More News from 1 netten Country
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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.
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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. Depart
ment o f Education, 05-1508.
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