relationships with our friends in organized labor, as well as other advocacy organizations, will help build a better America.”

President of the Northeast Oklahoma Labor Council, John Gaines, was particularly delighted with the turnout and the broad range of support. “Our message and our supporters reflects organized labor’s values and who we’re fighting for. Joining us Saturday were ministers, environmentalists, teachers, lawyers and laborers, people from all walks of life and all ethnic groups. Organized Labor in Oklahoma is proud to have INDN’s List, a national organization headquartered in our state, because we know INDN’s List is working to elect Democrats here in Oklahoma and across the country that support human rights.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

A Part Of Our Future Will Vanish Unless Tribes Respond To This!

Submitted by Jean Bedell-Mashkikinabinais

A lot of Money will be lost to tribes and descendants of past decades and settlements. Many tribes have yet to respond as Melmer reiterates: ''This could be, if the reservations do not file a claim, the greatest land grab in 150 years.”

We as Native people whose ancestor’s died and suffered at the hand of the United States government would want you to save our lands for the future generations. We as Native people still are fighting the war of injustice from the dominant race, but now our battle ground needs to be fought using the white mans words in the court rooms with attorneys that will speak for all of us.

We need to unite and prevent this from happening, for the sake of all our people. With the already loss of many languages and culture, we still suffer on reservations and have our “U” numbers, we still have the greatest and poorest nations in the United States, but allot of tribes still have their land base, and we need to keep these large tracts of lands safe, protected.

Andokikidaasowin ninanishinabeg…BIIMAADZIIWIN Anishinabeg Apane! Geen sagiiwe geen Anishinabeg na all nations!!

Please respond by writing to your congressman or listed attorneys below, or by phone and email address below by December 31, 2005. Mashkikinabinais

Gary Frischer (strategic legal consultant for a group of attorneys working on claims ) urged: ''If they [tribes] do not file, they could lose out on collecting past lease money; and, just as important, they could lose the right to litigate for treaty lands that have been taken”

Attorney Mario Gonzalez, Oglala, in Rapid City, S.D., heads the consortium. He is joined by attorneys Gregory Yates from South Dakota and California, Maurice Johnson in Nebraska, Benjamin Thompson in Minnesota and Jerry Guenther in Montana. Tribal officials wishing to contact any of these attorneys can call (800) 404-4658 or e-mail gyates@gregoryyates.net.

Deadline Looms For Tust Fund Claims
Posted: December 09, 2005
by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - Billions of dollars will potentially be lost if tribes do not file claims with the Department of Interior to negotiate settlements that will recoup lost revenues owed to the tribes for leases, royalties and sale of property.

Any tribal claims are subject to a statute of limitations established by Congress in 1999 and which runs out Dec. 31. The revenues owed the tribes come from non-reconcilable funds that were to have been paid to tribes for royalties and leases, sale of land and other negotiations handled by the Interior as part of the department's fiduciary responsibility over the past decades.

So far only three or four tribes have reached a settlement with the government, nine tribes have filed and most all of the 562 federally recognized tribes may have claims to file, attorneys who are working the claims assert.

The statute of limitations was established based on the Osage Nation v. United States case and many tribes may not be aware of the limitations, attorneys claim.

''If they [tribes] do not file, they could lose out on collecting past lease money; and, just as important, they could lose the right to litigate for treaty lands that have been taken,'' stated Gary Frischer, strategic legal consultant for a group of attorneys working on claims. ''This could be, if the reservations do not file a claim, the greatest land grab in 150 years,'' he added.

The accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLP conducted an audit of the trust funds at the request of the federal government and determined that mismanagement by Interior was involved and that tribes had not received the payments due them. Arthur Andersen sent reconciliation reports to the tribes, which were encouraged by Congress to negotiate settlements with the government rather than file in federal court. The tribes were given five years after the notice from Andersen to negotiate.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced legislation in October that would extend the statute of limitations date for another five years; however, that bill has not been taken up by the full Senate.

