From Trading Post To National Historic Site - SMSC Supports Chemical Dependency Prevention

Hubbell Moves Toward Sustainable Agriculture
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
GANADO – When John Lorenzo Hubbell started a trading post in Ganado in 1878, it was more than just a store. As the trading business grew, he turned to freighting, which required mules and horses that liked to eat – so much so that in 1902, to save on feed, he leveled 110 acres and began to grow alfalfa.

With men from the local community, Hubbell built an irrigation system more than 2 miles long that ran from Ganado Lake to a holding pond near his fields, according to the National Park Service. The hay grown in the fields was used to feed his 45 mules and horses while the surplus was sold commercially.

“He built irrigation ditches, primarily to get here to his fields, but they also went to other farms,” according to Anne Worthington, superintendent at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. “Farming was quite extensive in the Ganado area. I think in its heyday it was probably about 700 acres under cultivation.”

With the advent of trucks, by the early 1950s, the farming business “was pretty slim,” she said. Today, however, there is renewed interest in restoration of agriculture at Hubbell with the ultimate goal being self-sufficiency.

“One of the reasons I think things slowed down a little bit, or stopped as far as actual agriculture, was that the dam at Ganado Lake was condemned by the Bureau of Reclamation for almost a whole generation, so a whole generation didn't farm,” Worthington said Wednesday.

The Bureau has since repaired the dam and put in an irrigation pipe. “We now have pipe that goes to all the farms, she said, and interest in reviving the farming community is growing.

Hubbell had his fingers in a lot of pots, according to Worthington. In good years, he shipped 100,000 pounds of wool to market in Gallup. He also often had contracts to ship material for government projects on the Navajo Nation, according to the Park Service.

“He traded and bought and sold sheep and other livestock. Once they started getting a lot of livestock, he would freight hay in as well and what he didn't need he would sell. Early on he primarily dealt with wool and pelts before he got into the live sheep buying and selling, so he would have to haul all that to the railhead and bring back all his supplies. He had a lot of people working here,” Worthington said.

“Agriculture was part of his thing, and we want to try to get back to more of the overall story here, not just the store,” she said. “We just have about 11 acres under cultivation right now. We started off with nurse crops of rye and oats and now we've got a mix of grass and alfalfa. We're grazing Navajo Churro sheep on there so we don't want pure alfalfa because it's not good for them.”

The hay is used in winter to feed the horses and sheep that now occupy the farm.

They also have planted some fruit trees. “We don't know specifically what Mr. Hubbell had at the time,” Worthington said, “but we do have catalogs in the archives, so we know what the potential was.” She said they worked with an individual at Northern Arizona University who identified the varieties that would work best at the historic site – apples, peaches and apricots.

Operation of the kitchen garden has continued over the years. This year's crop – if it survives the grasshopper infestation – consists of corn, squash, melons, tomatoes and chilis. Both a sprinkler system and a drip irrigation demonstration project are used to water the fruits and vegetables.

“We're trying to get a farmer's market going,” Worthington said. “We had one last year, kind of – we were the only participants. But these things take time. We're going to try again this year. It would be really great if we could get people to bring them in. I know most people grow corn, squash and melons, but if there's a market for other things, I think it will start growing.

“We're not just your typical national park – it's supposed to be 'real,'” she said. The trading post is a real store whose primary customers are members of the community. “It's not living history, it's not pretend. We have groceries, dry goods, and then they will bring in rugs, jewelry and other things to sell. We're competing with Wal-Mart, so we're losing, but it isn't just a gift store.”

The goal for the farm is to be self-sufficient, though Worthington admits they have a long way to go. Funding is provided from Youth Conservation Corps and the Public Land Corps to hire local youth every summer to help out. “We can hire six to eight, depending on how much money we get. Some of them are really interested in farming, and some are like, 'What did I get myself into?' They do the lion's share of the work,” she said.

In 1897, Hubbell had a barn built to stable the horses and mules used in his freighting business. When finished sometime around 1900, it was the largest barn in northeast Arizona. Made of sandstone blocks with large support beams hauled in from Defiance Plateau, it contained stalls for 20 animals, a hay loft, workshop and blacksmith shop.

Today, according to Worthington, “We're kind of like the nursing home for horses. For a while there, when I first got here we had a mule from the Grand Canyon, we had a patrol mount from Chicasaw, we had a pack horse from Capital Reef, and we had a DEA-confiscated horse.

“We only have two left. Just because we're so short staffed and it is expensive to take care of very old horses, we're going to kind of keep it at two until we can get additional staff at some point. We have anywhere between 20 and 30 sheep. We had a lot of twins born this year,” she said.

Raw wool from the Churro is skirted by youth workers and then sent to a mill to be processed into roving before being sold to the trading post. “If you look on-line, Churro is pretty expensive. The last two years we've just done roving. This year we're going to try to have some of it spun into yarn and see what the market is,” Worthington said.

“It would be great if it was such a good seller that we could buy yarn or fleeces or roving from the local community as well and turn around and sell that,” she said.

All money earned from the farm's projects is put back into the business. “If we could get what we have now self-sustaining that would be a really good start. We have about 80 acres out there that has just gone back to scrub and currently doesn't have any irrigation. If we can make this successful, then we can expand to that,” she said.

“You see all these big trucks of hay rolling in from Colorado and wherever. Why not grow it here and sell it here? Our biggest problem, really, is staff to do all these things. We have lots of great ideas but it's hard to implement them.”

SMSC Donates More Than $65,000 To Chemical Dependency Prevention Programs
Submitted by Tessa Lehto
Monday, July 27, 2009
Prior Lake, MN – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community supports a number of programs which help prevent chemical dependency and addiction.

The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS), Washington, D.C., received an SMSC donation of $25,000 to support their work to reduce Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effect. NOFAS is dedicated to eliminating birth defects caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy and to improving the quality of life for those affected individuals and families.

A $10,000 donation to Petan Wakan Tipi of St. Paul, Minnesota, supported general operating expenses for a women's sober house, Mother Earth Lodge, which opened its doors in 1993 to serve American Indian women. Nearly 65% of women in the program are successful in maintaining sobriety, locating permanent housing, and securing employment.

Kateri Residence, which received $10,000 from the SMSC for general support, has helped Native American women in Minneapolis recover from alcohol and drug abuse, rebuild their lives and reunify with their families for more than 35 years. A program of St. Stephen’s Human Services, Kateri offers a comprehensive support program complete with in-house healthcare, one-on-one advocacy, curriculum based on sacred cultural traditions, and an alumni program that includes in-home visitations, aftercare housing, and more.

A $5,000 grant went to Rebuild Resources (St. Paul, Minnesota) for general support. Rebuild Resources is a non-profit enterprise helping recovering men and women rebuild their lives through the most powerful social program of all: a job. Since 1984 they have graduated more than nine hundred men and women, with a measured success rate of sixty-eight percent and a social return of nearly half a million dollars per successful graduate.

Minnesota Teen Challenge (Minneapolis), one of the largest residential drug and alcohol programs in the state of Minnesota, received a $5,000 for drug and alcohol prevention education. Minnesota Teen Challenge offers a 60-day drug treatment program, as well as a yearlong program, serving teens and adults from all ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds.

Ain Dah Ing, Inc., of Shell Lake, Wisconsin, received an SMSC donation of $5,000 for their 15-bed residential facility and halfway house to continue providing healing, education, and inspiration to Native Americans in recovery from alcoholism and drug abuse.

The SMSC gave Project Turnabout of Granite Falls, Minnesota, a donation of $5,000 to help raise funds for Native American clients seeking treatment of addictions. Project Turnabout provides inpatient treatment and aftercare for gambling, alcohol, and drug addiction in their 100-bed facility.

Smaller grants were also made to the DARE Bike-a-thon, Sacred Hoop Run 2009, and The City’s Oshki Bug program.
www.shakopeedakota.org

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Navajo Green Jobs Bill - SMSC Loans $86 Million To Other Tribes

Navajo Makes History With Green Jobs Bill
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK -- The Navajo Nation made history Tuesday by becoming the first nation in Indian Country to pass legislation promoting green jobs. The Navajo Green Commission Act is expected to create small-scale green economic development projects at the chapter level.

The legislation sponsored by Navajo Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan and Delegate Amos Johnson passed 62-1, with Delegate Curran Hannon – vice chairman of the Resources Committee – voting in opposition. Twenty-five delegates either were not present or did not vote.

On Wednesday, Council approved the Navajo Green Economy Fund legislation. 54-9, which will create an account for money secured for green projects through various private, state and federal grants.

The Navajo Green Commission Act legislation was tabled during Council’s spring session in April to allow more time to educate delegates about the commission. For months, the Office of the Speaker and the Navajo Green Jobs Coalition worked intensely to educate Council and the general public about the act.

Tuesday morning, more than 50 supporters from across the reservation marched a quarter-mile to the Council Chamber, wearing bright green “Green Jobs” T-shirts.

“This is the just the beginning for Indian Country. We hope our efforts pave the way for other tribal nations to bring local sustainable green jobs to their communities,” said Wahleah Johns, co-director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition.

