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Petroglyphs the oldest in North America

Source: Associated Press

PYRAMID LAKE, Nev. — Ancient rock etchings along a dried-up lake bed in Nevada have been confirmed to be the oldest recorded petroglyphs in North America, dating back at least 10,000 years.

The petroglyphs found on limestone boulders near Pyramid Lake in northern Nevada’s high desert are similar in design to etchings found at a lake in Oregon that are believed to be at least 7,600 years old. Unlike later drawings that sometimes depict a spear or antelope, the carvings are abstract with tightly clustered geometric designs — some are diamond patterns, others have short parallel lines on top of a longer line.

Scientists can’t tell for sure who carved them, but they were found on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe’s reservation land.

“We initially thought people 12,000 or 10,000 years ago were primitive, but their artistic expressions and technological expertise associated with these paints a much different picture,” said Eugene Hattori, the curator of anthropology at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City who co-wrote a paper on the findings earlier this month in the Journal of Archaeological Science

The petroglyphs could be as much as 14,800 years old, said Larry Benson, a geochemist who used radiocarbon testing to date the etchings and was the lead author of the research paper.

Radiocarbon testing dated the carbonate layer underlying the petroglyphs to roughly 14,800 years ago. Geochemical data and sediment and rock samples from adjacent Pyramid Lake show they were exposed to air from 13,200 to 14,800 years ago, and again from 10,500 to 11,300 years ago.

“Whether they turn out to be as old as 14,800 years ago or as recent as 10,500 years ago, they are still the oldest petroglyphs that have been dated in North America,” said Benson, a former research scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey and current curator of anthropology at the University of Colorado Natural History Museum in Boulder.

Dennis Jenkins, an archaeologist with the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, called it a significant discovery. He led recent excavations of obsidian spear points near Paisley, Ore., that he dated back 13,200 years, and noted that the bigger challenge is identifying who created the petroglyphs.

“When you get back into this time period, if you speak with Native Americans they will tell you they were made (created) there and that is obviously their people and their artwork,” Jenkins said. “But approaching it from a scientific point of view — what we can prove — at this point, it is impossible to connect these to any tribal group.”

William Cannon, a longtime archaeologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who found the petroglyphs at Long Lake in Oregon, brought the Nevada site to Hattori’s attention years ago. He said they bore similarities to petroglyphs at nearby Winnemucca Lake, and Hattori began connecting the dots after Benson spotted the carbonate coating on the rocks.

The etchings in Nevada and Oregon have relatively deep, carved lines dominated by linear, curved and circular geometrical designs. Some feature “tree-form designs” with a series of evenly spaced, vertically oriented ‘V’ shapes bisected by a vertical line.

Researchers have suggested the etchings represent various meteorological symbols, such as clouds and lightning, perhaps the Milky Way.

“But we really have nothing to go on for these particular petroglyphs that go back 10,000 or more years,” Hattori said Wednesday.

Benson has no idea what they mean. “When I looked at it, I said, ‘These things are incredibly beautiful.’ We have so much beautiful, old Native American stuff in the United States, but this shows it didn’t necessarily get more interesting or more pretty with time,” he said.

Oklahoma Governor Caves; Now Ready to Extradite Baby Veronica’s Dad

Suzette Brewer, Indian Country Today Media Network, August 14, 2013

This morning, after a downtown Tulsa press conference in which Matt and Melanie Capobianco made an emotional plea for the return of Veronica Brown to them, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin reversed her position from yesterday and issued a threat to Oklahoma native Dusten Brown in signing an extradition warrant from South Carolina unless Brown “cooperated” with the Capobiancos.

Only yesterday, Fallin issued a statement to the Associated Press saying that she would not extradite Dusten Brown because “he has a right to his day in court.”

“What Fallin may not realize, or doesn’t care to realize is that Dusten Brown, prior to their latest round of playing the victim, had offered them shared custody every which way from Sunday—and they flat out rejected every single offer,” said an insider. “He offered them summers and holidays, they said no. He offered them the school year and he get the summers, they said no. And now here they are on our doorstep whining about cooperation when they have rejected every single offer behind the scenes. They wanted all or nothing, and he’s simply not going to do that. So here we are. It’s disgusting.”

‘Custodial Interference’: Dusten Brown Turns Himself In

Dusten Brown Released After Posting copy0K Bond

It is widely acknowledged that during her tenure she has lost a lot of political ground with Oklahoma’s Indian tribes, who are collectively one of the largest employers in the state with billions in annual revenues and thousands of jobs. They comprise the second largest tribal population in the country after California.

