More News from Indian Country
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Judge may decide fate Okla. casino
TULSA, Okla. (AP) s- A
federal judge could decide
whether a little-known Indian
tribe o f 350 m em bers can
legally build a casino in the
Tulsa suburb o f Broken Ar
row, even as construction at
the 20-acre site continues
amid protest from thousands
o f area residents, lawmakers
and pastors.
Oklahoma’s attorney gen
eral has sued the tribe and is
asking U.S. D istric t Judge
G regory K. Frizzell for an
injunction to halt building at
th e site, saying th e trib e
d o esn ’t have the authority
under federal law to operate
a gaming facility. A hearing is
scheduled for this w eek in
Tulsa federal court.
The Kialegee Tribal Town,
headquartered in Wetumka in
so u th e a s te rn O k lah o m a,
b ro k e g ro u n d on th e Red
Clay C asino site n ear th e
Creek Turnpike late last year
Items returned to
M ontana tribes
POPLAR, Mont. (AP)
— Cultural items seized at
a M ontana and Canadian
border crossing by U.S. of
ficials who uncovered an
illegal smuggling operation
have been returned to the
Fort Peck Assiniboine and
Sioux Tribes.
T he 16 item s include
cerem onial clothing, war
bonnets, a beaded knife
sheath and other items dat
ing from the late 19th cen
tury and early 20th century.
Terry Thibeault o f the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser
vice and D ep artm en t o f
Interior says the items were
seized in D ecember 1999.
The case was never adju
dicated because the m an
accused o f smuggling the
items died during the inves
tigation.
T h ibeault says th e 16
item s are a p o rtio n o f
som e 78 items being re
tu rn e d to several o th e r
M ontana tribes and one
tribe in N orth Dakota.
and has trucked in several
p re-fabricated buildings in
recent , weeks to temporarily
h o u se slo t m achines. T he
tribe plans to open sometime
this sum m er in the trailers
and says a perm anent facility
will be built next year.
The tribe has yet to win
approval from the Bureau o f
Indian Affairs and the N a
tional Indian Gaming Com
mission to allow it to conduct
gaming at the site. The town
king, Tiger H obia, sg.ys his
tribe is exempt from a fed
eral review, and has said the
Casino would give the tribe its
only chance to provide pro
grams for its im poverished
members. Hobia, who did not
return calls seeking comm ent
on the project, has said that
65 percent o f tribal members
are unemployed and o f those
w ho are em p lo y ed , m o re
th an 90 p ercen t only earn
minimum wage.
Seminole leader hopes
to build modern tribe
W EW OKA, Okla. (AP) -
Leonard Harjo sees his job as
a builder. Actually, he con
siders himself a rebuilder.
H arjo, w ho was elected
principal chief o f the Semi
nole N ation in 2009, says his
goal as chief is to rebuild his
tribe into a modern, economi
cally diverse Native American
nation. A fter w atching the
trib e struggle th ro u g h the
1990s, he said, he wants to
make the m odern Seminole
N a tio n an eco n o m ically
strong, diverse group.
Based in Wewoka and pri
marily in Seminole County,
bpnyaystaTTpnoto.
Drum group at the Agency Longhouse for Honor Seniors Day of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs.
Calif, approves casino deal
R O H N ER T PARK, Calif.
(AP) — A N ative American
tribe’s plans for a Las Vegas-’
style casino about 50 miles
n orth o f San Francisco ap
pears to have cleared its last
hurdle.
T h e state A ssem bly on
Thursday ratified' an agree
m e n t b etw een Gov. Je rry
year-old Harry Hintsala o f
Warm Springs was found
guilty Wednesday in a trial
before a federal judge in
Portland.
The abuse took place
betw een 2007 and 2011
on the Warm Springs In
dian Reservation, accord
ing to reports.
Failure to register as a sex offender
Lei Walker Calica, 31,
primary address un
known, has failed to reg
ister as a convicted sex of
fender with the Warm
Springs Sex Offender
Registration office. Physi
cal description: 5 feet, 9
inch. Weight 200 pounds.
Contact the sex offender
registry office with infor
mation, 541-553-2214.
SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP)
— A Seneca Indian N ation
business has been awarded an
$18.5 million contract to de
sign and build a U.S. Army
R eserve C en ter in u p state
N ew York.
T h e w estern N ew Y ork
tribe said that the contract
was awarded to SCMC LLC,
which opened in, 2008.
Seneca President R obert
O daw i P o rter says it’s evi
dence o f the Senecas’ efforts
to d iv ersify th e tr ib e ’s
econom y and its ability to
com pete for national co n
tracts.
The new center will serve
12 Army Reserve units in the
Albany area.
. ,
T h e In d ia n n a tio n has
been taking steps in recent
years to broaden its economy
beyond the discount cigarette
shops and casinos for which
it’s best known as state and
federal law changes have cut
into the tobacco business.
Coeur d’Alene Tribe may
buy historic Idaho site
for $750,000.
Ancestors o f the tribe and
Catholic priests built the Mis
sion o f the Sacred H eart in
Cataldo in the 1850s. Last
O ctober, the Coeur d’Alene
Tribe opened a $3.2 million
visito r cen te r at th e park.
Short’s land includes an old
cemetery with the graves of
Jesu it priests, trails to the
C o eu r d ’A len e R iver and
1,300 feet o f waterfront.
Crowd gathers for
languages workshop
Ex officer convicted of abuse
(AP) - A retired Warm
S p rin g s p o lic e o ffic e r,
H ead S tart teach er and
child protective services
w o rk e r faces u p to 10
years in federal prison af
te r his c o n v ic tio n on
charges o f abusing five
young girls.
P ro s e c u to rs say 62-
May 16, 2012
Seneca Nation firm wins
$18.5M NY Army project
the nation has a total tribal
enrollment o f about 18,800,
records Show. O f that figure,
COEUR
D ’A L E N E ,
a b o u t 13,500 S em in ó les Id a h o (AP) —, T h e C o eu r
m ake their hom e in O kla d’Alene Tribe is negotiating
homa. It also includes about with a private landowner to
2,000 Sem inole freedm an, buy land surrounding a his
descendants o f black Ameri toric mission site in northern
cans brought into the tribe in Idaho.
the late 1800s. A nd though
E d Short, the real estate
deeply engrained in state his agent who owns the land next
tory— the nation is one o f the to th e O ld M ission S tate
state’s five civilized tribes be P ark, said he believes the
cause o f its written language ' Coeur d’Alene Tribe would be
^ -o v er the past decades it has the best owner o f the prop
n ot had the rapid economic erty. H e’s listed the property
growth o f its neighbors, the
Chickasaws and Choctaws.
Teens
find old
artifact
A LBU QU ERQ UE,
N.M. (AP) — A group
o f N ew M exico sev
e n th -g ra d e rs
have
found w hat could be
one o f the m ost signifi
cant archaeological dis
coveries in a while.
S e v e n th - g r a d e r s
from Sandia Prep dis- >
c o v e re d a N ativ e
American pot, about 18
inches high and 14 to
16 inches wide and pos
sibly 900 years old,
while on a field trip l a s t.
m o n th
in
C ibola
County.
“It was like a gray
pot, with zig-zag stripes
and dash patterns all the
way going around it,”
seventh-grader Isabel
Jerom e said.
“Yeah, it was a really
incredible find.”
State officials aren’t
revealing the artifact
u n til th ey c o n su lt
nearby pueblos.
Spilygy Tymoo
Brown and the Federated In
dians o f G rato n Ranchería
for the casino near Rohnert
Park in Sonoma County. The
vote was 64-3.
The state Senate had rati
fied it earlier in the week.
T he deal now goes to the
federal gov ern m en t for fi
nal approval, w hich is ex
pected.
The agreement between
the tribe and governor al
lows for the operation o f
card games and 3,000 siot
machines.
Up to 15 percent o f the
c a s in o ’s n e t w in n in g s
would go toward gambling
mitigation and regulation.