Speaker Morgan said he was ecstatic about passage of the legislation. “It is vitally important that we as Navajo people, as Native American people and people in general, continue protecting our Mother Earth and all her precious resources.

“The intent of this legislation is not a foreign concept to us. Our livelihood as Navajo people has always depended upon the unique relationship we have with the land, and these same concepts are reflected in this legislation. It is surely a reflection of our core values as Navajo people,” he said.

Tony Skrelunas, former executive director of Navajo Division of Economic Development and a member of the Green Jobs Coalition said there are many green business opportunities that fit perfectly with Navajo culture.

“We have thousands of homes that don't have electricity; we have thousands of families that now have homes, and we can build an economy just by providing those people very good green homes.

“We can create businesses and markets here where we help those families and we help people get into the business of providing renewable energy systems, providing renewable energy installation, doing straw bale construction,” he said.

Shonto Delegate Jonathan Nez joined the marchers – mostly Navajo youth -- in front of the Council Chamber for a press conference after the vote, saying it was a perfect example of a grassroots community-based initiative.

“This is real power, in how you all persuaded your lawmakers to vote for this legislation,” he said. “I think it's a great moment for the Navajo Nation, even for Indigenous people throughout the globe, that young people are getting involved in government at this level.”

Morgan said he was pleased that the Navajo Nation has now joined the world effort to go green. “The Navajo Nation will no longer take a back seat in addressing issues hurting our environment,” he said.

Despite Tuesday's action, many in the grassroots movement have taken the opposite view of the Navajo Nation Council in its support of the proposed 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock coal-fired power plant, which grassroots members believe will cause impacts to human health and the environment in the Four Corners region.

“What the Navajo Nation passed today is a step toward the way of life that our people have lived for countless generations,” Johns said. “We have a high unemployment rate, and we hope this legislation is going to build stability for our communities again – stability and self-sufficiency ... Today, we're just watering that seed that was planted a long time ago for our elders.”

Elsa Johnson, who has been working with the Green Jobs Coalition, said the grassroots people have been at the heart of what they were trying to accomplish. “There is a lot of work ahead, but I think that once we procure funding, it will be just like planting our fields. We'll go to the fields, which is our local communities, and watch all of this take root and then mature, and then we'll reap the rewards of all of your hard work,” she told the youth.

SMSC Announces $86 Million In Economic Development Loans
Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Indians to Receive Funds

Submitted by Tessa Lehto
July 23rd, 2009
Prior Lake, MN – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announces $86 million in loans to two out of state Indian tribes and to one Minnesota tribe for economic development projects.

Stockbridge Munsee Band of MohicansA $48 million loan will go to the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians in northern Wisconsin. The loan will fund construction and development of the Mohican North Star Casino located between Green Bay and Wausau. The casino currently has 1,225 slot machines, bingo, table games, two restaurants, and an RV Park. The loan will make possible construction of a 105 room hotel, administrative space, additional gaming space, and two restaurants, as well as pay off the casino’s existing debt. Construction will take up to 18 months for completion and is expected to begin in the fall of 2009.

Tribal President Bob Chicks commented on the loan, “We are very grateful to the Shakopee Mdewakanton and their Business Council for offering its assistance to the Stockbridge Munsee. Our tribal members and our patrons really appreciate this. It is a very good thing when one tribe can help another.”

The Stockbridge Munsee Band has 1,565 members many of whom live on their 22,139 acre reservation. The Band employs 740 people and is the largest employer in Shawano County. The Band also operates a convenience store and gas station, Pine Hills Golf & Supper Club, a liquid propane company, and a Forestry Management Program.

Standing Rock Sioux TribeA $30 million loan was approved for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota. The loan will be used for continued development of their Prairie Knights Casino & Resort, located 35 miles south of Bismarck/Mandan on the North Dakota side of the reservation. The resort, which opened in 1993, currently contains a marina on the Missouri River, a hotel, two restaurants, and an RV Park.

The casino and hotel will undergo construction for a 100 room addition to the hotel which will double its capacity; an indoor pool; 240 underground parking spaces; banquet and convention space; administrative offices; and laundry facilities. With the new laundry facility, the casino will no longer have to outsource laundry services. The Tribe anticipates breaking ground by September 2009, with construction expected to take about 18 months.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has 10,859 members and a reservation of 1,408,061 acres which straddles the North and South Dakota borders. The Tribe currently operates the Prairie Knights Casino and Lodge, Prairie Knights Quik Mart, Grand River Casino and Resort, Standing Rock Farms, and Standing Rock Sand and Gravel. The district also operates businesses such as Bear Soldier Bingo, Big Foot Bingo in Little Eagle, and bingo operations in Cannon Ball, Fort Yates, and Porcupine which support their local districts. Bear Soldier has a grocery store; Cannon Ball has a convenience store/gas station; Bullhead has a trading post; and Little Eagle has a Laundromat. The SRST also operates a Paleontology Field School, a Tourism Office, and a pre-school program.

“Prairie Knights is a very successful casino with excellent management, and they continue to set record profit numbers in 2009,” said Scott Financial Corporation President Brad Scott, who coordinated the financing of this project. “Shakopee has done a great service to the tribal community by empowering them to enhance their economic development. With these loans Shakopee does an excellent job promoting and enhancing new employment. The Shakopee Community is a unique and qualified lender in this case because they understand better than anyone the business they are lending into: Indian gaming.”

Bois Forte Band of Chippewa IndiansThe Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Indians will receive an $8 million loan for construction of a new 47,000 square foot administration building in August 2009. Funds for the project were committed before the previous administration building was completely destroyed in a fire July 20, 2009. The building housed the Tribe’s administration and finance offices, its leasing, grant administration and language preservation program, planning, fuel assistance, IT, a registrar, and the tribal council chambers. A nearby, secondary tribal government building known as the DNR building, which houses the Tribal Council, the DNR and water quality, was not damaged by the fire.

The new Government and Community Services Facility in Nett Lake will be home to tribal government offices, a Community Center, and a Band member owned Credit Union. The current tribal government offices were old, dilapidated, and very crowded. The Community Center is newer, but much too small to host most events. Funding for the project is coming from the following sources: $2.4 million in New Market Tax Credits; $2 million in grants from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community over fiscal years 2008 and 2009; an $8 million loan from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community; and $2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grant and loan program.

The Band’s enrollment is just over 3,500 people on a reservation of 127,000 acres in northern Minnesota. The Band operates several successful enterprises including: Fortune Bay Resort Casino; the Wilderness Golf Course, PoweRain Manufacturing Inc; WELY End of the Road Radio Station; the Y-Store; Nett Lake Convenience store, and Bois Forte Wild Rice. The Band employs over 500 people, annually injecting more than $30 million into the economy of northern Minnesota.

Past Loans: In recent years the SMSC has made loans to the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa ($3 million, 2006); the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe ($2.8 million, 1996; $3 million, 2009); Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe ($41.5 million, 2003); Oglala Sioux Tribe ($38 million, 2005); Omaha Tribe of Nebraska ($3 million, 2008); Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians ($31 million, 2008); Rosebud Sioux Tribe ($3 million, 2006); Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate ($32 million, 1998; $5 million, 2003; $17 million, 2005; $6 million, 2008; $8 million, 2009); and the Upper Sioux Community ($23 million, 2001).

For more information about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe go to www.standingrock.org. For more information about the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, go to www.mohican.com. For more information about the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Indians, go to www.boisforte.com.

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Churchrock Spill: Warning To Future Generations - Dakotah! Sport & Fitness: Best In Minn.

Churchrock Spill Anniversary A Warning To Future Generations
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
CHURCHROCK – On July 16, 1979, an earthen dam at United Nuclear Corp.'s uranium mill tailings facility collapsed, releasing 1,100 tons of radioactive tailings and 94 million gallons of toxic wastewater down the Puerco River, the largest release of radioactive waste, by volume, in U.S. history.

The release happened four months after a near meltdown at Three Mile Island and ranked second only to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. It also occurred on the anniversary date of the first above-ground atomic test in 1945 at Alamagordo, N.M., known as Trinity.

Thursday morning a large, diverse crowd gathered at the home of Teddy Nez on Red Water Pond Road in Churchrock Chapter to mark the 30th anniversary of the UNC disaster. The event, sponsored by the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, a coalition of environmental groups, brought together young and old alike to retrace the route of the tailings spill and see first-hand the contaminated land left behind.

Cleanup plans are only now being formulated and to date, though comprehensive health studies have been called for again and again, there are none.

For McGarrett Pablo, president of Crownpoint Chapter – the proposed site of a new round of uranium mining – it was “a real eye opener.” Pushing a stroller carrying his daughter Alynis, who turned a year old Thursday, Pablo saw the event not only as an opportunity to show support for Churchrock residents, but a chance to educate his son McCalister, 9, and nephew, Akais, 4, on the legacy of uranium contamination.

Pablo said he sometimes drives through Churchrock on Highway 566, but really didn't grasp that underneath all the sagebrush that now covers the site, the dam was right in front of him. “It's one of those things where, 'Wow! This happens in your back yard and no one's really going to do anything about it. That's scary.”

