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Montana School District Charged with Voting-Rights Violations

Courtesy Richard PetersonWolf Point school district voting-rights lawsuit participants, including, left to right, plaintiff Bill Whitehead, plaintiffs’ counsel Jon Ellingson of ACLU Montana, plaintiffs Lanette Clark and Ron Jackson and Jim Taylor, also of the Montana ACLU. — Courtesy Richard Peterson
Wolf Point school district voting-rights lawsuit participants, including, left to right, plaintiff Bill Whitehead, plaintiffs’ counsel Jon Ellingson of ACLU Montana, plaintiffs Lanette Clark and Ron Jackson and Jim Taylor, also of the Montana ACLU.

Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Wolf Point School District, which has a predominantly Native student population, drawn from the surrounding Fort Peck Indian Reservation, in northeastern Montana. The suit argues that school board districts favor non-Native voters and should be redrawn.

Wolf Point is the largest community on the reservation and has a two-part school district. The predominantly non-Native portion, with 430 residents, elects three members to the eight-member school board of trustees. The 4,205 residents of the predominantly Native American portion—nearly 10 times as many people—elect five members. That means one board member from the mostly white area represents 143 residents, while board members from the mostly Native area each represent 841 people, according to the suit, Jackson et al v. Wolf Point School District.

This imbalance violates the one-person-one-vote principle, said Montana ACLU legal director and plaintiffs’ co-counsel Jon Ellingson. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Great Falls, Montana, asks for enforcement of equal rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, as well as by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The suit also invokes Section 3 of the VRA and asks the court to “bail in” the school district and subject it to Section 5 preclearance. If ordered to submit future redistricting plans and other election procedures to the court, the district would have to prove in each instance that its practices were not discriminatory, says the complaint.

Though the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the VRA’s Section 4 in June and sent an existing list of preclearing jurisdictions back to Congress for retooling, the high court left the rest of the law intact. That includes Section 3, which provides an alternate way to require specific jurisdictions to provide this type of accountability.

The unequal representation in Wolf Point has profound effects on students, who have few Native teachers, counselors and others to guide them and provide role models, according to Ellingson. “For 15 years, the school’s board of trustees and other authority figures have been almost exclusively white. The children see Native employees who are mostly support staff.” As a result, said Ellingson, the school does not promote Native children’s culture and aspirations.

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office investigated the school, according to a Helana newspaper. This followed years of activism by Fort Peck tribal member Iris Allrunner and others and a report to the agency on a visit to the school by Indian-education advocate Christine Rose. The agency heard parent allegations ranging from overprescribing of Ritalin and use of a locked, padded isolation room for Indian students to sexual abuse and incidents of racially charged cruelty by white students and staff.

U.S. News & World Report 2013 education ratings show an underperforming school, with reading and math scores below the state average. Enrollment figures provided by the district data specialist for the school year 2012–13 show Native children making up a smaller proportion of the student body as they age: 72 percent of junior high students were Native, while just 48.8 percent of high school students were—a difference of just over 23 percent. Meanwhile, white children made up 10.7 percent of the junior high and 27.8 percent of the high school. The rest of the children were from other population groups or had been identified by their parents as being of two or more races.

A measure of the Wolf Point elite’s blind spot for Native concerns can be found in the history section of the town’s website. In the early 1900s, the area was little more than a railroad station and a collection of settlers who had “poured into” Montana for cheap Indian land, according to the site. The web page continues: “Only one more thing was needed. Wolf Point was on an Indian reservation—a huge reservation with very few Indians…In the early summer of 1914, the date everyone was waiting for arrived—the official opening of the Fort Peck Reservation to homesteading.”

At press time, officials of the school district and board of trustees had not returned calls requesting comments on the various issues the suit raises

Wounded Knee Back on the Block: Will It Be Sold to an Outsider?

Vincent Schilling, ICTMN

Earlier this month, James Czywczynski, the owner of the Wounded Knee site told the Oglala Sioux Tribe they had until Labor Day, September 2 to purchase the land. As the date approaches, tribal President Bryan Brewer says he isn’t worried about the deadline.

In an interview on the Native Trailblazers online radio program, Brewer said Czywczynski’s claims are nothing new. “He has been threatening to sell this land for years. This isn’t the first time.”

