Image provided by: Oregon Historical Society; Portland, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 2012)
“I More News from Indian Country Pqge 7 Tribes fighting cancer through art SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Specialists in Native Ameri can health are turning to art to correct a problem in medi cine. The problem is cancer, the leading cause o f death among all S outh D ak o tan s and a greater menace to Indians in particular. A project called Circle o f Life will take root phis fall as an attem pt to close that gap in cancer care. Sponsors will use Native art, stories from survivors and lessons on nu trition, exercise and screen ings as online tool kits to en co u rag e h e a lth ie r liv in g among tribes. The larger so ciety has been saturated with anti-cancer messages since the 1960s, but the voices in this project are new and ex clusively Native American. / ‘This is cancer education fo r N ativ e A m ericans by Native Americans,” said Char lotte H ofer, spokesw om an for the American Cancer So ciety, which is sponsoring the project. T he curriculum will be available at cancer.org as a resource for what H ofer calls “a positive, holistic message based on comm on tribal val ues o f spirituality and respect Idaho leader sentenced on theft charges BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The fo rm e r ch a irm a n o f an A m erican In d ia n trib e in Idaho and Nevada will spend nearly a year under the su pervision o f the federal Bu reau o f Prisons after plead ing guilty to theft. A federal judge has recom m en d ed 3 8-year-old K yle Prior o f Caldwell serve his time at a residential re-entry center in southwestern Idaho. Prior, a form er chairman o f th e S h o sh o n e -P a iu te Tribes in southern Idaho and n orth ern N evada, was also o rd e re d to pay n early $36,500 in restitution at his sentencing Tuesday. P rio r was executive di rector o f the U pper Snake R iver T rib e s F o u n d a tio n from S eptem ber 2008 and July 2009. for the natural w orld.” She expects com m unity leaders and school teachers to use it in seminars and classrooms and for individuals to do the same online. The effort rises o ut o f a knotty health challenge. H alf o f South D ak o ta’s Indians sm oke, a rate th ree tim es worse than the full population and a leading in d icato r o f cancer. In d ia n s are m o re obese, eat less nutritiously, get less exercise and see doctors less often, all factors in caus ing cancer or failing to catch it before it grows out o f con trol. They develop the disease m ore often, and they have a d e a th ra te , at 252 p e r 100,000, th at is 37 percent higher than-cancer mortality for whites. O n top o f that, they've had to deal with a re luctance to face the problem in their own tribes and exter nal challenges that keep rural Indians at a medical disadvan tage. / “We do less cancer screen in g b ecau se w e’re u n d e r funded, and the result is we do n ot have the services that are considered standard for others. W hen you diagnose it later, people die,” said Dr. Donald Warne, a senior policy adviser to the G reat Plains T rib al C h airm en 's H ealth B oard and a consultant to Sanford Health. Cancer is becoming a more visible problem, ironically, at a time tribes are seeing a gain in life expectancy. Average lifespan m oved from 78 to 80 overall for South Dakota in a decade ending in 2007, and tribal people specifically jumped from the 50s to the mid-60s. E fforts to cut drink ing on reserv atio n s had a hand in that, as did progress in reducing deaths to pneu monia and influenza. B ut living longer has its side effects, and one o f them is cancer. “O ne o f the biggest risk factors for cancer is getting older. Decades back, Native folks never lived long enough to g e t can cer,” said K ris R hodes, executive director o f the American Indian Can cer Foundation in Minneapo lis. The power o f imaging is central to the Circle o f Life, w ith the color illustrations, photography and text from and for Indians. It is to be a w o rk o f art w ith p ersonal impact, no small m atter for m inorities often left at the margins o f health messages. “I f you’re from the m a jority society, and people all look like you, you don’t even think about that,” said Warne a South D akota native and member o f the Oglala Lakota tribe. “But if you’re n o t from the majority society, you start to w onder if this is for me. Health messaging is m ore ef fective when it’s culturally tai lored and culturally appropri ate and when the messenger is fro m th e sam e cu ltu ral group as the person receiv ing the messages.” Success in this case will require a shift o f opinion on smoking, a greater openness to health screening and a will ingness to get past a barrier to acknowledge a problem . R oberta Cahill, director o f community partnerships for the American Cancer Society in Pierre and a Yankton Sioux m em ber in her 60s, said tribal p eople fo r years have had trouble owning the problem. “People did n o t talk about cancer much,” Cahill said. “A lot o f time people were un aware o f others who had sur vived cancer. I n o th e r in stances, there’s a belief if you talk about something it’s go ing to happen.” July 25, 2012 Indian Affairs post filled by Oklahoma Cherokee OKLAHOM A CITY (AP) _ An enroUed m em ber o f the C herokee N atio n o f O kla hom a has been nam ed the director o f the Indian Affairs O ffice o f B udget M anage m ent in Washington D.C. T hom as T h o m p so n was selected for the post by act ing Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald Laverdure. T hom pson is currently the senior advisor to the area di School Groundbreaking Native Americans to celebrate white bison G O SH EN , Conn. (AP) - The birth o f a white bison is bringing N ative Americans w ho c o n sid e r it a sacred event to celebrate at a farm in northwestern Connecticut. H undreds o f people, in cluding trib al elders from South Dakota, are expected to attend naming ceremonies la te r th is m o n th at th e G oshen farm where the ani mal was born on June 16. White bison figure prom i G R A N D FO RK S, N.D. (AP) —(R epublican N o rth D akota Sen. John H oeven is pushing the SenatS Indian Affairs C om m ittee to hold hearings about chEd abuse and neglect on American In dian reservations, according to his deputy chief