Before joining the walk, Pablo said he talked to his son about the tailings spill. “I was trying to explain to him that stuff like this probably will go on in his generation so he probably will have to learn it. I would like to see him continue on to acknowledge that problems like this do exist, that everything is not just all peachy and cream. There are real issues like this that affect our people.”

He said he fears for his community of Crownpoint given the in-situ leach uranium mine proposed by Hydro Resources Inc. There are two schools within 1-1/2 miles from the site. “It's scary to think we will be exposing our next generation to this type of environmental abuse,” he said. “I feel like they're just taking advantage of us Native Americans.”

But Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., who was on hand to sign a proclamation reaffirming the Nation's ban on uranium mining and processing, is hopeful that new generations will not be faced by the same legacy issues that have persisted for his people following 60 years of uranium mining.

“The memory of the Churchrock disaster helped galvanize the Navajo people and their elected leaders in passing the Dine Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005, imposing a moratorium on all uranium mining and processing in Navajo Indian Country until all adverse economic, environmental and human health effects from past uranium mining and processing have been eliminated or substantially reduced to the satisfaction of the Navajo Nation Council,” he said.

To federal agencies hoping for a Band-Aid approach to cleanup and to businesses and industries with plans to perpetuate the current crisis, Shirley sent a clear message. “We will stand our ground until the terms of the Dine Natural Resources Protection Act are met.”

The Nation still faces huge challenges in its goal to have all uranium-contaminated materials totally removed from Navajo Country, he said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's preferred remedy for the Northeast Churchrock Mine site is to transfer the bulk of contaminated materials to the UNC Superfund site, taking only a small portion of the most highly contaminated material, the “principal threat waste,” to a disposal facility outside Navajo Indian Country.

If that is the feds' chosen method of cleanup, “the Navajo Nation will not look at this as a final solution,” Shirley said. “The Nation will continue to press for ways to reduce the volume and the toxicity of the Northeast Churchrock materials” and the unlined mill tailings pile that sits at the UNC Superfund site.

“We will be tireless in our efforts. These are not unrealistic dreams. The American people need to be educated and reminded about the disproportionate sacrifices made by Navajos so that the United States of America could win the Cold War. Navajos are not asking for reparations. All we are seeking is justice,” the president said.

Sister Rose Marie Cecchini of Gallup spent 25 years in Japan. “I had the great privilege of meeting A-bomb survivors who lived through the horror of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings and had stories to share with me. Their appeal to me was this fervent, 'Do everything in your power so there will never be another Hiroshima, another Nagasaki,'” she said.

“So I see the nuclear fuel chain as it impacted the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in it's most destructive way, but coming to New Mexico I didn't understand or know that the uranium mining here was also devastating the lives and the culture and the health of the Native Americans and all the surrounding communities.”

Throughout the day, local residents recounted their memories of the Churchrock spill or spoke of the numerous family members they had lost to cancer.

Tony Hood of Red Water Pond Road, or “ground zero,” worked for Kerr-McGee for 11 years as an engineering technician and utility miner. “The water that was being pumped out of Kerr-McGee, I used to treat it with barium chloride. They would discharge it into a pond and then from there they just discharged it into the arroyo,” he said.

Now, his father has pulmonary fibrosis, his late mother had to have a colostomy, which he believes is related to the uranium mining, and his sister, who also worked at Kerr-McGee, has lymphoma, though he believes it's now in remission.

“I work as a driver/interpreter for public health nursing. We think a lot of cases of cancer are popping up along the Rio Puerco. ... We need to gather all that data and find out how many people have died. Personally, I think government, industry and the military think life is expendable,” he said, but “Life is sacred.”

Rita Capitan of Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining, which for years has battled against new uranium mining on Navajo, said her issue with the in-situ leach mining that is proposed for Churchrock “is it is going to take thousands and thousands of gallons of water. Water is so low here. We have droughts all the time and it's going to get worse.

“Right now Dilkon is experiencing that – no water. So what are we going to do, say, 'Go ahead and use it'? That doesn't make sense. 'Contaminate it and leave us more dirty water'? We don't have water to give them.”

Malcolm Bowekaty from Zuni Pueblo, who also is a member of SAGE Council, said a lot of people say in-situ mining is safe, “but I'm a person that wants to look at the scientific data, and it's not clearcut. It can go either way.

“Water is pretty precious down here and this new form of in-situ mining goes through the deliberate process of contaminating the aquifers that they're drilling the mineralized uranium from. ... Why would we deliberately want to contaminate the waters that we rely on?

“Coming from Zuni, we value our water. Zuni has gone through a lot of water rights litigation so we want to make sure our water supply is going to be safe.”

President Shirley proclaimed July 16, 2009, as “Uranium Legacy Remembrance and Action Day. “We, the Dine, will never forget the devastation that uranium mining and processing has wrought on the health, safety, and natural resources of our Nation,” the proclamation states. “We will continue to work to restore our health, lands and water to their natural conditions to return harmony and balance to our relationship with our sacred Mother Earth.”

Dakotah! Sport And Fitness Selected As Best Health Club In Minnesota
Submitted by Tessa Lehto
July 23rd, 2009

Prior Lake, MN – Dakotah! Sport and Fitness has been selected as the Best Spa/Health Club in the state by the readers of Midwest Gaming & Travel magazine. The results appeared in the July 2009 issue. Readers of the magazine from 19 states and Canada voted last April for their favorite Midwest Native American casinos and amenities in a number of categories based on personal experience within the past twelve months. Guests to Mystic Lake Casino Hotel have privileges at Dakotah! Sport and Fitness.

Midwest Gaming & Travel Editor John Robert Busam said, "Our magazine is based on a premise that people go around the Midwest trying out all the casinos. We thought it might be advantageous for our readers to hear what the other readers thought about the various casino facilities."

The 13-year old magazine received several thousand responses to the questionnaire published in their April issue. This is the eighth year the magazine, based in Waseca, Minnesota, has done the surveys. Midwest Gaming & Travel, with a circulation of 50,000, is a monthly, four-color glossy magazine with an editorial coverage area that extends across the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and to cities in neighboring states that enjoy a close proximity to riverboat, Native American, racetrack, and land based casinos.

"We are thrilled that guests to our facility ranked us the best in the state," said Dakotah! Sport and Fitness Director Tad Dunsworth. "We've worked hard to make Dakotah! a premier health club. With our new amenities and Dakotah! Ice Center which opened this year, we have improved the services which we provide for our members and hotel guests."

Dakotah! Sport and Fitness is an enterprise of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Other Community enterprises which won Reader's Choice Awards in Midwest Gaming & Travel are Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Dakotah Meadows RV Park, and The Meadows at Mystic Lake. The Meadows at Mystic Lake was rated the Best Casino Golf Course. Dakotah Meadows won Best RV Park in Minnesota. Mystic Lake won top billing in the Best Selection of Slot Machines, Best Bingo/Casino Combination, Best Bingo Jackpots, Best Overall Bingo Hall, Most Comfortable Bingo Hall, Favorite Casino Buffet, Best Live Entertainment, and Best Concert Venue.

The area’s premier fitness facility, Dakotah! Sport and Fitness offers a vast array of amenities with something for everyone in their 305,331 square foot facility. Amenities include an indoor track, aquatic center, indoor ice arenas, a double gymnasium, a cardio studio, a cycling studio, group fitness classes, free weights, circuit training equipment, and much more.

Dakotah! Sport and Fitness is owned and operated by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized Indian tribe in the Prior Lake and Shakopee area of Minnesota. The SMSC is also the owner and operator of Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Little Six Casino, Playworks, the Shakopee Dakota Convenience Stores, The Meadows at Mystic Lake, and other enterprises on the reservation south of the Twin Cities.

Dakotah! Sport and Fitness is adjacent to Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota. For more information about Dakotah! Sport and Fitness call 952-445-9400 or visit their website at http://www.dakotahsport.com/.

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Navajo Gets Biggest Chunk Of Water Stimulus Funds - Summer Reading From Mary Ellen

Water Stimulus Fund
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said Thursday that the Navajo Nation will receive roughly $13 million out of the $90 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds announced Wednesday for Indian Country.

“It's the largest chunk of money to any one single tribal community,” Jackson said during a conference call with various media. “The wastewater money goes for projects that include septic tanks, drain fields, and upgrade renovations to wastewater treatment facilities. That's going to serve about 4,577 homes from the wastewater side.

“Interestingly enough, in Navajo Country, several green projects are being funded to cut down on the amount of energy needed to pump water systems. Over 30 percent of Navajo residents lack access to safe, piped drinking water,” she said.

Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of Navajo Environmental Protection Agency, said there are two pots of money. Phase one of a water line extension from Shiprock to Sweetwater is being funded by an annual set-aside for drinking water projects from the Safe Drinking Water Act. “That's to the tune of $3.3 million,” he said.

“The other is coming from the Clean Water Act Indian set-aside, and that is going primarily for wastewater treatment projects. There are going to be some small water projects, but for the most part it's going to be a combination of water and wastewater facilities.

“When you develop water and you get piped water out to more and more people, you also have to consider after the water is used, how it's going to be managed,” he said, adding that in some cases there may be a combination of septic systems for homes that are far from one another, and possible construction of a sewer lagoon in cluster areas.

