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National Museum of the American Indian Healing After Tragedy

Rob Caprioccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), a Smithsonian Institution museum on the National Mall filled with Native artifacts and representations of contemporary Indian experiences, is coping with the aftermath of a tragic death there November 23.

The apparent suicide occurred while the museum was open with hundreds of visitors inside. Witnesses told local news outlets that an adult male jumped from a top floor of the building onto the main atrium of the space, where traditional Indian ceremonies are regularly held.

The museum was evacuated after his fall, and the museum re-opened the following day for regular business hours.

John Gibbons, a spokesman for the Smithsonian, told the Associated Press the man was visiting the facility with his family. “He was visiting with his family, but was alone at the time,” Gibbons said. His family was someplace else in the building.”

One concern that museum staffers are working to address—beyond the immediate safety and clean-up issues—is making sure the space won’t be emotionally affected into the future.

“We did have a smudging on Sunday and we will have a blessing on December 5 for all staff to attend,” said Leonda Levchuk, a spokeswoman for the museum. Smudging is a part of many traditional Native American ceremonies, in which tobacco and cedar and other herbs are used to purify and cleanse.

The museum, which opened in 2004 as part of the Smithsonian after decades of planning and fundraising, is a space that deals with Native religion and spirituality.

No staffers want Native Americans who regularly visit the space to feel that its energy has been negatively affected. Real estate agents have talked about similar concerns when trying to sell properties where tragedies, like suicide, have occurred.

Some who have coped with such circumstances have gone so far as to hire priests and other religious experts to exorcise spaces after suicide, as did singer Olivia Newton-John after a contractor died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her house in August.

Beyond this emotional aspect, there is concern among some staffers that the suicide could potentially affect tourists desire to visit if they fear safety issues at the museum. The man would have had to climb over a four-foot wall and rail at the area he was seen by witnesses, according to news reports.

The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the incident.

White Earth Band votes to end ‘blood quantum’ for tribal membership

When Erma Vizenor was first elected to the office of secretary-treasurer at White Earth in the late 1990s, she promised she would work toward constitutional reform. Voters approved that reform last night. (Tom Robertson/MPR News file)

By Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio

MOORHEAD, Minn. — White Earth Band of Ojibwe tribal members have approved a new constitution that dramatically changes tribal government and expands membership in Minnesota’s largest Chippewa tribe.

The new constitution eliminates the blood quantum which requires a person to prove they have 25 percent Indian blood and changes to a system based on family lineage. But choosing a new constitution is only the first step in what will likely be a long and challenging process.

White Earth Nation Chairwoman Erma Vizenor has advocated for constitutional reform for 16 years, and said Tuesday that when 79 percent of voters approve a new constitution, as they just did with 3,492 votes cast, it’s a transformational moment.

“It feels great. It is gratifying to know that the people of White Earth have spoken and spoken strongly,” Vizenor said.

White Earth’s government will also expand. The new constitution replaces the five-member Reservation Business Council with independent executive, legislative and judicial branches.

The new separation of powers will help create economic stability on the northern Minnesota reservation, Vizenor said. “If we look at all the research on economic development in Indian Country, to diversify the economics of the reservation is dependent on an independent judicial system.”

But first, White Earth needs to resolve a conflict its new constitution sets up with the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe which is the governing body of six bands. The Red Lake Nation is independent of the MCT.

White Earth Constitutional Reform Manager Terry Janis says negotiations with the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe will take time.

“There’s some significant differences between the current MCT structure and this new proposed constitution and so they’re going to have to engage a process with MCT to figure out how they’re going to resolve those differences to allow White Earth to remain a part of MCT,” Janis said. If those differences can’t be resolved, White Earth would need to decide if it will withdraw from the MCT. The issue will be discussed at a Minnesota Chippewa Tribe meeting next month.

Vizenor said she’s confident an agreement can be reached because the numbers are on the White Earth band’s side: Its members make up more than half of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

Once membership in the MCT is resolved, White Earth will schedule an election for a president, members of the legislative council and a chief judge. Those new elected officials will then create the laws that define the new government roles based on the new constitution.

That might well be a process fraught with challenge according to James Mills, a consultant who helps tribes across the country with constitutional reform. He has not worked with White Earth, but said he’s helped about 50 tribes write or amend constitutions. In his experience, reform sometimes creates a power struggle.

“When someone writes a constitution that divides the powers between the three branches, if they’re not clear about who does what and when, the executive and legislative will often argue over whose authority it is and I’ve seen them just become stagnant as a result,” Mills said.

