News from Inciten Country
.'-■Pagel O
Spilyay Tyrooo
August2,2007
Panel to probe relationship between casinos, regulators
INDIANAPOLIS
(AP)—A state commission
plans to examine whether
regulators are allowing ca
sino operators to build new
riverboats that are moré like
buildings than boats, a legis
lator said.
“We have a couple
riverboats here in Indiana
that are expanding signifi-
fcantly—approximately dou
bling in size,” said State Rep.
Scott Pelath, D-Michigan
City. “I believe that’s some
thing that should be allowed
by the Legislature and not by
a regulatory agency.”
Pelath, who leads the Ad
ministrative Rides Oversight
Commission, said the panel
this fall will investigate
whether the Indiana Gaming
Commission has becotiie too
lenient with casinos.
Ernie Yelton, the gaming
commission’s director, said the
agency has simply followed ex
isting law and he looked forward
to answering the oversight
panel’s questions.
“We feel we’ve been in total
compliance with Indiana law,”
he said. “If people believe there
should be a different applica
tion, then there should be dif
ferent laws.” ,
During the past session, law
makers considered but did not
approve a measure that would
have permitted riverboat casinos
to pay a $25 million fee to go
from a riverboat to a b arg e-
allowing them to more cheaply
build bigger facilities on plat
forms instead of boats.
A t issue now is whether new
building standards recently ap
proved by the gaming commis
sion will allow Argosy Casitio in
American Indian
dancers keep it real
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)—
Sandi Iron Cloud’s face bears a
harried expression.
In ankle-length purple trade
cloth, Sandi, the head of the
Little Sun Drum and Dance
Group at the Cheyenne Fron
tier Days Indian Village, flips
through her cell phone making
one call after another Friday
morning.
One of her dancers has been
bitten by a spider and is headed
home.
The dancer sits at the picnic
table, with her head resting on
her arm. Sandi rubs her back as
she talks on the phone.
Other dancers gather under
the shelter, drying off after be
ing flooded out from rain. Some
even had to camp out in the ar
mory.
They all look a little tired.
But even after a night of
drenching rain, spider bites' and
missing dancers—Sandi’s still
got some spunk left.
“You know what? We’re go
ing to make due with what we
have today,” she says. “We’re
survivors.” ;
Sandi watches as dancers fil
ter in.
“We’re not just here to act out
a routine,” she says. “For us it’s
not just being an Indian for one
day. ... We’re real people. We
have real jobs and real homes.”
They have about an hour un
til their first performance, one
of three that they give during the
day at the Indian Village in Fron
tier Park. The weather has
wreaked havoc on the grounds,
and CFD volunteers have been,
pumping out water since about
5
Kalen Sun Road walks in, a
little worked up after being held
up by a CFD security guard.
This is the second time this
week.
' It doesn’t lake him long to
forget it, though. His wife, Trace
Sun Road, pulls out a comb and
a bottle of hairspray.
He closes his eyes as she tips
his head back, making a straight
part down the middle of his
head. She braids each side and
then wraps them in cloth.
Both are dancers for the
Little Sun Drum and Dance
Group. Kalen performs in the
men’s chicken dance and Trace
in the fancy shawl dance.
“We brought quality dancers
here,” Sandi says watching. “To
do something of this magni
tude, we had to recruit other
family groups.”* ’;
The group began about 19
years ago. They took the Indian
name of Sandi’s grandfather,
Paul Moss Sr?' ’
“We carry on that memory,”
Sandi says.
It’s a tight-knit group. Many
are teachers, coaches, students,
athletes and former graduates
from Wyoming Indian High
School. Some hold pretty pres
tigious athletic titles within the
state in sports like track, basket
ball and cross-courifry.
Sandi says part of their goal
is to dispel stereotypes.
“I could care less what term
is politically correct. I know who
I am,” she says. “I’m proud tc
be an Arapaho. I’m pijpud to be
an Indian.”
v She moves to the middle of
the shelter, shouting to the danc
ers.
“Everybody has 15 minutes!”
she says. -
They are running a bit behind
today and people hustle to get
ready. The outfits of the group
vary according to dance. Many
are passed down through gen
erations.
Trace’s outfit is intricately
beaded with Shoshone roses,
which stand out on the white
background. The beadworkwas
done bÿ her grandmother.
Sandi steps into line. Savan
nah Martinez and Jacijlron
Cloud step up bèside her, slip
pingtheirvsmall hands in hers.
The drums begin to beat. As
they approach the entrance, they
begin to move with them, their
feet tapping ever-so-slighdy as
they file into the grassy circle.
Thousands gather to vote on casino
MIDDLEBO ROUGH,
Mass. (AP)—Thousands of
residents gathered in this rural
community on Saturday to vote
on i deal with the Mashpee
Wampanoag tribe that could
bring casino gambling to Mas
sachusetts.
