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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2001)
NOVEMBER 15, 2001 Smoke Signals 9 Activist Defends Crusade Against Indian Mascots SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - An activist from Watertown is defend ing her campaign against public schools in South Dakota that use American Indian imagery. Betty Ann Gross, Director of the Minority Resource Center, told about 20 people at the Sioux Falls City Club that use of Indian mas cots and nicknames demeans Indi ans. "When one culture uses another culture as part of their traditions, they're attaching ownership to that culture," she Gross. City Club President Greg May suggested that Gross concentrate on more serious internal problems on the state's reservations rather than on Indian imagery. "Aren't there more important is sues, like alcoholism, drugs or fa therless children?" May asked, showing his ignorance. "Those are important issues," said Gross. "But we're here to talk about mascots." May, who said he has spent a lot of time on reservations, told Gross he disagrees with the notion that names like braves' or "warriors' are offensive. The goal is to honor In dians, he said. Gross filed racial discrimination complaints with the U.S. Depart ment of Education's Office for Civil Rights earlier this month against the Sisseton, Woonsocket, Estelline and Watertown districts, alleging that the civil rights of Indian stu dents are violated by the schools' use of the mascots and logos. Some South Dakota schools have made changes since Gross began talking to superintendents and principals last year. After spending her youth in boarding schools, where she said she was made to feel ashamed of her ancestry, it took Gross years to come to terms with her heritage. "Now, I'm proud to be called In dian," she said. Gross defended the use of Indian imagery by Tribal schools. "I don't find it offensive at all," she said. "American Indian schools in South Dakota stay within their own boundaries. They're not ste reotyping African-Americans or white people." However, she said earlier this month that a complaint would be filed against the Wakpala district if she can reach no agreement with officials there. Wakpala is made up entirely of Lakota Indians and of ficials there say they do not plan to change the Wakpala Sioux nick name. Mary Metcalf, Executive Director of a shelter for Indian women, is a former Crow Creek Lady Chieftain. "At Crow Creek, when we say we're Chieftains, we're not playing Indians," said Metcalf. Newspaper Decides to Drop Chief Wahoo MINNEAPOLIS, MN The Native American Journalists Associa tion commends the Kansas City Star for its recent decision to stop using the Cleveland Indians' mascot image on its sports pages. The Kansas City Star no longer prints the baseball team's mascot, Chief Wahoo. The image has long been considered derogatory and offensive to many Native people. Mark Zieman, Kansas City Star Vice President and Editor, said the paper's reasoning was fairly simple. "Chief Wahoo is a ridiculous, of fensive, racist caricature. We would be ashamed to run it as an edito rial cartoon or comic strip, so why should we repeatedly publish it in the sports pages of our newspaper?" The Kansas City Star joins the ranks of other newspapers such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Oregonian that have stopped publishing Native American mascots. "We appreciate the Kansas City Star's decision to drop the usage of the Chief Wahoo logo and we hope this continues to set a precedent for other newspapers," said Mary Annette Pember, President of NAJA. Hualapai Want Road to Planned Resort; Joshua Trees Would Be Lost ttimw qfflft&Ti'' imm& mtmrnm KINGMAN, AZ. (AP) Creating a paved road leading to a key Hualapai Tribal operation would re sult in loss of several hundred Joshua trees, but thousands of oth ers would be salvaged, said local au thorities recently. The proposal has the Bureau of Land Management's support as well as that of the Tribe. A 14-mile dirt road leads to Grand Canyon West, where the Hualapai Tribe offers a bus tour and serves a buffet. The sprawling Hualapai Reservation lies south of the west ern portion of Grand Canyon Na tional Park, reaching to within about 30 miles north of Kingman. A BLM draft environmental im pact statement found that the road is used by 70 to 80 vehicles a day now. Paving it with two lanes and full shoulders would accommodate 475 vehicles, the traffic expected to be generated by a resort the Tribe proposes to build at Grand Canyon West, the report said. Cost of the road project is esti mated at $15 million. The Tribe hopes to obtain the money from Mohave County and the state and federal governments. Eleven miles of the roadway cross BLM land. "We look forward to im proving this road and have it im proved for public safety, and we fully support the economic develop ment at Grand Canyon West for the Hualapai Tribe," said Don McCure, Project Leader for the Kingman of fice of the BLM. "The Tribe just wants it built," said Monza Honga, Cultural Re source Director for the Tribe. "Any undertaking is going to have some adverse (environmental) effect." The BLM found that the project would result in loss of Joshua trees in the Joshua Tree Forest-Grand Wash Cliffs Area of Critical Envi ronmental Concern and the Grape vine Mesa Joshua Trees National Natural Landmark. The Grand Wash Cliffs are on the western side of the reservation, just where Grand Canyon National Park ends and south of the start of the Arizona portion of Lake Mead National Rec reation Area. One route would affect about 10,700 such trees, but nearly 10,200 of them could be saved, the draft statement said. Another route would affect about 14,400 Joshua trees, of which about 13,700 could be salvaged, the BLM found. Nonetheless, the statement's sum mary said, "loss of the largest, most mature Joshua trees and associated native plants in the (National Natu ral Landmark) is considered an ir retrievable loss of a nationally sig nificant resource." The BLM proposes to reduce the environmental impact in part by fencing the right of way and by in stalling guardrails that blend with the landscape. Yakama Forest YAKIMA, WA. (AP) - The Yakama Nation begins construction next month on a $35 million large log sawmill as part of its Yakama For est Products complex. "It's an important venture for the Tribe," said Chris Ketcham, General Manager for the enterprise. "Yakama Forest Products was estab lished to add value to the Tribe's tim ber resources and add employment opportunities." The new sawmill will cut dimen sion lumber from logs 11 inches in diameter and larger, which represent about 70 percent of the volume har vested from the Yakama's 1.3-mil-lion-acre reservation in central Washington. The Yakama Nation manages 309,000 acres of commercial timber on Tribal land on the east slopes of Products Adding the Cascades and has an annual sus tained harvest of 143 million board feet of timber. Of that, 40 million board feet of logs go to the small-log mill, 80 million board feet will go to the large-log mill and the remaining 23 million board feet will be sold on the open market, said Ketcham. The Tribe blessed the ground re cently for the project in White Swan, adjacent to the existing mill and log yard. The large-log mill will begin oper ating in June 2002. Yakama Forest Products currently has about 130 employees, and the new mill will add another 150, said Ketcham. The company is primarily harvest ing Douglas fir and a small amount of ponderosa pine. Second Sawmill Additional projects are planned, said Ketcham. "What that is specifically has not been identified yet," perhaps a lami nated beam plant or manufactured housing, he said. "It's something that the Nation decides, and it's a continu ation of the added-value process." Ketcham said the finances of Yakama Forest Products were confi dential. "I think we've been profitable each year," he said. A board foot of timber is 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 inch, and it typically takes 14,000 board feet of lumber to build an average house. "Timber supply is a critical compo nent to any success as a sawmill to day," said Butch Bernhardt, a spokesman for the Western Wood Products Association. at White Swan Restricted logging in national for ests in recent years contributed to the decline in the number of sawmills in the west, but the Yakama Nation has its own timberland. In the early 1990s, the 12 west ern states had 700 sawmills in operation. Today, there are 270, said Bernhardt. The market remains competitive and demand is strong, he said. The decline in the number of mills and volume of lumber produced in the West has been offset by increased pro duction in the southern states and in imports, primarily from Canada. "The outlook is the demand will continue," particularly for home con struction, he said. 'If you have a stable supply, it cer tainly helps you in that competitiveness."