Vizenor said she knows the path forward is filled with challenges, but she says tribal members have given a mandate for change and she expects the transition to be successful.

How long that transition will take is unclear. Vizenor says she hopes new elections can be held within a year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe governs all of the Minnesota Chippewa bands. The Red Lake Nation is independent of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The current version of this story is correct.

Quinault Nation Receives Grant for Pellet Manufacturing Plant

Source: Water 4 Fish

TAHOLAH, WA (11/24/13)– The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) has received a $63,231 US Department of Agriculture Rural Business Opportunity Grant to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of a tribal pellet manufacturing plant on the tribe’s reservation, according to Fawn Sharp, QIN President.

The envisioned pellet mill is expected to consume logging slash blended with higher grade fiber and/or alternative bio-crop fiber such as Arundo Donax (Nile Fiber), to produce industrial quality pellets that eliminate the need for annual logging slash burns, according to Sharp. “We also anticipate creating new jobs as this Tribal Enterprise is developed. New jobs would include facility operations and maintenance, biomass harvesting, biomass sorting, mechanical equipment operators, truck drivers, and administrative support,” she said. “We anticipate as many as 36 new jobs from this project.”

Upon completion the study will bring the Quinault Indian Nation one step closer to a sustainable biomass for heat system that not only provides heat to essential tribal facilities but will also begin a new technology on the Reservation.

The Quinault Nation has been investigating the use of forest biomass material generated from QIN forest management practices as fuel for heating new or existing tribal facilities for years. The existing Tribal facilities being considered for retrofit in support of a biomass for heat facility include the Tribal Health Clinic, Department of Natural Resources, the Executive Office complex and the Administration complex.

To officially get this project off and running, QIN partnered with Columbia-Pacific Resource Conservation & Economic Development District (ColPac) to apply for grants from the USDA Rural Business Opportunity Grant Program and the US Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Grant Program. The successful grant application was done in support of a biomass feasibility study on the Quinault Reservation. The feasibility study, successfully completed in January of 2012, determined QIN generates more than sufficient biomass quantities to sustain a low pressure boiler system using wood chips or pellets (created from forest slash) as a green fuel source to produce low cost wood heat.

Due to the project’s focus on biomass as a sustainable renewable energy resource, a diverse team of partners and the potential for new Tribal jobs in support of biomass for heat technology, the project was designated as one of seven national USDA Great Regions Projects by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in 2010.

“Currently our project is in the final engineering and design phase for a QIN Biomass for Heat Facility,” said Sharp. “In support of this phase QIN applied for and was awarded a 2012 US Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Program Grant in the amount of $205,000,” she said.

Engineering and design of the QIN Biomass for Heat Facility is being accomplished by Richmond Engineering and includes the following tasks: Abbreviated Master Plant Site Selection, Schematic Design, Design Development, and Final Design/Bid Preparation. The QIN Biomass for Heat Facility is being engineered and designed as a low pressure hot water biomass heating facility.

The initial Biomass Feasibility Study concluded that 400 bone dry tons (BDT) per year of biomass fuel, in chip or pellet form, would be required to generate the sufficient amount of heat for QIN’s existing buildings. Timber harvests and forest management create 32,000 BDT of biomass-slash annually. The QIN reservation falls within the lush temperate rainforest and is highly productive making this biomass project highly viable as well as sustainable.

“Air quality, wildlife habitat, and forest resources will benefit from this project. Also QIN will save $78,000-$126,000 per year in utility bills from converting our current electric heat to wood heat. When constructed our Biomass for Heat Facility will help QIN become more energy independent. It will also help us become more self-reliant as we create local jobs,” she said.

“This is the type of project that creates jobs, on and off the reservation. It promotes energy independence and supports sustainability and sovereignty,” said Sharp . “It’s exactly what we’re looking for at Quinault,” she said.

Rising air pollution prompts region-wide burn bans

Source:Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

Pierce County: Stage 2

King & Snohomish counties: Stage 1

SEATTLE, Wash. – To protect public health from worsening air pollution, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is issuing a Stage 1 burn ban for King and Snohomish counties, effective at 2:00 p.m. November 24, 2013.

A Stage 2 burn ban remains in effect for Pierce County.

These bans remain in effect until further notice.

Last night fine particle pollution levels spiked in many areas throughout the Puget Sound region, especially in neighborhoods where wood-burning is common.

