Press Release From
United Native America
12-24-04
American Indian Community standing up against
"One Nation Group"
One Nation organization is just another fear monger group focused on American Indian sovereignty, and that is covered by U.S. treaties made with Indian nations. One Nation boast of a large membership, one has to think that they are counting all people doing business with companies associated with One Nation. Most people doing business with these companies have not heard of One Nation and what they stand for.
If they did, you would see a lot of people leaving and doing business with other companies not associated with One Nation. Indian groups around the country are getting the word out to the public as to what One Nation really stands for, and that is to do away with all Indian governments and their land rights.
One Nation is basically made up of oil and gas companies plus convenient stores owned by them, and realty groups. Each of them are covered by state and federal laws, they have no say over Indian business operations. One Nation wants people to think Indian nations are ripping the tax payers off and Indian nations are bringing about the down fall of America in the way they are allowed to conduct business in our country.
What is really at hand with One Nation is they want Indian nations out of the way. Companies aliened with this group would have access to millions of acres of land held in federal trust for Indians, thus they would have a free hand in getting access to more land for their companies to develop for their profit. Eliminating tribal sovereignty competition would bring in hundreds of billions of dollars each year for companies associated with One Nation and their stated goals.
Under federal law Indian nations are allowed to operate casinos within a state, the two parties are to work together bringing about a compact that would allow the state to collect a tax from these tribal operations. Money made by tribal business are used to support their programs within that state, the point made here is that their money stays in the state and helps other businesses and create new business in support of their operations. That brings about a tax dollar gain for the state, not a loss for the state as One Nation would have you believe.
Now, on the other hand oil and gas companies, national realty companies, convenience stores chains, Insurance's companies are franchise, when they come into your state and neighborhood a large part of their profits are sent out of the state to their corporate office. When a Walmart opens in your community small businesses cannot compete, they have to close. You can almost hear the sucking sound of money leaving your community and state.
State governments offer great tax breaks plus a ton of free-bees to national companies to locate within their state, is this fair to Mom and Dad businesses in full support of their community and states well being?
You do not have to read between the lines to see what One Nation is all about. Their almost right when they say they do not hate Indians, their just in the way of big businesses getting bigger. Big businesses compete against each other all the time, no big deal, they have the money to hang in there. But, they also have no problem going after Mom and Dad small businesses in a community by cutting their prices and driving them out. You see no matter what your race is it's just about doing business and running over anyone that gets in their way no matter what it cost a community or state.
One Nation want's us to think they are being done wrong, stop the Indians, they are being given special treatment, we cannot compete, the sky is falling. I have never heard of any "big business" going bust because of an Indian operated business, have you?
Now, lets not get into how Indians and their governments for decades have been treated by federal and state governments and big business in this great land we call America, one nation under God. One Nation states it's name comes from the American pledge of allegiance.
One Nations new leader Barbara Linsay, tell us she wants Indian leaders reigned in, their over reaching. Groups like One Nation are all about one thing, filling unnecessary litigation against tribes in courts and bringing about legislation in governments that will not stand up in courts. Tribal nations have to spend millions of dollars each year in courts countering these groups action against them, that in itself keeps attorneys pockets full of money. Again, the state gets money through the back door through keeping tribes tied up in state court actions.
One issue you will not see groups like One Nation talking about or taking on is big businesses ripping Americans off in the stock market. Groups like One Nation are riding across America like the 1800s U.S. Army in trying to contain Indians, taking away their chance at the American dream they are close to having and that is financial independence.
One Nation wraps itself in patriotism, it's plain to see their just another group in support of corporate financial pigs looking for a bigger feeding trough. One Nation must think American Indians live in other countries and do not pay tax on goods they buy here in the good old USA, as a member of the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation I pay tax's everyday, what's up with this One Nation? Where's my tax break?
This website stands watch over One Nation
One Nation OK Lies.com
http://www.onenationoklies.com
Mike L. Graham, member Oklahoma Cherokee Nation
Founder United Native America
www.UnitedNativeAmerica.com
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Sunday, December 19, 2004
United Property Owners is merging with One Nation of Oklahoma
United Property Owners is merging with another national group, One Nation of Oklahoma
One Nation, Inc., the Oklahoma-based business and agriculture coalition that has stirred nationwide attention by raising public awareness over what it calls "flawed federal Indian policies" will merge with our twenty-year-old grassroots organization based in Redmond, Washington. The new group will focus its energies on seeking equality of opportunity, an equal voice in government, and equality under the law for ALL U.S. citizens by championing individual rights, the consent of the governed, private property rights, and a level free enterprise playing field.
Effective on January 1, 2005, One Nation United, a new 501(c) 4 nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, will emerge from the combination of One Nation, Inc. and United Property Owners, a group with more than 100,000 members based in Washington State since its inception in the 1980s. The new organization is made up of thousands of individuals, families, and companies in energy, agriculture, retailing, and manufacturing as well as local governments, elected officials, law enforcement, and community groups. The organization will continue to be led by Barb Lindsay of Thousand Oaks, CA., the only Executive Director in UPO's history, who will serve as National Director and Spokesperson.
The merger of these organizations will combine the tremendous business-industry support behind One Nation with the proven effective grassroots reach of United Property Owners. Most of these issues require a federal government focus and a nationwide reach. As a large and growing coalition, we’ll continue to act as your eyes, ears, and voice in Washington, DC, working to defend the civil liberties of all concerned citizens, taxpayers and business owners.
The mission of the new One Nation United organization will continue to be to positively impact local, state, and federal government policies relating to protection of private property rights, tax fairness, and environmental regulatory certainty. We are committed to returning America to the basic principles laid down by our Founding Fathers by championing individual rights over group rights and special privilege. We've begun recruiting a larger national governing board and look forward to continuing this important work in the years ahead.
One Nation, Inc., the Oklahoma-based business and agriculture coalition that has stirred nationwide attention by raising public awareness over what it calls "flawed federal Indian policies" will merge with our twenty-year-old grassroots organization based in Redmond, Washington. The new group will focus its energies on seeking equality of opportunity, an equal voice in government, and equality under the law for ALL U.S. citizens by championing individual rights, the consent of the governed, private property rights, and a level free enterprise playing field.
Effective on January 1, 2005, One Nation United, a new 501(c) 4 nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, will emerge from the combination of One Nation, Inc. and United Property Owners, a group with more than 100,000 members based in Washington State since its inception in the 1980s. The new organization is made up of thousands of individuals, families, and companies in energy, agriculture, retailing, and manufacturing as well as local governments, elected officials, law enforcement, and community groups. The organization will continue to be led by Barb Lindsay of Thousand Oaks, CA., the only Executive Director in UPO's history, who will serve as National Director and Spokesperson.
The merger of these organizations will combine the tremendous business-industry support behind One Nation with the proven effective grassroots reach of United Property Owners. Most of these issues require a federal government focus and a nationwide reach. As a large and growing coalition, we’ll continue to act as your eyes, ears, and voice in Washington, DC, working to defend the civil liberties of all concerned citizens, taxpayers and business owners.
The mission of the new One Nation United organization will continue to be to positively impact local, state, and federal government policies relating to protection of private property rights, tax fairness, and environmental regulatory certainty. We are committed to returning America to the basic principles laid down by our Founding Fathers by championing individual rights over group rights and special privilege. We've begun recruiting a larger national governing board and look forward to continuing this important work in the years ahead.
Indian policy comes under fire
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter
Two national organizations — including a locally based group that emerged 15 years ago in a shellfish dispute with Western Washington tribes — have joined forces to push for reform of what they call the nation's flawed and fractured policy on Native people.
Redmond-based United Property Owners has merged with One Nation of Oklahoma, which includes oil producers and farm interests, and in its two years has aggressively challenged American Indian sovereignty.
The merger, effective Jan. 1, will form a megagroup called One Nation United, with 300,000 members in 50 states.
The combined group has taken aim at federal Indian policies, including tax allowances, which they say erode state and local tax bases and undermine free enterprise. They contend that a century and a half after many Indian treaties were negotiated, they are in need of review.
"We know that we've got truth, justice and the American way on our side and that ultimately reforms will happen," said Barbara Lindsay, executive director of United Property Owners and national director of the combined group.
Tribal leaders across Washington say organizations such as Lindsay's are emerging just as wealth from gaming and other businesses is, for the first time, giving some of the nation's poorest citizens a shot at economic independence.
"These groups are trying to get more organized to counter the fact that tribes have become more organized — and they see themselves losing this battle," said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Council in Sequim.
"We are making progress, and people like these want to undermine us. They'll say that is not their intent, but if their agenda is accepted as political policy, we would set back the conditions of Indian Country by decades."
