n
r
Pgge10
February 9, 2011
Spilydy Tymoo, Wdrrn Springs, Oregon
LongestWalk 3 to pass through W.S. on way to D.C.
B y Terri H arber
Spilyay Tymoo
T h e LongestWalk 3 begins Feb.
14. Participants will travel to
Washington D.C. in an effort to
spread awareness about diabe
tes and its impact on Native
Americans.
They want to talk about ways
to alleviate its effects on those
already afflicted and to stop it
from spreading through indig
enous populations across the
United States. Healthy changes
in diet and lifestyle will make a
difference, they say.
The group trav elin g the
northern route from Pordand to
Washington D.C. will stop in
Warm Springs. They will stay on
the reservation for at least one
evening and plan to attend the
Heart Smart Dinner on Feb 16,
said local organizer Manny Jim-
Calapoo.
He also will participate in the
walk.
The group still needs volun
teers, donations and welcomes
participants. People who want to
join in for a portion of the trip
or go all of the way to Washing
ton, D.C. are welcome.
“We need gas money. And
we’ll need help with food, wa
ter, etc. We’re relying on dona
tions to make it. We all know
someone who has diabetes,”
Jim-Calapoo said.
Chris Francisco, a Navajo
from Shiprock, N.M., living in
Portland, is organizing the north
ern walk. He is a longtime dia
betic who didn’t take the ailment
seriously for a long time. Now
he does— so much so that he
wants to convince other Native
“
We’re stillfighting
fo r our survival,
and it seems
there *s always
something new we
have to fight for. ”
Chris Francisco
Americans to pay attention to
the facts.
One fact: That they are at
least twice as likely as whites to
be diagnosed with diabetes.
He also wants people to think
about whether they are able to
make the trip because it’s not
going to be easy— especially
during the winter through Idaho,
Montana and Nebraska. During
the last cro ss-co u n try w alk
News from Indian C ountiy
Spill threatens bayou Indians’ way of life
MONTEGUT, La. (AP) - recall barefoot children scam
Even before oil began spewing pering into the woods to hide
into the G ulf o f Mexico last when the first cars rattled into
spring, Louisiana’s American-In- their villages in the 1950s. In
dian fishing villages were on the dian children were barred from
brink of collapse because of schools until the 1960s and were
social change and the dramatic called “sabines,” a derogatory
term.
loss of coastal wetlands.
T here are about 20,000
Now, Indians who’ve known
nothing but fishing all their lives A m erican Indians in coastal
find their futures tied to the man Louisiana who trace their roots
C h itim ach a,
handing out checks for damages, to H oum a,
paid from a multibillion-dollar Choctaw and Biloxi tribes.
Tribal leaders say they’re wor
fund started after the April 20
ried many members won’t be
Gulf spill.
Kenneth Feinberg, the fast- compensated fairly, so they've
talking East Coast law yer in brought on a New York City law
charge of BP PLC’s $20 billion firm to help the tribes navigate
compensation fund, met with the difficult claims process.
All the paperwork and docu
them for the first time Friday
mentation
isn’t easy in these
night on the back bayous of
south Louisiana at a gymnasium marshes, a place where some
in Montegut, about an hour and people can ’t read or w rite,
a half from New Orleans. Doz where lawyers and taxes often
ens of fishermen showed up in are blurry concepts.
Take Price Billiot, 63, who
shrimp boots and work clothes,
speaking a mixture of French runs a seafood dock in Pointe-
Aux-Chenes, a dilapidated and
and English.
They want Feinberg to com water-bound town that stretches
pensate them not just for lost along a bayou in the tall marshes
wages, but a way of life that re near Montegut.
He quit fourth grade to start
lied on the bo un ty o f the
marshes and now is in jeopardy. working on a boat with his fa
“The people have been inde ther, cleaning oysters. His wife
pendent for so long, a lot of has to help him with all the BP
them w ill go trawling, they’ll claims paperwork, he said - he
bring an ice chest (of seafood) can spell and read a bit, but not
to maman, grandpa, auntie, the enough to handle it on his own.
“The w hite people didn’t
uncles and all that,” said Tho
mas Dardar, the principal chief want me to go to school,” he
of the United Houma Nation, said. “We couldn’t go to the
the largest Indian tribe with about school, we couldn't go to the bar
up the bayou.”
17,000 members.
With hurricane damage still
“With the oil, how long will it
last? Oil isn’t tike a hurricane,” to fix and business slow from
he said. “You can’t just pick up the spill, he was gloomy about
after it’s over. The Indians in the future.
“Every year it gets worse.
