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Why You’re Wrong About Michelle Williams: A Primer on Redface, Fashion Politics and Reading Comprehension

By Cole R. Delaune, Indian Country Today Media Network

Last week, the Internet news cycle erupted in a predictable maelstrom of gasps and pearl-clutching over the spring/summer issue of AnOther Magazine, an esoteric style rag based in London that caters to a relatively rarefied demographic of the sartorially literate and eclectically minded. Like a number of similar periodicals, the publication achieves its ad dollars not by accruing a large readership, but by courting the tastes of the creatively attuned — most likely, design students and other aspiring insiders. The fury reserved for its cover girl, a three-time Oscar nominee and the star of the recently released Oz the Great and Powerful, was the latest episode in a vogue of hand-wringing about pop caricatures of Natives and the perils of a specifically visual brand of cultural appropriation.

While some of the incidents in said wave have quite rightly garnered backlash and sparked timely and necessary dialogue about the historically invisible Indian America, the disgruntlement with Michelle Williams is perhaps most reminiscent of the uproar that occurred when Karlie Kloss trotted down a Victoria’s Secret runway last autumn clad in nominally indigenous regalia, replete with headdress and other cartoonish accoutrements. The ire precipitated by both controversies illuminates an ironic ignorance — since that, of course, is the primary element in each occurrence identified as offensive —about the nature of creative expression and hierarchical power structures in the fashion industry, as well as interesting implications about the trendiness of political correctness and waxing butthurt over consumerist minutiae and other contemporary inanities.

When Kloss stomped down a New York City catwalk back in November during the lingerie monolith’s annual over-the-top marketing free-for-all, online commentators wasted little time in taking the model to task for her faux pas. Feverish speculation that the beauty had donned the fake tribal garb as an intentional diss to ex-boyfriend Sam Bradford quickly seized the imagination of especially misguided voices. Although the Rams quarterback is a registered member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, such fantastic romantic-revenge conjecture missed a salient point: major corporations are not in the practice of leaving any details of a multimillion dollar and nationally televised production to the whims of 19-year-olds. Companies helming a presentation of their clothing wares employ men and women whose sole professional responsibility is to apparel the posers in a pre-selected line of ensembles and determine the appropriate manner in which to accessorize those garments; these specialists are known as stylists. An organization investing money in such a large operation would inevitably require final approval over the outfits and accompanying entertainment from teams in a variety of departments. At no point does a mannequin, even one as highly paid as an Angel, customarily pipe in with an opinion on the costumes she has been assigned. Her job, effectively, is to function as a living doll or animated clothes hanger: show up and display the goods in as flattering a way as possible, in manner consistent with the thematic tone of the collection, the event, and the label at large. One assumes Ms. Kloss could have launched a dressing-room protest against ugly Halloween kitsch, but plenty of working women put up with managers who deploy disagreeable tactics, and most of them don’t face the possibility of breaching a lucrative contract while facing the costs of a West Village mortgage and future medical school tuition.

Unlike the carnivalesque VS spectacle, titles of AnOther’s ilk reside far from the intersection of explicit commerce and obvious sexualization; they trade in fantasy. Open up the pages of any glossy devoted to fashion editorial, and you are likely to find sequences of photographs that act both as subtextual advertisement and as optical poems. Such sittings are analogous to storybooks without attendant words or the still images of a film strip: there is a narrative at work, and this is the major reason why circulars like Vogue are celebrated as enduring escapist fare. Thus, when Michelle Williams poses for multiple cover variations, all of the portraits involved are most reasonably interpreted as depictions of fictional characters. The nuances of context distinguish an appearance in such circumstances from pointedly profit-driven transgressions of taste in more definitively market-oriented spheres like mass-underwear retail and the T-shirt arena of Steve Madden. And although detractors have raised valid questions about the disconcerting underrepresentation of Natives in entertainment and the sensitive conundrum of when it is acceptable for a person outside of a particular race or culture to portray a character of the aforementioned background on camera, such gray areas do not automatically damn Ms. Williams for her participation in an artistic exercise over which she enjoyed no autonomy and in which she was likely legally obligated to engage as part of the media promotional clause of her employment agreement with Disney. Michelle Yeoh, for instance, has appeared in theaters as a Japanese geisha, a Burmese freedom fighter, and a Chinese warrioress even though she is Malaysian, and has garnered nary a raised eyebrow. For that matter, Tantoo Cardinal and Irene Bedard have played roles in movies about indigenous tribes very disparate from which they hail in real life. Why not a Caucasian performer, and why not in a static picture? It’s called “acting” for a reason, after all. If disappointment and unease with these characterizations is to be channeled effectively, critiques should be directed to the parties with ultimate discretion over the projects: Victoria’s Secret Fashion Collection Creative Director Sophie Neophitou-Apostolou and Dazed Group Editor Jefferson Hack.