“Mary Fallin has failed to be a good partner to her tribal constituents and this is just more proof that she is weighing her national aspirations with selling out and armtwisting her own citizens to pander to a foreign jurisdiction,” said one tribal leader who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. “She’s trying to have it both ways, but this is the deal: Is she going to stand up and support the American Indian people of Oklahoma and allow Dusten Brown his day in court, or is she going to be subservient to another state and allow native people to continue to be pawns in a political and judicial system that is not a friend to Indian tribes? Today’s action is a politically calculated, 180-degree turn that will not go unnoticed when the next fundraising cycle comes around.”

Fallin’s office did not respond to requests for comment from Indian Country Today Media Network. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker also issued a statement voicing his continued support for the Brown family and their right to due process.

“The Capobiancos have requested the Cherokee Nation and Dusten Brown to follow the South Carolina court’s order, but they forget that Dusten Brown has the same rights to have his arguments heard before our Oklahoma courts and Cherokee Nation Tribal Court,” Cherokee Principal Chief Bill John Baker said in a statement issued after the press conference. “We respectfully ask the Capobiancos to allow that due process.”

Dakota oil could add risks to rail transport

Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — Crude oil shipped by railroad from North Dakota is drawing fresh scrutiny from regulators concerned that the cargo is adding environmental and safety hazards, something that analysts say could raise costs.

The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating whether chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing are corroding rail tank cars and increasing risks. Separately, three pipeline companies including Enbridge Inc. warned regulators that North Dakota oil with too much hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic and flammable, was reaching terminals and putting workers at risk.

Until last month, safety advocates’ chief worry was spills in derailments. After tank cars blew up July 6 on a train in Quebec, investigators in Canada are considering whether the composition of the crude, which normally doesn’t explode, may have played a role in the accident that killed 47 people. The oil was from North Dakota’s Bakken shale.

“Crude historically has not been considered in the highest category of hazmat,” said Anthony Hatch, an independent analyst in New York who has tracked railroad companies for almost three decades. “The risks have been considered to be environmental, not to humans. Perhaps Bakken crude should be considered in a higher category.”

The cost of added safety measures, such as tighter rail-car specifications that would make obsolete some current models, may become an issue if oil prices fall, according to Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington-based policy-analysis firm.

“The solution to rail safety issues looks like unanticipated costs, whether, it be rail car investments or new safety protocols,” Book said.

Such costs are less likely to slow production when is oil trading for $100 or more per barrel, Book said. “At $75 per barrel, it could be a big deal,” he said. Crude oil futures have traded higher than $100 a barrel since July, and are more than $90 a barrel since late April.

North Dakota is the nation’s second-biggest oil-producing state, with more than 790,000 barrels a day this year up from from about 150,000 barrels in 2008. Railroads move 75 percent of the state’s crude, including the load of more than 70 cars that derailed and exploded last month in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

Canadian regulators are testing the composition of crude from the wrecked Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. freight train. A question they say they’re asking is why the derailment led to such an intense inferno, which regulators have called “abnormal.” They visited North Dakota as part of their review, said Chris Krepski, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

“We did take samples from the tank cars to get a better understanding of what was actually carried in them and verifying that against the shipping documents,” Krepski said. “It’s safe to say we’re looking at everything.

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic said last week it was forced to file for bankruptcy because of potential liability in the crash.

Much of North Dakota’s production relies on hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a technique in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water and sand are forced underground to shatter rock and free trapped oil. Highly corrosive hydrochloric acid is widely used to extract oil in the state, according to a 2011 report from the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

In a July 29 letter to the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington-based lobbying and standards-setting group for the oil and gas industry, the railway administration said it found increasing cases of damage to tanker cars’ interior surfaces. A possible cause is contamination of crude by materials used in fracking, according to the letter.

“If the hydrochloric acid is carried with the oil into rail cars, corrosion can be an issue,” said Andy Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates.

Shippers need to know the properties of the oil to ensure that it’s transported in tankers equipped to handle the cargo, according to the rail agency’s letter. Because information provided to railroads on the properties of oil is not gathered from tests, the agency said it “can only speculate” as to the number of cars in violation of hazardous-materials regulations.

