News from Indian-Country
Page 8 Spilyay Tytnoo . Mqy 13, 2004
Chinooks don't want to share
SOUTH BRNO, Wash. (Al)
- Representatives of the Indian
tribe that welcomed a soggy and
tired Ix.-wis and Clark expedition
to the Pacific in 1805 after a
4,000-mile trek says it may take
a hike of its own when bicen
tennial festivities here begin.
The Chinook tribe says it will
pull out of the celebrations at
the western end of the Lewis
and Clark Trail if another,
smaller, group, the Clatsop
Nehalem tribe, is allowed to
participate on an equal footing.
At issue is the identity of the
"homeland tribe" that helped the
explorers,
"It is a huge issue for us," said
Gary Johnson, chairman of the
larger group organized as the
Chinook Indian Nation.
"In our belief they (the
Clatsop-Nehalems) are not a
historic or traditional tribal
group," said Johnson, who lives
in this town about 50 miles
north of where Iewis and Clark
ended their westward trek to the
Pacific.
The journals of Lewis and
Clark mention several tribes at
Fort Clatsop, where they spent
the 1805-06 winter, but named
Fort Clatsop after the one near
est them. Fort Clatsop was near
present-day Astoria, Ore., where
the Columbia River empties into
the Pacific.
The Clatsops were dominant
in the area. The Nehalems, the
Tillamooks and other tribes pri
Living conditions
match Third World
PHOENIX (AP) - Some
lawmakers vow to seek more
federal funding for American
Indians after touring the Navajo
reservation and seeing wide
spread poverty.
"I've been to 48 or 50 dif
ferent countries and that hous
ing is comparable to the Third
World," said Rep. Robert Ney,
R-Ohio, chairman of the House
Financial Services subcommit
tee on housing and community
opportunity. "Those are the
toughest living conditions I've
seen."
Ney and members of his sub
committee were on a recent
tour of housing on the reserva
tion before attending the first
housing subcommittee hearing
ever held on Native American
land.
The tour was arranged by
Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., who
was appalled at housing he saw
in his 1st Congressional District
after being elected about 18
months ago.
"I visited Kaibito and saw
three children living in a mud
Tribe's second casino
opens on a high note
SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP) -The
Seneca Indian Nation's sec
ond casino has opened for busi
ness in a scene that included tra
ditional American Indian danc
ers, music and fireworks.
The Senecas already operate
the profitable Niagara Falls ca
sino, which opened New Year's
Eve 2002.
The $71 million Seneca
Allegany Casino, which made its
debut on a recent Saturday
night, is the first full-fledged
casino in the Southern Tier, and
is expected to attract gamblers
from western New York and
Pennsylvania.
The new gambling hall fea
tures 1,700 slot machines and
22 gambling tables including
blackjack, craps and roulette.
There's also a bingo hall,
buffet room, diner and snack
bar.
In Maine, voters last fall re
marily lived to the south.
Today the Chinooks claim to
be the "I lomeland Tribe" that
represents the Lower Chinook,
Clatsop, Willapa, Wahiakum and
Carhlamct tribes, who make up
the lion's share of the lower
Columbia groups.
The Clatsop-Nehalems, the
Chinooks contend, are come
lately interlopers who actually
fall under their jurisdiction.
Joe Scovell, chairman of the
Clatsop-Nehalems, disagrees.
"We have had (separate sta
tus) historically and the treaties
say we have it. They just don't
want to accept us as equal par
ticipants," said Scovell, 81, who
lives in Turner, Ore. in the
Willamette Valley.
The controversy might mys
tify the explorers, who seemed
to find more similarities than
differences among the tribes.
"The Clatsops, Chinnooks
and Killamucks (Tillamooks) are
very loquacious and inquisi
tive...'" Meriwether Lewis wrote
in January 1806. "They appear
to be a mild inoffensive people
and have been very friendly to
us."
"The Killamucks, Clatsops,
Chinnooks, Cathlamas and Wac-ki-a-cums
resemble each other
as well in their persons and dress
as in their habits and manners
..." Lewis wrote in March 1806,
a few days before the expedi
tion left Fort Clatsop for home.
The river tribes helped get
hut with their grandmother.
Their stomachs were distended
with dysentery. When I came
home, I cried," Renzi added. "I
thought, 'How can I call myself
a congressman and not do some
thing about this?'"
Experts say housing on res
ervations is substandard be
cause of poverty and the lack
of infrastructure like water,
sewer and electrical service.
Because much of the land is
held in trust for the tribe by the
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs,
individuals don't own it and can
not use it for collateral to se
cure loans or mortgages.
Because of the lack of em
ployment, many tribal members
cannot qualify for credit.
Committee members said
they will return to Washington
and work for improved fund
ing and other solutions.
"It's unbelievable seeing this
kind of poverty in America. It's
like South Africa," said Rep.