Of course, tempered consideration has no place in a debate like this, and the gallery of talking heads triggered to cry “off with her head” (or “racist!”) and avoid all but superficial analysis steadfastly charged ahead by ascribing culpability to Montana’s favorite starlet not only for the photo shoot, but also for statements she never made. Most confoundingly, Aurora Bogado of The Nation was apparently determined to take as much umbrage with the situation as possible, facts be damned; she penned an open letter to the thespian entitled “Native Americans Are Not Munchkins,” in which she chides the suggestion that “Natives are cute creatures that require safekeeping.” The missive would have been incisive and worthy of some self-righteous applause had Williams ever issued statements in that vein . . . except she didn’t, but rather accurately noted that one productive interpretation of L. Frank Baum’s Oz mythology is as a sociological allegory: “Quadlings, Tinkers and Munchkins didn’t mean much to me; it wasn’t my language. But when I thought of them as Native Americans trying to inhabit their land or about women getting the right to vote, it made a lot more sense. Even if it’s not always overt, if you’re looking for [politics] in the movie, it will feel very topical.” Relating the threads of an especially outlandish and arcane fantasia to the historical realities of the era in which it was created neither necessitates endorsement for troubling thematic undertones or authorial intent; as millions of audiences know, it’s easy enough to dissect the Twilight saga, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Harry Potter series, without earnestly believing in Mormonism, Christianity or the racial purity doctrine of the Third Reich. But who cares about literary deconstruction when there’s some moralistic sanctimony to plumb?

Educated at Darmouth College and Columbia University, Cole DeLaune is a native of Oklahoma and Tennessee. He currently resides in Atlanta, and has contributed editorial content to Vogue and Elle, among other publications. He is a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma.Skin-walking, his first book of poetry, will be published in October.

Tribal wind project in Pendleton receives $257,372 from Blue Sky customers‏

By Albany Tribune — (March 18, 2013)

A 50-kilowatt wind power project atop the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is now closer to reality thanks in part to $257,372 in funding from Pacific Power’s Blue Sky renewable energy program.

This is the seventh year Blue Sky customers have funded these awards, which since 2006 has put more than $4 million to work at more than 50 facilities that produce power and increase awareness of the viability of renewable energy.

“The Umatilla project is another example of our customers’ deep commitment to building a renewable energy future,” said Pat Reiten, president and CEO of Pacific Power. “Not only will the Tamástslikt project supply renewable energy, but it will help teach a new generation about renewable energy. We’re proud to be part of this important effort along with our Blue Sky customers.”

The Tamástslikt Cultural Institute is the museum and cultural center of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and brings the tribe’s story alive to thousands of visitors each year. The 50-kilowatt wind turbine planned at the center will be visible from a variety of locations and will also serve as an educational tool for both local and tribal students. A kiosk and monitoring display showing real-time energy usage will be installed inside the cultural center and this information will be available on the institute’s website.

“The Blue Sky Block program, which funds these projects, has one of the highest participation rates you’ll find nationwide,” said Pat Egan, vice president of customer and community affairs, Pacific Power. “One of the reasons the Blue Sky Block option is so popular is that customers can see what they are getting. In addition to supporting the renewable energy industry, they are helping fund on-the-ground, working renewable projects in their own communities.”

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Sacred ground for sale at Wounded Knee

The Oglala Sioux Tribe is interested in the land — if it’s fairly priced

Peter Harriman, (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A tragic piece of South Dakota history known worldwide is for sale.

Eighty acres of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark, the site where hundreds of Lakota Indians were massacred by U.S. soldiers on Dec. 29, 1890, is being offered up for $3.9 million.

It’s not the first time the land has been put on the market by owner James A. Czywczynski and his family, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe would like to acquire the property and possibly build a museum on the site. But the steep asking price makes the deal a virtual nonstarter for the tribe, one official said.