' A N C H O R A G E , A laska
(A P)'^- T wo decades ago,
H ish in la i’ K ath y Sikorski
could n ot speak her ancestral
language, G w ich ’in A th a
bascan. N ow she teaches it at
w ho spoke at the daylong
event hosted by the Alaska
Historical Commission. Par
ticipants attending in person
include Alaska Native groups
and governm ent representa
th e U n iv e r s ity o f A la sk a
tives. Alaska’s three-m em ber
Fairbanks.
“W hen I was hired as a
UAF language instructor in
2002, I w as scared , very
scared because I had no idea
how to teach a language,”
Sikorski told a crowd gathered
in A nchorage to talk about
efforts to revitalize Alaska
Native languages.
Sikorski, who began learn
ing G w ich’in 17 years ago,
developed her teaching skills
by learning even m ore about
the learning process, eventu
ally creating her own lesson
plans and making her own
materials “from scratch,” she
said, reading from a prepared
statement.
“Language learners need
support, emotional or other
w ise, fro m fluid speakers,
politicians, educational set
tings, et cetera,” she said.
She was am ong people
congressional delegation sent
recorded messages.
State Sen. D onny Olson,
D -N o m e , p a rtic ip a te d by
p h one, review ing a bill he
sponsored and approved by
lawmakers, that would create
a state-backed council aimed
at revitalizing Alaska Native
languages. O lso n u rg ed
people to write to and call the
office o f Gov. Sean Parnell
encouraging him to sign the
legislation into law. Parnell
spokeswoman Sharon Leigh-
ow said the bill has n o t yet
b e e n tr a n s m itte d to th e
governor’s office for review.
SB 130 Would establish the
Alaska Native Language Pres
ervation and Advisory Coun
cil, which would evaluate the
sta te ’s 20 in d ig en o u s la n
guages and make recom m en
dations for preservation, res
toration and revitalization.
Oklahoma tribe’s accounts to remain frozen
OKLAHOM A CITY (AP)
A rap ah o
T ribes officials are d isap
pointed with a federal judge’s
decision to keep the tribe’s
acco u n ts at an O klahom a
bank frozen until an internal
leadership dispute is resolved,
a spokeswoman said,
The tribe had asked U.S.
D istrict Judge David Russell
to lift the freeze on about
$6.4 million by Clinton-based
First Bank and Trust Co., but
Russell allowed the freeze to
remain in place. H e cited the
ongoing dispute between the
tribe’s governor, Janice Prai
rie ChiefiBoswell, and its one
tim e lie u te n a n t g o v ern o r,
Leslie W andrie-H arjo, over
who is the tribe’s leader.
A hearing on the leader
ship and banking issues is set
H C heyenne, and
for June 8 in Custer County
D istric t C o u rt, w h ere the
bank filed for the administra
tive freeze.
Tribe spokeswoman Lisa
Liebl said that the workweek
for about 500 tribal employ
ees has been reduced to 32
hours because o f the frozen
funds, and checks written by
the tribe to workers, contrac
tors and vendors have been
returned because o f insuffi
cient funds.
■ “Now, we’ll just wait for
our court date on June 8....
T h at’s all we can do at this
point,” she said. “We’re still
locked out o f those accounts,
th o se fro zen funds, so we
have no idea w hat’s happen
ing with all o f that.”
T he judge’s order, issued
last week, noted that depend
ing on which side wins the
g o v e rn a n c e d isp u te , “ th e
bank faces potential liability
for the payment o f money at
the request o f an unautho
rized signatory.... In light of
the ongoing governance is
sues, about which Plaintiffs
have presented no evidence,
the C ourt cannot conclude
that Plaintiffs will ultimately
prevail in their quest to have
th e a d m in is tra tiv e freeze
Ufted.”
Homelessness on
reservations persists
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)
« A new study finds that
despite housing im prove
ments on M innesota’s In
dian reservations, hom e
lessness still persists.
R esearchers w ith the
nonprofit health and hu
man services organization
A m herst H. Wilder Foun
dation visited eight o f the
state’s 11 reservations. They
found nearly 2,100 people
w ho are homeless or living in
cro w d ed c o n d itio n s w ith
frien d s o r relatives. T he
study’s author, Ellen Shelton,
said the poor economy off
set im provem ents in housing
and social services since the
last count,of the homeless on
reservations in 2006.