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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2006)
News from Indian Country 8 Bannocks, the gaming compacts signed by the Coeur d’Alene, Nez Perce and Kootenai tribes limit the number o f machines and require the tribes to con tribute 5 percent of their annual gaming revenue to local schools. “The fact that the (Shoshone- Bannock) Tribes may now be in a technically better position than the other tribes is purely a func tion of the terms of the com p act th at Idaho and the (Shoshone-Bannock) Tribes vol untarily entered into,” Judge William Canby Jr. wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. The compact prohibits the state from collecting “any Idaho tax or contribution in lieu of taxes or fees on or measured by gam ing transactions, gam ing devices perm itted under this compact, gross or net gaming revenues, or the tribes’ net in come,” according to the court ruling. “The (Shoshone-Bannock) Tribes did not bargain away their immunity from such taxes or payments in the compact,” Canby wrote. “The fact that other tribes have accepted a package of benefits and burdens when they voluntarily amended their compacts does not change the terms of the compact.” The tribes’ attorney, Scott Crowell, said the appellate court victory was the last hurdle the tribes faced before moving forward with a “substantial investment” in gaming opera tions. “We did not believe that this was a well-founded ap peal to begin with and we’re g ratifie d th at the court agrees,” Crowell said. “Now the tribes can begin receiving the benefits of tribal gaming, which is to provide a revenue source for the tribal govern ment and jobs.” Bob Cooper, a spokesman for the Idah o atto rn ey general’s office, said the state was still reviewing the deci sion. M aori tribe says it will claim British pensions W E LL IN G T O N , N ew Zealand (AP) - An ancestor of the first indigenous Maori chief to sign a 1840 treaty with the British crown said last week he will lead a campaign for Maori to claim retirem ent pensions from Britain. David Rankin, a direct de scendant of warrior chief Hone H eke and a lead er o f the Matarahurahu subtribe, said the claim w ould be made under A rticle 3 o f the T reaty o f Waitangi. The article guarantees indig- enous Maori “the same rights and privileges as British sub jects.” Signed by dozens of Maori chiefs in 1840, the treaty ceded sovereignty over New Zealand to Britain, ruled at the time by Queen Victoria. In return for British protec tion, indigenous M aori were granted the rights of British sub jects and also retained control over their lands, forests, fisher ies, culture, language and other taunga (treasures). “I see this extending to other areas as well,” Rankin said. “We may expand the claim to include British passports, unem ploy ment benefits, and other entitle ments.” “It’s not the (non-Maori) citi zens o f N ew Z ealan d w ho signed the treaty, it was Queen Victoria and the British Empire,” he said. “We’re going to ask (current) Queen Elizabeth for an apology for attacking our people and we will apologize for what our an cestors did to British troops,” he added. During the so-called Maori Land Wars o f the 1860s and 1870s, th o usan d s o f M aori w arriors, B ritish troops and colonial settlers were killed or wounded as M aori resisted set tler efforts to buy or seize their lands. Hone Heke, a feared warrior, was resp o n sib le for cu ttin g down the British flagpole three tim es to p ro test actio ns by Britain’s representatives in New Zealand that he said breached Maori rights. Oregon man could get more prison time for artifacts dealing Eugene (AP) — An amateur archaeologist serving a prison sentence for trying to hire a hit man to kill a former business partner has been found guilty of attempting to sell American Indian artifacts stolen from pub lic lands in 2002 and 2003. Jack Lee Harelson, already se rv in g a 10-year sentence, faces up to two more years in prison for the most recent con viction, said Assistant U.S. At torney Chris Cardani in Eugene. He will be sentenced Dec. 19. Harelson acknowledged be fore Judge Ann L. Aiken this week that the government would be able to prove he hired an other man to assist him in of fering to sell archaeological re sources dug up illegally on fed eral lands in Oregon and Ne vada, according to court records. He had hired a government informant. Harelson, a former Grants Pass insurance agent, was con victed in 1996 of stealing arti facts and the mummified re mains o f two Indian children from Elephant Mountain Cave in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. He was later fined $2.5 million in a civil case involving the ex cavation. D etectiv es learn ed that Harelson was interested in hir ing a hit man to kill people in volved in his conviction. An in formant told Harelson he knew a hit man, who did not really exist, and Harelson offered to pay him with opals to do the job, according to tape recordings. Harelson was tried twice in Oregon on charges that he had paid an intermediary to arrange murders. Lie was acquitted in 2004 on two such charges. But a Jackson County jury last year found him guilty of trying to hire a hit man to kill L lo yd O lds o f B ro o kin gs, October 26, 2006 Archeologists often find treasures in wildfire ashes Idaho loses bid to restrict casinos BOISE, Idaho (A P )- The 9th U.S. C ircuit C ourt o f Appeals has ruled that Idaho cannot unilaterally limit the number o f video gam bling m achines operated b y the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes or force the tribes to renegoti ate their 2000 gaming com pact with the state. Wednesday’s ruling upheld a 2004 decision by U.S. Dis trict Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who ruled that the Shoshone- Bannocks automatically got the right to the m achines when three other Idaho tribes were allowed to install simi lar devices. But unlike the Shoshone- Spilydy Tymoo Harelson’s partner in a Nevada opal-mining venture. The jury acquitted him of trying to so licit the murder of an Oregon State Police lieutenant. Correction In the last edition of the Spilyay Tymoo, the woman in a photograph on the front page was a c c i d e n t a l l y m is id e n tifie d . T he woman in the photo was B etty G eorge and not L o u e lla H eath . T he Spilyay