He added that even if Czywczynski sold Wounded Knee to an outsider, it would be unusable. “One of the problems is that our tribal lands completely surround his 34 acres. There is no way anyone could ever get to this land to do any type of development or anything else… the tribe would not allow it.

“He wants to sell it, and it has only been valued at about $8,000,” Brewer said. “The owner has valued this land at $6 million, so I say to him, ‘Then why aren’t you paying taxes on land that is valued at $6 million?’ I and some of the descendants of Wounded Knee met with him and I told him, ‘No one will ever buy this.’”

Czywczynski says he has given the tribe every opportunity to buy the land, and believes the tribe has enough money to buy the site. “They received $31 million from the Cobell settlement and they didn’t buy it then,” he said.

Brewer is still hopeful that someone will act on behalf of the tribe. “Some people have said they want to buy this land and return it to the tribe–we may get the land back, but he will be the only one that benefits financially from the sale. I told him that we would gladly offer to support and bless the sale if he could find a place in his heart to give half the money to the descendants of Wounded Knee so that we could fix up the area and our own people could learn about what really happened there. Our history books don’t tell the story.

“I just don’t understand someone making this much money off this land and putting it into their pocket and walking away.”

Czywczynski is still hopeful he will sell Wounded Knee for the full asking price. “I hope to, one way or another we are going to get this done.”

Increasing number of kids stricken by arthritis

BY JOSH KERNS on August 30, 2013

MyNorthwest.com

When Lucy Jackson was just 2-and-a-half years old, she seemed like a perfectly normal, healthy youngster. But that all changed on Thanksgiving day in 2007 while the Mill Creek family vacationed in Florida.

Lucy Jackson, 8, of Mill Creek (center) is one of 300,000 children across the country fighting the pain and debilitating effects of juvenile arthritis (photo courtesy Jackson family)

“She woke up and couldn’t walk,” says her mom Katie. She was in serious pain.

Lucy had been perfectly healthy up to that point in her young life. At first, her parents thought she’d possibly been bitten by a bug or something and went to the emergency room. There, the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong, except for some indicators she might have some inflammation in her joints. He mentioned the possibility of juvenile arthritis.

“We thought he was crazy. We just had no idea. We’d never even heard of juvenile arthritis,” she says.

When they got back home, doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital confirmed the diagnosis. Lucy had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA).

JRA is just one of more than 100 different diseases or conditions that fall under the umbrella designation of arthritis – a complex family of musculoskeletal disorders that destroy joints, bones, muscles, cartilage and other connective tissues, hampering or halting physical movement – according to the Arthritis Foundation. The word “arthritis” literally means joint inflammation, but can involve the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal tract as well.

In Lucy’s case, it is often painful and debilitating.

“I think she pushes through things she shouldn’t, but she limps a lot, her joints are sore at the end of the day,” says Katie.

“It is very hard because it hurts,” says Lucy.

At first, she had to get joint injections several times a year and take various medications. But as she’s gotten older, the arthritis has spread through her body, affecting a number of joints. Some days the pain, and stiffness, gets so bad she has a hard time moving. Now, she has to get weekly injections and take daily medications, which often cause serious side effects.

“She gets tired, nauseous. It just knocks her out,” says Katie.

Lucy’s not alone. Children’s Hospital estimates nearly 300,000 kids in the United States have some sort of arthritis. Unfortunately, there is no cure. The goal of treatment is to relieve inflammation, control pain and improve a child’s quality of life.

“This is a tricky disease, it doesn’t have clear boundaries,” Katie says.

While it can be overwhelming, luckily Lucy’s family doesn’t have to manage her arthritis alone. The Arthritis Foundation is there to help her and the one in every four Washington residents who struggle every day with this serious health epidemic.

“Our goal is to help reduce the unacceptable pain, disability and other burdens of arthritis and related diseases. We offer information, events, research funding, advocacy activities and other vital programs and services,” says Dr. Steven Overman, a nationally renowned Seattle-based rheumatologist and Arthritis Foundation of Washington board member. “We believe the heavy toll arthritis takes is unacceptable, and that arthritis must be taken as seriously as other chronic diseases because of its devastating consequences.”

For Katie, the Arthritis Foundation has been a “blessing” for the entire family. “It’s opened up a community of people that were going through similar stuff that we were. It helped us connect and feel normal because they knew what it felt like. It felt like a family,” she says. “It is a blessing. They are such kind people. And their goal is so narrow focused. They want a cure. I love that they have this optimism and they have a plan.”

