News from Inchon Country
Pgge 9
Spilyay Tyrooo February 8, 2012
Navajo teams up with
lab on energy policy
Telecom Dedication
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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (A P ).-.
The Navajo Nation has entered
into an agreem ent with a na
tional laboratory to study car
bon capture, clean coal technol
ogy and renewable energy on
the vast reservation.
The tribe signed the three-
year agreement with Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory
last week.
Navajo President Ben Shelly
says the reservation is rich with
natural resources that could be
researched by leading scientists
and engineers, and developed for
the benefit o f the tribe.
Linder the agreem ent, the
tribe and the laboratory also
could look into power plant de
sign, combustion and geother
mal technologies, and energy
security, among other things.
The Navajo Nation is revis
ing its energy policy. The reser
vation has large deposits o f coal
and uranium, along with poten
tial for wind and solar energy
but it historically hasn't been a
major player in developing the
resources.
Sen. wants council on
Alaska Native languages
The Wasco Dancers perform at the dedication ceremony of the Warm Springs Telecom.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Objectors of Indian trust deal decry open letter
H E L E N A , M ont, (AP) -
class-action lawsuit named after
Carol G ood Bear says she wor Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet
ries for her safety after the at w om an from M o n tan a w ho
torneys who negotiated a $3.4 spent nearly 16 years trying to
billion settlement over misspent hold the U.S. governm ent ac
Native American land royalties c o u n tab le fo r m o re th an a
published the phone numbers century’s worth o f mismanaged
and addresses o f the four people Native American accounts.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys are
objecting to the deal.
G ood Bear, o f New Town, led by Dennis Gingold o f Wash
N.D., started receiving angry " ington, D.C. Gingold said Mon
phone calls about a week ago, day that he was preparing for
after the letter went out. She has oral arguments and could n ot
since u n p lu g g e d h e r h o m e c o m m e n t o n th e le tte r. * -
phone and started screening her
Cobell died in October, just
m onths after a federal judge
cellphone calls.
“To put my name out there approved the largest govern
for the public, I think that’s scary m ent class-action settlement in
that these attorneys would use U.S. history.
U nder the settlement, $1.4
this tactic and intimidate me into
dropping my appeal,” she said. billion would go to individual
“I d o n ’t have p ro tectio n . I f Native American account hold
somebody is upset about all this ers. Some $2 billion would be
and comes at me with a gun, used by the government to buy
up fractionated tribal lands from
what am I supposed to do?”
The attorneys who published individual owners willing to sell,
the Jan. 20 open letter represent and then turn those lands over
up to 500,000 plaintiffs in the to tribes. A nother $60 million
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Cell Phones
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would be used for a scholarship
fund for young Natives.
The settlem ent took a year
to push through Congress, then
m onths for final judicial ap
proval. After the settlement was
approved, G ood Bear and three
other people filed separate ob
jections, each for different rea
sons.
Those appeals must be heard
by a federal appeals court be
fore any money from the settle
m e n t c a n b e d is trib u te d , with the
first scheduled to be heard Feb.
16.
T h e p la in tiffs ’ a tto rn ey s
w rote in their letter th at the
“hopes and wishes o f 500,000
individual Indians” had been de
layed by those four people. If it
wasn't for them, the first pay
ments would have been made
before Thanksgiving, the letter
said.
“T here is little do u b t th at
they do n ot share the desires or
care ab o u t th e needs o f the
class, o v er 99.9 p e rc e n t o f
whom support a prom pt conclu
sion to this long-running, acri
m onious case,” the attorneys
wrote;
The letter went on to list the
names, phone numbers and ad
dresses o f G ood Bear; K im
berly Craven o f Boulder, Co,;
Charles Colom be o f Mission,
S.D.; and M ary Lee Jo h n s o f
Lincoln, Neb. The attorneys in
vited people to “ask them di
rectly about their motives” and
cautioned them to “please be
civil in your communications.”
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ A
bill from state Sen. D o n n y
Olson o f Nom e would help pre
serve and revitalize the 20 N a
tive languages o f Alaska
Olson recommends in SB130
that the state create the Alaska
Native Language Preservation
Council, which would advise the
g o v e rn o r on p ro g ram s and
projects that will make the most
o f resources available to Native
groups.
The bill was before the State
A ffairs C om m ittee Tuesday.
R epresentatives from N ative
Tribal school district files
complaint over alcohol inquiry
BOISE (AP) J A school dis
trict on the F ort Hall Indian
Reservation says two o f its best
basketball players were wrong
fully accused o f consuming al
c o h o l an d ask ed to tak e a
Breathalyzer test before a game
in Clark County.
T h e S h o sh o n e-B an n o ck
School District has filed a com
p lain t w ith th e Id ah o H igh
School Activities Association
over the Jan. 13 in cid en t in
Dubois.