A house companion bill introduced by Reps. Richard Pombo, R-Calif. and Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., would also extend the deadline to negotiate a settlement until Dec. 31, 2011. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Resources Committee approved the legislation, but has not been taken up on the floor of either house.

Congress in 1993 required Interior to pay interest on trust funds held for tribes and to demonstrate new approaches for the management of ''Indian trust funds; to clarify the trust responsibility of the United States with respect to Indians,'' said written comments from the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that year.

A year later, Congress, with an amended reform act, created the office of special trustee. Also that year, the Cobell v. Norton case began. (The Cobell litigation is unrelated to the tribal trust fund issue.)

The Osage case was based on the fact that the federal government mismanaged its fiduciary responsibility to the Osage Nation of Oklahoma. Congress passed the Osage Allotment Act in 1906, which directed the federal government to place all money due, or funds that may become or may be found to be due, in trust. Those monies were royalties from oil, gas, coal and other mineral leases, and were to be held for the tribe and individual members of the Osage Nation.

The Osage Nation argued that the federal government held funds in excess of $8 million in escrow for almost 10 years, prior to payment and transfer of title to the lands from 1873 to 1883. In court, the Osage argued that the federal government ''exercised involuntary, pervasive management and complete control over the mineral assets of the Osage - but has never rendered an accounting.''

In 1996 Arthur Andersen attempted to reconcile the trust fund accounts from between July 1, 1972 and September 1992. Its report shows that the federal government did not comply with the federal law that required reconciliation of the accounts.

The federal government's attempt to have the case dismissed failed. It also asked the court to impose a statute of limitations on claims for funds before 1984. According to Federal Claims Court regulations, the statute of limitations is six years, a term set by Congress. However, according to the many Appropriations Acts (the first of which was passed in 1908), a reconciliation of the due funds held for the tribe is the key to determining dates for statutes of limitations.

As it has been determined that all tribes received a reconciliation in 1999, the statute of limitations date will be Dec. 31.

The Arthur Andersen report was the first reconciliation completed by Interior that complied with the standards set forth in the many Appropriations Acts.

The Osage case leaves open the chance for tribes to file claims for past revenues not reconciled based on technicalities in the Indian Claims Commission Act. The act set the time limit at 1951; however, Hewitt wrote that because the Osage argued that revenue was lost, funds mismanaged and no reconciliation occurred until December 1999, the statute of limitations set by the Indian Claims Commission was not applicable.

The requirements of the reconciliation reports established by Congress state that as full and complete an accounting as possible must be submitted at the earliest possible date.

''The court finds that the language 'to the earliest possible date' to be further indication of the intent of Congress to allow Indian tribes to file tribal trust fund mismanagement claims within six years after an accounting of the trust fund is furnished to the tribe no matter when the mismanagement occurred,'' Hewitt wrote.

Tribes are now faced with the possible termination of their right to file claims by the end of the year unless the two pending bills are enacted in time.

Tribes are encouraged to meet with their tribal attorneys to determine if they have a claim and to file. Also, a consortium of attorneys who are experienced in federal Indian law and who have a track record in these types of land claims has been formed.

Attorney Mario Gonzalez, Oglala, in Rapid City, S.D., heads the consortium. He is joined by attorneys Gregory Yates from South Dakota and California, Maurice Johnson in Nebraska, Benjamin Thompson in Minnesota and Jerry Guenther in Montana.

Tribal officials wishing to contact any of these attorneys can call (800) 404-4658 or e-mail gyates@gregoryyates.net.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Bridging The Families

The Indigenous Nations Alliance for the Millions More Movement
Presents

Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement
Conference
One Mind, One Heart, One Spirit!!!

Greetings,
My name is YoNas’Da LoneWolf – Muhammad, National Director of the Indigenous Nations in Support of the Millions More Movement (10th Anniversary of Millions Man March). I am a
proud Native and African American woman of the Oglala Lakota Tribe.