“I hope they can come up with a cure because I want to be a veterinarian,” Lucy says hopefully.

There is no cure on the immediate horizon. But with increased research, more doctors focusing on arthritis and advances in treatment, Dr. Overman says the goal is to reduce by 20 percent the number of people suffering from arthritis-related physical activity limitations. But they can’t do it alone. The Arthritis Foundation needs your help, whether it’s donating to one of their fund-raising events or volunteering.

“Not only will you make a world of difference now in the lives of people who are disabled by arthritis. You will also be paving the way for a future free of arthritis pain,” Overman says.

“I would love my daughter to grow up and not have this pain anymore. I would love for her to be able to share her story and have it be a recovery story,” says Katie.

That’s why KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, 710 ESPN Seattle, AM 770 KTTH, Les Schwab Tire Centers and Carter Subaru are proud to recognize The Arthritis Foundation of Washington as our Charity of the Month. You can learn more and how to help here.

Football and Hogans: Super Bowl XLIX Will Feature Large Indian Village

Lee Allen, Indian Country Today Media Network

Seeking to take advantage of a captive audience, all 22 tribes in the state of Arizona are expected to be represented at an American Indian Village as part of the 2015 Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix. Even though it’s two years out, planning by the Arizona American Indian Tourist Association is already underway.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to get the Indian country message out to the thousands who will attend the football championship,” says Donovan Hanley (Navajo), current Tourist Association president. The Village, one of the association’s largest collaborative efforts, showcases the sights, sounds and flavors of Native dance, music, arts and crafts, and food—a slice of tribal life.

“We set up an Indian Village during the 1996 and 2008 NFL Super Bowls in Phoenix and drew 20,000 attendees,” said past AAITA President Rory Majenty (Yavapai). Another 8,000 visitors enjoyed the experience during the 2012 Centennial.

The Indian Village Returns to Arizona (Centennial Celebration)

Although plans are not yet in place for 2015, much of the color and pageantry of last year’s Centennial should re-appear at the Super Bowl—displays like a replica of a Navajo hogan, a traditional Hopi house, and a Salt River Pima-Maricopa round house; demonstrations of traditional piki bread-making; performances by gourd singers accompanied by aboriginal instruments; dancers performing the Pal’hik Mana (Water Maiden) and the Eagle Dance; artists who will show how pottery is made from the collection of the clay to the finished product—everything is on the table in current discussions.

“This is a great venue to market Indian tourism to a captured audience and to educate visitors of the growth and abilities of Arizona’s native peoples,” said Majenty. “We’re a big part of this state and lay claim to a large part of its history and identity.”

And that includes the sport of football too. “The Indian and the NFL are not separate entities,” says Raphael Bear (Yavapai). “Native American gridiron star Jim Thorpe was one of the first Commissioners when the National Football League was started. We have an opportunity here as a tourist organization for American Indians to let the world know we’ve always been a part of this sports scene. A smart card player plays the strongest cards in his hand and the Thorpe connection is a trump card for us to hold during the Super Bowl.”

“I know people aren’t going to just stop into the Village and then make plans to vacation in Indian Country,” says Hanley. “This kind of focused concentration takes years and years to become truly effective, but an authentic Indian Village can plant a bug to spur further interest in all we have to offer in the state.

“While many out-of-state football fans may just fly in and fly out to count kickoffs and savor the touchdowns, we expect regional attendees to visit the Village both before and after the game and feel if we tantalize all the sensory options with our exhibits and entertainment, it will peak further interest in Arizona’s Indian country.”

Swedish ISP to nominate Snowden for Nobel Peace Prize

Sean Gallup/Getty Images News/Getty Images

By Katie Rachel Zavadski

August 27, 2013 Bustle

Bahnhof — the Swedish Internet Service Provider embroiled in international controversy because it houses the Wikileaks servers — took another stand in support of leakers Tuesday, when it announced that it would endorse Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The folks at Wired had it first:

The U.S. has charged Snowden with theft and espionage for leaking secret documents that outline the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance programs. But to many, he’s a heroic whistleblower who has shone a light on a shadowy and excessive government effort to track our personal behavior online.

