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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2011)
News from Indian Country Page 9 Spilyay Tymoo April 5, 2011 Native Hawaiian bill revived HONOLULU (AP) - Legis lation granting Native Hawaiians federally recognized self-govern ment rights is being reintro duced in Congress. U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, both Democrats representing Hawaii, reintroduced versions o f the m easure in the Senate and House last week. The bill is a renewed effort to give Native Hawaiians the same rights already extended to many Native Am ericans and Alaska Natives. The measure failed to get a vote in the Senate last year fol lowing 11 years of efforts by Akaka to get it passed. The legislation, known as the Akaka Bill, comes as state lawmakers also are consider ing proposals to form a Na tive Hawaiian governing body themselves. Archeologist slams LA contractor LOS ANGELES (AP) - An archeologist says the contractor building a garden for a down town Los Angeles museum on county-owned land mishandled human remains found at the site. Biola University professor Paul E. Langenwalter made his rem arks at a m eeting o f the state Native American Heritage Commission Monday. He says his students were helping Whittier-based Sanberg Group with the excavations af ter the bones were found in November. But after he saw remains be ing haphazardly removed and witnessed heavy machines used for delicate excavation work, he sought to dissociate his school from the project. American Indian tribe mem bers believe the 118 sets of bones unearthed at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Mexican- American museum belong to their forebears. A m essage left w ith the Sanberg Group was not re turned. Yvonne Iverson/Spilyay J.R. Redwater, Shishonia, Gilbert Brown (of Warm Springs) and Jim Ruel brought their comedy to Kah-Nee-Ta in March, as the Chiefs of Comedy. Park Service to move Little Bighorn records BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - National Park Service officials said they will move thousands of historic objects and records from Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument to a stor age facility in Tucson, Ariz. B attlefield Superintendent Kate Hammond said the move is temporary until a more secure and permanent repository is es tablished at the battlefield. The collection of more than 149,000 records and artifacts, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer's uniforms and Sitting Bull's arrows, are now in the basement of the park's 52-year- old visitor center— a location park officials say is substandard and puts the records at risk of deterioration, fire or flood. “This temporary relocation will keep the collection together and available for researchers, in the best possible place for its protection and conservation until it can come home to a new museum facility,” Hammond said. The move to the NPS West ern Archaeological and Conser- “I f it goes to Tucson, it w ill never come back. That’s the fear. ’ vation Center will not include m useum pieces and p h o to graphs already on display in the battlefield visitor center, and Hammond said that even after the move, items from the col lection will be rotated through the visitor center displays. But the plan has met some opposition. Former battlefield Superin tendent Jim Court siad the Custer Battlefield Preservation Com m ission and the Custer Battlefield Historical and Mu seum A sso ciatio n , both o f which he belongs to, have of fered to pay to have the collec tion put in the new Big Horn County Museum to keep it close to the battlefield. “If it goes to Tucson, it will never com e b ack,” he said. “That’s the fear.” Ground is expected to be broken on the county museum this week. Meanwhile, the Crow Tribe has opposed the Park Service’s idea to build a new visitors’ cen ter and expand the boundaries of the national monument. The tribe fears the expansion would erode its own land base. The national monument is the site of the iconic June 25, 1876, clash between Custer’s 7th Cavalry and a coalition of In dian tribes, most of them Chey enne and Sioux. Eagle feathers only for Indians Meetmg set over mckname SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Restricting use o f eagle parts and feathers to members of federally recognized American Indian tribes for religious pur poses does not violate the reli gious freedoms of non-Indians seeking the same right, a federal appeals court ruled last week. The Denver-based U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals found that such a prohibition, under the Bald and Golden Eagle Pro tection Act, does not violate the federal