ICT-Bellecourt not in Denver

From Today's web edition of Indian Country Today.

Bellecourt not in Denver
Posted: October 29, 2004
by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today

Editor's note: A Denver Post article on the Columbus protest projected Vernon Bellecourt as primary spokesman for the Denver anti-Columbus Day demonstration. Our editorial used it as basis for discussing Bellecourt's brand of activism and his presence at many such demonstrations around the country. We stand corrected that the Denver anti-Columbus Day demonstrations are the primary organizing work of Colorado AIM, its Leadership Council and Council of Elders.

Colorado AIM response to ICT's editorial about Vernon Bellecourt full article

Another slight correction; It's "Transform Columbus Day demonstators," not "anti-Columbus Day demonstrators."

articles-october 29

Tribes aim for hunting access
Indians, timber industry search for a deal

JOHN DODGE
KAMILCHE -- Leaders of the state's timber industry came to Indian country Thursday and vowed to work with tribes on tribal hunting access to their private forestlands.

Tribal leaders challenged the Washington Forest Protection Association, which represents many of the state's private timberland owners, to hash out protocols for private land access in the same cooperative spirit that led to the 1999 state Forests and Fish law.

"We're concerned about hunting access," Quinault Indian Guy McMinds said during the annual forestry association meeting at the Squaxin Island tribal hotel. "We want to enter into a collaborative process with the timberland owners." full article

Agua Caliente shocked over governor’s jab at Section 14

By Brian Joseph
The Desert Sun
October 29th, 2004

PALM SPRINGS -- The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians said Thursday they were "stunned" by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s "ludicrous" comments this week about Measure U on the Palm Springs ballot.

"We think he is being misled by his staff," said Tom Davis, the tribe’s chief planning officer. "Or he’s in the pockets of special interests."

Schwarzenegger said this week Measure U is bad for Palm Springs, just like Proposition 70 is bad for California. He believes both could lead to the expansion of gambling without proper controls, said Rob Stutzman, the governor’s spokesman. full article

Indians as thieves - the Schwarzenegger schtick
Posted: October 29, 2004

Arnold Schwarzenegger is in his favorite role as terminator when it comes to American Indians. His recent use of language in his attack on the California tribes, with which he is charged to negotiate in good faith, is tantamount to bigotry. A governor should not approach any of his constituencies with such vulgar disdain for public manners, with a use of careless (or perhaps intended) language that demeans a whole people and ethnicity.

For instance, a governor or any public figure, should refrain from calling a whole people thieves as in, ''the Indians are ripping us off.'' Said Schwarzenegger on Oct.14: ''The Indians are ripping us off. We want them to negotiate and pay their fair share.'' Rip-off in our dictionary is synonymous with ''thieving'' as in, ''the Indians are stealing from us,'' to paraphrase the governor of California. Schwarzenegger's chosen words hyped up a non-Indian audience in San Diego, not far from where a couple of small, courageous tribes have challenged Californians to support a more equitable approach to the state ''taxation'' of tribal income from gaming enterprises. full article

Groundbreaking Indian-owned business to distribute diabetes drug
Almost four out of ten tribal members suffer from disease

Sam Lewin 10/29/2004

The first and only majority owned and publicly traded Native American company in the U.S. is preparing to launch a diabetes vaccine.

Officials with the San Francisco-based Indigenous Global Development Corporation say that it is the latest in a concentrated effort to reduce the disease in the Indian population. Over 34 percent of tribal members are diagnosed with diabetes. Complications of this disease are also the major cause of death and health problems for Native Americans.

"We strive to make a difference in Indian Country. What better way than to provide a high quality and lower cost pharmaceutical that can impact diabetes," said Deni Leonard, Chairman and CEO, Indigenous Global Development Corporation and Chairman of NETPHARMX. "We believe this will be the first of many healthcare products we can provide to impact Tribal health issues." full article

articles-october 28

Proposal Restricts Appeals on Dams
Administration Plan Could Help Hydropower Firms Avoid Costs

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 28, 2004; Page A01

SEATTLE, Oct. 27 -- The Bush administration has proposed giving dam owners the exclusive right to appeal Interior Department rulings about how dams should be licensed and operated on American rivers, through a little-noticed regulatory tweak that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the hydropower industry.

The proposal would prevent states, Indian tribes and environmental groups from making their own appeals, while granting dam owners the opportunity to take their complaints -- and suggested solutions -- directly to senior political appointees in the Interior Department.

The proposal, which is subject to public comment but can be approved by the administration without congressional involvement, would use the president's rule-making power to circumvent opposition to the idea among Senate Democrats. They killed an administration-backed energy bill that included similar language, for which the hydropower industry had lobbied. full article

Environmental study gives tribe lands ‘C’ rating

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- The University of California, Los Angeles released an environmental report card Wednesday that underscores the need to stop illegal dumping on Indian land.

"The sprawling, noxious and highly unsightly dumpsites bespeak failure," said Carole Goldberg, a faculty chair of the Native Nations Law and Policy Center at the UCLA School of Law, who participated in the study and helped write the report.

Enforcement and abatement of illegal dumping scored a "modestly passing grade of C," Goldberg said. That score was based on the premise that cooperation among tribal nations, local, state and federal governments is increasing, along with funding to develop tribal solid waste disposal codes and enforcement. full article

Prop. 200 targets American Indians
By Robert Valencia
SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR

 
Proposition 200 has raised issues about the intent of this bad piece of legislation, and much has been written about the negative impact outweighing the positive.
 
As such, the implications toward American Indians in Arizona bring to mind contemporary histories relating to immigration and the notion of citizenship.
 
For example, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886. We are familiar with the message, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. …"
 
America was the place to be, a giant melting pot of immigrants forging a new frontier. Yet Native Americans were not to become citizens of the United States for another 38 years (1924) when the Indian Citizenship Act was passed. full article

Remote-Controlled Surveillance Equipment Found in Kanehsatake

By: Kenneth Deer

During the afternoon hours of Wednesday, October 20 the presence of a remotely controlled video camera was brought to the attention of Kanehsatake residents. The camera was located on the roof of Ratihente High School in a fake stove-pipe. The setup for this camera included a transceiver that was aimed across the river toward the Hudson/Rigaud area. The camera was positioned to monitor the intersection at Ahsennenson (Center Road) and route 344, as well as the former Kanesatake Mohawk Police Station - which is presently being used by community members as the Kanehsatake Community Security Headquarters (KCSHQ).

At present the origins of the camera and its associated equipment is not known. However, Kanehsatake residents suspect that the RCMP, SQ and the KMP are responsible for placing the camera in that location. Community members also suspect that the installation of the surveillance equipment has a twofold purpose; firstly as a precursor to a police action against Kanehsatake, secondly to monitor the movements of community members who are working at the KCSHQ.

The surveillance equipment was disguised as a metal chimney. Apparently, workers appeared at the school on Friday claiming to be Bell Canada technicians to install an experimental radar on the roof of the building. They also claimed to have permission from the owners of the building, the Freres L'Instruction Christianne. However, the two trucks used by the technicians did not have Bell Canada markings, nor did the technicians wear Bell uniforms. full article

Speaker addresses true nature of American politics
John Trudell, keynote speaker for American Indian Heritage Month, spoke in Squires Old Dominion Ballroom Wednesday night. Trudell is the former national spokesman for the American Indian Movement as well as an accomplished actor, poet, author, musician and activist.

Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the American Indian Heritage Month Steering Committee, Trudell addressed the need for people to think about important issues like democracy in America and the war in Iraq.

“We need to respect the value of truly thinking (because) without thinking problems get perpetuated,” Trudell said.

Trudell said that our democratic system in America was based on a majority rule, but in actuality ended up excluding the majority of people. Do not trust the political system because candidates trick and lie to the masses in order to gain authority, he said. full article

Chile uses anti-terror law against Indians-report
27 Oct 2004 20:00:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Louise Egan

SANTIAGO, Chile, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Chile's center-left government is using a draconian anti-terror law inherited from former dictator Augusto Pinochet to repress Indian protesters battling for land rights, rights groups said on Wednesday.

Mapuche Indian activists face unfair trials with anonymous witnesses and excessive prison sentences under a 1984 law originally targeted at leftist guerrillas, according to a report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch and Chile's Indigenous People's Rights Watch.

The Mapuches, a small minority of Chile's 15 million people, are fighting expanding commercial tree plantations on their ancestral lands in the south of Chile. full article

articles-October 27

Indian Affairs tries to end school sit-in

PIAPOT FIRST NATION, SASK.   - Indian and Northern Affairs Canada is seeking a court injunction to force an end to a school standoff on the Piapot First Nation near Regina.

The school at Piapot has been shut down for three weeks by protesters who disagree with some of the courses taught at the school.

But not everyone agrees with the protest..

"I believe there are some [problems] regarding the school curriculum, but I still believe that it's wrong," says Brenda Kaiswatum, a grandparent and band councillor. "They are the ones that are denying our children and grandchildren a right to an education by occupying the school." full article

Russian natives join Makahs' celebration

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter
ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
NEAH BAY, Clallam County — First came the salmon and potatoes. Then the songs and dance, a rare mix of traditional Makah and Russian native music and movements that unfolded in a crowded high-school gymnasium.

The Makahs offered homage to the spirits of the four seasons. The Russian guests donned long, fur-lined robes to celebrate the reindeer that helped feed native people in the northeast Russian province of Chukotka. And they both honored the gray whale, which the Russians hunt, and the Makahs — now blocked by federal court rulings — hope to hunt again.

"I never saw so much energy in the dancing. It was awesome," said Ben Johnson Sr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council. "It gave me goose bumps. full article

Military hazards are greater for Native Americans, according to sociological research

WASHINGTON, DC-A new study by sociologists at Washington State University (WSU) suggests Native Americans and their lands are disproportionately exposed to hazards posed by the U.S. military's explosive and toxic munitions.

The research, conducted by Gregory Hooks, chair of the WSU Department of Sociology, and Chad L. Smith, Texas State University-San Marcos professor and a former WSU graduate student, provides evidence that Native American lands tend to be located in the same county as sites deemed to be extremely dangerous due to the presence of a variety of unexploded military ordnance.

The researchers study, "The Treadmill of Destruction: National Sacrifice Areas and Native Americans," appears in the most recent issue of the American Sociological Review, the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association. full article

Coushattas turn over tapes to Senate committee
10/27/2004, 8:15 a.m. CT

The Associated Press  

ELTON, La. (AP) — U.S. Senate investigators looking into lobbying for Indian reservation casinos have asked the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana for audio tapes of tribal council meetings spanning five years.

 Council member David Sickey said Tuesday some of the tapes requested include appearances by the tribe's lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon, a former aide to House Majority leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

"They discussed their grassroots lobbying effort against Texas gaming and wanted money without showing us a plan or anything," Sickey said. full article

Mounds, concerns rise at project site

The possibility of Indian burial grounds could prove contentious as an apartment development off Rice Lake Road moves ahead
BY CHUCK FREDERICK
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

In about 1978, Marlene Diver took her first hike through the woods now being targeted for college apartments.

She was helping her three sons collect leaves for a 4-H Club project when she spotted something she didn't expect: mounds rising from the forest floor. She and her boys counted six of them, each about 6 feet long, a couple of feet wide and a couple of feet tall. A feeling suddenly overcame her, she said, an intuition, a knowing.

"I knew they were grave sites. I just knew they were. I don't know how. I just knew," said Diver, a Duluth Heights woman who works with American Indian teenage girls in foster care. full article

Daschle, Thune in virtual tie
Jon Walker
Argus Leader

published: 10/27/2004=
An election judged "too close to call" five weeks ago is now even tighter as a survey shows Republican John Thune cutting into Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle's narrow lead.

Daschle holds a 49 to 47 percent edge over Thune as the two men scramble for last-minute supporters leading up to next Tuesday's election, according to a poll conducted for the Argus Leader and KELO-TV of Sioux Falls.

Daschle's 2-point lead is less than the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, meaning South Dakota's Senate race is virtually tied and reinforcing the need for both campaigns to get supporters out on Election Day. full article

Web Server Takedown Called Speech Threat

Wed Oct 27, 8:16 AM ET
By ELLEN SIMON, AP Technology Writer

Devin Theriot-Orr, a member a feisty group of reporter-activists called Indymedia, was surprised when two FBI (news - web sites) agents showed up at his Seattle law office, saying the visit was a "courtesy call" on behalf of Swiss authorities.

Theriot-Orr was even more surprised a week later when more than 20 Indymedia Web sites were knocked offline as the computer servers that hosted them were seized in Britain.

The Independent Media Center, more commonly known as Indymedia, says the seizure is tantamount to censorship, and civil libertarians agree. The Internet is a publishing medium just like a printing press, they argue, and governments have no right to remove Web sites. full article

Am I a Flip-Flop If I Help the Democrats?
by Ira Chernus
 
Am I a flip-flop? Or do I have a subtle consistency? John Kerry might not lie awake at night worrying about that question. He's probably too tired. But I may be lying awake tonight worrying.

Throughout this campaign I've been writing columns about the lack of difference between Kerry and Bush, especially on issues of foreign policy and national security. Today I started knocking on doors and handing out fliers for the Democrats. "Do I contradict myself?", Walt Whitman wrote. "Very well. I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes."

But I'm not sure that I contradict myself. I think there is a consistency here.

I wrote those columns about Kerry's reactionary stance on war and terror because so many progressives I know seemed totally obsessed with defeating Bush. When they cast Bush as the devil, they talked as if Kerry were some kind of saving angel. I feared that, in their enthusiasm, they might lose sight of the larger issues, like saving the people of Iraq from U.S. - inflicted violence (just for starters). I wanted to remind my friends on the Left that politics does not end on Election Day.

Judging from the emails I've received from CommonDreams readers, I may have misjudged the Left. Most of the folks who write to me say they'll vote third party, or not at all, rather than vote for Democrats. I understand and respect that view. But I cannot agree with it. full article

Audio Recording of TCD events to play on KRFC tonight

KRFC will be playing a full length version of the October 8th and 9th TCD events, this evening, beginning at 8 p.m. You can listen by going to their website at this LINK. Check it out if you can.

article-October 26

Geronimo's power and legacy
Posted: October 26, 2004
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country TodayClick to Enlarge

Photo Courtesy National Archives/Ben Wittick -- Geronimo (Goyathlay), a Chiricahua Apache; full-length, kneeling with rifle in 1887.MESCALERO, N.M. - Geronimo possessed extraordinary powers as the ultimate warrior of the Chiricahua Apache and came to know the power of unity, said great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo, preparing to unveil a plaque at Geronimo's birthplace.

Beneath a shower of stars, at the confluence of the headwaters of the Gila, Geronimo was born in 1829.
''Geronimo stood for freedom, that was his major concern, to fight for his people's freedom, so they could live within the Gilas 'for as long as the wind blows,''' Harlyn told Indian Country Today.

While the Calvary was trying to wipe out his people, Geronimo rose to be chief of his band, the Bi da a naka enda (Standing in front of the enemy.)

Geronimo evaded capture so many times that the final search for him took several months and 5,500 troops crossing 1,645 miles, U.S. records show. full article

House GOP Backs Easing Laws for Border Fence

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; Page A03

House Republicans have inserted language into legislation revamping the U.S. intelligence system that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to waive any federal law interfering with construction of a 14-mile anti-immigration fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democrats, environmentalists and Native American groups have protested the provision, saying it would allow construction crews to harm critical habitat and imperiled species and possibly damage Indian artifacts. The measure, championed by California's Republican Reps. Doug Ose and David Dreier, gives the Homeland Security secretary the right to skirt all laws he determines "necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section."

Heather Taylor, deputy legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the provision could waive federal safeguards including toxic waste laws and child labor standards.

"They're using security fences along our borders to subvert most federal laws," Taylor said. "It's shameful." full article

BIA head proposes Chemawa makeover
An official recommends a "total restructuring" of the bureau's Indian schools, including the one in Salem where a girl died
Sunday, October 24, 2004

KARA BRIGGS

The head of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is calling for an overhaul of Chemawa Indian School in Salem and other bureau schools by lengthening the school year, tying teachers' pay to performance, and mandating random drug testing of students and staff.

The purpose of the proposals from David W. Anderson, the Interior Department's undersecretary for Indian affairs, is to make the schools safer and more effective in educating nearly 60,000 Native American students. The plans are also in response to the death of a 16-year-old girl in a cell on the Chemawa campus nearly one year ago.

"We need a total restructuring of our entire school system," Anderson told The Oregonian. "When you have a majority of your students dealing with alcohol and substance abuse problems in their own lives and their families' lives, I don't think that simply having math, reading and discipline is enough." full article

Battling apathy on the Navajo reservation
Candidates believe Navajo vote is crucial

Leonie Sherman 10/26/2004
The Native American vote in the hotly contested swing states of Arizona and New Mexico could prove decisive in next week's presidential election, but whether the largely Navajo population will go to the polls in bigger numbers than the past remains to be seen.

Pollsters identify the Navajos, at 220,000 the largest tribe in the nation, as a key voting demographic in the two southwestern states, which split in the last presidential election by the narrowest of margins. In 2000, President Bush defeated Al Gore by 311 votes in Arizona, while Gore beat Bush by 366 in New Mexico.

In hopes of currying voter favor, both President Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry this year have made visits to the Navajo Nation, which is the geographically the size of France and spread out over the states of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Both the Navajo Tribal Council and the Navajo Nation have endorsed Senator Kerry for President. full article

Indian Congress Finds Some Pictures in Federal Buildings Offensive
10/26/2004
The National Congress of American Indians describes itself as the oldest and largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments.

The organization is not happy with some of the artwork in federal buildings and they apparently want to talk about it.

According to the organization, artwork in some federal buildings pictures American Indians as savages, murderers and sexual predators.

As an example, it cites art in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a display it considers offensive.

The resolution seeks a meeting between EPA, the General Services Administration and the Indian Congress. article

Montana man frustrated at lack of progress in son's case

Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. - The father of a Montana man whose body was found in North Dakota two years ago continues to be frustrated at the lack of progress in finding his son's killer.

