8 APRIL 1, 2002
Smoke Signals
TJuu
Peltier Appeals Lost Bid To Reduce Sentence
FARGO, N.D. (AP) American
Indian activist Leonard Peltier has
appealed a judge's decision to up
hold the two murder sentences im
posed on him in 1977.
Peltier claimed he never had the
chance to argue that his sentences
should be based on the theory he,
at most, aided others in the killings
of two FBI agents in 1975, or that
he acted in self-defense.
Peltier was convicted of the mur
ders in Fargo and was sentenced
in 1977.
In November, he asked a judge
to allow the two life terms to run
concurrently, rather than consecu
tively. The change would give
Peltier an earlier chance at parole.
U.S. District Judge Paul
Magnuson rejected the request,
saying Peltier had earlier opportu
nities to make the same argument.
Peltier's previous appeals, includ
ing a similar request to reduce his
sentence, also have been denied.
His latest request was filed No
vember 1 and rejected February 25.
He filed a notice of appeal to the
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
ri ! mil i ii iiairtiiiirmiLaMTawin
Peltier is being held in the fed
eral prison in Leavenworth, Kan
sas and is next up for parole in
2008.
He was one of four men charged
with killing the agents in a shootout
on the Pine Ridge Indian Reserva
tion in South Dakota. Two suspects
were acquitted in 1976 and the
third was freed for lack of evidence.
i i
I .
.
University Team Takes Name to Mock Indian Mascot
t
A"
V' WHITO' -
V Jo'
.uy , -a 1 '
tt
U v
Whities."
Led by Solomon Little Owl, Direc
tor of Native American Student Ser
vices at UNC, the team chose a white
man as its mascot to raise aware-
on the team. "It puts people in our
shoes and then we can say, 'Now
you know how it is, and now you
can make a judgment."
White said many people don't
Solomon Little Owl
GREELEY, CO. (AP) - Unable
to persuade a school district to drop
a mascot name that offends them,
some American Indian students at
the University of Northern Colo
rado have named their intramural
basketball team "The Fighting
ness and understanding of stereo
types that some cultures endure.
"The message is, let's do something
that will let people see the other side
of what it's like to be a mascot," said
Little Owl. "I am really offended by
this mascot issue and I hope the
people that support the Eaton mas
cot will get offended by this."
The team is made up of Ameri
can Indians, Hispanics and Anglos.
They wear jerseys that say, "Every
thang's going to be all white."
"It's not meant to be vicious, it is
meant to be humorous," said Ray
White, a Mohawk American Indian
understand how it feels to be vic
tims of a stereotype.
They are upset with Eaton High
School for using an American In
dian caricature on the team logo.
The team is called the Reds.
Eaton School District superinten
dent John Nuspl said the logo is not
derogatory and called the group's
criticism insulting. "Their interpre
tations are an insult to our patrons
and blatantly inaccurate," he said.
"There's no mockery of Native
Americans with this."
Charles Cuny, an Ogalala Lakota
and member of the team, said he
went to an American Indian Catho
lic high school with a mascot called
the Red Cloud Crusaders, after a
famous chief of the Lakota Indians.
Having a white mascot is a way
to make people more aware of
American Indian issues, he said.
"We live in a politically correct
society and sometimes Indians get
overlooked," he said. "There are so
few Indians who have clout that
there are a lot of things that go
unsettled."
A similar debate took place last
year in Virginia.
Last May, the Montgomery
County School Board in Virginia
approved a new rule prohibiting any
race, religion, ethnicity or national
ity to be used as a mascot. That de
cision came more than 18 months
after the United Coalition for Ameri
can Indian Concerns first asked the
board to eliminate the Indian mas
cot at Blacksburg High School. They
said it was stereotypical and offen
sive to American Indians.
University of Illinois Indian Mascot Subject of Trustee's Report
URBANA, IL. (AP) Chief
Illiniwek, the University of Illinois
mascot who has long been the tar
get of protests, is getting another
close look from college officials.
A university trustee was ap
pointed last May to explore the dis
pute surrounding Chief Illiniwek;
he is scheduled to report to the
Board of Trustees the results of his
findings.
Roger Plummer's task was to
present alternatives for how the
board could resolve the controversy,
but not to recommend a particular
course of action.
Opponents say Chief Illiniwek is
degrading to American Indians,
while supporters say the 75-year-old
mascot is meant to honor the
Indians who inhabited Illinois.
Most of the 13 trustees expressed
strong support for the mascot at a
meeting a year ago, but at least
four called for further study. Two
trustees spoke in favor of retiring
the chief.
Trustee Robert Vickery is all for
the mascot.
"I'm in full support of Chief
Illiniwek," said Vickery. "Discus
sion has been ongoing for over two
years and I don't know what more
somebody's going to know tomorrow
that they didn't know yesterday."
Vickery said opponents of the In
dian mascot make up a small per
centage of the university commu
nity. "I've had one person, just one,
come to me in all this time with con
cerns about the chief," he said.
Oil Exploration in Canyons of the Ancients Sparks Concern
CORTEZ, CO. (AP) A plan to
search for oil in the Canyons of the
Ancients National Monument in
southwestern Colorado has come
under fire from environmentalists,
who say thumper trucks used in
the exploration may damage ar
chaeological sites.
British-based Western Geophysi
cal plans to use the trucks to detect
oil deposits on nearly 20,000 acres
of monument land. The trucks
send shock waves to the deposits
by pounding on the ground.
"On the face of it, it doesn't sound
very compatible with the densest
archaeological treasure trove in the
United States," said Mark Pearson,
Executive Director
of the San Juan
Citizens Alliance.
Western Geo
physical declined
comment.
The 164,000
acre monument is
home to more
than 20,000
American Indian
archaeological
sites.
Most of the
monument is al
ready leased for oil
and gas develop
ment, and opera-
K
jO. S ft". -.
:r
tors can explore
and develop re
sources if the ac
tivities do not
harm natural and
cultural resources.
The U.S. Geo
logical Survey
and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Ser
vice stopped a
similar Western
Geophysical
project outside
Arches National
Park in Utah re
cently because of
environmental
concerns, said Pearson.
Pearson said officials were wor
ried the trucks would destroy frag
ile soil deposits and nesting habitat.
LouAnn Jacobson, the
monument's director, said the Bu
reau of Land Management is do
ing an environmental assessment
of the project and hopes to avoid the
problems that occurred in Utah.
She said a staff member will moni
tor the project and trucks will not
be allowed to drive over archaeo
logical sites.
"I feel pretty confident that there
will not be any impacts to the cul
tural resources as part of this
project," said Jacobson.