Alaska after Exxon-Valdez tell us
they’ve been dealing with the oil You can’t make a living,” he said
as a ro o ster and peacock
for 20 years.”
Many tribes moved into the crowed in the grasses across the
swamps to escape enslavement road. A fishing boat abandoned
or forced banishment after Con long ago sat rotting into the mud
gress passed the 1830 Indian across the bayou. “When I was
young you could make a good
Removal Act.
Until the 1950s, most Indi living.”
For now, he’s surviving, in
ans lived in isolation, rarely in
teracting with whites. Old-timers part thanks to $65,000 in emer-
Ì
gency payments BP gave him in
June for his business losses. But
Billiot said his company was
worth $1 million a year and that
he needed much more from BP
to keep it going. Feinberg is now
calculating long-term damage
claims tike one Billiot might file
for potential future losses.
Feinberg told those at his first
meeting with Indian tribes Fri
day that he wanted to pay them
claims for the value seafood and
hunting plays in their everyday
lives - so-called “subsistence
claims.”
“It’s a claim that my lifestyle
has been adversely impacted by
my inability to any longer live
off the resources that I hunt or
catch,” he said. “... What I could
go hunt or fish I now have to
go buy.
“T hose claim s should be
paid.”
Even if they’re paid the spill
has created even more uncer
tainty for people on the bayous,
where life is a struggle. Families
have been driven inland from
their ancestral villages, battered
by hurricanes and low seafood
prices. And their coastal land is
disap p earin g: A bout 2,300
square m iles o f m arsh have
converted to open water since
the 1930s largely because of the
Army Corps of Engineers’ con
struction of levees in the Mis
sissippi River delta and thou
sands of miles of canals dug by
oil companies.
Now it’s nearly impossible to
turn a profit for any seafood
caught by people tike Anthony
Dardar, a 28-year-old fisherman
in Pointe-Aux-Chenes who’s try
ing to get back to fishing. He’d
just brought in a few sacks of
oysters.
“We can’t hardly move the
oysters, we could hardly move
the shrimp, it's hard to move the
crabs,” he said. “Now, they’re
finding all kind of freakin’ dis
persant in the water. Who knows
about the future.”
2 face charges in alleged fraud scheme
P IE R R E , S.D. (AP) - A
M aryland man and a Nevada
woman are accused of an invest
ment fraud scheme involving an
American Indian tribe in South
Dakota.
A tto rn ey G eneral M arty
Jackley says 59-year-old Greg
Long of Hanover, Md., and 54-
year-old Alcinda Miller of Las
Vegas allegedly misled investors
about the legitimacy of a tribal
charter to operate a credit union
on the Yankton Sioux Reserva
tion.
He says the two collected
$370,000 from several investors.
Long and Miller each face grand
/ --------------------
theft and forgery charges.
L ong was arrested in
Hanover and Miller in North
Dakota. Telephone listings for
the two could not immediately
be found. It was not immedi
ately clear if either had obtained
an attorney.
Monday of the month at the Family Resources
Center in Warm Springs. Or call 385-6944
Monday through Thursday between 9 a.m. and
4 p.m. (at lunch from noon-1 p.m.)
Legal Aid Services of Oregon provides free
assistance to low-income Oregonians in
many civil cases. Speak with an attorney
during drop-in hours 1 to 4 p.m. on the first
_______________________________________
someone had a heart attack,
Francisco said.
They’ll still need drivers to
accompany the walkers. They’ll
need places to stay along the
long route. There are plenty of
ways to help spread the message,
he emphasized.
Another group o f partici
pants will begin walking Feb. 14
from San Diego, Calif., toward
Washington D.C. Both groups
expect to reach the U.S. capital
in July. They’ll hold community
talks about reversing diabetes
along the way.
The original LongestWalk in
1978 was to bring attention to
Native American sovereignty
and stop anti-Native American
legislation being crafted by Con
gress. The proposals could have
threatened tribal lands and wa
ter, limited fishing and hunting
rights, restricted tribal govern
ments, and closed down their
schools and hospitals.
Focus of the LongestWalk 2
was to bring attention to scared
sites and to cleanup the earth.
It was held in 2008 and also
served as a 30th anniversary
com m em oration o f the first
walk.
“We’re still fighting for our
survival,” Francisco said. “And
it seems there’s always something
new we have to fight for.”
The issues targeted during
each o f the walks have been
different each time. More than
how Native Americans are af
fected connects the them es,
however, Francisco said.
People live in ways healthful
to themselves or to the land.
They’ve moved far away from
their roots— literally and figura
tively. Pollution continues across
the globe. There is little respect
for the earth and what it does
for all o f its in h ab itan ts—
people, animals and plants.