On October 15, 2005 we gathered over a million men, women and children of all races and backgrounds under one common voice representing freedom, justice and equality. I felt it was
very important that my people’s presence were shown in a respectful and appropriate
manner. Therefore, we set up a 26 foot tall tipi exhibition based on the history of the
“Relationship between the Black and the Red: Past, Present and Beyond”. We also were honored with the presence and words of Native American community leaders, national leaders and political leaders.

My mother was a highly recognized motivational speaker, the late Wauneta Lone Wolf. Before returning to the Great creator she worked strenuously on saving our children from a life of gangs and drugs. She developed a campaign “Gangs, Guns & Graffiti – Not in my community”.
Back to our Native traditional ways. Since, I am her legacy it’s my journey that the Great Creator put me on to continue saving our youth.

The Movement is just beginning! The Indigenous Nations Department is organizing a 2-day
Conference that will tour throughout Indian Country. We are excited that educational leaders,
Political leaders and popular entertainers are coming together to aid in the organizing,
mobilizing, healing and restoring of our communities. We understand the economic status on
most of the reservations, and we want our children to participate and grasp the knowledge,
wisdom and understanding from this conference. We need your support in transporting youth
groups and organizations to an educational experience of a life time.

We are requesting the strategic alliance of organizations, tribal councils, and the communities to
Participate with the Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement conference. We will be launching this conference tour on February 25th, 2006 in Chicago, IL.

For more information - Please respond to yonasdamuhammad@yahoo.com if you would like to be involved in either booking this conference in your state or sponsor a youth organization to attend.
Mitake Oyasin
YoNas’ Da Lone Wolf McCall-Muhammad

The Mission of Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement is to visit and establish a
Unified relationship with the Indigenous communities throughout the United States.

We will conduct empowerment seminars during a 2-day conference aimed at the survival
And well-being of our youth. In the Native American communities statistics show that the
Youth ranging from ages 12-20 are 58% more likely to become criminal victims than
Whites and Blacks.

We believe in an old African proverb that states. “It takes a village to raise a child”. So
We intend to empower. Motivate and give our children the ladder to climb for success.
This is why we must link the Black, Red, Brown, Yellow and White families together to
Help save and secure our youth.

The Indigenous Nations Alliance for the Millions More Movement
Presents
Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement Conference

Daily Agenda

Focus Points of Workshops Will be:

Job Training/ Entrepreneurship
Gang Prevention
Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Diabetes and Cancer
Prostate Cancer Screening
Blue Print for Womanhood
Young Men Empowerment
Rights of Passage
Cultural Dance
Poetry in Motion
Education
History of How Closely We Are Related
Keeping Your Traditional Ways
Martial Arts/Survival Techniques
Media Relations

Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement Conference 1st Day will begin with:

Continental Breakfast
Workshops
Lunch
Workshops
Workshops Wrap – Up and Cultural Performances

Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement Conference 2nd Day will present:

Keynote Speaker – The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan- National Representative of the Nation of Islam
Cultural Perform

Mission Statement
The Mission of the Indigenous Nations Alliance is to visit and establish a unified relationship
with the Indigenous communities throughout the United States and across the world.

The Campaign of Bridging the Families – Starting a Movement is to strive and work toward
complete unity.

We intend to build a new strategic alliance with in the Black, Red, Brown, Yellow and White
communities to place us in a vanguard position, to have the capability of doing for self.

One Mind, One Heart, One Spirit

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Congressman Grijalva - A Man For The American Indian

Raul Grijalva of Tucson got elected to Congress in 2003, an off-year for national elections. A new district had been created because of the population explosion in Southern and Southwest Arizona. During his campaign for the office, he met with representatives of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. They wanted to discuss a 25 square mile tract of land near the California/Arizona border that once belonged to them and came armed with documents of old Department of Interior hearing proceedings and records to tell their story.

The campaigner was told how the land was originally the southern part of the tribe’s 270,000 acre reservation along the Colorado River. The reservation extends into California and is home to 3,600 members of the Navajo, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Mohave tribes.