“Every year or two it comes up,” and the price escalates, said Craig Dillon, a member of the tribal council who serves on its lands and economic development committees.

When he first started on the council, the asking price for the Wounded Knee land was about $1.3 million, Dillon said.

“I believe the tribe would be interested in it if it was fairly priced,” he added. “There is some history there. We’ve discussed it more than once. I will not tell you it is off the table. But $3 million is a lot of money.”

The land offered for sale does not include the Sacred Heart Cemetery and Wounded Knee Memorial, where an estimated 150 of the more than 300 victims of the massacre are buried. Land on South Dakota reservations was given by the federal government to churches for their mission efforts. The cemetery at Wounded Knee falls into this category and exists in a no-man’s land of ownership. The tribe does not hold title to it, and the cemetery is maintained by the Wounded Knee Survivors Association, Dillon said.

But the land Czywczynski wants to sell would include the site of the former Wounded Knee trading post that figured in the 1973 occupation that focused worldwide attention on South Dakota, and it includes the low hills and the wide, shallow draws where the 1890 killings occurred.

The land resonates with Native American, South Dakota and national history because of the significance of both the massacre and the American Indian Movement occupation 83 years later.

The 1890 killings of more than 300 Minneconju and Hunkpapa Lakota who had traveled to the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota to spend the winter with the Oglalas marked the bloody end of tribal independence and traditional lifestyle.

The occupation, meanwhile, was a major driver in the renewal of tribal sovereignty and the rebirth of interest in traditional tribal culture.

The National Park Service named the 1890 Wounded Knee battlefield a national historic landmark in 1966.

For owner, ‘time for our family to sell’

Czywczynski, who lives in Rapid City, S.D., told the Native Sun News in a copyright story this week that “it is time for our family to sell the land. We would really like to see the land returned to the Lakota people, and that is why I am giving them an opportunity to purchase the land before I open it up to others for sale.”

But Czywczynski also made it known to the Native Sun News that he does have other interested buyers who are non-Native. “I could sell the property to someone from outside the tribe, but I really do not want to do that,” he said.

Dillon, meanwhile, said that in his 15 years on the council, he regularly has seen the Czywczynski family offer to sell the land to the tribe. According to Dillon, the tribe holds the upper hand in negotiations because it owns all the land around the Czywczynski property.

“It’s landlocked by tribal ground. It doesn’t mean anybody can just buy it and move in tomorrow,” Dillon said.

Czywczynski could not be reached for comment by the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader.

What’s history worth? Determining land values

The question embedded in the $3.9 million asking price for the Wounded Knee land and the tribe’s reluctance to pay it is this: What is history worth?

Aside from its historical significance, the land is mostly grassland, and that typically sells for far less than $48,750 an acre in Shannon County. That’s how much the tribe would pay per acre if officials agreed to Czywczynski’s price.

Susie Hayes is the Fall River County director of equalization, and her county performs the administrative work for Shannon County.

A ranch consisting of 3,238 acres of grassland and 500 acres of cropland went for $2.8 million. “That seems to be a fairly good sale, within the ballpark,” she said.

For its part, the tribe has set aside $1 million for land buys this year, Dillon said, and it could be persuaded to pay more than the market average to buy the Wounded Knee property.

“I don’t mind paying a little more because of the location,” he said. “I would love for us to get a state-of-the-art museum out there. It could be a real shot in the arm for the tribe and for the Wounded Knee District.”

The massacre was in large measure sparked because government officials feared that the emergence of tribal Ghost Dance ceremonies signaled a coming renewal of war between tribes and the United States. A Ghost Dance shirt from the era has been returned to the tribe, “and we have a lot of other artifacts that could go into a museum,” Dillon said.

Standoff in 1973 was catalyst for change

The 1973 occupation also is worthy of memorializing, said Clyde Bellecourt who, along with Dennis Banks, co-founded the American Indian Movement in 1968. Five years later, when members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe complained to AIM leaders in Minneapolis about a reign of terror at Pine Ridge conducted by the tribal government that was unchecked by federal officials, “we responded to that call. We said we will come out here and see what we can do,” Bellecourt said.

After two days of hearings at Pine Ridge and 1,500 complaints from residents, Bellecourt said, AIM activists formed a caravan and drove about 15 miles to Wounded Knee to seize it. Its trading post and Catholic church were potent symbols of government and societal subjugation of the tribes.

