News from Indian Country
Page 8
Spilyay Tymoo
August 3, 2006
U.S. House says tribal casinos roam too far
■ ANTHONY, N.M. (AP)—
Legislation approved by a U.S.
House committee could hinder
Jemez Pueblo’s plans to build a
casino on New Mexico’s south
ern border.
The bill by House Resources
Committee Chairman Richard
Pombo, R-Calif., takes aim at the
trend o f off-reservation gam
bling— what some critics call
“reservation shopping.”
The bill, which passed the
com m ittee 27-9 on Ju ly 26,
would amend the Indian Gam
ing Regulatory Act of 1988 to
eliminate an exception that al
lows tribes to build off-reserva
tion with the approval of the
Interior secretary and the state’s
governor.
Jemez Pueblo and Santa Fe
art dealer G erald Peters are
seeking perm ission to build a
casino in Anthony— 300 miles
from the northern New Mexico
pueblo— under the provision.
Their proposal calls for the land
in Anthony to be put into trust
for the pueblo.
The House measure would
allow applications subm itted
before March 7 to move for
ward as long as the tribe has
primary geographical and his
torical ties to the land.
Jemez Pueblo submitted its
ap p licatio n in D ecem ber o f
2004, meeting that cutoff date,
but it’s unclear whether the tribe’s
application meets the land con
dition.
At least three tribes have ties
to the land, including the Fort
Sill Apache tribe in Oklahoma,
which opposes the casino.
Paul Chinana, former Jemez
Pueblo governor and chairman
o f the Jem ez Gaming E nter
prise Board, said the pueblo can
prove its historical ties through
o ral h isto ry if it need s to.
Chinana said he w ould need
approval from the tribe’s reli
gious council.
David Wilson, a spokesman
for Peters, contends Jemez does
have the necessary ties. Tribal
members from several pueblos,
including Jem ez, traveled with
Territorial Gov. Don Antonio de
Otermin 325 years ago, estab
lishing settlem ents along the
lower Rio Grande, Wilson said
in a news release.
A group that opposes the
Anthony casino, the Committee
to Protect Dona Ana County,
said the House bill “spells death”
to the Anthony proposal.
“They have no ties to the
area, and that’s why Congress
has tried to put this to an end,”
saidjoe Monahan, a spokesman
for the group. “If that’s going
to be the law, we challenge the
Jem ez Pueblo and Gerald Pe
ters to show direct historical or
geographical ties to the area.”
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M.,
Scholarship fills wish of late Indian woman
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)—
As Pauline Miguel lay on her
deathbed in 1999, she looked
lovingly at her eight daugh
ters, living embodiments of
one o f h er lif e ’s go als
achieved.
From the first day her old
est daughter, Mary, went to
school more than 50 years
earlier, Miguel had sworn to
keep her girls from making
the same mistakes she made
as a yo u n g T ohono
O’odham student.
She wanted all of them to
graduate from high school in
stead o f dropping out and
living with an eighth-grade
education.
The family realizes now
that M iguel was trying to
make sure her descendants
wouldn’t be subject to the
worst American Indian ste
reotype: lazy, illiterate and de
linquent.
B ut on an o th er le v e l,
M iguel, w ho w ould have
been 79 July 18, knew it re
ally wasn’t enough to moti
vate her family to get the best
education possible.
The week before she died,
she m ade a req u est o f her
daughters: Sell her red Nissan
truck, as well as the home in
Phoenix, and put the money into
a scholarship to help Tohono
O’odham students pay for col
lege.
Seven years later, the Pauline
Miguel Scholarship Fund is still
giving $1,000 annually to a de
serving student— som etim es
two if the committee can’t pick
just one. The fund is handled
by the Community Foundation
for Southern Arizona.
The three daughters who con-
tributed $4,000 each to the
scholarship—Alberta Flannery,
N ed d ie B lain e and M ary
B lis s — spoke re c e n tly o f a
mother who never gave up on
her daughters, even when they
begged for just one day away
from school.
“She was very pro-educa
tion,” said Flannery, now 58 and
a retired administrator for the
Tucson Unified School District.
“We never m issed a day o f
school. E very year w e’d get
those little certificates on the last
day o f school.”
Investigation finds Indian
trust officials broke rules
WASHINGTON (AP)—
Officials in the federal agency
that oversees American In
dian trust assets had an im
proper social relationship with
an accounting firm and pres
sured subordinates to give the
firm preferential treatment,
a government investigation
found.
Senior m anagers in the
Office of the Special Trustee
for American Indians based
in Albuquerque golfed, drank
and partied with the execu
tives o f the New Mexico ac
co u n tin g firm C h av arria,
Dunne & Lame}7, which won
$6.6 million in contract work
over eight years, according to
the report by the Interior
Department’s inspector gen
eral.
The investigation, first re
p o rted this w eek by U.S.
News & World Report, found
that employees in the trustee’s
o ffice “ felt p ressu red by
these senior OST officials to
continue to award work” to
the firm and that they feared
retaliation for speaking out.