Robert Anderson, a University of Washington assistant law professor and director of the Native American Law Center, sees such groups as a national disruption.
"They are way out there on the lunatic fringe ... either racists or just so tied up with their hatred for the federal government and recognition of Indian rights that they foment unnecessary litigation," Anderson said.
"They ignore the fact that tribes have legitimate roles in governing themselves in their own territory. What they are doing is really harmful to what happens in most of Indian Country — where tribes and non-Indians are trying to work together for the betterment of those communities."
Lindsay, who defends her organization as neither racist nor anti-Indian, said, "We need to find a resolution to some very complex problems, including the impact of federal Indian policy on nontribal property owners and businesses. All we're asking for is balance and fairness and common sense to be injected."
A lobbying force
With trade members that include the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers, One Nation has been a lobbying force in that state, which has one of the nation's highest concentrations of tribally owned casinos.
In Washington, United Property Owners was formed by a group of mostly beachfront landowners in a legal dispute with Puget Sound-area tribes claiming their treaty rights to take shellfish from public and private beaches. U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie imposed some restrictions on access but sided with the tribes.
Among the items on the merged group's agenda:
• Protecting private-property rights — primarily of nontribal residents who live on or adjacent to Indian reservations and are subject to regulation by tribes.
• Lessening sovereign immunity, which protects tribes from lawsuits.
• Ending the tribes' exemption from federal campaign-contribution limits.
• Changing the process that allows the transfer of property from local and state tax rolls into federal trust exclusively for Indian use.
• Equalizing sales- and excise-tax policies for tribal and nontribal businesses.
• Overturning the policy under which tribes are allowed regulatory authority over water, air quality, pesticide and Superfund cleanup on land on or near reservations.
"Tribes already have such a distinct advantage in so many other ways because they are not subject to so many of the other regulatory burdens that other business have to bear," Lindsay said.
"Our peace treaties"
The sovereignty of tribes, which puts them on a par with states and foreign nations, is established in the U.S. Constitution. Sovereignty affords certain benefits and advantages. Tribes don't pay some state taxes that non-Indians living on or off reservations do. However, tribes finance much of their own infrastructure, including building and maintaining roads within reservations, and they pay for tribal police and fire services, housing, health clinics and other public services.
Tribal members aren't required to pay sales taxes on items purchased on the reservation, whether from a car dealership or a Wal-Mart store.
Lindsay thinks many aspects of U.S. policies on Indians hurt all taxpayers. A key concern for her group is a 1934 act that allows land to be transferred from fee status, where it's subject to state and local taxes, to trust status, where it's exempt.
Some tribes, with money from tax-exempt casino profits, are buying property, and "as more and more lands move off local tax rolls, everyone else's taxes have to be raised," Lindsay said. "We're concerned over the loss to state and county governments of more and more property-tax dollars."
Matt Mattson, Snoqualmie Tribe administrator, said Lindsay tries to "paint tribes as special-interest groups who receive certain exemptions that are somehow unfair.
"The fact is, the U.S. government made deals with tribes hundreds of years ago. If the government doesn't like these deals, then give the land back. These were our peace treaties."
Competition vs. obligation
Mike Chandler, a non-Indian who owns two gas stations in Toppenish, Yakima County, within the boundaries of the Yakama Reservation, is torn between what he sees as unfair tribal competition vs. the nation's obligation to the Indian people.
He gets many tribal customers at his two Conoco stations, located within blocks of a tribally owned station. And he said his business, in his family for three generations, is at a pricing disadvantage.
While non-Indian station owners are taxed 28 cents a gallon on their purchases of gasoline and diesel, a federal agreement reduces that rate for stations owned by the Yakama Tribe and its members by 70 percent (to 8.4 cents) per gallon for gasoline and eliminates the tax entirely on diesel, according to the Washington Department of Licensing.
As a result, Chandler said, the tribe can undersell all its competitors — even retailers such as Costco that use low-priced gasoline as a way to lure customers. If he's lucky, he said, he can come within 5 cents, on average, of the tribe's price.
"When I go by the tribally owned station, there'll be 16, 20 cars at the pumps, while here we have three, maybe. Who doesn't want less-expensive gas?
"It kills volumes. And when we try to get close to them, there's no profit."
The gas-tax arrangement with the Yakamas is different from the one Washington state has with 13 other tribes, which are reimbursed monthly the amount of taxes tribally owned stations pay when they buy gasoline from wholesalers. The amount of the refund is based on a formula that considers the number of enrolled tribal members living on or adjacent to reservations.
The arrangement removes any advantage the tribes might have at the pumps, because the reimbursement goes to the tribe, not the individual stations.
Through November, gasoline and diesel reimbursements to the tribes this year totaled $2.2 million.
Allen, the Jamestown S'Klallam leader, points out that for every Indian-owned business that gets a pass on gas and sales taxes, there are nine others off the reservations that do not.
"The fact is when it comes to things like sales taxes, no government has the authority to tax another government," he said.
Allen believes the debate comes down to a question of economic self-reliance for Native people.
"The ability of tribes to become more self-reliant based on business opportunity has emerged in the last 10 years," he said. "If you look at the socioeconomic conditions of Indian people, we've always been at the very bottom of every measurement.
"Now, we are addressing generations of need in our communities, providing housing opportunities, jobs, health care, education for our people. And they want to take those opportunities away."
Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
Seattle Times staff reporter
Two national organizations — including a locally based group that emerged 15 years ago in a shellfish dispute with Western Washington tribes — have joined forces to push for reform of what they call the nation's flawed and fractured policy on Native people.
Redmond-based United Property Owners has merged with One Nation of Oklahoma, which includes oil producers and farm interests, and in its two years has aggressively challenged American Indian sovereignty.
The merger, effective Jan. 1, will form a megagroup called One Nation United, with 300,000 members in 50 states.
The combined group has taken aim at federal Indian policies, including tax allowances, which they say erode state and local tax bases and undermine free enterprise. They contend that a century and a half after many Indian treaties were negotiated, they are in need of review.
"We know that we've got truth, justice and the American way on our side and that ultimately reforms will happen," said Barbara Lindsay, executive director of United Property Owners and national director of the combined group.
Tribal leaders across Washington say organizations such as Lindsay's are emerging just as wealth from gaming and other businesses is, for the first time, giving some of the nation's poorest citizens a shot at economic independence.
"These groups are trying to get more organized to counter the fact that tribes have become more organized — and they see themselves losing this battle," said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Council in Sequim.
"We are making progress, and people like these want to undermine us. They'll say that is not their intent, but if their agenda is accepted as political policy, we would set back the conditions of Indian Country by decades."
Robert Anderson, a University of Washington assistant law professor and director of the Native American Law Center, sees such groups as a national disruption.
"They are way out there on the lunatic fringe ... either racists or just so tied up with their hatred for the federal government and recognition of Indian rights that they foment unnecessary litigation," Anderson said.
"They ignore the fact that tribes have legitimate roles in governing themselves in their own territory. What they are doing is really harmful to what happens in most of Indian Country — where tribes and non-Indians are trying to work together for the betterment of those communities."
Lindsay, who defends her organization as neither racist nor anti-Indian, said, "We need to find a resolution to some very complex problems, including the impact of federal Indian policy on nontribal property owners and businesses. All we're asking for is balance and fairness and common sense to be injected."
A lobbying force
With trade members that include the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers, One Nation has been a lobbying force in that state, which has one of the nation's highest concentrations of tribally owned casinos.
In Washington, United Property Owners was formed by a group of mostly beachfront landowners in a legal dispute with Puget Sound-area tribes claiming their treaty rights to take shellfish from public and private beaches. U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie imposed some restrictions on access but sided with the tribes.
Among the items on the merged group's agenda:
• Protecting private-property rights — primarily of nontribal residents who live on or adjacent to Indian reservations and are subject to regulation by tribes.
• Lessening sovereign immunity, which protects tribes from lawsuits.
• Ending the tribes' exemption from federal campaign-contribution limits.
• Changing the process that allows the transfer of property from local and state tax rolls into federal trust exclusively for Indian use.
• Equalizing sales- and excise-tax policies for tribal and nontribal businesses.
• Overturning the policy under which tribes are allowed regulatory authority over water, air quality, pesticide and Superfund cleanup on land on or near reservations.
"Tribes already have such a distinct advantage in so many other ways because they are not subject to so many of the other regulatory burdens that other business have to bear," Lindsay said.