The reservation was created in 1865 by President Lincoln, a month before his assassination. A few years later the government decided to extend the southern boundary to prevent non-Indian encroachment. Under the administration of President Grant, a survey of these “La Paz” or “The Peace” lands was done and the land was attached to the reservation by presidential order in 1876.

Since then, there had been numerous conflicts between the tribes and mining companies seeking mineral rights on the land. In 1915, President Wilson ordered the removal of the La Paz section because there, supposedly, was a boundary error on the initial survey. The 15,375 acres were taken from the tribes and they received no compensation for the land.

For 90 years, the tribes fought to get back their lands through letter writing campaigns and through research complied by the Interior Department which determined there was no boundary error. But, Interior argued it did not have the authority to overturn a presidential order.

Grijalva decided the tribe’s request was a valid one and in July 2003, he introduced a bill (then called a House Resolution) to return the land to the tribes. Grijalva was not the only member of Congress from Arizona to introduce a bill to return the land to the tribe. The first bill was authored by the late Senator Barry Goldwater and it failed.

Again, Goldwater, a Republican, and the former Senator Dennis DeConcini, a Democrat, introduced bi-partisan bills in 1980 and 1981 to restore the La Paz Lands to the tribes. They also failed. Another Arizonan, Former Rep. Bob Stump, a Republican, showed little interest when approached by the tribes through the late 1990’s. He decided not to seek re-election in 2002 after 13 terms in Congress.

When Grijalva was elected to Congress in 2003, tribal leaders saw a ray of hope towards a solution to their land problem. But, how was Grijalva going to get the bill passed by Congress?

Grijalva, aware that he was a Democrat in a Republican dominated House, wisely garnered the support of Arizona’s Republican Congressmen – J.D. Hayworth, Rick Renzi, Jeff Flake, Jim Kolbe and the other Arizona Democratic Congressman, Ed Pastor.

Grijalva let it be known that the tribe was willing to make some concessions along with reassuring his Arizona associates the bill did not require any government spending.
The support of Reps. Hayworth, Flake and Renzi was extremely crucial because they, along with Grijalva, sat on the House Resources Committee.

Grijalva was given a setback when he was told the deal might not go through if the returned land included gaming rights and after consultation with tribal leaders they agreed the getting the land returned to the tribe was much more important than any gaming rights – which were omitted from the bill.

Other obstacles reared their heads along the way: Some 840 acres within La Paz land running along Interstate 10; public access for hunting and fishing; water rights along the Colorado River; and citizens protesting because the land deal could hem them in and limit development along I-10.

Over time, the issues were resolved and Grijalva even got limited support from the Bush Administration. The bill was unanimously voted out of committee and on September 28th, 2004. Grijalva’s bill was passed in a voice vote by the entire House of Representatives.

With little time to celebrate because of the national election just weeks away, the bill was stalled in the Senate by mid-October and eventually died as Congress ended its ’04 session.

On February 14th 2005 – Arizona Statehood Day - Grijalva re-introduced his bill which was passed by the House on April 12th. The next day it was sent to the Senate where John, McCain, (R-AZ) who had just become the Chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee received the bill with open arms. He and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) were both supporters of Grijalva’s reworked Indian bill.

On July 26th McCain’s Committee unanimously approved the bill and it was sent on to the Senate and passed. Six days later, President George Bush signed the bill into law officially returning the land to the tribes.

At the tribe’s celebration, members gave out T-shirts with the imprinted words that summed up their struggle, “Victory 1915-2005 – La Paz Lands Restored.”

The tribes have not decided how the land will be used, but tribal Attorney General Eric Shephard said any plan will benefit all of the 3,600 tribal members.

This article headlined “Tough Path For Grijalva – Congressman fought to return land to Indians – appeared in the December 5th edition of The Arizona Republic bylined Billy House. It is extremely informative, and illustrates the difficult route a legislator must take to get a bill passed in Congress.

I edited the story for length and content to point out to Native Americans that their legislators both, state and national, can make a difference in their lives if tribal leaders will take the time and effort to become involved with the political process and its representatives and senators.