Bill Turcotte alleges Gov. John Hoeven ignored his requests for more resources to investigate the death of his son Russell. Turcotte said more attention was paid to the case of North Dakota college student Dru Sjodin, who was white, than to his son, an American Indian.

Hoeven's spokesman, Duane Houdek, rejected the claim of discrimination and said the Turcotte case remains open.

Bill Turcotte said he was sending a letter to North Dakota newspapers Monday to express his frustration and appeal to voters in next week's election. full article

Mexicans oppose Wal Mart

By Susana Hayward
October 26, 2004

SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico ? Similar to cultural protests of the newly-opened Honolulu Wal-Mart, Mexican conservationists are protesting the Wal-Mart store rising near the 2,000-year-old pyramids of the Teotihuacan Empire. The activists say the U.S. retailer is destroying their culture at the foot of one of Mexico's greatest treasures.

Since news broke last May of Wal-Mart's plan to construct a 71,902-square-foot store near the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, the entranceway of the primordial city has turned into a carnival of demonstrators, most protesting the plans, though some welcoming the 180 jobs the store will bring. full article

War on Dissent

Gag the Public!

By WALTER BRASCH

On a blatant campaign of exploiting 9/11, and a subversive campaign to undermine the nation's civil liberties, George W. Bush expects to win a second term. Jingoism is encouraged; dissent is not tolerated.

As Texas governor, Bush established "protest zones" far removed from where he spoke. He continues that practice as President. Anyone with a message not in agreement with the administration's beliefs is isolated, some as much as a half-mile away, during presidential and vice-presidential public appearances. However, according to a ruling by the federal district court in Philadelphia, all persons, no matter what their personal or political views, must have equal access under the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and the right of assembly. That part of the Constitution has often been overlooked by the Republican administration and by local police. full article

articles-October 25

Tribe civil trial finds for worker

Associated Press
FORT WASHAKIE, Wyo. - In its first civil jury trial, the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court handed down a $2.5 million verdict against Marathon Oil Co. and R&S Well Service of Thermopolis for an injured worker.
The trial reflects dramatic national growth in tribal courts and rapid decline in U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs-managed court systems.
While all of the more than 560 federally recognized tribes use traditional methods of dispute resolution, formal court institutions are a relatively recent development.
The tribal court for the Wind River Indian Reservation was started in 1988. full article

Finally, a homeland for Samish Indians

By Florangela Davila
Seattle Times staff reporter
STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
ANACORTES — Indian Country just grew by 80 acres. The Samish Indians are trying not to feel smug.

This is the tribe, after all, once dismissed by federal authorities as being extinct.

Now here it is, 1,100 members strong, dispersed throughout coastal Washington and Canada but about to be anchored by a swath of rural property abutting Campbell Lake on Fidalgo Island.

In a newsletter mailed last week, the tribe announced how the acreage, purchased over the past three years, has been put into trust by the federal government. full article

Two tribes reach out across miles -- and years -- with whaling link
By KATHY GEORGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The Makah Tribe in Washington and the coastal Chukchi Tribe in Russia began sharing gray whales centuries ago, when the migrating mammals were as abundant as the freezing gales blowing with them across the Bering Sea.

Each tribe took what it needed from the population -- until the 1920s, when decimation by commercial hunters left too few of the whales to share. 

The Makahs stopped hunting whales. And a way of life, steeped in songs, halted. full article

Tribe sues over urban expansions

* The Suquamish Tribe asks Kitsap County Superior Court to invalidate urban expansions approved in Kingston and South Kitsap.

By Christopher Dunagan, Sun Staff
October 23, 2004

Three major urban expansions in Kitsap County, which together make room for more than 10,000 people plus major industrial developments, have been challenged in a lawsuit filed by the Suquamish Indian Tribe.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn:

* A new community designed for 10,000 people west of Port Orchard known as McCormick Urban Village,
* The 2,000-acre South Kitsap Industrial Area,
* Expansions of Kingston's urban growth area to serve 256 new homes plus commercial uses.

All three rezones were approved in 2003 by the Kitsap County commissioners after many years of review and were later upheld by the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.

But the tribe's lawsuit claims that the county failed to justify the need for expanding the urban growth areas and contends that the hearings board erred in its interpretation of state law.

The suit names Kitsap County, the Growth Management Hearings Board and McCormick Land Co.

The legal issues are complex, but the tribe says the expansions will increase urban sprawl, damage the environment and impair the tribe's treaty rights to hunting and fishing. full article

Native people still struggling to reach upper echelon in mainstream politics
- Oct. 23, 2004
By JODI RAVE/ Lee Enterprises

They're knocking. But will someone let them in?
Native people are at the door, but few have been invited into top leadership roles at the Democratic and Republican parties.
The GOP doesn't have any Natives on its national committee. Just five can claim spots on the Democratic National Committee.

Each earned the distinction by working through state party ranks. But only one has risen to take a seat on the national committee's 61-member executive board.
Frank LaMere, a Winnebago from South Sioux City, Neb., and a longtime member of the Nebraska Democratic Party, joined the executive board two years ago - after eight years on the national committee full article

Back from hiatus

Back from hiatus. I'll be catching up with the emails and posting the latest info as it comes in.

BTW, Indian Country Today is supposed to print a retraction in addition to publishing our letter to the editor.

Our response to Indian Country Today article.

Last week, Indian Country Today ran an op-ed entitled "Vernon and Columbus: Improving the dialogue on genocidal truth"
full article

This is our response to that op-ed.

AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT OF COLORADO – www.coloradoaim.org
For immediate release – 18 October 2004
Contact the American Indian Movement of Colorado at: 303-871-0463

As the Leadership Council and the Elder’s Council of the American Indian Movement (AIM) of Colorado we would like to commend Indian Country Today for it’s column praising Vernon Bellecourt for his outstanding work on Columbus Day. We say that we’d like to, but we can’t. You see, the information in the column is absolutely false and inaccurate. Even a cursory glance at ICT’s own article, in the same issue, reveals that Bellecourt was no part of Transform Columbus Day events in Denver, this year or any year. Allow us to set the record straight.

Colorado AIM and our allies began the campaign to dismantle Columbus Day in its birthplace (it originated in 1905 in Colorado) in 1988. For the four years leading up to the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival, we engaged in a variety of public education campaigns, including changing school curricula, participating in public debates, pursuing media campaigns, and confronting the Columbus parade. In 1991, Russell Means, Ward Churchill, Margaret Martinez and Glenn Morris were arrested, and later acquitted by a jury, of blocking the parade. In 1992, Colorado AIM mobilized over 3500 people in Denver to confront the parade. The parade organizers ultimately cancelled their racist escapade, and Colorado AIM and our allies celebrated the greatest indigenous victory against Columbus revelry in the country that year. For more information on this history, visit our website at www.coloradoaim.org, or the Transform Columbus Day website at www.transformcolumbusday.org.

Vernon Bellecourt has never been in Denver to protest Columbus Day, and he certainly has never lifted a finger to support the efforts of Colorado AIM (and the Transform Columbus Day Alliance) to eradicate the racist holiday in its birthplace in Denver. Bellecourt was nowhere within a thousand miles of Denver when Colorado AIM and our allies stopped the parades in 1991,1992, 2000, and this year, when 250 people were arrested. The fact that Bellecourt would attempt to take credit for our fifteen years of organizing in Denver, clearly reflects on the kind of opportunistic, duplicitous and dishonest person that he is. Colorado AIM is not associated in any way with Vernon Bellecourt, or his private corporation, National AIM, Inc. for precisely this kind of behavior.

When your editorial stated that Bellecourt “continues in the tradition of an early Russell Means,” you exposed your own ignorance of events in Denver, and of Means’ and Bellecourt’s record on this issue. Not only has Russell been arrested three times in Denver for protesting Columbus, including for pouring blood on the Columbus statue (the charges ultimately were dropped), but Russell with us in Denver this year, and stood in the street with us against the “Convoy of Conquest.” Carrie Dann of the Western Shoshone resistance was there, the protesters of the Lewis and Clark re-inactment were there, but Bellecourt was MIA (missing in action) when the Denver riot squad and SWAT team moved in to arrest us.

As your editorial implies, however, this issue is much larger, and of much greater importance than whether Vernon Bellecourt gets credit for our work in Denver. Much more urgently is the question of how the celebration of Columbus Day, and the Columbus legacy continue to disenfranchise, dispossess, and ultimately destroy indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. The Western Shoshone have their backs against the wall – with the U.S. government poised to close the final chapter in the theft of 24 million acres of Shoshone territory, in violation of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The U.S. continues to lie and destroy documents in the multi-billion dollar trust fund case, an outrage that no racial or ethnic group in the U.S.(other than American Indians) would be forced to suffer. Indian people continue to lose a higher percentage of cases at the U.S. Supreme Court than any other litigant group – including convicted felons seeking appeal. That is part of the legacy of Columbus. The ideology of the Bush administration in Iraq today is the legacy of Columbus and of the Indian Wars of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, at places like Sand Creek and Wounded Knee.

Those are some of the reasons why we got arrested in Denver on October 9th, and why we refuse to allow anti-Indian displays and celebrations to proceed unimpeded in our own homeland. We will continue to confront Columbus Day, and what it represents -- the celebration of colonialism and genocide – at every opportunity. We ask you all to join us next year in Denver, the 100th anniversary of the holiday, when we drive the final nails in the coffin of the holiday, in its birthplace. We are inviting indigenous peoples from around the hemisphere to join us – Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, Zapatistas from Chiapas Mexico, indigenous peoples from the Arctic to Amazonia, are all expected in Denver next October. We will be here, young and old, northern and southern, indigenous and non-i9ndigenous. We invite you to come to Denver, too, where you should expect to make history with us, but by no means should you expect to see Vernon Bellecourt here.
Elders' Council Representatives
Tink Tinker (Osage) (Coordinator) • Russell Means (Oglala Lakota) • Yank Bad Hand (Oglala Lakota) • Lillian Fobb (Seminole) • Joe Locust (Cherokee) Vivian Locust (Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne) Margaret Red Shirt Tyon (Oglala Lakota) • Ida Bear (Ho-Chunk) • Logan Bear (Omaha) • Norma Williams (Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne) • Thomas Allen (Sac and Fox) • Mary Ann Allen (Northern Arapaho) • Virgina Allrunner (Southern Cheyenne) Helen Red Feather (Oglala Lakota) Robert Cross (Oglala Lakota) Charles Bear Robe (Oglala Lakota)
Leadership Council Representatives
Tink Tinker (Osage) • TroyLynn Yellow Wood (OglalaLakota/ NorthernCheyenne) • Ted Roy (Meskwaki/Anishinabe) • Mona Roy (Meskwaki/Anishinabe) • Robert Chanate (Kiowa) • Glenn Morris (Shawnee) • Reid Zephier (Oglala Lakota) • Vicci Anderson (Diné) • Ward Churchill (Ketoowah Cherokee) • Jennifer Williams (Sicangu Lakota) • Carol Barry (Chickasaw) • Josh Dillabaugh (Cheyenne River Lakota) • Michelle Wolf (Cheyenne River) • Brenda Jenkins (Omaha) Tony Beltham (San Carlos Apache/Oglala Lakota)
Youth Council Coordinators (Shades of Red youth empowerment group) Serena Roy (Meskwaki/Anishinabe/Cheyenne Rive Lakota) - Timberwolf Running Wolf (Cheyenne River/Oglala Lakota) – Bear Black Elk (Oglala Lakota)

articles october 15

The Bush-DeLay-Indian Casinos  Campaign Money Laundering Operation

(Wampum ‘til they’re dead)

 by Laurence A. Toenjes

 OpEdNews.com
 
Congressman Tom DeLay , a.k.a. “The Hammer”, has been at the center of two investigations recently by the House Ethics Committee.  In each case, and within the span of approximately one week, a letter of reprimand was sent to Mr. DeLay. These actions resulted from unanimous decisions by the 10 member committee, which is made up of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats.  In addition, three close associates of DeLay were recently indicted in Texas for activities related to improper use of corporate funds in state elections and in laundering corporate money for use by Republican candidates for the Texas House of Representatives. To top it off, two of Mr. DeLay’s closest personal and political associates, Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon, are at the center of a federal investigation into the possible improper acquisition of some $66 million from several Indian tribes that operate gambling casinos. This investigation was undertaken at the behest of Senator John McCain.
 
The purpose of this paper is to connect the above dots, revealing a pattern of associations and payments that begins with Congressman Tom DeLay and ends up on the very doorstep of President Bush’s re-election campaign. full articles

Kildee claims bill amendment 'breaks promise'

Posted: October 15, 2004
by: James May / Indian Country Today
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The United States House of Representatives approved a Republican-sponsored amendment that would waive the laws protecting American Indian sacred sites in the construction of a security barrier just south of San Diego on the U.S./Mexico border.

The amendment passed the House of Representatives by a 256 to 160 vote and seeks to waive several federal laws governing construction along the last three miles of the proposed 14-mile security barrier including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the National Historic Preservation Act. In all 215 of 221 Republicans in the House voted for the amendment.

''By enacting federal laws and implementing federal mandates, we promised Native Americans that we would protect and preserve their places of worship, resting places for the deceased and religious freedom. This amendment breaks that promise by not providing any mechanism for notice or consultation upon finding any cultural, ceremonial or historical sites,'' said Rep. Dale Kildee, one of the most vocal critics of the amendment. full article

American Indians Worry About Mercury

ASHLEY H. GRANT
Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. - American Indians are adding their voices to the controversy over mercury in the nation's waters, saying they are among the biggest consumers of fish and therefore more at risk from contamination.

"It is a real issue," said Bob Shimek, a member of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota who says he fishes to put food on the table. "It's not something abstract."

A report Friday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which analyzed 2003 data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency, showed that 44 states including Minnesota had active mercury consumption advisories last year. full article

Cause for Celebration?

By Craig Henry

NORMAN, Okla.—Ah, Columbus Day.

It’s a day of celebration. A day to celebrate … well, what are we supposed to celebrate?

On the 4th of July, we celebrate America’s independence from England. On Memorial Day, we celebrate all the people who died in war. On Labor Day, well … that’s another one I don’t really know about, but I get out of school and work, so I celebrate it.

I was always told that Columbus Day was the day to celebrate when Columbus discovered the New World. But that never made much sense to me. If you go to a place where another civilization is thriving, how can you justify saying you discovered it? full article

Native Times profiles Tink's latest book

Today's web edition of the Native Times has an article that profiles Tink's latest book Spirit and Resistance.

Osage author examines the impact of religion on Native American culture
What role does Christianity play?

10/15/2004
In the newly released Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation theologian George Tinker writes from a Native American perspective, probing American Indian culture, its vast religious and cultural legacy, and its ambiguous relationship to the tradition—historic Christianity—that colonized and converted it.

After five hundred years of conquest and social destruction, he says, any useful reflection must come to terms with the political state of Indian affairs and the political hopes and visions for recovering the health and well-being of Indian communities. Does Christian theology have a positive role to play?

Tinker's work offers an overview of contemporary Native American culture and its perilous state. Critical of recent liberal and New Age co-opting of Native spiritual practices, Tinker also offers a critical corrective to liberation theology. He shows how Native insights into the Sacred Other and sacred space helpfully reconfigure traditional ideas of God, Jesus' notion of the reign of God, and our relation to the earth. From this basis he offers novel proposals about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the endangered health of Native Americans. full article

CO AIM member responds to Letter to Editor

This letter to the editor was submitted to the Rocky Mountain News, in response to the LTTE by Tom Ross, "Wanting it both ways." Anyone want to lay odds on whether or not they will print it?

Re: Wanting it both ways

I would like to thank Tom Ross for sharing his ignorance with the rest of us and for the RM News for printing it so that we can expose the ignorance of some people in the absurdity of his comments. I cannot discuss the full complexity of the tax laws that apply to Indian reservations I can say that generally speaking American Indian people do not pay state income taxes when that money is earned on reservations, and that federal income taxes are not paid on money made from land held in trust by the Federal Government. Outside of that many Indian communities have negotiated some other tax relief with individual states.

Many American Indians refuse to assimilate for two reasons. First, people of color are consistently not allowed to participate in American society because of racial prejudice. Second, American Indians do not assimilate because American culture does not provide any promise of living a satisfying life. Consumerism, the acquisition of money, and living
vicariously through others on television only draws the ignorant.

Lastly, your analogy of going to Mexico to protest cinco de mayo doesn't hold up. American Indians were here first. Non-Indigenous people are colonial occupiers of this land, in the Denver area it is Arapaho and Cheyenne land, don't forget that. But an analogy that does hold up is that celebrating Columbus Day in the Americas is like going to Mexico to celebrate the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, or going to Israel to celebrate Hitler Day.
Mark Freeland, Aurora CO

ICT-Denver Columbus Day protest on international terror watch list

From today's web edtion of Indian Country Today.

Denver Columbus Day protest on international terror watch list
Posted: October 14, 2004
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today
DENVER - The Denver Columbus Day protest and an article from Indian Country Today were placed on an international terrorist watch list, just one day after American Indians and supporters blocked the Columbus Day parade.

The global terrorist ''Security Watch'' listed the Afghan vote, Iraq rebels, Pakistan violence, Bosnian Serbs and Australian politics as the top five risks for Oct. 10.

''Native Americans Protest Columbus Day,'' was number six and even beat out ''Russia, Iran close to deal on spent nuclear fuel.''
The terrorist security watch article appeared after American Indians and their supporters held a peaceful protest in downtown Denver and blocked the Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 9. Denver police arrested, charged and released 205 adults and 25 children, with no incidences of violence.

American Indians called placement of the peaceful protest on the list absurd. The Security Watch list is from International Relations and Security Network, based in Zurich, Switzerland. ISN's stated goal is to help the world understand terrorists. full article

letter to the editor from a typical columbus supporter

This letter to the editor appeared in today's edition of the Rocky Mountain News.

When reading the letter, one is almost tempted to dismiss it as a parody of what an ignorant columbus supporter might write. However, having dealt with columbus supporters over the years, this person's misinformed, unsubstantiated and ignorant letter genuinely reflects the views held by typical columbus supporters.