"Our peace treaties"
The sovereignty of tribes, which puts them on a par with states and foreign nations, is established in the U.S. Constitution. Sovereignty affords certain benefits and advantages. Tribes don't pay some state taxes that non-Indians living on or off reservations do. However, tribes finance much of their own infrastructure, including building and maintaining roads within reservations, and they pay for tribal police and fire services, housing, health clinics and other public services.
Tribal members aren't required to pay sales taxes on items purchased on the reservation, whether from a car dealership or a Wal-Mart store.
Lindsay thinks many aspects of U.S. policies on Indians hurt all taxpayers. A key concern for her group is a 1934 act that allows land to be transferred from fee status, where it's subject to state and local taxes, to trust status, where it's exempt.
Some tribes, with money from tax-exempt casino profits, are buying property, and "as more and more lands move off local tax rolls, everyone else's taxes have to be raised," Lindsay said. "We're concerned over the loss to state and county governments of more and more property-tax dollars."
Matt Mattson, Snoqualmie Tribe administrator, said Lindsay tries to "paint tribes as special-interest groups who receive certain exemptions that are somehow unfair.
"The fact is, the U.S. government made deals with tribes hundreds of years ago. If the government doesn't like these deals, then give the land back. These were our peace treaties."
Competition vs. obligation
Mike Chandler, a non-Indian who owns two gas stations in Toppenish, Yakima County, within the boundaries of the Yakama Reservation, is torn between what he sees as unfair tribal competition vs. the nation's obligation to the Indian people.
He gets many tribal customers at his two Conoco stations, located within blocks of a tribally owned station. And he said his business, in his family for three generations, is at a pricing disadvantage.
While non-Indian station owners are taxed 28 cents a gallon on their purchases of gasoline and diesel, a federal agreement reduces that rate for stations owned by the Yakama Tribe and its members by 70 percent (to 8.4 cents) per gallon for gasoline and eliminates the tax entirely on diesel, according to the Washington Department of Licensing.
As a result, Chandler said, the tribe can undersell all its competitors — even retailers such as Costco that use low-priced gasoline as a way to lure customers. If he's lucky, he said, he can come within 5 cents, on average, of the tribe's price.
"When I go by the tribally owned station, there'll be 16, 20 cars at the pumps, while here we have three, maybe. Who doesn't want less-expensive gas?
"It kills volumes. And when we try to get close to them, there's no profit."
The gas-tax arrangement with the Yakamas is different from the one Washington state has with 13 other tribes, which are reimbursed monthly the amount of taxes tribally owned stations pay when they buy gasoline from wholesalers. The amount of the refund is based on a formula that considers the number of enrolled tribal members living on or adjacent to reservations.
The arrangement removes any advantage the tribes might have at the pumps, because the reimbursement goes to the tribe, not the individual stations.
Through November, gasoline and diesel reimbursements to the tribes this year totaled $2.2 million.
Allen, the Jamestown S'Klallam leader, points out that for every Indian-owned business that gets a pass on gas and sales taxes, there are nine others off the reservations that do not.
"The fact is when it comes to things like sales taxes, no government has the authority to tax another government," he said.
Allen believes the debate comes down to a question of economic self-reliance for Native people.
"The ability of tribes to become more self-reliant based on business opportunity has emerged in the last 10 years," he said. "If you look at the socioeconomic conditions of Indian people, we've always been at the very bottom of every measurement.
"Now, we are addressing generations of need in our communities, providing housing opportunities, jobs, health care, education for our people. And they want to take those opportunities away."
Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
Thursday, December 16, 2004
One Nation: silent in the media, not in public
It has come to my attention that representatives of the anti-Indian group, One Nation, have had more than one speaker in our local Sunrise Rotary Club.
There were a few business owners and politicians who reportedly walked out in disgust. Others listened with rapt attention as they spread their lies and half truths.
Are they speaking in other communities?
I would think so!
They are attempting to spread their political agenda and anti-Indian sentiments to local business / civic leaders and politicians in an effort to advocate their beliefs that Indian Nations and Tribes have an "unfair" advantage over non-Indian business ventures.
One Nation has been virtually silent in media coverage but is apparently using a "stealth" attack in Rotary Clubs and other available local venues to promote their agenda.
It makes me wonder if they are using their political and monetary clout to keep the media silent. Remember the old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind."
Do not put these people out of mind for they are working tirelessly to eliminate Indian rights and sovereignty.
Please make me aware of any instances that you are aware of where One Nation reps are spreading their litany of continued genocide.
There were a few business owners and politicians who reportedly walked out in disgust. Others listened with rapt attention as they spread their lies and half truths.
Are they speaking in other communities?
I would think so!
They are attempting to spread their political agenda and anti-Indian sentiments to local business / civic leaders and politicians in an effort to advocate their beliefs that Indian Nations and Tribes have an "unfair" advantage over non-Indian business ventures.
One Nation has been virtually silent in media coverage but is apparently using a "stealth" attack in Rotary Clubs and other available local venues to promote their agenda.
It makes me wonder if they are using their political and monetary clout to keep the media silent. Remember the old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind."
Do not put these people out of mind for they are working tirelessly to eliminate Indian rights and sovereignty.
Please make me aware of any instances that you are aware of where One Nation reps are spreading their litany of continued genocide.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
'Black Cloud' scores a knockout
CHINLE, Ariz. - ''Black Cloud'', the film based on the personal triumph of Navajo boxer Cal Bahe who created a boxing club in Chinle, has become an inspiration to American Indian moviegoers.
With movie funding provided by Indian tribes and local Navajos cast for scenes filmed in Canyon de Chelly, Tsaile and Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation, ''Black Cloud'' triumphs.
Phillip Calvin, 16-year-old Navajo, voiced a common reaction from Indian youths and praised Lakota actor Eddie Spears in action as a boxer.
Calvin pointed out that Navajos aren't as concerned with mixed heritage as the film portrays. Still, he said it is a good film.
''It showed me that kids could do well even though their parents might not be around or their parents are alcoholic. It was nice that they cast locally instead of casting a lot of foreign people acting Navajo.''
Spears trained three months with the legendary boxing trainer Jimmy Gambia to prefect his boxing skills. He portrays Black Cloud, a Navajo boxer training for the Olympics, while struggling with the secrets of his family's heritage. It is also a love story.
Director and writer Rick Schroder said Spears was a natural for the lead role. ''As soon as he walked in the door, I knew he was Black Cloud. Eddie is a Lakota Sioux from South Dakota. He's tough and handsome and he rides a horse like he is part of it,'' Schroder said. ''I don't know if there's ever been a character written or developed for an actor as perfect as this role is for Eddie Spears, and it was written without knowing him.''
The ''Black Cloud'' cast includes Russell Means, Julia Jones, Tim McGraw, Peter Greene, Wayne Knight, Tim Sampson and ''Pooch'' Marion Hall.
Schroder said, ''I think of where America's at right now, they need a film with heart. They need a film about youngsters who know how to behave and how to discipline themselves to accomplish their dreams.''
The making of ''Black Cloud'' also reveals an unflattering look at Hollywood. Major motion picture financial backers had no interest in the real life Indian success story. Instead, Hollywood continues to place non-Indians in lead roles in films about Indian people and avoids real-life heroes.
When Schroder went looking for funding, American Indian tribes responded with the needed $1 million, but Hollywood did not.
Pearl Means, Navajo and wife of Russell Means, said the film succeeds in showing that ''we are human beings in the 21st century. We are portrayed with all the feelings, emotions, desires, failures and success as any other race.
''The fact that Rick couldn't get Hollywood to back this shows their innate racism. If we are not shown as drunks, or in period pieces, or with the hero or savior being a white man, like in 'Dances with Wolves' and 'Windtalkers',they are not interested in showing us as real human beings that can succeed.''
Russell Means, who added some of his own dialogue to his portrayal of the hero's boxing coach said, ''This movie offers some very positive firsts for American Indians. It is the first on-screen portrayal of us as contemporary American Indians with feelings, failures, aspirations and successes.''
Means said Schroder was inspired by an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about Navajo boxing coach Cal Bahe, who overcame alcoholism through boxing and established a successful boxing club for Navajo youths. Bahe's son competed in the Olympic trials.
''It is the first time we have been portrayed as our own hero, not some white man coming to save us as Kevin Costner in what I refer to as 'Lawrence of the Plains' or Nicholas Cage in 'Windtalkers.'
''The Navajo and other American Indian Code Talkers were the real life heroes, but Hollywood had to make Cage the hero.''
Means said this is the first movie financed and distributed by a group of American Indian nations. He said tribal funders, including the Tonto Apache and Tohono O'odham in Arizona, enjoyed private screenings and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Now being honored with awards at film festivals across the nation, ''Black Cloud'' captured best ensemble and audience award at the Phoenix Film Festival. At the Nashville Film Festival it was awarded the President's Award.