Investigating whether the chemical composition of Bakken oil makes it more likely to corrode tank cars is reasonable, said Peter Goelz, a former National Transportation Safety Board managing director who’s now a senior vice president with O’Neill and Associates in Washington.

The Quebec accident also revived a debate over the type of cars used to haul oil. For years, regulators and watchdogs have sought improvements to a common car design shown to be susceptible to rupture when derailed. The NTSB estimates that 69 percent of today’s rail tank-car fleet has “a high incidence of tank failure during accidents,” Chairman Deborah Hersman wrote last year. The agency recommendeds thicker shells and other modifications to strengthen the cars.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., this week called on U.S. regulators to phase out the older cars, known as DOT-111s, saying they’ve contributed to spills of hazardous materials.

“The DOT-111 tank car has proven particularly prone to spills, tears and fires in the event of a derailment, and it’s simply unacceptable for New York’s communities along the rail lines to face that risk when we know thicker, tougher cars could keep us safer,” Schumer said.

The rail industry is fighting a proposal to retrofit existing cars, saying it could cost as much as $1 billion.

Shippers also must account for hydrogen sulfide, a highly flammable toxic gas that at some wells is a byproduct of oil, to properly classify oil for transport. The Bakken oil field generally produces lighter oil with little or no hydrogen sulfide, though at times, crudes with different grades are mixed for shipping, said John Harju, associate director for research at the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center, and co-author of the Society of Petroleum Engineers report on the Bakken reservoir.

“You see little blender facilities popping up all over the place along pipelines and rails,” Harju said.

In June, Enbridge won an emergency order to reject oil with high hydrogen-sulfide levels from its system after telling the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it found dangerous levels of the compound at a rail terminal in Berthold, N.D. In addition to being highly flammable, hydrogen sulfide in the air is an irritant and a chemical asphyxiant that can alter both oxygen utilization and the central nervous system, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“We did discover that some of the crude coming into the system had much higher levels of hydrogen sulfide than we felt was safe for our employees,” said Katie Haarsager, an Enbridge spokeswoman. “Some blending may not have been up to levels in the past.”

Enbridge won FERC’s permission to refuse delivery of any oil with hydrogen sulfide that exceeded 5 parts per million, half the minimum exposure recommended by federal regulators. In a May 5 test, Calgary-based Enbridge, which owns and operates a 970-mile pipeline from Plentywood, Montana, to Clearbrook, Minn., found levels as high as 1,200 parts per million at its Berthold terminal “that could cause death, or serious injuries,” according to the company’s FERC filing.

Two other pipeline operators, Tesoro Corp. and the closely held True companies, which operates the Belle Fourche and Bridger pipelines in North Dakota, also found high levels of hydrogen sulfide in crude shipments. The FERC approved Tesoro’s request to reject oil with hydrogen sulfide at more than 5 parts per million effective Jan. 1. True companies was allowed to turn away crude with more than 10 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide effective April 1

True, based in Casper, Wyo., sent a notice to its Belle Fourche and Bridger customers in January warning that high levels of hydrogen sulfide “materially affected the common stream and created safety hazards at certain delivery locations.

North Dakota regulators say hydrogen sulfide is prevalent in oil wells in some areas and field inspectors are required to carry hydrogen-sulfide monitors.

“The fact that there were explosions, and crude oil is not supposed to explode, raises a lot of suspicions as to whether there were other chemicals and so on added to oil in the process before the shipment,” said Edward Burkhardt, chief executive officer of Rail World Inc., which owns the Montreal and Maine railway.

While derailments of trains hauling crude can create environmental messes, oil doesn’t usually ignite unless exposed to extreme heat, said Lloyd Burton, professor of environmental policy at the University of Colorado in Denver. Gasoline, refined from crude oil, is more more volatile.

“Crude oil doesn’t usually explode and burn with the ferocity that this train did,” Burton said.

State reminding people to cook shellfish after increase in illnesses

Published: August 14, 2013

By KIE RELYEA — THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Three people in Whatcom County have become sickened by saltwater bacteria after eating undercooked or raw crab and oysters – part of a statewide surge totaling 44 probable or confirmed cases of the intestinal illness.

The number of cases of people sickened by vibrio bacteria is about twice what it was for this time last year; about 40 to 80 cases are reported annually.

“We seem to be in an active season,” said Rick Porso of the state Department of Health’s Office of Shellfish and Water Protection.

Most cases occur during summer.