Keep in mind that the columbus supporters' "heavy hitter," in the form of the Denver Post's David Harsanyi, claimed that Vernon Bellecourt was responsible for shutting down the 1992 parade, after having orchestrated "violent civil disobedience" in 1991, and you get a sense of what sort of mentalities are driving the "convoy of conquest."

Here is the LTTE

Wanting it both ways

It seems to me that native Americans cannot have it both ways. They live in sovereign nations, pay no income tax and reap several other benefits only available to Indian nations by so doing. Many who live in these sovereign nations refuse to assimilate into American society, yet protest American holidays such as Columbus Day with impunity. To me that is the same as me going to Mexico and protesting Cinco de Mayo. Link to letter

Tom Ross
Boulde

Okay, some reservations have agreements in which members living on the reservation do not have to pay state taxes on their income. As for federal income taxes, all indians who earn an income pay federal income taxes except for those who earn their income off trust land. In addition to paying federal income taxes, people living on the reservation pay taxes on any goods they purchase outside of the reservation, which is where most of them make the majority of their purchases.

Next, Ross claims that people living on the reservation protest the columbus day holiday with impunity. Presumably, he means that people living on the reservation travel to Denver to protest and are never punished for doing so. Just in case he missed the news reports, 239 people were arrested for protesting the convoy of conquest this past weekend. Maybe he does not understand the concept of what an arrest is so we'll explain it to him. Being arrested means that one is handcuffed and jailed until they can secure their release by whatever means. Next, they are arraigned and can enter a plea. If found guilty, they face a punishment that is decided by a judge or jury. Punishment can range from probation, fines and/or imprisonment. That's the prospect faced by the 239 people who protested and one which most sane people would regard as a potential punitive consequence for their actions.

Now, had the police declined to arrest anyone and simply escorted them back to their vehicles, then it could be argued that those arrested acted with impunity; but that's not what happened. Ross, ignoring the facts of the weekend and struggling to find something to be outraged about, makes the arguement anyway.

Then he closes with this analogy. "To me that is the same as me going to Mexico and protesting Cinco de Mayo" This analogy raises the level of ridiculousness even for columbus supporters: Cinco de Mayo celebrates the defeat of the French, not the the actions of a man who was an Indian killer and African slave trader. Also, those that protest against the convoy of conquest are invited here by the people of Denver. Finally, Tom Ross's people are not indigenous to Mexico, nor does Mexico fall within the confines of their traditional homelands. Contrast that with most of the Indigenous protestors who's ancestors lived in this area before there was a Colorado or even a United States and you get an insight into the sort of "reasoning" that afflicts the columbus supporters.

Indian Country Today-Denver police arrest 245 for blocking Columbus Day Parade

From today's web edition of Indian Country Today.

Denver police arrest 245 for blocking Columbus Day Parade
Posted: October 14, 2004
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

Calling it a ''Convoy of Conquest,'' American Indian Movement members and their allies, including Western Shoshone Carrie Dann, blocked the Columbus Day Parade in a protest of the Colorado holiday that represents genocide and the theft of homelands for indigenous people in the Americas.

''America continues to fight the 'Indian wars' and one expression of that is Columbus Day,'' AIM organizer Glenn Morris told Indian Country Today.

Protesters focused on exposing the root of genocide in America as they were arrested for blocking the path of the Sons of Italy's Columbus Day Parade of bikers, limos and semi-trucks. Denver police arrested 245 people, including 44 juveniles.

Morris said Indian children as young as seven and eight chose to be arrested because of the injustice they face in U.S. schools.

''Every year they confront the silence of their ancestors' voices in their history classes.''

Further, Morris said when the 245 cases go to court, American Indians and their allies will not be the ones on trial.

''We intend to put Columbus on trial, the city of Denver on trial and the state of Colorado and the United States on trial for celebrating genocide.''

The protesters arrested included the event organizers, Morris, Osage professor Tink Tinker, activist Nita Gonzales, professor Ward Churchill and activist TroyLynn Yellowwood. Charges included interference, failure to comply, loitering and blocking a public street.

The protesters, led by Dann and Lakota from the ''Stop Lewis and Clark'' movement in South Dakota, first gathered at the state capitol before blocking the parade route Oct. 9. Facing 600 Denver police, many armed with riot gear and pepper spray, hundreds refused to move and were arrested without incident and booked. They were released from jail in the afternoon at about 3 p.m.

Morris pointed out that Colorado is the perfect place to halt Columbus Day because Colorado was the first to proclaim it as a state holiday in 1907. Far from being rhetoric, Morris said the bedrock of Columbus Day is the Doctrine of Discovery of 1492, which is the basis of all federal Indian law.

Morris, professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Denver, said Indian lands have been reduced from 2 billion to 50 million acres, based on this doctrine. Columbus advanced and expanded the arrogant European Doctrine of Discovery, claiming that superior, civilized, Christian Europeans had the right to seize and appropriate indigenous peoples territories and resources.

This legacy of Columbus continues today and allows the U.S. government to ''lose'' between $40 and $100 billion that the U.S. was to administer for the benefit of individual American Indians. The government has admitted that it deliberately destroyed evidence in the case, and it appears that the U.S. has no intention of finding or accounting for the money that it has stolen, he said.

This doctrine has been embedded into racist Federal Indian Law, and is apparent today in the case of the Western Shoshone in Nevada and the Lakota in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

''We're not talking about a hypothetical theory to Native people.''
Morris said the result of the Doctrine of Discovery was the loss of land and lives for Indian people. Today, the rhetoric of ''Indian wars'' is used in Iraq by the United States military as it seeks to take control of territory. ''All hostile territory in Iraq is still called 'Indian country.' People who fraternize with Iraqi are said to be 'going Native.'''

Columbus Day protesters followed the philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr., who expressed the hope that direct action would lead to negotiations. In Denver, the Transform Columbus Day Alliance struggles to bring a halt to the Colorado holiday. Other states, including South Dakota, have replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day.

Western Shoshone Carrie Dann, struggling with other Western Shoshone to protect their homelands in Nevada, and the Red Earth Women's Alliance helped organize and lead the marches, one in a local park on Oct. 8 and the culminating protest in downtown Denver on Oct. 9.

''Our arrests are designed to expose a corrupt educational, legal and political system that refuses to describe the destruction of millions of indigenous people at the hands of Columbus for what it is: Genocide,'' Colorado AIM said in a statement after the arrests.

The action was to ''expose such moral and legal bankruptcy, and we actively refuse to cooperate with legalized murder and theft.''
Morris pointed out the facts: Christopher Columbus was a slave trader. Columbus was involved in trading African slaves prior to his voyage to the Americas in 1492. Columbus was personally responsible for overseeing a colonial administration that directly led to the death of millions of indigenous people.

Father Bartolome de Las Casas, an eyewitness and a contemporary of Columbus, estimated that 15 million indigenous people died in the Caribbean.

Prior to the march, American Indians urged a letter-writing campaign to local newspapers, including the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, accusing both papers of failing to provide balanced coverage of the issues. Italian-Americans wrote letters pointing out that not all Italians in this country support Columbus and many stand with Indian protesters.

In preparation of a protest, Mohandas K. Gandhi was quoted: ''Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness.''

In 2003, Colorado AIM and allies were led by the late American Indian elder Wallace Black Elk and Richard Costaldo, a paralyzed Italian-American survivor of the Columbine massacre. They turned their backs on the parade and walked away. However, this year, they said was a year for direct action.

''In that spirit, we commend the organizers of the Festival Italiano, which was held in Lakewood on Sept. 25 - 26,'' Colorado AIM said, pointing out that it is the type of festival that fosters unity and understanding LINK to article

EZLN seeks assistance for villages that are under attack

The EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) is seeking assistance in helping to relocate villages that have been dispersed by parmilitary squads. The villages moved into the ""Montes Azules biosphere" and are now seeking to relocate to a different area, into a tighter more concentrated group, so as to defend against attacks by the parmilitary squads.

The request for assistance, by the EZLN, is reprinted in it's entirety. This arrived via email and we will provide a link whenever we one becomes available. The communique' states that the logistics for providing assistance will be sent along at a later date.

EZLN: Zapatista villages under attack seek help

October of 2004.

To the people of Mexico:

To national and international civil society:

Brothers and sisters:

The EZLN is addressing you in order to state the following:

First. - Owing to harassment by paramilitary groups and the intolerance
encouraged by the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI] in some
communities, dozens of zapatista indigenous families found themselves
forced, some time ago, to move and to form small population groups in
the so-called "Montes Azules biosphere."

During the time that they have been in this terrible situation, far
from their native lands, the displaced zapatistas have gone to great
effort to carry out our laws which mandate that the forests be cared
for. Nonetheless, the federal government - at the hand of the
transnationals who are trying to gain control of the wealth of the
Selva Lacandona - has threatened, time and again, to violently
dislocate all the villages in that region, including the zapatista
ones.

The compañeros and compañeras from various communities threatened with
dislocation decided to resist as long as the government failed to
comply with the San Andrés Accords. Their decision has been respected
and supported by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. At that
time we pointed out, and we are now reaffirming: if any of our
communities are violently dislocated, we, all of us, will respond in
kind.

Second. - With the advance of the "good government juntas," a large
number of the zapatista indigenous communities have been provided with
the means of substantially improving their living conditions. The
rebel communities have achieved successes, especially in health and
education - without any federal, state or official municipal help -
which easily surpass those of the official communities.

This has been possible because of help from brothers and sisters from
all over Mexico and the world.

These benefits, however, have not managed to cover all the rebel
communities. The displaced populations in Montes Azules, in
particular, have not benefited from these advances.

Third. - Respecting their autonomy, the Comandancia General of the
EZLN addressed the "Hacia la Esperanza" Good Government Junta in the
selva border region, headquartered in La Realidad, in order to ask for
their help in matters of health, education and commerce for these
displaced communities. The Good Government Junta has responded that
they will do everything necessary, as far as they are able, to attend
to these zapatista brothers and sisters.

The distance and scattered nature of some of these villages, however,
present important difficulties. The EZLN has therefore agreed, with
the express consent of their residents, to reconcentrate some of the
zapatista villages in that region, so that they can thus be taken in by
the Good Government Junta of the selva border region.

The following are the villages to which we are referring:

Primero de Enero.

San Isidro.

12 de Diciembre.

8 de Octubre.

Santa Cruz.

Nuevo Limar.

Agua Dulce.

There are a total of 50 families.

We would like to make it clear that they are not the only zapatista
villages in the Montes Azules. There are other zapatista population
centers in that region who are continuing to live with the threat of
dislocation.

Fourth. - The Comandancia General of the EZLN has been holding talks
for several months with the compañeros and compañeras of these
villages, and it has reviewed with them the paths for improving their
difficult situation a bit.

Together, the conclusion has been reached that it would be best if some
villages were reconcentrated in one place. In that way they will be
able to better resist the threats, they will be able to better care for
the selva, they will be participants in the advances of the good
government junta, and they will be able to better participate in the
EZLN's struggle for the respect and recognition of indigenous rights
and culture.

Fifth. - With the backing of those villages and of the Good Government
Junta of the selva border region, the EZLN is turning to national and
international civil society for their moral and economic support of
this reconcentration, because, in compliance with zapatista resistance,
these villages have declared that they will not receive any help from
the state and federal governments.

Sixth. - With the same backing, the Comandancia General of the EZLN
has turned to social activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, in order to
respectfully ask her to agree to create whatever is necessary so that
national and international civil society can help in this task,
financially and with their work. This is with the understanding that a
clear accounting will be presented and that the EZLN is publicly
committing itself to absolutely making sure that this money is not used
for anything other than the reconcentration, under dignified
conditions, of the compañeros and compañeras.

Once Doña Rosario has accepted, and the involved communities so decide,
the EZLN will announce the details of the stages and work for this
reconcentration.

Seventh. - We sincerely hope that national and international civil
society will respond to our call to help these communities and thus to
improve their zapatista living conditions, that is, their struggle and
resistance.

Democracy!

Liberty!

Justice!

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee -
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.

Mexico, October of 2004, 20 and 10.

Stop Lewis and Clark Resistance Group will be in Bismarck,ND

The "Stop Lewis and Clark Resistance Group" will be in Bismarck, ND, on the days of October 21 and 22, to hold an educational forum as well as to protest the re-enactment of the invasion. We are asking all supporters, who can make the trip, to please attend and support the resistance group.

Here is the full text of their press release. For more information, please visit their website at www.stoplewisandclark.org

Stop Lewis and Clark Resistance Group
To Protest & Educate In Bismarck, ND
News Statement for Release October 13, 2004

The Dawn of Genocide represented by the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark “Dawn of Discovery of 1804-1806” will be protested by a group of people who resist the message as portrayed as an $87 million travesty and delusion of historians who have ignored, and who continue to ignore, the voice of indigenous peoples and nations on this island.

A Rally sponsored by the Resistance Group on the evening of October 21, 2004 at United Tribes Technical College will educate those interested in learning the native version of the impact of Lewis and Clark opening the door to Indian Country.

Natives, and non-natives as well, are invited and encouraged to attend the Rally: The Seventh Generation Gathering to Protest the Commemoration of Genocide. The Rally will be held on the United Tribes Technical College campus at the James Henry Building, 3315 University Drive, and will begin at 5pm with an evening meal. The Rally will open with a ceremony by Lakota spiritual leaders, and the Lakota drum group Crazy Horse Singers of the Pine Ridge, SD homeland will be present to sing traditional Lakota social songs.

Native Hip-Hop artist Buggs Malone of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area will perform positive rap.

Speakers from the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) in South Dakota will share their knowledge from the Lakota perspective about the impact of the Euro-American invasion on the indigenous nations.

Topic areas will include the effect of colonization and christenization of native nations on today’s people: the myriad of social problems caused by the cultural genocide against people of the Oceti Sakowin and thoughts on how to reverse this condition through the revitalization of traditional Lakota life ways and through people reclaiming their kinship system, Lakota language, and spiritual way of life: decolonization; as well as talks on sovereignty, treaty rights and human rights.

Experienced activists and leaders will share expertise and histories with the young activists and organizers.

The Rally will sponsor an “open microphone” to provide an opportunity for young activists to talk about issues facing their communities, bands, nations; and to open a dialog with other young people on how to impact the issues they feel are important.

Snapshot presentations at the Rally will include the proposed uranium mine near the Pine Ridge Reservation on the South Dakota-Nebraska state line, and the proposed nuclear waste dump Nebraska is planning for the Rosebud Reservation border with Nebraska; and the local issue of the proposed coal-bed strip mining for Couteau, North Dakota and its effects on sacred sites to the Oceti Sakowin. Other issues to be discussed include effective organizing and environmental racism.

The Stop the Lewis and Clark Resistance Group believes it is important to educate native nations and the general public about such topics, as these issues are a result of the invasion of native lands by the Euro-Americans who followed the blueprint laid out by Lewis and Clark.

Indigenous people and nations do not feel the same way about the “Louisiana Purchase” as do most Americans-that it was okay to purchase land at 3 cents an acre from someone who didn’t even own it! The indigenous perspective will be shared about this “Ämerican” historical event as well as other events in the Lewis and Clark version of the portrayal of “American” history.

The Stop the Lewis and Clark Resistance Group will protest the reenactment activities on October 22, 2004 scheduled for 11:00 am at Bismark, ND on the University of Mary Campus. The Resistance Group will portray the truth as seen from indigenous eyes through the non-violent direct action to protest this $87 million travesty.

Additional information is available at the website: www.stoplewisandclark.org

articles-October 14

Columbus persona non grata in Latin America
10/14/2004 12:03
In October 12, many countries in Latin America celebrated the day in which Christopher Columbus first arrived in America, 512 years ago. Indigenous people from all over the region protested as only 10% of them survived the European colonization.

October 12 is Spain"s national day. It is also a remarkable holiday across Latin America as the world commemorates the day in which Christopher Columbus arrived, without noticing it, to the new world. That happened 512 years ago.

Today, American natives from different tribes all along the continent still blame on what is considered by many intellectuals as the first holocaust in world"s history. According to estimations, 40 million people, around 90% of the original population of America, was exterminated by European conquerors.

Countries like Argentina and Uruguay still celebrate what they consider the day of the Spanish Race. Others, like Venezuela have changed the name of October 12 Columbus Day to The Day of Indigenous Resistance. But that happened recently, under the leftist rule of President Hugo Chavez, who, joined by indigenous leaders from across the country, Chavez attended ceremonies to commemorate the national holiday on Tuesday. full article

"G" Is for Genocide
Alumni Viewpoint
October 14, 2004
Jason Corwin

"The bigger the lie, the greater likelihood that it will be believed." -- Adolf Hitler
There is a serious moral deficit in America that many have yet to come to terms with. The celebration of Christopher Columbus' arrival is a de facto celebration of the genocide of the indigenous people of this land. By all standards, notably the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, which was codified into international law after the world community punished the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials, the European colonization of the western hemisphere has undisputedly been genocidal. America's true history regarding native peoples has, in fact, been lawless, inhumane and barbaric, despite attempts by revisionist academics and the media to mythologize Columbus and his legacy, disregarding the evidence of his crimes against humanity.

Recently The Cornell American published an article to "honor America's first and finest mass murderer." Defenders of Columbus Day have used weak and racist arguments to justify their position. Campus conservatives have variously asserted that "genocide is no reason to cancel a holiday," and that it is a means of honoring Italian-Americans, who never did anything against Native Americans. My ancestors, who were renowned as great orators and debaters (so much so that several Founding Fathers found it prudent to study and attempt to emulate our form of governance), used fact and logic to advance arguments in councils. If we apply these techniques to the arguments and rationales forwarded by Columbus Day supporters, we can lay a shameful legacy to rest. Sadly, Americans knows very little truth about the original people of this land.