However, some non-Indian critics in mainstream media, have failed to reflect the film's ability to empower American Indians, especially young people.
Reacting to a review in Arizona Republic, Means responded to the critic's criticism that the characters are stereotypes.
''Sorry folks, our reservations represent all of the typical ills that poverty and lack of opportunity represents. 'Black Cloud' is a beautiful portrayal a young man who against all odds makes it to the Olympic trials. This movie has already empowered indigenous and non-indigenous youths in all the states it has premiered in.''
---
© 1998-2004 Indian Country Today
With movie funding provided by Indian tribes and local Navajos cast for scenes filmed in Canyon de Chelly, Tsaile and Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation, ''Black Cloud'' triumphs.
Phillip Calvin, 16-year-old Navajo, voiced a common reaction from Indian youths and praised Lakota actor Eddie Spears in action as a boxer.
Calvin pointed out that Navajos aren't as concerned with mixed heritage as the film portrays. Still, he said it is a good film.
''It showed me that kids could do well even though their parents might not be around or their parents are alcoholic. It was nice that they cast locally instead of casting a lot of foreign people acting Navajo.''
Spears trained three months with the legendary boxing trainer Jimmy Gambia to prefect his boxing skills. He portrays Black Cloud, a Navajo boxer training for the Olympics, while struggling with the secrets of his family's heritage. It is also a love story.
Director and writer Rick Schroder said Spears was a natural for the lead role. ''As soon as he walked in the door, I knew he was Black Cloud. Eddie is a Lakota Sioux from South Dakota. He's tough and handsome and he rides a horse like he is part of it,'' Schroder said. ''I don't know if there's ever been a character written or developed for an actor as perfect as this role is for Eddie Spears, and it was written without knowing him.''
The ''Black Cloud'' cast includes Russell Means, Julia Jones, Tim McGraw, Peter Greene, Wayne Knight, Tim Sampson and ''Pooch'' Marion Hall.
Schroder said, ''I think of where America's at right now, they need a film with heart. They need a film about youngsters who know how to behave and how to discipline themselves to accomplish their dreams.''
The making of ''Black Cloud'' also reveals an unflattering look at Hollywood. Major motion picture financial backers had no interest in the real life Indian success story. Instead, Hollywood continues to place non-Indians in lead roles in films about Indian people and avoids real-life heroes.
When Schroder went looking for funding, American Indian tribes responded with the needed $1 million, but Hollywood did not.
Pearl Means, Navajo and wife of Russell Means, said the film succeeds in showing that ''we are human beings in the 21st century. We are portrayed with all the feelings, emotions, desires, failures and success as any other race.
''The fact that Rick couldn't get Hollywood to back this shows their innate racism. If we are not shown as drunks, or in period pieces, or with the hero or savior being a white man, like in 'Dances with Wolves' and 'Windtalkers',they are not interested in showing us as real human beings that can succeed.''
Russell Means, who added some of his own dialogue to his portrayal of the hero's boxing coach said, ''This movie offers some very positive firsts for American Indians. It is the first on-screen portrayal of us as contemporary American Indians with feelings, failures, aspirations and successes.''
Means said Schroder was inspired by an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about Navajo boxing coach Cal Bahe, who overcame alcoholism through boxing and established a successful boxing club for Navajo youths. Bahe's son competed in the Olympic trials.
''It is the first time we have been portrayed as our own hero, not some white man coming to save us as Kevin Costner in what I refer to as 'Lawrence of the Plains' or Nicholas Cage in 'Windtalkers.'
''The Navajo and other American Indian Code Talkers were the real life heroes, but Hollywood had to make Cage the hero.''
Means said this is the first movie financed and distributed by a group of American Indian nations. He said tribal funders, including the Tonto Apache and Tohono O'odham in Arizona, enjoyed private screenings and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Now being honored with awards at film festivals across the nation, ''Black Cloud'' captured best ensemble and audience award at the Phoenix Film Festival. At the Nashville Film Festival it was awarded the President's Award.
However, some non-Indian critics in mainstream media, have failed to reflect the film's ability to empower American Indians, especially young people.
Reacting to a review in Arizona Republic, Means responded to the critic's criticism that the characters are stereotypes.
''Sorry folks, our reservations represent all of the typical ills that poverty and lack of opportunity represents. 'Black Cloud' is a beautiful portrayal a young man who against all odds makes it to the Olympic trials. This movie has already empowered indigenous and non-indigenous youths in all the states it has premiered in.''
---
© 1998-2004 Indian Country Today
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Boston moves to repeal old law banning Natives
IndianZ.com
Monday, December 6, 2004
The mayor of Boston late last month moved to repeal a 327-year-old law that bars Native Americans from entering the city unless accompanied by "musketeers."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the 1675 Indian Imprisonment Act was discriminatory. He filed a petition that has to be approved by the city council and then by the Massachusetts Legislature.
Several tribal and Native leaders joined Menino for the announcement, made the day before Thanksgiving. They called it a step forward in reconciliation.
Massachusetts has one federally-recognized tribe.
Monday, December 6, 2004
The mayor of Boston late last month moved to repeal a 327-year-old law that bars Native Americans from entering the city unless accompanied by "musketeers."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the 1675 Indian Imprisonment Act was discriminatory. He filed a petition that has to be approved by the city council and then by the Massachusetts Legislature.
Several tribal and Native leaders joined Menino for the announcement, made the day before Thanksgiving. They called it a step forward in reconciliation.
Massachusetts has one federally-recognized tribe.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Bush Vs. Natives: Briefs, Not Bullets, Target Native Americans
Briefs, Not Bullets, Target Native Americans
by Cassandra "Sandy" Frost
November 6
I’m still in shock and awe over the election.
The man who was elected is not my president.
Today’s headlines are announcing that W has declared that November is National American Indian Heritage month, praising Indians like Sacajawea and the WW2 Navajo Code-talkers.
It sounds more like he’s announcing that hunting season is open...
W stated “By working together on important economic initiatives, we will strengthen America by building a future of hope and promise for all Native Americans."
He should have just been honest and said “We will strengthen America by building a future of hopelessness and compromise for all Native Americans.”
Today, the question is:
What does the re-election of W mean to people of color, specifically American Indians?
In one remote viewing email group I subscribe to, we had a recent discussion about genocide of American Indians.
The term “Genocide” derives from the Latin (genos=race, tribe; cide=killing) and means literally the killing or murder of an entire tribe or people.
I sat and shook my head in disbelief as I read about how some in the group denied that American Indians were the targets of U.S. government exploitation, eradication, and containment.
One writer wrote “Trying to pass judgment on the people or governments of today based on what was done in the past is ridiculous” and another wrote “There are some folks that need killing.”
These comments, though lifted out of context, illustrate the Anglo-American superiority mentality that seems to justify modern day genocide against my people and other people of color.
The facts are that by 1891 the U.S. native population had been reduced to 2.5% of its original numbers and 97.5% of the aboriginal land base had been expropriated.
Extermination of all of the surviving natives was urged by the Governor of California officially in 1851. More than 100 million Natives fell under European rule and their extermination followed.
As the Natives died, they were replaced by African slaves.
The genocide against American Natives was one of the most massive and longest lasting genocidal campaigns in human history.
And it’s still taking place today.
But now, instead of using bullets and offering bounties for Indian scalps, the military industrial complex is using briefs.
Legal briefs.
No longer are the battles fought at places like the Little Big Horn or Wounded Knee.
Today’s battles are being fought in courthouses against those who are, like my Athabascan Grandmother, Maude Goodelataw, hunter-gatherers and fishing peoples.
The natives are expected to lock horns with not only moose and caribou but also with well-heeled lawyers who are backed by billions from oil and mining companies that are trying to figure out how to either legislate or usurp the rest of the American Indians’ lands.
What triggered the writing of this editorial is today’s headline about how the Vietnamese are suing Dow Chemical and Montsano for our military spraying their countryside with Agent Orange:
http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=11638
The article describes how Dr. Arnold Schecter, a leading expert in dioxin contamination in the U.S., sampled the soil there in 2003,and found it to contained dioxin levels that were 180 million times above the safe level set by the U.S. environmental protection agency.
From http://www.cqs.com/edioxin.htm :
“Dioxin is the name generally given to a class of super-toxic chemicals, the chlorinated dioxins and furans, formed as a by-product of the manufacture, molding, or burning of organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. It is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical; its toxicity is second only to radioactive waste.”
Third generation Vietnamese babies are being born with two heads and stumps instead of arms and legs.
