The Return Of Navajo Boy

SYNOPSIS

“The Return of Navajo Boy,” a 2000 documentary produced by Jeff Spitz and Bennie Klain, begins with the appearance of a 1950s film reel which, after 40 years, led to the return of a long lost brother to his Navajo family.

The Cly family has lived more than six decades in Monument Valley, Utah, and has an extraordinary history in pictures.

Since the1930s, family members have appeared as unidentified subjects in countless photographs and films shot in Monument Valley, including postcards, Hollywood Westerns such as John Wayne's “The Searchers,” and a rare home-movie by legendary director John Ford.

In 1997 a white man identifying himself as Bill Kennedy from Chicago showed up in Monument Valley with a silent film called “Navajo Boy,” which his late father produced in the 1950s. Seeking to understand his father's work on the Navajo Reservation, Kennedy returned the film to the people in it.

When Cly family matriarch, Elsie Mae Cly Begay, watched the film, she was amused to see herself as a young girl and delighted in identifying other family members: her late mother Happy Cly and infant brother, John Wayne Cly, who was adopted by white missionaries in the 1950s and never heard from again.

With the return of “Navajo Boy,” Elsie seized the opportunity to tell her family's story. Amid a variety of still photos and moving images from the '40s and '50s, the film's producers allow the family to tell their story in their own voices, shedding
light on the Native side of picture making and uranium mining in Monument Valley.

When John Wayne Cly, who was married and living in Zuni, learned about the return of “Navajo Boy” from a story in the Gallup Independent, he contacted the Clys in hopes that they were his family. “The Return of Navajo Boy” documents John Wayne's unforgettable return to his blood brothers and sisters in an emotional reunion in Monument Valley.

Narrated by Elsie's son Lorenzo Begay, “The Return of Navajo Boy” was the official Sundance Film Festival 2000 selection.

Source: http://www.navajoboy.com/

'Navajo Boy' Returns
Uranium undercurrent surfaces in 'The Return of Navajo Boy' epilogue

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK – Producers of the 2000 documentary, “The Return of Navajo Boy,” were back on the Navajo Reservation Tuesday to showcase an epilogue to the acclaimed film before Navajo Environmental Protection Agency staff.

Jeff Spitz of Chicago and Bennie Klain, a member of the Navajo Nation, presented a screening of the 57 minute film and a rough cut of the new 15 minute epilogue featuring the Cly family of Monument Valley, Utah.

The group is headed to Shiprock today for a 10 a.m. screening at Shiprock Chapter House.

Elsie Mae Cly Begay, an elder and central figure in the film, hitchhiked Monday along with her cousin Rose Tyler from Tyler's home in Cross Canyon to Window Rock to attend Tuesday's screening.

“She's never missed a plane, never missed a connection for an airport, never been late for an appointment in eight years traveling all over the country,” Spitz said. Last year, he was told that Begay had a ride from Monument Valley to a screening in Flagstaff. When she arrived, she remarked, “Four rides.”

The film has traveled all over the country since its premiere, airing on television networks in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and other places. “Those screenings attract a lot of interested people who want to hear the story about 'The Return of Navajo Boy,'” Spitz said.

“The epilogue is for the purpose of screening and speaking engagements that Elsie does at colleges and museums and at cultural events around the country. We want to provide a short little film that says here's what happened after 'The Return of Navajo Boy.'

“They don't necessarily know that there's a uranium issue sort of surfacing through the film.”

In 1978 following her divorce, Begay and her children moved into a hogan in Monument Valley where they lived for about three years. During filming of the documentary, Spitz became concerned about potential health hazards associated with the hogan, which was made of highly radioactive material.

Fortunately, Begay was living in a house about 30 feet away by the time U.S. EPA tested the hogan for radiation in January 2000. Nine months later she received a letter from EPA stating that radiation levels in the hogan far exceeded EPA cleanup levels.

“Our current policy is to clean up sites to approximately 2 microrem per hour (uR/hr) above background radiation levels, which are estimated to range from 8 to 12 uR/hr in your area. ... The levels that we measured in the stone-floor hogan near your home ranged from 800 to 1,000 uR/hr.

“Given that, we recommend that people stay out of that hogan. We also recommend that the hogan be removed from the area so that no one is exposed to those levels of radiation,” EPA wrote.

Begay consulted Doug Brugge, Ph.D, M.S., who advised her that living in the hogan “would result in an exposure that is about 44 times larger than is considered acceptable” by EPA or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

According to the information she provided him, children played on the floor and occupants slept either on mattresses directly on the floor or on carpets.

“All these scenarios mean that heads, bodies and, reproductive organs, rested for lengthy periods directly on the source of radiation,” he said.

In the epilogue, Begay states that one son, Lewis, “had trouble with his brain. That's what took him.” Another son died of lung cancer.

In 2001, the radioactive hogan was demolished; however, radioactive waste piles located nearby have not been cleaned up to this day, according to Spitz.

“If they couldn't remove all of the contaminated soil from around there, they could have at least put up a sign and a fence to keep the little kids from running around in there. They didn't put up a fence or a sign. They just left everything out and never bothered to come back.”

Begay is speaking out in hope that cleanup will continue not only at her home, but at others across the Navajo Nation.

“I just want that uranium that's out there removed – even the cable that's been there I don't know how many years now. That's the only thing I want, is just remove all the waste – the cable too.

“I live there and my kids was living there and my aunt and her kids too, and grandkids. I have grandkids too. In the winter we tell them not to go there, but they always go there and play over there, even in the snow. They slide there where the waste is,” she said.

Zoe Heller of U.S. EPA viewed Tuesday's screening. “I think their work is fantastic. I think education is what the world really needs and the country needs to address these issues and help make it better,” she said.

The purpose of the epilogue is to empower Begay to tell her story effectively to people engaged in uranium legacy issues, Spitz said.

“We want our film to continue to work as a magnet for audiences and a way of getting people to talk across cultures, because we all share responsibility for our energy and we need to know how much is being paid for that – what the real costs are.

“If people are going to be proposing nuclear for the future, they should also be considering where the uranium is going to come from. And in most cases, all over the world, it comes from underneath the feet of indigenous people.”

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Living Near The Homestake - Company Working To Clean Up 30 Years Of Uranium Waste

First of a three-part series
By Kathy Helms -Dine Bureau
MILAN -When Candi and Mickey Williams moved from Grants to Milan around 2003, they knew the Homestake Mill site was located about a mile away, but little did they realize that within five years the former uranium mill would be declared a public health hazard by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

When Homestake Mining Co. first opened its uranium processing mill in 1958, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had not been born and the company operated according to normal industry practice. Now it is working to comply with regulations imposed by the feds and state that were nonexistent before 1970.

The mill operated for 30 years, closing in 1990. Dan Kump, senior project engineer for the Homestake site in Milan, said the company has been working on the cleanup project for a number of years “and we are definitely going to be here until it’s all done and done correctly. We’ve been glad to be a part of this community.”

Two uranium mill tailings piles remain on-site. The unlined tailings piles overlie the San Mateo alluvial aquifer, into which radioactive and non-radioactive contaminants have migrated. Seepage from the piles now has reached portions of the Upper, Middle and Lower Chinle aquifers.

Several hundred people in the vicinity of the mill depended upon the shallow alluvial aquifer as a water supply before an alternate supply was provided to nearby residences in 1985 by Homestake under a consent decree with EPA.

“We bought out here because we were looking for a place away from town, where we could have all our animals, that was in our price range,” Candi and Mickey Williams said. For $65,000 they purchased a four-bedroom, two-bath fixer-upper situated on nearly five acres of land. “I didn’t know anything about the water or contamination and I had lived in Grants all my life,” Candi said.

In 2005, their son, Kyle, now 6, developed a case of extreme diarrhea. He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with sulfate poisoning. Consumption of drinking water with sulfate levels above 600 parts per million can cause laxative effects, including diarrhea, which can result in dehydration. Infants and children are more susceptible.

“Kyle was a sick little boy,” Williams said. That’s when they came and tested our water originally.” Test results from the family’s well showed sulfate readings of 727 ppm in 2005 and 842 ppm in 2006.

When U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials came around, “They said they were testing water in the area and they wanted to check the water table,’ she said. “That was the year that all the water came off the mountain and flooded this whole area.”

Kyle is now healthy and normal, according to his mom, who believes it is because the family switched to drinking bottled water after they got the test results. Their well, located in the Lower Chinle aquifer, was drilled in 2001 at a depth of 280 feet and provided 20 gallons of water per minute.

The Williams’ other three children are a medical mystery. Though there is no family history of genetic malformations, they have had more than their share. And within months of moving to their new home, the children’s conditions appeared to worsen, according to Candi.

Mickey, 11, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 3 years old.

“He fought cancer for about eight years,” his mother said.