I also have a special interest in Representative Raul Grijalva as he is my Congressman. Altho, I have never met him, I am very impressed with the responses I ALWAYS get from him when I send him those Internet messages supplied by the various humanitarian, environmental and political groups I’m involved with. He sends the first to say he has received the message and a follow-up letter stating how and why he did vote or will vote on the particular issue.

I understand they are FORM letters, BUT at least he takes the time and effort to respond, directly, to me.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Cowboy Judge In Indian Case Holds Little Back

Submitted by Sunshine Woman Archambault
Center For Civic Participation
sunshine@ccp.org

By JENNIFER TALHELM Associated Press
November 28, 2005
One in an occasional series on the people, some of them not so well known, who make Washington work:

WASHINGTON - U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth may have long ago chosen to work in straight-laced Washington, but he radiates his love for his home state of Texas.

The Reagan appointee has been known to appear at conferences wearing his10-gallon hat and a shirt sewn like the Lone Star State flag. When he shakes your hand, friends say, he grips your shoulder so hard your whole body rocks back and forth with the movement.

Given the good-ol'-boy image and the conservative background, much has been made about how Lamberth has handled the case for which he is best known in Washington these days - a class-action lawsuit by thousands of American Indians accusing the Interior Department of mishandling more than $100 billion in royalties from their lands, dating back to 1887.

The nearly 10-year-old case, known as Cobell v. Norton, involves the dry, dull question of whether the government adequately kept records to show how it handled money from oil, gas, grazing and other royalties ithas held in trust for Indians.

Lamberth's decisions, however, have been anything but boring. Fans and detractors alike have marveled at how this cowboy has sided with theIndians.

Twice, Lamberth ordered the department to disconnect its computers from the Internet for failing to provide adequate security for the Indians' trust records. He has held Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her Clinton-era predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, in contempt for their handling of the trust fund.

Often, the Court of Appeals has reversed Lamberth's opinions, including the contempt order against Norton. This month, the appellate court vacated a Lamberth order that the government do a detailed historicalaccounting of the money it owes the Indians.

The government has become so frustrated with Lamberth that it has taken the unusual step of asking to have him removed from the case.

The move is surprising partly because Lamberth is highly respected as a judge. The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary rated him "tops in legalability," but also warned: "He is no shrinking violet. He can get angry."

In a ruling in July, Lamberth let loose against the Interior Department. He called the agency a "pathetic outpost" and said the Indian royalties case "serves as an appalling reminder of the evils that result when large numbers of the politically powerless are placed at the mercy of institutions engendered and controlled by a politically powerful few."

Lawyers say Lamberth holds government attorneys to the same high standard as private sector lawyers, something few federal judges do.They say he gets frustrated when the government is less than candid in court and has been known to sanction agencies when they don't follow the rules.

"He really does view everyone in government as having a strong duty tothe people," said Mark Nagle, a lawyer who has worked for Lamberth.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Lamberth said he bases his decisions on the law and doesn't worry about what others think. "I don't shrink from making decisions, even controversial ones," he said.

A native of San Antonio, Lamberth, 62, earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas. He was drafted out of law school in 1967 and entered the Army Judge Advocate General Corps duringVietnam. Until he was appointed to the bench in 1987, he worked in the civil division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington.

Early in his career, he was confronted with cases involving government wiretaps and other lawsuits in which the government wanted to gather information or keep it secret from the people.

He said he learned a lot about the government from those experiences. Ultimately, he said, he tried to demonstrate that no one is above the law by making sure the government never got away with lying to the court or Congress. And that desire has been reflected in his opinions ever since.

During the Clinton years, he attracted national attention by allowing conservative watchdog Larry Klayman to depose and subpoena a long list of administration officials. Among other things, Klayman accused the Commerce Department of selling slots on trade missions to Democratic donors.

Lamberth was criticized for it, and Klayman was dismissed as a gadfly. But Lamberth said it was difficult to deny Klayman the right to depose people when he kept "finding another government misstatement under everyrock he turns up."

