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
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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."