News from Indian Country
Page 9
Spilyay Tyrnoo
October 23, 2 0 0 8
Arapaho want Yellowbear out of boundary suit
C H E Y E N N E , Wyo. (AP)—
T he N o rth ern A rapaho Tribe
says it will vigorously oppose an
a tte m p t by a trib a l m em b er
serving time on a m urder con
viction to intervene in the tribe’s
federal lawsuit against the state
o f W yom ing a n d F re m o n t
C ounty over a long-stand in g
boundary dispute.
Andrew John Yellowbear Jr.
last week filed a m otion to in
tervene in the trib e’s lawsuit.
T h e trib e sued the state and
county last m onth, arguing that
they had been im properly tax
ing trib al m em bers living in
Riverton and other areas nearby.
A Therm opolis jury in 2006
convicted Yellowbear o f m ur
der in the death o f his daugh
te r, 2 2 -m o n th -o ld M arcela
H ope Yellowbear. She died at a
hospital in 2004 after suffering
a skull fracture, b ro k en arm ,
burns to her fingers and other
injuries.
Yellowbear has m aintained
that the state lacked jurisdiction
to p ro secu te him . H e claims
th a t R iverton, w here th e girl
suffered her injuries, lies in “In
dian Country.”
T h e W y o m in g S u p rem e
C ourt upheld Yellowbear’s con
viction in January. T h e co u rt
ruled Riverton is no longer “In
dian Country” for legal purposes.
H ow ever, the 10th Circuit
C ourt o f Appeals in Denver this
spring ruled that Yellowbear was
entitled to make an argum ent
b e fo re U.S. D is tric t Ju d g e
Clarence Brimmer o f Cheyenne
th a t the state sh o u ld n ’t have
prosecuted him. Yellowbear and
his court-appointed lawyers are
pressing that point in Brimmer’s
court.
T im K ingston, a Cheyenne
lawyer representing Yellowbear,
said his client wants to get in
volved in the tribe’s lawsuit to
make sure his legal interests are
protected.
“ T h e p u rp o s e o f M r.
Yellowbear moving to intervene
in the tribe’s case is that the le
gal issue is essentially the same:
w hether the particular property
that the tribe’s case has to deal
with, or Mr. Yellowbear has to
deal with, is on tribal land, or
‘Indian Country,”’ Kingston said.
Yellowbear has argued th at
the federal co u rt system could
b e tte r p ro te c t him from bias
and make sure th at he receives
a fair trial.
“ I t ’s a se n sitiv e is su e ,”
K in g s to n said. “A n d M r.
Yellowbear w ould say th at he
believes that the federal court
is best situated to ensure that his
legal rights are protected, and
that he can receive a completely
fair trial, unfettered by any lo
cal issues, or potential local bias.”
D esp ite th e W yom ing Su
prem e C o u rt’s ruling th at the
sta te h ad ju risd ic tio n to try
Yellowbear, K ingston said, “I
don’t believe that the Wyoming
Supreme C ourt has definitively
determ ined the the issue o f ju
risdiction, state or federal, with
regard to Riverton.”
M ark H ow ell, sp o k esm an
fo r th e N o r th e r n A ra p a h o
Tribe, said Friday that the tribe
strongly opposes Yellowbear’s
efforts to intervene in its law
suit against the state and the
county.
H owell said the tribe’s law
suit focuses on a 1905 act o f
Congress th at opened up res
ervation land around R iverton
to s e ttle m e n t by n o n -trib a l
members. H e said that the state
contends th at the act rem oved
the land’s legal status as p art
o f the W ind River Indian Res
ervation, while the tribe holds
that it did not.
“They are m ost interested in
keeping their case clean, and
away from the criminal aspects,”
Howell said o f the tribe. “The
reason that the tribe filed the
case w hen they did is because
they did n o t w ant the question
o f jurisdiction o f the 1905 act
area to be decided in the con
text o f Mr. Yellowbear’s crimi
Remains should be returned to Onondagas
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP)—
T h e N ew Y ork S tate M u
seum should return the dis
p uted centuries-old rem ains
o f at least 180 individuals
to th e O n o n d a g a In d ia n
N ation, according to a fed
eral review panel.
