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More News from 1 netten Country Page 8 Rhode Island lawsuit casts doubt on Indian land trusts nationwide BO STO N (AP)— Rhode Is land authorities disputed Tuesday the federal government’s ability to take Indian land into trust as part o f a lawsuit that Indian rights advocates say could undermine the legal ownership o f tribal land across the country. The case, argued before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court o f Ap peals, centers on whether a 31- acre lot in Charlestown, R .I., should be subject to Rhode Is land law— including a prohibi tion on casino gambling— or whether the land should be gov erned by federal and tribal law. Plaintiffs including Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri have said allowing the Narragansetts to place land into a trust could bolster the tribe’s effort to build a casino under federal law. Vot ers in November overwhelm ingly rejected an amendment to the state constitution allowing the Narragansetts to operate a casino in West Warwick. “This will open up the poten tial o f Indian country not only on these 31 acres but anywhere in Rhode Island,” said attorney Joseph Larisa Jr., who represents Charlestown’s town government, which opposes the transfer. Tribal lawyers say the case is part o f a widespread attack on the U.S. D epartm ent o f the Interior’s ability to hold Indian land in trust for tribes, a step state governments often fight because Indian lands are gener ally exempt from state law. The case began in 1991, when a Narragansett housing author ity purchased the 31-acre par cel, which is separated by a road from 1,800 acres granted to the tribe years earlier. W hile at tempting to build a housing com plex, the Narragansetts asked the federal government to take the land into trust. Chief Sachem Matthew Tho mas, who attended the hearing, said his tribe has no plans to build a casino on the lot. “Our tribe needs housing, and they need it desperately,” he said. According to lawyers for the state, federal authorities can’t take land into trust for tribes that weren’t organized or fed erally recognized before the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act took effect— requirements that they say exclude the Narragansetts. The tribe was rec ognized in 1983. Congress enacted the 1934 law to help tribes that lost prop erty during an earlier period o f forced assimilation, when tribes were broken up and their lands sold, said Claire Richards, an attorney for Carcieri. The Narragansetts are not one o f those tribes, she said. Richard Guest, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said this week that Con gress never intended to keep Indian tribes recognized after 1934 from placing their lands in federal trust. He said newer laws make clear that federal agencies ca n ’t discrim inate against tribes based on how or when they were recognized. A U.S. District Court and an earlier appeals panel rejected the state’s argument. “In Congress’ view, a tribe is a tribe is a tribe,” Civil rights group protests high schools' mascots FRA N K FO RT, Ky. (AP)— A civil rights group protested outside the state Board o f Education meeting on Wednesday, upset that some Kentucky high schools still have mascots referenc ing the C o n fed eracy or American Indians. The Rev. Louis Coleman, o f the Louisville-based PSustice R eso u rce C en ter, W' gave the board a letter ask ing for help in replacing such mascots. Coleman said he also sent letters to select state lawmak ers seeking help with the matter and urged schools not to com pete against other schools with such mascots. “This issue is still going on, and it’s still prevalent in the state o f Kentucky,” Coleman said. “It has not disappeared, and we’re going to encourage schools throughout the state not to par ticipate against schools that have these negative m ascots and characters.” Currently, more than a dozen high schools use mascots that are “offensive” to American Indians and people o f “other cultures and h eritag es,” Coleman said. Mascots such as “Rebels,” “Indians” or “Braves” can be offensive and insulting to pupils who have to attend or visit the schools that use them, school funding statute in 1994, it rejected a formula the agency had developed in 1976. But the department has refused to fol low the 1994 language, saying Congress could not have in tended it to change the formula. The federal government, the state and 54 o f the state’s 89 school districts oppose the dis tricts’ claim, contending that an adjustment would disrupt fund ing equity statewide. Last year, the 10th U.S. Cir cuit Court o f Appeals upheld a U.S. administrative law judge’s decision in favor o f the federal government in the lawsuit. Ju s tic e s appeared split Wednesday, mostly along ideo logical lines. Liberal-leaning jus tices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Step hen B rey er repeatedly asked why Congress would not defer to the Education Depart ment on such a technical issue. Breyer asked what Congress meant by “percentile” when it instructed the department how to determine the disparity be tween districts. When the dis tricts’ attorney struggled to an swer, Breyer snapped, “I f you don’t know, I ’ve never seen a case better fitted to rely on the views o f an agency.” B u t conservative ju stices Antonin Scalia and John Rob erts seemed to side with the dis tricts, grilling the department’s attorney, Sri Srinivasan, assistant to the solicitor, general. T h e ed u cation secretary “could have copied the regula tions ... and just put them in the Guest said. “I t ’s a dangerous precedent for us to start to treat