In the end, Lamberth said, the public was served because the administration was forced to provide documents and information it was keeping from the public.

Lamberth was so associated with Klayman's attack on Clinton that many were surprised when Lamberth was equally hard on Bush's officials in theIndian trust case. Some wonder now whether the judge has lost control of the lawsuit. The court battle has gone in circles from Lamberth to the appeals court and back, and there's no end in sight.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, who represents another professor tangentially involved in the case, says the lawsuit has become "a true morass" akin to "invading Russia in winter."

But Clark Neily, a former Lamberth clerk who is now a senior attorney for the libertarian Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va., says if someone has a better alternative to Lamberth, they should step forward.

"It's very difficult to know for sure whether some of the more extreme orders he's issued in that case were necessary or not," Neily said. "But the people who brought that lawsuit have a right to see a resolution in their lifetime."

Sunshine Woman Archambault
Center for Civic Participation
sunshine@ccp.org

Indigenous Nations Alliance For The Million More Movement - Presents

THE EXHIBITION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BLACK AND THE RED:
HOW CLOSE WE ARE!

Saturday, December 10th
3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

MUI
7351 S. Stony Island Avenue
Chicago, Ill. 60649

FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT
$5 per person
Children – 3-5 years – FREE

Keynote and address presentation by
Yonas Da Lone Wolf McCall-Muhammad
National Director of Indigenous Nations Alliance

Contact: yonasdamuhammad@yahoo.com

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.

Mary Kim Titla, Role Model For Native Youth

She’s not a movie star although she is pretty enough to be one. She’s not a nationwide television personality, although she might have eventually become one if she had stayed in her profession as a TV news reporter. But, Mary Kim Titla has a more exciting career in mind which has already gotten off the ground floor with an explosive start. She is the publisher of an Internet website called "Native Youth magazine" which is already getting some 60,000 hits per day and it has only been in business since August of this year. WOW!!!! I think I’m doing well when I get 60 hits a day.

This new business is a family affair with her husband John Mosley and her three sons all working together. Titla was born on the San Carlos Apache Reservation to teenage parents and grew up in a two-room house with no electricity or running water but she was able to get a scholarship and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a master’s degree in mass communications from Arizona State University. She met and married Mosley, a Sioux-Paiute, while she was in school in Norman, Oklahoma.

Titla left her reporting job for Channel 12, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, on December 8th to run the family business full-time. Although they paid the start up cost of $15,000, the business has already signed up advertisers such as North American Indigenous Games 2006 and is discussing possible Nike partnerships. Colleges, vocational schools and even the FBI are using the Native Youth Magazine to contact young Indians around the country.

It is easy to see why it is becoming such a hit with Native youth both in the United States and Canada. The site features articles about fashion, sports, entertainment, education, scholarships, literature, profiles, story telling, youth news, calendar of events, festivals and powwows and has a very important message board. An online store is on the drawing board.

The latest posts include “My Trip to To Red Lake Reservation by Joshus Manriquez, “Woman Warrior For Christ” The lady writes about her trip to Israel and “Crystal Meth Became More Important Than Anything – Including My Life” by Tala Tootoosis. This is some pretty heavy stuff on a site that is long overdue for kids who have the highest suicide rate among teenage racial groups.

Titla, while working in TV reporting has racked up a few awards which include being a finalist for a Rocky Mountain Emmy. She has won first place awards from the Associated Press, Arizona Press Club, and the Native American Journalist Association. She has been recognized by Outstanding Young Women of America and the YWCA, In 2002, she received the Ira Hayes Honorable Warrior award for her work with Native American Youth. Titla is currently the chairperson of the Board of Trustees for United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc (UNITY).

The family goal for the site is to top 4 million hits a month to become the most visited Native site in the country.

For the record - It is my opinion, and has been for many years, that two of the more positive goals for Native Youths who want to make a difference in their communities and the nation are careers in the field of journalism - print media, TV, the Internet, or in politics - tribal, local, state and national. I hope Native Youth will stress a “Native Kids Voting” program in its future plans.