“He went on the cured list in January 2006.” However, he still has enchondroma, a type of noncancerous cartilage tumor that appears on the inside of the bone, “but that’s lifestyle threatening, not life threatening.”

Dylan, 10, has Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, a rare congenital circulatory disorder for which there is no cure. “It made his right leg grow bigger, his left arm grow bigger, the right side of his heart, the left side of his brain but the left side of his skull, one of his kidneys, one side of his liver, his small intestine, and one of his lungs,” she said.

When they asked the doctors about the cause, they were told “gene malformation,’ she said, “but if you ask why, they tell you, “Oh, we don’t know. These things just happen.” But he’s doing OK. He’s still on heart medicine, he still doesn’t have the part of his brain to tell him he’s hungry, so he’s on appetite stimulants so that he will eat.”

Josh, 4, “is doing good. Lucky for us he had a big head. The place on his skull fused together too early, but his head was big enough that he has plenty of room. He has a deformed ear, but that was a genetic situation No reason why given by the doctor, of course.”

Though the Williams began drinking bottled water after their initial well test results, “When we got the letter six months later it said not even to cook with our water, which, we had been cooking with it,” Candi said. In addition to high sulfate readings, the nitrate levels were high and are of even more concern.

Last month, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry declared Homestake a public health hazard.

Sampling in May 2006 identified sixteen well owners who are using their wells for drinking water. One well contained uranium at 265 parts per billion, as opposed to the EPA and New Mexico “safe” standard of 30 ppb.

“We are going to definitely take care of everything that was resultant of how we operated throughout the years,” Kump said. “Mind you, this all started back in the ‘50s during the Cold War when everybody needed uranium so we could beat the Russians.

“The reason I say that, though, is back then ‘liner’ wasn’t even invented yet. So the normal procedure was to do exactly what we had done. That was normal industry practice. Nobody had given much more thought to any of these things. The U.S. EPA for instance, wasn’t even formed until 1970, and we’d been operating 14 years before that.”

Kump said he had not read the ATSDR report completely and could not address the findings.

New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission regulations for background radiation state that any operator that contributes any kind of contamination is responsible for it. Homestake is not liable for contamination coming from another uranium mining/milling operation. However, the source of any off-site contamination would have to be proven.

During a 2006 meeting, state officials said that in Homestake’s case, the state has documented contamination coming from the Ambrosia Lake area. Homestake would not be responsible for cleaning that up, but would be responsible for what they contributed on top of that.

EPA reported in April that Homestake continues to operate a groundwater extraction/injection system at the former mill site to de-water the large tailings impoundment and clean up groundwater contaminated by tailings seepage.

“We’re definitely doing the right thing and we?re doing it for all the right reasons, because it needs to be done and we’re going to do it right,” Kump said, adding that Homestake is achieving its goals. “The quality is definitely improving in the groundwater around here. We hope to get everything as good as it can be for everybody.”

Elevated nitrates can cause serious illness and death, Williams said, reading from a letter she received from New Mexico Environment Department. Boiling the water makes the nitrates more concentrated.

“So then we started cooking with bottled water, and since then there’s been no relapses. Dylan’s heart is doing much better than it was before. He’s not having as many apnea spells He still has them, it’s part of his condition and is always going to be there, but it has decreased.

“They called it a ‘coincidence.’ But things have gotten better since we don?t drink that crappy water anymore,” she said.

The Williams’ well, one of the wells farthest from the Homestake site, was sampled in 2001 when it was installed but not again until 2005. That year, nitrates were measured at 16 parts per million. This level is above the drinking water standard of 10 ppm.

In May 2006, the nitrate concentration was at 25.3 parts per million. By November, it was at 27 ppm. ATSDR said the source is unknown, though usually it is due to fertilizer runoff or leaching from septic tanks or sewage. The Williams had the septic tank pulled and tested and there were no leaks from the tank or the line. They have no neighbors close by.

Last October, Homestake began hauling water to the family after their well started to go dry. “Homestake owns the fields and leases them to private owners to grow alfalfa, and people buy the alfalfa and feed it to their horses,” Williams said.

“They are irrigating all these hayfields out here with water as part of their recycle system, but they’re sucking water out of the aquifers as well. Anyway, our well went dry, so I called Homestake.

“I said, ‘You know, every year we have this trouble. As soon as you guys start watering those fields, our water pressure goes down and we run out of water for a couple weeks ‘ you guys quit irrigating and we get water again.”

“So they came out and pulled our pump out and put these sensors down there. You can’t just look and see the water level, you have to actually measure it because it’s so far down there. And now they’re hauling us water from the village of Milan.

“They haul it on Mondays and Friday, so we have city water now. They bought a 3,000 gallon tank and they buried it halfway in the ground and plumbed it into our plumbing. They’ve been really good to us. They’re taking care of us.

“They can’t fix our water and I think, honest to God, these people know they can’t fix the water. It’s just getting worse. The uranium has gone up, but not over 'safe' standards. It goes up every time they test it.

“Our nitrates have gone through the roof. My well was the only one with nitrates. Now some of the Homestake wells and the Continental Divide wells east of my house, the nitrates hit those. It’s moving east toward the subdivision,” she said.

Williams was told that their home is sitting atop a mixing zone where the Upper, Middle and Lower Chinle aquifers come together. She believes the nitrate plume is coming from the former Anaconda Mill. “Everybody said, “Oh, it’s fertilizer, it’s septic tanks.” But Anaconda has a known nitrate plume. I can’t blame all my water problems on Homestake.”

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Law, Order On The 'Rez'

Indian Country Crime:
- Less than 3,000 tribal and federal law enforcement officers patrol more than 56 million acres
- Law enforcement officers respond to distress calls without backup
- The majority of tribal detention facilities are in disrepair
- Tribal courts have been historically underfunded
- Sentencing authority is limited to not more than one year of imprisonment
- A significant percentage of cases are not prosecuted
- Jurisdictional problems have a negative impact
- The violent crime rate in Indian Country is nearly twice the national average

Hearing Aims At Law, Order On The 'Rez'
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK-- The Senate Indian Affairs Committee met Thursday in Washington to hear testimony on draft legislation to address law and order in Indian Country.

Despite the jail crisis confronting the Navajo Nation, it was not among the list of witnesses.

The proposed “Tribal Justice Improvement Act of 2008” is designed to clarify the responsibilities of federal, state, tribal and local governments with respect to crimes committed in Indian Country.

Among the goals are to reduce the prevalence of violent crime, combat violence against Native women, address and prevent drug trafficking, and reduce the rates of alcohol and drug addiction.

Patrick Ragsdale, director of the office of Justice Services for the Bureau of Indian Affairs said current federal law provides that offenders may be sentenced to up to one year in jail and up to a $5,000 fine for each offense.

However, there is limited detention space on or near most Indian communities. There are also limited funds to contract for detention bed space in non-tribal or non-BIA facilities.

Navajo Department of Corrections Director Delores Greyeyes recently told the Public Safety Committee that the Nation now has only 56 beds available for all of the reservation's inmate population.

The Navajo is asking Congress for $28 million in FY 2009 for Bureau of Indian Affairs public safety construction and to direct BIA to allocate a fair portion of the funds to tribally owned 638-contracted facilities.

Under a BIA 638 contract, the Nation owns and operates six adult detention facilities in Window Rock, Chinle, Kayenta, Dilkon, Shiprock and Crownpoint. However, three are only temporary holding facilities.

“Crime rates on most reservations are unacceptably high,” Ragsdale said

“Indian Country law enforcement provides services to a population that is predominantly under the age of 25 and experiences high unemployment rates, and lacks municipal infrastructure.”

Joe A. Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said, “At every meeting we have held on this topic the biggest message from tribal leaders is the need for more funding for law enforcement.

“The Bureau of Indian Affairs has documented a $200 million unmet need to bring reservation policing up to the same levels found in other rural communities.

“According to BIA testimony, tribal detention facilities are grossly overcrowded, in deplorable condition, and staffed at only 50 percent.”

There is a need to streamline funding available through the Department of Justice, Department of Interior, and Department of Health and Human Services, Garcia said.

“Under this ad hoc system, tribal law enforcement will receive vehicles, but no maintenance. They will get a detention facility, but no staff. They will receive radios, but no central dispatch.

“The system doesn’t make sense. We believe that tribal public safety funding should be streamlined into a single funding vehicle that would be negotiated on an annual basis and made more flexible to meet local needs.”

Recent analysis indicates that BIA law enforcement needs 1,153 officers but has only 358. Tribal law enforcement needs 3,256 officers but has only 2,197, he said.

Section 407 of the bill is particularly important to support the development of the Juvenile Justice programs in Indian Country, according to Garcia.

“There is a growing consensus among both tribal leaders and national justice system analysts that non-violent juvenile offenders should rarely be placed in detention. They need to stay in school and get more monitoring and mentorship.