That’s how Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung sees it. To those who know him, that’s not a surprise. Three years ago, he was both a hosting provider and vocal supporter of Wikileaks, helping to house the operation in a Cold War-era nuclear bunker. His company hasn’t recommended people for Nobel Prizes before, but he says he decided to name Snowden because the former NSA contractor’s leaks have been so important.

Karlung admits that he doesn’t have high hopes that the prestigious award, set to be announced October 11, will be awarded to Snowden. He’s also not the first to suggest America’s latest leaker for the prize: a left-wing Danish party and aSwedish professor have already tossed Snowden’s name into the ring.

President Barack Obama, who has been put on the defensive by Snowden’s leaks,won the prize in 2009. There’s no doubt that awarding the prize to Snowden would be a seen as a major snub to him by the international community.

Chelsea Manning, the soldier who leaked hundreds of thousands of classified cables and intelligence documents to Wikileaks while stationed in Iraq, is another hero for government accountability groups. A petition to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Manning — who has been nominated for the award each of the past three years — has over 100,000 signatures. Earlier this month, Manning was sentenced to over three decades in prison.

But Manning’s leaks primarily concerned the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs.

Snowden revelations, on the other hand, exposed actions against U.S. citizens and American allies. Secret documents revealed by Snowden routinely contradicted privacy assurances given by the Obama administration. A recent round of revelations showed that the NSA had monitored upwards of 50,000 conversations between U.S. citizens, not just between citizens and foreigners as the government had claimed.

The leaks also revealed extensive collaboration with British authorities. On Sunday, German magazine Der Spiegel announced that documents provided by Snowden show that the NSA was monitoring the United Nations complex in New York.

All this makes Snowden a likelier pick for the prize than Manning. But both are up against a slate of less controversial nominees, including teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, and Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva.

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his leaks about the Vietnam War, which went public through the New York Times in 1971 (though he received the Gandhi Peace Award in 1978 and the Right Livelihood Award in 2006).

“In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago,” Ellsberg wrote in The Guardian earlier this year.

A Continent of Ice on the Wane

A whale-watching platform made of and sitting on sea ice north of Barrow. Photo by Ned Rozell.

Despite taking up as much space as Australia, the blue-white puzzle of ice floating on the Arctic Ocean is an abstraction to the billions who have never seen it. But continued shrinkage of sea ice is changing life for many living things. A few Alaska scientists added their observations to a recent journal article on the subject.

By Ned Rozell | Geophysical Institute

08/26/2013

Since 1999, the loss of northern sea ice equal to the size of Greenland is a “stunning” loss of habitat for animals large (polar bears) and small (ice algae and phytoplankton that feed a chain of larger creatures leading up to bowhead whales). So write the 10 authors that teamed to write “Ecological Consequences of Sea-Ice Decline,” featured in the August 2, 2013 issue of Science.

Eric Post of Penn State University, a former graduate student who studied caribou at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is the lead author on the paper. When sea ice hit its minimum extent in the satellite era about a year ago, it got him thinking about how the loss of ice affects living things. That’s when Post, now the director of the Polar Center, rallied other contributors, from polar bear biologists to atmospheric scientists, to bring their results together.

“I think all of us as authors learned quite a bit about the importance of sea ice loss,” he said by email. “Individually, we each had a pretty clear idea of the implications of sea ice loss for certain parts of the arctic system, but none of us really grasped the full scope of the problem.”

Starting at the smaller end of things, the scientists point out that freshening of the Arctic Ocean caused by melting of sea ice may cause smaller types of plankton to thrive.

Arctic foxes, great wanderers of sea ice, will be limited by less of it, which would decrease the spread of rabies they sometimes carry from Russia’s mainland to Svalbard.

Walrus, which suck clams out of their shells with piston-like tongues, use sea ice as a resting spot between dives to the ocean floor. In recent years, people have seen more walruses using shorelines as haul-out spots; U.S. Geological Survey scientists counted 131 carcasses at one of these sites in September 2009. They wrote that the deaths, perhaps because of exhaustion or trampling, “appear to be related to the loss of sea ice over the Chukchi Sea continental shelf.”

In Canada’s arctic, “later freeze-ups and increased shipping traffic should shift or prevent the annual migration of the Dolphin and Union caribou herd,” the Science authors wrote. Parasites that feed off the caribou might increase because of this, but diseases spread by wandering caribou might decrease.