apologizes for the error. DESCANSO, Calif. (AP) - An oak tree was still burning nearby when Margaret Hangan made her way across a wildfire- scorched landscape and spotted to her d eligh t a set o f flat- topped granite boulders that served as kitchen counters in an ancient village 2,000 years ago. In the rocks were manmade oval depressions in which acorns were ground into flour. “This place was happening,” said Hangan, a U.S. Forest Ser vice archaeologist. “They had water, food, grass for baskets - everything they needed.” For all the damage they do, wildfires can be a boon to ar chaeologists, laying bare the traces o f long-gone civilizations. Around the country, govern ment archaeologists often move in to see what has been exposed after the flames have burned away the underbrush; sometimes they accom pany firefigh ters while a blaze is still raging to make sure artifacts are not dam aged. “Fires are a double-edged sword,” said Richard Fitzgerald, an archaeologist for California state parks. “They can be very destructive, but after a big fire you can find new sites, even in areas that have been surveyed before.” During a gargantuan fire that burned for nearly a month this fall in the Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles, fire crews found an abandoned gold m in in g cam p and an adobe homestead from the 1800s. Af ter a smaller fire there in June, they discovered a cave with rock art and a site with unusual beads made from freshwater shells. David Jurney, an archaeolo gist in the O zark-St. Francis N ational Forest in Arkansas, estimated his teams make four times as many finds during post fire surveys than they do dig gin g th ro ugh overgro w n stretches of forest. M ost finds are small, rock flakes left behind by hunters sharpening arrowheads, or piles o f rich brow n earth , called midden, that remain from pre historic kitchen scraps. In rare instances, fires unveil large structures. Archaeologists discovered fortress-like stone walls after a 2003 fire ravaged Cuyamaca State Park northeast of San Diego. During fires, archaeologists som etim es m ove w ith firefighters to help prevent dam age to already recorded sites. Bulldozers are often directed to work around settlements, and helicopter pilots are w arned against dropping fire retardant on rocks with ancient drawings on them. “The No. 1 goal is to put the fire out, but there’s flexibility in how th a t’s done,” said Paul Claeyssens, a Forest Service ar chaeologist in Oregon. F ire crew s w o rk in g near known archaeological sites can also set backfires that can burn away fuel at lower temperatures than wildfires, which can get so hot that rocks simply explode, obliterating traces o f ancient settlements. Hangan knew that there were boulders once used by the an cient Kumeyaay Indians in the Cleveland National Forest near Descanso, just outside San Di ego. After a fire in the forest last summer, Hangan was relieved to find the rocks intact. She also discovered that the collection qf boulders was more extensive than she realized _ indicating a settlement large enough to sup port as many as five extended families instead o f two or three. Because many sites contain In d ian a rtifac ts or b u rial grounds, trained tribe members often join professional archae ologists for post-fire hunts. For ex am p le, Frank B row n, ja Kumeyaay cultural expert an,d firefighter, accompanied Hangap. A fter fires reveal artifacts, arch aeo lo gists m ust p ro tect them from looters. Pottery, ar rowheads and other items haye turned up for sale over thje Internet after jvildfires, evejn though removing artifacts from public property is prohibited under federal law. Often, archaeologists recorp- mend closing burned-over are^s to the public until new grass begins to screen the exposed sites again. “I t ’s a d elicate b a lan c e ;” Hangan said. “The public has;a right to see what belongs to it, but we have to protect it, too.’’ H opi, Navajo settle old land dispute W IN D O W RO CK , A riz. (AP) - The Navajo and Hopi tribes have settled a decades-old dispute over reservation bound aries that for years has kept some residents from fixing leaky roofs or installing running wa ter or telephone service. The H opi T ribal C ouncil voted 18-0 Wednesday to ap prove an in tergo v ern m en tal co m p act w ith the N avajo, whose territory surrounds the Hopi reservation. “We hope this is the begin ning o f a new era in LIopi-Na- vajo re la tio n s ,” C edric K uwaninvaya said in a state ment. Kuwaninvaya chairs the Hopi Land Team that negotiated the agreement. “T he m em bers o f both tribes could benefit from the kind of cooperation that pro duced this agreement,” he said. “We look forward to those fur ther opportunities.” The dispu te cen tered on 700,000 acres o f Navajo land that Hopis claim as their aborigi nal homeland. Because of the dispute, then- U.S. Commissioner o f Indian Affairs Robert Bennett imposed a ban on construction in 1966, which severely limited develop ment in the area. Minor prob lems such as broken windows or roof repairs could not be fixed on the disputed land unless ap proved by the Hopis. The agreement will provide for religious access and use by members of each tribe on the lands of the other tribe and lift the construction ban. It also would end litigation the Hopi filed against the Navajo in 1974 as part of the land dispute. The Hopi tribe would not receive any Navajo land other than that already awarded by the courts. The Navajo Nation covers about 23,000 square miles, in cluding much o f northeastern Arizona and parts of northwest ern New Mexico and southern Utah. The Hopi Reservation is carved out of the center of the Navajo land and covers more than 2,400 square miles. U nder the d eal, N avajos would be allowed to enter Hopi land without a permit for tradi tional religious practices. In turn, Hopis would be allowed to en ter Navajo land without a per mit for religious practices. The Navajo Nation Council approved the agreement in Sep tember. It still must be approved by the federal government and the U.S. District Court in Phoe nix. Ralph's TV & Furniture FREEZERS $20 off 5-10 cubic ft. upright chest $25 off 15-20 cubic ft. chest Close out on Computers Limited to supply on hand Ralphs TV, Furniture & Appliancq 525 S.E. 5th Street Madras, OR 97741 475-2578 Servino/ Centrai Oregon since