“Our goal is not to put more Indians in jail and create more criminals, but to rehabilitate offenders so they can play a productive role in our communities.”

Walter Lamar, a former FBI Special Agent and past deputy director of the BIA law enforcement program said the proposed bill is a first step in addressing a very complex issue.

The “Findings” section “clearly encapsulates the devastating issues facing Indian Country that have been documented in report after report.”

The section also should mention the need for prisoner transport services, he said. “With the number of jail closures police officers are taken out of service for extended periods to transport prisoners hundreds of miles to and from jail facilities.”

Recent history has proven that new detention facilities can be constructed, Lamar added, “however the issue then reverts to an inability to open the facilities for lack of funding for recruitment, hiring, and training of new staff.

“Provisions must be in place to ensure appropriate funding is available to staff planned detention construction.”

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Act Now For Indian Health - Actors Needed In NM - Roscoe Says 'No' To Nudity - Barack 'Rocks The Rez'

Act Now For Indian Health
Submitted by Christine Yazzie
Kathie Guthrie, FCNL
Think back 16 years, to a time when mental health care, long-term care for elders, and hospice care for the dying were not part of our health care system. Think of the many medical advances since then that have improved the health of millions in the United States. Now go in the way-back machine and look at the state of health care in Indian country.

The health care system in Indian country has not been reauthorized or improved in 16 years. Funding has limped along year to year for old programs, while proposals for new programs are tucked away in dusty files.

Your representative has a chance to improve health care for Native Americans this year. But time is running out. The Senate has already approved legislation to upgrade health care in Indian country. So far, the House has failed to act.

Take Action
Urge your representative to cosponsor the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (H.R. 1328) and to ask for a vote in the full House. The bill has strong bipartisan support and is ready to go to the floor, but House leadership has not yet scheduled it for a vote. Your representative's support could help bring it to the floor in this session of Congress.

What's The Rush?
Congress is only in business for eight more weeks this year, due to the election calendar. So the window of opportunity for the Indian Health Care Improvement Act is small. After years of work, this bill is as close as it has ever come to becoming law. If the House does not act fast, Native Americans and their allies will have to begin again with a new bill in the next Congress.

Find Out More
See a fact sheet from the National Indian Health Board (PDF).

See the latest Native American legislative update, which provides more background on the bill. Sign up for this email list to stay up to date on Native American issues in Congress.

New Mexico Actors Needed In Santa Fe!
As part of IAIA and ABC/DISNEY's summer workshop 6 first time native directors will be shooting 6 different films the first week of july. AND WE NEED ACTORS = So take a look below and send to whomever might fit the criteria. Some previous acting exp preferred but not needed....

This is a great opportunity to help develop our peoples homegrown talents and be a part of something great and unique.ATTACHED are the specific casting needs. Please download and remember to FOWARD IT ON!

When: June 24-26, 2008, 3 pm-7 pmCasting for 7 short student films for the IAIA Summer TV and Film Workshop.

Film dates are July 3-9. Casting for: Native American's ages 8-late 60's. Non-Native and Native Children for extras and one lead role.

Navajo Speaking Elders (Male and Female)
Native Teenagers
Non-Native roles adults and children
Navajo Elder to play a Medicine Man
Native Teenagers
Native Americans 18-25

This is a non pay position, meals and a copy of the film will be provided. Final screening of the movies will be on July 25, 2008 at the IAIA Campus.

Please bring your headshot and resume to the open casting call which will take place at the Institute of American Indian Arts campus Library and Technology Center (LTC Building) Olive Room located at 83 Avan Nu Po Road, Santa Fe.

For info contact Jonathan Sims,
No Reservations Production,
email: noreservations AT gmail.com

Christine Yazzie
Los Angeles, California
Email: krystyn_media@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com

Roscoe Says 'NO To Nudity' For Webisode
Submitted by Roscoe Pond
I never thought it would happen to me. Even at an age where I'm no longer under 30 years old. But, I went on an audition where I was asked if I got the part, "Would I mind performing in the nude?"

I have a new image with my 8 x 10 and it is not a typical Native Warrior image. I call this an "Outlaw" type image. It's different and I like it.

The audition was for what they call today "Webisodes", episodes on the Web. It was a pilot. The role was for a Biker Type Male. The "sides" called for my character to interact with a group of Bikers who are swimming in front of several girlfriend Biker Chicks.

The producer and director told me that this web series is a SAG signatory contract. (I ??? This) But, No Pay. If it is picked up by a "Sponsor" then there might be some money.

There was also a free lunch and I get a copy-reel of my scenes.

They also asked me if I minded Full Frontal Nudity in this scene.

Thoughts ran through my head about this production, "This is just the first audition", "I'm a SAG Union Member", "No pay", "a Reel of my Nudity". "You've got to be kidding me?"

This director saw my 8 x 10 on my website and got a hold of me.I SAID "NO" AND WALKED OUT OF THAT AUDITION.

Now, in the last 7 months I've lost 21 pounds of fat. I attend the Gym. I look and feel good about myself. But, never that good to bare it all on the Internet.

It' s sad to see so many Actors and Actresses today who sell their souls to be a "Celebrity" on the Internet. What's even more Sad is that Independent Producers and Directors who will stoop to soft porn to somehow be Legit in this business.

I mean come on! A bunch of Bikers Naked! It may arouse interest, but never enough to get real work on an "A" List Hollywood Production. Plus, why would I use this nudity on my Demo Reel?

The Internet has changed the Industry. Everyone's a celebrity or a filmmaker who has thrown out professionalism, artistic integrity, story and plot. They put in its' place the amateur freak show. The crazy opportunists and the lazy actor or actress who lie to them-selves by believing if they sell out to nudity/porn. They've made it big!!!

I SAY NO! I'd rather keep going to Acting Class and work at craft. I want the Big Budget Summer Movie productions. Nothing Else and Nothing Less! Don't tell me it cannot Happen. It could Happen!!!
Roscoe

Go to MySpace Blog for Pix and full Story....
http://myspace.com/modernnative

Barack 'Rocks The Rez'
Hello! My name is Lynn "Sota" Hart a proud member of the Yankton Sioux tribe and a Veteran of the USMC in support of Barack!

BARACK OBAMA'S PRINCIPLES FOR STRONGER TRIBAL COMMUNITIES
"Perhaps more than anyone else, the Native American community faces huge challenges that have been ignored by Washington for too long. It is time to empower Native Americans in the development of the national policy agenda.

"We've got to make sure we are not just having a BIA that is dealing with the various Native American tribes; we've got to have the President of the United States meeting on a regular basis with the Native American leadership and ensuring relationships of dignity and respect."
Barack Obama

TO SEE Obama at the “Rez: Click on website and scroll down!
Barack Rocks The Rez! at my website www.noxcusesnone.com
Barack endorsed this logo himself!

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1872 Mining Law Outdated - Mining Firms Apply To Dump Waste In Lakes

Outdated Mining Law
Submitted by Western Shoshone Defense Project
By Brian Faler
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- It was designed to help settle the American West. The General Mining Law of 1872 gave prospectors the right to take gold and other minerals from public lands without having to pay royalties to the federal government

Today, 136 years later, the legislation is still on the books. House Democrats, pointing to the recent surge in gold and silver prices, say the law is an anachronism that costs taxpayers millions of dollars in lost revenue. In November, the House voted to impose a 4 percent royalty on most mining operations.

The revision has stalled in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid the son of a gold miner -- controls the agenda and his home state of Nevada leads the nation in mining claims on public lands.

"This is embarrassingly past due,'' said Jane Danowitz, head of the Washington-based Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining. "Congress is scratching around for money for all sorts of things, and here we have an industry'' that "can take precious valuable minerals from public lands without paying a dime.''

Most private industries plying the government's 650 million acres for resources must give taxpayers a percentage of what they unearth. The oil, natural gas and coal industries pay royalties ranging from 8 percent to 16.7 percent.

President Grant
The 1872 mining law, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant in the wake of th Civil War, exempts "hardrock'' minerals such as gold, silver, nickel, copper, lead, zinc and uranium from such payments. Instead, miners must pay $170 to stake a claim and $125 each year to hold on to it.

The revision would generate about $310 million during the next 10 years, money that lawmakers say is needed to clean up abandoned mines. While Reid, 68, said he agrees with plans to begin charging royalties, Senate Democrats have yet to release even a first draft of a bill and time is running out this year for Congress to act.

The delay has rankled House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, 59, a West Virginia Democrat, who said his Senate colleagues are taking a ``go-slow'' approach to updating the law.

”We just cannot get the other body to put it on the top of their agenda,'' Rahall said. ``I guess there are certain senators who don't want it up there.''

Reid scoffed at accusations of foot-dragging as "insulting,'' and said the Senate can't act as quickly as the House.

"It takes so long to get anything done,'' Reid said. Critics, he said, "should try to deal with the Senate rules rather than the House where they can push anything through that they want.''