Polar bears need sea ice to hunt their favorite food, seals. As the sea ice shrinks, polar bears may be driven to land, where brown bears might outcompete them or hybridize with them.

The two UAF scientists who added to the report are Uma Bhatt, who studies the atmosphere, and Skip Walker, an expert on tundra plants. They have both done work to prove that the loss of sea ice has made the Arctic a greener place.

How might that happen? With less ice acting as a mirror for sunlight, the darker ocean absorbs more heat, which in turn warms the coastlines touching the Arctic Ocean. That warm air encourages plants to convert sunlight into growth at a higher rate and lengthens the growing season. Woody shrubs are becoming more numerous and taller, shouldering out smaller tundra plants. And the most extreme region of far north plants — a swath of bryophytes, lichens, blue-green algae and a few other non-woody species that make up what Russians call “polar desert” — seems to be headed for extinction.

The study helped lead-author Post envision northern sea ice as he would a great boreal forest or caribou herd scattered across an arctic plain.

“Sea ice is a living system,” Post said. “And not only does it harbor and sustain life, which is obviously affected by its loss, its disappearance influences the climate systems that affect life on other parts of the planet. We’ve come a long way in understanding how the loss of vast areas of mature tropical rainforest affects everything from indigenous cultures to species to ecosystems; our views of sea ice loss need to catch up with that understanding.”

Since the late 1970s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute.

– See more at: http://alaska-native-news.com/the-arctic/9157-a-continent-of-ice-on-the-wane.html#sthash.KOPiL9DH.dpuf

Eight Hot Environmental Battlegrounds in Indian Country

Terri Hansen, Indian Country Today Media Network

Corporate interests have been gobbling up indigenous land and rights since contact more than 500 years ago. Today, American Indians are still fighting to maintain their stewardship and the integrity of the land. From the uranium invasion of the Grand Canyon, to the trashing of sacred places in the name of renewable energy, here are some of the most environmentally embattled hot spots in Indian country.

1. Havasupai Tribe Challenges Grand Canyon Uranium Mine

The Havasupai, natives of Grand Canyon lands, sued the U.S. Forest Service on March 7, 2013 over its decision to allow Energy Fuels Resources Inc. to mine uranium near Grand Canyon National Park without initiating or completing tribal consultations, and without updating a 26-year-old federal environmental review. The lawsuit alleges violations of environmental, mining, public land and historic preservation laws.

2. Keweenaw Bay Indians’ Fight Global Mining Corporation

The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula had to fight for their clean water, sacred sites, and traditional way of life after the international Kennecott Eagle Minerals arrived 10 years ago to tunnel a mile underground near Lake Superior to reach metals in the ore. As the project moves toward completing its sulfide-extraction plan to mine copper and nickel from tribal lands in 2014, this fight is far from over.

3. Lummi Stand Firm Against SSA Marine’s Proposed Cherry Point Coal Terminal

Members of the Lummi Nation protest plans for a coal rail terminal at Cherry Point, Washington state. (Photo: Associated Press)

The Lummi Nation formally opposed SSA Marine of Seattle’s proposed Cherry Point terminal in a July 30 letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, as it will infringe on treaty fishing rights. SSA Marine wants a shoreline terminal with multiple rail lines near Bellingham, Wash., to export 48 million tons of Montana and Wyoming Powder River Basin coal annually—some likely from Crow Indian country—to Asia. In the past USACE has refused to process other permit applications if Indian tribes contend such projects violate treaty rights as defined by numerous federal court rulings. What’s next?

4. Desert Natives Fight Annihilation of Petroglyphs, Geopglyphs by Mega Renewable Power Projects

Multibillion-dollar solar power and wind projects fast-tracked for California’s pristine desert areas materialized in 2008 that would destroy hundreds of petroglyphs as well as giant earth drawings called geopglyphs. The plan prompted lawsuits by Native American tribes and La Cuna de Aztlan Sacred Sites Protection Circle. A U.S. District Court ruling in December 2010 said that the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management had failed to consult with the Quechan Tribe before approving one project, stating that Native Americans are entitled to “special consideration” when agencies fulfill their consultation requirements under the National Historic Preservation Act.

The Coyote Mountains form the backdrop for this desert wilderness that is part of the Quechan Indian Tribe’s creation story. The desert floor would be scraped bare to make way for the 10-mile-long solar project.