There also is an Indian Health Service component, and Navajo is expecting at least another $15 million from that agency for the drinking water and wastewater projects, he said.

The Shiprock-to-Sweetwater extension, which is an eight-phase project, “is supposed to help with several homes that currently don't have any piped water, that are near three identified, unregulated water sources that have been found to be contaminated with uranium,” Etsitty said.

“Folks in those situations, they have to haul their water and that's one of the big issues that we're trying to address. I'm not sure how far along phase one will take the water line extension. It's going to be a little bit of a challenge to see that all of the money continues to come in to get this project slowly completed.” The water line is separate from the Navajo-Gallup Pipeline project.

The Recovery Act funding also will be used to implement a water-hauling pilot project for residents in remote areas where water line extensions currently are not feasible.

“This is sort of some of the lessons learned from the Black Falls issues that EPA and the Navajo Nation have been wrestling with for the past 10 years or so,” Etsitty said. Water wells in the Black Falls area are contaminated from uranium and/or arsenic and have been posted unsafe for human consumption, though many residents still use them.

“They usually have a poor choice between spending $100 to drive into Flagstaff to get safe water or spending $20 to go to the windmill,” he said. With the pilot project, “It's like taking the watering point and making it mobile.”

The water hauling project also is the result of lessons learned from drinking water issues that have come about in the past few years as the result of summer fires on Navajo Mountain, Etsitty said.

“The drinking water system at Navajo Mountain is under the direct influence of surface water and when that system goes down, water has to be trucked from Inscription House up to Navajo Mountain.”

Those type situations have led U.S. EPA to consider an idea proposed several years ago by Navajo EPA regarding having emergency water-hauling trucks available for use where needed.

“What we've come up with is this idea of a pilot project where we would be able to buy maybe up to five water trucks so they could be deployed in situations where people would be able to receive safe water as opposed to the situations they often find themselves in where they have to haul water,” he said.

“The idea arose from the Black Falls area. We know that the watering point that was established out there still is not fully effective and the extension of the drinking water line still is not meeting a number of households. So more than likely, it would probably be one of the priority locations for deployment of one of these trucks.

“We just submitted the grant application so I can't talk about it as a done deal. It still has to be reviewed and it still has to be approved by EPA. But that's one of the things they're hoping we can get done,” he said.

Jackson said the $90 million in Recovery Act funds for water services in Indian Country complements $68 million that Indian Health Service received for sanitation facilities in Indian homes and communities. EPA and Indian Health Service have jointly identified 95 wastewater and 64 drinking-water priority projects that when completed will serve more than 30,000 Native American homes.

“This is clearly a critical issue. Almost 10 percent of tribal homes lack safe drinking water and/or wastewater handling, and that's 10 times the rate of non-tribal homes in the United States,” Jackson said.

“We all know it's just one of many issues. We still have hazardous waste sites and open dumps that are rampant in tribal lands. Tribal economies and cultures are threatened by the loss of fish habitats and eroding shorelines as a result of climate change. Less than 5 percent of tribes have what they need to effectively implement federal environmental programs.”

Jackson said there is quite a bit of need throughout Indian Country, and though they are favoring projects which are shovel-ready, “we made some allowance for the fact that because of capacity and resources they may need a little bit of help to get moving along.”


Summer Reading From Mary Ellen
THE WORLD OF CHIEF SEATTLE
ISBN#: 9781570670954
Warren Jefferson

This book puts Chief Seattle's life into the context of his time and gives a brief history of the region, with particular emphasis on his tribe, the Suquamish. Includes Chief Seattle's complete speech, with many rare 19th and early 20th century photographs of village life. Produced in cooperation with the Suquamish tribe who receive a portion of the royalties.

"Quietly optimistic in describing the Suquamish's former prosperity and how the tribe lives today."--Publisher's Weekly

"Highly recommended for Native American studies reference and reading list collections." --Wisconsin Bookwatch
Photos, illustrations, maps
http://www.bookpubco.com/
Price:--$13.95--Softcover
Publication Year:--2001
Publisher:--Native Voices

REINCARNATION BELIEFS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
Soul Journeys, Metamorphoses, and Near Death Experiences
ISBN #:9781570672125
Warren Jefferson

This book provides an in-depth look at spiritual experiences about which very little has been written. Belief in reincarnation exists not only in India but in most small tribal societies throughout the world, including many Indian groups in North America.

The stories and commentary presented here are well researched and drawn from anthropological records and other reliable sources of information. Learn about a Winnebago shaman’s initiation, the Cherokee’s Orpheus myth, the story of “A Journey to the Skeleton House” from the Hopi, the Inuit man who lived the lives of all animals, the Ghost Dance, and other extraordinary accounts.

“The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character. We believed that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature possesses a soul in some degree, though not necessarily a soul conscious of itself. The tree, the waterfall, the grizzly bear, each is an embodied Force, and as such an object of reverence.” —Ohiyesa

REVIEWS
“This book contains a unique collection of fascinating stories about reincarnation, soul travel, metamorphosis, and near-death experience. It offers a rare look into the rich spiritual life of the Indian people, and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in comparative religion and the cultures of the North American Indian.”—Antonia Mills, PhDProfessor of First Nations Studies, University of Northern British Columbiacoeditor of "Amerindian Rebirth"

"When the topic of 'past lives' is discussed, most people think of traditions from India and its Asian neighbors. However, another group of 'Indians,' namely those in today's United States and Canada, held similar beliefs that were equal to Asian mythologies in their sophistication and complexity. Warren Jefferson has meticulously documented North American reincarnation beliefs, legends, and stories in this engaging and authoritative account of a worldview that somehow survived the European invasion and continues to impact many contemporary tribal groups.

This book is a fascinating description of how a spiritual paradigm played (and still plays) a vital role in the daily life of its believers, revitalizing and energizing the individual, the family, and the community."—Stanley Krippner, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School, coeditor "Varieties of Anomalous Experience"

Follow Warren's blog on Google with excerpts from the book. See it on the web.....www.bookpubco.com
Price: -- $15.95 -- Softcover
Publication Year:-- 2009
Publisher:-- Native Voices

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Peltier Gets 1st Full Parole Hearing in 15 Years - Shakopee Sioux Donates Over $40 Million - Tim Giago: Native Sun News

Peltier Finally Gets Another Hearing!
Leonard Peltier to get first full parole hearing in 15 years
Posted by: admin in American Indian History, American Indian Movement, Leonard Peltier

A hearing is set for this coming Tuesday in Lewisburg, Pa., where Peltier is incarcerated in a federal prison, according to this story.

Peltier is serving two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He has claimed the FBI framed him, which the agency denies. His case has become a cause celebre among activists and celebrities.

A 1992 documentary film, “Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story,” was produced and narrated by Robert Redford. Author Peter Matthiessen’s book, “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,” which came out that same year, also details the events surrounding Peltier’s case.

And, here’s a column from Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle by actor Peter Coyote, who calls Peltier “my good friend,” and urges people to write their congressional representatives on behalf of Peltier’s release.

Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Releases Annual Report
Donates Over $40 Million
Monday, July 20, 2009

Prior Lake, MN – The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community today released its annual Donation Report; the 36-page report details $40,443,899 in charitable giving made by the Community in fiscal year 2008 to Indian tribes, education and youth programs, and charitable organizations. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008.

"As Dakota people, we have a long tradition of sharing with others so it is important for us to give back to the larger community. Before Indian gaming, many of us lived in poverty and struggled to survive. Times were hard. Now we are able to help others," said SMSC Chairman Stanley R. Crooks. "The tribal membership through its actions authorized the charitable giving program."

Over the past 11 fiscal years the SMSC has donated more than $132 million to charitable organizations and Indian Tribes.

The Donation Report details economic development and other grants to 19 Tribal nations, totaling $16,792,923. Five tribes located in Minnesota each received $1 million donations. Seven other tribes in Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kansas each received $1 million donations. A Wisconsin tribe received a grant for $966,000. Grants funded an elderly village, a tribal nursing home, a walleye fishery, tribal infrastructure, economic development, community and administrative centers, debt consolidation, a daycare, and other projects.

The SMSC gave out $2,076,969 to Native American and charitable organizations for projects ranging from The Embassy of Tribal Nations in Washington, DC, energy projects, mental health and chemical dependency programs, women’s shelters, food shelves, medical research, public television, and capital construction.

Because Native people are mindful of the seven generations coming after them, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community gave out more than $13,294,376 in donations for education and youth programs.

Of that amount, a $12.5 million donation to the University of Minnesota is highlighted in the report. Ten million dollars supported the construction of the TCF Bank Stadium, with $2.5 million going into a matching endowment fund, creating a $5 million endowment to provide scholarships for students. The $10 million stadium gift is the largest private gift ever to Golden Gopher Athletics. The gift funded the stadium’s west plaza, which has been designed to exhibit and celebrate the history, presence, and cultural contributions of all eleven Indian tribes in Minnesota. The plaza will be dedicated August 17, 2009.

To help keep young people safe, the SMSC supported alcohol and chemical-free graduation celebrations at 18 local high schools. The SMSC donated funds for winter wear, school supplies, scholarships, and activities for students at several schools.