Copper Prices
The number of mining claims on public lands has increased by 60 percent during the past three years as mineral prices have surged. Gold, silver and copper prices have all doubled since 2005. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in February 2007 that the gross value of minerals produced on taxpayer-owned lands totals $1 billion annually.

Among the companies involved: Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., Denver-basedNewmont Mining Corp. and Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.The companies referred inquiries to the Washington-based National Mining Association.

The House plan would impose a 4 percent charge on existing operations, an 8percent royalty on future ones and set new environmental restrictions.

Industry Opposition
The mining industry opposes the bill. NMA spokesman Luke Popovich saidthat while the industry could accept royalties, it can't live with the "virtually confiscatory'' rates in the House bill. In addition, the environmental restrictions are "deal killers,'' Popovich said.

Popovich said the industry has received a friendlier reception in the Senate where Reid is one of a trio of mining- state lawmakers key to the fateof any changes. Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee charged with writing the chamber's bill. The panel's top Republican, Pete Domenici, is also from New Mexico.

The lawmakers are "more cognizant of the economic value of mining'' in their states and "are therefore reluctant to simply pass sweeping legislation without thinking seriously about the consequences,'' Popovich said.

Imposing Royalties
A Reid spokesman said that while he backs royalties, he doesn't support the rates stipulated by the House.

"It's all about protecting jobs -- there are people here whose livelihoods depend on that industry,'' said spokesman Jon Summers. He declined to discuss the specifics of what Reid supports, saying, "he'll look at the bill when it comes out'' of committee.

Bingaman said he doesn't know if the panel will produce a bill this year because lawmakers remain divided over how much to charge and what new environmental restrictions to include.

"You put bills out there that you think have a chance of passing,'' he said.

'I don't want to just put a bill out to make the press feel good.'' The delay is costing taxpayers, Danowitz said.

"Every year that goes by you have yet another year where the U.S. Treasury is not capturing royalties on these enormously precious metals being taken from the land,'' she said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net

Mining Firms Apply To Dump Waste In Lakes
By ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
June 17, 2008
Vancouver -- Mining companies are asking Environment Canada to let them dump mining waste in lakes across the country.

Although companies say turning lakes into tailings ponds is often the best way to deal with the toxic effluent the mines create, a spokesman for the David Suzuki Foundation says the ecological effects on Canada's bodies of water could be devastating.

Sixteen mining companies have applied to be allowed to use lakes from B.C. to Nunavut to Newfoundland as tailings ponds under Schedule 2 of national Metal Mining Effluent Regulations, which would otherwise prohibit them from dumping "deleterious substances" in bodies of water.

When environmental legislation was changed to prohibit mining companies from using lakes as tailings ponds an exception was created for companies already doing so, said John Werring, a salmon conservation biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation's Marine and Fresh Water Conservation Program. Now new mining initiatives are trying to do the same thing, he said.

"It's absolutely outrageous that the government is even considering turning pristine lakes into tailings ponds, especially when everyone's being told you have an onset of global warming and the need to conserve water," he said.

Byng Giraud, vice-president of policy and communications for the B.C. Mining Association, six of whose members are among the companies applying for permits, said putting tailings in bodies of water is often the best option available.

"We have some of the best environmental scientists in the world on this and certainly we work closely with [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] and environmental assessment to determine what uses are the best," he said.

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DOE Plans To Store Nuclear Waste At Yucca Mountain - Protect Bear Butte

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Kathy recently won another 1st Place Award from the Associated Press in "beat reporting" for her series on Post-71 uranium miners in Grants, New Mexico.

WINDOW ROCK -- The U.S. Department of Energy submitted a license application Tuesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking authorization to build America’s first national repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

DOE plans to isolate the waste in tunnels deep underground at Yucca Mountain, a remote ridge on federally controlled land in the Mojave Desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The full licensing process could take three to four years.

“The United States simply must have a permanent repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel as well as high-level radioactive waste. Currently, this waste is stored at 121 temporary locations in 39 states all over our country,” said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

DOE said the earliest the estimated $80 billion facility could be opened, based on funding profiles received over the last couple years, is probably 2020. However, that assumes an unconstrained cash flow with appropriations from the federal government once DOE gets the construction authorization. It also still needs approval for the land withdrawal.

The federal agency expects to issue a revised cost estimate in the next couple weeks as well as an assessment of the adequacy of the nuclear waste fund fee – 1 mil per kilowatt hour paid by the nuclear utilities.

Trucking nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain along Interstate 40, and potential risks associated with an accidental spill as it passes through the Navajo Nation, raises special concerns for Emergency Management Executive Director Jimson Joe.

Asked how the Nation is prepared to deal with such an event, Joe said, “Well, good question.”

When the Nation is notified of a shipment coming through, it must inform local communities along the route. “There are certain things that communities will be informed to do,” he said. Community eduction probably will come through hands-on demonstrations and presentations.

The buffer zone along I-40 has been narrowed from 1 mile on both sides of the roadway to a half-mile, Joe said. “The narrowing of the buffer zone is something that we feel changes a great deal of how we are going to have to conduct our activities involving what community members need to do. Just because it's narrower doesn't mean that we take less precautionary measures.”

Informing the Navajo public of potential risks through radio announcements and keeping them away from areas where they could be exposed to radiation also is problematic and will require a coordinated effort among specially trained personnel, according to Joe.

“Even though people live out in an isolated area, we can't assume that they're not going to be affected. Some may not be at home when something happens. They may be out herding sheep.” Articulating the dangers of radiation is another concern, he said, “because they are not going to understand what they don't see.”

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, established a process for approval of a permanent waste storage site. “This submission will further encourage, in my judgment, the expansion of nuclear power in the United States, which again, in my judgment, is absolutely critical to our energy security, to our environmental health, and to our national security,” Bodman said.

“If we are to meet growing energy demand and slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear power must be a larger part of our energy mix. It is a mature technology with significant potential to supply large amounts of emission-free baseload electricity to our nation.”

Critics argue, however, that nuclear power is not emission-free and that if it were, the benefits would be offset by the radioactive waste it produces and costs associated with disposal and long-term monitoring.

Even proponents of Yucca Mountain have admitted that if the repository were built tomorrow, it could not contain all the waste now in storage, much less another 40 years of wastes from a new generation of nuclear reactors.

“I know that some Americans have deeply felt concerns about the Yucca Mountain facility, and I do not seek to dismiss those concerns nor to minimize them,” Bodman said. “On the contrary, issues of health, safety and security have been paramount during this entire process. They are the driving factors in all decisions that we have made, and that will continue going forward.”

For more information on the more than 8,600 page license application and the Department Of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Project visit:
http://http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/

Protect Bear Butte
Submitted by Western Shoshone Defense Project

Hello everyone,
We still need YOUR help and support for our petition to Protect Bear Butte. We are currently at 859 signatures, which is great, however we need to keep it going. Thank you to everyone that signed so far, your support is greatly appreciated!

Our goal is to be over 2000 signatures by June 30th, which is the deadline! Please don't wait until the last minute to sign. The Meade County Commissioners hearing is July 1st at 3:30.

The struggle to Protect Bear Butte continues, in addition to trying to stop the liquor license issue, we are now battling Broken Spoke Campgrounds new addition of helicopter rides over Bear Butte during biker week!

We have been working non stop since it was announced this past week, making calls and filing complaints to various agencies, including the FAA. I have also inquired about legal assistance from NARF and NCAI, hoping to hear back this week.

This is a blatant violation of the Native American Freedom of Religion Act. If they are allowed to fly the helicopter over Bear Butte, regulations are only 500 to 1000 feet above the mountain. This is harassment and must be stopped.

They could potentially be right above where a tribal member is in the middle of ceremony and praying. Who knows what they will be doing.......taking pictures, video, or who knows what.

Everything has been put into motion to put a stop to this, have more follow up to do in the next few days and will keep you all posted as we go.

In the mean time, if you haven't had a chance to sign our petition, please take a moment to sign and forward to as many people as possible!

http://www.petitiononline.com/BBappeal/petition.html

For UP TO DATE info and more details about the CURRENT struggle at Bear Butte, please visit us at http://www.protectbearbutte.com/

Our organization is continuing the campaign to Protect Bear Butte and hope you will join us in these ongoing efforts!

If you have any questions, please contact me at Tamra@ProtectSacredSites.org

Thank you again for helping to Protect Bear Butte!

In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
http://www.protectsacredsites.org/
http://www.protectbearbutte.com/

"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"

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

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Mohawk Kahentinetha Horn Beaten And Hospitalized At Border

Update from Brenda Norell blog -
Kahentinetha is still in a Cornwall, Ontario hospital with family members. No info on her condition. Katenies was released from jail on Monday and is in seclusion.