I knew about this story a few months ago because the nail salon I frequent is owned and operated by a group of hard working Vietnamese.
One day, the pedicurist and I started talking about her homeland and she mentioned the lawsuit.
She appeared to have Anglo blood and I delicately asked her about her family.
“I don’t know who my dad was,” she said. “He was an American soldier.”
I was getting my nails done in L.A. last August and noticed the same features in my manicurist. I began asking her about her family and she also said “I don’t know who my dad was.” And yes, he was also a U.S. soldier.
I took off my rose quartz bracelet and gave it to her.
I apologized for what our country did to hers.
I told her that I am part Alaskan Native (Athabascan) and Cherokee and that the pattern of our military killing those with brown, red, yellow or black skin for their land, servitude or resources started with the genocide of my brothers and sisters.
I explained that rose quartz is a crystal that represents love and healing.
A case in point about the legal battles involving American Indians is the Cobell v Norton lawsuit over the Department of the Interior’s mismanagement of $40 billion in Indian trust revenues and resources. June 10, 1996, Eloise Cobell, a Blackfoot with a background in accounting and banking, filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government to account for the billions of dollars belonging to approximately 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, and held in trust since the late 19th century.
The case is ongoing and so far, the Department of Interior has been found to be in contempt of court for destroying emails and billing information and in the first portion of the eight-year-old lawsuit, the government was found guilty of mismanaging trust accounts. The second part is an attempt to determine how much is owed to the remaining account holders.
Other modern day attempts to circumvent American Indian sovereignty are the Yucca Mountain nuclear depository case and the Hopi’s attempts to fight Peabody Coal in order to preserve and protect their water.
With no regard for existing treaties, the U.S. government is moving forward so that 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste can be buried on Western Shoshone homeland. On Feb. 15, 2002, President Bush designated Yucca Mountain as the site for building the nation’s first high-level nuclear waste dump.
Sacajawea was Shoshone.
The Hopi's waterless springs and dry wells might be blamed on Peabody Energy, which pumps 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, enough to supply a community of 4,000, out of an aquifer that lies beneath the Hopi and Navajo lands. Peabody mines coal out of land leased from the tribes at a site known as Black Mesa. The coal is powderized and then mixed with water that is pumped through a pipeline 273 miles west to the Mohave Generating Station, which then produces electricity for 1.5 million homes in nearby Las Vegas and Southern California.
I learned of a similar disregard for native rights in the pursuit of petro-energy after I read the 2002 Homeland Security Act.
I nearly fell out of my chair as I read that local government definitions specifically include “Alaska Native organizations and villages.”
This means that if there is some sort of emergency, like our government declares an energy crisis say, because foreign oil becomes too expensive or there is some sort of terrorist attack or our oil reserves run low, the federal government has the authority to take over all assets of Alaska Native villages and corporations, including mine, Ahtna, Inc.
BTW, the HAARP is built on Ahtna land, but that is another story.
This also means that Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, can be drilled, against the will of the Gwich’in Athabascans and other Alaska Natives, because our sovereignty was somehow dissolved through provisions of the Homeland Security Act.
Evon Peter, Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich'in from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska, is on point for the fight against oil drilling in ANWR.
He has a site at: http://www.nativemovement.org
He recently addressed the Alaska Federation of Natives and said “The United States government worked to assimilate our peoples through the eradication of our Native knowledge, philosophy, languages, spiritual practices and beliefs. The Indigenous Peoples were not allowed or were highly discouraged from participating in any of the colonial "freedoms". These prohibitions included land ownership, business development, and even shopping in stores. There were signs that read "No dogs, No natives" allowed on some buildings. The United States was after control of our land and resources. They had to deal with whatthey termed the "Indian problem".
Today our traditional Indigenous governments have national and international recognition. Yet, the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska, like many other Indigenous Peoples throughout the world, continue struggling for the recognized rights to our traditional lands and way of life. We are striving to make things better for our people while attempting to address the historical injustices that are at the foundation of many of these struggles.”
Sadly, this pattern of military industrial complex eco-terrorism and genocide isn’t limited to the Vietnamese or American Indians.
An October 13, 2004 news story details how the nuclear test compensation fund set up by the American government to compensate Marshall Islanders exposed to radiation during 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted in the 1940’s and 1950’s in the South Pacific is running out of money. As of Oct. 21, the Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal said it will be able to make only partial payments to more than 1,700 residents suffering from radiation-related illnesses.
Islanders were exposed to fallout from at least two Hiroshima-size atomic tests as well as the detonation of the world's first hydrogen bomb, estimated at 1,000 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb.
A prominent west coast law firm, Davis, Wright and Tremaine, has stepped forward to offer pro-bono help to the people of Likiep Atoll, one of the Marshall Islands. These people were subjected to radiation from 23 bomb blasts over Bikini Atoll because they were never relocated or notified that they or their water and food supplies were about to be contaminated by nuclear fallout.
Finally, let’s look at the Iraq war depleted uranium (DU) situation.
Depleted uranium is the waste byproduct of nuclear reactors. In the 1980s, U.S. researchers recognized that the material's density gave it tremendous armor-piercing potential. Not only can shells coated with depleted uranium punch through layers of hardened steel, they ignite on impact, creating a fiery burst of radioactive particles inside an enemy armored vehicle. It is this "aerosol" that most experts believe causes the variety of long-term health problems associated with gulf war syndrome. More than 230,000 of the 697,000 U.S. soldiers who served in the gulf wars have filed disability claims for various maladies, the majority of which fall under the broad category of gulf war syndrome.
Instead of cleaning up the nuke plants, the waste, or DU, is now passed on to weapon manufacturers.
This is the same stuff the government wants to bury deep inside Yucca mountain.
General Ramsey Clark has called for the international ban on DU weapons stating “Depleted-uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life, a violation of international law and an assault on human dignity.”
Once someone breathes in the radiation, it stays in their lymph nodes. They are polluted for more than forever as DU has a half-life of 4.4 billion years.
The U.S. and British military have powdered the Iraqi country side with between 300 and 800 tons of DU dust, not to mention dusting the countries of Kosovo and Kuwait. According to a November 1, 2004 news article “Depleted Uranium Dust Worries Iraqis,” if the United States military assures the U.N. and the Iraqi people that the radioactive, metal dust is safe, then why is the United States spending billions of dollars cleaning up depleted uranium at former munitions factories, military firing ranges and nuclear fuel production sites?
A General Accounting Office report in 2000 put the cost of cleanup at the uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., where DU is processed for use in weapons and nuclear reactors, at $1.3 billion. By December 2003, the cost of cleaning up and closing the plant, estimated to take until 2070, was up to $13 billion.
So, what does all this tell us?
It tells us that if one has skin color other than white, your land, your safety, your food and your water don’t matter to the U.S. government.
What does all this have to do with W’s re-election?
It means that the Bush administration’s battles against American Indians, i.e. Cobell v Norton, the Yucca mountain nuclear waste depository and the possible drilling of ANWR, are not fought with guns, but rather through the federal legal defense teams paid with unlimited taxpayer dollars who can write countless legal briefs that can keep a court case going until the other side:
a. gets tired and gives up
b. runs out of money
c. settles for a small portion of what is due them
d. dies
e. is forced to do what the government says through martial law imposed by FEMA and the Homeland Security Act
The bottom line is that the U.S. government, and the Bush Administration in particular, needs to stop terrorizing and targeting indigenous people and our lands and, rather, learn some lessons from our cultures before it’s too late.
In 1877, Chief Joseph announced his people's, the Nez Perce, surrender and said the famous words:
“I will fight no more forever.”
I think he meant fighting with bullets, not legal briefs.
The lessons are that we need to live lives based on spirituality, not hypocritical Armageddic religions where our sins are forgiven each Sunday. We need to live in harmony with, take care of, nurture and honor Mother Earth instead of sucking her dry and exploiting her resources to feed the self-destructive petroleum addictions that are fueling legal battles designed to wear the other side down and launching unjust wars in the names of money and power, both corporate and political.
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, no matter what color they are.
And remember, we’re one world, one people; not one people’s world.
Cassandra ‘Sandy’ Frost is an award winning e-journalist and newspaper editor who has covered the topics of Intuition, Remote Viewing and Consciousness from an Athabascan or Alaska Native point of view the past three years.
More of her articles can be found at:
http://blogs.salon.com/0003531/
http://blogs.salon.com/0004117/
by Cassandra "Sandy" Frost
November 6
I’m still in shock and awe over the election.
The man who was elected is not my president.
Today’s headlines are announcing that W has declared that November is National American Indian Heritage month, praising Indians like Sacajawea and the WW2 Navajo Code-talkers.
