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Official tells Indian side of Mt. Rushmore
The huge granite faces of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt evoke the ideals of the country's leaders as America changed from rural republic to world power. To many American Indians, though, the imposing monument in the Black Hills is a painful symbol of treaties broken by the federal government. And they want their story told.
National organizations raise disaster relief funds
NEW ORLEANS - As American Indian tribal members on the Gulf Coast seek refuge in their home communities, the National Indian Gaming Association and National Congress of American Indians are raising funds for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. NCAI President Tex Hall said all American Indian tribal members affected by the hurricane, including those from tribes that have not received federal recognition, would be assisted.
Louisiana state coastal tribes hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina
HOUMA, La. - Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes of Louisiana-state recognized American Indian tribes on the Gulf Coast, and some have lost everything to hurricane damage and flooding. Tribal members say Hurricane Katrina did not discern whether tribal members were from federally-recognized tribes, but those lacking federal recognition have been largely ignored by federal agencies and the media.
Justice Department Asks for Different Judge in Indian Trust Case
The Justice Department took the unusual step Monday of asking that a new judge be assigned to a nine-year-old lawsuit by American Indians seeking a century's worth of unpaid oil and gas royalties.
Ignatius Petoskey
Petoskey—There was a public ceremony regarding the unveiling of a statue of Ignatius Petoskey, for whom the city of Petoskey was named. The event will be held across from the Perry Davis Hotel. He will be looking across at Seven Mile Point where his original home was. We are expecting 75 to 150 family members attending, as well as news media and community members. There was an article in this past Sunday’s Grand Rapids Press. Miigwech! Warren Petoskey
Identity, part deux
In l'affair Churchill, many non-Native people are amazed that there are non-Native people who take on the identity of a Native person. Pseudo-Indianism is a well-known phenomenon in Indian country. Pseudo-Indians usually have some useful skills, but their real talent is their ability to con kind-hearted, trusting people into validating them as Indians. Here are some familiar traits of pseudo-Indians.
Nation Building in Indian Country: The Blackfoot Constitutional Review*
The Blackfoot People of the Blackfoot Nation, in order to secure our physical and cultural survival, in order to provide for our common defense and security, in order to provide for prosperity for all Blackfoot, in order to secure redress for past and present injustices done to Blackfoot People, in order to realize our internationally recognized right to independence and self-determination, in order to form bilateral relations with other nations, in order to respect the legacies and sacrifices of our ancestors and pass them on to our descendants and in order to secure and protect our resources and birthrights, do hereby declare that we constitute/are—and have never relinquished our right to be or be recognized as—a sovereign nation and do, also, hereby create and enact this Constitution
Racism, Complicity, and Rhetorics of War
I am a peace activist (Rhetoricians for Peace) finishing my doctorate in rhetoric from Michigan State University and currently am an international scholar at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). Greetings, Sisters and Brothers, from many tribes and nations. I am descended from the First Americans, a scholar trained in rhetoric, an activist, and a writer. I express gratitude to my teachers, elders, and Creator for giving me words to share, and to you for listening. I was requested to give a scholarly address on rhetorics of war.
 Why Native identity matters: A cautionary tale
I met Ward Churchill 15 years ago, before he gained his present infamous reputation. My friend, a college professor, said this Cherokee-Creek guy wanted to meet me. I expected to meet an earnest young student who would relate to me as Creek (I'm Hodulgee Muscogee on Dad's side and enrolled Cheyenne on Mom's). MORE ANISHNABEK NEWS
Indian Education
This web site is designed to provide Indian education leaders and local Title VII school programs with access to resources, information, and connections to other organizations involved with Indian education.
Churchill, the man, an enigma
Will the real Ward Churchill please stand up? Almost everything about Churchill seems to be in dispute - from whether he really is an American Indian to the value of his scholarship. The University of Colorado ethnic-studies professor has been a polarizing figure among American Indians for years, with some praising him as a voice for the oppressed and others dismissing him as a white man masquerading as a militant Indian activist.
"Some People Push Back On the Justice of Roosting Chickens"
When queried by reporters concerning his views on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X famously – and quite charitably, all things considered – replied that it was merely a case of "chickens coming home to roost." On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens – along with some half-million dead Iraqi children – came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well.
Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi on Ward Churchill
Chief Lame Deer of the Lakota once noted: "You can tell a real Red Indian by how he [or she] lives and not by his [or her] blood percentage."
My mother used to say that "No one 'chooses' their blood; this comes from the Creator. Any Indian who does not keep the sacred sacred, any Indian who does not respect the worthy Elders, any Indian who does not protect the children, any Indian who does any kind of corruption, whatever their purported blood quantum, is doing "Custer Work" and they are aiding and abetting the extermination of what they DARE to call "their own" blood and People--their purported blood quantum is meaningless."
Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi
Blackfoot Nation |
AIM on Ward Churchill
The American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council representing the National and International leadership of the American Indian Movement once again is vehemently and emphatically repudiating and condemning the outrageous statements made by academic literary and Indian fraud, Ward Churchill in relationship to the 9-11 tragedy in New York City that claimed thousands of innocent people’s lives.
Churchill’s statement that these people deserved what happened to them, and calling them little Eichmanns, comparing them to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who implemented Adolf Hitler’s plan to exterminate European Jews and others, should be condemned by all.
The sorry part of this is Ward Churchill has fraudulently represented himself as an Indian, and a member of the American Indian Movement, a situation that has lifted him into the position of a lecturer on Indian activism. He has used the American Indian Movement’s chapter in Denver to attack the leadership of the official American Indian Movement with his misinformation and propaganda campaigns. READ AIM STATEMENT |
Indian Country weighs in on professor [SUBSCRIPTION TO INDIAN COUNTRY REQUIRED]
The controversy over University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill continues to generate strong opinions ranging from the dismissive to the outright confrontational. While the national media has focused on Churchill’s essay regarding the 9/11 tragedies, Indian County appears more intrigued by the fact that Churchill, who for years has positioned himself as a spokesman for Native issues, very likely does not even have any Indian heritage.
Support Ward Churchill's freedom of speech
Write to the President, Chancellors, Dean, and Regents of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Read what others are saying...
Churchill Replies
In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, coverage that has resulted in defamation of my character and threats against my life. What I actually said has been lost, indeed turned into the opposite of itself, and I hope the following facts will be reported at least to the same extent that the fabrications have been.
Indians' Genetic Material Sold on Internet
The Brazilian government has asked Interpol, the international police, to intervene in what it says is the illegal sale of genetic material from its indigenous peoples by a U.S. research centre.
Indigenous Peoples Day
When the Belgian Defence Ministry earlier this year blamed North America for the world's worst ever genocide over its killing of millions of indigenous peoples, outrage at the claim spotlighted a topic that rarely enters the public realm but has long been accepted by many native Americans and their supporters.
Military Hazards Are Greater for Native Americans
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.
Little Big Companies
How did corporations like Halliburton get millions in government contracts designated for small minority businesses? Partnerships between multinational companies and tribal businesses have skyrocketed in recent years—in large part because of a provision in federal law that exempts tribal companies from rules that apply to other minority-owned businesses.
The Status of your Mediation with the U.S. Government
I wish I could report that we have made progress in our negotiations with the government. Unfortunately, the government has, so far, acted with the same bad faith in mediation that they have shown in administering the trust and litigating the Cobell case. The truth is that the government likes using our money. Their own expert has estimated that up to $40 billion is owed. With a sweetheart deal like this, why would they want to voluntarily resolve the issue? The truth is that the government leases our land and assets far below market to Fortune 500 energy companies. The truth is that fraud, graft and corruption have pervaded the management of our trust assets for over 100 years. The truth is that the current trustee-delegates have proven themselves incompetent and dishonest, like their predecessors. These are not mere allegations—they are facts established in a court of law.
Interior Department Secretary Norton called 'worse than Custer'
U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton was characterized Monday as a 21st Century reincarnation of 19th Century U.S. Army Gen. George Armstrong Custer. The comparison came during the latest update of the largest class action lawsuit in American history.