T h e state m u seu m h ad
said it could n o t conclusively
determine the cultural origins
o f the remains, which were
discovered in 1967 in Tioga
County and date to between
1000 and 1550.
B ut the N ational N ative
American Graves Protection
a n d R e p a tria tio n R eview
Committee voted 5-1 during
a meeting Saturday in San D i
ego that the remains should
be recognized as Onondaga
an d re tu rn e d to th e trib e
w ith in
90
days,
th e
O nondaga’s attorney, Joseph
Heath, said Wednesday.
‘W e are in the middle o f
discussing it am ong our hier
archy and counsel. We obvi
ously w ant to do the right
thing and I can’t imagine that
we w on’t follow the recom
m endation o f the com m it
tee,” said Lisa Anderson, coor
d in ato r for the state’s Indian
repatriation program.
“B efore we started turning
over rem ains, we w anted to be
entirely sure we w ere retu rn
ing them to the right people,”
she added.
F or the O nondagas, the de
c is io n is a s ig n ific a n t o n e ,
H eath said.
“The O nondaga N ation be
lieves it has a spiritual obligation
to take care o f and protect all
the ancestors within its aborigi
nal territories. These ancestors
... are part o f a shared identity
and culture,” H eath said.
“D eath is a journey with the
Creator. W hen these bones were
dug up, the journey was inter
ru p ted for these individuals,”
held by the State University o f
N ew York at Binghamton until
M arch 1989 w hen they w ere
tran sferred to th e N ew York
State Museum.
T h e rem ain s re p re se n t at
least 180 individuals, including
about 122 adults, according to
state archaeologists. Many are
single bones, b u t in oth er in
stances there were nearly com
plete skeletons.
In 1990, Congress passed the
N ative American Graves P ro
tection and R epatriation A ct,
requiring states to inventory,
catalog, and where possible, iden
tify, Indian burial sites.
The state completed its inven
tory o f the Engelbert site in 1998.
“ I t ’s a c o m p lic a te d site.
There were two different people
w ho lived there/’ Anderson said.
| A ccording to' th e state 'mu
seum , there are 10 burials at
th e E n gelbert site from after
1400 th at are clearly identifi
able as Susquehannock, based
o n th e ceram ics an d co p p er
artifacts found at the site. Be
cause the Susquehannock don’t
exist today as a distinct cultural
or political entity, the rem ains
Heath said.
T he remains were unearthed
by a bulldozer during construc
tion o f the Southern Tier E x
pressway w est o f Bingham ton
n ear N ich o ls. T h e so ?called
Engelbert site sits on a knoll 20
to 30 feet above the floodplain
of the Susquehanna River, lo
cated about 200 feet away.
The remains were originally
are cu lturally u n id en tifiab le,
A nderson said.
A d d itio n a lly ,
th e
S u sq u e h a n n o c k tr a d e d a n d
liv e d a m o n g m an y tr ib e s
th ro u g h o u t th e Susquehanna
River valley from upstate N ew
York dow n through the Chesa
peake Bay region.
“O ur position was we need
to contact all these other groups
before we could reach a deci
sion. It was our impression that
there were others interested,”
A n d erso n said. H ow ever, no
o th e r trib es h av e m ade any
claims on the remains.
The majority o f the remains
were from a second group o f
b u ria ls th a t p re d a te d th e
Susquehannock. State archae
ologists, however, said they were
considered a different people
from the Onondaga and also not
culturally identifiable with any
m odern tribes.
B ut the O nondagas argued
that the state based its conclu
sion on purely scientific evi
dence, and ignored the federal
law’s instructions to consider a
“totality o f evidence,” including
kinship, an th ro p o lo g ical evi
dence, linguistics, folklore
and oral tradition.
Historically, the Onondagas
lived mostly in central New
Y ork, b u t th eir te rrito ry
stretched into the Southern
Tier, where they lived near the
Cayugas and O neidas, two
other members o f the six-na
tion Iroquois Confederacy.