The worst outbreak in recent years was in 2006, when Washington had 80 lab-confirmed vibrio cases, with 36 of them in King County, according to the King County Health Department.

Of the 44 confirmed or probable cases so far this year, King County has 21.

To avoid being sickened, health officials recommend cooking all shellfish during the summer to kill the bacteria.

“It is completely preventable with cooking, so that’s what we urge people to do this time of year,” Porso said.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the bacterium that causes the illness, occurs naturally in marine coastal waters.

In low numbers, vibrio doesn’t sicken people. But when water temperatures rise, the bacteria multiply rapidly – raising the risk of vibriosis illness among people who eat raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters.

Public health officials believe the warm summer and daytime low tides contributed to the recent illnesses, and expect more to occur in the coming weeks because current conditions are likely to continue.

Vibriosis causes flu-like symptoms that can include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Symptoms usually appear 12 to 24 hours after eating infected shellfish.

The illness is usually mild to moderate and lasts two to five days, but it can be life-threatening to people with weak immune systems or chronic liver disease. People who take antacids also can become very sick.

The three cases reported in Whatcom County were from recreational harvesters who fell ill after eating oysters and crab.

Here’s what people should do to kill the bacteria and avoid becoming sick:

– Cook shellfish to an internal temperature of 145 degrees for at least 15 seconds.

– Recreational harvesters should take extra precautions when gathering oysters during the summer, including putting them on ice or refrigerating them as soon as possible after collecting them.

– Harvest as soon as the tide recedes, avoiding oysters that may have been exposed for unknown periods of time.

– Don’t rinse cooked oysters with seawater.

– Before gathering shellfish, recreational harvesters should check safety information by calling the toll-free hotline at 1-800-562-5632.

The Department of Health has been sending notices to shellfish growers recommending extra precautions during low mid-day tides and warm weather.

Officials close a growing area when vibrio levels are high or when four or more people who eat shellfish from there are sickened within 30 days. As a result, Hammersley Inlet and several parts of Hood Canal, including Dabob Bay and Quilcene Bay, are closed because of high vibrio levels, while Oakland Bay and Totten Inlet growing areas are closed because of recent illnesses.

Reach KIE RELYEA at kie.relyea@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2234.

What’s in crude oil — and how do we use it?

By Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg, Grist

The petroleum we pump out of the ground turns into a range of useful things: fuel for all forms of transportation, a key ingredient in plastics, and more. Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic’s senior technology editor, takes a look at the chemistry of crude oil in the two-minute video above, explaining the process of distilling one barrel, gallon by gallon. Animated by Lindsey Testolin, this clip is part of a six-part video series in The User’s Guide to Energy special report. If this short overview leaves you wanting to know more, check out Kyle Thetford’s more detailed look at the process.

This story first appeared on The Atlantic as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg is the executive producer for video at The Atlantic.

Science Says ‘Past is Present’ for Traumas Endured in Indian Country

Carol BerryProfessor Emerita Elizabeth Cook-Lynn spoke to attendees at the Pathways to Respecting American Indian Civil Rights conference in Denver, where she presented the keynote address opening the event that drew more than 350 people. Her writing and teaching center on the “cultural, historical, and political survival of Indian Nations” and she believes that “writing is an essential act of survival for contemporary American Indians.” — Carol Berry
Professor Emerita Elizabeth Cook-Lynn spoke to attendees at the Pathways to Respecting American Indian Civil Rights conference in Denver, where she presented the keynote address opening the event that drew more than 350 people. Her writing and teaching center on the “cultural, historical, and political survival of Indian Nations” and she believes that “writing is an essential act of survival for contemporary American Indians.”

Carol Berry, Indian Country Today Media Network

The historical roots of the baffling self-harm that persists in some Indian communities were explored in various workshops at a recent conference, but a contemporary scientific approach to intergenerational trauma was also offered as a way to understand the stubborn effects of violence and other social ills.

Initially, in a keynote address, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, professor emerita and author, discussed a United States history focused on the theft of land, termination and genocide.

Cook-Lynn also described the identity difficulties caused by the 1924 Citizenship Act, which conferred citizenship on Indian people in a strategy that sometimes resulted in “people of color” or “minorities,” rather than citizens of differing tribal nations.

But brain science may help in understanding the current and intergenerational outcomes of the tragedies, said Janine D’Anniballe, a director at Mental Health Partners, Boulder, Colorado. She talked as part of a workshop that was one of a dozen offered at a Pathways to Respecting American Indian Civil Rights conference August 8 in Denver.