tribes differently when Congress says federal agencies are pre cluded from doing that.” I f the state prevails, no one is certain how much tribal land could be cast into legal limbo. The Bureau o f Indian Affairs has never provided lawyers for either side an accounting o f the Indian lands it holds in trust. Neal said lawyers for the state aren’t sure such a list even exists. A bureau spokes man said he couldn’t immedi ately comment on the inventory. Allowing the tribe to place land into trust could renew Rhode Island’s casino gambling debate. The tribe agreed as part o f a 1978 settlement that state law, includ ing a ban on casino gambling, ap plies to Narragansett lands. That agreement doesn’t ex plicitly address whether addi tional land acquired by the Narragansetts could be placed into federal trust. E-mail change C H A M P A IG N , 111. (AP)— Officials o f the Uni versity o f Illin o is said Wednesday they plan to talk to at least three students they believe may be behind threats against an American Indian student on a Web page about the school’s mascot, Chief Illiniwek. Disciplinary action is pos sible if the Web page’s content violates the university’s Student Code, depending on the writ ers’ intent, said dean o f stu dents Bill Riley, who declined to identify the students. The university’s assistant police Chief J e f f Christensen said his department is investigat ing the threats. “The words are either in dicative o f his intention, or he’s blowing smoke,” Riley said, adding the target o f the threats is concerned about returning to school for the spring semester. Riley said university officials will also talk to the unidenti fied graduate student who was targeted by the threats. Facebook is a social-net working Web site that re quires its users to have an e- mail address from a univer sity. Illinois administrators learned about the Facebook page through an e-mail sent by a student who was con cerned about the page’s con tent. Brenda Farnell, a profes sor in the university’s Native American Studies program, says the woman who was threatened is a Sioux and has been active in her opposition to C hief Illiniwek. Farnell said the woman has been the recipient o f hate speech be fore. Administrators at some schools keep an eye on their students’ online lives. But the University o f Illinois doesn’t monitor its 30,000-plus stu dents’ online postings, spokes woman Robin Kaler said. Universities considering d isciplining students fo r online speech should ensure the language “rises to the level o f being a threat in a legal sense,” or students might refrain from online discus sion, said Ed Yohnka, direc tor o f communications for the American Civil Liberties Union o f Illinois. The ACLU is not involved in the current situation at the university, he said. C h i e f Illiniwek, portrayed by a stu dent, has performed at Illini sports events since 1926. Automotive Ö Towing since 755 S.W. Hwy 97, Madras, OR 97741 CALL 475-6663 or stop by fo r an appointment Court hears challenge to N.M. school funding W A S H IN G T O N (A P )— Two northwestern New Mexico school districts that primarily serve American Indian students have told the U.S. Supreme Court that the Department o f Education is depriving them o f $20 million a year by deliberately using the wrong public school funding formula. The Zuni school district, on Zuni Pueblo, and the adjacent Gallup-McKinley County dis trict, w hich includes a large amount o f Navajo land, con tend the federal government has failed to follow a funding for mula providing aid for districts where there is a large federal presence, such as a military base or Ind ian reserv a tio n , that makes it difficult to raise local tax dollars. The districts said Congress was clear in a 1994 statute, and they are owed millions o f dol lars. The state o f New Mexico and the federal government dis agreed. During the hour-long hearing Wednesday, justices argued be tween themselves about how to interp ret statutes and joked about fumbling with statistics as they wrestled with whether Con gress wanted to send certain school districts more money by revising the formula. Ju stice Jo h n Paul Stevens summed up the case: “One way, the money goes to the districts, and the other way it goes to the state.” The two districts argue that w hen C ongress revised the January 18, 2 0 0 7 University officials investigate online threats T h e Spilyay Tym oo now has a different e-mail address. The new address is : spilyay@w stribes.org. Coleman said. “This issue should have been eliminated a long time ago,” he said. Lisa G ro ss, a sp o k es woman for the Kentucky Department o f Education, said state education officials don’t have the authority to order local schools to change their mascots. Gross, however, said the board in 1995 encouraged schools and districts to “take into consideration the beliefs and feelings o f other cultures and groups o f people that might be offended by mas cots and symbols.” Spilyay Tym oo HJ ljc V i^ X Jj^ 7 -A p p ro v e d Auto Repair statute, could he not?” Scalia asked, wondering why the sec retary would have allowed Con gress to leave out the 1976 for mula, since the secretary was directly involved in writing the 1994 legislation. Stevens asked the department’s attorney: “What if I ’m convinced your opponent’s is the only fair reading o f the statute, but I ’m not convinced Congress meant it should be?” “Either way, you should rule in our favor,” Srinivasan an swered, drawing laughs from the court and the audience. A deci sion is expected before the end o f July. The case is Zuni Public School District No. 89 v. 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