During a Stage 1 burn ban:

No burning is allowed in fireplaces or uncertified wood stoves. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled. The only exception is if a wood stove is a home’s only adequate source of heat.
No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.

It is OK to use natural gas, propane, pellet and EPA-certified wood stoves or inserts during a Stage 1 burn ban.

During a Stage 2 burn ban:

No burning is allowed in ANY wood-burning fireplaces, wood stoves or fireplace inserts (certified or uncertified) or pellet stoves. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled. The only exception is if a wood stove is a home’s only adequate source of heat.
No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.

It is OK to use natural gas and propane stoves or inserts during a Stage 2 burn ban.

The Washington State Department of Health recommends that people who are sensitive to air pollution limit time spent outdoors, especially when exercising. Air pollution can trigger asthma attacks, cause difficulty breathing, and make lung and heart problems worse. Air pollution is especially harmful to people with lung and heart problems, people with diabetes, children, and older adults (over age 65).

For more information:

Native American travels across U.S. photographing citizens of tribal nations

Courtesy Matika WilburJenni Parker, right, and granddaughter Sharlyse Parker of the Northern Cheyenne tribe pose in Lame Deer, Mont., in August. — Courtesy Matika Wilbur
Jenni Parker, right, and granddaughter Sharlyse Parker of the Northern Cheyenne tribe pose in Lame Deer, Mont., in August.

By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News

She sleeps on couches, dines with strangers and lives out of her car. Still, Matika Wilbur does it for the art and for the people.

Wilbur is Native American. Invariably strapped to her arm is a camera, and other than a few provisions and clothing, she owns little else. Last year she sold everything in her Seattle apartment, packed a few essentials into her car and then hit the road.

Since then, she’s been embarking on her most recent project, “Project 562.”

The plan is to photograph citizens of each federally recognized tribe, Wilbur said. Sometimes she’ll journey to an isolated reservation, other times she’ll meet some of the 70 percent of Native Americans living in urban settings. Yet she hopes that when her project is complete it will serve to educate the nation and “shift the collective conscious” toward recognizing its indigenous communities.

To date, Wilbur has photographed citizens of 159 tribes.

In 2010, when Wilbur first conceptualized the campaign, there were 562 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., hence the name. Since then, the U.S. government has added four more nations to the list.

Courtesy Matika WilburNative American activist and poet John Trudell, left, and Son Coup of the Santee Sioux Nation pose for a photo in San Francisco, Calif., in July.

The project all began three years ago when Wilbur photographed her elders from both of her tribes, the Swinomish and Tulalip. She soon decided it was not enough to photograph only her people. After raising $35,000 through Kickstarter.com, an online funding platform, she had enough to realize her project and zip across the country capturing the faces of this nation’s first peoples.

Wilbur said her project is aimed toward debunking the bevy of erroneous stereotypes surrounding Native American culture and society and to reiterate the continual presence of Native Americans.

“We are still here,” she said. “We remain.”

One of those stereotypes is the image of Indians clad in feathers, nearly naked running across the prairie, whooping it up like what’s oft portrayed in western cinema. Also the caricature image of Indians as mascots.

With that in mind, Wilbur said the project is meant to drive conversations about the ubiquitous appropriation of Native American culture and to discuss how U.S. citizens can evolve beyond the co-opting of indigenous images and traditions.

“I hope to educate these audiences that it’s not OK to dress up like an Indian on Halloween,” she said. “I’m not a Halloween costume. I hope to encourage a new conversation of sharing and to help us move beyond the stereotypes.”

Wilbur added that she hopes her photos — her craft — will display the “beauty of (Native) people and to introduce some of our leaders to a massive audience.”

Wilbur, 29, operates on a modest budget and relies heavily on the “generosity and kindness” of the people she meets when travelling throughout Indian country. Many of her photo subjects will host her overnight and provide her with meals.

Courtesy Matika WilburAnna Cook of the Swinomish and Hualapai tribes poses for a photo in Swinomish, Wash., earlier this month.

“I come in a good way. I bring gifts. I interact with their children well. I behave myself. I walk the red road,” she said. “People believe in my project because they, too, have been affected by the stereotypical image and they want to see it change.”

In between shoots, or maybe over dinner, Wilbur will tape record her subjects as they impart their wisdom and life stories. She plans to transfer the files to an application, which will coincide the corresponding photos in a future exhibition.