Since first contact in 1492, Europeans have either demonized us as non-human savages or romanticized us as perfect children of nature. Neither view was ever grounded in reality, as our cultures were highly diverse and contained positive and negative aspects, like all human societies. This has been perpetuated by inaccurate and stereotypical portrayals in media and educational curricula. Most people are ignorant of the significant contributions to humanity that we made in the areas of agriculture, democratic governance and human rights. A hallmark of these societies was a balance between collective responsibility and individual freedom. True freedom was so much a part of indigenous culture that it inspired Europeans to cast off the shackles of feudalism and monarchies. full article

States, government agree on Klamath Basin

Officials pledge to resolve water issues

By MATTHEW DALY

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and the governors of California and Oregon said Wednesday they have agreed to work together to resolve water issues in the drought-starved Klamath Basin.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the agreement would help the two states and four federal agencies as they work with farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, conservationists and other groups that use the chronically dry basin along the California-Oregon border. full article

Parents protest education standards at Piapot

PIAPOT FIRST NATION, SASK. - Members of the Piapot First Nation have shut down the local school in protest of a new curriculum.

Parents locked the school doors and blocked the entrance Tuesday. They say their children are not getting the education they deserve.

Under the new curriculum, students from kindergarten to grade twelve were tested, and many of them were placed in special education.

But some parents are doubting the accuracy of those tests.

"You based our whole native children of this First Nation community as special need?" asks Alvina Crowe. full article

Indigenous Women Reclaim Traditional Medicine
COLOMBIA:

Yadira Ferrer*

BOGOTA, Oct 14 (IPS) - Luxmenia Banda, of the San Andrés de Sotavento indigenous reserve in northern Colombia, remembers that when she had bruises as a girl, her grandmother would apply the leaves of the 'árnica' (Heterotheca inuloides), of the daisy family, ''to reduce inflammation'', and would use crushed oregano to prevent scratches from becoming infected.

''When we were forced from our lands and had to move to other places, all of those traditions began to be forgotten. Reclaiming them was one of the first tasks we took up when we returned,'' Banda, head of the Association of Alternative Producers, Asproal, told Tierramérica.

Seventy of the 803 women who are part of the organisation, most from the Zenú community, participate directly in growing and marketing medicinal plants. full article

Owners discover they are renters
By Valarie Lee/The Daily Times
Oct 14, 2004, 11:42 pm

SHIPROCK — Imagine being offered the opportunity to live in a large, airy, beautifully designed home with a big yard.

And imagine how excited you and your family would be about moving into this brand new home after spending years living in a cramped apartment.

Now, before you move in, local tribal officials, dignitaries and the corporation who built the home, serve a sumptuous catered lunch and eat with you and your family.

During this luncheon, various officials congratulate you on owning your new home.

After lunch, officials hand you a small elegantly wrapped box. Inside you find a key.

The officials explain to you the key goes to your new house and you are now officially the “new owners.” full article

articles-October 13

A fight to save the tradition of wild rice

Harvesting wild rice has been a way of life for Ojibwa Indians. But the rice is in decline and fewer young tribe members now participate.

By Richard Mertens | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SPUR LAKE, WIS. – The ducks are soaring overhead, the scent of autumn is in the air, and Pete McGeshick is back ricing again. On a bright September morning, he floats in a sea of wild rice, using a pair of yard-long cedar sticks to knock the kernels into his battered aluminum canoe.

Mr. McGeshick, an Ojibwa (o-JIB-way) Indian from Mole Lake, Wis., has been harvesting wild rice since he was a boy. Now, with decades of experience behind him, he is a virtuoso of the harvest. With quick and graceful motions, he reaches out with one stick and bends the stalks over the canoe, while he delivers two glancing blows with another stick to dislodge the ripe grains. Rice patters like soft rain against the aluminum.

"You don't have to hit it hard," he says. "A lot of people think you do. But you just want the ripe stuff," which falls off easily. full article

Métis may face charges for hunting, warns province

WINNIPEG - Manitoba's Conservation Minister says Métis hunters will be charged if they break hunting laws, even if they carry Métis harvester identification cards.

The Manitoba Métis Federation has issued more than 175 harvester cards to its members. The cards claim the same hunting rights as status Indians.

However, months of talks between the Manitoba government and the Manitoba Métis Federation have failed to come up with an official agreement on Métis hunting rights.

Conservation Minister Stan Struthers says holding a harvester card does not allow someone to hunt on private property without permission. As for Crown land, Struthers says that would have to be based on the Powley case, in which the Supreme Court gave an Ontario Métis man the right to hunt in his community. full article

Panelists debate Indian trust reform
Interior defends record amidst criticism

Sam Lewin 10/13/2004
Officials with the Bureau of Indian Affairs are defending the progress they have made in trust reform, even as attorneys involved in the case say little has been done.

The comments all came during a panel discussion held at the National Congress of American Indians Annual Conference in Fort Lauderdale. Several thousand tribal delegates witnessed the debate.

Special Trustee Ross Swimmer said things have improved, although there is still work to be done. full article

Winona LaDuke endorsement of John Kerry for president
Posted: October 13, 2004
 
I am voting for John Kerry this November. I love this land, and I know that we need to make drastic changes in Washington if we are going to protect our land and our communities. I am committed to transforming the American democracy so that it is reflective of the diversity of this country. I believe in a multi-party system and a multi-racial democracy. I believe there are many opinions, not simply two, that merit a hearing on any issue. I believe we should be working harder to increase the numbers of people of color, women, and Native people elected to office because we are this country and we are what America looks like. I'm voting my conscience on Nov. 2; I'm voting for John Kerry.

This does not mean that John Kerry will be a perfect leader. Nor does it mean that any of us should give Kerry a pass simply because he is a rational alternative to the most destructive administration in recent memory. But he has earned my support, even if the leaders of his party aren't quite with the program. I regret that the Democratic Party is investing positive, grassroots energy in a campaign to deny ballot access to Ralph Nader - grassroots energy that is needed in these urgent times. I support wholeheartedly Ralph Nader's right to run and be on the ballot in all states. In a true democracy, the right to be on the ballot in all states and the right to participate in the presidential debates would be guaranteed. That's what democracy is. We must continue to work to make this ideal of democracy the reality in America. full article

More on Indigenous Resistance Day and the toppled statue

Yesterday was the 3rd annual celebration of the National Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela.

Venezuela celebrated its National Day of Indigenous Resistance on this day in October that marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the continent in 1492.

President Hugo Chavez presented a floral arrangement at the National Pantheon in honor of Chief Guaicaipuro, a 16th Century indigenous leader who managed to unite the distinct indigenous people of the Caracas valley in resistance to Spanish colonialism.

Chavez greeted dozens of indigenous people who traveled from as far away as the Venezuelan Amazon to mark this day in the country’s capital named after Guaicaipuro’s people, the Caracas.

Zoila Yanez, 21, a member of the Warao people of the state of Delta Amacuro, said that this Day of Indigenous Resistance is important to native communities in Venezuela because it dispels the idea that Columbus discovered this continent. “When Christopher Columbus landed on this continent we were here. We were here defending our land, our customs, our art, and our culture. They wanted to eliminate our culture but they could not. We are still here and we are still resisting,” Yanez said.

Indigenous events took place throughout the day at the Teresa Carreño opera house, once reserved for the wealthy elite of the city and which today housed Venezuelan indigenous ceremonies and an audience of native people from across the country during today’s national holiday. full article

Meanwhile, another group decided to celebrate the day by pulling down a bronze statue of christopher columbus from it's marble base. They then drug the statue through the streets and spray painted slogans on the base where the columbus statue had previously been erected.

The statue was located in downtown Caracas atop a 30 foot high pedestal. Protestors used thick yellow climbing ropes to bring down the 100 year old statue of Columbus and dragged the remains through downtown Caracas and towards the Teresa Carreño theatre, where hundreds of indigenous people presented their cultural songs and dance to each other and other supporters commemorating October 12. The protestors intended to ask indigenous people to bring Columbus to trial after 512 years.

According to the opposition newspaper "El Universal," protestors hung the Columbus statue head down from a tree near the Teresa Carreño opera house and shouted, "Justice for the people, justice for the people!" Caracas police and the National Guard recovered the statue of the fallen Columbus and arrested 5 people. full article

Below are 3 photos. The first is of the statue being pulled down. The second is of the statue being drug through the streets and the last is of the graffiti covered statue base.







Indigenous Resistance Day-fun for the whole family.

UNM students hold rally on Indigenous Peoples' Day

Students at UNM held a rally, yesterday, that was part protest and part rally. As the UNM student organizer Deborah Horse Chief notes, there appears to be a resurregence in Indigenous activism and columbus day is becoming something of a rallying point.

Natives protest Columbus Day
Rally celebrates Indigenous Peoples' Day instead

Media Credit: Tina Larkin
Jeff Cherino, left, and Doreen Tenorio look at an American-Indian magazine in the SUB on Monday during a rally held by Native American studies to protest Columbus Day.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In 2004, students from Native American studies say that's no reason for celebration.

American-Indian students protested Columbus Day on Monday with a rally in the SUB, saying the day should instead be called Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Rebekah Horse Chief, one of the organizers of the event, read a declaration stating Columbus began a sordid tale of assimilation, acculturation, genocide and maiming of an indigenous population when he landed on the shores of Cuba. full article

Some more photos from the convoy of conquest protest

These photos are posted in the order they occurred on Saturday. They capture the events from the rally to the point right before the arrests began. Underneath each photo is a brief description.


This is the notorious "columbus-savage" poster the AP article described


Tony and Timber


Serena holding the pipe while the drum group, lead by Duane Martin, sings


Vic Camp, of Owe Aku, speaks of their efforts in opposing the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark invasion.


Richard Castaldo speaks while AIM security(in the black) begins to assemble to lead the march to the convoy of conquest route


The group leaves the capitol and walks to towards the route


United Native America carries a banner that reads "Christopher Columbus-America's first terrorist"


This is about the halfway point along the walk to the convoy route


this was taken a couple of blocks away from the route


a couple of blocks away


walking through the barricades into the street


assembling in the streets


forming the line across the street

Indians topple Columbus statue in Caracas

Natives in Caracas celebrated "Indian Resistance Day" by pulling down a bronze statue of christopher columbus.

Chavez Backers Topple Columbus Statue in Caracas
Tue Oct 12, 2004 05:30 PM ET

By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez celebrated Columbus Day on Tuesday by toppling a statue in Caracas of the explorer whom Chavez blames for ushering in a "genocide" of native Indians.

Two years ago, Chavez rechristened the Oct. 12 holiday -- commemorated widely in the Americas to mark Christopher Columbus' 1492 landing in the New World -- "Indian Resistance Day."

The new name honored Indians killed by Spanish and other foreign conquerors who followed in the wake of the Italian-born Columbus who sailed in the service of the Spanish crown.

As the left-wing nationalist president led celebrations on Tuesday to honor Indian chiefs who resisted the Spanish conquest, a group of his supporters conducted a mock trial of a bronze statue of Columbus in central Caracas.

They declared the image guilty of "imperialist genocide," looped ropes around its outstretched arm and neck and heaved it down from its marble base. No police or other authorities intervened as the protesters drove off in a truck yelling, "We've killed Columbus!"

"This isn't a historical heritage. ... Columbus is the symbol of a conquest that was a globalization by blood and fire, a cultural massacre," said Vitelio Herrera, a philosophy student at Venezuela's Central University.

Chavez has called Latin America's Spanish and Portuguese conquerors "worse than Hitler" and the precursors of modern-day "imperialism" he says is now embodied by the United States, the biggest buyer of his country's oil.

"We're celebrating what the president has said," said Herrera. The base of the toppled statue was daubed with slogans such as "Columbus = Bush. Out!"

The protesters, many who wore red T-shirts with slogans supporting Chavez, repeated the Venezuelan leader's fierce criticism of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

"Didn't they tear down the statue of Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq? For me, (U.S. President George W.) Bush represents barbarity and Chavez represents civilization," said Orlando Iturbe, a 57-year-old member of a pro-Chavez cooperative.

Some passersby said they were shocked by the action. "I don't agree with this. The statue was something historical that we should remember," said Jose Luis Maita, who watched with his wife and small daughters. LINK

NASA students in Michigan hold Columbus Forum

This from Michigan

Columbus Day sparks debate over explorer's legacy

Writing in his journal two days after setting foot in the Americas for the first time, Christopher Columbus came to a conclusion about the native peoples — “I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”

More than a year after his arrival in 1492, Columbus returned to the Americas with 17 ships and 1,200 men, enslaving the natives in search of gold. With his expedition also came disease, decimating the population. By 1555, some claim that two million natives on the island of Hispaniola were nearly reduced to extinction.

And for this cruelty, America awards Columbus with a holiday, said Matt Stehney, president of the Native American Student Association. full article

Photos from the Convoy of Conquest Blockade

These photos are courtesy of Jolynne Woodcock.


These are the allies that were arrested in the first wave. TCD is an alliance that is comprised of organizations and individuals from all nations. The indigenous people lead the way into the street and stood in front until the arrests began. At that point, our allies stepped forward and were the first to be arrested.


This is a photo taken when we first entered the street. From left to right: Carrie Dann, Cheyenne, Troylynn, Tink and Yankee. Cheyenne, the young girl in the white shawl, was arrested along with everyone else.


Carrie Dann, Michelle and the reverend


Dave Sr. and his sone, Dave Jr. before they were arrested.


Dave Sr., Serena, and Jennifer. Serena, the young girl in the yellow jacket, was also arrested.


Some meatheads celebrating their culture by flipping off the demonstrators.



Glenn Morris and other AIM members standing in the street.


Russell Means, Richard Castaldo(Columbine surivor), Ward, Sabin and Tony, standing in the street.


This is a photo of the guys that lead the Convoy of Conquest. The convoy didn't have any floats and consisted of bikers, stretch limios, humvees, semi-trucks, a cement mixer, a petroleum tanker and a flat bed truck carrying a tractor and other farm equipment.


Here are 2 women, in the convoy, acting brave behind a line of cops.


Troylynn, Cheyenne, Tink and Yankee


Yankee, Tink and Glenn upon first entering the street and blocking the convoy.


Colorado AIM elder, Yankee Bad Hand, leading the group into the street.

2 more perspectives on columbus

Here are 2 more progressive perspectives on christopher columbus and his holiday.

Why Columbus Offers the Best History Lesson
Published on Monday, October 11, 2004 by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune

by Warren Goldstein
 
Although I studied to be an American historian for a decade, it never occurred to me that one of the most important things I'd ever do in a classroom would be to teach about Christopher Columbus. For me, Columbus meant a three-day weekend.

But the unorthodox text I'd assigned in an introductory U.S. history course some years ago, Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" -- since made famous by Matt Damon in the movie "Good Will Hunting" -- starts with Columbus, so I gave it a whirl.

Here's how Zinn begins: "Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat."

Aside from its literary quality, the hint of Eden, and guesswork about the natives' state of mind, the passage asks us to look at the "discovery" upside-down: from the point of view of the people being "discovered." full article

"Who in Future Generations Will Believe This?"

Rethinking Columbus Day

By PATRICK W. GAVIN

It's not easy to score a federal holiday. There are only ten of them, and only two are named for a specific individual: Martin Luther King, Jr. and today's celebrant, Christopher Columbus. (Although the holiday "Washington's Birthday" still remains on the federal books, it is more commonly referred to as "President's Day," since it symbolizes the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln.).

Given this high on of the late explorer. A deeper look reveals that it may be time to reassess this annual celebration.

Most everyone knows why it is that we honor Columbus: He "discovered" America. But this claim only holds water if we don't count the natives already on American soil at the time. The claim also fails to pass muster in light of research and scholarship that casts doubt on Columbus being the first European to smack into America, and which also suggests that others outside of Europe may have beaten Columbus to the punch. Evidence suggests that Europeans may have made it over to the Americans in the early 15th century (which is to say nothing of Leif Eriksson's journey in the 11th century). Gavin Menzies, in his book, 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered America, argues-albeit imperfectly-that the Chinese made their way to America 72 years before Columbus. full article

Convoy of Conquest Protest makes the headlines on ISN Security Watch.

This is how the ISN describes their news watch section, which is located on the front page of their website.

"The ISN's news services offer security related news stories, reference and background information, and analyses every weekday. These resources are also collected in subject-specific dossiers." ISN WEBSITE

Going to their homepage, one finds, at the top of the page, a section entitled "Security Watch" with a subsection labelled "Top Stories"

Under "Top "Stories," there are a list of 8 headlines. Here are a few of the headlines.
"Wave of violence continues in Pakistan"
"Explosion in Abkhazia fuels election confusion"
"Bosnian Serb war criminal 'surrenders' to Hague"
*Iraq rebels, US forces reach deal on Sadr City"

And coming in at Number 6 is this headline
"Native Americans protest Columbus Day"

Pretty interesting, eh?

Native Times-Mass arrests at Columbus Day protest

This column appears in today's web edition of the Native Times. You'll notice a marked difference in the coverage by a Native Newspaper in comparison with that of the "mainstream media." The Native Times actually quotes from our Press Release, which explained our reasons for going out into the streets.

Mass arrests at Columbus Day protest
Event organized by American Indian Movement

Sam Lewin 10/11/2004
Several hundred people, Indian and non-Indian alike, were arrested over the weekend in Denver during a protest against Columbus Day. The arrest total represents about two-thirds of the people who showed up to rally against the event, a parade that wound through the streets of the city’s downtown.

“Our arrests are designed to expose a corrupt educational, legal and political system that refuses to describe the destruction of millions of indigenous people at the hands of Columbus for what it is: genocide. In a legal and political system that rationalizes and justifies the murder, theft, and ongoing betrayal of our peoples and nations, we, as the victims of such a system are under an obligation to expose such moral and legal bankruptcy, and we actively refuse to cooperate with legalized murder and theft,” read a statement from the Colorado American Indian Movement.

AIM says they continue to target Colorado over Columbus Day with special vigor because in 1907, Colorado became the first U.S. state to make Oct. 12 a holiday, later changed to celebrating the holiday during the second Monday of every October. Since then, the states of South Dakota and Wyoming have changed Columbus Day to Native American Day.

