News from Inclín Country
Marchers protest cut in health
program for American Indians
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - To chant­
ing and the pounding of drums, hun­
dreds of people marched Friday against
$33 million in proposed federal cut­
backs that could shut down some ur­
ban health clinics for American Indi­
ans.
“We’re ppset that our center is be­
ing threatened, and we’re here to send
a message that you don’t mess with a
federal obligation,” said Dena Ned,
executive director of the Indian Walk-
In Center in Salt Lake City. “Just be­
cause we live off the reservation
doesn’t mean we’re not in need of
health care.”
About 400 people marched peace­
fully almost two miles from the clinic
to the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Build­
ing for a rally, police Sgt. Lamar Ewell
said.
President Bush’s 2007 budget pro­
posal says urban Indians could use regu­
lar community health centers. His bud­
get calls for adding more and larger
health centers for poor people under a
$182 million funding increase. The
budget also would increase funding for
clinics on Indian reservations by about
4 percent over the 2006 fiscal year, said
Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the
Office of Management and Budget.
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Ander­
son said those programs would do little
to serve American Indians in urban
areas, where the clinics double as so­
cial service networks and cultural cen­
ters. He said 83 percent of the clients
at the city’s walk-in center have no
health insurance coverage. The clinic
serves about 4,000 people a year.
Anderson, a Democrat, likened the
proposed cut to the government’s
“shameful” history of violating tribal
treaties. “What is happening now is just
part of that pattern of betrayal of
Native Americans,” he said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he
also opposed the cut.
“This health care delivery system
has taken decades to create, and if it
were to disappear it would increase the
health care disparities and barriers to
care for American Indians from that
of the general population,” Hatch said
in a statement.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and a
member of the powerful Senate Ap­
propriations Committee, said he would
work to restore the funding.
Half of the country’s 34 urban In­
dian clinics may have to close if Bush’s
proposal stands, Ned said. The remain­
ing clinics would have to cut services,
charge clients or raise money through
private donations to stay open, she said.
“If these things are cut off, then we’ll
have to go back to the reservation with
our tails between our legs,” Eleanor Iron
Lightning told the crowd. A member
of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
from Eagle Butte, S.D., she said she’s
used the clinic since she moved to Utah
in June 2002.
Community health centers aren’t
designed to meet the needs of urban
Indians, according to the National As­
sociation for Community Centers. The
centers are for people without health
insurance.
In Utah, Community Health Cen­
ters Inc. has a $200,000 contract to
provide medical care for the Indian
Walk-in Center.
But that’s just a fraction of the
clinic’s $1.5 million annual operating
budget, Ned said. If the center were
to lose its $1.1 million in federal con­
tracts, it would also lose grant funding,
effectively cutting about 90 percent of
its budget.
The center provides diabetes edu­
cation, immunizations, substance abuse
treatment, mental health counseling,
holistic care, HIV testing and youth
programs. It also operates a food panty
for the United Way that handed out
some 5,200 boxes of food to Indians
and non-Indians last year. Nationally,
some 60 percent of American Indians
and Alaska natives live in urban areas,
according to the Census Bureau.
Ancestral Puebloan remains reburied
MESA VERDE NATIONAL a process for museums and federal
PARK, Colo. (AP) — Remains of more agencies to return certain American
than 1,500 ancestral Puebloans uncov­ Indian cultural items to lineal descen­
ered by scientists, students and park dants, culturally affiliated American
visitors over the years have been re­ Indian tribes and native Hawaiian or­
buried at Mesa Verde National Park. ganizations.
The Hopi Tribe buried the remains
Through Sept. 30, some 633,525
and associated funerary objects in a funerary objects and the remains of
private ceremony Thursday; capping 1-2 J B 1,571 pëôple^have Been ej^teifed into
years of consultation with 24 tribes the Federal Register, said Sherry Hutt,
affiliated with the park, Mesa Verde NAGPRA program manager in Wash­
spokeswoman Tessy Shirakawa said ington, D.C.