By Brenda Norrell
Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, was beaten by special forces at the US/Canadian border. Kahentinetha suffered a heart attack and is currently hospitalized in Canada. Katenies, who was accompanying her, was taken to prison at an undisclosed location. Please read the following message, which has been confirmed as true, and contact the leaders of Canada and demand both women be released and justice served to the perpetrators.

Kahentinetha’s articles on sovereignty, mining on Indigenous lands, corruption and border rights have made her a priority target of the Canadian government for assassination.

While on the Arizona border in November, at the Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas II, she challenged the Tohono O’odham Nation’s incarceration of Indigenous migrants in the outdoor “cage,” construction of the border vehicle barrier through the ceremonial route and the digging up of O’odham ancestors for the border wall by the contractor Boeing.

As the borders were increasingly militarized by Homeland Security and Canadian corporations increasingly seized Indigenous Peoples lands for mining, Kahentinetha and Katenies, were targeted with death threats.

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:42 pm

ONE ELDER SAVED BY A HEART ATTACK - ANOTHER ELDER MISSING IN ACTION: MOHAWK GRANDMOTHERS ATTACKED AT CANADA-US BORDER CROSSING ON UNCEDED HAUDENOSAUNEE LAND

Monday, June 16, 2008 Mohawk Elder and Grandmother, Kahentinetha Horn suffered a heart attack, Saturday, June 14, 2008 during a vicious, unprovoked assault by OPP and border agents at Cornwall, in Akwesasne community. She had been beaten and handcuffed when she collapsed.

Earlier when she was pulled over, Kahentinetha immediately contacted her brother, a lawyer, on her cellphone. The entire incident was being filmed as her brother rushed to the scene just in time to call an ambulance for her.

Meanwhile, Elder and Grandmother Katenies of Akwesasne was beaten and taken prisoner to an as yet undisclosed location. We are very concerned about her safety. We demand to know of her whereabouts and that she be released immediately.

A few months ago, Julian Fantino put out the word, warning Kahentinetha not to set foot in Ontario or else. She is the publisher of MNN and regular internet reports that are very critical of police and government actions toward Indigenous people.

Her articles often clearly state the legalities/realities of the situation that Canada is a corporation plundering unceded Turtle Island. The land and resources belong to the Ongwehoneh people. Canada’s huge debt to us will bankrupt them forever.

The other day, while Stephen Harper was making a public apology to Indigenous for the crimes of the residential schools, he was also preparing to send the army in at 6 nations. Brantford city mayor has requested it, stating his city police cannot handle another “Mohawk uprising”, in other words, peaceful protests against housing development where non resident, non Natives attack the protesters while the police watch.

The Ontario Conservatives call for military intervention every day. On Saturday, border agents were pulling over every Native person. Kahentinetha and Katenies were traveling in Akwesasne in the course of their regular activities and were caught up in the dragnet.

Did Fantino set up a trap for the two outspoken, Mohawk grandmothers? We suspect that Kahentinetha would have been killed at a secret location had she not had a heart attack and been taken to hospital.

Immediately following this incident, many Mohawks and supporters started to gather at Akwesasne. Kahentinetha and Katenies’ attackers want them to accept being Canadian or else they will kill them and anyone else who resists colonization.

This low level warfare is playing out on the “border” between Canada and the US, an imaginary line drawn right through the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and through Haudenosaunee territory which is a vast area on BOTH sides of the Great Lakes.

This Great Lakes area is also a proposed center for the NWO. Many military plans are underway including nuclear submarines in the Great Lakes and JTF2, Aerospace Warfare Center and NATO FOB (Forward Operating ( Base) at a new base being built at Trenton, near Tyendinaga Mohawk community.

PLEASE SEND YOUR OBJECTIONS TO:

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, Buckingham Palace, LONDON UK;

Governor General MICHAELLE “Haitian-Against-the-Nation” JEAN, 1Rideau Hall, OTTAWA, ONTARIO mailto:%20info@gg.ca ;

Canada Prime Minister STEPHENHARPER, House of Commons, OTTAWA, ONTARIO mailto:%20harper.s@parl.gc.ca ;

OntarioPremier DALTON McGUINTY, Queen’s Park, TORONTO, ONTARIO mailto:%20mcguinty.D@parl.gc.ca ;

United Nations mailto:%20unat@un.org ;

Indian Affairs MinisterStrahl. mailto:%20c@parl.gc.ca ;

Brantford Mayor Michael Hancock 519-759-3330 mailto:%20nborowicz@brantford.ca ;

Ontario Attorney General 416-326-2220 or 1-800-518-7901;

Minister Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Michael Bryant mailto:%20Lars.Eedy@ontario.ca ;

Neil Smitheman, Brantford mailto:%20n.smitheman@fasken.com 416-868-3441;

Aaron Detlor mailto:%20adetlor@sympatico.ca ;

Bev Jacobs mailto:%20bjacobs@nwac.hq.org ;

Julian FantinoOPP Commissioner mailto:%20julian.fantino@jus.gov.on.ca ;

See: http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ /

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

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Cherokee Honored With Tree Planting - Voice Of Leonard Peltier

Cherokee Man Honored With Tree Planting
The cast and crew of The Nation, an episode within the PBS series, We Shall Remain, has honored a cast member who died during filming with a tree planting in the original homeland of the Cherokee people in New Echota, Ga.

Cleo Deerinwater, 74, of Tahlequah, Okla., died of a heart attack on June 1 while filming episode three of the We Shall Remain series in Georgia. Deerinwater, a Navy veteran and bus driver for the Cherokee Nation's Sequoyah High School in Oklahoma, was a fluent Cherokee speaker and playing the part of a tribal leader in the early 1800s in the film.

Actor Joshua Nelson (Cherokee), said Deerinwater had a great sense of humor, often cracking jokes every five minutes on the set, including one about the period costumes. After putting on a coat and tie of the era, Deerinwater said in Cherokee: "Talisgohi adela aya (I'm a $20 bill)!"

A memorial tree was planted on June 4 in New Echota, the site of the original capital of the Cherokee before the federal government forcefully removed them to Oklahoma.

"The oak tree that will grow there where our Cherokee mothers and fathers lived, fought, and loved will stand for ages to remind us of the Cherokee spirit--its grand humility, its independent communitarianism, its rebellious traditionalism and its solemn humor that Cleo embodied with endearing facility," Nelson said.

"All of us at We Shall Remain send our prayers to Cleo's friends and family and take comfort in the selfsame assurance that he modeled."

NAPT has provided funding for the five-part series that brings to life more than 300 years of Native American history in America.

The series will debut on PBS' American Experience in April 2009.For information on the series, go to the film's Web site:
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001FZzHDybN1

The Voice Of Leonard Peltier
An Eagle's Cry
Submitted by Harvey Arden

Listen to me!
Listen!

I am the Indian voice.
Hear me crying out of the wind,
Hear me crying out of the silence.

I am the Indian voice.
Listen to me!

I speak for our ancestors.
They cry out to you from the unstill grave.

I speak for the children yet unborn.
They cry out to you from the unspoken silence.

I am the Indian voice.
Listen to me !

I am a chorus of millions.
Hear us !
Our eagle’s cry will not be stilled !

We are your own conscience calling to you.
We are you yourself
crying unheard within you.

Let my unheard voice be heard.
Let me speak in my heart and the words be heard
whispering on the wind to millions,
to all who care,
to all with ears to hear
and hearts to beat as one
with mine.

Put your ear to the earth,
and hear my heart beating there.
Put your ear to the wind
and hear me speaking there.

We are the voice of the earth,
of the future,
of the Mystery.

Hear us!

--from Leonard Peltier's PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE

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Elders Gathering For 'The One Nation'

They Never Surrendered
by Ron Papandrea
Dear Friends,
Thanks to your support and help our book is now ranked #1 in the following amazon categories: Books-History-Americas-Native American-Plains & Books-History-Americas-Canada-First Nations.

We are #1 in both Canada and the United States.
Ron Papandrea

Elders Gathering For 'The One Nation'
Submitted by Monica Davis and Harvey Arden
Hundreds of Indigenous Sovereign Nations who live and prosper in the traditional ways within the current borders of Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Caribbean have agreed to sign The Declaration of Sovereignty of The One Nation (being a Nation consisting of all Sovereign Indigenous Nations of the World), by which these Indigenous Sovereign Nations unite as ONE to re-assert their inherent sovereignty as ONE, inviting all other Indigenous Sovereign Nations from all around the world to join.

This "happening" was foretold in the Prophesies thousands of years ago. On April 20, 2008, The Algonquin Nation from Northern Quebec held a sacred ceremony, at which time the traditional Elders signed the Declaration, thereby giving birth to The One Nation. The signing was done by the Algonquin to "light the torch" to be passed along to other Indigenous Sovereign Nations.