“The past is present” neurobiologically, she explained, describing triggers of trauma response that can occur years after the original event.

To oversimplify, trauma registers in the reptilian, or primitive, part of the brain, where changes can take place that may trigger dissociation, high-risk behavior, substance abuse, indiscriminate sexual behavior, avoidance or withdrawal, eating disorders, and other attempts to cope.

Amplified states of panic and terror can be calmed by alcohol and some other drugs, while dissociative “flat” states can be offset by high-risk behavior like fast driving and self-harm, including cutting. These behaviors may work in the short term to “rebalance brain chemistry,” but can be destructive in the long term, she said.

The medical/scientific community has not universally accepted this trauma theory and questions remain, but there is strong interest, she said. Studies are now suggesting that women who have suffered trauma have highly reactive structures in the primitive brain that can be transmitted to unborn children, although research is still underway.

“A safe relationship can be a neurological intervention,” she said, citing one remedy.

The conference was sponsored by local, state and federal agencies, educational institutions, and private businesses.

It’s Here! A Guide to 2013 Santa Fe Indian Market by Alex Jacobs

By Alex Jacobs, Indian Country Today Media Network

What’s cool this year at Santa Fe’s 92nd Indian Market? Everything! Most of what’s cool is under the hot tents of over 1000 Native Artists who Occupy The Plaza for this weekend’s festivities. But you can cruise, walk, bike, skate, run, take a bus and drive to other events around Santa Fe.

Over the last few years, now that the Institute of American Indian Arts and its downtown MoCNA is partnering with SWAIA, this area one block east of the main Market on the Plaza, between the Museum and Cathedral Park, has seen some very cool events occur. Live hawks and raptors, poets, films, fashion displays, skateboarders, hip hop DJs and graffiti artists, live paintings. Last year it was all the young dudes and their skateboards. This year the old dogs howl at the moon as a 10×20 tent inside Cathedral Park will house a guerilla installation by two known art perpetrators who collaborate as “Joe-Bob”.

Over the last few years due to very tight space (and a tight economy), which creates politics between SWAIA and the City, it seems to me that a back-and-forth has occurred between Old Generation and New Generation artists, with one side winning a concession only to be balanced by the other side the next year. I am happy to say that the new SWAIA crew has inherited a calm structure, mostly happy artists, a city that has learned how to deal with most issues, and an economy that is slowly turning around one year after an election.

Check out the new SWAIA T-Shirt, a very cool modern design by Ehren Kee Natay.

POEH Cultural Center & Museum at Pojoaque Pueblo has a Patricia Michaels opening, a Live Draw Session by Rose B. Simpson, The Continuous Path exhibit at Poeh by clay artist Roxanne Swentzell and murals by Marcellus Medina, plus weekly art & craft sales and classes.

From Monday through Wednesday, Metis Artist Dylan Miner, well known for his custom Native-themed bicycles, held a three-day workshop for kids aged 13-17 at POEH titled “Native Kids Ride Bikes – Anishnaabensag Biimskowebshigewag,” and produced hand-made/assembled bicycles by and for Native kids that will be seen at SFAI and at select museums and galleries around town.

Museum of Contemporary Native Art features several exhibits: STEREOTYPE – Misconceptions of the Native American: works by Cannupa Hanska Luger, a performance artist of mixed Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota heritage, this consists of actual “stereo” ceramic beat-boxes adorned with the usual mis-appropriated, re-appropriated, misused, overused, mis-labelled Indian symbols, icons, cliches and absurdities. CHANGING HANDS 3: Art Without Reservations – Art from Northeast and Southeast Native Artists touring in an exhibit from the Museum of Art & Design NYC; and the new Paul Frank Native Designs.

IAIA Student Art Work at Warehouse 21, Fri. Aug 16. Patricia Michaels in Studio at Legends Santa Fe, Aug 14 & 16, with opening reception Sat. Aug 17. During the week at MIAC on Museum Hill, Walter Echo Hawk, Suzan Shown Harjo, Native Women Ledger Artists, Native Cinema, and all weekend the Southern Red Drum Group.

Free music on the Plaza Bandstand Wed. Aug 14 with Indigie Femme and Robert Mirabal. Native Bands play around town all week, but typical Santa Fe — we’ve lost a few clubs and gained none, so it’ll probably the usual suspects at Evangelo’s, El Farol, El Paseo, for sure Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers and The Mud Ponies will play at THE COWGIRL during Market. Native Peoples Magazine & Indian Market Launch Party at the Hilton Hotel downtown, with DJs, music, dancing, friends, food and drinks, Thursday.

