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.
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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.
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