The Cree followed soon thereafter. The Mi'kmaq Nation is to follow up in June of 2008 with its own signing ceremony. Two (2) Choctaw Bands have also signed. Other Nations are welcome to hold their own ceremony in their own way in their own time to effectuate their own signing.

Otherwise, the next major gathering for the purpose of signing is currently scheduled to take place on July 8-9, 2008, at Greenbelt Park (campground) (301-344-3944) (174 campsites available), Maryland, 12 miles North of Washington, D.C., 2 days prior to the conclusion of The Longest Walk, when many Elders and Nations from around the world will be present.

It is hoped that the Dalai Lama will also be present for this sacred event. TheAustralian and New Zealand Sovereign Indigenous Nations have now begin to effectuate their own signing across their sacred lands at their sacred "Dreamtime" sites. The torch will be passed across The Australian and New Zealand Continent at this time. This signing may take a couple of months to be accomplished, but it will be accomplished.

As most of you know, on September 13, 2007, the United Nations' General Assembly approved the much touted United Nations' Declaration on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the "UN Declaration"). Although this UN Declaration, importantly, recognizes the right of our Nations to seek self-determination, it does not, in and of itself, take the next step to advance the cause of Indigenous Sovereign Nations around the world. The One Nation IS that next step, the necessary next step to lead us forward.

Again, those who know will understand that the traditional governing systems and the traditional cultures of these Indigenous Sovereign Nations were and continue to be decimated by laws enacted by their "host" countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Caribbean and numerous others, which laws, among other things, impose false (proxy) (foreign) governments and laws on our peoples, and force our Nations to bow before the colonizing courts to resolve inter-nation disputes with them. This Declaration of true Sovereignty has the blessing of the Creator, the one true Law.

The creation of The One Nation "immediately" frees the Indigenous SovereignNations to re-assert their sovereignty, an inherent sovereignty granted by the Creator to each human at birth, which was never surrendered and never could have been surrendered.

It has taken the Indigenous Sovereign Nations over 200 years to regroup and arrive at this crucial point in history to re-commence performing their sacred duties to care for Mother Earth, all Her creatures, great and small (and, hence, all humans too). It is no accident and no coincidence that the Creator has chosen this time to arrange for there-assertion of these ancient Nations.

The air, the water, the land and all living things are in danger now as never before. The One Nation is born from all things positive, not from anger for past oppression and atrocities undeniably committed. These things are forgiven. When the colonizersarrived, as predicted in the Prophesies, our ancestors welcomed them and cared for them, as the Creator instructed, when they could not care for themselves.

They were like children sitting at our feet in need of sustenance, which many of our ancestors gladly provided. The children grew up steadily over the course of several hundred years, only to rebel against their caregivers, reacting with greed and forgetfulness of all that was done for them and all that we tried to teach them, harming our Mother the Earth in the process.

For this they must also be forgiven. The time has come, however, when these now young adults must realize and admit the error of their youthful and frivolous ways and turn once again to the wisdom and care of those who raised them. Unwittingly, they developed along the way the technological and linguistic means for all Indigenous Sovereign Nations to now join together with one good mind and one pure heart for the good of allhumans. To keep in mind a message from Hereditary Chief Gary Metallic, Mi'Kmaq; "This Declaration must be signed by not only representing Chiefs but also by the elders, women, men, children who will validate the legitimacy of our new nationhood."

In conclusion, The One Nation extends an open invitation to all IndigenousSovereign Nations to join on this historic and epic peaceful path into the future and also to convey this all-important message to all colonizing states: "The One Nation extends, once again, its open hand in friendship and in good faith as our gesture of our desire to continue to coexist for the benefit and respect of all living creatures and our one true Mother, the Earth herself."

For more info contact Tony P at tonyplaw@optonline.net

SEE NEW WEBSITE http://www.onenationvision.com/

Contact Information:wigibiwajak@hotmail.com (Elder, Algonquin) gmetallic@hotmail.com(Hereditary Chief, Mi'kmaq) tonyplaw@optonline.net (Attorney, Mohawk)nazlabo1@bigpond.net.au (Ivan Mabbett, Maori Nation & Australia/NewZealand Nations)FW'd by harveyarden@starpower.net

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

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

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

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Homestake Mill Site 'Public Health Hazard' - NAJA Alert

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
WINDOW ROCK - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has concluded that the Homestake Mining Co. mill site in Milan is a public health hazard.

The agency has extended the public comment period on its findings through July 3 after a delay in the report’s delivery.

The federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.

The Homestake mill opened in 1958 and processed uranium for approximately 30 years. It closed in 1990, leaving behind two tailings piles which have contaminated the alluvial groundwater aquifer. The larger pile covers 200 acres and is about 100 feet high; the smaller pile covers 40 acres and is 25 feet high.

Groundwater monitoring data indicate that contamination from tailings seepage has affected the San Mateo alluvial aquifer and the Upper, Middle, and Lower Chinle aquifers.

The San Mateo is the primary aquifer of concern because it is the most contaminated and it recharges the Chinle aquifers, which subdivision residents have used as a source of drinking water.

Approximately 200 people live within a mile of the tailings piles. Five residential subdivisions - Felice Acres, Broadview Acres, Murray Acres, Valle Verde, and Pleasant Valley Estates - are located between a half-mile to 2 miles from the tailings piles, with the nearest residence and drinking water well about 3,000 feet away.

Residential wells in the subdivisions were sampled for radionuclides, chemicals, and metals beginning in the mid-1970s, though only a few were sampled consistently. Sample results indicated elevated concentrations of uranium, selenium, and molybdenum.

The state of New Mexico’s standard for uranium in groundwater was changed in June 2007 from 5,000 parts per billion to 30 ppb following a state Court of Appeals ruling. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level, or level considered safe for uranium in groundwater is 30 ppb and has been since 2000.

Linda Evers and her family, who live in Broadview Acres about a half-mile from the Homestake site, were included in the Homestake/Village of Milan water hookup in April 1985 which resulted from a consent decree between EPA and Homestake.

The company was required to provide an alternate water supply for well owners after contamination was found in wells down gradient from the site.

“Everybody around here is like, ‘Well, finally!’ That took long enough.? When you go from 5,000 parts per billion to 30 parts per billion, and before 2000 there was no drinking water standard for uranium, it’s like, ‘Wow, really’?” Evers said

Monday evening, regarding the Aency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ‘s public health hazard designation. Homestake was placed on the EPA Superfund National Priorities List in September 1983 due to concerns about radon emissions from the tailings piles. Cleanup of the contaminated aquifers has been ongoing since 1977.

During sampling by EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department in September 2005, the agencies found that about two-thirds of the wells, or 22 out of 34, had uranium concentrations above the maximum contaminant level. The maximum uranium concentration detected was 849 ppb, as opposed to the 30 ppb standard.

Residents who accepted the 1985 offer for village of Milan water and used it as their sole source of water eliminated their exposure to the contaminated well water. If residents continued to use their well water, which some did, for drinking, showering, watering gardens and lawns, they were potentially exposed to the contaminants, the agency said.

The agency did not have any vegetable or soil sample results to determine what the contaminant levels were in the vegetables, and therefore doesn?t know what levels people may have been exposed to via this route.

The amount of uranium, selenium, and molybdenum ingested would depend upon how often they consumed vegetables, if they used contaminated well water to irrigate the vegetables, and if the vegetables were thoroughly cleaned prior to eating them.

Because no institutional controls have been established, residents have had the option of using the contaminated groundwater for irrigation purposes and to provide water for their livestock.

Adverse health effects in livestock would have been more likely to occur in the 1970s-1990s compared to what they are exposed to presently, because concentrations were much higher in the past, the agency said.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reviewed over 30 years of sampling results and found that ongoing remediation has helped in reducing the levels of contaminants. However, sampling results from the past three years indicate that uranium and selenium concentrations are above their respective drinking water standard and will most likely be above them upon completion of the remedial actions.

Lack of consistent monitoring over the years, the considerable concentration differences in wells within the same aquifer, the unknown usage of wells during the alternate water supply period, and anomalies with the sampling data are all factors that make past exposures an indeterminate health hazard, the agency said.

Because exposure is still possible in some of the private wells, ATSDR has categorized the Homestake site as a public health hazard.

ATT: NAJA Members
NAJA Members, this Friday, June 13th is the deadline for early registration for UNITY Journalists of Color. If you have already registered disregard this message. When you register enter naja as the membership number and you shouldn't have any problems.

The hotels assigned to NAJA are the Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers.Go to http://www.2008unity.org/ to register online.