The massive Town Meeting,
which was expected to draw as
many as three quarters of
I
*
■U
Middleborough’s 20,000 resi
dents, began Saturday on an ath
letic field behind the high
school.
The town is considering a
proposal by the Wampanoag to
build a $1 billion casino in
Middleborough in exchange for
$250 million in infrastructure
improvements and an estimated
$11 million in annual payments.
Lawrenceburg and Horseshoe
Hammond in Lake County to
build new casinos more like
buildings than boats.
Representatives from both
casinos have said that the ves
sels under construction will be
“navigable,” which is what
Yelton says is necessary to meet
state law. But Pelath remains
unconvinced, The Courier-Jour
nal of Louisville, Ky., reported
in a Saturday story.
Blue Chip Casino at Michi
gan City, which is in Pelath’s dis
trict, sought legislative approval
for a barge so it could more eas
ily expand to compete with an
Indian casino in southern Michi
gan. But lawmakers declined, so
the casino built a new boat un
der the former construction
standards that were set by the
Coast Guard.
The General Assembly
granted the gaming commission
power to write new standards
after the Coast Guard notified
states that it likely would stop
certifying boats in places where
they remained docked at all
times.
Yelton said the new standards
were largely based on those used
by the Coast Guard, with
changes due to safety concerns
because the boats no longer
cruise. Below the, water, Yelton
said, the standards remain vir
tually unchanged. .
Yelton said the companies
were warned that they would be
required to meet the new stan
dards when they started con
struction before they were
adopted. The casinos were
building “at their own risk,” he
said. “They woulanfr be
grandfathered in.”
Argosy and Horseshoe both
were using a consultant who
also was helping the commis
sion write its standards. Repre
sentatives of both casinos have
said that they didn’t know ex
actly what the new standards
would be until they were ap
proved and that they were pre
pared to make changes in their
projects if necessary.
Mike Smith, executive direc
tor'of, the Casino Association
of Indiana, said the legislative
probe could make gambling
companies question whether to
do business in the state or make
them consider the regulatory
environment too unstable.
That could hurt state rev
enues, he said.
“Every time they (the casi
nos) improve their properties,
the state is (among) the benefi
ciaries of that expansion,”
Smith said. “The two projects
under way right now in
Hammond
and
Lawrenceburg are expected
to increase state revenue by
$80 (million) to $100 million
a year. That’s a pretty good
benefit to the state.”
Pelath said that’s why it’s
important to know whether
the gaming commission is
going too far to help com
panies expand. He also wants
to know whether the gam
ing commission’s seven
members or its staff are
making the decisions at the
agency, and how involved the
governor’s office is in those
decisions.
“It’s my assessment that
the riverboats have gotten
too powerful in Indiana,”
said Pelath.
2 women first to hold elected office in Catawba tribe
ROCK HILL, !S.C (AP)—
Melissa Funderburk and Leigh
Anne Bickett hope their prece
dent-setting election will help
them lead the Catawba Indian
Nation back to its foundations.
The pair became the first
Catawba women to win an
elected office when they won
seats on the tribe’s executive
committee July 21.
They join new chief Donald
Rodgers, assistant chief Gene
Blue, secretary/treasurer Jason
Harris and fellow committee
members Butch Sanders and
John Williford as the top deci
sion-makers for, the tribe.
One ’v Woman —-Frances
Wade—served on the commit
tee in 19/3, but. she was ap
pointed to the office.
Tribe historians claim a
group of women once made key
decisions and the chief was a
figurehead. But European set-
tiers moving into the Carolinas
400 years ago refused to trade
or conduct affairs with Catawba
women.
“They (Catawba women) saw
that the Europeans wouldn’t
work with us,” Funderburk said.
“In order to sustain ourselves
and survive, we had to put our
men at the table to negotiate.”
Since then, men have domi
nated politics for the Catawbas,
the state’s only federally recog
nized Indian tribe.
“It just proves that our tribe
is moving with the times. It’s a
wonderful way' to say, ‘Women
don’t just cook and clean any
more. They’re running our
tribe,’” said Bickett, a 28-year-
old housing manager for ISWA
Development, the tribe’s hous-
ing company. “I’m very hon
ored, and I’m up for the chal
lenge to work with all these
men.”
Rodgers said Funderburk
and Bickett, a Chester resident
who is the only committee
member not living on or near
the reservation, will bring bal
ance to the decision-making.
“After European contact, the
men went out and did things on
their own,” he said. “Unfortu
nately, sometimes it was to their
own detriment.”
Funderburk, 37, is program
director for the early childhood
.education program Catawba
Head Start. 'She also is a‘ former
social services worker on the
reservation.