The officials’ relationship
with the firm “created an ap
p e a ran c e o f p re fe re n tia l
treatm ent,” violating ethics
standards and an intern al
memo directing employees to
avoid close contact with con
tractors, Inspector General
Earl Devaney wrote to de
partment officials in the let
ter accompanying the report
dated May 16.
The office was created in
1994 to im prove account
ability and management of
Indian funds held in trust by
the government.
*
S p ecia l T ru stee Ross
Swimmer said in a statement
that he had directed his man
agers to take new ethics train
ing as a result o f the report’s
findings.
“Any appearance o f an
ethics violation at any level
within OST is a great con
cern, and I believe that the
additional ethics training will
allow everyone to be fully
informed of the rules,” Swim
mer said.
Accounting firm execu
tives said in a statement that
they believe their contracts
were awarded under the ap
propriate guidelines. T hey
pointed out that the report
does not allege that they did
anything wrong.
“We b elieve th at O ST
management has acted ap
propriately and that the (In
spector General’s) concern
o f ‘an appearance o f pref
erential treatment’ for CD&L
is subjective and unsubstan
tiated,” the statement said.
Devaney’s report outlines
how the firm’s executives and
trustee managers exchanged
gifts o f m eals and drinks,
took out-of-town trips to a
major golf event and played
golf together almost weekly.
An eight-page chart details
the dates o f go lf trips and
meals, which often fell just
days before contracts were
awarded.
And their m other, who at
tended the Tucson Indian Train
ing School before it closed in
1960, was a shining example of
community involvement.
She p a rtic ip a te d in the
wom en’s rights movements in
the 1960s. She spoke on welfare
rights. She helped the Tohono
O’odham Nation’s elderly with
the creation of a nursing home.
Miguel’s scholarship isn’t the
only grant for Tohono O’odham
students. It’s one o f a growing
number of scholarships created
to help these students, who of
ten struggle on standardized tests
and attend schools that earn poor
marks, too.
Schools in the Indian Oasis-
B aboquivari U nified D istrict,
where many O’odham students
go, regularly have more students
fail the state AIMS test than pass
it.
They’ve been labeled “failing”
in state and federal accountabil
ity reports, too. And even if stu
dents make it through school, the
dream o f college often is washed
away by lack of money.
M ary Juan, 19, last year’s re
cipient of the M iguel Scholar
ship, said it would have been dif
ficult to pay for books at the
University o f Arizona without
the $1,000.
A m erican Indian students
often have a tough time believ
ing they can succeed in college,
said Maria Valencia, field coor
dinator in the Native American
E d u catio n P ro gram in the
Sunnyside Unified School Dis
trict.
“They’re very shy,” Valencia
said. “They’re really the minor
ity in the big schools. They’re just
a speck in a sea o f blond and
red hair, and for some o f them,
that’s very uncomfortable.”
Those who have spent their
entire lives on the reservation
find less help with school, too,
Valencia said, though she noted
that’s changing.
“D eep in the reservation,
there aren’t enough libraries and
resources to become success
ful,” she said. “Sometimes, they
believe they aren ’t go in g to
make it, and that’s w hen you
have to guide them.”
A bout 4 p ercen t o f
Su n n ysid e’s 16,800 students
are A m e ric a n I n d ia n , th e
th ird -largest ethnic group
in the d istrict.
Som e 43 p erc e n t o f
American Indian students in
Sunnyside graduated in 2003,
according to the most recent
data available.
In the In d ian O asis-
Baboquivari district, 99 per
cent of students are Ameri
can Indian and 43 percent
graduate.
To q u alify for M igu el’s
scholarship, applicants write
an essay about their commu
nity outreach projects and aca
dem ic accom plishm ents as
well as what they expect to do
with a college degree.
A pplicants also need to
have a GPA of at least 2.5.
The sisters— who aren’t in
volved in picking the recipi
en ts— said th eir m o th er
wouldn’t stand for her money
to go to a student who was
just getting by.
“She always em phasized
the im p o rtan ce o f h ard
work,” Blaine said. “She never
liked seeing people just sitting
in front o f the TV.”
a m em ber o f the R esources
C om m ittee, said the H ouse
committee’s approval is a step
toward closing loopholes that
allow casinos in communities
without residents’ approval.
“These loopholes are wrong
not only because they violate
fundamental principles of local
control but also because they
threaten the lo n g-term eco
nomic health and sovereignty of
Native American tribes,” Pearce
said.
Michigan man
killed by
enemy gunfire
HESPERIA, Mich. (AP)— A
Native Am erican man from a
small town in west Michigan has
died while fighting in Iraq.
A rm y S p c. D e n n is K.
Samson Jr., 24, o f H esperia in
O cean a C o u n ty, w as k ille d
M onday by enem y gunfire in
Taqaddum. He was assigned to
the 4th Brigade Troop B attal
ion, 4th Brigade Combat Team,
101st A irb o rn e D iv isio n , at
Fort Cam pbell, Ky.
Samson, a 2000 graduate of
Hesperia High School, was de
scribed as a kind person and a
“free sp irit” who excelled in
cross country, his coach said.
“He was a four-year varsity
ru n n er for us,” D oug B aird
said.