Indian Tribes Got Little For Their $66m
A lobbyist who billed American Indian tribes tens of millions of dollars for work on casino issues refused yesterday to answer questions from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Committee Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., quoted from e-mails in which Jack Abramoff called his tribal clients "morons," "monkeys" and "stupid idiots."
Fleecing the 'monkeys'
In e-mail exchanges 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.'' Witnesses and senators at the hearing referred to the two men variously as ''vultures,'' ''con men,'' ''crooks,'' ''charlatans'' and ''a pathetic, disgusting example of greed run amok.''
Two men allegedly bilked Indian tribes
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell has laid out a tale of greed and corruption by a lobbyist and a public-relations consultant who charged six Indian tribes $66 million over the past three years for no clear tribal benefit while boasting of important connections in Washington. Wednesday's hearing laid out a documentary trail focusing on the millions of dollars in payments made by two tribes — the Saginaw Chippewa of Michigan and Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of California — and the little they received in return from Abramoff and Scanlon. The pair also are suspected of exploiting the Tigua tribe in El Paso in 2001 and 2002, while boasting of close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas
A Brief History of the American Indian Movement
In the 30 years of its formal history, the American Indian Movement (AIM) has given witness to a great many changes. We say formal history, because the movement existed for 500 years without a name. The leaders and members of today's AIM never fail to remember all of those who have traveled on before, having given their talent and their lives for the survival of the people.
Prelude to Conquest: They Came Among Our Nations....
Two hundred years ago an imperial power sent a group of spies into our lands as a prelude to conquest and the dispossession of the rightful owners. They came among our Nations spouting the same lies they have used since Columbus. They spoke of peace and said they harbored no ill will towards our People but they were eye witnesses to the deaths and devastation of every Tribal Nation east of the Mississippi. As they surveyed our world and lusted after our wealth they used our traditional hospitality to infiltrate into our homelands and went home with a blueprint for our demise.
Women's nuptials test Cherokee laws
Two women who married each other have stirred controversy in the Cherokee Nation over the legality of same-sex marriage.
If You Want to See Me Cry...
If you want to see me cry ... call on peoples -- who've been here for thousands of years -- to go back to where they came from. If you want to see me suffer ... tell me that fighting against injustices makes one bigoted and unpatriotic. If you want to see me die ... tell me that all this hate, brutality, torture and permanent war has been sanctioned by God the Creator.
Western Shoshone ‘Payoff Bill’ Signed by U.S. President
During a minor respite from the illegal war and occupation of Iraq, the United States Government has turned, once again, to its first victim, the American Indian. As was expected, the “legalised’ takeover of even more Native American land proceded its farcical course through the House of Representatives (by a surprise vote when many Representatives weren’t even there), through the Senate (by unanimous decision) to the President who - of course - signed the Bill into Law.
Bush Lets Freedom Reign
Bush used his pen as a “scepter of imperial freedom” to violate the fundamental, ancestral and treaty rights of the Western Shoshone Nation. “Imperial freedom” refers to the American empire’s claim of “freedom” to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, to whomever it wants, even against the will of those damaged by the action done.
New anti-terrorism bill makes face paint and masks criminal offenses in public forums
American Indians say the new regulations limit civil rights while giving the National Security Administration advanced powers to monitor e-mail and cell phone calls, places Indigenous peoples at risk of being detained on suspicion and makes it a criminal offense to wear face paint or bandanas in public forums. The 125-clause anti-terrorism bill, expected to be in effect by Christmas, makes it a criminal offence to refuse a police officer's request to remove hand and face coverings, such as masks and face paint, in certain situations.
Mother Earth Water Walk
"In about 30 years, if we humans continue with our negligence, an ounce of drinking water will cost the same as an ounce of gold." Water is essential to survival and health. Everything is related to water. This is proportionate to Mother Earth. Our food sources use water to be nutritious. The medicine wheel teachings are about balance in life.
