News from Indian Country
Pags7
Freedmen issue on detour to Capitol H ill
TULSA, Okla. (AP) J A dis
pute involving race and tribal
identity that was supposed to
play out in the courts now seems
headed for Capitol Hill, where
some lawm akers want \the
country's second-largest Indian
tribe stripped of $300 million
in federal money.
U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, a
California Democrat who claims
Indian blood and ties to Okla
homa, is demanding the Chero
kee Nation reinstate 2,800 de- f
ascendants of, the tribe's former
black staves, known as freed
men. She calls a March election
that booted the freedmen de
scendants from the tribe “eth
nic cleansing” and doesn't want
to wait on the courts to decide
the matter, a process that could
take years.
The tribe is digging in to fight
the legislation, and its chief,
Chad Smith, has called Watson's
bill a “scorched-earth” policy
aimed at hurting the poorest and
sickest of the nation's 270,000
members.
Neither side shows signs of
giving up ground as lawmakers
are expected to have a hearing
on the matter next week in
Washington.
At stake are millions of fed
eral dollars for health clinics,
Head Start programs, elderly
care and housing assistance for
the Tahlequah-based tribe. More
than 6,000 fiation employees
could lose their jobs, touching
off a ripple effect that would
economically devastate north
eastern Oklahoma. Health care
to 126,000 patients would be
axed.
“If the Cherokee Nation
were to fold, I'd be with it,” said
David Rabon Comingdeer, a 15-
year employee of the nation. “It
would be like out whole world
just fell out from under us.”
But to Watson, those are con
sequences the nation should
have thought of before the
election was called.
“ We can't even fund educa
tion properly or health care prop
erly,” said Watson, whose bill has
23 co-sponsors, including sup
port from Congressional Black
Caucus lawmakers.' “Why
should we fund this kind of dis
enfranchisement?”
Watson wants Chief Smith
and his supporters “to come to
their senses and see this is throw
ing out, the blacks, and using
federal dollars to do it.”
“I stand on the law, I stand
on what's right, and I'm not go-
irig to massage it for phony rea
sons,” she said.
For décades, descendants of
freed Cherokee slaves fought to
reclaim their citizenship, even
though théy were adopted into '
the tribe in 1866 under a treaty
with the U.S. government.
A ruling last year by the
Cherokee'V N ation Suprerne
"Court held that the Cherokee
constitution assured freedmen
descendants of tribal citizenship.
That led to a petition drive
for a ballot measure tô deter
mine who is a citizen of the'
Cherokee Nation.
In March, nearly 77 percent
of Cherokee Voters decided in
a special election to amend the
nation's constitution to remove
the freedmen descendants and
other non-Indians from tribal
rolls.
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Ex-coach paints new mascot design
WARRENTON,
Ore.
(AP)—Visiting teams’ questions
about ' the m ural o f the
Warrenton High School mascot
used to make former basketball
coach Tim Peitsch squirm.
Peitsch says he never quite
understood die image on the
gymnasium wall: a headdressed
man with a hooked nose and
bloodshot eyes, wearing athletic
pants and moccasins, carrying a
tomahawk and arrows but no
bow, and trying to dribble a de
flated basketball.
The 41-year-old depiction of
the Warrenton Warriors’ mascot
was one of the first things visi
tors saw when they entered the
gym.
But under Peitsch’s hand, a
ndivj ¿ultiirally sensitive repre
sentation of American Indians
is taking shape in the Warrenton
gym, even as the state consid
ers a ban on Native American
m ascots, team names and
logos—risking a potential uproar
over ah issue historically left up
to individual schools and school
districts,
At least 16 Oregon schools
sport native mascots and nick
names, which the state might
prohibit. The schools will soon
receive invitations to an Oct. 22
“stakeholders .meeting” to dis
cuss possible policy changes at
the Department of Education,
officials announced Monday.
But Peitsch isn’t worried
about the looming prohibition.
With the new mural, he said,
“The issue isn’t so much the
Warriors and the way they’re
portrayed; you have, an image
and an idea tfiat the tribe fully
supports! That’s good for every
body.”
Principal Rod Heyen agreed.
“Over tim e, there were
things that just weren’t right and
things that were flat-out wrong”
with the old image, he said. “The
caricature we had up there was
demeaning. It was wrong
whether we had to change our
mascot or not.
“I look at this as a mural
that’s a tribute to the Native
Americans in this area. I don’t
see it as a mascot issue.”
The new mural spans 12.5.
feet by 17.5 feet, featuring a
canoe rowed by men represent
ing the Clatsop-Nehalem Con
federated Tribes. Their muscles
flex as they §lice paddles through
a churning Columbia River.'
Saddle Mountain towers, in the
background.
11 All symbols and imagery have
official approval from the
Glatsop-Nehalem tribes, said;
tribal Couiicil chairwoman Diatie
Collier of Warrenton. She said
the group gave Peitsch a letter
of endorsement to protect the
mural as the mascot controversy
plays put at the state level.
Spirit Lake Nation considering hog farm
' ST. MICHAEL, N.D. (AP)—
Developers are considering a
hog farm on the Spirit Lake
Nation reservation, and not all
members of the tribe are happy
about if.
Theresa Allery, a boardmem-
be'r o f the Native American
People Cooperative and coordi
nator for Hog Hoop Barn De
velopment, said officials hope to
use federal grant money to pro
duce organic vegetables~and
build the hog facility.
Daryl Dukart, general man
ager o f Cloverdale Growers
Alliance, a group of growers
who produce-for Mandan-based
Cloverdale Foods Co., said the
reservation project would in
clude nine barns that- each cpuld
handle about 200 pigs. Each
barn would handle three batches
of pigs a year, he said.
Tribal member Frank
“We can turn out 4,860 pigs
annually,” Dukart said.
BlackCloud said he worries
They likely would be itti- about damage to the environ
ported from Canada, raised in ment from the hog farm. He
the barns and then shipped to said he has seen hog farms on
Cloverdale’s processing facility other reservations, and “I hate
to see a nightmare like that up
in Minot, he said.
: Bill Patrie, director of the here.”
Northcotintry Cooperative De
Patrie said officials are only
velopment Fund, said the pork gauging interest, and have not
could be marketed as “Native yet even identified possible sites
American-raised hogs” and sold ’ for a hog farm.
Tribal member Noreen
to tribal casinos in the state.
Dukart said straw would be Cavanaugh said she would not
put on the floor of the bams to hesitate to fight a hog farm; “I
reduce odors and help heat the would be willing to initiate a pe
structures, which would have tition against it,” she said.
tarps for roofs.
“Hoop barns are the least
expensive way to get into hog
production that we could find,”
Patrie said, “Tiiey are environ
mentally friendly and inexpen-
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