N atives aren ’t eating the
healthy foods of their ances
tors. And they (like most other
groups) aren’t getting enough
physical movement because of
m o d ern , W estern c o n v e
niences. Not very many people
even grow food anymore, he
said.
For d etails about the
LongestWalk, visit:
earthbornproductions.com
For information about the
local stop and how you to help
the walking group be comfort
able during th eir area pass
through, email Jim-Calapoo at
cowbhoysl2@yahoo.com.
Spino sentenced to 35 years
Jerome Phillip Spino, 32,
was sentenced to 35 years in
prison this week after plead
ing guilty on in November to
two counts of murder in the
second degree and arson.
The federal case began on
M ay 28, 2008 w hen fire
fighters responded to a resi
dential fire on Shepard Lane
in Warm Springs.
After the fire was extin
guished, the bodies of two
adults were discovered. A 43
year old male had died of as
phyxiation caused by the in
halation o f smoke carbon
monoxide, and a 49 year old
fem ale had died from as
phyxiation as well as severe
thermal injuries covering her
entire body.
Witnesses observed Spino
tive for gasoline used as an
accelerant to spread the fire.
A search and analysis of
Spino’s person, after the fire,
produced a butane tighter and
gaso lin e resid ue on his
sweatshirt and pants.
This case was investigated
by the FBI and the Warm
Springs Police Department.
The case was prosecuted
by Assistant U. S. Attorney
Kemp L. S tricklan d , and
heard before U.S. D istrict
Judge Garr M. King.
In addition to the 35-year
prison sentence, Spino was
ordered to pay restitution to
the victims’ estate, and will
have to serve five years of
supervised release following
his prison term.
entering the residence with a gas
can and later saw him running
from the scene.
He was arrested shortly af
ter the fire. At the time he had
a .34 percent blood alcohol level,
according to authorities.
Spino initially denied any in
volvement in the arson. Later,
he gave varying statements, but
adm itted spreading gasoline
about the residence and setting
the fire with his tighter, accord
ing to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to Spino, he in
tended to kill himself, but lost
his nerve and escaped through
a window just before the fire
blazed out of control.
Spino was not injured or
burned in any way.
Laboratory analysis o f the
floor of the residence was posi
W.S. teleco: helps economic development
(Continued from page 1)
Broadband has been called
the critical infrastructure of the
future. Why is it critical? Not
only will this allow everyone to
have faster personal email, or
fast downloads for watching
movies or playing games, but
having broadband on the Res
ervation will benefit the Tribes
for economic development, edu
cational opportunities and even
new health care services.
How does a broadband net
work enable such im portant
things?
As we build out the new net
work, using fiber optic cable as
a major portion of the network,
the fiber allows information to
flow through the network with
greater speed and capacity.
New fiber optics enables more
“bandwidth” than the copper
cables that Qwest currently uses.
Instead o f sending electronic
signals down copper wire, the
critical parts of the network will
be sending pulses of tight down
fiber optic cable.
What do we mean by “band
width?”
Think of a big pipe. Copper
wire is a narrow pipe that allows
only a small amount of data or
communications to slowly flow
through that narrow pipe. In
this modern “information age”
we are now using our telephone
netw orks to tran sm it huge
amounts of information, much
more than the basic telephone
call that was the basis of tele
communications when the cop
per network was built.
With copper, it is a very slow
process to pass the modern
types of information that are
now being sent over our tele
phone networks, such as data
this new company will provide,
new businesses will not be pos
sible. This includes both tribal
enterprises and other companies
potentially interested in locating
on the reservation.
In addition, we will provide
the kind of services that indi
vidual tribal members could use
to start new home-based busi
nesses. Whether you are an art
ist that wants the ability to. sell
your beautiful beadwork to the
world, or offer accounting ser
vices on-line, you need broad
band to make these businesses
happen. This is the goal of our
new company.
In future articles, I will dis
cuss some of the issues and
possibilities for using telecom
m u n icatio n s for im p ro vin g
healthcare and your children’s
education.
Without the capa
bilities that this new
company will provide,
new businesses will
not be possible. This
includes both tribal
enterprises and other
companies
and video. Fiber, on the other
hand, is a great big pipe, that will
allow lots of information to flow
through at a much faster speed.
I started out saying that this
new company will enable eco
nomic development. In this
modern age, new businesses will
only be possible with advanced
telecommunications.
Without the capabilities that
RENT 3 NEW
RELEASES
ONLY S9.99
SUBWAY
SAMPLES
SATURDAY
m OCMUSW
MADRAS
.
friday » Saturday Sunday
February 11-13,2011
J
Ì
1
f
I
I
\
I