Billions Missing From U.S. Indian Trust Fund
The U.S. has lost not millions, but billions of dollars belonging to native Americans In his testimony before Congress, John Echohawk, director of Native American Rights Fund, called it "yet another serious and continuing breach in a long history of dishonorable treatment of Indian tribes and individual Indians by the United States government." th no other recourse left at their disposal, NARF, along with other attorneys, filed a class action lawsuit in federal district court on June 10 on behalf of more than 300,000 American Indians. The suit charges Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Assistant Interior Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Ada Deer and Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin with illegal conduct in regard to the management of Indian money held in trust accounts and managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
170 Years of Problems
...You can choose almost any year since the BIA's predecessor, the Indian Department, was created in 1824 and find governments reports describing poor management, no accounting system, missing money, no attempt to fulfill the fiduciary duty to the Indians as promised and required by law...
2003
Pow Wow Photos
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Indian
activist Leonard Peltier seeking parole hearing
American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, convicted of killing two FBI agents
in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation standoff in South Dakota 28 years ago, is
asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant him the parole hearing
he has been trying to get since 1986.
Tribe
set to purchase Grand Traverse Resort
Praise and criticism accompanied news of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and
Chippewa Indians' Wednesday purchase of Grand Traverse Resort and Spa.
U.S.
Approves Power Plant in Area Indians Hold Sacred
The Bush administration has approved construction of a geothermal
power plant in the Modoc National Forest, a remote volcanic field
near California's border with Oregon that local tribes consider
sacred.
Tribal
officials 'cautiously optimistic' on new administration
While the relations between the state and tribal governments wasn't
a high-profile campaign issue like taxes or health care, it looms
as a major challenge to the incoming administration of Jennifer
Granholm.
U.S.'s
Rape of the Indians Continues Still Today
Call it a modern-day Trail of Tears, another chapter in the endless
saga of the raping of the American Indian.
GT
Band considers purchasing GT Resort
ACME - The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is
once again considering whether to buy the Grand Traverse Resort
and Spa, the head of the tribe's casino operations says.
Indian
bones found at construction site
Tribal officials have confirmed that human remains discovered at
a construction site here earlier this week are those of an American
Indian.
Band
announces Holiday Inn buy, tentative expansion
Now that the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians has confirmed
it is considering a casino, resort and convention complex near the
Wal-Mart in Petoskey and has purchased the Holiday Inn, residents
are bracing for large-scale development over which they have little
control.
The
Legacy of Wounded Knee
I came to western South Dakota to be a staff attorney with a group
called the Wounded Knee Defense Committee back in 1975, and I came
from an urban Jewish upbringing in the New York City area. I was
raised to believe in the importance of justice for all people. I
was raised to believe in the importance of our democracy and our
fundamental rights to free speech, freedom of association, and freedom
to seek redress of grievances. From what I have seen over the last
25 years, Native Americans have many legitimate grievances...
Bush's
Band-Aid Approach
A prestigious, congressionally mandated report has found that minority
Americans receive glaringly inferior medical care. The Bush response:
Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day!
Tribe
Topples Mighty Oil Giant
Occidental Petroleum is hightailing out of Siriri, Colombia thanks
to the sheer will of the U'wa -- a small indigenous tribe in the
Andean rainforest.
Judge
rules in favor of GT Band's Turtle Creek
A legal cloud that has been hanging over the Grand Traverse Band's
Turtle Creek casino for more than five years evaporated in a sweeping
opinion by a federal judge this week.
Indians'
Billions Uncounted
Native Americans demand accounting for federal trust fund failures.
GT
Band to defend jurisdiction in court
An area Indian tribe will defend one of its members accused in state
court of a hunting violation on private land.
Linguist
to speak on fading languages
Hundreds of languages and dialects of American Indians are teetering
on the cusp of extinction. And each year, some languages, along
with the cultural heritages from which they came, disappear forever.
GT
Band opens spiritual, colorful child care facility
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians has opened
a $1.4 million child care facility that is part of a larger community
development plan on 80 acres of tribal land called Eagle Valley.
Imprisoned
American Indian activist sues FBI for violating civil rights
An action filed in federal court in Washington, charges that agents
''engaged in a systematic, and officially sanctioned campaign of
misinformation and disinformation designed to prevent'' Peltier's
clemency request from receiving fair consideration.
World
view explored at Native American Week talk
The American Indian world view of interconnectedness and sense of
a homeland could be important to people of all races.
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