THE TOP 5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULDN’T MISS UNITY ‘08!
-5. Keeping up with the times means keeping your job. Three day-long multimedia training sessions on Wednesday, July 23 and other multimedia sessions throughout the rest of the convention will be in high demand. Seats are limited, stay tuned for instructions on how to sign up.
-4. Learn how to do more with less and impress your boss. Pick up tips at the “Investigative Reporting with Shrinking Budgets” session on Friday morning and then stop by “Multimedia Story Telling on the Cheap” on Saturday.
-3. Join in fighting media consolidation. We know it has cost jobs, decimated the ranks of media owners of color, and done a real number on the amount and sometimes the quality of local news that can be covered. Former NAHJ president Juan Gonzalez and others will discuss what Congress is doing about it and how UNITY and journalists can stay involved.
-2. It’s simply the best networking around. The 400-booth UNITY Media Showcase and Career Expo and the plethora of receptions, sessions, and other ways to meet thousands of executives and colleagues are a must to stay employed and develop your career in these challenging times.
-1. The presidential candidates will be there. Well, they’ve been invited. And since they came to UNITY 2004 in Washington, D.C., there is a strong possibility they will accept the invitation to answer questions WE want to ask – questions they don’t usually get on the campaign trail. The presidential forums, set for the evening of July 24 will be aired on CNN.

For the fourth time in history, the Native American Journalists Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Asian American Journalists Association will combine their annual conventions to put on the industry’s largest, which is expected to draw 10,000 to Chicago July 23-27, 2008.

UNITY ’08 will feature about 100 workshops including sessions on multimedia training, discussions about immigration, tips on how to become a better storyteller, specialized sessions for journalists working in Spanish-language media and much, much more.

Act now and save hundreds of dollars. The pre-registration deadline is June 13, 2008.

To register, visit:
http://www.2008unity.org/registration.cfm.
For more information, go to:
http://www.nahj.org/Events/2008/convention/Chicago.shtml

If you have already registered for UNITY ’08 and want to see the full schedule, session descriptions, dates and times, go to the Attendee Service Center at:
https://www.2008unity.org/registration_update.cfm

Jeff Harjo, Executive Director NAJA
405 325-1649 (office)
405 436-3744 (cell)
jharjo@ou.edu

Don't miss the world's largest gathering of journalists of color at theUNITY '08 Convention in Chicago, Illinois, July 23-27, 2008! Visit
http://www.2008unity.org/ to register today!

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

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

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Ron Papandrea And His 'Fascinating Book' About The Canadian Lakota Sioux, 'They Never Surrendered'

“Chief Sitting Bull surrendered himself and 187 members of his band at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory on July 19th, 1881 but a Lakota Sioux band of approximately 257 stayed in Canada with their guns and horses. The fate of this band, now known as the “Wood Mountain Lakota”, is the subject of Ron Papandrea’s book “They Never Surrendered”.

“During the four and a half years the Lakota Sioux were in Canada, the Canadian Government steadfastly maintained a policy of tolerating them as refugees, but refused to grant them a reserve or other assistance.

“This official policy was softened by the actions of Canadians in close contact with the warriors, such as James Morrow Walsh of the North West Mounted police and French-Canadian trader, Jean Louis Legare.”

The contents of Papandrea’s book can best be described by Margaux Allard, “White Swallow Woman”, a member of the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and the Wood Mountain Reservation in Saskatchewan. She is a visually impaired artist in her own right – http://www.artbymargaux.com/

Margaux’s words - “At my mom’s family reunion pot luck dinner, we met a very interesting man named Ron Papandrea who is documenting the history of the Lakota People who stayed in Canada via his book, ‘They Never Surrendered’.

“This book is amazing, I have learned so much from it. It’s such an honor that someone would take so much interest in documenting the history of my people, which is such a big part of North American history. Thank you Ron for all your efforts. It was so nice to meet you.”

Drop by and visit Ron’s website at:
http://www.theyneversurrendered.com/
.
Ron writes, “Dear Bobbie - I became interested in the subject matter of my book from repeated visits to the Custer Battlefield. Yes, I still call it the Custer Battlefield. When the Indians beat Custer, they beat one of the best officers in the U.S. Army. Once again, my point of view is that one does not honor ones self by dishonoring ones enemy. The victory for the Lakota and the Cheyenne is all the greater because they beat one of the best officers in the American military.

“Anyway, Repeated visits made me ask the question "What happened to the victors of the battle? They won the battle, but lost the war. What happened? I found out that many went to Canada. How many? The history books said they all came back to the U.S. Was that true? No, it was not true. The history books said they never got a reservation in Canada. Was that true? No, it was not true.

“I decided to write a paper and read it at the annual symposium of the Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association; which I did on June 21, 2002. After 6 more years of research, traveling to Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota and back to the battlefield in Montana; I now have a book.

“I am an attorney and I have a full-time attorney job, but my real passion is history.

“My book is more than just a book. The lost tribe in Canada is getting the recognition they deserve. They had lost the identity of their most famous chief. As it turns out, there were two famous chiefs named "Black Moon". One was a Hunkpapa and related to Sitting Bull. The other was a Miniconjou and he took over from Big Foot after Big Foot was killed at Wounded Knee. The people in Canada are related to the Miniconjou. When the Miniconjou Black Moon returned to the United States he settled first at Standing Rock, near Sitting Bull; and then went to Cheyenne River, near Big Foot and Hump (They were camped together and doing the Ghost Dance).

“When the army moved in the family split right down the middle. Some going with Hump to Fort Bennett; some going with Big Foot and getting killed or wounded. Paul High Black, a son of Black Moon, went with Big Foot, was wounded but survived. He has left us "Paul High Backs Version of Wounded Knee", an important source document.

“My book is more than just a book. The Lakota in Canada had lost touch with their relatives a Cheyenne River. They now know each other and visit each other.

“My book is more than just a book. The Lakota in Canada were missing a Lakota spiritual leader. A Lakota spiritual leader from Cheyenne River now visits the Lakota in Canada and assists them.

“I am glad you found the website of Margaux Allard. She is putting a book together on the writings of her grandfather John Le Caine. He was a great man and her book will be outstanding. She is also a wonderful artist, although her eyesight is very poor. She is legally blind.

“Thanks for contacting me. The spirits want this.”
Ron Papandrea

‘They Never Surrendered’ is a “must” for every Lakota tribal member:
http://www.theyneversurrendered.com/

A press lease will be sent out to 610 media outlets this coming Wednesday – June 11th, 2008.

Ron will be visiting Wood Mountain, Moose Jaw and the Cheyenne River Reservation this summer as well as the Custer Battlefield.

He will be at Cheyenne River for "Victory Day", June 25th and Hardin, Montana for "Defeat Day".

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

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

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Where is Hak Ghun? Audit Questions His Expenditures - 'Creative Spirit' Submissions

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – Navajo Nation Senior Auditor Alfreda Lee last spoke with BCDS Manufacturing Inc.'s former CEO Hak Ghun about a month ago. “He was last reported in California. I'm not sure where he is now,” she said Wednesday.

Ghun, originally from Seoul, Korea, appears to be missing in action, according to members of the Budget & Finance Committee which heard a report Tuesday in Shiprock from the Office of the Auditor General regarding the $4.7 million bag of debt the Nation has been left holding.

Ghun's brother, Jerry Dickenson of Durango, sent a response May 14 to Acting Auditor General Elizabeth Begay regarding the special review of the finances of BCDS – Biochemical Decontamination Systems – but did not attend the meeting. The letter was signed by Dickenson, secretary of the BCDS Board of Directors chaired by Ray Benally. Darrell Smith is also listed as a member.

Dickenson said the board convened May 13 to discuss the special review findings. He said the time frame given for response was restrictive but that the board wanted to help Begay's office present the most accurate report possible. He took issue with one statement: “The board did not hold the required number of meetings as prescribed in the BCDS articles.”

He said the board would like to offer supplemental information to add to the understanding of the frequency of the board's activities and offered access to corporate records regarding meeting minutes and documentation, as well as available correspondences between Dine Development Corp. and BCDS.

According to the special review conducted by Lee, Angela Witherspoon and Daniel Colello, associate auditors, BCDS deposits amounted to $6.6 million over four years. Of that amount, auditors identified more than $3 million that Ghun used for personal expenses. Ghun acknowledged treating the corporate bank accounts as his own personal checking account.

The review shows that during that time, Ghun spent $517,044 at casinos, $13,494 on golf, purchased three used vehicles for $28,486, and received over $1.4 million through a combination of checks made out to cash or to himself, as well as ATM withdrawals. Lee said Ghun held the only ATM card.

He also made over-the-counter withdrawals amounting to $396,934, repaid personal loans amounting to $433,526, issued checks to relatives totaling $164,492, and signed checks amounting to $34,240 but did not list a payee, Lee said.

The Auditor's office compiled the bank statements from all three checking accounts opened under BCDS, she said, “and it was easy to see these type of expenses through the bank statements.”
According to Lee, the casinos included all of those around Albuquerque, Ute Mountain casino near Shiprock, as well as some in Las Vegas and back East. Most of the money for golfing was spent at a resort in Farmington, however, “there were some in Albuquerque, and wherever they have golf resorts.”