o f staff. Hearings would be held in W ashington, D.C., because m ore senators could attend and th e discussion w ould draw national exposure, Ryan Bernstein said. “We’re working with the chairman, and we hope we can get that scheduled soon,” Bernstein said. ‘W e’re hop ing this summer, but if not, right after the August recess.” Both H oeven and D em o cratic Sen. K ent Conrad o f N orth D akota are members o f the panel. A Bureau o f Indian A f fairs review eadier this year Dave McMechan/Spilyay Blessing of flutes was part of the ground-breaking of the Warm Springs k-8 school site. The dispute highlights the difficulty o f having two sepa rate tribal governments on a single re s e rv a tio n . W hile o th e r re s e rv a tio n s in th e country are hom e to fnore than one tribe, officials have said the W ind River Indian Reservation is the only case where two tribes with sepa rate governm ents share com m on ground. “T he E astern Shoshone Tribe is the only tribe with aboriginal ties to this region, including all areas within the W ind River Indian Reserva tion,” wrote Kimberly Varilek, attorney general for the E ast ern S hoshone T ribe and a m em ber o f the tribe. “A n d th e N o r th e r n A rapaho T ribe can n either demonstrate that same inter est, n or any other reason why their perm it can only be sat isfied on the W ind River In dian Reservation in complete d isre g a rd o f th e E a s te rn Shoshone T ribe’s interests, beliefs, traditions and prac tices,” Varilek w rote in the brief she filed Friday in fed eral court in Cheyenne. V arilek said th a t th e Arapaho could seek perm is sion from the state o f Wyo ming to kill eagles outside the reservation. A lthough th e Shoshone use eagle feathers in their own c e rem o n ies, V arilek said, “T here’s n o t a process in the S h o sh o n e b eliefs to kill e a g le s /’ She said th e Shoshones traditionally cap tured Eve eagles, took some feathers, and then released rector o f the Indian H ealth Service in Phoenix. Laverdure said in a state ment that Thompson will help find efficient and cost-effec tive ways to provide services in Indian Country. T h o m p s o n has also worked for the US D epart m e n t o f A g ric u ltu re , th e Cherokee N ation and owned an accounting firm in Stilwell. nently in the lore o f many tribes who see them as sym bols o f hope and unity. • E x p erts say they are as rare as one in 10 milEon. The bull calf is off-white— n o t an albino— and farm er Peter Fay says he is certain the bloodUnes are pure, al though he has sent its D N A to be tested to confirm there was no interm ingling w ith cattle. Sen. wants hearings on reservation abuse Eastern Shoshone claim closer ties to land C H E Y EN N E , Wyo. (AP) A dispute over the N orth ern Arapaho Tribe’s push for a federal perm it to kill bald eagles for religious purposes has p ro m p ted the E astern Shoshone Tribe to assert that it has older, deeper ties to the central Wyoming reservation the two tribes share and that its opposition should prevent killing the birds there. T h e E a ste rn S h o sh o n e Tribe filed a written argument in federal court in Cheyenne last week, objecting to the N o rth e rn A rapaho T ribe’s p lan to kill eagles on the W ind River Indian Reserva tion. The Shoshone were al read y on th e re s e rv a tio n when the federal government settled the Arapaho there in 1878. Spilyay Tymoo the birds. WilEam C’Hair, a N orth ern A rapaho elder, said M on day that his response to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe’s ar gum ent that it has deeper ties to the W ind River Reserva tion is that the Shoshone re ceived full payment long ago from the federal governm ent for the one-half interest in the reservation that went to the N orthern Arapaho Tribe. C’Hair said the federal gov ern m en t also docked pay ments it made to the N orth ern A rapaho Tribe for the loss o f ancestral lands to re coup the cost o f payments to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. “So actually, we b o u g h t and we own the reservation. B o u g h t and paid fo r,” he said. detailed problems in tribal so cial services programs on the state’s Spirit Lake Indian Res ervation. Thomas SulEvan, regional administrator in D enver for the U.S. A dm inistration for Children and FamiEesj called for suspending all state and federal funding to the tribe until it put quahfied officials in place to run programs to ensure children are n o t sub jected to physical, sexual or emotional abuse. T ribal C hairm an R oger Yankton has cited staff turn over, high caseloads and in adequate federal funding as problems. Tribal leaders who took office a, year ago insist they are making strides, for example offering new train ing to social services person nel and increasing coUabora- tion between tribal and county social service providers. Lawmakers bar changes on Mass, tribal casino deal B O S T O N (AP) - L aw m akers m o v e d to block any changes from being made to an agree m e n t sig n ed by Gov. D ev al P atrick and the M ash p ee W am p an o ag Indian tribe to pave the way for a tribal casino in Taunton. O rders barring am endm ents to the ca sino com pact w ere ap proved by the H ouse and Senate, deaEng a blow to efforts by southeastern Massachusetts legislators to add a two-year dead line for the tribe to win federal approval for tak ing into trust the land on which it hopes to build the casino. T h e L egislature will now be limited to voting up or down vote on the compact, w ith debate ex pected later in the week. S tate Rep. J o s e p h W agner, a C h ico p ee D em ocrat w ho was one o f the chief architects o f the landmark casino law signed by P atrick ' last year, admitted it was un usual to preclude amend m ents to a measure be fore the Lègislature. But he argued that any change m ad e in th e c o m p a c t w ould necessitate a re opening o f negotiations with the tribe and Ekely scuttle an' agreement. “I can teU you with ab solute Certainty that the com pact would not sur vive an am endm ent by this Legislature,”. Wagner said. T h e g am b lin g law, w hich allows for up to three resort casinos in the sta te , gives exclu siv e rights to a federaEy-rec- ognized Indian tribe to develop a casino in south eastern Massachusetts if a com pact is signed by the state and ratified by the Legislature by July 31.