It sounds more like he’s announcing that hunting season is open...
W stated “By working together on important economic initiatives, we will strengthen America by building a future of hope and promise for all Native Americans."
He should have just been honest and said “We will strengthen America by building a future of hopelessness and compromise for all Native Americans.”
Today, the question is:
What does the re-election of W mean to people of color, specifically American Indians?
In one remote viewing email group I subscribe to, we had a recent discussion about genocide of American Indians.
The term “Genocide” derives from the Latin (genos=race, tribe; cide=killing) and means literally the killing or murder of an entire tribe or people.
I sat and shook my head in disbelief as I read about how some in the group denied that American Indians were the targets of U.S. government exploitation, eradication, and containment.
One writer wrote “Trying to pass judgment on the people or governments of today based on what was done in the past is ridiculous” and another wrote “There are some folks that need killing.”
These comments, though lifted out of context, illustrate the Anglo-American superiority mentality that seems to justify modern day genocide against my people and other people of color.
The facts are that by 1891 the U.S. native population had been reduced to 2.5% of its original numbers and 97.5% of the aboriginal land base had been expropriated.
Extermination of all of the surviving natives was urged by the Governor of California officially in 1851. More than 100 million Natives fell under European rule and their extermination followed.
As the Natives died, they were replaced by African slaves.
The genocide against American Natives was one of the most massive and longest lasting genocidal campaigns in human history.
And it’s still taking place today.
But now, instead of using bullets and offering bounties for Indian scalps, the military industrial complex is using briefs.
Legal briefs.
No longer are the battles fought at places like the Little Big Horn or Wounded Knee.
Today’s battles are being fought in courthouses against those who are, like my Athabascan Grandmother, Maude Goodelataw, hunter-gatherers and fishing peoples.
The natives are expected to lock horns with not only moose and caribou but also with well-heeled lawyers who are backed by billions from oil and mining companies that are trying to figure out how to either legislate or usurp the rest of the American Indians’ lands.
What triggered the writing of this editorial is today’s headline about how the Vietnamese are suing Dow Chemical and Montsano for our military spraying their countryside with Agent Orange:
http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=11638
The article describes how Dr. Arnold Schecter, a leading expert in dioxin contamination in the U.S., sampled the soil there in 2003,and found it to contained dioxin levels that were 180 million times above the safe level set by the U.S. environmental protection agency.
From http://www.cqs.com/edioxin.htm :
“Dioxin is the name generally given to a class of super-toxic chemicals, the chlorinated dioxins and furans, formed as a by-product of the manufacture, molding, or burning of organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. It is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical; its toxicity is second only to radioactive waste.”
Third generation Vietnamese babies are being born with two heads and stumps instead of arms and legs.
I knew about this story a few months ago because the nail salon I frequent is owned and operated by a group of hard working Vietnamese.
One day, the pedicurist and I started talking about her homeland and she mentioned the lawsuit.
She appeared to have Anglo blood and I delicately asked her about her family.
“I don’t know who my dad was,” she said. “He was an American soldier.”
I was getting my nails done in L.A. last August and noticed the same features in my manicurist. I began asking her about her family and she also said “I don’t know who my dad was.” And yes, he was also a U.S. soldier.
I took off my rose quartz bracelet and gave it to her.
I apologized for what our country did to hers.
I told her that I am part Alaskan Native (Athabascan) and Cherokee and that the pattern of our military killing those with brown, red, yellow or black skin for their land, servitude or resources started with the genocide of my brothers and sisters.
I explained that rose quartz is a crystal that represents love and healing.
A case in point about the legal battles involving American Indians is the Cobell v Norton lawsuit over the Department of the Interior’s mismanagement of $40 billion in Indian trust revenues and resources. June 10, 1996, Eloise Cobell, a Blackfoot with a background in accounting and banking, filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government to account for the billions of dollars belonging to approximately 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, and held in trust since the late 19th century.
The case is ongoing and so far, the Department of Interior has been found to be in contempt of court for destroying emails and billing information and in the first portion of the eight-year-old lawsuit, the government was found guilty of mismanaging trust accounts. The second part is an attempt to determine how much is owed to the remaining account holders.
Other modern day attempts to circumvent American Indian sovereignty are the Yucca Mountain nuclear depository case and the Hopi’s attempts to fight Peabody Coal in order to preserve and protect their water.
With no regard for existing treaties, the U.S. government is moving forward so that 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste can be buried on Western Shoshone homeland. On Feb. 15, 2002, President Bush designated Yucca Mountain as the site for building the nation’s first high-level nuclear waste dump.
Sacajawea was Shoshone.
The Hopi's waterless springs and dry wells might be blamed on Peabody Energy, which pumps 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, enough to supply a community of 4,000, out of an aquifer that lies beneath the Hopi and Navajo lands. Peabody mines coal out of land leased from the tribes at a site known as Black Mesa. The coal is powderized and then mixed with water that is pumped through a pipeline 273 miles west to the Mohave Generating Station, which then produces electricity for 1.5 million homes in nearby Las Vegas and Southern California.
I learned of a similar disregard for native rights in the pursuit of petro-energy after I read the 2002 Homeland Security Act.
I nearly fell out of my chair as I read that local government definitions specifically include “Alaska Native organizations and villages.”
This means that if there is some sort of emergency, like our government declares an energy crisis say, because foreign oil becomes too expensive or there is some sort of terrorist attack or our oil reserves run low, the federal government has the authority to take over all assets of Alaska Native villages and corporations, including mine, Ahtna, Inc.
BTW, the HAARP is built on Ahtna land, but that is another story.
This also means that Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, can be drilled, against the will of the Gwich’in Athabascans and other Alaska Natives, because our sovereignty was somehow dissolved through provisions of the Homeland Security Act.
Evon Peter, Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich'in from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska, is on point for the fight against oil drilling in ANWR.
He has a site at: http://www.nativemovement.org
He recently addressed the Alaska Federation of Natives and said “The United States government worked to assimilate our peoples through the eradication of our Native knowledge, philosophy, languages, spiritual practices and beliefs. The Indigenous Peoples were not allowed or were highly discouraged from participating in any of the colonial "freedoms". These prohibitions included land ownership, business development, and even shopping in stores. There were signs that read "No dogs, No natives" allowed on some buildings. The United States was after control of our land and resources. They had to deal with whatthey termed the "Indian problem".
Today our traditional Indigenous governments have national and international recognition. Yet, the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska, like many other Indigenous Peoples throughout the world, continue struggling for the recognized rights to our traditional lands and way of life. We are striving to make things better for our people while attempting to address the historical injustices that are at the foundation of many of these struggles.”
Sadly, this pattern of military industrial complex eco-terrorism and genocide isn’t limited to the Vietnamese or American Indians.
An October 13, 2004 news story details how the nuclear test compensation fund set up by the American government to compensate Marshall Islanders exposed to radiation during 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted in the 1940’s and 1950’s in the South Pacific is running out of money. As of Oct. 21, the Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal said it will be able to make only partial payments to more than 1,700 residents suffering from radiation-related illnesses.
Islanders were exposed to fallout from at least two Hiroshima-size atomic tests as well as the detonation of the world's first hydrogen bomb, estimated at 1,000 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb.
A prominent west coast law firm, Davis, Wright and Tremaine, has stepped forward to offer pro-bono help to the people of Likiep Atoll, one of the Marshall Islands. These people were subjected to radiation from 23 bomb blasts over Bikini Atoll because they were never relocated or notified that they or their water and food supplies were about to be contaminated by nuclear fallout.
Finally, let’s look at the Iraq war depleted uranium (DU) situation.
Depleted uranium is the waste byproduct of nuclear reactors. In the 1980s, U.S. researchers recognized that the material's density gave it tremendous armor-piercing potential. Not only can shells coated with depleted uranium punch through layers of hardened steel, they ignite on impact, creating a fiery burst of radioactive particles inside an enemy armored vehicle. It is this "aerosol" that most experts believe causes the variety of long-term health problems associated with gulf war syndrome. More than 230,000 of the 697,000 U.S. soldiers who served in the gulf wars have filed disability claims for various maladies, the majority of which fall under the broad category of gulf war syndrome.
Instead of cleaning up the nuke plants, the waste, or DU, is now passed on to weapon manufacturers.
This is the same stuff the government wants to bury deep inside Yucca mountain.
General Ramsey Clark has called for the international ban on DU weapons stating “Depleted-uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life, a violation of international law and an assault on human dignity.”
Once someone breathes in the radiation, it stays in their lymph nodes. They are polluted for more than forever as DU has a half-life of 4.4 billion years.