The protestors said they want Denver to follow suit. There are some obstacles: Many Italian-Americans regard Columbus as a hero and are loath to attempts to abolish the holiday. Italians in New York celebrated the first incarnation of Columbus Day in 1866. Many non-Italians likely join them in their support. Schoolchildren are taught at a young age to recite the poem about Columbus sailing the ocean blue. Some modern-day Americans believe Thanksgiving already honors Indians, although some vehemently disagree

The AIM protestors say their protest was not designed to be anti-Italian. They also say they will use their arrests to bring across a political message.

“With our arrest and our prosecution by the City of Denver, we intend to go on the offensive, to put Columbus on trial, to put his legacy on trial, to put the City of Denver, the state of Colorado, and the U.S. itself on trial. We will defend ourselves with an unapologetic political defense in court, and, just as we did in 1992, and in 2001, we will prevail,” the statement read. “Colorado AIM and our allies do not risk our liberty as a political ploy, or merely as a tactic, we believe that the time is overdue to challenge the most pervasive, and the most deeply seated source of racism in the world: the oppression of indigenous peoples. Columbus Day continues to operate as a justification of racial superiority, and it, in fact, creates demonstrable and verifiable harm to our children, and to their children.” LINK

Columbus Columns

Columbus ignored as Natives persevere
Monday, October 11, 2004

"Christopher Columbus won't be celebrated today at the newly opened National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall. But there won't be a Columbus Day protest, either. Instead, the man credited with "discovering" America in 1492 will simply be ignored while native people gather to reflect on more than 20,000 years of survival in this hemisphere.

'I don't think a lot of native people would actually celebrate Columbus Day in the way other Americans would," said Jim Pepper Henry, assistant director of community services at the museum and a member of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma. "I would say that, in this case, despite some of the things that were put into motion with Columbus reaching the Americas, native people still persevered. That's how a lot of them feel about it.'" full article

Columbus Day, a Cause to Celebrate? Think Again.

February 01, 1998

By: Thom Hartmann

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight - p.31-33

"Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set
an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished
through perseverance and faith." George Bush, Sr. 1989 Speech

If you fly over the country of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, the island
on which Columbus landed, it looks like somebody took a blowtorch and burned
away anything green. Even the ocean around the port capital of Port au Prince
is choked for miles with the brown of human sewage and eroded topsoil. From the
air, it looks like a lava flow spilling out into the sea.

The history of this small island is, in many ways, a microcosm for what’s
happening in the whole world.

When Columbus first landed on Hispaniola in 1492, virtually the entire island
was covered by lush forest. The Taino "Indians" who loved there had an
apparently idyllic life prior to Columbus, from the reports left to us by literate
members of Columbus’s crew such as Miguel Cuneo. full article

Why Columbus Day?
Letter to the editor(Denver Post)

Re: "Columbus critics miss the boat," Oct. 7 David Harsanyi column.

Many of those who weigh in on the debate over Columbus Day miss the real point. The real issue is not whether Christopher Columbus was a great explorer or a genocidal despot. The real issue is whether Columbus is a figure of sufficient national importance to merit a U.S. national holiday. The answer is clearly "no."

Columbus was not American, and played no role in American history. He is an important historical figure, but not a heroic one, and not one who relates uniquely to the history of our nation. We now acknowledge that our land was already populated at the time Columbus landed in the Americas. Columbus did not "discover" America, as I was taught in my childhood in the '60s. The reality is that he was one of many European explorers who were pursuing far-flung lands to further the cause of European colonialism and wealth.

Our national holidays should be limited to days of unique importance to the United States as a nation. During this season, that holiday should be Election Day. It seems ironic that the president speaks endlessly about bringing the glories of democracy to other people, yet we don't have a holiday to mark the most democratic of all actions - voting.
Scott Kleger, Arvada
full article

Natives hold Columbus Day events around the country.

Protest the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark invasion
Mobridge, South Dakota: Sacajawea Learning Center, Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 at 1: 00 PM. The Owe Aku will be holding a demonstration to educate people about, and protest against, the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark invasion. www.stoplewisandclark.org

Indigenous Day 2004
Sponsored by the Native Youth Movement
Come celebrate NATIVE RESISTANCE and help redefine "COLUMBUS DAY"
Portland Oregon.
Join us at It's A Beautiful Pizza 3341 SE Belmont St.
Monday October 11th starting at 5pm

"In Portland, there will be speeches and video showings throughout the day
to educate all about the Native people's continuing struggle as well as
music to celebrate the Indigenous culture. These events serve a critical
purpose but they do not confront the entire problem. More actions are
needed to confront the government and the businesses which serve to
eliminate the Native people's way of life. Celebrate Indigenous Day 2004!"

Stop The Madman Being Sold As A Hero

Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Monday, October 11th, 2004
Time: 4-7 pm.
Location: The Lancaster Square (in downtown Lancaster, on Queen Street, between Orange and Chestnut Streets)

"No town, no city, no civilization worthy of the title has any business commemorating a figure who, perhaps more than any other in history, symbolizes the wholesale destruction of a people." website

Native American Day celebration
15th annual Native American Day celebration
South Dakota
Monday, Oct. 11,
Crazy Horse Memorial.
The program at 10 a.m.,

"Native American Day in the state was established by the 1989 state
legislature at the urging of Gov. Mickelson. He declared 1990 a Year of Reconciliation
and called for the first Native American Day observance to be held at the Crazy
Horse Memorial, where the likeness of the Lakota leader is being carved to
honor Indians."

Indigenous Peoples' Day of Sovereignty and Solidarity.
Tahlequah Oklahoma
Monday October 11
Tahlequah Square

"The Eagle and Condor Indigenous Peoples Alliance will bring musicians, a
storyteller, arts and crafts and information booths to the old Cherokee Courthouse
Square in Tahlequah"

This is an incomplete list and we will post any new events that are sent to us. If you are in the area where one of these events are taking place, please attend and show your support.

The Denver Post ignores Italian Americans in TCD

This email was sent to the Denver Post, in response to their coverage of y esterday's protest. As the email notes, the Denver Post failed to interview any Italian Americans in TCD, most of whom belong to the PITCH organization. They also declined to print their original letter to the editor.

Subject: Columbus Day as anti-Italian

You apparently interviewed some people of Italian descent for your article
on Sun. Oct 10, 2004, stating that they feel the Columbus Day protest is
anti-Italian. We, those signed below, sent this letter to your paper weeks
ago stating our position AS people of Italian descent, that the protest is
only anti-COLUMBUS. Someone could have published both sides, but that
wouldn't have fueled the anti-Indian sentiment to which your paper is so
devoted..and it obviously makes better copy.

Just for the record, there are many more whom we approached, that were
afraid to sign this because of Sons of Italy members, but who told us they
supported this view. Not that it will do any good, but I have attached the
letter again.
Debbie Thornton

Statement In Support of a Respectful Celebration of Italian Heritage
We, as progressive Italians, support a holiday to celebrate our Italian-American culture and heritage, and to honor the vast contributions of people of Italian descent to both America and the world at large.

However, we absolutely condemn the celebration of Columbus as an Italian cultural icon. Columbus' exploitation, enslavement, and mass murder in the Caribbean far outweigh any of his nautical achievements. As an agent of Spain, Columbus was just the first in a line of conquistadors who began systematic enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. He is not widely celebrated in Italy, Spain or in any of the nations in the current area of his colonies.

The celebration of Columbus in the United States is based upon an outdated notion of "discovery" that completely ignores the history of brutal colonization endured by native people as well as archaeological evidence that the people who lived in this hemisphere for many centuries prior to his arrival, had advanced democratic societies.

As progressive Italians we feel it is important that we speak out against racism and oppression. No other celebration of cultural heritage in this country is as divisive as the celebration of Columbus Day. We believe we should honor people who truly deserve to be recognized for their achievements like Italian-Americans Fiorello La Guardia, Anne Bancroft, Salvador Luria and Henry Mancini and Italian renaissance artists, philosophers and inventors such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli.

Any celebration of Italian culture and heritage should be a day to bring people together, not split them apart. We feel that any well-deserved celebration of Italian heritage should be a respectful celebration of which all cultures can be proud.

Sincerely,

Debbie (Tate/Teti) Thornton Laconiglio@comcast.net
Rosa Mazone rosamazone@worldnet.att.net
Francine Mazone trisisson@msn.com
Jason Galasso Jasongalasso@comcast.net
Tamie Galasso tgalasso@comcast.net
Elizabeth Lewis (Alberico) lizlewis@prepaidlegal.com
Seanee Mazone smcgrraw@msn.com
Josh Mazone Edgewater CO
Marsha Nemo Westminster, CO
Kathy Alsdorf (Zanatto) Kalsdorf@aol.com
Dawn Yacovetta Young Littleton, CO
Franco Marini FrancoLMarini@yahoo.com
Kris Saurini ksaurini@comcast.net
John Lombardi Colo
Deidre Johnston (Mazone) Deidre220@hotmail.com
Kathie Sabatini Nederland, CO
Toni Scalera Hudson, CO
Kristen Scordo Ringdahl kristenringdahl@netzero.net
Lucianna Scordo lucianna@comcast.net
Sr. Mary Ann Figlino, CSJ Denver, CO
Olivia C. Loria Colo
Leila Montour (Retalia) alzahra@earthlink.net
Ron Rossi Arvada, CO
Stephanie G. Rossi srossi@jeffco.k12.co.us

Some overlooked indigenous allies who stood with us yesterday.

We wanted to acknowledge some of our indigenous allies who stood with us yesterday that were not mentioned in any of the news accounts. Most people know that Colorado AIM, Escuela Tlatelolco, Barrio Warriors, Leroy Lemos and Mecha are instrumental in organizing for this weekend's activities but there were also others on hand who played a major role in providing inspiration, direction and support for yesterday's protest.

Carrie Dann, of the Western Shoshone, has been in town since Thursday night. While here, she has spoken at forums to educate people about the current struggle to protect Newe Segobia as well as linking it all back to the Doctrine of Discovery and the Columbus legacy. Carrie is an elder now but that hasn't kept her from tirelessly advocating on behalf of Indigenous peoples. Yesterday, Carrie went out into the street and stood in the front, facing the police.

Savage Family is a revolutionary/liberation hip hop group based in Lawrence Kansas. They helped set the tone, as we began walking to confront the parade, by performing one of their signature songs. The members of Savage Family aren't just musicians so of course they went out into the streets and were arrested alongside everyone else.

Yesterday's AP article about the protest carried this paragraph.

Most carried signs, including one that read "Not Genocide, Celebrate Pride" and another showing a crossed-out picture of Columbus with the word "savage" over it.

This is the sign the article is referring to.


The members of Savage Family were the ones holding the Savage sign which they took from the capitol, past the police barricades and out into the intersection of 19th and Blake. You can listen to their music by clicking HERE

Owe Aku is an organization based at Pine Ridge. They have been organizing the protests against those who are reinacting the Lewis and Clark invasion of Lakota territory. Vic Camp has been acting as one of the spokespeople of the organization and he and his brothers were at the Capitol on Saturday morning. Vic informed the people assembled about their upcoming protests and educated them as to what is truly being celebrated by the Lewis and Clark re-enactors. Owe Aku helped to keep the drum going for the hour and a half it took for everyone to be arrested. These are strong indian men and you can read more about their efforts at www.stoplewisandclark.org

The Oyate student organization is located on the campus of Boulder Colorado. They've been organizing the students on their campus to attend this weekend's events and had a sizable contingent on hand for both days. The members of Oyate were also inside the barricades and were arrested yesterday afternoon. They kept up the energy and focus as the cops began arresting people. The women were singled out as being the ones inside the cells who kept everyone's spirits up and reminded people of why they were there. Oyate will be sponsoring some educational forums on the campus of Boulder on October 11. We'll post the details shortly.

These are just a few of our allies who came out this weekend to oppose the celebration of genocide. We'll be focusing on other organizations and individuals who were there in the days to come. For now though, we wanted to give an intial thanks to all of those who put themselves out there and took a stand.

A response to David Harsanyi's column-by Tink Tinker

Tink Tinker is a member of the Leadership Council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. He wrote the following in response to a 10/07/04 column(Columbus critics miss the boat) by David Harsanyi.

Response to David Harsanyi on Columbus Day:

In the interests of historical accuracy, Mr. Harsanyi needs to name at least one incident of violence perpetrated by columbusday protesters in the lastfifteen years. It is not enough to dismiss the protest by alluding to some
vague specter of violence purportedly perpetrated by the American Indian Movement of Colorado. If one is really concerned about historical accuracy,then the public deserves to see at least some bit of corroborating evidence for the claim. The truth is that columbusday protesters have asserted non-violent protest for the past fifteen years and have delivered on their promise of non-violence in every protest action. Maybe Harsanyi needs to abandon the naïve confines of New York City and come visit us in Denver before he writes about us.

Secondly, Harsanyi really does need to read up on some basic Christopher Columbus history. Start with Bartolome de las Casas. But a more modern analysis can be read in the historical demography of Sherbern F. Cook, a University of California scholar writing a half century ago. His scholarly research corroborated las Casas' claim that eight million Indians were killed on one island alone: namely, the island of Hispaniola which served as Columbus' headquarters during his decade-long tenure as governor of the Caribbean. I am sorry, but those are genocidal and naziesque figures whether modern Americans like it or not.

Harsanyi's attempt to justify Columbus' and Amer-european violence by implying aboriginal Indian violence against Indians is to perpetuate acarefully conceived white lie. The truth is that Indian worldviews never
permitted the kind of mass violence and killing that entered this continent with the European immigration. Traditionally, Indian peoples engaged in lengthy (days-long) and expensive ceremonies before engaging in any act of warfare. And even then, the entire war might or might not result in a fatality. More often than not, the issue was decided in a battle resulting in no deaths at all. Again, my advice is to do some serious reading of Tom Holm, Kirkpatrick Sale, Ward Churchill, and Georges Sioui, for starters,before trying to write on the subject. Uninformed historical denial is simply insulting to the Denver public. Maybe it's time for the Post to reconsider publishing Harsanyi's column. Perhaps ignorance is bliss; but the Post really should not publish such anything so uninformed and blatantly false.

Finally, to quote Vernon Bellecourt as an authority on the protest of columbusday in Denver is strange enough.
Bellecourt lives in Minneapolis and has never been a part of our protest action here in Denver since the
resumption of the parade in 1989. If the Post is going to continue to publish Harsanyi, then he needs to learn a bit about Denver and to figure out who really is involved in this serious and vigorous non-violent protest
against celebrating the father of the American Holocaust (see David Stannard's book by that title).

Tink Tinker
Denver, Colorado

COLORADO AIM AND ALLIES BLOCKADE COLUMBUS “CONVOY OF CONQUEST” – 200 ARRESTED

October 9, 2004
Denver Colorado

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: American Indian Movement of Colorado (303) 871-0463 or denveraim@coloradoaim.org - website: www.coloradoaim.org

COLORADO AIM AND ALLIES BLOCKADE COLUMBUS “CONVOY OF CONQUEST” – 200 ARRESTED

Today, in the streets of downtown Denver, 200 American Indian Movement members, and our allies were arrested in a principled act of civil resistance to the “Convoy of Conquest” (aka: Columbus Day Parade). Despite any denials by its organizers, the Convoy is a celebration of genocide against the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and it elevates the theft of our homelands, and the murder of our people, to national holiday status. To Colorado AIM this is intolerable and unjustifiable.

Our arrests are designed to expose a corrupt educational, legal and political system that refuses to describe the destruction of millions of indigenous people at the hands of Columbus for what it is: genocide. In a legal and political system that rationalizes and justifies the murder, theft, and ongoing betrayal of our peoples and nations, we, as the victims of such a system are under an obligation to expose such moral and legal bankruptcy, and we actively refuse to cooperate with legalized murder and theft. Our arrests today lay bare the facts (they are not allegations) that Columbus was personally responsible for:

* Trading in African slaves prior to his voyage to the Americas in 1492.

* Columbus was personally responsible for overseeing a colonial administration that directly led to the death of millions of indigenous people. (Father Bartolome de Las Casas, an eyewitness and a contemporary of Columbus, estimated that 15 million indigenous people died in the Caribbean prior to 15.

* Columbus advanced and expanded the arrogant European “Doctrine of Discovery,” claiming that superior, civilized, Christian Europeans and the right to seize and appropriate indigenous peoples territories and resources. This doctrine has been embedded into racist Federal Indian Law, and is applied today in the case of the Western Shoshone in Nevada and the Lakota in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

* More importantly, the legacy of Columbus allows the U.S. government to “lose” between $40 and 100 billion in money that the U.S. was to administer for the benefit of individual American Indians. The government has admitted that it deliberately destroyed evidence in the case, and it appears that the U.s. has no intention of finding or accounting for the money that it has stolen. See: http://www.indiantrust.com/

* The Columbus legacy is reflected in the psychology of the War in Iraq as the U.S. military continues to refer to any territory not under immediate U.S. control as “Indian Country.” Anyone who expresses a view other than the accepted, official version is considered to be “off the reservation.” Anyone who actually tries to understand the Iraqi people, as opposed to murdering them, is suspected of being a “race traitor” for having “gone native.” These small examples reveal a much larger and dangerous psychology of the ongoing war by the U.S. against indigenous peoples, and other “infidels and heathens.”

As was asked of Dr. Martin Luther King, some may well ask us today: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and arrests? Isn't negotiation a better path?" King replied, ”You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue. The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation .”

Colorado AIM, like Martin Luther King, believes that tension in the streets can move a community beyond its racist practices.

With our arrest and our prosecution by the City of Denver, we intend to go on the offensive, to put Columbus on trial, to put his legacy on trial, to put the City of Denver, the state of Colorado, and the U.S. itself on trial. We will defend ourselves with an unapologetic political defense in court, and, just as we did in 1992, and in 2001, we will prevail.

Colorado AIM and our allies do not risk our liberty as a political ploy, or merely as a tactic, we believe that the time is overdue to challenge the most pervasive, and the most deeply seated source of racism in the world: the oppression of indigenous peoples. Columbus Day continues to operate as a justification of racial superiority, and it, in fact, creates demonstrable and verifiable harm to our children, and to their children.