Friday.
At Mesa Verde, services were held
“It’s extremely important to the tribe for remains from 1,528 individuals of
to have the ceremonies comt
whom Navajos, Zunis, Hopis and other
that the life journey that was interrupted Pueblo tribes are descendants, Hutt
can be continued,” she said. /
said. Also buried were 4,889 funerary
She declined to reveal the burial site, objects, including beads, basketry and
saying the tribe wanted to keep it se­ pottery, and 26 individuals who could
cret.
/
not be identified with a specific tribe,
“Without a doubt it is important,” Hutt said.
Hopi Tribal Chairman Ivan Sidney said
“Their remains are being buried in
in a written statement to The Associ­ our homeland although the area is pres­
ated Press on Friday. “Our ancestors ently under someone else’s jurisdiction,”
must be allowed to rest. It’s affecting Sidney said. “We have not lost our ties
our ancestry. They need to be taken to these sacred areas. We maintain our
care of in a humane and respectful ties to the land through our pilgrim­
manner. They have a special meaning ages, prayers and our religion. We ap­
to us because they are our ancestors preciate any respect given to them.”
and were part of our long migrations.”
Some of the items had been un­
The ceremony was among several earthed by individuals who later re­
held or planned around the country to turned them to the park. Others were
comply with the Native American discovered by park staff, archaeologi­
Graves Protection and Repatriation cal teams or university field schools,
Act.
Hutt said.
The law, enacted in 1990, provides
The remains and objects date from
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Archaeological sites have been
looted in futile search for gold
PLACIDA, Fla. (AP) - Dust and
sweat flew amid the click and chink of
rakes, shovels and pickaxes on shell as
Florida park rangers filled a hole south
of here.
Not just any hole, though: This was
an ugly gouge in an Indian mound. The
gouge had been created more than 20
years ago by looters looking for pjrate
treasure.
Under the supervision of cultural
resource specialist Chuck Blanchard,
five rangers spent a day restoring the
mound, on which natives lived from
about 500 B.C. until contact with Eu­
ropeans in the early 16th century.
“Though I’ve been shouting about
it for years, the nature of these sites as
actual monuments to our past is begin­
ning to catch on,” Blanchard said. “If
we treat our national monuments like
national monuments, we’re less likely
to get this type of vandalism.
“There’s some personal satisfaction
for me here: This is the very, very first
looter hole I saw in Charlotte Harbor
- in 1983.”
People were drawn to this site, offi­
cially designated CH-9 and once popu­
larly called the Hippie Commune
M ound, by stories of pirate Jose
Gaspar, for whom, supposedly, the is­
land of Gasparilla was named.
According to legend, Gaspar buried
much of his ill-gotten gains in Indian
mounds in Charlotte Harbor.
So, find an Indian mound, and you
might find gold doubloons and pieces
of eight. Only one problem: Jose
Gaspar never existed. Unfortunately,
some people believed the tales and
sought their fortune by ripping up many
of the area’s cultural monuments.
“It’s amazing what the whisper of
gold will do,” Blanchard said.
Looters have ravaged Southwest
Florida’s prehistoric sites for other rea­
sons, including lightning whelks, which
are sold on the Asian market and turned
into devotional candles.
Page 8
Spilyay Tyrooo
April 27, 2006
More tribes tapping into golf
MORTON, Minnesota (AP) — Dacotah Ridge Golf Club sits deep in­
side Minnesota farm country, far from any four-lane highways and sur­
rounded by towns with tiny populations.
But the remote location has not kept golfers from flocking to test their
skills against the stiff winds, rolling hills and demanding greens at the club,
whose owner, the Lower Sioux Indian Community, just happens to operate
the Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel a few miles up the road.