Yet in early 2002 after the Genesis solar plant disrupted cultural and cremation sites of the Colorado River tribes BLM Deputy State Director Thomas Pogacnik said Native Americans had good reason to be angry about his agency’s fast-track process that relied almost entirely on data from developers to determine where to place the first “high-priority” wind and solar projects on public land. The battles rages on.

5. Quapaw Tribe Sues United States Over Mining Mess

The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma filed suit March 25, 2013 against the United States for copy75 million for financial mismanagement and failure to ensure that mining companies had appropriately cleaned and restored their reservation after discontinuing the largest lead and zinc mining operation in the country, which produced billions of dollars in ore. Now, much of their land is polluted and lies within the Tar Creek Superfund Site. In a 10-year investigation the tribe said it found that a close relationship between the federal government, U.S. Department of Interior, and mining companies contributed to the lack of meaningful cleanup. Few members of the tribe benefited from the tribe’s mineral wealth.

6. Northern Wisconsin Tribes Take on Gogebic Taconite LLC

The problems keep coming for Gogebic Taconite’s proposed open pit iron ore mine in Wisconsin’s Gogebic Iron Range. Against it are the Lac Courte Oreilles and Bad River tribes. ICTMN brought to light a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ July 2013 letter to GTAC warning of the potential presence of a deadly form of asbestos, and GTAC’s dismissal of the agency’s concern in a written reply. ICTMN also reported that Wisconsin legislators ignored crucial scientific evidence when they passed legislation underwritten by GTAC last March that facilitated the project.

RELATED: Wis. Mining War

7. Sacred San Francisco Peaks Sewage Drench Staved Off

The San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, sacred to more than a dozen tribes, gave rise to lawsuits when in 2002 the U.S. Forest Service lessee, Arizona Snowbowl, began plans to expand a ski area on one of the peaks. Doing so meant not only clear-cutting a huge swath of rare alpine tundra but also making snow from reclaimed wastewater, including sewage, pumped in from nearby Flagstaff by cacophonous machines operating around the clock. The Hopi Tribe won its latest round on April 25, when the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned a 2011 ruling by a former Coconino County Superior Court judge, clearing the way for them to challenge the city of Flagstaff’s contract to sell reclaimed wastewater to Arizona Snowbowl.

8. A Losing Battle for Uranium Mine in Navajo Country

A joke that was circulating on Facebook recently said that if Wate Mining wanted to extract uranium from Arizona state land it would have to catapult the 500,000 annual pounds of ore to the processing mill in Utah. Why? Navajo country surrounds the state land. Officially, the Navajo Department of Justice responded to the mineral lease application in May, saying, “Given the (Navajo) Nation’s history with uranium mining, it is the nation’s intent to deny access to the land for the purpose of prospecting for or mining of uranium.”

These are just a few of the battles being fought to preserve the environment against corporate interests in Indian country. Follow even more conflicts below.

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Proposed Alaska Coal Mine Divides Alaska Communities, Elicits Racist Rant

Qwuloolt restoration in its final phase

By Monica Brown Tulalip News Writer

State and local politicians along with environmentalists toured the estuary while learning about the extensive undertakings that are part of the complex project that will restore the estuary to it's natural function. Photo by Monica Brown — State and local politicians along with environmentalists toured the estuary while learning about the extensive undertakings that are part of the complex project that will restore the estuary to it’s natural function. Photo by Monica Brown

Tulalip, Wash. –

Restoring 400 acres of estuary land is not a mediocre task and has required years of dedication from many groups. The complexity of the restoration project has spanned fourteen years and is nearing completion. With just over a year left in the project the, the final stage is to lower the southern levee and remove the tide gate.

The tide gate and levee drain the fresh water from the land and prevent any water from flowing back into the estuary. With the completion this winter of the setback levee on the western side, the southern levee, which runs along the northern edge of Ebey Slough, will be breached and the tide gate removed allowing the saline and fresh water to mix.

The Tulalip Tribes, along with the City of Marysville, Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Department of Ecology, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have collaborated on this project and representatives were invited along with local and state politicians to view the progress that has been made.

Visitors were led into the estuary and taken on a brief walk to view the channel opening. Afterwards they were invited to the Hibulb Cultural Center for lunch and a discussion the estuary project in its final stage.