For further comments on these actions, or on the philosophy behind the, please contact Colorado AIM at 303-871-0463 or denveraim@coloradoaim.com

"columbus critics miss the boat" claims clueless Denver Post columnist

For anyone that may not be familiar with columnist David Harsanyi,(and we assume that most people aren't) he is a transplant to Colorado, presumably hired by the Denver Post to offer opinions that reflect the sentiments of its conservative readers. Based on his October 7th article, we could reasonably conclude that the Denver Post believes its conservative readers to be a clueless bunch. Why else would they have served them a column that makes those of Ken Hamblin seem scholarly in comparison?

Harsanyi's column begins with this accurate observation;"Columbus Day is again upon us." We don't dispute this but it's probably one of the few accurate statements that Harsanyi puts forth.

In his very next sentence, Harsanyi tries to describe what he believes to be some key elements that define the "convoy of conquest" and the opposition to it.

His statement.

A parade. Balloons. Cops. Violence. Recrimination. Pseudo-historical ranting. full article

Yes, there are cops but where is the violence that he cites? Harsanyi doesn't explain or substantiate why "violence" would be a descriptor that applies to any of the past convoy protests but, as we'll see, he doesn't bother to substantiate most of what he claims.

Perhaps in a fit of ironic compulsion, Harsanyi adds "pseudo-historical ranting" to his list of columbus day themes, before he goes on to fabricate a history of the protests in Denver. We'll get back to this in a bit but let's continue down his column.

Christopher Columbus is often compared to Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. The Genoese explorer doesn't belong in any conversation that includes genocidal dictators. Quite the opposite.

As we stated, Harsanyi doesn't bother to substantiate or explain his positions and this is just one example. Colorado AIM has cited and produced historical documents that detail the crimes of Christopher Columbus. There are numerous articles, essays and books that describe the genocide committed against the Indigenous Peopls of the Carribeans. They are available on various websites and in most public libraries. Rather than offering any counter-evidence, Harsanyi simply states that Columbus "doesn't belong in any conversation that includes genocidal dictators" and leaves it at that. He doesn't even bother to make anything up. Not that he is incapable of fabrications and lies as we see in his two next paragraph.

But Vernon Bellecourt, the principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement, has fought against Columbus Day for decades and lent a helping hand in organizing the protests here in Denver.

By 1991, his brand of "civil disobedience" became so violent in Denver that Columbus Day parades ended for the rest of the decade. When the parade was resuscitated in 2000, police arrested 147 protesters who tried to block Denverites from celebrating a national holiday.

Where do we even begin to unravel this nonsense?

First of all, Vernon Bellecourt is not the principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement and certainly not for Colorado AIM. Vernon Bellecourt lives in Minneapolis and heads that particular chapter of the American Indian Movement.

Secondly, Vernon Bellecourt had no hand in organizing any columbus day protests in Denver. He did not organize any part of the 1991 protest and played no part in the 2000 protest either. The very idea of Vernon Bellecourt coming to Denver to organize an event is about as ridiculous os the notion of David Duke going to East Lost Angeles to organize the community in a protest against Cesar Chavez. Or Zell Miller travelling to Berkley to rally people against George W. Bush. You get the point. It wouldn't happen and it never did, despite what Harsanyi claims.

Thirdly, the "violent" civil disobedience that Harsanyi refers to, in 1991, resulted in the cite and release of 4 people who were later acquitted of the misdemeanor charges. Notice how Harsanyi portrays 4 people standing in the streets as an act of violence while he excuses the slaughter of the Indigenous Peoples of the Carribeans as some small social faux pas.

And so his column continues, with Vernon Bellecourt acting as Harsanyi's straw man against whom he argues against.

Bellecourt says Columbus - an Italian - spurred an orgy of "murder, torture, raping, pillaging, robbery, slavery, kidnapping, and forced removal (of Indians) from their homeland."

That Columbus was Italian is now a matter of debate. There have been a couple of programs, the most recent on the Discovery Channel, that claim Columbus was possibly a Castilian Pirate who washed up on the shores of Italy. It seems he had a pattern of washing up on shores.

Again, in his next paragraph, Harsanyi engages in suggestive claims without substantiating them

But when I mention that Native Americans weren't exactly peaceful egalitarians, collecting berries and expanding their utopia when Columbus arrived, I get a lengthy spiel on some elaborate plot by the CIA in Guatemala and "reactionaries."

Harsanyi never documents or presents any historical evidence that would support his implication that Indigenous Peoples were committing the same atrocities as Columbus.

Further down, Hansayari again posits a claim without any support

Pamela Wright, maiden name Ciancio, acknowledges atrocities under Spanish rule, too, but disputes the Reverend's characterization of Columbus.

So Pamela Wright disputes historical fact on what basis? If she wants to cling to a myth because of some sort of psychological defense mechanism, then that should be given as the reason for why she disputes historical fact. Simply saying that she disputes it, without offering any reasons why, makes it sound as if she is invested with an authority that no one other than Hansayari seems to recognize.

Finally, we get this paragraph near the end of the column.

No one is innocent. Columbus included. Yet, to Americans who march each year, he is a courageous hero for bravely traversing the Atlantic and (sort of) discovering America.

Had Harsanyi ever been to the Denver Convoy of Conquest, he would have seen that there are actually more people demonstrating against Columbus than marching under his banner. From that, we could conclude that more Americans see Columbus for what he really is. An African slave trading, indian killer, who initiated the Conquest of the Americas.

But when you live in Dave Harsanyi's world; a world of fabricated history, unsupported beliefs and outright delusions, it's easier to see Columbus as a hero.

Sides remain worlds apart on views on Columbus Day

From today's web edition of the Denver Post.

Sides remain worlds apart on views of Columbus Day

By Amy Herdy
Denver Post Staff Writer

Post / Helen H. Richardson
George Vendegnia, 55, a founder of the Sons of Italy-New Generation, is a primary organizer of Saturday’s Columbus Day parade. “No one can tell us, as Americans, what we can celebrate and what we can’t,” he says.

Serenity Redshirt could not sit still. As the Columbus Day parade in 2002 wound down a Denver street, the 11-year-old, who is Lakota, joined six of her friends as they stepped into its path.

Wearing jeans and a white poodle shirt, she sat cross-legged and shouted with the other girls.

"This is our land; we were here first," she said. "Go back to Italy. Columbus was a murderer, and you're celebrating racism." full article

Unity march to counter Columbus Day

From Today's web edition of the Rocky Mountain News. The print edition carried an adorable photo that we will scan in later.

Unity march to counter Columbus Day

By Javier Erik Olvera, Rocky Mountain News
October 8, 2004

Four groups of marchers - each taking different paths across the city - will meet at Cuernavaca Park this evening as part of an ancient unity ritual and an alternative to Columbus Day celebrations.

Participants of the Four Directions/All Nations March say the event is intended to bring positive energy from different points of the city.

"It's a very powerful, spiritual force," said TroyLynn Yellow Wood, who was among a group that started the event in 2001. "It's so incredible." full article

Columbus Day: Celebrating a holocaust

From today's web edition of Indian Country Today.

Columbus Day: Celebrating a holocaust
Posted: October 11, 2004
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

DENVER - While Americans celebrate Columbus Day, American Indians remember one little toddler who played on the quiet banks of Sand Creek, until the morning in 1864 when the American soldiers came.

''Then, as one of the cavalrymen later told it, while his compatriots were slaughtering and mutilating the bodies of all the women and all the children they could catch, he spotted the boy trying to flee,'' wrote David Stannard in ''American Holocaust.''

''There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand,'' wrote a Calvary man.

''The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind following after them. The little fellow was perfectly naked, traveling on the sand. I saw one man get off his horse, at a distance of about seventy-five yards, and draw up his rifle and fire - he missed the child. Another man came up and said, 'Let me try the son of a bitch; I can hit him.' full article

CO AIM calls for direct action against columbus "convoy of conquest"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7 October 2004

Contact Colorado AIM at: 303-871-0463
www.coloradoaim.org

American Indian Movement of Colorado calls for Direct Action Against Columbus “Convoy of Conquest”
in Denver, the Birthplace of Columbus Day

ACTION: Saturday, October 9, 2004, 8 am , State Capitol, Denver

“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness...” Mohandas K. Gandhi

The American Indian Movement (AIM) Colorado (303-871-0463 ph.) has put out a local and national call for people and organizations to come to Denver to engage in non-violent, direct action against the “Convoy of Conquest” (aka the Columbus Day Parade) in the streets of downtown Denver on Saturday, October 9, 2004.

Colorado AIM believes that a diversity of non-violent opposition tactics against the convoy, which constitutes state-sponsored hate speech against indigenous peoples, is appropriate. Colorado AIM and its allies in the TRANSFORM COLUMBUS DAY ALLIANCE (TCDA) have agreed that, in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, that non-violent, civil resistance is completely justified against the inherent anti-Indian racism of the parade.

This year, the Sons of Italy-New Generation will conduct its latest “Convoy of Conquest,” in the streets of downtown Denver, despite repeated pleas from AIM and TCDA that the convoy remove references to the documented African slave-trading, Indian murderer, Columbus.

For the past three years, Colorado AIM has participated, with the Red Earth Women’s Alliance and the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, to focus on constructing a more positive model of respectful cultural celebration, in the hope that the convoy organizers might find the moral courage to abandon Columbus, who was directly responsible for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people throughout the Caribbean

Last year, Colorado AIM and our allies delivered an appeal to the parade organizers to transform the parade into a less hateful event. When the invitation, delivered by the late American Indian elder Wallace Balck Elk and Richard Costaldo, an Italian-American paralyzed survivor of the Columbine massacre, was ridiculed, we turned our backs on the convoy. This year, we will not be turning our backs. This year, we will confront the parade because, as Martin Luther King wrote from the Birmingham Jail, “nonviolent direct action seeks to…dramatize the issue so that it can no longer be ignored.” The damage of racism against American Indians that is embodied in the convoy will not be ignored; it will be directly confronted.

Our actions are not anti-Italian. We have many Italian and Italian-American allies. We have said that, if invited, we would participate in an Italian Pride Parade. In that spirit, we commend the organizers of the Festival Italiano, which was held in Lakewood on September 25-6. The Festival is exactly the type of leadership that can help to move Denver to a place of mutual respect and understanding. The Festival was an expression of respect for the entire community. Their dropping of references to Columbus opened new opportunities of what can be achieved by simply dropping the icon of conquest, genocide and oppression.

We will march from the State Capitol on Saturday morning – hundreds, perhaps thousands strong – to the parade route where there will be massive, active, resistance to the veneration of genocide and colonialism. Columbus Day was born in Colorado, and we will end it in Colorado.

Convoy of Conquest Route

This information comes from the website of our good friends The Sons of Italy-New Generation.

Parade Route
On Blake St from 27th down to 17th
Right on 17th Street to Wynkoop Street
Right on Wynkoop Street to the1900 block

Blake St will close at 9:40 am
All cross streets 17th St and Wynkoop will close

If you are not familiar with those streets, this handy map should help you locate it.

Handy Map

articles-october 7

Means wins tribe primary election
By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer

PINE RIDGE - Russell Means won the first round in a landslide victory Tuesday out of a field of 13 candidates vying for tribal president of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Means was a clear winner of the Oglala Sioux Tribe's primary race. With 917 votes, he garnered more than twice the support received by incumbent President John Yellow Bird Steele, who got 413 votes for a fourth-place finish.

Citing concerns about people leaving the land to resettle in urban areas, Means said he wants to stanch the flow of American Indians off the reservation and build bonds with South Dakota and surrounding states. full article

Tribe to appeal ruling on size of reservation

The Associated Press

SHAWANO — The Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Tribe says it will appeal a federal court decision that reduced its Shawano County reservation by about three-quarters, to about 15,000 acres.

“It is such a complicated matter that the court ruling was 147 pages long,” Tribal President Bob Chicks said of last week’s decision by U.S. Magistrate Patricia Gorence. “We are taking our time to review all of the details. We believe in the merits of our case and will continue to persevere.”

Chicks said the ruling would be appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. full article

Federal judge reviews Northampton County land tiff

Will decide if Indian tribe's suit for 315 acres in Forks can proceed.

By Elliot Grossman
Of The Morning Call

October 7, 2004

PHILADELPHIA | For two hours Wednesday, lawyers argued in federal court about the rightful owner of a piece of land, something that's done regularly in courtrooms across the country. But this argument was different.

This one involved a land transaction that may have occurred even before the United States came into existence. And the people fighting for ownership contend that the nation's settlers cheated their ancestors, American Indians, out of the land. full article

Tribes renew suit over mine cleanup
New complaint says state should improve treatment of polluted water

By MIKE DENNISON
Tribune Capitol Bureau

HELENA -- The Fort Belknap Indian tribes and a trio of conservation groups Wednesday renewed their state lawsuit over cleanup at the Zortman-Landusky gold mines, saying current water-treatment plans aren't doing the job.

A new complaint, filed in District Court at Helena, said the state should be forced to improve long-term treatment of polluted water at the mine sites in the Little Rocky Mountains south of Malta.

It also said the state should enforce water-quality standards at two streams that flow onto the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and that have become increasingly polluted. full article

Umatilla tribes say they'll sue over environment at Hanford
By SHANNON DININNY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YAKIMA -- The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have filed notice of intent to sue the U.S. Department of Energy, demanding the agency assess the harm that 40 years of plutonium production caused to natural resources at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

In filing the notice, the tribes joined the states of Washington and Oregon in seeking to have natural resource injuries assessed at Hanford. In July, the two states sought a court-ordered assessment of environmental harm at Hanford if the federal government does not conduct one. full article

Tribe: Pay us for air rights

07.10.2004 - By ANNE BESTON

Maori want to charge for the use of air space above Lake Taupo in a move that would cover floatplane landings, bungy jumping and bridges over rivers.

Ngati Tuwharetoa believe that an agreement which gave them ownership of the Taupo lakebed and the beds of its tributaries and streams entitles the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board to charge a licence fee to commercial operators.

The tribe makes about $1 million a year from an existing fee system. full article

The running, er, the burning of the bulls

That's "bulls" as in "papal bulls." Why are they being burned? Well, read this dispatch from www.bullsburning.itgo.com and find out.

Aloha kakou and guatiao,

Please join us for the annual Papal Bulls Burning, Indigenous People's Day observation. This year's event in Honolulu will take place on Friday, October 8 at 5:30 pm in front of the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, 1184 Bishop St. (Fort Street Mall).

Indigenous peoples and supporters from around the world are encouraged to organize a small ceremonial event and symbolically burn or tear-up copies of the May 4, 1493 papal bull "Inter Caetera" in response to the October 12 "Columbus Day"/"Discoverer's Day" observation. The document can be downloaded from our website at: http://bullsburning.itgo.com/papbull.htm

Also, please sign the webpage version of the "Appeal to the Vatican and
Pope John Paul II" at: http://www.uctp.org - Click on "Hawai`i."

Below is a copy of the chronology we had been working on at our monthly
meetings. It'll soon be put together in display board form along with
other items (photos, letters, etc.) for public viewing.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE PAPAL BULLS MOVEMENT

*13th Century Crusades Era - King Alfonso X incorporates the Las siete
partidas (seven division of laws) into Castilian law, one division
explicitly referring to the granting of political and territorial
jurisdiction to a monarch by "papal donation."

*January 8, 1455 - The papal bull Romanus Pontifex is issued by Pope
Nicolas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal.

*May 4, 1493 - The papal bull Inter Caetera is issued by Pope Alexander VI to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

*September 26, 1493 - The papal bull Dudum Siquidem is issued by Pope
Alexander VI. Confirms the bull Inter Caetera, and revokes (revocamus) all earlier papal grants to Portugal which might give her a claim to westward lands.

*November 1493 - Indigenous resistance to Inter Caetera begins. The
indigenous peoples on the island of Quisqueya ("Hispaniola") valiantly
resist the Spanish intrusion. The cacike (chieftain) Caonabo leads a
retaliatory military campaign against the thirty-nine Christians left
behind by Columbus at La Navidad after atrocities committed by them.
All thirty-nine are found dead upon Columbus' return. Later, indigenous
Caribbean peoples publically reject the "papal donation" stating the pope
had no right to give what was not his to give.

*June 7, 1494 - Spain and Portugal sign Treaty of Tordesillas based on the bull Inter Caetera. The Treaty divides the world in half between the two nations, and is the foundation for subsequent treaties and custom relating to the Americas.

*June 2, 1537 - Pope Paul III issued the Papal Bull Sublimis Deus, which
supposedly "freed the Indians," and is regarded as "the most important
papal pronouncement on the human condition of the Indians" (Gutirrez, "Las Casas," 1993). However, as history unequivocally shows, Sublimis Deus is purely a theoretical act since there would be no need for an accounting of those declared to be "extinct," nor for the tens of millions who had been eliminated by the end of the 16th century.

*June 19, 1538 - Pope Paul III revoked Sublimis Deus at the urging of
Spanish Emperor Charles V. However, there is controversy as to whether the Pope actually revoked Sublimis Deus or the brief Pastorale Officium of May 29, 1537. Revoked or not, it should be made clear that Sublimis Deus did not revoke Inter Caetera (Boyle, 1998, 1999).

*1542 - The "New Laws" that had prohibited Indian slavery and banned the
encomienda (slavery system) were revoked.

*1823 - In the Johnson v. McIntosh case, U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall
blatantly inserts language of "discovery" based on the bull Inter Caetera into the decision.

*1831 - In Cherokee v. Georgia, Justice Marshall rules that the Cherokee
Nation was not a "foreign state" as defined in the U.S. Constitution, and therefore they could not sue the state of Georgia in the Supreme Court
from usurping the gold on their land.

*1992 - A formal movement to revoke the bull Inter Caetera is initiated bythe Indigenous Law Institute based in the United States.

*1993 - At the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, Illinois,
sixty indigenous delegates draft a Declaration of Vision calling for the revocation of the bull Inter Caetera.