Maxine Waters, D-Calif., an
other member of the subcom
mittee. jected two Maine Indian tribes'
referendum proposal to build a
$650 million casino in the
Sanford area.
Since then, the Penobscot
and Passamaquoddy tribes have
asked for the Legislature's back
ing to run a slot-machine opera
tion at Bangor's harness racing
track, which is being bought by
Penn National Gaming Inc. Law
makers turned them down.
On opening night at the Sen
eca Allegany Casino, Victor
Morley, 38, of Dayton, won
$214,000 after shoving 75 cents
into a slot machine called Wheel
of Fortune. He said the experi
ence was "numbifying" and
plans to donate some of his win
nings to charity.
Seneca leaders hailed the
casino s opening as a major step
toward the revival of the local
economy and the nation's quest
for financial independence.
the explorers through the mis
erable winter of 1805-1806 at
Fort Clatsop.
Five days of bicentennial
activities are planned for the
Oregon and Washington sides
of the Columbia River begin
ning Nov. 11, 2005, the same
time of year the explorers
reached the Pacific.
Other celebrations will mark
the bicentennial of other events,
ending with one in March 2006
to commemorate the departure
of the explorers as they began
their long journey home.
Several tribes in the region
have been invited to take part.
Although tribal lineage has
been blurred over time, the
Chinooks insist on representing
all American Indian groups that
Research team uncovers
FORTJACKSON,S.C.(AP)
- Deep in the loblolly pine for
est of this Army training base,
small teams of archaeologists
are digging up dirt and sifting
buckets of soil to glean infor
mation about America's early
peoples.
"The research potential here
is great because it is such a large
tract of land," said Deborah
Kecne, a University of South
Carolina archaeologist oversee
ing digs at sites across Fort
Jackson's 52,300 acres on the
eastern edge of Columbia.
"We can look at populations
over time - from the earliest hu
mans in the area right up to the
historical period," she said.
Under contract with the U.S.
Army, researchers from the
university's Institute of Archae
ology and Anthropology are in
vestigating some 660 sites that
could be significant enough for
listing on the National Register
of Historic Places.
The groups are working from
initial surveys done in the 1980s
and '90s that identified poten
tial sites. Now, researchers use
Rivals meet during tribal election
WHITE EARTH, Minn.
(AP) A man is trying to re
claim his job as chairman of the
White Earth Indian Reservation,
the largest Chippewa reservation
in the state, against a woman
whose testimony helped send
him to federal prison for nearly
three years.
He says she's "evil." She says
he's a "crook."
Darrell (Chip) Wadena, 65,
was the most prominent Ameri
can Indian leader in Minnesota
for more than two decades. That
is, until his 1996 conviction in
federal court for bid-rigging and
other crimes related to his tribe's
casino gambling business.
Wadena faces his bitter rival,
Erma Vizenor, in the June 8
election.
"Chip Wadena was put in a
position of trust and responsi
bility, he stole from our people,
he was convicted of more than
a dozen felonies and sent to fed
eral prison ... And he thinks that
I'm evil?" Vizenor said.
Vizenor, 59, the Harvard
graduate and former White
Earth secretary-treasurer, says
she feels she has been "politi
cally blacklisted" by Wadena and
his allies.
A longtime educator,
Vizenor was one of 150 tribal
members to occupy the Minne
apolis office of the U.S. Bureau
of Indian Affairs at a protest in
1991. The group demanded an
overhaul of the BIA and an
accounting of the $12 million
that they said the BIA gave to
then-tribal Chairman Wadena.
Wadena, who dabbles as a
used-car salesman, is personable
and alwavs readv with an answer
welcomed Lewis and Clark on
the Pacific Coast, and want a
lesser role for the Clatsop
Nehalems. Since neither group has fed
erally recognized tribal status,
the issue has become one of
history and ethnic ties, not of
law.
"We will take each activity one
at a time," Johnson said. "But
we have stated our position. We
will not participate as equal part
ners with the Clatsop-Nehalem."
The Clatsop-Nehalems would
like to demonstrate canoe-making
and other tribal skills at the
celebration, Scovell said.
The disputing sides have met,
but to no avail.
A retired educator, Scovell
said the Clatsop-Nehalems were
global positioning devices to
determine the location and size
of each site to help them gather
information about the land's
early inhabitants.
At one site miles away from
the fort's noisy rifle and tank
ranges, a half-dozen young dig
gers carefully lift shovels full of
soil. A co-worker slowly sifts the
dirt in a screened box and
shakes it. It is hot, sweaty, te
dious labor.
Elizabeth May, 24, smiles as
she holds up her find of the day:
a rough, pockmarked shard of
reddish pottery.
"It's a check-stamp made by
a carved wooden paddle pressed
into wet clay then fired," said
Keene, explaining the lined
decoration on the tiny fragment.