To support and encourage traditional cultural values, the SMSC sponsored 79 cultural events including Pow Wows throughout Indian Country. The SMSC made donations to Pow Wows in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and elsewhere.

Along with a charitable giving program, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community sponsored a number of health care initiatives in 2008. The SMSC provides health, wellness, and dental services to tribal members, employees, Native Americans from other tribes who live in Scott County, and their families. Vision and hearing services were added in fiscal year 2008.

Also the SMSC unveiled its Mobile Clinic which provides free mammograms to members and staff. The vehicle also travels across the state to provide health and dental services to Indian communities. The SMSC sponsored a free health care conference for Native Americans living with chronic illness. The conference addressed topics like causes of diseases, treatment, nutrition, exercise, smoking cessation, and a return to traditional spiritual values and lifestyles.

Since one third of all people will need blood in their lifetime, the SMSC also sponsors three annual blood drives. Health screening events are another initiative which provide free information and health screenings for more than 4,300 employees.

Each year during the holidays the Shakopee Mdewakanton Community makes donations to brighten the holidays for those who are less fortunate. Focusing largely on local social service agencies, the SMSC donated to 44 organizations which provide food and gifts for families in need.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s charitable giving program comes from a cultural and social tradition to assist those in need. The SMSC utilizes its financial resources from gaming and non-gaming enterprises to pay for all of the internal infrastructure of the Community, including but not limited to housing, roads, water, wastewater and sewer systems; emergency services; and essential services to its Tribal members in education, health, and welfare.

"Forty years ago our lives were very different. Then, with the advent of Indian gaming our lives changed dramatically. Today, we are fortunate, and it is our duty as Dakota people to help out our friends and our relatives," wrote Chairman Crooks in The Donation Report.

The report is available at www.shakopeedakota.org.

About the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community

The SMSC utilizes its financial resources from gaming and non-gaming enterprises to pay for all of the internal infrastructure of the Tribe, including but not limited to roads, water and sewer systems, emergency services, and essential services to its Tribal members in education, health, and welfare.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has a charitable giving program which comes from a cultural and social tradition to assist those in need. Over the past 12 years the SMSC has donated more than $156 million to charitable organizations and Indian Tribes, including more than $14 million in fiscal year 2009.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized Indian Tribe in Minnesota, is the owner and operator of Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Little Six Casino, Playworks, Dakotah! Sport and Fitness, The Meadows at Mystic Lake, and other enterprises on a reservation south of the Twin Cities.

Contact:
Tessa Lehto
Communications Specialist
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Phone: (952) 496-6160
E-Mail: tessa.lehto@shakopeedakota.org

This press release and other information may be downloaded from the SMSC website at www.shakopeedakota.org.

From Tim Giago - Editor of Native Sun News
If you want to subscribe to my new weekly, Native Sun News, email Michele at subscriptions@nsweekly.com. We have the lowest rates of any Indian weekly in America.

Also, go to www.nsweekly.com and you can see our front page and editorial.
Thanks,
Tim

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Indigo Girls Care About Environment - Supermarket Brings Progress To Rosebud

Indigo Girls Promote Indigenous Issues Through Music!
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
FLAGSTAFF – For more than a decade the Grammy-award winning musical duo, Indigo Girls, has entertained millions of fans with their infectious melodies while also educating concert-goers about environmental concerns in the world around them.

The group performed Thursday evening at Pine Mountain Amphitheater in Flagstaff where they collected canned goods for the local food bank, food for pets, and set aside time for members of Dine CARE to raise awareness about the proposed 1,500 megawatt coal-fired plant known as the Desert Rock Energy Project.

Dine CARE and Dooda Desert Rock are just two of the groups supported by Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. Their activism efforts stretch from coast to coast and their Web site (http://www.indigogirls.com/) is probably of few that lists an “Activism” section along with their discography, tour news and merchandise.

“Way over a decade ago, like '91 or so, at an Earth Day concert Amy met Winona LaDuke, and they started talking about what their environmental activism entailed,” said Saliers. “Then I met Winona shortly after that and we all started brainstorming about how we could work together.

“Through a process of her mentorship and us meeting other Indigenous community leaders, we could only see our environmentalism through the lens of a Native perspective,” she said, adding that it is much different from the way the country now operates. LaDuke, a White Earth enrollee, was twice a vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket.

“We started a group called Honor The Earth. It has a Native-run board and Amy and I are the musical liaisons and we sort of serve as a bridge between Native and non-Native communities,” Saliers said.

“We play concerts and have fund-raisers to bring attention to and raise money for different Indigenous issues, primarily now environmental justice issues, which is how we came to be involved with Dine CARE and got involved with the proposed Desert Rock coal plant.

“That's why we're here, standing in solidarity with Dine CARE to voice our opposition to Desert Rock,” she said.

Earl Tulley and Dailan Long of Dine CARE were on hand to educate concert-goers about the group's opposition to Desert Rock – opposition which stems from what they believe will be increased pollution, contamination of waterways, and an increase in respiratory problems for residents of the Four Corners area.

“Regardless as to what the situation is,” he said, “it's not only going to impact humans but aquatic life too,” Tulley said.

“New Mexico has 51 waterways. Of the 51 waterways, 49 of them are contaminated, which is why San Juan boasts they have a great catch-and-release program. That's something that's really important to understand. The reason they're not consuming the fish is that they know the high mercury content of these particular fish.”

Long said several residents from the Burnham area, where the proposed power plant is to be built, were on hand for the Indigo Girls concert.

“We're here for increasing the awareness of Desert Rock and some of the struggles of fossil fuel development in Burnham. We're here to show that we've been in the area for years and that we will continue to be there, and that Desert Rock Energy Project is just a continuing line of energy development.

“Even with the U.S. EPA's recent decision on Desert Rock, we have to expect in the future that there is going to be another Desert Rock. We're here to increase that awareness and to show that we're not going to step down from this genocidal energy development in our area,” Long said.

Honor the Earth has funded and granted to Dine CARE over a long period of time, as well as a lot of other groups in the Southwest, Ray said, “to work on transitioning from fossil fuels to an energy economy based on sustainable energy and renewables.”

“The communities here should not have to trade their cultures, their land, and their public health for an economy. That's basically Honor the Earth's stance, generally, about environmental justice. We find groups that are fighting the good fight, and this happens to be one of the really important issues that is going on right now.

“We know about it and we want to educate some of the non-Indian communities that may not know about it so they can also support these people that are fighting an important fight,” she said.

The group is trying to help people make connections between all of the issues, and bridge the gap between Native and non-Native communities “so that we can all understand that this is not just about a certain group of people and a certain blotch of land. This is about all of us. This is about all of our survival and it's about changing the energy paradigm across the land,” Saliers said.

It's also about educating people on the viability of a green economy.

“We need to be reducing emissions rather than creating more. There are viable opportunities to institute solar power and wind power, and so that's another part of our purpose – to help educate and spread the word that those are indeed viable and that there's a hope for the future through the green economy,” Saliers said.

Indigo Girls latest record, a two-CD set called “Poseiden and the Bitter Bug” was released in March. “One of the cool things about this record is we made it a double record. One record is all of the songs of the whole band and the other record is all of the songs done acoustically,” she said.

The group will continue its U.S. tour for the next few months before heading out to the United Kingdom, Scotland and Ireland in October.

Things are looking up for Rosebud!
Posted by: admin in Rosebud Sioux, Tribal Economy

Want quality of life in a community? Get a grocery store. That’s my personal philosophy, but way smarter people have said the same thing in way smarter terms. You know a neighborhood is going downhill when the food store departs.

Well, Rosebud is on the way up. A ribbon-cutting this week marked the opening of the Turtle Creek Crossing supermarket, a SuperValu store, in Mission, S.D., the Rosebud Reservation’s largest town.

According to this Rapid City Journal story, the market has an in-store deli, a bakery, and signs in both English and Lakota, and is open seven days a week. Although final costs haven’t been tallied, early estimates were around $8 million, with funding from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota and loans from Denver’s Native American Bank.

Oh, and the store’s presence has meant 40 new jobs, not to mention a big improvement for area families. Seems like somebody ought to order a great big cake from its bakery to celebrate.
Gwen Florio

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Commemoration Of Church Rock Tailings Spill - FCC Indian Telecomm Workshop

July 16th Commemoration of Church Rock Tailings Spill
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
CHURCH ROCK – For Larry King, an underground mine surveyor at United Nuclear Corp.'s Churchrock mill, July 16, 1979, started out as just another work day.

Every other Friday he and members of the engineering department came in at 6 a.m., before the day shift workers, to take measurements of all the production done within the last two weeks. “Based on those measurements, that's how the miners got paid,” he said.

As he was driving to work that Friday morning, “It was kind of dark and I didn't see anything. I was still sleepy and I didn't look around; I just drove in, put my underground equipment on – slickers, boots and everything,” he said. When day shift workers starting arriving around 8 a.m., “that's when I started hearing, 'Did you see that break in the dam?'”

Not too long before the break occurred, King said he and other workers had been called out to the tailings dam to take some measurements. “I remember those cracks running across the dikes, some of them were so wide you could put your whole hand in there.” The cracks went “way down,” he said.