Will Wilson, Dine photographer will again set up his portrait studio and CPIX project in the East Sculpture Garden of NM Museum of Art on Palace Ave, Aug 17-18. SWAIA will have their photo booth Sunday in Cathedral Park.

NATIVE VANGUARD – Contemporary Masters, George Morrison, Bunky Echo Hawk, Edgar Heap of Birds, M. Scott Momaday, opening reception at Zane Bennett Gallery in the Railyard District, Thursday 15 from 5-7pm and before on Wednesday 14 at Zane Bennett there will be panel discussions with MoCNA director Patsy Phillips leading talks on “Breaking Thru The Buckskin Curtain” with Anita Fields and Roxanne Swentzell from 1-3pm, then “Master of Contemporary Film” with Frank Buffalo Hyde, Jill Momaday and Norman Patrick Brown 3-5pm.

MY LAND! at Winterowd Fine Art Gallery on Canyon Rd, a dozen heavy Native artists have an intimate meet & greet, poetry & talks on Thursday 1-3, then party at the reception on Friday 6-8; also a reception for the San Felipe Seven potters Thursday 5pm at LaFonda; other openings at Blue Rain, Chiaroscuro, Steve Elmore Indian Art, Shiprock Gallery and so many more.

Saturday of Market will be happening with a new SWAIA Hip Hop Fashion Show; support the Patricia Michaels in New York Fund Raising event at The Palace Restaurant from 6-10pm; ZOMBIE NIGHT in the Railyard, Saturday night, The Dead Can’t Dance, as part of NATIVE CINEMA SHOWCASE.

Too much party? Get healthy with the Wings of America 5K fun run/walk at Santa Fe Indian School, Sun Aug 18, 8/9am starts. Or relax inside where’s its cool and dark, Santa Fe resident George RR Martin bought the old Jean Cocteau Theatre in the Railyard, it’s all made new and ready to watch classic movies. Finally, stop by my booth as everyone passes by here on the corner of San Francisco St (#321 FR-S) and Old Santa Fe Trail right in front of the LaFonda Hotel.

Alex Jacobs, Mohawk, is a visual artist and poet living in Santa Fe.

Serial killer’s history a shock to those who knew him in Neah Bay

By Paul Gottlieb, Peninsula Daily News

NEAH BAY — Israel Keyes was described as a model citizen while he lived in Neah Bay between 2001-2007, fathering a girl, working for the Makah tribe and being a productive part of this tribal community.

So learning that he was a self-confessed serial killer was a shock last year to residents of this sea-swept village of 865, tribal Judge Emma Dulik recalled.

“He never seemed to cause any problems,” she said.

FBI investigators in Anchorage, Alaska, believe Keyes killed 11 people between 2001 and 2012, and five of the murders happened while he was living in Neah Bay.

He claimed he dumped at least one body into Lake Crescent, but Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said park officials have no plans to search the lake without more exact information about the location of a body.

Maynes said the park had no missing-person reports that correlated with the period of time Keyes lived in Neah Bay.

He was issued “a few overnight backcountry permits” during that time, Maynes said.

The FBI said Keyes sought many of his victims while hiking and camping.

“We have been talking with the FBI and are making sure we are sharing information completely with them,” Maynes said.

To the best of their knowledge, none of Keyes’ victims lived in Clallam or Jefferson counties, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict and Jefferson County Sheriff Tony Hernandez said Tuesday.

They said there no links between Keyes and missing-person reports or ongoing cold-case investigations in the two counties.

Both sheriffs had been contacted by the FBI.

Keyes’ former partner and daughter still live on the Makah reservation, tribal members said.

“He did work for the tribe, doing landscaping all over the village,” Dulik said.

“At the entryway, he cut the grass, put a sign up, and went through the village putting out plants and flowers and things.”

Keyes also was known as a good father, Dulik added.

Keyes often shopped at Washburn General Store in Neah Bay, owner Greg Lovik said.

“All my help liked the guy,” Lovik said.

“He seemed to be a level-headed, good worker. He could fix about anything, is what I am told.

“There was nothing that stood out that he was a troublemaker or anything.”

“When it hit the papers, [about Keyes confessing in Anchorage to being serial killer], everybody was going like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it,'” Lovik said.

