News from Inciten Country
Page 10
Spilyay Tyrood
August 30, 2007
Sides struggle to resolve Navajo water claims
P H O E N IX (AP) - A settle
ment between the Navajos and
New Mexico for water from a
m ajor Colorado River tributary
has forced Arizona and the fed
eral governm etit back ¡to the
table to sort out the tribe's other
claims^ which include water and
money to build delivery systems.
T he task is tangled in a m o
rass o f laws, compacts, political
interests and a water supply al
ready stretched too thinC But
failure would thrust the issue
into court and threaten water
supplies for millions.
“We want to settle the Na
vajo and Hopi claims to the riv
ers in A rizo n a,” said H erb
Guenther, director o f the Ari
zona Department o f Water Re
sources. “It's one o f our high
priorities to get this resolved, for
the benefit o f not only the tribe
but also for water users in Ari
zona, to gjve them more cer
tainty for the future.”
Arizona negotiated sporadi-
cally w ith the N avajos until
2003, whfen the tribe sued the
federal government, accusing it
o f ignoring the water needs o f
the reservation.
A rizona officials say they
want the tribe to drop the suit
b efo re the state agrees to a
settlement
“We've always had thè idea
they'd drop* the lawsuit i f they
had a settlement,” said G reg
H outz, counsel fo r the state
Water Resources Department.
He said the state fears the suit
could derail a long-sough* short
age agreement among the states
that rely, on the Colorado.
W hat further clouded talks
was the agreement reached in
2005 between the Navajos and
New Mexico. The deal settled
the tribe's claims to the San Juan
River, a major Colorado River
tributary, and proposed a system
o f pipelines to help deliver wa
ter. to reservation communities
in eastern New Mexico.
“I t was a huge accomplish
ment for the Navajo,” said Lena
Fowler, vice chairman o f the
tribe's Water Rights Commis
sion.
“We're not meeting our wa
ter needs righ t now. People
w onder why we d o n 't have
e co n o m ic d ev elo p m en t on
Navajo. It's because we don't
have water infrastructure. It's
a constant cycle that we have
to live with here.”
Revelations about chairm an fuel rift within tribe
B O S T O N (AP) _ The rev
e la tio n
th a t
M ash pee
Wampanoag tribal Chairman
Glenn Marshall lied about his
military service and was con
victed o f rape in 1981 is fueling
a rift within the tribe as they seek
to build a $1 billion, casino in
Massachusetts.
O ne o f five members o f the
tribe shunned by the tribal coun
cil in Decem ber is calling for an
emergency meeting o f the tribe
Monday to discuss the situation.
“Our people understand that
we have been called to action
and plan to follow up with Mr.
M arsh all's an n o u n ce m e n t,"
Michelle Fernandes, one o f five
members shunned by the coun
cil, told the Cape Cod Times.
" W e 'r e lo o k in g to p rev en t
Glenn Marshall from returning
to the tribal council."
B u t tribal v ice chairm an
Shawn Hendricks said only he
has the authority to call meet
ings o f th e trib a l c o u n cil.
Marshall handed over his day-
to-flay duties to Hendricks after
the revelations were made pub-
Hc in a story in the Cape God
Times on Friday.
“As vice chair o f the tribal
council, I will call official meet
ings 6 f the tribe and in fact have
called for a meeting o f the tribal
council to meet in executive ses
sion tomorrow evening to dis
cuss’ the matters o f the past
week,” Hendricks said in a state
ment issued Sunday afternoon.
S cott Ferson, a spokesman
fo r the tribe who represents
Hendricks, said the tribal coun
c il plans to d iscu ss G le n n
M arshall's d ecisio n to step
down.
H e also said the council will
move ahead with their plans to
build a casino.
, The next step for the tribe is
to file a petition with the fed
eral government to take more
than 500 acres o f land in land
Middlebórough and 100 acres in
Mashpee into a trust.