When he got off work at 2:30 p.m., July 16, as he was leaving, “I looked that way and I saw a huge gaping hole through the dam. I thought, 'Wow, that's where the cracks were.'

“By the time I got down by the Puerco Wash bridge there was just a small stream going through. It was just like after a huge flood where all the mud was still on the sides.”

This Thursday, King and others will recount their memories of the July 16 event during the “30th Anniversary Commemoration of the Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill,” sponsored by the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, or MASE, a coalition of community groups affected by uranium mining.

The commemoration is designed to remember and honor the Diné communities that were affected by the largest release of radioactive waste in U.S. history. Nadine Padilla of MASE said that during the press conference Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. is expected to reaffirm the Navajo Nation's ban on uranium mining and processing, as set forth in the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005.

Thursday's ceremony will kick off at 7 a.m., at the home of Teddy Nez, 29E Red Water Pond Road, next to the Northeast Churchrock Mine. A prayer walk to the site of the spill across from the United Nuclear Corp. mill site begins at 8 a.m., along Route 566, with participants arriving around 11 a.m. at the King Family Ranch on Old Churchrock Mine Road at SR 566.

A press conference will be held at the King Ranch before walkers continue on to Churchrock Chapter House for a recognition luncheon at 12:15 p.m. Uranium films and a panel discussion will be held 5-9 p.m., at Calvin Hall Auditorium on the University of New Mexico-Gallup Campus.

“We felt it was really important to remember the communities and the families that were affected by the Churchrock uranium spill,” Padilla said. “We just wanted to honor those people and encourage people to remember the uranium legacy that still exists in this area, and all of the abandoned mines and all of the health problems that were caused from past mining.”

When the earthen tailings dam at the UNC mill failed, 1,100 tons of radioactive mill waste and an estimated 95 million gallons of mine process effluent flowed down Pipeline Arroyo and into the north fork of the Puerco River – more radiation than was released in the Three Mile Island reactor accident four months earlier.

The spill ranks second only to the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown in the amount of radiation released. According to a September 2007 article by Doug Brugge, Jamie L. deLemos, and Cat Bui that appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, the massive amount of radioactive water “backed up sewers, affected two nearby aquifers, left pools along the river, and transported contaminants” to a point near Navajo, Ariz.

The spill, combined with more than 20 years of discharges of untreated or poorly treated uranium mine water, has contributed to long-term contamination of the Puerco River in New Mexico and Arizona. A formal cleanup plan for the Northeast Churchrock Mine was issued in June, 27 years after the mine closed.

Larry Livingston, whose family lives in the Superman Canyon area, said last week that his father worked at the mine. “He's been having problems lately. He has a lot of sores on his legs. My mom died of cancer about three months ago,” he said, adding that the cancer was radiation-related.

“I was just talking to my grandma from my dad's side about the spill that happened in the '70s. Back then we were herding sheep around that arroyo. We saw water that was really bad down on the northeast of our place, and we figured it was just the water that ran through from there,” he said.

“But then we heard that there was Navajo police and the sheriff there. We didn't know what was going on,” he said. “After that we lost like half a dozen cattle, half a dozen horses, sheep” that drank from the arroyo. He said they noticed the cattle and sheep “were having a lot of saliva coming out of their mouths and they were having a hard time breathing.”

When the animals were butchered, he said, the meat “was kind of like yellowish. It was all over the meat inside, the intestines.”

During 2007 hearings before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, King testified that the contaminated fluids that escaped from the UNC uranium mill tailings pond ran right through their property, in the Puerco River, where they watered their livestock.

“I remember the foul odor and yellowish color of the fluids. I remember that an elderly woman was burned on her feet from the acid in the fluid when she waded into the stream while herding her sheep.

“Many years later, when water lines were being installed in the bed of the Puerco, I noticed the same odor and color in a layer about 8 feet below the stream bed. To this day, I don't believe that contamination from the spill has gone away,” he said.

Indian Telecommunications Initiative Workshop, July 27-29
The Federal Communications Commission will have its eighth regional workshop and roundtable July 27-29 in Rapid City and Pine Ridge, S.D.

The event, sponsored by several groups including the National Tribal Telecommunications Association, NAPT, the National Congress of American Indians and Native Public Media, is part of the FCC's Indian Telecommunications Initiatives program and national outreach for developing a broadband plan.

The meeting will focus on ways to expand the deployment of new broadband technologies in Indian Country.

To register for the roundtable, contact Kamala Hart of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202-418-1765 or kamala.hart@fcc.gov.

For more information about the FCC's ITI program, contact Shana Barehand, senior attorney and liaison to tribal governments, at 202-418-0385 or shana.barehand@fcc.gov.

Updates and more information about ITI South Dakota will also be made available on the FCC's Tribal Initiatives website at www.fcc.gov/indians

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Suit To Be Filed Against Navajo Nation Over Bennett Freeze Recovery Plan - Native Students in U Of A Med-Start Program

Group Files Intent To Sue Over Bennett Freeze Recovery Plan
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent
WINDOW ROCK – Forty-three years to the day the Bennett Freeze first was imposed, the Forgotten People Community Development Corp., announced Wednesday that it plans to file suit against the Navajo Nation for public disclosure of the “Former Bennett Freeze Area Recovery Plan.”

U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Bennett imposed the Bennett Freeze on July 8, 1966. The freeze, which blocked home and property improvements on disputed land between the Navajo and Hopi tribes, made poverty a way of life for thousands of people living on 1.5 million acres in the western portion of the Navajo Nation. Countless more were displaced.

The freeze made it illegal for Navajo people living in the disputed area to repair their homes, build new homes, have access to running water, electricity, infrastructure and development. Elderly people whose wells ran dry could not drill a new well and, in many cases, were forced to drink uranium- and arsenic-contaminated water.

The ban on construction and high unemployment rate forced the area's young people to work away from their homes and families. It also had a devastating effect on a traditional Navajo socio-economic systems centered around raising livestock and farming.

On May 8, President Obama signed legislation to end the freeze. Though an Albuquerque consulting firm, WHPacific Inc., held public meetings in 2008 to develop a recovery plan for chapters impacted by the former freeze, no plan for rehabilitation has been made public.

Attorney James W. Zion of Albuquerque, who represents the Forgotten People, sent a notice Monday by registered mail to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and Attorney General Louis Denetsosie, notifying them of the group's intent to file suit against Scott House, manager of the Former Bennett Freeze Area Recovery Plan Task Force, the Navajo Nation, and WHPacific Inc. for production and public disclosure of the Former Bennett Freeze Area Recovery Plan.

There was no immediate response from the president's office.

“There's been the complaint over the decades that the people themselves are not listened to by their own government, the feds or anybody else, and what's going on with the Bennett Freeze is extremely important,” Zion said Wednesday.

“I was excited when there was an announcement that an engineering firm out of Albuquerque was going to be putting together a report. I watched the deadlines over the past year and I noticed President Shirley mentioning it in his address to the Council, but the reports haven't been released.

“What's frustrating is a number of months ago I was at a meeting at Navajo Housing Authority, and there was a stack of the Bennett Freeze reports. I asked for one and I was told they were confidential. So, basically, I told the Forgotten People that they ought to make a formal demand for a copy under the Privacy Act and that if there was no reply in the three-month time period that I would bring a suit for them,” Zion said.

The Forgotten People made a formal demand March 31 for a copy of the plan under the Navajo Nation Privacy Act. Because there has been no response, the group intends to bring suit and to make the plan public when a copy is obtained.

“We're actually giving notice of the possibility of bringing a couple of claims – one under the Free Speech provision under the Navajo Nation Bill of Rights to attempt to establish a right of access to government information, and the other is the right of access to information under the Fundamental Laws,” Zion said.

Despite WHPacific's promise that the “final project deadline” would be Sept. 15, 2008, and despite President Shirley's Jan. 26 announcement to Council that he would produce the plan, it has not been made public so it can be reviewed by the victims of the Bennett Freeze, the group said.

“We now have legislation in place that formally terminated the freeze,” the group said in a press release. “What we do not have is either a plan or a program of rehabilitation to deal with the freeze, or effective involvement of the victims of the freeze to address its severe impacts.”

Native Students Participate In UA College Of Medicine's Med-Start Program In Tucson
Submitted by Jean Spinelli,
U of A Information Specialist Coordinator
July 08, 2009

Most people remember the summer of 1969 as the time when man first walked on the moon and Woodstock happened. But a group of high school students from rural areas of Arizona, the reservations, South Tucson and South Phoenix remember it as the first time a world of opportunity in health care was opened up for them, changing the direction of their lives.

Forty years ago -- just two years after The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson opened its doors to its first class of medical students -- the College opened its doors to a group of about 20 high school students who came to the campus to attend the first Med-Start summer program and learn firsthand what it takes to be a health-care professional.

“The Med-Start program is an intensive experience in which the students acquire basic medical knowledge while learning about health-care careers,” says Linda K. Don, assistant dean with the UA College of Medicine’s Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs, which administers the program. “In addition, they’re introduced to college life, which is vital to students entering health professions.”