Federal and state law enforcement officials responded by surrounding Wounded Knee, and the 71-day siege that followed brought international attention to the rampant poverty on reservations. It also emboldened tribes to reassert their sovereign status and prompted tribal people to try to reclaim their cultural heritage.

For many, the massacre, the occupation and the national significance of the site are good reasons to safeguard it and to develop it for historical interpretation.

“If the opportunity came to buy it, the tribe would jump on that,” Dillon said of acquiring the Czywczynski property. But because the tribe controls access, it can ensure no unwanted development takes place, and part of the history between tribes such as the Oglalas and the dominant society is enduring the lengthy passage of time until good things are accomplished.

When it comes to adding to its land holdings at Wounded Knee, Dillon said, “we can play the waiting game as long as anybody can.”

SD leads nation in Native American poverty rate

KRISTI EATON, Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – South Dakota leads the nation in the percentage of Native Americans living below the poverty line, and more than half of the Native Americans in the state’s second largest city live in poverty, according to new U.S. Census data released Wednesday.

More than 48 percent of the state’s 65,000 Native Americans live below the poverty threshold, according to the American Community Survey on poverty covering 2007 to 2011. In Rapid City, the poverty rate for Native Americans was 50.9 percent. This leads the nation among the 20 cities most populated by American Indians and Alaska Natives.

“The number is unacceptable,” said Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker. “And I think the situation is not limited to our Native population, although it affects the Native population more dramatically than other segments of the population.”

Under current federal guidelines, an individual earning less than $11,170 a year or a family of four with an annual income of less than $23,050 is considered to be living in poverty.

Kooiker said the Black Hills of South Dakota is an area that has struggled with high underemployment numbers for years. The mayor said the solution is a two-pronged one: increasing opportunities in both the government and private sector, and having potential employees work to improve their skill sets once those opportunities are in place.

For example, Kooiker said, the United Tribes Technical College out of North Dakota will soon be opening a campus in Rapid City to provide education and training opportunities for Native Americans.

Aside from South Dakota, eight other states had poverty rates of about 30 percent or more for American Indians and Alaska Natives. They are Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota and Utah.

Mike McCurry, the state demographer for South Dakota, said he is not surprised by the numbers because the American Indians in South Dakota have never recovered from the financial collapse and the Dust Bowl in the early 1900s.

“Most of our concentrations of poverty are in the reservations, but they’re also concentrated – Rapid City gets a lot of people leaving the reservation looking for jobs,” he said. “The difference between being in poverty and not being in poverty to a lot of us is one paycheck.”

He said Denver is another city that many Native Americans from South Dakota’s nine Indian reservations move to in hopes of finding employment. Denver’s poverty rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives is 29.1 percent, according to the census data.

“So when we’re looking at nearly 30 percent of poverty in Denver, that’s probably also reflecting some of the people that aren’t in Rapid (City),” he said.

Wade Two Charge, 30, relocated to Denver and also tried moves to Phoenix, Florida and California with hopes of finding steady unemployment. He’s since returned to his home and family on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota.

Two Charge, who has a degree in business administration from the tribal college, said he has been unemployed since getting back to the reservation, except for some short construction stints.

“There are only so many projects going on on the reservation at a time – so many buildings going down and going up,” he said.

His most recent job, which involved construction of a new tribal jail and lasted about a year, ended last year. Another job he has coming up will only last about two months.

Two Charge, who lives in a trailer on a lot his family owns, doesn’t have a car and relies on social gatherings and $200 in food stamps for food each month.

“There are avenues to help, but it’s definitely a lot more difficult than other places,” he said of his current surroundings. “In a city, you can just jump in a bus and go across town. The whole society is different and it’s not the ghetto. Here, there are no buses. We rely a lot upon family members to help us out. I think that’s where we’re blessed to have an emphasis on respect for our elders.”

He still thinks about leaving the reservation, but said he doesn’t want to move away from his home and his people.

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Online:

American Community Survey: http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr11-17.pdf

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Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kristieaton .

University’s Native American Center to honor Cobell

KIM BRIGGEMAN, Missoulian

President Barack Obama meets with Elouise Cobell in the Oval Office, Dec. 8, 2010 - the day he signed legislation approving the Cobell settlement. — President Barack Obama meets with Elouise Cobell in the Oval Office, Dec. 8, 2010 – the day he signed legislation approving the Cobell settlement.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Elouise Cobell had a way of sorting through complex Native American land ownership tangles and combing out what’s right.

