News from Indian Country
Pge 9 Spilyqy Tymoo Juris 24, 2004
Tribal gambling money could ease budget battle
SACRAMENTO (AP) - An
agreement with Indian gambling
interests that would generate
nearly $1.3 billion for the state
next year has not been signed,
but budget negotiators have al
ready seized on the new revenue
as the potential bridge between
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
and the Democrat-controlled
Legislature.
Democratic leaders say they
want to add at least $400 mil
lion to the governor's proposed
$103 billion spending plan for
next year.
The wish list, lawmakers and
legislative aides say, includes
money to lift a cap on enroll
ments at state colleges and uni
versities that will cost about $60
million. They want to restore $98
million that will help pay wages
of home care providers to the
disabled, according to sources in
the Assembly. And Senate
Democrats want to provide a
cost of living increase to wel
fare recipients that will add
about $234 million to the
governor's plan, according to
aides in the Senate.
With lawmakers brushing
aside Tuesday's constitutional
deadline for passing the budget,
the focus now becomes getting
an agreement before the end of
the fiscal year in two weeks.
Negotiations center on how to
fit more spending into the
governor's plan and while the
tribal windfall will help, finding
compromise will not be easy.
Still, the governor has said
negotiations are going smoothly
and he expects an agreement
well before the end of the
month.
The differences hinge on
taxes and spending cuts.
Schwarzenegger and Republican
lawmakers won't back new taxes
to pay for the extras Democrats
want, while Democrats said they
won't support cutting existing
programs more to pay for their
new wish list.
Despite public assurances
that all is well, Schwarzenegger
also surprised the Capitol by
announcing Wednesday he
would travel to Chico on Thurs
day to attend a rally on the bud
get at a local mall. He's expected
to call on the Legislature - es
pecially the Democrats - to ap
prove his budget on time.
Rob Stutzman,
Schwarzenegger's communica
tions director, said the rally isn't
meant to bash Democrats. In
stead, the governor just wants
to prod legislators to pass a bud
get on time, he said.
The proposed agreement
with the tribes, which could be
completed by Monday, would
ease much of the tension.
Details of the evolving com
pact with five tribes indicate it
would provide the state an im
mediate $1 billion payment, ex
pected to be financed by a bond
sale backed by casino profits.
Tribes also would pay $275 mil
lion in annual fees until 2030.
In exchange for the money,
the tribes would be allowed to
add thousands of new slot ma
chines to their casinos.
Schwarzenegger said Tues
day that his administration was
negotiating with four tribes that
operate casinos. On Wednesday,
his administration said the com
pact also would cover a fifth
tribe that is seeking state ap
proval for a casino.
Schwarzenegger's May bud
get counted on $500 million in
ongoing revenue from the tribes
nearly double the $275 mil
lion that annual tribal licenses is
expected to bring. He said in
May that any extra money would
be used to pay back money bor
rowed from transportation trust
funds.
But Democrats say they want
some of that money to pay for
their programs!
"Democrats will have to
come together to ensure that
some of that tribal money will
be used across the board," said
Assemblyman Rudy Bermudcz,
D-Norwalk, a member of the
budget committee.
Hundreds of American Indians
benefit from push toward health
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -By
one estimate, American In
dians are the least represented
minority in health careers, so two
Oklahoma organizations are
working to recruit students into
medical professions.
Nationally, only about 400
American Indians are medical
doctors, estimates Jerry
Tahsequah, associate director of
the Native American Center of
Excellence at the University of
Oklahoma Health Sciences Cen
ter. By that estimate, 0.01 per
cent of percent of the 4 mil
lion American Indians in the
country are doctors.
Two programs are bringing
teenagers into science laborato
ries and extra pre-medicine
classes.
The Student Enrichment
Academy for Reaching Careers
in Health. nrtanhed hv fh A.
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sociation of American Indian
Physicians, had 32 American
Indian teens dissecting cow eye
balls last week at the OU Health
Sciences Center.
The students are participat
ing in a six-week program geared
toward recruiting them to
health-related fields.
American Indians in the Okla
homa City area who are 14 to
17 years old are eligible for the
program.
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run by the Oklahoma City-based
Association of American Indian
Physicians. The program will
take 60 students, including 17
from Oklahoma, to Washington
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richment this month.
No recognition for Connecticut
tribe, casino hopes dashed
(AP) - The Golden Hill cal and social community.
River washing away Indian reservation
FORKS, Wash. (AP) - The
Hoh Indian Reservation shares
its name with the Hoh River, but
the river is getting greedy.