“The real magic of Med-Start is revealed in the personal stories of career success,” she notes. “Whether the youth who have benefited from Med-Start became direct-care providers or chose career paths outside of the health professions, many have had a tremendous impact on the lives of others.”

As examples, she cites:
- Mariana Amaya, MD, a 1992 participant who graduated from the UA College of Medicine in 2001 and practices obstetrics and gynecology in Phoenix. Dr. Amaya also participated in the UA Minority Medical Education Program (MMEP) in 1994.

- Ernestine Bustamante, MD, a 1988 participant who graduated from the UA College of Medicine in 1997 and practices obstetrics and gynecology in Phoenix.

- Carlos R. Gonzales, MD, a 1970 participant who graduated from the UA College of Medicine in 1981 and is an associate professor with the UA College of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine. An award-winning family practice physician, he is a leader in addressing the challenges of border health issues.

- Evelinda Gonzales, a 2002 participant and daughter of Dr. Carlos Gonzales (see above) who is a member of the UA College of Medicine class of 2011.

- Larry Oñate, MD, a 1978 participant who graduated from the UA College of Medicine in 1989, is a psychiatrist in Tucson who also is medical director of the Southern Arizona Mental Health Corp.

- Celida Rangel, MD, a 1990 participant who graduated from the UA College of Medicine in 2002 and is a pediatrician in Phoenix.

Dr. Gonzales, one of the original Med-Start students, recalls that as a student at Pueblo High School, “I had an inclination to dream about going into medicine, but it was just a major dream.
“Med-Start motivated me,” he added, explaining that he became the first in his family to go on to college. “Without Med-Start, it wouldn’t have happened. I would have worked in the mines or gone into construction.”

The program was developed to improve health care in rural and economically disadvantaged areas and to increase the number of minority health-care professionals in Arizona. UA College of Medicine Founding Dean Merlin K. “Monte” DuVal, MD, who helped shape the College, from choosing its site and designing the original facility to recruiting faculty and raising funds, lent his support in 1968 to a group of idealistic and innovative minority medical students who championed the Med-Start cause.

Those students included Marcos Duarte, Ruth Smothers and Yuel Tom, all of whom later completed their medical degrees at the UA. After Dr. DuVal’s death in 2006, generous gifts from family and friends established The Merlin K. “Monte” DuVal Memorial Med-Start Endowment, which pays tribute to the founding dean while supporting this vital program.

Today, in addition to the summer program, Med-Start promotes youth exploration of health careers year-round -- through tours of the Arizona Health Sciences Center, high school career days, student health events and other activities.

Several thousand students have participated in Med-Start since it was launched in 1969. In 2004, Med-Start grew to include a second program in Phoenix (then called Maricopa Med-Start or M2, now Med-Start PHOENIX), which initially accepted only Maricopa-area high school students. Med-Start is held on The University of Arizona campus in Tucson and at The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University in Phoenix.

The five-week academic summer program is for Arizona students who will be entering their senior year of high school and who are interested in careers in the health professions, are of underrepresented or diverse backgrounds, are living in rural areas or are economically disadvantaged. The program encourages them to pursue health-care careers by helping them prepare for college life, introducing them to health-career opportunities and informing them about educational pathways.

Med-Start participants explore a variety of health professions, engage in hands-on presentations, and take college-level coursework in chemistry, composition and study skills.

Med-Start TUCSON participants live on campus in a UA residence hall; this year, Med-Start PHOENIX is a day-only program.

This summer, 61 high school students from across the state are participating in Med-Start: 39 in Med-Start TUCSON and 22 in Med-Start PHOENIX. Both programs are being held through July 11.

Native American Med-Start TUCSON participants include:
- Victoria Cannon, Pascua Yaqui, of Tucson, a student at Cholla Magnet High School.
- Jonathan Credo, Navajo, of Flagstaff, a student at Coconino High School.
- Sky Fimbres, Pascua Yaqui, of Tucson, a student at Rincon High School.
- Chanse Foster, Navajo, of Tuba City, a student at Tuba City High School.
- Samantha Nez, Navajo, of Mesa, a student at East Valley Academy.
- Natasha Yazzie, Navajo, of Mesa, a student at East Valley Academy.

For more information about the Dr. Merlin K. “Monte” DuVal Endowment, or to contribute to this important effort, call the UA College of Medicine Development Office, (520) 626-2827, or e-mail health@email.arizona.edu

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The Other Trail Of Tears - First Nation Catholicism

Submitted by Eleanore Fanire
Essay - From the June 15, 2009 issue of High Country News

Selling Your Father's Bones: America's 140-Year War Against the Nez Perce Tribe
Brian Schofield
368 pages, hardcover: $26.00.Simon & Schuster, 2009.

A white 30-something British guy might not seem like the obvious source to turn to for a definitive history of the persecution and flight of the Nez Perce — one of the most complex, tragic chapters in the history of the West. But Americans have a long tradition of receiving incisive cultural criticism from foreigners on road trips — think Alexis de Tocqueville, Charles Dickens, even Borat. Sometimes you just need an outsider's perspective. This is especially true today, as Americans shake off eight years of stubborn disregard for overseas opinion.

Reading Selling Your Father's Bones, you can't help but suspect that first-time author Brian Schofield sees recent American exploits abroad as an extension of the same Jacksonian mindset that prompted land grabs against the Nez Perce in the mid-1800s. Consider the book's original subtitle in the U.K.: "The Epic Fate of the American West." For Schofield, the tribe's subjugation is more than just a single dramatic campaign from the Indian Wars — it's the entire saga of American history, written in miniature.

Which is pretty devastating, when you get right down to it. The book opens in pre-Columbian Oregon, among the Nimiipuu people of the Wallowa Valley, before they adopted their French nickname — "Nez Perce," a misapplied moniker most likely inspired by the tribe's nose-pierced Chinook neighbors. Then it delves straight into the decades of encroachment, abduction, broken treaties and forced assimilation that preceded eviction from the tribe's ancestral lands.

We meet the players from that summer and fall of 1877: meek, articulate Joseph, miscast as a fierce warrior-king by the blustering American press; proud Looking Glass, whose misplaced trust in neighboring tribes dooms the refugees; and hapless General Oliver Howard, the "Christian General" whose frequent battlefield bungling might pass for comic relief in another context.

When several of the tribe's hotheaded young warriors murder a group of white settlers, it touches off a 1,700-mile exodus for more than 700 Nez Perce men, women and children — families who'd been forced from their Wallowa Valley home just days before the incident. By the time the tribe surrenders in northern Montana four months later, some 120 Nez Perce and 180 white Americans have been killed in the pursuit.

With a historian's diligence and a travel writer's eye for detail, Schofield renders each tough river crossing and bloody battle in vivid, novelistic scenes. He also flashes forward, examining the flight's modern-day repercussions. These first-person asides, which constitute half of the book, sketch the broad cultural and ecological legacy of white conquest in the West.

Be warned: This is an ideological text. Schofield is a dyed-in-the-wool environmentalist, and he doesn't equivocate when it comes to modern-day "crime(s) against the landscape" along the old Nez Perce Trail. When he mentions how much toxic wastewater Potlatch Corp. released into the Clearwater River, or that the milltown of Lewiston, Idaho, stinks to high hell, he doesn't follow up with a note on how many jobs were created in the process or whether the company later built a new baseball diamond.

The book isn't naive about the complexity of Western resource management — on the contrary, that's a major theme — but Schofield is far from charitable to extractive industries and their cheerleaders. In fact, he saves his harshest criticism not for genocidal generals, but for past and present-day Westerners who loudly espouse rugged libertarianism while reaping rewards from federal dam investments and timber subsidies.

The man did his research, though (a detailed, quote-by-quote bibliography fills 25 pages), and in some instances, his ideological transparency helps him steer clear of awkward, academic terminology. After quoting a historian who says the West's small farms were "squeezed by history," Schofield is quick to remind us that they were actually squeezed by large farms — not by "history," but by people, and greedy people at that.

To Schofield, what happened to the Nez Perce is not as simple as "a tragic clash of cultures" or "a conflict between two ways of life." It cannot be reduced to euphemism. It's the story of large groups of selfish and essentially rotten people committing theft and murder against much smaller bands of relative innocents. And whether or not you chalk it up to the author's outsider status, it's refreshing to hear the story told that way.

The author writes from Missoula, Montana.

First Nation Catholicism
Submitted by Jonathan

Dear Ms. Bobbie O'Neill,
I am looking forward to browsing through your blog and other Native oriented blogs you posted. I am by no means a pure blood, but rather a mix of three ancestral origins: First Nation (Taino), West African (The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Logs do not list region of origin) and Spaniard (but for all the groups who have occupied Spain, only GOD knows what mixes I might have in me). I started my own network and would really appreciate it if you could join (as well as spread the word to other people).

My network is called First Nation Catholicism : Past & Present (www.firstnationcatholicism.ning.com). I basically created the group, because all too often the witness of First Nation Catholics is overlooked by members of The church. Join and learn of their witness to The Faith.

Some really interesting discussions should be coming up (people are pretty much amazed to think that such a system exists). Mind you the group is open to Non-Catholics as well (as well as Natives and Non-Natives). I just started the network on 07/03/2009.

