News from Indian Country
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Page 9
Spilyay Tymoo
June 22, 2006
Arapaho man pleads not guilty in ceremony flap State can’t prosecute Indians
CONCHO, Okla. (AP) - A
man ordered by a tribal court
not to hold a sacred tribal cer
emony pleaded not guilty to vio
lating the order after an attempt
to conduct the ceremony earlier
this month led to violence in
volving members of the
Nortern Arapaho Tribe in Wyo
ming.
The Cheyenne-Arapaho
Tribal Court issued an order last
year prohibiting Patrick
Spottedwolf from performing
the Sun Dance or other Arapaho
ceremonies.
But Spottedwolf was one of
several people who were build
ing a ceremonial arbor near
Concho for an Arapaho Sun
Dance Ceremony this month
when about 50 people raided
their encampment, cutting down
the arbor with chain saws and
setting it on fire.
“It was like a movie, with 20
to 30 cars coming across that
field, whooping and hollering,”
Spottedwolf said after a hear
ing last week.
The attackers threw personal
and ceremonial objects in the
fire, including buffalo robes,
eagle wings and medicine that
Spottedwolf said has been in his
family 140 years.
No charges have been filed
against any of those who raided
the encampment. Charles Mor
ris, the tribes’ attorney general,
said he did not receive police
reports until last Wednesday
morning and had not had time
to read them.
The attackers included about
six men of the N orthern
Arapaho Tribe from central
Wyoming, said Laverne White,
a Northern Arapaho who came
to the hearing.
“We came down here to take
it apart, to saw it up,” she said,
referring to the ceremonial ar
bor. The tools they brought were
solely to dismantle the arbor, she
and other participants said.
Oklahoma Arapahos lost the
right to hold the ceremonies
because they allowed an anthro
pologist to attend and write
about them, violating their se
crecy, the judge’s order said.
White said those who at
tacked the camp took the law
into their own hands because-the
Bureau of Indian Affairs would
not enforce court orders forbid
ding the ceremony. The bureau
declined to comment, said Mike
McCoy, assistant special agent
in charge of the agency’s
Muskogee office.
Spottedwolf’s contempt case
was set for trial in September.
“We would like to see them
go to jail,” said Chris Schneider,
the Northern Arapaho Tribe’s
attorney.
Spottedwolf, 63, said he does
not believe that will happen be
cause he thinks the court orders
unconstitutionally infringe on his
freedom of religion.
Remains could open window into history
BLOOMINGTON, 111.
(AP) — Skulls and bones of
33 American Indians found
in a long-vacant home date
back up to 700 years and
could provide a glimpse into
Illinois’ history centuries be
fore the state was founded,
officials said Tuesday.
Finding such a large col
lection of remains is unusual,
according to historic preser
vation officials, who are ne
gotiating with the
Bloomington home’s new
owner in hopes she will do
nate the bones to the state
for further study.
“We’ve been given a rare
opportunity to open a win
dow onto the past, 600 or
700 years ago, before re
corded history in this state,”
said Dave Blanchette,
spokesman for the Illinois His
toric Preservation Agency.
Officials said jawbones or
partial jawbones of seven
American Indians were found
Tuesday during a search of the
house, where complete skulls of
26 American Indians were
found last week by a woman
who bought the house last No
vember.
The house was owned by a
Bloomington dentist and avid
collector of American Indian
artifacts who died in 1982. Of
ficials believe he dug them up
in the 1930s at a site about 10
miles from Dickson Mounds
Museum near Lewistown _
more than a half-century before
laws protecting burial grounds
were enacted.
Dawn Cobb, an anthropolo
gist with the historic preserva-
tion agency, said the dentist
likely recovered the remains to
study the teeth, some “beauti
fully preserved.”
Dates written on bones and
other artifacts found in the
house helped trace the’ remains
to an American Indian settle
ment that was active for about
500 years after it was founded
in 1200, said Alan Harn, an ar
chaeologist at Dickson Mounds,
an American Indian burial
ground.
Harn said the site was “es
sentially looted” as European
settlers moved into the state, so
the remains are likely the last
collection that can be studied to
provide insight into the Spoon
River Mississippians who once
lived in the region near the Illi
nois River.
“It’s a once in a lifetime op-
portunity ... Why should we
study history? Because we
need to know where we’ve
been, how we got here and
where we’re going and history
gives us a window unto that,”
Blanchette said.
Blanchette said state offi
cials started negotiations Tues
day to obtain the remains
from the hom e’s owner,
Kathleen H ollonbeck of
Rochelle. Laws ban selling re
mains, but Hollonbeck could
keep them or donate them to
the state or another museum,
Blanchette said.
Hollonbeck did not imme
diately return a call for com
ment Tuesday.
American Indian groups
have said they hope the re
mains are ultimately reburied.
North Dakota to sue NCAA over school nickname
WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) -
State officials voted last week
to sue the NCAA for penalizing
the University of North Dakota
over its “Fighting Sioux” nick
name and Indian head logo.