The U.S. and British military have powdered the Iraqi country side with between 300 and 800 tons of DU dust, not to mention dusting the countries of Kosovo and Kuwait. According to a November 1, 2004 news article “Depleted Uranium Dust Worries Iraqis,” if the United States military assures the U.N. and the Iraqi people that the radioactive, metal dust is safe, then why is the United States spending billions of dollars cleaning up depleted uranium at former munitions factories, military firing ranges and nuclear fuel production sites?
A General Accounting Office report in 2000 put the cost of cleanup at the uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., where DU is processed for use in weapons and nuclear reactors, at $1.3 billion. By December 2003, the cost of cleaning up and closing the plant, estimated to take until 2070, was up to $13 billion.
So, what does all this tell us?
It tells us that if one has skin color other than white, your land, your safety, your food and your water don’t matter to the U.S. government.
What does all this have to do with W’s re-election?
It means that the Bush administration’s battles against American Indians, i.e. Cobell v Norton, the Yucca mountain nuclear waste depository and the possible drilling of ANWR, are not fought with guns, but rather through the federal legal defense teams paid with unlimited taxpayer dollars who can write countless legal briefs that can keep a court case going until the other side:
a. gets tired and gives up
b. runs out of money
c. settles for a small portion of what is due them
d. dies
e. is forced to do what the government says through martial law imposed by FEMA and the Homeland Security Act
The bottom line is that the U.S. government, and the Bush Administration in particular, needs to stop terrorizing and targeting indigenous people and our lands and, rather, learn some lessons from our cultures before it’s too late.
In 1877, Chief Joseph announced his people's, the Nez Perce, surrender and said the famous words:
“I will fight no more forever.”
I think he meant fighting with bullets, not legal briefs.
The lessons are that we need to live lives based on spirituality, not hypocritical Armageddic religions where our sins are forgiven each Sunday. We need to live in harmony with, take care of, nurture and honor Mother Earth instead of sucking her dry and exploiting her resources to feed the self-destructive petroleum addictions that are fueling legal battles designed to wear the other side down and launching unjust wars in the names of money and power, both corporate and political.
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, no matter what color they are.
And remember, we’re one world, one people; not one people’s world.
Cassandra ‘Sandy’ Frost is an award winning e-journalist and newspaper editor who has covered the topics of Intuition, Remote Viewing and Consciousness from an Athabascan or Alaska Native point of view the past three years.
More of her articles can be found at:
http://blogs.salon.com/0003531/
http://blogs.salon.com/0004117/
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Save America's Wild Horses
Hello friends around the world!
Here is some updated information for those of you who are interested in what could happen to the Wild Horses if we do not get enough phone calls on this issue MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 6TH!
Please forward this email as far and wide as you can, and encourage your friends and colleagues to make these phone calls Monday morning before noon Eastern standard time!
I spoke with my Representative's office this morning, and she said that the Rider #142 that has been attached to the 2004 Omnibus Federal Appropriations Bill, which allows for the slaughter of thousands of Wild Horse herds in the Western United States, CAN BE REMOVED if enough people make phone calls!
Do not let Congresspeople tell you it is too late!
It is not too late -- they CAN remove the Rider.
Please read on, and I promise to try not to bother you too much anymore with these emails, but it is just an absolutely URGENT situation, and your support and efforts are definitely going to make a difference!
Let's not allow the George Bush destroy the only remaining herds of horses on the Great Plains. Let's not let his cattle industry and corporate cronies destroy all this Beauty.
For the Wild Horses,
Amanda Holmes
See included Rider for actual language of the bill:
In 1971, a public outcry of an unprecedented magnitude for a non-war issue led to the adoption of the Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act, which recognized the intrinsic value of wild horses to our national heritage and ecosystem. The Act was meant to protect our wild horses a permanent home on the American landscape. This law has now all but been overturned, without as much as a hearing. Less than 35,000 wild horses remain on our public lands. If the administration has its way, these horses and their priceless genetic diversity will soon be a treasure of the past.
Surreptitiously included in the omnibus federal Appropriations Bill is a rider (#142) that eviscerates federal protection for America's wild horses. Over the week-end before Thanksgiving, without any opportunity for review, Congress opened the door to the sale of America's wild horses recognized by a 1971 federal law as living symbols of our Nation's spirit – allowing thousands of our wild and free horses to be slaughtered ffor profits. The Bill is scheduled to be signed into law on December 6.
The administration is pointing the finger at the tens of thousands of wild horses currently held in government pens. What they fail to mention is that these horses were unnecessarily removed from their rightful range due to pressure from special interest groups who run private commercial operations on our public lands (cattle, oil).
By legitimizing the sale of captured horses for slaughter, the rider is giving the Bureau of Land Management a lucrative outlet for round-ups. Specifically:
1. The rider amends the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to allow the sale of wild horses for processing into commercial products.
2. The rider exempts horses bought pursuant to a new "horse sale" program from the criminal provisions of the Act that make it a crime to process or permit to be processed into commercial products the remains of a wild horse or burro.
3. The rider adds a new subsection to the Act, creating a "horse sale" requirement that mandates that BLM sell "without limitation, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities" all wild horses who are either over 10 years old, or who have been offered for adoption 3 times unsuccessfully. BLM is required to continue to sell horses until all "excess animals" are disposed of and AMLs (appropriate management levels) are reached in all wild horse areas.
Below is the actual rider that passed last weekend amending the Wild Horses Act. It does several things, all of which are really bad:
2005 Appropriations Bill Wild Horse Rider
SEC. 142. SALE OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS.
(a) IN GENERAL - Section 3 of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1333) is amended
(1) In subsection (d)(5), by striking "this section" and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting "this section" and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
(e) SALE OF EXCESS ANIMALS. –
(1) IN GENERAL. – Any excess animal or the remains of any excess animal shall be sold if –
(A) the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or
(B) the excess animal has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times.
(2) METHOD OF SALE. – An excess animal tthat meets either of the criteria in paragraph (1) shall be made available for sale without limitation, including through auction to the highest bidder, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities, until such time as –
(A) all excess animals offered for sale are sold; or
(B) the appropriate management level, as determined by the Secretary, is attained in all areas occupied by wild free-roaming horses and burros.
(3) DISPOSITION OF FUNDS. – Funds generated from the sale of exceess animals under this subsection shall be –
(A) credited as an offsetting collection to the Management of Lands and Resources appropriation for the Bureau of Land Management; and
(B) used for the costs relating to the adoption of wild free-roaming horses and burros, including the costs of marketing such adoption.
(4) EFFECT OF SALE. – Any excess animal sold under this provision shall no longer be considered to be a wild free-roaming horse or burro for purposes of this Act.
What You Can Do Now:
Make a lot of noise and a have your friends make a lot of noise!
Please understand that this does NOT end if the President Signs on December 6 th –We will keep up the good fight!
President Bush - 202-456-1111 president@whitehouse.gov
VP Cheney - 202-456-2461 vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Senator Harry Reid - 202-224-3542
Senator Conrad Burns (sponsored the Rider)-1-800-344-1513 or 202-224-2644
Do not hesitate to express your concerns directly to your local media and elected representatives. To find your legislators' specific addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, visit the website: http://www.senate.gov
House of Representatives website: http://www.house.gov
Letters to Senators should be addressed to: The Honorable [Name Here], U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510.
Letters to House of Representatives should be addressed to: The Honorable [Name Here], U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.
The congressional switchboard number is (202) 224-3121, and can be used to reach an office by phone.
Feel free to let Bureau of Land Management officials know how you feel about their removal policy. Demand implementation of an in-the-wild management program. Contact Kathleen Clarke, Director, Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C Street NW Rm. 406-LS, Washington, D.C. 20240; phone: (202) 452-5125; fax: (202) 452-5124
If you have not already signed the petition requesting a Congressional investigation into the wild horse management issue-Please do so NOW!
www.wildhorsepreservation.com
Follow link to Petition.
Since this rider was exposed, the petition is growing by about one signature per minute!
May blessings go before your every step
Save America's Wild Horses
-------------
HOW THE RIDER WAS PASSED:
Apparently, the appropriations bill passed two weeks ago and Rider #142 was added on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and then the Senate did not meet on Monday and Tuesday and only met for 10 minutes on Wednesday before adjourning.
I told Senator Burn's staffperson and several other staff people that I objected to this rider being sneaked through like this, that it was very undemocratic and unjust, and that this rider was should be removed from the 2004 Omnibus Federal Appropriations Bill. She said that she would pass on my comments and that they are receiving a lot of calls about it.
