News from Indian Country
Page 9 Spilyqy Tymoo October 15, 2005
FEMA asks tribe
BROW NING, Mont. (AP) -Cleanup
from Hurricane
Katrina is expected to provide
temporary jobs for hundreds of
members of the Blackfcct tribe.
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency has asked
the tribe to train some 500 work
ers to help with cleanup efforts
in the hurricane devastated
Gulf Coast.
The jobs will pay $ 1 8 an hour
and last for three months, said
George Kipp, director of the
Blackfcct Manpower Program.
Tribal agencies and officials
are scrambling to identify poten
tial workers and help them meet
a number of federal eligibility
requirements, including helping
some of them establish bank
accounts.
The work will be significant
on the reservation, where the
unemployment rate remains
high, Kipp said.
"This is major," he added.
The workers "will be able to
have a good holiday season."
"They'll be able to buy school
clothes, have a good Christmas,
maybe buy a new vehicle and
pay off some bills," Kipp said.
Leaders say
teaching
Tlingit
critical to its
survival
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)
Teachers, legislators, stu
dents and elders gathered
at the Alaska Native
Brotherhood Hall recently
to discuss education issues
for Native students. Na
tive elders took turns tell
ing stories and discussing
the future of Native cul
tures in Alaska in front of
a full house dining on tra
ditional Native cuisine.
Tony Strong, a Juneau
lawyer who helped orga
nize the event, said it is im
portant to listen to the
guidance of the elders
while the chance remains.
"The elderly people
here are wanting to give
their experience and their
wisdom and their ideas,"
he said. "It will come out
in various ways. Some
people will express frustra
tion, some people will ex
, press a lot of love and af
fection, and some people
will have very technical
ideas."
Master of ceremonies
Lance Twitchell, 30, said
it is important to foster
strong relationships be
tween Natives and non-
Natives to strengthen the
education system in
Alaska.
"I think education is a
real key to not only teach
new habits to all of our
children, but also to find
ways to incorporate our
culture and traditions into
the school system so that
our kids have a better
sense of who they are," he
said.
Twitchell, a Raven of
the Lukaax.adi from the
Chilkoot area, said Native
languages were a major fo
cus of the event He said
the Tlingit language is in a
critical situation and needs
some public attention.
"It's probably the single
biggest thing that can hap
pen over the next 10, 20
years because it's make it
or break it with the lan
guage at this point,"
Twitchell said.
Tribes donate
DALLAS (AP) - It took a
bit longer than expected, but
Montana's Gros Ventre and
Assiniboine tribes have found
some thankful recipients of
more than 5,(H)0 pounds of
donated bison meat.
After initially having
trouble finding an organiza
tion to accept the donation
for victims of Hurricane
Katrina, the meat was being
shipped Monday to victims
who were relocated to Dal
las. The bison burgers and
Tribal officials say FF.MA
first contacted them last month
looking for workers.
The tribe already was train
ing dozens of members for
emergency response work when
the call came in, and now is help
ing to make sure those that are
interested in the jobs meet all
the requirements.
The Native American Bank
in Browning was open late Fri
day so workers could establish
Cherokees begin membership
audit to cull non-Indians
CHEROKEE, N.C. (AP) -North
Carolina's Cherokee In
dians, flush with cash from a
successful casino and hotel busi
ness on tribal land, will spend
$800,000 to make sure each
enrolled member is entitled to
claim a piece of the profits.
The Eastern Band of Chero
kee Indians has hired outside
auditors to review birth and
death certificates and other
documents to separate legiti
mate members from gold-diggers.
DNA testing is not re
quired, but may be an option for
people forced to prove Chero
kee parentage, tribal enrollment
office manager Nancy Maney
said.
At stake health care, housing,
employment and education that
accompany tribal membership.
This year, each of the tribe's
13,400 members also will re
Protesters block Denver
Columbus parade route,
leave before marchers pass
. DENVER (AP) - As drums
and chants echoed in the back
ground, demonstrators briefly
staged a mock death scene in
the street Saturday before a
Columbus Day Parade passed
by.
About 15 people laid down
in an intersection before the
parade was in view. Other pro
testers covered them with blan
kets and carried them away just
before police moved in to make
arrests.
Police were out in force for
the Denver parade, which has a
troubled history of arrests and
confrontations between sup
porters and detractors of Chris
topher Columbus.
Protesters have called him a
slave trader who touched off
centuries of genocide and op
pression against native people.
Parade supporters say he was a
brave explorer who opened a
new world. Colorado is credited
with being the first to make
Columbus Day a state holiday.
Police said there was no vio
lence and no one was arrested
Saturday. Police spokeswoman
Virginia Lopez declined to say
for clean
buffalo meat
steaks were shipped from the
tribally owned Little Rockies
Meat Packing Co. last week,
scheduled to arrive in Terrell
Monday night to be distrib
uted to about 400 evacuees.
Ixaders of the tribes from
the Fort Belknap reservation
wanted to help victims of the
hurricane that struck the
Gulf Coast: "But we are a
very poor reservation," Gros
Ventre tribal member Janice
I Iawley said. "All we had to
share was our buffalo herd."
individual checking or savings
accounts, which FEMA requires.
"Most of these people have
no accounts or anything, so the
bank is going to help set up ac
counts," tribal Treasurer Joe
Gervais said.
The Blackfect Tribal Court
also was open late Friday to run
required background checks on
applicants, and the tribal coun
cil agreed to provide collateral
for a $500 loan to each tribal
ceive about $6,000 in dividends
from the tribe-owned Harrah's
Cherokee Casino.
An auditing team from the
Falmouth Institute, a Fairfax,
Va., consulting company to
American Indian tribes, arrived
in Cherokee late last month to
begin work.