The researcher unfolds exact
ing survey charts of each of the
sites, ,
The whereabouts of every
item is kept in researchers' log
books and repeated on tiny en
velopes that hold the artifacts.
"That way, we have several
records of everything that we
have done," Keene said.
"They say I took all this money,
but I don't know where it's at."
He's maintained a popularity on
the reservation that defies the
nearly three years he spent in
federal prison .
David Lillehaug, the former
U.S. attorney whose office pros
ecuted Wadena, was so incensed
by Wadena's candidacy that he
sent letters to six local newspa
pers. Lillehaug noted in his letter
that Wadena took $428,000
from a subcontractor in connec
tion with the construction of the
Shooting Star Casino in
Mahnomen, took tribal funds in
addition to his $144,000 salary .
Moss Tibbetts, 48, who
works for White Earth's voca
tional program, has another take
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treated separately when tribal
rolls were drawn up in 1906, and
in 1851 treaties. The Clatsops
and Nehalems lived near each
other, got along and shared a
language, he said.
While some Clatsops may be
Chinooks, Scovell says, not all
of them choose to be, and
some have opted to be Clatsop
Nehalems. His "Brief History of the
Clatsop-Nehalem People" says
today's Clatsop-Nehalem people
are the combined product of
Clatsop and Nehalem
Tillamook ancestry and descen
dants of the tribes Lewis and
Clark found on the lower Co
lumbia. In the late 1980s Clatsop
Nehalems, led by Scovell, began
May's discovery probably
dated from inhabitants of the
Woodland Period, which ranges
from 2000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.,
Keene said.
"These people would have
been living there, as it was on
high ground and within easy
walking distance to water," she
said. Several creeks run through
the present-day military installa
tion. "They may or may not have
been living there full time. ...
Maize agriculture really wasn't
in full swing yet, so they were
generally hunter-gatherers
supplementing their diet with
some domesticated plants,"
Keene explained.
Anything found on federal
land belongs to the U.S. govern
ment. To discourage potential ille
gal collecting, the archaeologists
prefer not to make public the
exact location of their work or
the extent of their finds.
Mark Dutton, the Army's
natural resource specialist at
Fort Jackson, said researchers
have found artifacts that could
on the election. "Sure, Erma has
these fancy degrees from some
college out East, but who needs
a college degree to handle some
of the jobs we have here on the
reservation?"
Tibbetts, a distant cousin of
Wadena, added: "The newspa
pers and Erma like to call Chip
'a convicted felon.' Well, get
over it. Why convict one man
when everyone has his finger in
the pot?"
But not everyone has been
accused, or convicted, of steal
ing from his own people, said
John Buckanaga, former White
Earth tribal chairman and
former director of the Indian
Health Service office in Bemidji
that oversees reservations in
three states.
by The Confederated Tribes
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enrolling members.
The nationwide Council of
Tribal Advisers has identified 58
tribes, including the Clatsop
Nehalems, as among those who
helped Ix-wis and Clark.
Jan Mitchell, president of the
local I-ewis and Clark Bicenten
nial Association, said it has is
sued broad invitations among
tribes and wants to stay out of
tribal politics.
"They have been invited to
come back and participate if
they are willing to do so," she
said.
Noting that the arrival of the
explorers was the beginning of
the end of traditional Indian
lifestyles, she said "not all (Indi
ans) are excited about the bicentennial."
history
date back 10,000 years.
"We confer constantly with
Native American tribes to make
sure we don't have something
that they consider to be of a
religious or ceremonial nature,"
he said.
While no such discoveries
have been made here, research
ers at Fort Stewart have found
burial mounds. The Army instal
lation west of Savannah, Ga.,
also has about 60 cemeteries and
a pre-Revolutionary War British
fort, said spokesman Rich
Olsen.
"We have an archaeologist on
staff. We have a pretty active
program," he said.
Dutton said he confers regu
larly with representatives of 10
different American Indian na
tions whose ancestors may have
hunted or traveled around
present-day Fort Jackson.
The land within the base's
borders attracted settlers from
various historical eras, he said.
"If it was a good hunting site
for early Indians, it probably was
a good site for early American
settlers, too," Dutton said.
"This is a very corrupt indi
vidual, and if he gets elected,
all the federal contracts and
grants we have will come under
scrutiny," said Buckanaga, a
staunch Vizenor supporter.
"Would the U.S. government
hire John Dillinger or Al Capone
to take over the treasury?" he
asked rhetorically. "Why can't
the people of White Earth see
Chip Wadena for the con man
he is?"
The tribal council voted 3-2
to allow Wadena on the primary
election ballot in late March.
Wadena, one of 13 candi
dates, proved to be the most
popular, with 691 votes, or
nearly one-third. Vizenor, with
554 votes, won the other spot
on the general election ballot.
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