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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2006)
News from Indian Country Page 9 Spilyay Tymoo July 20, 2006 ■ ■ ¡B Judge removed from Indian trust case W ashington (AP)— Federal Judge Royce Lamberth has long been known for speaking his mind— most notably in rulings siding with American Indians in their batde with the government over their trust funds. But Lam berth went a step too far, an appeals court said Tuesday, citing one particularly harsh decision last July in which he accused the government of racism. In a rare move, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Co lu m b ia C ircu it o rd ered Lam berth rem oved from the 10-year-old Indian trust case, saying he had lost his objectiv ity. “We conclude, reluctantly, that this is one o f those rare cases in which reassignment is necessary,” the judges wrote in a decision reversing two other Lamberth rulings. When he lambasted the Inte rior Department in a decision last July, the government peti tioned to remove him from the case, arguing he was too biased to continue. The department, Lamberth wrote in the opinion, “is a dino saur— the morally and culturally oblivious hand-me-down o f a disgracefully racist and imperi alist governm ent that should have been buried a century ago.” Writing for the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge David Tatel said Lamberth was understand ably frustrated. But the July de cision— combined with eight rulings the court said were evi dence o f bias—went too far, Tatel wrote. Lamberth did not immedi ately return a call to his office for comment. Led by B lack feet Ind ian Elouise Cobell, the plaintiffs claim the government has mis managed oil, gas, timber and other royalties from their lands since 1887 costing them tens of billions of dollars. Her lawsuit was filed in June 1996 and w as assign ed to Navajo tribe handling own business site leasing Albuquerque (AP)—The Na vajo Nation now is able to sign off on business leases without Bureau of Indian Affairs review. The N avajo N ation is no longer required to seek final approval from the BIA to de velop its land or have the fed eral governm ent conduct ap praisals on tribal land, accord ing to documents signed Tues day by N avajo President Joe Shirley Jr. and Interior Depart ment officials in Washington, D.C. “This is the first time a Na tive American Nation, in this case the N avajo N ation, has been given the wherewithal to sign off on business site leases w itho ut having to take it to Washington, to the Department of Interior, for their signature,” Shirley said in a news release. The change came nearly a year after the Interior Depart ment conducted a legal review of the tribe’s business site leas ing process. T he N avajo N atio n p ro cessed business applications, but the BIA had been responsible for conducting land appraisals to determ ine the am ount of rent a p ro sp ective business would pay to the Navajo Nation. “With these new regulations, it puts the decisions in the hands of Navajo on what needs to be done, w h at d o cu m en tatio n needs to be filed, and it’s all gov erned by N avajo law ,” said Darren Pete, legislative associa tion for the N avajo N ation Washington office. “It is one of the truest forms of Navajo sov ereignty in history.” The Navajo Economic De- velopment Committee has ap proved 31 business, but approval on their land appraisals had been held up by as long as four years, Shirley said. “The red tape, the bureau cracy, at trying to get at busi ness site leasing is just atro cious,” Shirley said. “Getting the BIA out of the loop will go a long ways toward streamlining, getting at business site leases faster. Hopefully, it w ill mean getting a business site lease any where from 60 to 90 days.” The revisions also give chap ter governments with certified land use plans the authority to is su e b u s in e ss site le a se s. Shirley said it is an opportu nity for local governments to identify land and to plan for economic growth . Indian youths get a glimpse of college life Lincoln, Neb. (AP)— Back home, she’s the A student, a “younger mother” to her four little sisters and her mom’s hero. B u t th o u g h she d o e s n ’t know w hat she w ants to be when she grows up, it’s never b een a q u e stio n o f if b u t, rather, where Patricia Daniels w ill go to college. “Ever since my mom got her degree, 1 wanted to go to col lege,” said the 12-year-old from Winnebago. “My mom wants me to be a doctor, but I don’t want to go to school that long.” A visit this week to the Uni v ersity o f N ebraska-L incoln campus, she said, has strength ened her resolve to further her education even more. As a participant in the fifth annual Circle of Nations Youth C o n feren ce, P atricia jo in ed about 140 students representing the Omaha, Santee, Ponca and Winnebago tribes. Each has its own