In the last year, Wilbur has slept in her two-seater Honda only once or twice but, following a new fundraiser in January, she hopes to get a van to sleep in on those long nights out on the open road.

Wilbur said that the fact that there are newly recognized tribes is indicative of the progress Native Americans are making today and that she plans to photograph the four tribes as well as various others who haven’t been recognized by the federal government.

Currently, Native Americans make up 1.6 percent of the entire U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.

On Oct. 31, President Barack Obama proclaimed November 2013 as Native American Heritage Month and designated Nov. 29, 2013 as Native American Heritage Day.

Wilbur’s previous work has been showcased across the U.S. and internationally at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada and the Fine Arts Museum of Nantes in France.

In May 2014, the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington will host an exhibition of Wilbur’s collection of photos. In the meantime, she says she’ll continue her project and “let it flow as the spirit moves it.”

Shop for Native American holiday gifts at Tulalip

By Monica Brown, Tulalip News writer.

TULALIP, Wa- Tulalip’s annual Native Bazaar is happening this weekend, Nov 23rd and 24th, and December 7th and 8th. The bazaar is a great place to buy handmade gifts for friends and family and offers everything from cedar woven items art, carvings and drums, to jewelry, clothing and food.

The bazaar is open 9:00am – 4:00pm and is located at the Don Hatch Jr Youth Center, 6700 Totem Beach Rd, Tulalip. I-5 exit 199, follow the signs.

Among the many native themed crafts is a line of clothing that has been tailored to show off native America designs.

‘Nava-Hos’ Frat Party Sparks Outrage

source: facebook.com/CaliforniaPolytechnic

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

An off-campus fraternity party at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo has drawn sharp criticism for its theme of “Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos.”

According to Mustang News, Cal-Poly’s student newspaper, the fraternity alleged to have been responsible for the event is Phi Sigma Kappa. Neighbors reported 17 to 100 guests, many of them young women dressed as sexualized Indian maidens. When Natives on the Cal-Poly faculty got wind of the incident, they brought it to the student affairs office.

The party will be discussed at a forum today, November 22, at Cal-Poly’s Chumash Auditorium.

Dr. Jennifer Rose Denetdale, Navajo, is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and serves on the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission. Contacted by ICTMN, she released the following statement:

The theme “Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos” for a frat-sorority party by students at Cal Poly directly references Navajos, whose name for themselves is Diné, and parodies U.S.-Navajo colonial relations. In 1863, the Indian fighter Kit Carson received orders from James H. Carleton, governor and commander of New Mexico Territory, to destroy the Navajo people. Kit Carson’s scorch and burn campaign against the Navajo people literally left the Navajo homeland burning as thousands of Navajo refugees, who were reduced to starvation and poverty, were herded into American forts and then forced to march to the Bosque Redondo reservation at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. For four years over eight thousand Navajo prisoners of the U.S. lived under genocidal conditions. Many did not survive. The Navajo prisoners lived in ditches in the ground and had little material means to ward off the blistering winters of the plains or the scorching heat of the summers. They were given inedible rations that were essentially starvation diets; many died from bouts of diseases and just sheer loneliness and broken hearts. In addition to constantly being on guard for slave raiders who stole the women and children, the Navajo women and girls were subjected to sexual assaults and rapes by both the American soldiers and the slave raiders. Gerald Thompson, author of The Army and the Navajo, indicates that the Indian agent at the Bosque Redondo dutifully reported that only two newborns had survived the first winter at the prison camp in 1863.

To invoke “Colonial Bros,” then, is to refer to one of the most darkest moments in American history and certainly for the Navajo people, it is a reference to one of the most brutal, humiliating, and devastating experiences under American colonialism. To refer to the scantily clad women who came as “Nava-Hos” is to not only diminish the Navajo people as whole, because the term connotes “whore” and “prostitute” and suggests that Navajo women were sexually available to the white soldiers; it says that it is not possible to rape or sexually assault Navajo women, because they are inherently rapable. “Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos” is also a slander on Navajo women who have survived rape and sexual assault that was a part of conquest.

Native peoples, and in this particular case, the Diné, are constantly subjected to racism, discrimination and hate every day, and yet these racist and hateful antics of Cal-Poly students are condoned by the University. Until we all speak up and condemn such language and behavior and hold the culprits responsible, there will be no justice.