“He had a smile on his face.
He was up to the challenge. It
d id n ’t m atter how hard the
workout would be. He was Na
tive American and had this jet
black hair about shoulder length.
He would come bouncing along
into practice, hair blowing in the
wind. That’s how I’ll remember
him,” Baird said.
Canadian chief dies in canoe accident
SEQUIM, Wash. (AP)— An
Indian canoe heading for an
annual intertribal celebration
overturned in windy weather,
rough waves and chilly marine
water, and a Canadian tribal
chief from Vancouver Island
died, authorities said.
All six people aboard the ca
noe were dumped into the Strait
of Juan de Fuca on Wednes
day off Dungeness Spit, Coast
G uard P etty O fficer Shawn
Eggert said from Seattle. The
strait runs between the island
and the Olympic Peninsula of
Washington state.
A man who died as the other
five made their way ashore was
id en tified by M akah T ribal
C h airm an B en Jo h n so n as
C h ief Je rry Jack , 55, o f the
M o w achaht-M uchalaht F irst
Nations of Gold River, British
Columbia.
The reason the canoe cap
sized and the cause o f death
w ere not im m ediately d eter
mined and an autopsy was pend
ing.
Jack had been involved in the
saga o f Luna, a young killer
whale who became separated
from his pod and m ade his
home at Gold River until he was
killed by a boat propeller in
M arch. Som e Indians in the
area said they believed Luna em
bo d ied the sp irit o f a dead
chief.
A man and two women from
the canoe were being evaluated
at Olympic Memorial Hospital
in Port Angeles and each “ap-
pears fine,” nursing supervisor
Ann Fischer said.
The other two people from
the canoe apparently did not
need hospital treatment or ex
amination, Eggert said.
The Coast Guard received a
report of the overturned canoe
shortly before 6 p.m. and dis
patched a helicopter and boat
from Port Angeles, Eggert said.
The helicopter crew found
five people on shore from the
overturned canoe, the body of
Jack, seven people from another
canoe that was beached nearby
and a Clallam County sheriff’s
deputy who responded to the
initial call. The helicopter hoisted
everyone to a nearby parking lot
where emergency medical crews
were waiting, Eggert said.
Eggert said none of those in
the overturned canoe was wear
ing a life jacket.
He said conditions in the area
includ ed w inds o f about 35
mph, 5- to 7-foot seas and a
w ater tem perature o f 54 de
grees.
The death cast a pall over the
annual sum m er’s InterT ribal
C ano e Jo u rn e y, w h ich w as
started in 1989 as “Paddle to
Seattle” and this year has the
theme “Past and Present Pull
ing Together for Our Future.”
The g ath e rin g runs from
Monday, when the canoes are
scheduled to arrive in Seattle, to
the following Saturday and is
b e in g
h o sted
by
the
Muckleshoot Tribe of Auburn,
south o f Seattle.
Ancient village on Miss. Coast discovered
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP)
— A rchaeologists believe they
have uncovered evidence of an
ancient village, dating to the time
o f C h rist, that once thrived
along the shores o f this bay
town.
Som e o f the recen tly u n
earthed artifacts found in ran
dom spots near the beachfront
suggest a prehistoric village oc
cupied about a half-mile stretch
between Bayview Court and the
Bay-Waveland Yacht Club.
City leaders are working with
state and federal transportation
o fficials to cut a tem po rary
beach road, while several agen
cies work to rebuild the 30-foot
bluff and the bay bridge.
By law, the M ississippi De
partm ent o f T ran sp ortatio n
could rebuild the beach road
over the artifacts, so long as the
project doesn’t disturb the his
toric relics in any way.
Buz Olsen, the city’s chief of
operations, said the roadwork
includes replacing old water and
sewer lines that for years ran
underneath the road.
“We w ere d istu rb in g the
ground w here these artifacts
were,” he said. “Our trenching
for the new utilities may be as
deep as five feet and some of
the artifacts are just four feet
below the ground.”
Olsen said the only section
o f the project that could be
compromised is the laying of the
utilities, because the digging re
quired could disturb the area.
“With the utility corridor, (ar
chaeologists) are going to want
to sift through every piece of
dirt,” he said. “Things like this
have been known to hold up
projects for years. Hopefully, it
w on’t hold up the tem porary
road and the beach project.”
The scenario will change if
human remains are found.
Sherry Hutt, a program man
ager at the U.S. Department of
the Interior, said such a find
could tem porarily shut down
the massive repair project on
Beach Boulevard.
“I f h u m an rem ain s are
found (on federal land) and
th e re ’s fed eral m oney being
spent, then you would have to
stop activity im m ediately and
instigate consultation with the
possible descendent groups,” she
said.
Hutt, national program direc
tor o f the N ative A m erican
Grave Protection and Repatria
tion A ct, w hich regulates the
return o f certain cultural items,
said the stop-activity consulta
tion period is at least 30 days.
D avid Seyfarth , a project
engineer with MDOT, said nei
ther the village nor the archaeo
logical excavation is likely to slow
work on the U.S. 90 bridge.