Religious Freedom Res toration Act. The ruling comes after sev eral cases in which non-Indians, and one man from a tribe that is no longer recognized by the federal government, sought the right to use feathers in their re ligious practices. Eagle feathers are believed to be sacred among many Native Americans. F ederal law requires that eagle carcasses be sent to the N ational Eagle Repository in Denver, Colo., and that any tribe member wishing to use eagle feathers or parts in ceremonies apply for a permit to do so. The court noted that the repository “receives significandy more re quests than it has available eagle carcasses” so there is already a long waiting period to fulfill per mits. All the cases noted in last week’s ruling weighed freedom o f religio n again st the government’s ability to protect the eagles and help maintain the centuries-old religious practices of Native Americans. Federally recognized tribe members agree the law should restrict access to eagle parts to those w hose ancestors have been practicing such ceremonies for centuries. “As Native people, we appre ciate that others want to under stand our philosophies, under stand the sacredness of things. And I understand that many non-natives are looking for spiri tuality and looking for something sacred to hold onto,” said Lacee A. Harris, a Northern Ute medi cine man and m ental health therapist in Salt Lake City. However, Harris likened non- Indians’ wanting to possess in digenous sacred objects to an outsider entering a Christian church and trying to perform that religion’s ceremonies. “To us, this is a very sacred thing,” he said. The cases cited in last week’s ruling include that of Samuel Ray Wilgus Jr., who claims to be an adopted member of Utah's Paiute Indian Peak Band. During a traffic stop in 1998 near the town of Fillmore, about 150 miles south of Salt Lake City, authorities seized more than 100 eagle feathers from him. He was later charged with possessing the feathers without a permit, and pleaded guilty with the provision that he could ap peal. Wilgus was sentenced to 100 hours of community service, but maintained that it was a vio lation of his religious freedoms. A district court disagreed, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals at the time reversed the decisio n and ordered a hearing on whether the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection' Act was “the least restrictive m eans o f se rv in g the government’s interests.” The district court then found that the act did indeed violate Wilgus’s rights to religious free dom. The appeals court now over turns that ruling. L E T US FEED YOUt _____ NDN BURGERS - NDN TACOS - _____ HOMEMADE CHIU - FRY BREAD - W ednesday , april is -10 a . m .- s p . m . - A T THE W ARM SP R IN G S COMMUNITY CENTER STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE $3 - COME ONE COME ALLt PROCEEDS FOR THE LARITTA MAEANN GREENE MEMORIAL BOWLING TOURNEY IN NOV. GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — A meeting between state offi cials and the NCAA will address the U n iv ersity o f N orth Dakota’s nickname and logo that the athletics association wants dropped. Board of Higher Education Vice President Grant Shaft told the Grand Forks Herald that the NCAA president has comini tied to attend. Shaft said the gover nor and other state officials, university officials and legislative leaders have been invited to the April 22 meeting in Bismarck. The Board of Higher Edu cation last year directed UND to drop the Fighting Sioux nick name and Indian head logo, which the NCAA, considers hos tile to American Indians. The governor signed a bill passed by the Legislature this year that requires the university to keep them. Dig to begin at bridges site YARDLEY, Pa. (AP) - A dig for Native Ameri can artifacts is set to be gin on the Pennsylvania side of a bridge that car ries Interstate 95 between Bucks County, Pa., and Mercer County, N.J. The D elaw are River Joint Toll Bridge Commis sion says archaeologists are set to begin excavation work for the dig in Lower Makefield Township this week. It’s happening near where a new bridge is set to replace the Scudder Falls Bridge, which carries 1-95 across the Delaware. The commission says about a dozen archaeolo gists and other scientists will be working at the site, just north of the current Scudder Falls Bridge. Commission director, Frank M cCartney, says there’s a possibility of re covering artifacts dating back to w hen N ative Americans first paddled the Delaware River. IRA’S SALES & SERVICE, INC. 24-HOUR TOW SERVICE Scrap Metal, Used Auto & Truck Parts, Wrecking Service, Diesel Trucks, Pick-ups & Cars 475-3861 I8 l SW Merritt Lane, Madras VISA