Richie Incognito, Redskins and Racism in the NFL

By Gyasi Ross, Huffington Post Blog

“Once upon a time, a woman was picking up firewood. She came upon a poisonous snake frozen in the snow. She took the snake home and nursed it back to health. One day the snake bit her on the cheek. As she lay dying, she asked the snake, “Why have you done this to me?” And the snake answered, “Look, bitch, you knew I was a snake.” -Russell Means, Natural Born Killers

Irritatingly, the “Richie Incongito Is a Bully” and the “Richie Incognito Said the Word ‘Nigger'” storyline has been dominating the ESPN Sportscenter episodes recently. Just as my Seahawks get good enough to command serious national attention, some idiot who is considered an “honorary black man” by many of his fellow Miami Dolphins teammates simultaneously has 1) Shannon Sharpe crying like an infant; 2) white liberals judging this white man as if he were the first and only white man that has ever said this word; and 3) black folks upset.

I’m just mad that they’re not talking about the Seahawks. They are that good, y’all.

But since we’re on the topic, let me explain something — EVERY single person that is crucifying, judging or distancing themselves from Richie Incognito is a freakin’ hypocrite. Shannon Sharpe, with your self-righteous boo-hooing, you are a freakin’ hypocrite. In fact, every single NFL fan that acts like Richie Incognito saying the word “nigger” and bullying a teammate is the worst assault on polite society since Chad Ochocinco, you need to quit lying to yourselves.

To paraphrase the great Russell Means in the great Oliver Stone flick, Natural Born Killers, “Bitch, you knew Richie Incognito was a snake.”

“Bullying” is to football what “football” is to football.

First, let’s address these stupid “bullying” allegations. OK, news flash guys, football is bullying; let’s not romanticize the game and pretend that sportsmanship is a vital part of the game. In fact, that IS the game — to be the better bully than the other guy. From Dick Butkus (Hall of Fame, eye gouger) to Bill Romanowski (future Hall of Famer, spits in his teammates face, kicks opponents) to Jack Tatum (would have been Hall of Famer if he didn’t paralyze a player in a preseason game, kicked opponents) — DIRTY, bullying players have been CELEBRATED and coveted on NFL teams. Look at Ndamukong Suh — he’s as dirty as George W. Bush’s drug test in college, but because of his talent level, teams will always find a way to keep him on a team.

Incognito’s (and every other NFL player’s) job is to be a bully. The NFL is about bullying; for the NFL or anybody associated with the NFL to feign shock at Incognito for being a bully, you’re full of feces. Like Natural Born Killers, you’re blaming for being a snake in a snakepit.

How to address that? Stop rewarding snake-ism; change the snakepit. Which leads to the next point:

Racial Slurs Are Part of Everyday Culture

Richie Incognito, a white man, said the word “nigger.” That’s bad. Shannon Sharpe gave an impassioned, emotive performance about why the notion of Richie Incognito, a white man, saying the word “nigger” was so offensive. He said:

“[Y]ou allow this, in an open locker room to take place, is unacceptable. I’m so disappointed. I just hope that someone was misquoted. I hope I’m wrong and they didn’t allow Incognito to say this racially charged word in a locker room and go unchecked. I’m embarrassed. If he said that to Jonathan Martin, he didn’t only say it to him, he’s talking to you too. Because if you’re black, you know what that word means.”

Yet last year, the Washington Redskins brought in Shannon Sharpe to give a motivational talk to the Redskins players. That’s cool, although the strategy hasn’t seemed to really work that well on the field for the Redskins. Still, it’s odd that neither Shannon Sharpe, or really any of the NFL folks that decry Incognito’s racial slurs, have bothered to point that Sharpe and every other NFL announcer speaks a racial slur every single week — Redskins.

So the argument goes, Richie Incognito saying (and texting) the word “nigger” shouldn’t bother Sharpe. After all, Richie Incognito, according to teammates, was an “honorary black man.” That gave him permission to use the word as he saw fit, or that’s the way he saw it. Obviously these black men in the Miami Dolphins locker room weren’t offended by his use, and so that made it OK, right?

No? Of course not; it’s never OK for a person who isn’t black to use the word “nigger.”

But we also must concede that in the NFL, folks are conditioned to see that sort of behavior as OK. See, Shannon Sharpe and other black NFL announcers don’t seem to get it; they perpetuate this snakepit/racist culture that allows epithets to be used and then excused. The roots of the NFL, just like the roots of this very nation, are racist and firmly entrenched in overt and covert racism. That isn’t Shannon Sharpe’s (or other black players/coaches/announcers associated with the NFL) fault. YET, Shannon Sharpe, and all other black NFL announcers and players and coaches who allows and abets and doesn’t question the use of racial slurs other than “nigger” co-signs the very environment that allows Richie Incognito and Riley Cooper and whoever else to use that ugly word so flippantly.