Nearly 700 new members
joined the Eastern Band in 1995,
the first year members received
dividend checks from a small
casino, Maney said. That was up
from 303 new members in
1994.
Rumors of interlopers on the
tribal membership roll have lin
gered for years. But terminat
ing membership in the Eastern
Band Cherokee is rare, with
only seven in nearly a decade.
Tribe members voted in fa
vor of the membership audit in
a 2002 referendum that was
how many police were along the
parade route but said the num
ber was "adequate." At least 150
officers were visible at the in
tersection where the demonstra
tion took place, including Chief
Gerry Whitman.
Some protesters spilled red liq
uid to signify blood. Others held
banners reading "Genocide,"
"Columbush" and "1492."
University of Colorado Pro
fessor Ward Churchill, who
caused a nationwide uproar
when he likened some Sept. 1 1
victims to Nazis, was standing
along the parade route. He said
earlier in the week he wouldn't
participate in the protest as he
has in the past because he didn't
want to be a distraction.
Churchill declined comment
Saturday. He-was accompanied
by a man wearing a jacket iden
tifying him as an American In
dian Movement security guard,
who turned away reporters.
Churchill was among about
240 people arrested last year for
disrupting the parade. He and
other protest leaders were ac
quitted and the charges against
the rest were dismissed.
- up help
member who participates.
FEMA requires workers to have
enough money for a week's liv
ing expenses.
The loans will be made
through the Native American
Bank in Browning and depos
ited directly into the workers'
accounts.
The council also is providing
a van to haul potential workers
to Cut Bank to take the driver's
license test.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
has agreed to provide workers
access to credit cards, which is
another FF.MA requirement.
The BIA also will furnish staff
members to travel with each
worker group and help them get
established.
FEMA will provide air trans
portation, meals and lodging for
the workers. The first 50 could
depart as soon as Sunday.
Last year, the tribe sent sev
eral dozen workers to Florida
to help with hurricane cleanup
there. About 30 tribal members
made the 2,300-milc trip to New
Orleans by van last month to
take cleanup jobs with a private
contractor.
approved 57 percent to 43 per
cent. Steve Teesateskie, 42, said
clearing the rolls of families with
dubious Cherokee lineage will
help keep the tribe financially
strong.
"If people come off of the
foil ... the funds that they hav$
been getting will go back to the
tribe," he said. "That money will
go back to the tribe for services
like the hospital, housing, edu
cation and senior services."
Current requirements for
membership in the Eastern
Band include having at least one
Cherokee great-great-grandparent
and a connection to a 1924
federal roster of the tribe that
makes its home in North
Carolina's Smoky Mountains.
At one time, enrollment in
the tribe required living on tribal
land or having a parent who did.
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After 150 years,
government returns
land to Oregon tribes
CHARLESTON, Ore.
(AP) After 150 years, the
US government has returned
a piece of land near here to
the tribes who used to own
it.
The 43 acres comprise the
former Coos I lead Air Na
tional Guard Station, which
was returned last week to the
Confederated Tribes of the
Coos, Ixiwer Umpqua and
Siuslaw.
"For 150 years that land
has been occupied by the US
government," said tribal Ad
ministrator F'rancis W.
Somday II. "And finally after
150 years it has been re
turned to its rightful owners."
"This has been a sacred
piece of land to the tribe for
ever," said Tribal Council
Chairman Ron Brainard.
The property, just west of
Charleston near Bastcndorff
Beach, has 13 buildings. It
had been used by various
branches of the US. military
since 1884. It was closed in
1996 Since then, a chain-link
fence has safeguarded empty
dormitories, dining halls,
storage areas and other va
cant buildings.
Last Thursday marked a
changing of the gatekeepers.
"They took their locks off it
yesterday and we put our
locks on it," Brainard said.
The tribes intend to trans
form the property into a new
seat of government, central
Claims Settlement Act
marks 25th anniversary
INDIAN ISLAND, Maine
(AP) - Monday marked the 25th
anniversary of the Maine Indian
Claims Settlement Act, a unique
agreement that marked a new
chapter for the state's Indian
tribes.
On Oct. 10, 1980, President
Jimmy Carter signed the act into
law that resulted in the
Penobscot and Passamaquoddy
tribes each receiving $26.8 mil
lion to buy more than 300,000
October Special
Crafters, Holiday Projects,
and Indian Arts
2 oz. and 8 oz. Color Samples
Over 260 Colors
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Hwy 97 in
izing the tribes' court, police,
administrative, health and
education programs.
The parcel had been de
clared federal excess. But the
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
missed a deadline in the ap
plication process, opening a
hole for others to bill on it.
The tribes sued and were
granted an extension, eventu
ally winning the right to the
property.
While acquiring the land is 1
a victory, the tribes aren't J
done. !
, They also want the return j
of 1 1 acres at Gregory Point, j
including the Cape Arago
lighthouse. The property was
an ancestral ceremonial
ground.
The tribes also want the re
turn of 67,000 acres of for
est in the Siuslaw National
Forest.
"We signed over 1.6 mil
lion acres for goods and ser
vices and we have yet to be
paid because the treaty was
never ratified," Brainard said.
According to Somday, the
treaty of 1855 called for the
federal government to re
ceive vast tracts of land from
the Indians in exchange for
goods, services and promises
of other lands.
Instead, Somday said, the
treaty was lost, and the gov
ernment marched tribal
members to Siletz where they
spent the next 19 years.
total acres of land, putting them
among the state's largest land
owners. The Houlton Band of
Maliseets, a smaller tribe in
Aroostook County, received
$900,000 to acquire land.
The settlement also included
an additional $13.5 million each
for the Penobscot and
Passamaquoddy tribes, to be
held in federal trust accounts.
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