The restoration’s completion is expected to increase the salmon and migratory bird population and bolster the native vegetation in the area.

The collaboration between tribal, local, county, state, and federal agencies will restore the natural water flow in the 400 acre estuary. Photo By Monica Brown

Mel Sheldon, Tulalip board chairman, reminisced during the lunch after the tour about when the project was just getting started 14 years ago. Photo by Monica Brown

Right call (but late) on Sand Creek Massacre exhibit

History Colorado has made the right decision by closing, temporarily at least, its exhibit on the Sand Creek Massacre while officials consult with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. We’re just sorry it had to come to this.

By The Denver Post Editorial Board

August 30, 2013

The clear lesson from this episode is that museum officials should have reached out earlier to the tribes and given them fuller opportunities to voice their concerns.

And their concerns, outlined in reporting by Westword’s Patricia Calhoun over the last several months, were many.

The History Colorado Center closed its Sand Creek Massacre exhibit earlier this year while it consults with tribal families. (Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press)

First, the very name of the exhibit, “Collision: The Sand Creek Massacre,” was offensive to many tribal members, who believed the event was being portrayed as an inevitable clash of cultures rather than an indefensible massacre.

On Nov. 29, 1864, U.S. Army soldiers led by Col. John M. Chivington attacked a village along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. Soldiers savagely butchered more than 160 Cheyenne and Arapaho, the bulk of them women, children and the elderly.

The massacre was defended at the time as revenge for Indian attacks on white settlers, including the bloody murders and mutilations of a family near present-day Elizabeth.

Nevertheless, a congressional commission later labeled the Sand Creek attack as “foul, dastardly and cruel.”

One of the most damning eyewitness accounts of the massacre came not from the survivors, but from Capt. Silas Soule, who wrote to Gen. Edward Wynkoop afterward.

“I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized,” Soule wrote. “One squaw was wounded and a fellow took a hatchet to finish her, and he cut one arm off, and held the other with one hand and dashed the hatchet through her brain.”

Soule, who refused to participate in the massacre, was branded a coward and murdered the following year.

Originally, only an excerpt of his letter was included in the exhibit. The full letter was added after complaints from tribal representatives.

But tribal members still say they wanted more time to discuss the exhibit, which was opened over their objections.

The museum now says it is committed to working with the tribes on how to appropriately depict one of the most tragic events in American history.

That’s a good idea. However, the end product must reflect the best historical consensus of experts.

For the sake of history, and to respect those murdered and their descendants, we hope the museum gets it right this time.

The History Colorado Center closed its Sand Creek Massacre exhibit earlier this year while it consults with tribal families. (Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press)

Dozens of summer chinook stolen from Chief Joseph Hatchery

by K.C. Mehaffey The Wenatchee World

Aug. 30, 2013

BRIDGEPORT — Two months after the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation opened the Chief Joseph Hatchery, thieves made off with dozens of summer chinook being held for broodstock.

Losing an estimated 42 adult fish that were ready to produce more than 73,000 young salmon for later release was bad enough.

But even worse, tribal officials are warning that whoever took the fish have exposed themselves to a cancer-causing chemical.

The fish, in a broodstock pen below the hatchery, were treated with Formalin and should not be handled or eaten, a notice posted on the Colville Tribes’ website says.

“If you believe you have consumed or handled these fish, then it is recommended that you should immediately seek medical attention,” it says.

Colville Tribal Police are offering a $500 reward for information leading to conviction of the poachers.

Tribal Chairman said he people are cautious of any salmon that may have come from an unlikely source to be wary, and contact tribal officials.

“We’ve done all we can on our end to try to educate the public that those fish aren’t safe,” he said.

The loss of these fish is also significant to the tribes’ effort to bring more fish to the upper Columbia River for both tribal and non-tribal fishermen.

“There’s no doubt it’s going to set us back,” Finley said.

Salmon are collected all season and held until they’re ready to be spawned. To get a good sampling of salmon that are likely to return at different times of the spring, summer and fall, the adults from which the eggs are taken should also be gathered from different times of the spawning season, he said.

“We literally have to wait until next year” to get salmon that will return at the same time, he said.

Tribal police are investigating the case, and the tribe will close the North Shore Access Road at Chief Joseph Hatchery at sunset every day due to the theft.

Anyone with information can contact tribal police at 634-2472.