Shannon Sharpe and Michael Strahan and James Brown and ever NFL player/coach/announcer who takes exception to non-black players using the word “nigger” should be disgusted and refuse to address the Washington Redskins — a racial epithet — as the “Washington Redskins” because that is the cornerstone of the racist culture that permeates the NFL. Shannon Sharpe, if he wants his outrage to be taken seriously, must not take the blood money that the Redskins give him — hush money for racial epithets.

It’s that quiet acquiescence on behalf of black folks associated with the NFL, like Sharpe, that makes rich white powerholders like Daniel Snyder say, “Well damn, they don’t really care about racial equality. They just want to get paid. Come talk to our team named after a racial epithet so you can lose your moral high ground to ever feign racial outrage.”

In conclusion, the culture of the NFL can change in regards to both bullying and the use of racial epithets. Yet, that only happens if folks like Shannon Sharpe give more than lip service to these causes. The NFL will never be able to selectively ban racial epithets — it’s kinda all or nothing when you’re trying to change a culture. So if the purpose is to change that culture, let’s go. Until that time, it’s just a bunch of a hypocritical hot air.

Gyasi Ross is a member of the Blackfeet Indian Nation and also comes from the Suquamish Nation. Both are his homelands. He continues to live on the lovely Suquamish Reservation — contrary to Rick Reilly’s assertion, no white liberals influenced his writing of this article. He is a father, an author, a lawyer, and a warrior. He has a new book, How To Say I Love You in Indian, available for pre-order. (Pre-order today!!). His Twitter handle is @BigIndianGyasi. He is a Seahawks fan and sees the Redskins as an inferior team, but readily acknowledges RGIII’s potential greatness (and hopes Alfred Morris does well because Morris is on his fantasy football team).

Follow Gyasi Ross on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigIndianGyasi

IRS proposes rule to address fishing rights income

Source: Indianz.com

Attorneys discuss a proposed Internal Revenue Service regulation that would address income earned from tribal members who exercise their fishing rights:

On November 15, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service published a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) along with proposed regulations regarding the treatment of certain income derived from Indian fishing rights-related activity when it is contributed to a qualified retirement plan such as a 401(k) or other employer-sponsored pension plan. The notice can be viewed at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/11/15/2013-27331/treatment-of-income-from-indian-fishing-rights-related-activity-as-compensation. The proposed regulations clear one of the current hurdles to including employees of an Indian fishing rights operation in a typical employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k) plan. Unlike most types of employee compensation, Indian fishing rights-related income is exempt from both income and employment taxes under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 7873(a)(1) and (a)(2). Therefore, Indian fishing rights-related income is not included in a taxpayer’s gross income. The IRS has traditionally taken the position that in order to make a contribution to an individual retirement account (IRA) or a 401(k) plan, an individual must have “compensation” that is included in gross income. The proposed regulations clarify that payments received by Indian tribe members as remuneration for services they perform in fishing rights-related activities will not be excluded from the definition of “compensation” for purposes of IRC Section 415 and underlying regulations, merely because such payments are not subject to income or employment taxes. Consequently, the proposed regulations allow employees receiving such payments to participate in and contribute to a retirement plan qualified under IRC Section 401(a).

Get the Story:
Kathleen M. Nilles, Ariadna Alvarez and Robert B. Bersell: IRS Proposes New Rules On Indian Fishing Rights Income For Retirement Plans (Mondaq.com 11/20)
Username: indianz@indianz.com. Password: indianz Federal Register Notice:

Treatment of Income From Indian Fishing Rights-Related Activity as Compensation (November 15, 2013)

Shirt worn by George Armstrong Custer up for auction in Maine

George Armstrong Custer signed shirt. Photo from Saco River Auction

Source: Indianz.com

A shirt belonging to George Armstrong Custer is up for auction this Saturday. The shirt was authenticated by the Custer Battlefield Museum in Montana, according to the Saco River Auction. The estimated price is $1,000 to $1,500.

Also up for auction are artifacts that are said to be from the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Custer and the 7th Calvary were defeated by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho forces in June 1876.

Get the Story:
Earliest known recording of black vocal group in the US to hit auction block this weekend (AP 11/20)