“In their oral tradition,
they have been here since the
beginning o f time. But cer
tainly, th e y ’ve b e e n h e re
longer than 500-600 years,”
H eath said.
Some scholars have found
evidence dating the confed
eracy back to the 900s, which
m eans the separate tribes
have been here m uch longer,
H eath noted.
A lso
a c c o rd in g
to
O nondaga oral history, the
trib e
a d o p te d
th e
Susquehannock peoples and
brought them into the con
federacy, H eath said. Linguis
tically, the Susquehannock
language is m ost closely re
lated to the Onondagan dia
lect o f Iroquioan, he added.
nal case. T hat is precisely why
they filed the civil case that they
did.”
Howell said he didn’t have a
figure o f how many tribal m em
bers live in disputed areas, and
also didn’t have a figure o f the
am ount o f tax revenue the tribe
claims the state and county have
collected improperly.
Howell said the tribe has en
tered a m ediation agreem ent
with the City o f Riverton. H e
said the tribe is prepared to try
to negotiate payments to the city
to cover any lost revenues if the
court rules in the tribe’s favor.
H e said F rem ont County and
the state have not expressed an
interest in working out a similar
arrangement.
Loan office
opens on
South Idaho
reservation
FO R T HALL, Idaho (AP)—
A Denver-based banking com
pany founded in 2001 to serve
the Native American community
has opened a loan office on a
re s e rv a tio n in s o u th e a ste rn
Idaho.
T he Native American Bank
also has loan offices in Montana
and Alaska.
D ave G ilm an , th e b a n k ’s
chief executive officer, says the
loan office that opened on the
F ort Hall Reservation in Idaho
this m onth could eventually be
expanded in to a full-service
banking location.
Gilman, says N ative Ameri
cans face credit challenges be-
causé reservation land is held in
a trust by the federal govern
m ent and can’t be used as col
lateral when they try to obtain
loans.
The Native American Bank
offers lending programs to help
Native Americans own homes
and develop businesses.
Trust fund
Building
Pride In
OilJL
C o m m u n ity ,
O ne
Sidewalk
A t A T im e.
(Continued from page 1)
A m ore recent change to the
tru st fund happened in 2006.
This change was in ten d ed to
correct an aspect o f the trust
fund that had come to be seen
as inequitable to some benefi
ciaries.
Before the 2006 change, the
am o u n t o f each in d iv id u al’s
tru st fu n d disb u rsem en t was
closely tied to the stock market.
The fund manager, in order to
g ro w th e fu n d , in v e s te d in
stocks, as is com m on in such
arrangements.
There was some inequity in
this in that the amount disbursed
to the beneficiaries varied from
year to year, depending on how
th e s to c k m a rk e t h ad p e r
formed, said Ray Potter, tribal
chief financial officer.
In extrem e cases, he said,
one sibling might receive a few
thousand dollars m ore or less
than another, due to the vary
ing perform ance o f the market.
In order to avoid this situa
tion, m anagem ent and Tribal
Council developed a new plan
regarding the fund investment.
A ccording to the plan, the
trust fund assets are invested
m ore cautiously, in bonds, as the
youth approaches the age at
which he or she will begin to
receive disbursements.
F ro m b irth to age 10, the
beneficiary’s trust assets can be
invested 90 percent in stocks,
and 10 percent in bonds.
The percentage o f stocks to
bonds then gradually changes
over time. The ratio is 80 per
cent in stocks to 20 p ercen t
bonds at age eleven; 70 percent
stocks to 30 percent bonds at
age twelve; 60 percent stocks to
40 percent bonds at age 13; and
so forth until the ages o f 18 to
21, when the ratio is 10 percent
stocks and 90 percent bonds.
T he idea is that any m ajor
swings in the stock m arket that
happen w hen a person is zero
to 10 years old will be leveled
out by the time the beneficiary
begins to receive disbursements
at age 18.
With this approach, each ben
eficiary should receive about the
same am ount, roughly $10,000
to $11,000 on average.
E ventually, this new plan
should also increase the am ount
o f money disbursed to the ben
eficiaries, said Potter.
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