“The vehicles – we never did locate the vehicles. All we know is they were purchased and there were at least three. One of them was a Mercedes-Benz. All of them were used, so that's why it's (the amount) not that high.”

Ghun said in the review that the $3 million disbursements identified as personal expenses should be reduced by $1.8 million as those were personal consulting fees deposited into the company bank account, however, he could not provide a service contract agreement with the vendor to substantiate the claim.

Auditors also identified deposits totaling $207,400 deposited into the BCDS account from an oil exploration-related company which Ghun claimed were monies from personal loans from the owner of the company, who he said was a close friend. His subsequent withdrawal of the monies to pay for personal expenses is justifiable, he said.

“Mr. Ghun did have the opportunity to provide additional documentation,” Lee said. “If you read through this, he's stating that he put money into BCDS. We asked for documentation and gave him up till April 30 to bring it in, but he never did, so the information was just taken as is.”

Ghun was one of seven individuals convicted of defrauding 1,200 investors out of $11 million in 1984. The review states that the resume of the former CEO showed a gap in employment history from 1983 through 1986, and that the gap should have warned that further investigation of the CEO was warranted prior to approving the $2.2 million loan proposal.

3rd Annual Creative Spirit Call For Submissions: Greenhouse vs. Grindhouse
Deadline June 17, 2008

If you are a new, emerging, or established American Indian, Alaska Native, or Hawaiian Native writer over the age of 18 from the United States, Creative Spirit invites you to submit a 9-11 page screenplay in either or both of these categories: Green (environmental and ecological themes) and Grindhouse (stories of any genre-horror, action, comedy, etc.-that reflect the fun, rebellious spirit of B-movie genres).

If your screenplay is selected, a cast and crew will be put together and you'll be brought to Los Angeles, September 20-28, 2008, where you'll participate in the making of the film with three other Native filmmakers and industry professionals for an intensive week of shooting and editing, culminating with a world premiere screening in Hollywood.

Download the guidelines and submission form.

You can listen to an interview with James Lujan, Director of InterTribal Entertainment, about the 2008 Creative Spirit Call for Short Scripts by clicking here. The deadline is June 17, 2008.

More questions?
E-mail jameslujan@nativefilm.com.

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

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

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Uranium: It's Worse Than You Think! - BIA 'Toe Tag' Info!

EDITORIAL - May 26, 2008
by Jonathan Thompson
High Country News
Submitted by Eleanore Fanire

When people think of Durango, Colo., they usually think of the scenery, or the tourist attractions, or the disproportionate number of healthy, spandex-clad bicyclists, runners and raft guides. Rarely do they think of cancer.

Perhaps they should.

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Durango. It was a nice place to grow up. Thanks to the more than 1 million cubic yards of uranium tailings sitting on the edge of town, it was also a slightly hazardous one. Gusts of wind regularly lifted plumes of the fine dust into the sky over town. My childhood home was about a mile away, and my brother and I and our friends used to hang out at the river just below the big heap, inevitably breathing in more than our share of toxic radioactive dust.

That tailings pile has since been cleaned up. But now, as I approach middle age, I harbor a niggling, slightly hypochondriacal fear of the long-term effects of my exposure to uranium. Of course, if I were to get sick now, I’d never really know whether it was the tailings that caused it, or spending too much time with my chain-smoking parents, or all the Jell-O salad I ate at childhood family reunions.

That’s one of the frustrating things about dealing with the legacy of the West’s nuclear age: Because the health effects can take so long to materialize, it’s difficult to pin down the cause of any particular illness.

Take Monticello, Utah, where a uranium mill operated on the edge of town for many years and then sat idle for many more before it was finally cleaned up. Since the mid-1960s, when four young residents died of leukemia, various studies have shown that Monticello and surrounding San Juan County have higher cancer rates than the rest of the state. The latest study, released by the state’s health department this spring, found that Monticello has experienced an unexpectedly high rate of lung cancer over the last 35 years.

Although the study stopped short of linking the cancers to the mill, it may have lent some weight to residents’ continuing efforts to get federal funding for early detection and treatment facilities. (Currently, the feds are supposed to compensate people who got sick from working in mines and mills, or from living downwind of nuclear tests, but not those who lived near uranium mines or mills.)

Things may be even worse in Monticello than the studies have revealed, however. Typically, these surveys focus on lung cancer and a few other sicknesses sometimes associated with uranium mining or milling. But rarely do they consider breast cancer. Thanks in part to research done by a Navajo scientist - who is profiled by Florence Williams in this issue’s groundbreaking cover story - that could change. Breast cancer, it turns out, may be connected to uranium.

That’s bad news for the people who lived in Monticello and Durango during the pre-tailings-cleanup days, and even worse news for those still living with the leftovers of the last nuclear age, many of whom are Navajos. They must now add another malady to their lists of things to worry about.

'Toe Tag' Information
Dear Ms. O'Neill,
I am tribal liaison for the Rock Island District Corps of Engineers. I found this info on the internet at:
http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/gotcaliche/alldailyeditions/01oct
/cali011030

TOE TAGS
From Marv Keller <marvkeller@bia.gov>
I am the Regional Archaeologist with the BIA in Billings, MT and over the years I have gotten several requests regarding toe tags. They show up in garage sales, flea markets and antique stores. I have been contacted by folks from California to Florida, and even heard from a guy in England.

I am building quite a file, and have been trying to research the authenticity of these things and have contacted quite a few folks. I am 99% sure they are fake, but have yet to find that definitive piece of evidence, other than the opinions of those more knowledgeable than me.

Here is what I know: The tags are all stamped the lettering style, although I recently saw one with a slightly different style. They are all the same size and the positioning of the lettering is the same. Most say Wyoming Territory, but I have seen one that was stamped Montana Territory. Some have corpse numbers stamped in a slightly different style, some have no numbers.

A historian with the National Park Service, said he has seen these before advertised in catalogues and is convinced they are fake; the stamping suggested they were mass produced.

The person I contacted with the Army Quartermasters Museum had never seen brass tags, the only tags he had ever seen were paper. He suggested that they might be coffin tags, but had no basis. Another person indicated that corpse tags were not used until the Spanish American War. Another person indicated that dog tags were not issued to soldiers until the 20th century, so it would be unlikely the government would spend money issuing toe tags. Others have indicated that even if such tags were used, the lettering on these is way too ornate for the time period

An antiquities collector informed me he had seen these once advertised in the Dixie Gunworks catalogue, but I could not verify it. Another collector and amateur historian said that the term "Property of United States Government" was not used until the 20 th century, well after these should have been in use. He also thought it would be unusual to use such an expensive item to tag corpses and thought it impractical because of the need to carry around a brass lettering stamp set in the field.

I have checked with all my colleagues in the BIA and they have never heard of suchthings ever being used. As far as I know there was no official use of such tags. Through my own research, I am convinced the proof of their lack of authenticity lies in correlating "Wyoming Territory" with "Bureau of Indian Affairs" and I have just about gathered enough information to demonstrate this.

Although some sources show the Bureau of Indian Affairs originating in 1824, it is questionable that it was ever called the "Bureau". It seems the Secretary of War said he was creating the "Bureau of Indian Affairs, but he apparently was the only one to use the term.

The person he appointed called it the "Office of Indian Affairs" and I believe it was later officially designated as an "Office" by Congress. When Interior was created in 1849 it was still referred to as the "Office of Indian Affairs".

I have reviewed copies of correspondence from the 1830's to the early 1900's, and have seen date stamps on letters that say "Office of Indian Affairs", "Indian Office" and "Indian Bureau", but not one that says "Bureau of Indian Affairs".

The NARA web site says the Bureau of Indian Affairs became the official designation in 1947, when the Office of Budget decided to standardize the nomenclature of all agencies in Interior.

The point of this discussion is that if Wyoming became a state in 1890, and if the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not become officially designated until 1947, the terms "WyomingTerritory" and "Bureau of Indian Affairs" could not appear on the same item.

I know this is way more information than what you may have wanted, but I am trying to respond to people with as much information as I have. I intend to eventually write all of this up in a more formal paper with appropriate references, but hope this will work for now.

There are many of these types of artifacts for sale? Most are fakes or people even call them fantasy pieces, since in real life that didn't exist. On the Internet there are definitely fakes from these toe tags to slave ID occupational tag numbers.

Ron Deiss, Archeologist
CEMVR-PM-A
Clock Tower Building -
PO Box 2004
Rock Island, Illinois 61204-2004
BUS: 309-794-5185
FAX: 309-794-5157
ronald.w.deiss@usace.army.mil

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

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

'MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY' By Joe Perez
http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

NATIVE ISSUES BLOG
Professor Robert J. Miller
http://lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org

FOR ANNIE'S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com

CATCH COLORADAN PETER JONES AT:
http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE - ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC. http://www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.