I would really like to see some action going on in The First Nation Culture and Tradition Forum (particularly about foodways) as well as the Inter and Intra Nation Discussion Forum. I hope to see you there.
Yours in Christ,
Jonathan

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The Black Hills Are Everything - Native Workplace Green Job Recruitment

Traditional Lakota Spiritual Leader and Head Man,
David Swallow, Speaks Out on the Sacred Black Hills

by David Swallow, Jr.
Traditional Lakota Spiritual Leader
and a Head Man of the Lakota Nation
Edited by Stephanie M. Schwartz,
Member, Native American Journalists Association (NAJA)
Originally published at www.SilvrDrach.homestead.com/Schwartz_2009_Jul_05.html

July 5, 2009 Porcupine, South Dakota
The white man calls me David Swallow, Jr. but my real name is Wowitan Yuha Mani. I am a Tetoh Lakota of the Wa Naweg’a Band and I live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

This is the way my Grandpa Najutala told me, a long time ago. He was a teenager when the 1868 Treaty was signed. He’s gone now but this is how he told me about the sacred Black Hills.

The Black Hills used to be occupied by the Crow Tribe. That was way back, like in the 1700’s, even the 1600’s. Then, the Black Hills were taken by the Shahiyela (the Cheyenne). Then, the Lakota took them from the Cheyenne. Finally, the white man took them from the Lakota.

The Lakota look at the Black Hills as having spiritual power. All the Plains Tribes look at them that way. But the white man saw only the yellow rock called gold. They tried to make deals to get the land in the Treaties of 1825, 1851, 1868, and even the Bradley Bill of the 1980’s.

However, the only Treaty that should be recognized concerning the Black Hills is the Treaty of 1851. At that time, all the tribes signed this Treaty and they signed it in a holy way. The Lakota brought the Sacred White Buffalo Calf C’anunpa, the Cheyenne brought their 7 sacred arrows, and the Crow, Arikara, and other tribes brought their sacred bundles.

They all held ceremonies before they held the pen. They all agreed that no settlers should enter that sacred area, the Black Hills. The way that Treaty was written, this became a non-negotiable matter from that time on. No other Treaty would have the right to change that.

But the government and homesteaders, the settlers and prospectors kept invading the Black Hills.

As a result, the Federal Government renegotiated the terms and called it the Fort Laramie 1868 Treaty. This time, the original signers of the 1851 Treaty didn’t want to sign. Many were fighting. There were no sacred ceremonies done and only one sacred c’anunpa, only one sacred prayer pipe, was present.

The prospectors and homesteaders brought in whiskey to get many of the signers drunk so they would sign. My grandfather told me all about this. He saw it, personally. Mni wakan, sacred water, is what the Lakota called alcohol because it affected our people so strongly.

So this is how we lost the Black Hills.

Six years later, in 1874, General George Armstrong Custer took an expedition into the Black Hills which included a geologist and numerous miners. What they found immediately caused a major gold rush and the white settlers and miners began pouring into the Black Hills. The treaties were completely ignored.

In 1876, the Indian Appropriations Act demanded the Sioux give back the Black Hills or starve under siege. Then they ordered the destruction of all the buffalo herds. By 1889, the Federal Government had forced the Lakota into prisoner of war camps which they now call Reservations. According to government documents, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is prisoner of war camp #344.

Around 1990, I rode 7 years with many young people to the Crazy Horse Monument. When we crossed our so-called homelands, we were stopped by the white landowners because we didn’t have their permission. One old homesteader showed us his deed showing where he had bought the land from the Federal Government. He told us that if we didn’t like it, we should go talk to the Federal Government who got it from the Louisiana Purchase.

So, we lost our Black Hills. Some said we sold them. If so, I believe somebody took the money without any of us Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Cheyenne or Arikara knowing it. There is no money.

In 1980, the United States Supreme Court said the Black Hills did rightfully belong to the Lakota. They wanted to buy them from us but our People have refused that money. The sacred Black Hills are not for sale.

But that’s why the Bradley Bill was introduced in 1987 in Congress, to make it look good. It supposedly would have let us live in the Black Hills while the Federal Government could still mine, trespass, and do whatever they wanted. But even that was never approved.

So, saying the Black Hills are ours and belong to us are just hollow, empty words. If they are really ours, why can’t we live there? It’s only occupied by white people with land deeds.

We cannot even go to the Black Hills and exercise our spiritual ways. We are forbidden. We have to get permission from the Government and the BLM and then we have to follow their rules and regulations. But if we are a sovereign nation like they said, we would have our own jurisdiction (county-state-reservation).

If we do still own the Black Hills, we need a new treaty, to renegotiate a new treaty. All the other treaties were violated or abandoned, often with the approval of Congress, without us knowing about it. That’s not supposed to happen in nation to nation dealings.

We have a treaty council, a council of elders, all kinds of councils but none of them are effective. The government and state have kept us hungry and distracted with their projects which accomplish very little.

Every other foreign nation conquered by the United States has received huge efforts towards rehabilitation and rebuilding. Yet, while the U.S. cries about 20% unemployment, we have 80% unemployment. We remain isolated and have living conditions which are as bad as or worse than any “third world country.” Our life expectancy is only 48 years old for men and 52 years old for women.

We are the longest prisoners of war in the world’s history. It must change. We need to be set free so we can deal with our own people and our children and their children.

Unfortunately, most of our old people are in the spirit world. Today, our young people have no knowledge of the treaties, the massacre of Wounded Knee, the struggle of Wounded Knee 2, or our history. These are the reasons our culture is dying. No one remembers the language, culture, virtues, or spirituality. No one knows the real history.

But they need to know. If we are to survive, people need to understand. When we’re talking about the Black Hills, it’s not just the land that was lost but our way of life. It’s not just money. Money is the least important thing. We have lost our way of life.

When we talk about the Black Hills, it is about everything. That place is holy and sacred.

Ho he’cetu yelo, I have spoken these words.

David Swallow, Wowitan Yuha Mani
Porcupine, South Dakota - The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

This article may be reprinted, reproduced, and/or re-distributed unedited with proper attribution and sourcing for non-profit, educational, news, or archival purposes.

Stephanie M. Schwartz may be reached at SilvrDrach@aol.com

Stephanie M. SchwartzFreelance Writer http://www.silvrdrach.homestead.com/ Member, Native American Journalists Association (NAJA)President, Link Center Foundation http://www.linkcenterfoundation.org/

Native Workplace Green Job Recruitment Notice
* This recruitment is part of the Native Workplace Green Trades Training Program, which was designed as a response to the feedback we receive from Indian country. We have chosen our initial trainings based upon what our community is facing right now in relation to stimulus funding. This is Green career training that can be applied to employment or small business development.

Native Workplace is organizing a “Train the Trainer” class for certified electricians to become KVAR trainers nationwide. Trainees should be journeyman, master electricians, or electrical engineers. However, non-certified electricians with experience should apply and will be considered. Class size is limited to 30 trainees.

What is KVAR? We realize that KVAR is new to Indian country, read KVAR FAQ’s

Trainees will receive two certifications:

KVAR Factory Certified Master Trainer: Trainers will work regionally will earn approximately $1500.00- $2000.00
per week as a trainer. Travel and per diem is paid.

Certified KVAR Master Installer: Trainer will also be able to make residential, commercial & industrial installations. On residential installations, the rate of pay is $100.00 -$150.00 per unit installed. However, Master Installers also work on commercial projects that require a more complex process, so the rate of pay is approximately $75.00-$125.00 per hour on commercial and industrial installations.

If the trainees choose, they can operate their own KVAR installation company, take installation subcontracts from Native Workforce, or work for an existing KVAR contractor.

To Apply: Resumes or WIA intake forms may be used as an application. Deadline to apply for the Train the Trainer class will be July 22nd, 2009. Class will be closed after we receive 30 attendees.
Send to: info@nativeworkplace.com

* Eligible under the Stimulus Plan so contact your local WIA training coordinator and request this training!

Contact us with any questions or if you are urban and need help locating the WIA office serving your area.

* pay rates above reflect R.O.P with Native Workforce, KVAR or self employment..rates may differ from contractor to contractor

Want a Green job as a KVAR Residential Installer? Learn More

Certified KVAR Residential Installer: This vocational training is for residential installations only. Prior electrical knowledge is helpful, but not necessary. Installers make from $50.00-$100.00 per unit installation, which takes approximately 20-30 minutes each. Training is two days and can be provided regionally once the trainers are certified. There is a small installation business opportunity with this training.
Addendum:

Tribes are eligible for federal grant dollars for energy efficiency retrofits under the Recovery Act. KVAR qualifies as an energy efficiency upgrade. Tribal housing departments can apply for grants to purchase and install these energy efficiency units, and employ tribal members to make the installations.

Contact us for a copy of the Department of Labor Weatherization & Energy Efficiency Training grant
There is a manufacturing, tribal business and small Native-owned business opportunity.

* Note: Native Workplace is developing a separate database for recruitments. If you are signed up for the newsletter only, please be patient while we make the changes.

http://www.nativeworkplace.com/

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'Around Indian Country'
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