In Minnesota and elsewhere, American Indian tribes that have mas­
tered the casino gambling trade are increasingly venturing into the golf
course business. The immaculate layouts springing up around the country
are routinely winding up on must-play lists of leading golf magazines.
“The native tribes that own casinos are realizing that you have to have
something more than just a casino to bring guests in,” said Henry Boulley,
a member of Michigan’s Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa and the
organizer of the Native American Cup golf tournament.
“When Native American tribes put up a course next to their resort, they
don’t put up just a run-of-the-mill course,” he added. “They put up a really
spectacular course.”
There are more than 50 tribal-owned courses in 16 states, and another
20 or so are planned, according to KlasRobinson Q.E.D., a consulting firm
that works with tribes. More than half are situated near casinos.
The building boom has been recent, with at least 40 percent of them
constructed since the turn of the century.
Last spring, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation opened a highly
touted 36-hole golf complex — one private course and one for the general
public — adjacent to its Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
In February, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe rolled out a plan for a $400 mil­
lion casino and golf resort in central New York.
Next month, the first full season of play opens at The Meadows of
Mystic Lake Golf Course owned by Minnesota’s Shakopee Mdewakanton
Sioux Community, which runs one of the Midwest’s largest casinos.
Navajos approve sex offender bill
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - The Navajo Nation Council has
approved legislation that would require convicted sex offenders who
work, live or attend school on the reservation to register with the
Navajo police chief.
The measure’s- sponsor, Katherine Benally, said sex offenders would
be responsible for registering and notifying police of any address changes
within 10 days.
“In the U.S., one in four kids is or will become victims of sexual
abuse,” Benally said. “The problem is particularly acute in Indian Coun­
try where (the) rate is three times the national average.”
The Sex Offenders Act, which passed unanimously, would apply to
anyone who is found guilty, pleads guilty or pleads no contest to any
sexual offense.
The registration would include a copy of the court judgment, copy
of parole or probation order and the home, work and school addresses ‘
for the offender. .
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Failure to register and keeping the registration up to date would
constitute a parole violation.
500 to 1300 A.D. and were excavated
at various times between the 1890s and
1990s, Hutt said.
Shirakawa said the burial was the first
that she knew of at Mesa Verde since
NAGPRA was enacted.
The Acoma Pueblo Tribe oversaw
a burial held earlier for remains and
i reçus found at the Animas-La Plata
m
Project south of Durango.
Jim Potter, principal investigator for
archaeological investigations with
SWCA Environmental Consultants, said
hundreds of thousands of ceramic
shards and artifacts have been un­ W ind River, county join against suicide
earthed over four years of excavation
RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) - After see­ specifically to target American Indian
work at 72 archaeological sites on the
ing six suicides in the county already youth.
water project.
He said more than 200 human re­ this year, Fremont County and Wind
Frem ont County coroner Ed
River
Indian
Reservation
officials
are
mains have been found. Another burial
McAuslan said the county had 13 sui­
has been planned, but negotiations are teaming up for a public information cides last year, and has seen six already
ongoing and no date has been set. He campaign aimed at raising suicide this year.
expected it would occur in the next two awareness and preventing suicides.
“If that trend doesn’t change, we’re
Reservation and county leaders un­ going to have a record year,” he said.
or three years. “This project is yielding
some really interesting results on the veiled a billboard Friday on Route 789
Data from 2002 show Wyoming
prehistory of the Durango area that in front of the Wind River Health Pro­ with 21 suicides per 100,000 popula­
wasn’t known before,” he said Friday. motion offices near Riverton. The Fre­ tion _ the highest rate in the country
“In a 50- to 75-year period, people were mont County Suicide Prevention Task and nearly double the national average
coming in, building sites and they would Force got a $10,000 grant from the of 11 suicides per 100,000 population.
leave rapidly. We’re trying to under­ state for the campaign, and an addi­ Most of those suicides were among
tional $10,000 grant was being sought teens and young adults.
stand the reasons for that.”
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