A th letic d ire c to r L yndon
City of Sheboygan pursuing casino plan
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) -
The city o f Sheboygan is pur
suing a casino d evelopm ent
agreement with the owners o f
the Blue H arbor Resort and the
Sokaogon Chippewa tribe.
C larem o n t N ew F ro n tie r
R eso rt, th e S okaogon M ole
Lake and the city would develop
a casino near Lake Michigan in
Sheboygan’s South Pier District.
An off-reservation casino would
need federal approval, which
could be a lengthy process,
A contract approved by the
Redevelopm ent A uthority last
week requires the tribe; resort
owners and the city to reach a
development agreement in 180
days.
The city would sell land on
the South Pier to Claremont for
the casino. I f the project does
not get federal approval, the city
would have the option o f buy
ing back the land.
T he S okaogon C hippew a
Community is a 1,200-member
tribe w ith a reservation near
Crandon.
Olda. Gov. asks tribes to drop water rights suit
OKLAHOM A CITY (AP) -
Gov. M ary Fallin w ants two
tribal leaders to dismiss their law
suit against the state over tribal
w ater rights in so u th eastern
Oklahoma.
Fallin last week sent a letter
to C h ie f G reg Pyle o f th e
Choctaw N ation and Gov. Bill
A noatubby o f the Chickasaw
Nation. Fallin asks them to dis
miss their federal lawsuit and
allow an ongoing mediation pro
cess to resolve disputes between
the state and the tribes.
In exchange, Fallin says the
state will not file a separate state
court action to determ ine the
groups and linguists voiced their
support and called for lawmak
ers to do what they can before
time runs out.
Lawrence Kaplan, a Native
language professor at the Uni
versity o f A laska Fairbanks,
says teaching students from an
early age and working fast while
elderly Native speakers are alive
is paramount to avoiding extinc
tion o f languages.
, T he bill was held pending
further dialogue w ith N ative
groups.
extent o f tribal water rights in
their historic territories.
T he tribes said in statement
they hope a resolution can be
reached at the table.
T he lawsuit asks a federal
judge stop the state's plan to sell
water storage rights to Sardis
Lake to Oklahoma City.
Smith says he intervened when
Clark County Sheriff Bart May
approached the two student ath
letes with a Breathalyzer test,
saying an audience member had
reported they smelled o f alco
hol.
Smith says he felt the inter
rogation o f the players, who are
N ative A m erican, m ay have
been racially motivated and the
district is considering a civil rights
complaint. The sheriff denies
the claim, saying he acted ap
propriately.
Tribes
object to
mining bill
HURLEY, Wis. (AP) - A fed
eral agency says it’s looking into
w h eth er W isconsin violated
treaty rights by n o t consulting
w ith tribal governm ents that
m ight be affected by a state
mining bill.
T he B ureau o f Indian A f
fairs says it’s co n ducting an
inquiry after at least one tribal
governm ent asked it to get in
volved.
The contentious mining bill
would streamline the state’s com
plex mine-permitting process.
O fficials from the Lac du
Flambeau, Red Cliff, Bad River
and Menominee tribes claim the
law m aking p ro c e ss ig n o re d
treaty rights.
Navajo Code Talker dies in Ariz.
W IN D O W ROCK, A ri
zona (AP) a A nother Navajo
C ode T alk er has died.
Thurm on Begay says his fa
ther, Sgt. Jimmie Begay, died
Wednesday after a fall. He
was 86.
Begay was one o f about
420 Navajos trained to trans
mit messages in a code based
on the then-unw ritten N a
vajo language. T h e C ode
Talkers sent thousands o f
messages w ithout error on
Japanese troop movements,
battlefield tactics and other
communications, helping to
win World War II.
Jimmie Begay enlisted in
1942 at age 17 and served in
the 1 st Marine Division, 2nd
Battahon. He eventually re
turned to the Navajo reser
vation and retired from the
Navajo Forest Products In
dustries in 1985.
Neb. tribe’s computer co. wins $84M contract
W INNEBAGO, Neb. (AP) -
The Winnebago Tribe’s informa
tion technology company has
won an $84 million Air Force
contract to provide support at
Robins Air Force Base in G eor
gia.
Ho-Chunk Inc., which is the
tribe’s economic developm ent
unit, announced the new con
tract for All Native Systems last
Wednesday.
Ho-Chunk C EO Lance M or
gan says the company’s proven
perform ance on past govern
ment contracts helped it win this
one.
All Native Systems is an in
form ation technology service
provider that Ho-Chunk created
in 2005.
Ho-Chunk says it has 26 sub
sidiaries and m ore than 1,400
employees in 10 states and five
foreign countries.