Contact Information:
People need to contact the following Congressmen with their concerns and requests to remove Rider # 142 from the 2004 Omnibus Federal Appropriations Bill, and can also add any comments about the process that they feel are appropriate. The staff people may ask what this rider does, i.e., removes most of the federal protections for the American wild horse herds.
Although Congress is not in session until Monday, December 6, Congressional offices are open tomorrow (Friday) from about 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET, and some of them have answering machines so you can leave a message after business hours. People need to call:
Senator Mark Burns, sponsor of the rider, 202-224-2644
Senator Ted Stevens, Chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee, 202-224-3004;
Senator Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, 202-224-3344;
Representative C.W. "Bill" Young, Chairman, House Appropriations Committee, 202-225-2771.
Representative Tom DeLay, Majority Leader, House of Representatives, 202-225-5951.
Also, people need to call their district's representatives --
They can call the Congressional switchboard at 202-225-3121 and get connected to their Senator's or Representative's offices; the operator can tell you who that is if you don't know.
White House Comment line - 202-456-1414. Call Monday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. They will not take any comments after hours, although they did during the previous administration.
Western Union Telegraphs - a really good way to let Congressional representatives know how you feel, especially on Saturday and Sunday. Send to the following addresses:
The Honorable (member's name)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC
20515
The Honorable (member's name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC
20515
Here is some updated information for those of you who are interested in what could happen to the Wild Horses if we do not get enough phone calls on this issue MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 6TH!
Please forward this email as far and wide as you can, and encourage your friends and colleagues to make these phone calls Monday morning before noon Eastern standard time!
I spoke with my Representative's office this morning, and she said that the Rider #142 that has been attached to the 2004 Omnibus Federal Appropriations Bill, which allows for the slaughter of thousands of Wild Horse herds in the Western United States, CAN BE REMOVED if enough people make phone calls!
Do not let Congresspeople tell you it is too late!
It is not too late -- they CAN remove the Rider.
Please read on, and I promise to try not to bother you too much anymore with these emails, but it is just an absolutely URGENT situation, and your support and efforts are definitely going to make a difference!
Let's not allow the George Bush destroy the only remaining herds of horses on the Great Plains. Let's not let his cattle industry and corporate cronies destroy all this Beauty.
For the Wild Horses,
Amanda Holmes
See included Rider for actual language of the bill:
In 1971, a public outcry of an unprecedented magnitude for a non-war issue led to the adoption of the Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act, which recognized the intrinsic value of wild horses to our national heritage and ecosystem. The Act was meant to protect our wild horses a permanent home on the American landscape. This law has now all but been overturned, without as much as a hearing. Less than 35,000 wild horses remain on our public lands. If the administration has its way, these horses and their priceless genetic diversity will soon be a treasure of the past.
Surreptitiously included in the omnibus federal Appropriations Bill is a rider (#142) that eviscerates federal protection for America's wild horses. Over the week-end before Thanksgiving, without any opportunity for review, Congress opened the door to the sale of America's wild horses recognized by a 1971 federal law as living symbols of our Nation's spirit – allowing thousands of our wild and free horses to be slaughtered ffor profits. The Bill is scheduled to be signed into law on December 6.
The administration is pointing the finger at the tens of thousands of wild horses currently held in government pens. What they fail to mention is that these horses were unnecessarily removed from their rightful range due to pressure from special interest groups who run private commercial operations on our public lands (cattle, oil).
By legitimizing the sale of captured horses for slaughter, the rider is giving the Bureau of Land Management a lucrative outlet for round-ups. Specifically:
1. The rider amends the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to allow the sale of wild horses for processing into commercial products.
2. The rider exempts horses bought pursuant to a new "horse sale" program from the criminal provisions of the Act that make it a crime to process or permit to be processed into commercial products the remains of a wild horse or burro.
3. The rider adds a new subsection to the Act, creating a "horse sale" requirement that mandates that BLM sell "without limitation, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities" all wild horses who are either over 10 years old, or who have been offered for adoption 3 times unsuccessfully. BLM is required to continue to sell horses until all "excess animals" are disposed of and AMLs (appropriate management levels) are reached in all wild horse areas.
Below is the actual rider that passed last weekend amending the Wild Horses Act. It does several things, all of which are really bad:
2005 Appropriations Bill Wild Horse Rider
SEC. 142. SALE OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS.
(a) IN GENERAL - Section 3 of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1333) is amended
(1) In subsection (d)(5), by striking "this section" and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting "this section" and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
(e) SALE OF EXCESS ANIMALS. –
(1) IN GENERAL. – Any excess animal or the remains of any excess animal shall be sold if –
(A) the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or
(B) the excess animal has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times.
(2) METHOD OF SALE. – An excess animal tthat meets either of the criteria in paragraph (1) shall be made available for sale without limitation, including through auction to the highest bidder, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities, until such time as –
(A) all excess animals offered for sale are sold; or
(B) the appropriate management level, as determined by the Secretary, is attained in all areas occupied by wild free-roaming horses and burros.
(3) DISPOSITION OF FUNDS. – Funds generated from the sale of exceess animals under this subsection shall be –
(A) credited as an offsetting collection to the Management of Lands and Resources appropriation for the Bureau of Land Management; and
(B) used for the costs relating to the adoption of wild free-roaming horses and burros, including the costs of marketing such adoption.
(4) EFFECT OF SALE. – Any excess animal sold under this provision shall no longer be considered to be a wild free-roaming horse or burro for purposes of this Act.
What You Can Do Now:
Make a lot of noise and a have your friends make a lot of noise!
Please understand that this does NOT end if the President Signs on December 6 th –We will keep up the good fight!
President Bush - 202-456-1111 president@whitehouse.gov
VP Cheney - 202-456-2461 vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Senator Harry Reid - 202-224-3542
Senator Conrad Burns (sponsored the Rider)-1-800-344-1513 or 202-224-2644
Do not hesitate to express your concerns directly to your local media and elected representatives. To find your legislators' specific addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, visit the website: http://www.senate.gov
House of Representatives website: http://www.house.gov
Letters to Senators should be addressed to: The Honorable [Name Here], U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510.
Letters to House of Representatives should be addressed to: The Honorable [Name Here], U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.
The congressional switchboard number is (202) 224-3121, and can be used to reach an office by phone.
Feel free to let Bureau of Land Management officials know how you feel about their removal policy. Demand implementation of an in-the-wild management program. Contact Kathleen Clarke, Director, Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C Street NW Rm. 406-LS, Washington, D.C. 20240; phone: (202) 452-5125; fax: (202) 452-5124
If you have not already signed the petition requesting a Congressional investigation into the wild horse management issue-Please do so NOW!
www.wildhorsepreservation.com
Follow link to Petition.
Since this rider was exposed, the petition is growing by about one signature per minute!
May blessings go before your every step
Save America's Wild Horses
-------------
HOW THE RIDER WAS PASSED:
Apparently, the appropriations bill passed two weeks ago and Rider #142 was added on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and then the Senate did not meet on Monday and Tuesday and only met for 10 minutes on Wednesday before adjourning.
I told Senator Burn's staffperson and several other staff people that I objected to this rider being sneaked through like this, that it was very undemocratic and unjust, and that this rider was should be removed from the 2004 Omnibus Federal Appropriations Bill. She said that she would pass on my comments and that they are receiving a lot of calls about it.
Contact Information:
People need to contact the following Congressmen with their concerns and requests to remove Rider # 142 from the 2004 Omnibus Federal Appropriations Bill, and can also add any comments about the process that they feel are appropriate. The staff people may ask what this rider does, i.e., removes most of the federal protections for the American wild horse herds.
Although Congress is not in session until Monday, December 6, Congressional offices are open tomorrow (Friday) from about 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET, and some of them have answering machines so you can leave a message after business hours. People need to call:
Senator Mark Burns, sponsor of the rider, 202-224-2644
Senator Ted Stevens, Chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee, 202-224-3004;
Senator Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, 202-224-3344;
Representative C.W. "Bill" Young, Chairman, House Appropriations Committee, 202-225-2771.
Representative Tom DeLay, Majority Leader, House of Representatives, 202-225-5951.
Also, people need to call their district's representatives --
They can call the Congressional switchboard at 202-225-3121 and get connected to their Senator's or Representative's offices; the operator can tell you who that is if you don't know.
White House Comment line - 202-456-1414. Call Monday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. They will not take any comments after hours, although they did during the previous administration.
Western Union Telegraphs - a really good way to let Congressional representatives know how you feel, especially on Saturday and Sunday. Send to the following addresses:
The Honorable (member's name)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC
20515
The Honorable (member's name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC
20515
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