*October 12, 1997 - An annual papal bulls burning commenced in Honolulu,
Hawai'i calling international attention to the papal bulls issue.

*October 12, 1998 - Over 50 indigenous and human rights advocates gather
in Honolulu to demand the revocation of the bull Inter Caetera, and called for it to be revoked by the year 2,000, or by the beginning of the "new millennium".

*November 28, 1998 - Pope John Paul II called "Christianity's 2,000 anniversary a year of mercy," as reported by AP, saying "the church will seek forgiveness," "atonement," and that he "wants the church to enter the third millennium with a clear conscience."

*February 19, 1999 - The United Church of Christ, Hawai'i Conference,
passes a resolution which resolves that: "President Paul Sherry on behalf
of the United Church of Christ urges and calls upon people of conscience in the Roman Catholic hierarchy and in other organized religions to
persuade Pope John Paul II to revoke the Papal Bulls Dum Diversas of 1452
[Romanus Pontifex of 1455] and Inter Caetera of 1493 by the year 2,000."

*May 1999 - At the international Hague Appeal for Peace conference, Tony
Castanha (Carib/Boricua) and Steve Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) directly
address and call for the revocation of the bull Inter Caetera on both
"Interfaith" and "Root Causes of War/Culture of Peace" panel presentations.

*October 2000 - Indigenous Peoples' Delegation (nine delegates) converge
on Italy and the Vatican advocating for the revocation of Inter Caetera. Delegates meet with official from the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace.

*2001 - Pontifical Historical Commission studies the issue for the first
time and rules that "Inter Caetera is no longer juridically valid." Kosmos Indigena founded. Continues to call on the Vatican to revoke Inter Caetera if it is no longer juridically valid.

*October 2003 - Seventh annual papal bulls
burning observed in Honolulu, Hawai`i, as well as other locations around the world. Call is made to return to Rome in October 2005.

articles -october 6

Fleecing the 'monkeys'
Posted: October 05, 2004
by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - Days after the week-long celebration of the new National Museum of the American Indian, tribal members and Congressmen were fuming over revelations about a new scandal in Indian country, the doings of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associate, Michael Scanlon.

At a Sept. 29 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on $66 million in lobbying fees that the two received from several tribes, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye noted the contrast, saying that attention now turns from the museum and its promise for the Native future to ''another most unseemly manifestation of the exploitation of the American Indian.''

In e-mail exchanges that the Committee blew up on large panels in the hearing room, Abramoff and Scanlon referred to tribal clients who paid them $66 million over three years in terms of ''absolute contempt,'' said Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo. Campbell said Abramoff on one occasion sent an e-mail stating ''I have to meet with the monkeys,'' referring to his clients, the Mississippi Choctaw tribe.

On other occasions, Campbell said, the e-mails refer to tribal clients as ''morons, stupid idiots ... troglodytes, losers.'' Campbell, the only Indian in the Senate, said the words offended him personally. full article

Attorneys eye victory in trust case
By Valarie Lee/The Daily Times
Oct 6, 2004, 10:48 pm

NAGEEZI — Lawyers suing the federal government on behalf of American Indians told a crowded standing room only audience that they have “won every phase of this case.” The litigants say their trust money has been mismanaged by the U.S. government for more than 100 years.

Dennis Gingold, representing American Indian plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said he wanted to update allottees on the case.

Gingold is the lead lawyer on the case along with Native American Rights Fund. full article

Mohawk land deal in the works
Plan said to include $100 million, hundreds of acres of property

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau

ALBANY -- Mohawk tribal leaders met with Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday to complete a proposed land claim settlement important to a plan to create a casino in the Catskills.

Tribal officials declined to provide details before a news conference today on the Franklin County reservation. But sources familiar with the deal said it improves on a 2003 agreement that later collapsed after the election of a new tribal government. full article

Tribe appeals to state's high court

The Mattaponi say the construction of the King William Reservoir contradicts a 1677 land treaty.
BY MATTHEW SABO
(804) 642-1748

October 6 2004

RICHMOND -- The Mattaponi Tribe has filed an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court to review lower court rulings allowing the proposed King William Reservoir to proceed - decisions the tribe says violate its treaty rights and strip the state's waters of the statutory protection given them by the legislature.

In the petitions filed last week, the tribe asks the court to review lower court decisions the tribe says would forever bar it from asserting its treaty rights and close the doors of the state's courts to tribal members. full article

Diabetes program honored

ROSEBUD - The Rosebud Sioux Tribe's innovative promotion of health and fitness has changed lives and won national recognition.

The tribe's Diabetes Prevention Program has been awarded the Indian Health Service Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Award for Excellence. The award was presented in September to program director Connie Brushbreaker at the Healthier Indian Communities Through Partnerships and Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C.

The clinically based Rosebud program hired eight certified fitness assistants, created a facility with exercise and weight-training equipment and used incentive programs and community involvement to help young people discover a healthy lifestyle. full article

Columbus parade protests to return.

This article appears in today's edition of the Rocky Mountain News. Here is an excerpt.

Columbus parade protests to return

Plan for obstruction makes arrests likely

By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
October 6, 2004

Columbus Day opponents vowed Tuesday to engage in acts of civil disobedience to block Saturday's parade, making arrests of protesters likely.

"We're going to make a statement that this is not a holiday that the state, the city and the nation needs to celebrate," said the Rev. Reginald Holmes, head of the Greater Metro Ministerial Alliance. "Sometimes you have to make people uncomfortable to take a tough stance."

The Ministerial Alliance, American Indian Movement and Color of Justice have agreed to form an alliance to protest the parade by any means necessary.

Tink Tinker of the American Indian Movement said more than 200 protesters plan to gather on the steps of the state Capitol on Saturday morning to oppose the parade, and then later stage a protest aimed at blocking the parade. full article

George Vendegnia took a departure from his stale talking points to say something new this year.

"We're having a parade, and we're not meeting with anybody," Vendegnia said. "We're not going to comment or create a platform for the other side. It's just getting old."

George's standard spiel usually goes like this."They are trying to take away our first amendment rights. We are Americans and they are trying to take away our American rights. We are Americans. Did I mention that we are Americans? What Columbus did was in the past and we can't change that and I don't know why they are protesting something that happened 500 years ago. And one last thing, I am an American."

There are a couple of paragraphs in the article that contain mischaracterizations. The first has to do with the Four Directions-All Nations March. This is how the article describes it.

On Friday, the fourth annual Four Directions All Nations march will take place at Cuernavaca Park along the South Platte River, where hundreds are expected to gather to oppose the holiday.

The Four Directions March is not a protest. It is an inclusive, diverse, spiritual march that was intended to provide a model on how to conduct a procession that respects all peoples. Though many attending the Four Directions March will oppose the convoy of conquest, on saturday, their participation in the Four Directions March does not make it a protest.

The second mischaracterizations comes in this graf.

"The answer to this conflict won't come in the streets," said Lucia Guzman, director of Human Rights and Community Relations."The answer will come at the table . . . where both sides will begin to embrace the pain on both sides of the issue."

The implication, by Lucia Guzman, is that the American Indian Movement of Colorado has not been willing to engage the convoy of conquest organizers in a dialogue. This is untrue.

Our organization has initiated every attempt to reach an understanding with the various organizers over the years. By suggesting that Colorado AIM possesses the same stubborn attitude that afflicts the convoy of convoy of conquest organizers is to appear uninformed about the overtures CO AIM have consistently made over the years.

Indigenous Day-Portland-The Native Youth Movement

For those of you who live in the Northwest, there will be an event "Indigenous Day 2004" held on Monday, October 11. We are encouraging all supporters in the area to attend and show support for the Native Youth Movement. Below is an excerpt from the event description as well as a flyer for the event.

Indigenous Day 2004

Indigenous Day is more than a denouncement of Columbus Day, a day which
blindly celebrates the Native holocaust. Indigenous Day is about the
awareness and condemnation of the ongoing oppression of the Native peoples
that is still occurring in the world today. It's easy to condemn a dead
man and say that Columbus wittingly brought about the systematic
destruction of the Indigenous culture. It's more difficult to condemn
society today, which may include ourselves, for allowing it to continue
through our blind eye and silent voice.

On Indigenous Day, we must be silent no more about the ongoing oppression
and attempted assimilation of Native cultures. We will look this
destructive force in the eye, even if that means looking in the mirror.

Nationwide education, initiative and action are needed to bring
awareness to this day. The Native Youth Movement is planning protests in
Denver and on the US/Canadian border by Blaine, WA over the "holiday"
weekend. More actions are needed to happen throughout the country in
solidarity with this movement on this day.

In Portland, there will be speeches and video showings throughout the day
to educate all about the Native people's continuing struggle as well as
music to celebrate the Indigenous culture. These events serve a critical
purpose but they do not confront the entire problem. More actions are
needed to confront the government and the businesses which serve to
eliminate the Native people's way of life. Celebrate Indigenous Day 2004. LINK

Event flyer


Full size flyer available HERE

Adam Fortunate Eagle will not be celebrating columbus day

In today's edition of the "Lahontan Valley News," editor Steve Lyons writes that Adam Fortunate Eagle will not be celebrating columbus day and gives some of the reasons for that. Adam Fortunate Eagle was one of the organizers for the occupation of Alcatraz Island. Instead of celebrating, Fortunate Eagle will be showing the movie ""Monumental Myths" on the Fallon reservation, which will be followed by a press conference. Here are the first couple of paragraphs from the column.

Adam Nordwall will not be celebrating Columbus Day

Steve F. Lyon
October 5, 2004

Columbus Day doesn't really excite me much as far as holidays go.

I'm not exactly sure what we are celebrating every October. The fifth grade textbooks I remember refer to the date as when Columbus discovered

America in 1492, so I guess I'm happy not to be stuck in the Old World.

But really, if a revisionist context can be applied to Columbus' voyage, wasn't it about the old pillage and plunder routine? Spain was broke and sends Columbus out to do a little strongarm robbery of the locals wherever he lands, kind of like a gang of scurvy-ridden gang bangers on the high seas. full article

At the end of the column, there is this curious editor's note.

Editor's note: This column orignally contained a reference to the Hells Angels in paragraph two. I deleted the reference after the president of the Hells Angels contacted me via e-mail and said that was a pejorative statement to which he took great offense. Other than that, the column is intact.

This is a curious add on in that the subject is the Hell's Angels. How did the Hell's Angels make it into a column about christopher columbus? We can't be certain, but if we are to speculate, we could surmise that it could have something to do with the fact that the Hell's Angels are prominent participants in the "Convoy of Conquest"(aka the columbus day parade) that is held in Denver.

articles-october 5

Judge: Indians have right to land notification

By MIKE STARK
Of The Gazette Staff
A federal judge has ordered that the government must notify American Indian landowners of an ongoing lawsuit over royalties before the land can be sold or transferred.
The ruling from federal court in Washington, D.C., was hailed by supporters as a significant step toward informing Indian landowners of their rights to royalties and potential involvement in a class-action lawsuit in which about 500,000 Indians have sued the government over trust payments.
"For more than a century, the U.S. government has sold our land out from under us - without consent, without appraisal and without informing us of our rights as trust beneficiaries," Eloise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe of Montana and the lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement after the court ruling. "That ends today. full article

Youth detention horror must end

EDITORIALS

The condition of jails and detention centers on Indian reservations has been a concern for some time, but new allegations about treatment of juveniles in a facility in Browning take that concern to a whole new level.

If the complaints are borne out, they suggest a new priority for tribal councils and, if needed, Congress: Fix the problems.

The allegations include common use of several methods of restraint that are forbidden or sharply limited in other juvenile detention centers.

Earlier this year a national report documented abysmal conditions in jails and prisons throughout Indian Country. full article

9th Circuit upholds dam operations

Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the federal government's operation of four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River, saying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers keeps water temperatures as low as it can to protect endangered salmon.

The split decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Army Corps against environmental groups, and concluded the agency is complying with state water quality standards as required by the Clean Water Act.

It was a victory for forces that want to keep the dams over those calling for removal of the structures.

Kristen Boyles, a lawyer with Earthjustice in Seattle, said it was too early to say if the decision will be appealed. full article

Tribal group accuses Pawlenty of inflating casino numbers

BRIAN BAKST
Associated Press

ST. PAUL - A group representing American Indian bands that run casinos in Minnesota accused Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday of distorting gambling revenues to increase pressure on them to share profits with the state.

The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association allegations stem from a report issued by Pawlenty's administration last month and the governor's public mentions to it since. Authors estimate that as much as $10 billion is wagered each year, contributing to casino profits of about $1.4 billion. full article

Tribes to recommend new names for creek

Published: October 5, 2004

By Keith Chu

The Bulletin

Squaw Creek may get a new, more politically correct name.

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs have wanted the name changed since the mid-'90s, but never recommended a replacement to the Oregon Geographic Names Board, which regulates place names. After years of internal debate, the tribes' Cultural Heritage Committee will ask tribal elders about possible replacements at a meeting this Thursday, said Mike Clements, the tribes' economic development manager. full article

God Talk and Burning Children

Ugly

By LARRY KEARNEY

If you think God is talking to you and the result is a burned or crushed child, you,re wrong. If you find yourself taking revenge in your head on everyone who ever insulted you, however slightly, you are not one of God's messengers. If the substance of the information you get from your God is that he requires you to kill in his name, the information is garbage.

If your word from God recommends punishing the innocent in any way, for any reason, your God is not God at all but a drifting sediment of resentment, greed and the ugliness that needs a dream of power.

Is this hard for us to grasp? full article

National Geographic-Reliving Lewis and Clark: Conflicts With the Sioux

The "National Geographic" website has posted an entry from Anthony Brandt, who is travelling with the Lewis and Clark re-enactors. The title of the entry is "Reliving Lewis and Clark: Conflicts with the Sioux." Brandt describes some of the parallels between the orginal Lewis & Clark scouting party and the Teton Sioux, with that of the present re-enactment and the opposition they've encountered by the descendants of those who originally met Lewis and Clark.

Reliving Lewis and Clark: Conflicts With the Sioux

Blurb

He goes on to describe a warrior society: "brave active young men who take a vow never to give back [i.e., retreat] let the danger be what it may. In war they always go forward without screening themselves behind trees or anything else."

It was all friendly. When Lewis and Clark met them, the tribal chiefs would listen to speeches, give speeches of their own, accept the peace medals, promise to make peace, and in some cases agree to make the long trip to Washington, D.C. to meet the "great white father," Thomas Jefferson.

Then suddenly it was not friendly. The Teton Sioux had every intention of doing to Lewis and Clark what Alex White Plume intended to do to the reenactors—turn them around and send them home. full article

articles-october 4

Bilking of tribes could shake D.C.
By John Aloysius Farrell
Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief

Sunday, October 03, 2004 -

Washington - The opening of the new Smithsonian museum honoring American Indians has been a cause of joy and celebration here.

But the good news has overshadowed emerging revelations about a sleazy political extortion scheme, allegedly launched by big-shot Republican lobbyists, aimed at exploiting Indians.

Throughout U.S. history, "every kind of charlatan and every type of crook has deceived and exploited America's native sons and daughters," says Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "What sets this tale apart, what makes it truly extraordinary, is the extent and degree of the apparent exploitation and deceit."

The unfolding scandal touches some of the GOP's most influential elected officials and lobbyists and could rock the capital before it's over. full article

Tribe says it will sue lobbyists over huge fees
10/4/2004, 7:52 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

ELTON, La. (AP) — Leaders of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana say they plan to sue Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Mike Scanlon to get back $32 million the tribe paid them for lobbying.

Coushatta Tribal Council chairman Lovelin Poncho and council members William G. Worfel and Leonard Battise made the comment in a two-page statement released Saturday.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held hearings into huge fees that tribes paid Abramoff and Scanlon, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. full article

U.S. Is Ordered to Tell Indians Before Selling Trust Property

ASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - A federal judge has ruled that the government must notify American Indian landowners before it seeks to sell property from a trust it manages that collects revenue from oil, timber and grazing leases and other activities on Indian land.

It is the first time such a practice has been required, the Indians say, in the nearly 120 years that the Department of the Interior has administered the fund, called the Indian Trust.

The ruling on Wednesday is part of a complex class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell, a banker and Blackfoot from Montana, on behalf of nearly a half-million Indians who contend that during more than a century the government has cheated them of about $137 billion in royalties from the leases. The government pays beneficiaries a total of more than $500 million each year from the fund, which exceeds $3 billion dollars. full article

DOI Accused of Retaliating Against Indians

Saturday October 2, 2004 1:31 AM

By JOHN HEILPRIN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - An angry federal judge denounced Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Friday after officials in her agency weighed cutting off federal checks to American Indians suing the government for past royalties.

Attorneys for Indians seeking billions of dollars in the suit asked for an emergency hearing before the judge, citing Interior Department memos directing a temporary halt to all communications with Indians. One memo said some payments had already been stopped and another said they might have to be stopped.

``Has Secretary Norton decided to declare war on the Indians in this litigation?'' Lamberth barked at Sandra Spooner, the Justice Department lawyer representing Norton and her department. ``It comes across as absolute, direct retaliation.'' full article

Amnesty slams treatment of Cdn. native women
CTV.ca News Staff

A report from Amnesty International says Canada isn't doing enough to protect aboriginal women from violence.

The report says aboriginal women face double the risk of violence, compared with Canadian society as a whole.

"Many are missing, some have been murdered and Canadian authorities are not doing enough to stop the violence," says the report entitled, "Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada." full article

Visitor center under new management
Ben Shouse
Argus Leader

published: 10/4/2004

Southern tourist stop now run by tribe

PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION - The Oglala Sioux Tribe has taken over management of the southern visitor center at Badlands National Park, a small increase in responsibility that officials say is the start of a major new effort to attract tourists to the reservation.

Tribal members staffed the White River Visitor Center from August until its seasonal close last week. The center is in the park's south unit, which now attracts several thousand visitors a year, far fewer than the

1 million who visit the north unit. full article

SDG&E would buy electricity produced by 38 large turbines
By Chet Barfield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 4, 2004

A Texas company has signed contracts with two East County tribes to develop what would be the region's first wind-energy project to produce and sell electricity to SDG&E.