youth coun cil, which decides who to send to the conference based on lead ership and academic standing. The conference is designed to unite Indian youths while giving them a glimpse o f col lege life. “I think it’s helping them re alize what’s beyond the reserva tio n ,” said E lizab eth B ayer, youth council sponsor for the Winnebago. “And it’s good for them to create friendships with kids from neighboring tribes.” Patricia said she has been taking advantage o f opportu nities at the conference and gettin g to know Indian stu dents such as herself. The three-day conference is co-sponsored by the Nebraska Children and Families Founda tion and UNL. Participants at tend workshops and listen to speakers who encourage leader ship and send out the message that they, too, can pursue higher education. This is the first time the con ference has been held at the UNL campus. “We would love them to come back,” said Am ber Hunter, senior assistant di rector of admissions at UNL. Tribe names Abramoff, Reed in civil suit WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - A Texas Indian tribe filed a federal civil suit Wednes day alleging that ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and their associates engaged in fraud and rack eteering to shut down the tribe’s casino. T he A lab am a-C o u sh atta trib e o f Livingston, Texas, alleged the defendants de frauded the tribe, the people of Texas and the L e g islatu re to b en efit an o th er o f Abram off’s clients — the Louisiana Coushatta tribe — and “line their pockets with money.” “Ultimately, the defendants’ greed and cor ruption led to the Alabama-Coushatta tribe permanently shutting its casino. The funding for economic programs evapo rated, over 300 jobs were lost in Polk County and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe has spent years struggling to recover and revitalize its economy through other means,” the tribe said in its law suit, obtained by The Associated Press. The lawsuit also names Abramoff’s ex-busi- ness partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide to former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; Neil Volz, a former aide to Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio; and Jon Van Horne, Abram off’s former col league at his law and lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. A lthough the tribe alleges G reenberg Traurig was part o f the scheme, it did not name the firm as a defendant. Attorney Fred Petti said the tribe is in settlement discussions with the firm. The tribe did not specify how much it was seeking, but asked for triple damages. Abramoff, Scanlon and Volz have pleaded guilty in a public corruption probe involving Abram off’s former tribal clients and possibly m em bers o f C o n gress. T he A labam a- mm 1 .1 IV<r ■ 1 1 1 U i w K ' « J r MF SUMMER PLANNER W 2 0 Sun I Mon Tue ~WS3" programs, departm ents and individuals who work w ith children and youth in th e W arm Summer Library 11am @ Family Springs Community, to help fam ilies involve Resource th e ir children in positive and h ealth y Center mm T FT 20 19 A collaborative e f f o r t between all th e Sot 21 22 Warm Springs Summer Recreation EC E Car W ash 9:30-11:30 Oaks Park Field Trip & 3 -4 :3 0 a ctivities th is summer. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said the tribe hasn’t been treated fairly. Federal officials said it could take four years to review a Lumbee petition for recognition. Although Dole was pushing for legislation to give federal sta tus to the Lumbees, officials of the Eastern Band of the Chero kee said the tribe should take the traditional recognition route through the Bureau o f Indian Affairs. The process is “undermined w hen p o litics and em otion, rather than facts about tribal identity, drive the federal recog n itio n d e c isio n ,” te stifie d M ichell Hicks, principal chief o f the E astern Band o f the Cherokee. 26 ;ACK MEET 27 28 LAST DAY ©Madras High Summer School fo r Library 11am KIDS 2-13 yrs Warm Springs Summer CPS "Loogie Luau" BLO CK Recreation P A R TY 2-6pm , Enchanted a t the Forest Field Trip Community Center Warm Springs Head Start is a ccepting registrations for the 2006-2007 school year for 3 and 4 year olds W ater L a st Day W SE Kids 12-17 Aerobics @ Sum m er HUNTER KNT (14 & up) Academ y SAFETY CLASS begins BUFFALO SKYW ALKERS Hoop Camp 5- 8pm ©CCenter call 553-2001 6-11 year olds J 7th & 8th Grade j 3ÔT 31 High School AUGUST Isf Cam p Sapsiqwat - Culture Cam p at Elm er Quinn Park *** HAT & ICE Warm Springs D e a d lin e to Summer Register for 4 Recreation H C A M P Aug O regon Zoo 13-19 @ M , Field Trip Peter's Pasture for 4th - 6th graders CREAM MAKING a t the Community Center t e r u rtN HOUSE 9am - 3pm KID S JAMBOREE DAY a t the Community Center n 8 10 11 Warm Springs Summer Recreation Lava Caves Field Trio For Updates - Tune in fo r the Community Calendar on KW SO 91.9 FM •* **c*-*r re 9 29 ¿Jefferson county Fair * "Rodeo 5pm YOUTH Lumbee officials testify to congressional hearing century and if it is won will get an estimated $77 million in an nual federal aid. C o ngress ap p ro ved the Lumbee Act in 1956 that said the tribe was American Indian but left out the benefits. “It’s time for all this to end and for Congress to complete what it started in 1956,” Goins said. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. told the panel that Lumbees are the only American tribe hemmed in by actions of a previous Con gress. Dole filed the Lumbee Ac knowledgment Bill last spring. “Their legitimacy has been established time and time again,” Dole said. “... There is no need to w aste the trib e ’s or the government’s time and money again.” Coushatta never hired Abramoff. The Alabama-Coushatta’s casino, on its res ervation north o f Houston, was closed in 2002 by a federal court ruling in a 1999 law suit filed by the state’s then attorney general, John Cornyn, now a U.S. senator. The Alabam a-Coushatta said Abramoff and others conspired to defeat a bill in the 2001 Legislature that would have allowed it to operate gaming on its reservation. Reed helped to rally Christians against the bill with a group he formed, Committee Against Gam bling, the tribe alleged. The tribe, which says it has strong Christian values, alleges Reed’s group called state legislators, sent targeted mailings to voters and ran radio ads against the bill without revealing their true origins, preventing the tribe from fighting back. Reed’s work made the opposition to the tribe’s casino appear to be based on Christian concerns, not competitive concerns from its sister tribe, the Alabama-Coushatta said. Had the public or tribe known the Louisi ana Coushatta tribe was the main opponent, Christian groups would have been “less mo bilized.” Because the Texas and Louisiana tribes share family ties, Louisiana Coushatta members would have opposed the attack on their sister tribe, the Alabama-Coushatta said. “They pitted Christian against Christian, tribe against tribe and cousin against cousin,” the tribe said. The tribe also alleges that Abramoff fraudulently bilked it of $50,000 and used it to “bribe” Ney with a golfing trip to Scotland in exchange for “fixing” its gam ing problem. In his guilty plea, Abramoff said Ney accepted the trip knowing the tribal cli ents paid for the trip. Ney has repeatedly said he is innocent o f wrongdoing. Keep the K id s b u s y 25 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — L um bee trib a l ch airm an Jimmy Goins told a congres sional hearing on tribal recogni tion that the North Carolina tribe knows its roots but outsiders still question them. • “They don’t know us. They have never been in our commu nity and yet they dispute every congressional and federal legis lation,” Goins said Wednesday. “We w ill match the strength o f our history and community against any other Indian tribe. We are, in fa c t, an In d ia n tribe.” Goins testified before the Senate Com m ittee on Indian Affairs as the tribe sought fed eral recognition. Lumbees have been seeking federal status for more than a She added: “With any new judge, we will continue to prevail.” Congress may ultimately de cide the case, however. The plaintiffs have offered to settle, and are working with Sen ate Indian Affairs Committee C hairm an Jo h n M cC ain, R- A riz ., to com e up w ith an amount. . joining Tatel in the ruling w ere C ircu it Ju d g e Ja n ic e Rogers Brown, appointed by President George W Bush, and Senior Circuit Judge Laurence H. Silberm an, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Tatel was appointed by President Bill Clinton. L aw yers fam iliar w ith Lamberth say he is known for holding the governm ent to a high standard, a principle he developed in the U.S. Attorney’s office and later as a judge over seeing wiretap warrants for the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveil lance Court. But they also said he had be come very invested in the Indi ans’ case. Tatel wrote that the appellate ruling “presents an opportunity for a fresh start” and urged both sides to work on a solution. Interior officials said they look forward to moving on. But Cobell said the plaintiffs will appeal part of the decision. L am b erth , a co n serv ativ e Reagan appointee from Texas. Over the past decade, Lamberth has surprised many with his se vere rulings accusing the gov ernment of malfeasance and in competence in its dealings with Indians. The case has bounced be tween the district and appeals courts. Lamberth has held inte rior secretaries Gale Norton and Bruce Babbitt in contempt and twice ordered the Interior De partment to disconnect its com puters. Many of his decisions have been overturned by the appeals court, including the contempt charge against Norton. \ ) 12