“I’m honored that so many
people have put their confidence
in me,” she said. “I think people
respect me and expect me to do
good things here. I’ve walked
the talk.”
The tribe faces many chal
lenges, particularly finding ways
to make up for lost income in
its bingo operations since the
state began running a lottery.
“Everybody thinks I’m crazy
for taking this on ” Funderburk
said. “But I have a lot of love
and compassion for my people,
and I obtained an education in
order to help my people.”
Bickett said changes are on
the way, including operating
more in public view.
“Ou? #ibe has been m ^isar-
l ray tor so:Jb%. We v^ttohU ud
trust in this new group, ’ she
said. “It’s gonna take all seven
of us working as a team to bring
peace. We no longer have to be
behind closed doors.”
Grandmothers from around world pursue spirit o f the environment
H OT SPRINGS, S.D.
(AP)—Several times a day over
three days, 13 women from
around the world, several in
their 80s, gathered around an
open fire as each led a prayer
ceremony unique to her native
tribe.
After each outdoor gathering
they moved into a convention
center auditorium, where they
exchanged ideas and learned
about problems that plague the
Oglala Lakota who live on the
nearby Pine Ridge Indian Res
ervation.
Among them: high unem
ployment, suicide, domestic vio
lence, drug and alcohol abuse,
diabetes and contaminated wa
ter.
The women share a common
vision and mission to spare fu
ture generations problems that
now vex much of society.
“It’s hard to be proud of your
cultural heritage and traditions
if every day you face extinc
tion,” Debra White Plume of
Manderson told the women.
The women, formally called
the International Council of
Thirteen Indigenous Grand
mothers, come from Africa,
Asia and the Americas. Their
languages, cultures and tradi
tions are as different as their
lands.
“They’re not women of poli
tics. They’re women of prayer,”
said Jeneane Prevatt of The
Center for Sacred Studies in
Sonora, Calif., who goes by the
name Jyoti.
The indigenous grandmoth
ers hope to ease war, pollution
and social ills by teaching tradi
tional ways that served their
people long before the birth of
modern peace and environmen
tal movements.
Roughly every six months,
they visit .each other’s home
lands,, most recently in June here
in the southern Black Hills, near
the Pine Ridge reservation that’s
home to two of the women, sis
ters Rita and Beatrice Long Visi
tor Holy Dance.
During the prayer ceremo
nies, they spoke very little. Of
ten the only sounds were the
crackling fire and traffic on a
nearby road.
“We’re praying for peace,
which is not only the wars but
in our homes and in the schools.-
We need that peace amongst
children,” said Beatrice Long
Visitor Holy Dance, who be
lieves social problems on the
reservation are a direct result of
people abandoning traditional
ways of life.
’ The group first met in Octo
ber 2004 in New York. So far
their effort has earned them a
meeting with the Dalai Lama
and a relationship with the
Bioneers environmental group.
The 13 women next plan to
meet in October at San Rafael,
Calif., for the annual confer
ence of the Bioneers, who
share the indigenous grand
mothers’ belief that there’s a
spiritual aspect to life and
more to environmentalism
than preventing pollution, said
Nina Simons, co-executive di
rector.
“We will never have environ
mental sanity and health while
there are so many people living in
abject poverty,’’she said. “We can’t
expect people to care about the
environment when they’re wor
ried about feeding their children.”
The grandmothers* and
Bioneers also believe that natural
solutions can fix many modem
problems, such as using a type of
mushroom to digest petroleum
spills, Simons said.
‘Tart of our challenge is to
leam to have a relationship with
nature that makes it healthier and
stronger instead of weaker and
depleted,” she said.
The Black Hills conference
attracted people from the
United Spited, the United Kingg?
domi Switzerland, Spain,
France, New Zealand, Australia,
Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Nepal
and Brazil.
Among the roughly 250
people attending the gathering
was Jan Rhine of Newberg,
Ore., who was raised in Africa
by missionary parents. She said
the grandmothers movement
makes her appreciate a simpler
wky of life.
Archaeological dig in Indiana reveals Indian artifacts
KOUTS, Ind. (AP) — Volunteers working with a University
of Notre Dame archaeologist have unearthed tens of thousands
of artifacts including relics from ancient American Indian tribes
at a site along the Kankakee River.
The team has found arrowheads, pottery, archaic points, ani
mal bones and even a small brass bell this summer, said Mark
Schurr, chairman of Notre Dame's anthropology department.
Some of the artifacts date to 8,000 years ago, said Schurr,
I
v
who's in his fifth year of excavations at the Collier Lodge site
south of Kouts, about 25 miles southeast of Gary.
“You never know what you're going to find. We found a
new style of pottery that I've never seen before,” he said.
The dig along the Kankakee River's tree-filled hanks has
yielded tens of thousands of artifacts from various time peri
ods.
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