“Most people I talked to couldn’t believe it because he was such a good worker and a personable guy.”

Janine Ledford, executive director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center, said many tribal members knew Keyes but now are reluctant to talk about him.

“Most of us aren’t interested in feeding the public curiosity about how we feel about a murderer being in our midst,” Ledford said.

Meredith Parker, general manager of the Makah tribe, issued this statement Tuesday afternoon:

“Out of the respect for the family of Mr. Israel Keyes, the Makah tribe will not be making any formal comment to the media related to Mr. Keyes’ time spent in Neah Bay.

“In addition, it is standard policy that the Makah tribe does not comment on any individuals employed or formerly employed by the tribal organization or its enterprises.”

To NY Official: Cease and Desist Attacks on American Indians

Source: Native News Network

WASHINGTON – Fighting back against last week’s attempt to shutter legal online lending enterprises operated by tribal nations, the Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA) directed New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky to cease and desist his attacks on American Indians.

In a letter sent to Mr. Lawsky on Monday, Barry Brandon, Executive Director of NAFSA, made clear that tribal nations and the legal businesses they operate would not be bullied or intimidated out of operation. In recent years, online lending enterprises have been a boon to American Indian economic development, which has traditionally experienced setbacks due to tribes’ isolated location and sparse populations.

Below is the full text of Mr. Brandon’s letter to Benjamin M. Lawsky Superintendent of Financial Services New York State Department of Financial Services:

We are directing you to cease and desist your activities against Native American tribes. Your request that Native American tribes stop engaging in legal and licensed online lending in the State of New York is discriminatory to Indian country and an attack on our sovereignty. We are also directing you to cease and desist your intimidation of financial services institutions that process payments for a number of businesses owned and operated by sovereign Native American tribal nations. As a representative of numerous Native American tribes which own and operate online lending enterprises, we strongly disagree with your characterization of these payments as illegal. To the contrary, our businesses are legal and licensed and owned and operated by American Indian tribal governments across the United States.

Tribal nations, with the support and encouragement of the federal government, have engaged in significant economic development efforts, including operating online lending entities which have been targeted by you personally through the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). We want you to be aware that we view these actions as a direct threat to tribal sovereignty and our efforts to develop economic self-sufficiency. We are putting you on notice that tribal nations are considering the next legal steps to take regarding DFS’s actions. The targeting of tribally owned and operated businesses without any discussion or consultation is an insult to tribal nations and ignores over two centuries of federal Indian law.

Again, online lending, when offered by federally-recognized tribal governments, is legal. Tribal governments export tribal law over the Internet and consumers seeking our online lending services agree to abide by it. Your organization is attempting an end-run against our legal business by threatening banks and the third-party providers who partner with our tribally-owned enterprises. Internet commerce has been a critical lifeline for geographically-isolated tribes across the United States. Tribal governments that offer online lending suffer from staggering unemployment rates, limited opportunities and geographic isolation. Your organization’s attack on our legal and licensed businesses would exact a heavy cost on our people since the revenues generated by our online lending business account, in some instances, for more than 25 percent of our tribal budgets.

As Executive Director of the Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA) and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, our elected tribal leaders are united against any actions hostile to our tribal government economic development efforts and urge you to cease and desist your discriminatory actions. Native American tribes have had a longstanding government-to-government relationship with the United States, established by Congress and reaffirmed by the United States Supreme Court. Your intimidation of banks and third party payment processors within the ACH network is a direct attempt to circumvent these sovereignty principles and abruptly stop the economic development our tribes have finally seen in recent years.

We will not be bullied, and therefore we direct you to cease and desist these efforts.

Baby Veronica: U.S. Doesn’t Respect or Understand Native Culture

Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Indian Country Today Media Network

A note from Ray Cook, ICTMN Opinions Editor: The political and legal ramifications of the Baby Veronica case has, in broad strokes, done two things. First, it tipped the hands of the various Catholic Charity Organizations to “evangelicalize”(recruit, if you will) new souls for their church pews. Their strategy, now exposed, includes the dismantling of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Second, this event must be won on behalf of our sovereign nations because the alternative will mean that the legal, diplomatic and political foundations of our current relationships with other nations will begin to crumble under heavy bombardment from those who believe us to “be in the way” of the expansion plans of American religion and economic expansion and energy resource extraction—right or wrong.