Beside permanently banning
Marshall from the tribal coun--
cil, Fernandes and the other
shunned members o f the tribe
filed a lawsuit trying to force the
tribe's financial records to be
made more public.
After the tribe received fed
eral recognition in February, a
state court threw out the law
suit saying it n o longer had
standing'to hear die case. The
case has been appealed to a fed
eral court.
In an interview with T h e
Boston Globe published Satur
day, Marshall acknowleged the
rape conviction and lying about
his military record.
“It's an apology to my fam
ily, tribe, and the C om m on
wealth,” Marshall said. “I could
only ask that they could forgive
me, because I'm not a bad per
son;”
Marshall had been the tribe's
public face during much o f its
journey to win federal recogni
tion and its push to open the
state's first casino.
, O n Friday, T he Cape Cod
Times reported that-Marshall
was convicted in 1981 o f rap
ing a 22-year-old visitor to the
Cape. Marshall was accused o f
sexually assaulting the woman in
a seclu d ed sp o t in W est
Barnstable after offering to drive
her from a party.
Marshall, 57, was sentenced
to five years in state prison, but
served just three months before
being released on probation.
The paper also raised ques
tions about Marshall's military
record.
A t a congressional oversight
heating in 2004, Marshall testi
fied he survived the siege o f
K he Sahn. But during the siege,
Marshall was still a senior in high
school in Falmouth.
The Legislature still needs to
approve expanded gam bling
before a full-scale casino can be
built. Gov. Deval Patrick, who
made a surprise visit to Mashpee
when the tribe celebrated its fed
eral recognition, has said he
would announce his gambling
position around Labor Day.
Eddie Palm ante», chaired Colville tribal council, dies at 75
D ISA U TEL, Wash. (AP) — Grand Coulee Dam, is dead at
Eddie Adrian Palmanteer Jr., »75.
a lo n g tim e . C olv ille trib al
Palm anteer, form er chair-
leader who helped settle a 40- man o f the tribal council, died
year dispute over land flooded last Friday after a long illness at
by th e re s e rv o ir "behind his home in this hamlet on the
Confederated Tribes o f the
C o lv ille R e serv a tio n in
n o rth ce n tra l W ashington
state. H is death was co n
firmed last week by the cur
rent tribal chairman, Michael
E. Marchand.
Palmanteeralso was a former
superintendent o f the Colville
Indian Agency under the Bureau
terprises Corp., which oper-
ates a dozen businesses from
casinos and lumber mills to
construction and tourist ac-
o f Indian A ffairs and board
president 6 f Colville Tribal E n -
commodations.
Feds look
into sale of
‘tribal
memberships’
W IC H ITA , Kan. (AP)
— V icki Trirres, an illegal
im m ig ran t w ho w orks
here as a tax accountant,
shrugged o ff the $80 she
spent jn Ju n e to buy a
tribal m em bership into
the Kaweah Indian N a
tion.
Torres, a Mexican na
tional who has been in this
c o u n try fo r ab o u t 18
months, said she had been
told by a tribal represen
tative at a church gather
ing that she could use the
membership, to get a'S o
cial Security number.
Losing that money was
a risk, Torres said, that she
was willing to take: “I am
always trying to find a way
I can be here legally”'
The tribe — which was
denied federal recognition
in 1984 - is at the center
o f a multistate federal in
vestigation into an alleged,
stiarn to sell tribal mem
b ersh ip s to undocu-*
mented workers with the
prom ise the documents
would protect them from
deportation.
O n Monday, the Texas
Attorney General's Office"
sued tribal leader Malcolm
L. Webber, also known as'
Grand C hief Thunderbird
IV, the K aw eah Indian
Nation Inc. and two tribal
members.
The civil lawsuit alleged
they frau d u len tly sold,
memberships by claiming
that tribal members could
get a Social Security num
ber, protection from de
portation and U S. citizen
ship once the tribe is fed
erally recognized as an In
dian tribe.
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