Following a meeting with At
torney General Wayne
Stenehjem, the Board of Higher
Education voted 8-0 to autho
rize the lawsuit, which would be
handled by Stenehjem.
The NCAA last year an
nounced it was banning the use
of ethnically or racially hostile
or abusive nicknames, mascots
and imagery at championship
events. It found 18 schools, in
cluding UND, in violation of
the policy.
Several of those schools
have since changed team names
and mascots or won appeals af
ter local tribes came to their
defense. In UND’s case, though,
the NCAA rejected the appeal
and told the school it may not
use the Fighting Sioux nickname
and Indian head logo during
NCAA postseason tournaments,
and it may not host a tourna
ment if it continues to use them.
Stenehjem said the NCAA’s
decision was an edict delivered
by a committee that used con
stantly changing standards and
didn’t put the plan to a vote of
the NCAA’s membership.
The NCAA’s executive com
mittee, “more or less by fiat, de
cided that some institutions were
going to be subject to this rule,
and some institutions, for rea
sons that are not understand
able, were exempted,”
Stenehjem said.
Teams that have continued
using Indian nicknames with the
NCAA’s blessing include the
Florida State Seminóles, Central
Michigan Chippewas and the
University of Utah Utes.
Stenehjem wouldn’t say when
the lawsuit, to be financed by
private funds, would be filed.
NCAA President Myles
Brand has said the NCAA will
defend its policy “to the ut
most.”
N orth Dakota’s Board of
Higher Education reviewed the
UND nickname and logo in
2000 and ordered the university
to keep them shortly after a
benefactor building a hockey
arena on campus threatened to
leave it unfinished if the name
and logo changed.
A number of Indian tribes
and students support dropping
the nickname and logo. One
official with the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe wrote a letter sup
porting the university, but an
other opposed the nickname.
David Gipp, president of
Bismarck’s United Tribes Tech
nical College, asked the board
to forgo legal action.
“We would hope that rather
than spend funds on a lawsuit,
the funds were instead used to
create more opportunities for
American Indians, and all North
Dakotans, to improve their lives
and to promote diversity,” he
wrote.
on private lands within
pueblos, court says
SANTA FE (AP) - The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled
that the state does not have jurisdiction to prosecute Indians for
alleged crimes on private land within pueblo boundaries.
Such privately held lands “remain Indian country,” the Supreme
Court said last week, reversing decisions by the state Court of
Appeals.
The ruling, which was issued in consolidated cases involving
Taos and Pojoaque pueblos, would leave it to the federal govern
ment or tribes to prosecute those crimes.
A spokesman for the tribes and pueblos that filed written argu
ments in the case said they were “very pleased” with the ruling.
“This decision is extremely important in reaffirming the Indian
country status of all lands within pueblo boundaries,” said Santa
Fe lawyer Richard Hughes.
There was no immediate comment from the office of Attorney
General Patricia Madrid. Spokeswoman Sam Thompson said the
opinion was being reviewed.
Del Romero of Taos Pueblo was indicted by the state in 2001
for aggravated battery against another pueblo member at the pri
vately owned Pueblo Alegre Mall in the town of Taos, within the
exterior boundaries of the Taos Pueblo Land Grant.
Matthew Gutierrez of Pojoaque Pueblo was indicted in 2002
on charges including aggravated battery and child abuse, after a
stabbing incident on private land, within pueblo boundaries, owned
by his father-in-law. The alleged victims were non-Indians.
The defendants challenged the indictments, arguing that the state
lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Indians in Indian country.
State district courts agreed, and the state appealed; the Court
of Appeals overturned the lower courts’ rulings.
The definition of Indian country in federal law includes “de
pendent Indian communities,” and the state Supreme Court said a
pueblo fits that definition.
Tribe opens $ 17 million clinic
COWETA, Okla. (AP) — The Muscogee (Creek) Nation hosted
the grand opening Thursday of a multimillion dollar Indian health
care clinic that should reduce caseloads at other area Indian health
centers.
The Koweta Indian Health Facility, located east of Coweta, is a
60,000-square-foot clinic that will be opened to patients June 20.
Muscogee (Creek) Chief A.D. Ellis said the grand opening had
a huge turnout, and Indian Health Service director Charles Grimm
was in attendance.
The facility was funded by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and
Indian Health Services. Ellis said the tribe funded $18 million for
the building and land, and IHS is paying for staffing of the clinic,
which will cost about $11 million per year.
The clinic has 94 employees, a majority of which are tribal
citizens.
Ellis said the Koweta clinic will be the largest and most modern
of all of the tribe’s five health clinics.
“This is one of the most outstanding accomplishments of our
nation during my administration,” Ellis said.
Any member of a federally recognized tribe can use the new
clinic with tribal identification.
Ellis said he expects the clinic to serve at least 30,000 patients
in the area.
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