Superior Renewable Energy says it plans to erect at least 38 large wind turbines by 2006 on the Campo and Ewiiaapaayp reservations. Each three-blade turbine would be taller than a 20-story building and generate up to two megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 2,000 homes.

Pending approval by state and federal authorities, the $80 million project would create the nation's largest wind farm on Indian land, said Superior CEO John Calaway. full article

Smoking ban now in effect – but not everywhere

WINNIPEG - Manitoba's provincewide smoking ban came into effect today. And most of the debate surrounds the fact it does not apply on native reserves.

The government says it wanted to make sure the smoking ban would stick and that's why it brought in the law with some exceptions.

• Jurisdiction not clear in some areas •

Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau says the province does not have clear jurisdiction on reserves or in federal buildings.

"We did not want to have a law that started off, was struck down – was in legal limbo. What we wanted to do was move forward sure-footedly in the areas where we had clear jurisdiction." full article

Steve Newcomb-Colonization Day

This column was written by Steve Newcomb and has yet to be posted on the internet so we are printing it in its entirety. It was written in honor of Tecumsehs' death (october 5) and also to address the upcoming celebration of christopher columbus and his legacy.

Colonization Day

By Steven Newcomb

The day on which the United States pays tribute to Cristobal Colon (the colonizer) is just around the corner, and I am once again pondering his legacy. Every time I think of Columbus’s (Colon’s) life and the dire and lasting effects of colonization on Indigenous nations and peoples, I also think of certain Vatican documents that created a context for his first voyage and subsequent voyages. One key document that I have written about in the past is the Inter Caetera bull of May 1493. This document called for the “subjugation” of “barbarous nations” in order to force them to the Catholic faith and Christian religion.  

One important line in the Inter Cetera bull is, “We trust in Him from whom empires, and governments, and all good things proceed.” The capital “H” on “Him” indicates that this pronoun is referring to the Catholic deity. The Latin language version of the document reveals that the English word “governments” is a translation of the Latin word “dominationes,” or dominations. Thus, the document is saying that “empires,” “dominations,” and “all good things” proceed “from” or emerge out of the Catholic deity.  

It is logically impossible for the Vatican and the pope to have said that empires and dominations (“dominationes”) “proceed from” or emerge from their Catholic deity without also acknowledging the Catholic deity is a deity of empire and domination, and without acknowledging that the Vatican is an institution dedicated to the spread and expanse of empire and domination. Let us not forget that empires and dominations are rooted in violence, and physical, psychological, and spiritual abuse. 

Empire has been defined as “a dominion, state, or sovereignty that would expand in population and territory, and increase in strength and power.” The Pope as “the Supreme Head of the Roman Catholic Church,” is also the “Supreme Head of the Roman Catholic Empire.” The Vatican just doesn’t advertise this information. Empire might be good for business, but it’s not a good sales tool.  

There is other evidence to support what I’m saying. In the papal bull dum diversas of 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V. instructed King Alfonso of Portugal to “invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue, all Saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ, to put them into perpetual slavery, and to take away all their possessions and property.” Here’s clear evidence of the Vatican’s responsibility for crimes against humanity, with regard to the African slave trade, and the bloody and genocidal conquest moves against the Indigenous nations and peoples of the area that would eventually be known as the Americas. Millions were killed outright, and millions more died of diseases.  

The Vatican documents mentioned above, set Christian Europeans on a path of colonization and domination, death and destruction, all in the name of “religious conversion.” These church documents helped set the engine of devastation into motion, and gave it fuel. Now we want the Vatican to acknowledge the role that it played in the annihilation of many Indigenous peoples, and the destruction of tremendous amounts of Indigenous knowledge and wisdom, thereby depriving the world of that vitally important information.  

Do, dom, domo, dominare, dominatio, dominion, domination, dome, domesticate, are among the concepts that structure the category empire. The word “domo” is a Latin word that has seven basic meanings: to subjugate, to subdue, to force into subservience, to tame, to domesticate, to cultivate, and to till. The word in Latin for cultivate is colere, which means both “to colonize” and “to design.” When all these activities are carried out, the result is a system of empire. From the point of view of the goal of empire building, and empire maintenance, all these various activities are regarded as positive and highly effective. They are also in keeping with the first command of Genesis 1:28 in the Bible: “subdue the Earth, and exercise dominion [domination] over all living things.”  

Celebrating the life of Columbus (Colon) is to unconsciously celebrate of a global system of domination that emerged during the so-called Age of Discovery. It is to obfuscate the true story, and place into a positive light the terror of the genocidal forces unleashed by the Vatican documents mentioned above, and by other such documents.  

To acknowledge what is presented here as truth, however, is difficult if not impossible for the dominating society. This is so because this kind of information reveals the actual character of the dominant society, instead of allowing that character to be hidden behind a mask of positive and benign sounding words.  

We as contemporary Indigenous peoples are the present day voice descended from our ancestors. The spirits of our ancestors are with us. It is time for the age of subjugation to come to a close. It is time for a much need transition into an age of healing, revitalization, resurgence, and renewal. Healing can only come about by means of a healing mind (a medicine mind) and healing activities. The same is true of revitalization, resurgence, and renewal. This is natural law.  

Speaking of natural laws, I have learned much about the Seven Laws of the Oceti Sakowin from my friend and colleague Birgil Kills Straight. These are laws of the Oglala Lakota, and other allied nations of the Nakota and Dakota. According to Birgil, Indigenous laws are concepts, values, and principles that open a path of truth, beauty, and goodness. These are laws to be lived each and every day of our lives.  

These laws teach us to honor and respect all forms of life, and to have compassion and pity for others. They instruct us to share with and care for others. The Seven Laws direct us to exhibit patience and fortitude, as well as humbleness and humility. The laws tell us we must be courageous and brave, and to demonstrate patience and fortitude in our lives, while also seeking wisdom and understanding in our lives. When these laws are lived as a way of life, they result in Wolakota, or a life of peace and friendship. 

When person lives in keeping with these concepts and the activities that go with them, that person will find peace. The same is true for a family or extended family, for a community or for a nation. Speaking of peace, the great Oglala spiritual leader Black Elk once said (as found in Joseph Epes Brown’s book, “The Sacred Pipe.”): “The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its Powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwell Wakan Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.  

The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between to nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.”  

Steven Newcomb is Indigenous Law Research Coordinator at Kumeyaay Community College, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and a columnist for Indian Country Today.  

Owe Aku, to protest another Lewis and Clark evet

There are some more updates on the stoplewisandclark.org website. There are some articles as well as a first person account of the Bad River protest by Deb White Plume. Visit their website for the latest information.

Protesters Target Another Lewis and Clark Event

Rapid City Journal
October 3, 2004

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark may have been welcomed by Indian tribes in this area 200 years ago, but those commemorating their journey face protests.

American Indian protesters plan to target the "signature event" scheduled in Bismarck on Oct. 22 in memory of the Lewis and Clark expedition in North Dakota.

"To us, it's no reason to celebrate," Deb White Plume, who lives on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, said. full article

Deb White Plume's account.

Stop Lewis and Clark: Protest at the Bad River
By Debra White Plume, writing from the banks of Wounded Knee Creek
Webposted October 3, 2004

On September 25 and 26, 2004 approximately 30 people from the Stop Lewis and Clark group from the Lakota country of Pine Ridge, Eagle Butte, Standing Rock, and Nebraska traveled in car caravans to Ft. Pierre, SD to protest the commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Reenactment. Floyd Looks For Buffalo Hand, spiritual man of the Oglala band of the Lakota Nation, offered prayers for the resistance group as they prepared for their departure.

The L and C Expedition reenactment stopped at the Bad River, near the place that is now the state capital of South Dakota, to reenact their meeting of 200 years ago with the Lakota Nation. Grandmothers, young children, high school and college students came together on their home reservations to organize a public resistance to the commonly accepted message of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which does not acknowledge the destruction that followed them when they entered Indian Country. full account

2 letters in the Boulder Weekly.

These 2 letters to the editor appeared in this week's edition of the Boulder Weekly. The first (by Lauranna Johnson) offers and Irish perspective on the convoy of conquest and the next one (by Mark Freeland) addresses the issue of "violent protest" that the media brings up every year.

Real Irish legacy

Here comes yet another October when neo-Roman suburbanites will invade Denver with their convoy of conquest that celebrates Christopher Columbus, the slave-trading, Indian-killing founder of racist AmeriKKKa.

Now I wonder, will any of the thousands of celebrants who turn out every year for the St. Patrick’s Day parade join their American Indian neighbors in resistance to this blatant incitement to genocide? Should we not? Much of what has happened to Native Americans also happened to the Celts: colossal theft of land, genocidal butchery that murdered millions, destruction of social and national unity, colonial schools that forbade native languages, a diaspora that scattered us to the four directions and denial of the freedom to practice the earth-centered spirituality of our ancestors.

How brilliantly did that sea of Irish tricolors wave in the Colorado sun last March; the green bar of Catholicism and the orange bar of Protestantism united by the white bar of Peace to symbolize the hope for an end to the violence between the two. But unless the exiles of the Gaelic diaspora join with all people of conscience to stop Denver’s very own anti-Native Orange Parade, we will forever appear united only in the white-skin privilege of Euro-American colonialism.

Lauranna Johnson/Denver

Anti-Indian coverage

Since 1992, the media has consistently described the reason for the cancellation of that year’s "convoy of conquest" (I watched it last year. Bikers, limos and semi-trucks do not constitute a parade or an ethnic celebration) as due to the "threats of violence" or "intimidation" by demonstrators or Native Americans. While these alleged threats are continually repeated when giving the history of the resistance to state-sponsored hate speech, there has never been an act of violence or intimidation in the 15 years since Colorado AIM initiated the resistance to the Columbus holiday in this area. There has been some civil resistance in protesting the convoy, but these have consistently been peaceful demonstrations.

In 1989, when AIM initiated the action in this area, there was a rally to protest the holiday, and Russell Means was given a ticket for pouring fake blood over the Columbus statue in Civic Park. The next year AIM was set to protest the convoy of conquest, but took the invitation from the organizers of the event to lead the event, because the [Federation of Italian American Organizations] promised to discuss the possibility of a name change [for the parade]. In 1991, the same invitation was offered to AIM, but the invitation was declined because the FIAO failed to follow through with their promise to discuss the name change. About 50 people stopped the convoy, and four were arrested peacefully.

In 1992, there of course was not a convoy, the organizers of the event cancelled the procession due to "fear of violence," yet no threats were ever issued, except to demonstrate peacefully. From 1993 to 1999 there were only individual celebrations marking the Columbus holiday, none of which came against any significant resistance and certainly were not subject to any violence.

When the convoy was resurrected in 2000, the rhetoric of "threats of violence" once again dominated the media coverage. However, with the thousands of protesters and a media buildup of potential disaster, 147 people were arrested (without incident) for civil resistance.

The next year a new tactic was started, that of role modeling an inclusive cultural celebration with the Four Directions March. There was a demonstration ready to confront the convoy peacefully, but there was a split in the organizers of the convoy that year, and they kept Columbus’ name out of the parade.

The year 2001 also marked the beginning of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, an association of many different groups who are willing to confront racism and envision a better future for Denver. This Alliance is made up of groups of different ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds, including Italian-Americans. In 2002, the convoy was again confronted, there were a couple of arrests for resistance, but again no violence.

Last year the Transform Columbus Day Alliance met the convoy, this time with two emissaries, offering an agreement to change the name of the convoy, but the convoy leaders ridiculed it in the street. The demonstrators then turned their backs on the convoy and walked away.

So where do the "threats of violence" or "intimidation" come from? The only talk of anything physical has been from statements discussing the right to protect ourselves from the people in the convoy. In 2000, Russell Means was quoted as saying, "If they lay a hand on my children when I’m protesting, then it’s war" (Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 3, 2000, Page 4A). This was given a front-page quote next to his name, as well as a large font above the article. However, similar quotes were given by the convoy-goers but without the large headline. George Vendegnia was quoted as saying, "These people have the right to protest, but we are not going to stand by and take it" (Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 26, 2000, Internet).

It is time for the media to be honest about this subject and quit the unbalanced stereotyping that is prevalent in the press. The only group of people that is guilty of intimidation is the editorial boards for promoting the idea of potential violence in their papers. The people of this area deserve realistic coverage of the topic at hand, not sensationalized stereotypes of the "violent Indians." The people of Denver deserve better.

Mark Freeland/via Internet

Kickapoo judge dismisses charges against 3 women

By Ann Weaver
The Oklahoman
A tribal judge Wednesday dismissed criminal trespassing charges against three women related to their two-week occupation of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma's administration building earlier this year.

Kickapoo Attorney General Geri Wisner-Foley blamed a "technicality" for the dismissal of the charges against Auchee Wahpepah, Valentina Jimenez and Glenda Deer. She declined to identify the technicality.

Deer said incomplete court records prompted the ruling. She said among other items, no documentation existed in their case file to prove the three had ever been arraigned. full article

Baptists taught Cherokee bigotry
Marriage was not defined by gender in Cherokee tradition, but the influence of Christian missionaries changed that.

By JOYCE ROCK
Friday, October 01, 2004

THE CHEROKEE NATION is in a quandary right now over the issue of same-sex marriage.

Under a compact with the state of Oklahoma, marriages recorded by the Cherokee Nation will be recognized by the state. Cherokee law is very vague on gender issues in its marriage laws. The Cherokee terms used in the marriage ceremony translate as “provider” and “cooker,” not “husband” and “wife.”

Last May, a lesbian couple used these definitions in applying for and receiving a marriage license from the Cherokee Nation. After their marriage ceremony, the couple asked the Cherokee Nation to file their certificate of marriage with the state. full article

Tribe wants water storage information as it contemplates seeking payments
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

POST FALLS, Idaho -- The Coeur d'Alene Tribe is digging in its heels over its demand for an analysis of how much usable land was lost when the free-flowing Spokane River was dammed up at Post Falls by Avista Utilities.

Tribal and utility officials agreed that the tribe is not advocating removal of the dam, which manipulates water levels in Lake Coeur d'Alene to provide power generation. But it is contemplating seeking federally authorized payments for lands flooded by dams.

The tribe owns the bottom third of the lake.

"What we are trying to find out is, what are the impacts and effects of storing the water?" tribal attorney Howard Funke said. "They are storing 8 feet of water or 7 feet of water in the lake for power generation. In order to get a legitimate view of that, we need some assessment of what the system was like. full article

Native cancer survivors extend circle of hope
A Tigard woman helps lead the push for better care, greater awareness for those of indigenous descent
Friday, October 01, 2004

MAYA BLACKMUN

TIGARD I n the 18 months between her diagnosis and death, Celeste Whitewolf's mother made sure that all 18 of her grandchildren had been given a Native American name, with all the accompanying regalia and ceremonies.

Whitewolf helped and was there when her mother died. She watched as medicine women ushered people aside from her mother's feet so her spirit could rise up, and as they opened windows so her mother's spirit could journey out.

"I can bring those traditions into my cancer work," Whitewolf said. full article

The man who would not move
By Scott De Laruelle

Many have seen the shrub-covered monument to Ho-Chunk chief Yellow Thunder along County A, just north of Shady Lane Drive, but few know the importance of the one many knew as "The man who would not move."

A sign nearby points out the direction of the Ho-Chunk House of Wellness. If not for Yellow Thunder and his principled defiance, there may be no Ho-Chunk left in Sauk County.

Yellow Thunder, or "Wau-Kan-Yee-Kah" was a seminal figure in Sauk County history. His stubborn, non-violent method to gaining land rights was a novel approach that worked when thousands of Native Americans were forced from their ancestral homelands to foreign lands. full article

Scientists protest bill to protect ancient skeleton

Hoping to study 9,300-year-old 'Kennewick Man'
By Matthew Daly
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET Oct. 1, 2004
WASHINGTON - Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting a bill by Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell that they say could block their efforts.

advertisementA two-word amendment would change an Indian graves-protection law to allow federally recognized tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe.

Scientists say the bill, if enacted, could have the effect of overturning a federal appeals court ruling that allowed them to study the 9,300-year-old bones. full article

COURT RULES WEYERHAEUSER HAS ONGOING SUBSTANTIVE OBLIGATIONS TO THE HAIDA

The Supreme Court of British Columbia released its decision yesterday in
a case brought by the Haida seeking to enforce Weyerhaeuser's
obligations to consult and accommodate the Haida.

In 2002, the CHN won its case against Weyerhaeuser and the B.C. Crown
regarding the transfer and replacement of Tree Farm Licence 39 on Haida
Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). The Court of Appeal held that the Crown
and Weyerhaeuser have duties to consult and accommodate the Haida with
respect to their cultural and economic interests in the forests of Haida
Gwaii. The Province and Weyerhaeuser appealed the decision, and a
decision from the Supreme Court of Canada is expected soon.

Since the 2002 decision the Haida have attempted to reach accommodations
with Weyerhaeuser and the Province. Also since the decision, the
Province changed its forestry legislation to divest itself of the
obligation to consult regarding transfers and replacements of Tree Farm
Licences. The Haida went back to court when Weyerhaeuser declared no
need to consult with the Haida regarding any potential transfer of that
licence and refused to provide the Haida with information regarding
monumental cedar within the licence area. full article

It's Not A Win If It Don't Have Spin
by Antonia Zerbisias
 
U.S. President George W. Bush blinked.

It was the same panicky look he had while he sat in that other Florida classroom ... on Sept. 11, 2001.

Bush also rolled his eyes, smirked, wagged his finger, pursed his lips, lost his cool, interrupted his Democratic opponent John F. Kerry and was the first to break the rules in the 32-page "Memorandum of Understanding" governing last night's debate.

He fidgeted, he flailed, he flopped. But at least he didn't flip, steadfastly and resolutely staying stuck in his message groove: "The world is safer without Saddam Hussein weapons of mass destruction proliferation terrorist network hard work of leadership" stuff of the campaign stump. full article