Unfortunately, the love of child and the pursuit of a healthy family will be disrespected, trampled and eventually lost in this mess. It is the hidden agenda that will win— count on it. Through this challenge to our rights to raising our own natural-born citizens, we must learn—and learn the lessons fast—so it will not again be repeated.

Here, Dina Gilio-Whitaker offers us a glimps into the background and possible future of not only the affected individuals, but those not yet born.

Over the past few days, as well as in upcoming columns, we will be looking at this sad event from all approachable angles with grave concern for our future generations. My favorite so far is Steve Russell’s letter to the adoptive parents and their supporters.

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The Baby Veronica adoption case hits very close to home for me on several levels ranging from personal to political, as a person of American Indian heritage and as an indigenous studies scholar, but also as a former adoption professional. I’ve worked as an assistant adoption facilitator and lived in a residential program for birth mothers where I served as their advocate and advisor. I have siblings I’ve never met because of their adoption placements before I was born, pre-Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and in the era of closed adoptions. One of them I believe was taken forcibly. This means they were Indian kids who more than likely were raised without any knowledge of their culture and possibly without even knowing they were Indian. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to find them, in large part because of the sealing of their adoption records. I am no stranger to the agony adoption exacts on the families involved, even decades into the future. My family’s experience is in a very real way a perfect example of why the ICWA was passed in 1978.

I know from my experience as an adoption professional that no one enters into adoption lightly. No decision a woman can make in her life is more excruciating than to give a baby up for adoption, no matter the reason. If there is a birthfather in the picture, the specter of adoption can be profoundly confusing and equally painful. Adoptive couples like the Capobiancos usually struggle for years with infertility, leading them finally to adoption agencies in their desperation to have a child. They are typically people far more economically privileged than birthparents since they can afford to spend the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to adopt while birthparents typically do adoption placements because they are ill-equipped to raise a child, financially and otherwise.

For single many birthmothers adoption is a way out of a difficult situation. Many, like Christy Maldonado, already have other children they aren’t raising and have either sent away to relatives to raise, or have placed for adoption. In today’s atmosphere of open adoptions birthmothers interview and choose adoptive couples while all work together cooperatively, establishing adoption plans, even going to doctor’s visits together. It is common practice for the adoptive couples to pay for living expenses and sometimes even healthcare during the pregnancy, although many, like Maldonado, opt for state-assisted (i.e. taxpayer-funded) healthcare.

In other words, for an adoptive couple like the Capobiancos, the adoption process is an investment of time, intense emotional energy and large amounts of money. As ICTMN reported, the Caopbiancos as of two years ago were into their adoption of Baby Veronica (or Ronnie, as her family calls her) for $30,000 to $40,000 based on court records. People who are desperate for a child, where adoption is (very problematically) market-driven, with demand far exceeding availability– with that kind of energy and financial investment, aren’t going to give up easily. The Capobiancos undoubtedly are emotionally attached to Ronnie, but this fight seems to be more of an ideological war for them and their faith-based supporters than it is about what is in the best interest of the little girl.

On a socio-cultural (and inevitably political) level, the so-called Baby Veronica case is a stark reminder of how narratives of Native American identity have been constructed in the US. Much of the non-Native media reporting has invoked Dusten Brown and his daughter’s blood quantum in a way that minimizes their Cherokee identities. Emphasizing low blood quantum is an attempt, whether intentional or not, to diminish the role of culture and kinship as criteria for belonging in a tribal society. It relies on the tired and old but very destructive stereotype that “real Indians” are those with an acceptable fraction of Indian “blood,” arbitrarily imagined by society at large.

But worse still, invoking blood quantum complicates the understanding of Indian identity in the public’s eye by “racializing” it—a tactic favored by anti-Indian activists such as the Coalition for the Protection of Indian Children and Families who are working for the dismantling of the ICWA. Because ICWA is “race-based,” so the argument goes, it is unconstitutional.

In Indian country we’ve said it a million times and we’ll keep on saying it until everyone gets it—Indian identity is not based on racial categorizations, it’s based on political distinctions. That is, Native nations composed of individual Indians (which they themselves are free to determine—even if based on racialized ideas of blood quantum) are nations not because they consist of people of a particular racial make-up, but because of their pre-constitutional existence and their political relationship with the US. Thus, the efforts of anti-ICWA activists is really an ideology bent on the continued suppression of the political rights of Native nations.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville) is a research associate at the Center for World Indigenous Studies and freelance writer.