Amid record flooding, fueled
partly by clearcut logging and an
ill-designed public works project,
the glacier-fed river has moved
progressively southward and
eroded about 10 percent of the
443-acre coastal reservation
about 14 miles south of Forks
in the past decade.
With each shift the stream
moves closer to the tribe's six
government buildings, including
tribal headquarters, and 30
homes with 1 1 1 residents.
In bygone years, Hoh Tribal
Chairwoman Mary Leitka, said,
she had to walk clear across the
reservation to reach the river.
"Now I just have to look out
my back window and I can see
the river," Leitka said.
In more than a century since
the federal government confined
the Hoh to the wetlands and
steep hillsides at the river mouth,
flooding has been a not uncom
mon threat.
In recent years children and
the elderly have often been
evacuated at night by small boat
in flooding that also contami
nates the water supply and over
whelms the septic system.
Tribal members often are
warned to boil tap water, "but
if you're elderly and can barely
carry a pot, are you going to boil
water?" Leitka said.
Census figures show the
tribe's population has nearly
tripled in the past 30 years,
more than half the tribal mem
bers are younger than 20 and
the birthrate is more than twice
that of the state, but the last
home built on the reservation
was in 1988.
Three or four families some
times share a house, and there
is little chance the tribe can win
grants for more housing because
almost all the available land is
in a flood plain, officials say.
"There's nowhere left to go,"
Leitka said.
Before being confined to the
reservation, the Hoh ranged
from the Olympic Mountains to
the coast, said Rick Cook, a re
gional fisheries biologist for the
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"Historically, the tribe never
had to live permanently on the
river," Hoh said. "If it flooded,
they could always move to
higher ground."
Initially covered by the
Quinault treaty of 1855, the
Hoh gained separate tribal rec
ognition and a reservation
covering less than a square mile
near a rainforest with average
precipitation of about 160
inches a year - in the 1960s.
Since 1995, logging upstream
in the Olympic National Forest
has left "nothing to hold the
water in place," says Rod Thysell,
the tribe's natural resources di
rector. Worsening the problem was
the use of riprap, or large rocks,
by Jefferson County workers to
shore up the river bank just
upstream from the reservation
to protect a public road, result
ing in a swifter streamflow that
figures strongly in the southward
shift.
"At times, it's like a pipeline
right into the reservation,"
Thysell said.
One recent flood left a foot
of standing water in the Tribal
Center, damaging carpets and
heating systems in the tribe's
main government building.
Late last year, when a foot
of rain fell in 24 hours, prison
inmates were brought to join
tribal members in a frantic
round of early morning sand
bagging to save reservation
buildings. An earthen berm now
surrounds the tribal center year
round. "Essentially, it's throwing
Band-Aids on arterial wounds,"
Cook said. "What the tribe
needs is a permanent solution."
Thysell and others said that
means new land for the Hoh.
"Inevitably, we have to let the
river do what it's going to do,"
he said. "We just don't want to
be here when it does."
Paugussetts' plans for a Con
necticut casino and thousands
of acres of land claims were
dealt a major setback last week,
as the Bureau of Indian Affairs
rejected their bid for federal rec
ognition for a second time.
The Paugussetts did not sat
isfy four of the seven criteria
needed for recognition failing
to prove they descended from
a historical tribe and that they
continuously existed as a politi-
The group also did not pro
vide sufficient evidence that its .
ancestor, William Sherman, was
an Indian, and it weakened its
petition by trying to include de
scendants from the historical .
Turkey Hill tribe, which ceased ;
to exist around 1825, the BIA :
said. Paugussett Chief Quiet .
Hawk said the BIA is "out of
control on this decision." The . .
tribe will appeal, he said.
Remains may be part of Indian burial site
MARINELAND, Fla. (AP) -Human
remains discovered near
the Marineland park are believed
to be from an Indian burial site,
and could halt a planned expan
sion of the attraction and other
nearby developments.
Flagler County sheriffs
deputy Michael Lutz said the
remains included "a couple of
teeth and a piece of bone." He
said a medical examiner deter
mined the remains were not
new, and were not the result of
a crime.
The Florida Bureau of Ar
chaeological Research was
called in to confirm whether the
fragments are part of an Indian
burial site.
If graves are found, state law
requires development to stop
while a medical examiner and
the state archaeologist investi
gate. Marineland was the site of
an extensive 1941 dig con
ducted by then-state archaeolo
gist Vernon Lamb.
One of the three people who
discovered the remains, David
Zacharias, an assistant profes
sor of neurobiology at the Uni
versity of Florida's Whitney
Laboratory, said he saw at least
six bone fragments.
The planned development also be affected if the remains
of a condominium complex are found to be part of a
and retail center nearby could gravesite.
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