See for yourself what is being done for young Natives by the Mosley family. Log onto: http://www.nativeyouthmagazine.com/

This column has been edited for content and length from stories on the Channel 12 Internet Network News, Native Youth Magazine and an article in the November 13th edition of the Arizona Republic’s Business Section bylined Judy Nichols.

washingtonpost.com
Civil Rights Focus Shift Roils Staff At Justice
Veterans Exit Division as Traditional Cases Decline

Submitted by Daniel Levitas – Native Voter

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 13, 2005; A01

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which has enforced the nation's anti-discrimination laws for nearly half a century, is in the midst of an upheaval that has driven away dozens of veteran lawyers and has damaged morale for many of those who remain, according to former and current career employees.

Nearly 20 percent of the division's lawyers left in fiscal 2005, in part because of a buyout program that some lawyers believe was aimed at pushing out those who did not share the administration's conservative views on civil rights laws. Longtime litigators complain that political appointees have cut them out of hiring and major policy decisions, including approvals of controversial GOP redistricting plans in Mississippi and Texas.

At the same time, prosecutions for the kinds of racial and gender discrimination crimes traditionally handled by the division have declined 40 percent over the past five years, according to department statistics. Dozens of lawyers find themselves handling appeals of deportation orders and other immigration matters instead of civil rights cases.

The division has also come under criticism from the courts and some Democrat for its decision in August to approve a Georgia program requiring voters to present government-issued identification cards at the polls. The program was halted by an appellate court panel and a district court judge, who likened it to a poll tax from the Jim Crow era.

"Most everyone in the Civil Rights Division realized that with the change of administration, there would be some cutting back of some cases," said Richard Ugelow, who left the division in 2004 and now teaches law at American University. "But I don't think people anticipated that it would go this far, that enforcement would be cut back to the point that people felt like they were spinning their wheels."

The Justice Department and its supporters strongly dispute the complaints. Justice spokesman Eric Holland noted that the overall attrition rate during the Bush administration, about 13 percent, is not significantly higher than the 11 percent average during the last five years under President Bill Clinton.

Holland also said that the division filed a record number of criminal prosecutions in 2004. A quarter of those cases were related to human-trafficking crimes, which were made easier to prosecute under legislation passed at the end of the Clinton administration and which account for a growing proportion of the division's caseload.

Sacred Rocks In Albuquerque Need your Help - A Sacred Site Under Attack

Submitted by Jean Bedell-Bailey

Re: This in regard to an article that was in the Lakota Journal December 2-9, 2005 (A5) issue. The news prints that “

Jicarilla Apache tribal officials are concerned about the city plans to relocate seven rocks-etched with sacred ancient petroglyphs- to clear a corridor for the proposed extension of Paseo del Norte. “They can’t move the rocks - those rocks” said Loraine Willis, director of cultural affairs.

The state’s cultural properties review committee in June granted the City of Albuquerque a permit to collect data from the Roadway path but asked city officials to consult tribes before the permit took effect. The committee Monday authorized the city to start work after December 21. Meanwhile, the city must consult with tribal officials from the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Picuris Pueblo, then report to the committee December 2.”

We must not let this happened to this sacred site. The Indian Graves and Repatriation Act should apply to this area and this should be made into a National Sacred Site and Monument. We can’t let the encroaching of housing developers who think they have a lot of money to back them do this to this site. A fence and wall should be put up t for the protection of this site and further damage to the site which in the past was ridden with bullet hole on the petroglyphs themselves.

Let’s start a campaign with Indian Tribes to prevent this, to preserve all we have left as Indian people. We don’t have to much time so immediately e-mail your Congressman in Washington, write and call your newspapers and forward to as many people or resources you know who can prevent this from happening.

NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

For news and information on Native American and First Nations actors, go to Annie's site at www.NativeCelebs.com and follow the threads.

American Indian Airways regularly broadcasts every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m.(Pacific Time) on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles; FM 98.7 Santa Barbara; and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp and Itunes.