It’s part of the legacy the leader from the Blackfeet tribe left behind when she died in 2011, and one that still resounds with Terry Payne.

“Elouise had a voracious appetite for justice, and she was an inspiration to me and so many other people,” said Payne, a Missoula businessman whose family was the lead donor for construction of the Payne Family Native American Center on the University of Montana campus.

Now Payne is helping fund an effort to complete the building. He provided the launching gift for the $1.2 million Elouise Cobell Land and Culture Institute, dedicated to the passionate advocate of Native rights who was instrumental in obtaining a $3.4 billion Indian trust settlement from the federal government.

Pending approval by the Montana Board of Regents in Helena this week, the Cobell Institute is envisioned to be a complex of labs, classrooms and a small theater in the unfinished lower level of the three-year-old Native American Center on the southwest edge of the UM Oval.

University President Royce Engstrom announced creation of the institute Wednesday at a ceremony in the center’s Bonnie HeavyRunner Gathering Place.

“Her life’s work was the pursuit of justice and we here at the University of Montana are humbled that her family has permitted us to honor her,” he said.

The institute, said Engstrom, can be a place “where future leaders will meet the challenges around land and asset management as well as understand worldwide cultures of indigenous people.”

The addition in the “garden level” of the building will be “a space where students can work effectively in small and sometimes not so small groups on real-world problems, in this case all related to Native communities,” said Chris Comer, dean of UM’s College of Arts and Sciences that includes the Native American Studies Department.

Interesting Geometry

There are 6,500 square feet to work with, and on-campus charettes began Thursday (March 7) to determine how best to do it. Comer said the building’s “interesting geometry” – it’s built around a 12-sided rotunda, each side representing a Montana tribe – will make it “a real puzzle to say how we best use that space.”

The working idea is for two laboratories – a land lab filled with computers and a culture lab with digital and media resources. Another room will probably be set up as a classroom with projection capabilities for digital movies.

“Film studies have become important in a number of areas of the College (of Arts and Sciences) that really have no proper venue for that,” Comer said.

The other two rooms will likely be standard classrooms, built in a way that can accommodate meetings. Comer said the institute will be a collaborative affair, designed not just for the Native American Studies Department, but for geography, forestry and conservation, anthropology and law students as well.

The land lab will allow students to work on intensive mapping projects.

“When you think about mapping in Indian Country, it’s really complex because reservation land has all different kinds of overlapping ownership, from trust land to tribally controlled land to individual fee patent land,” said Dave Beck, who chairs the Department of Native American Studies.

A sophisticated GIS-centered lab will allow the overlay of historic maps to map landownership patterns with natural and cultural resources. An upstairs room in the Native American Center is dedicated to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, which does similar work.

The Minnesota-based foundation has been very encouraging of the Cobell Institute project.

“They’ve basically said if you build this we’ll work with you to help students identify and get into real-world projects for Native communities,” said Comer. “We’re really excited by the prospect of working with groups like that.

“We don’t want busywork exercise. That’s really Royce’s vision: When they’re working on classroom projects, those projects will produce something that’s helping a community and making a real difference.”

Beck said the culture lab will probably provide access to such resources as creative language materials from tribes and communities, as well as distance learning capabilities that allow faculty from across the campus to have face-to-face interaction with indigenous communities in New Zealand, Australia and Norway.

While the Payne family provided the lion’s share of the $1.2 million toward construction, and other funding sources have been tapped, Comer said some money still needs to be raised. He hopes Wednesday’s announcement spurs those efforts.

Construction will begin as early as next month, and officials said the Cobell Institute could be ready for students by the end of the year.

Pacific NW sculptor wins ‘Best of Show’ at annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair

Mark Scarp, Heard Museum News Release

PHOENIX — A contemporary sculpture, “A River’s Spirit and Offering” by distinguished sculptor Marvin Oliver won the crowning artistic achievement of “Best in Show” at the 55th annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market on Friday, March 1.

The work by Oliver (Quinault/Isleta-Pueblo) is “formulated by merging the spirit of past traditions with those of the present, to create new horizons for the future,” according to his website, marvinoliver.com.

During his 40-year career, Oliver has experimented with cedar, bronze, steel and glass to create masks, helmets, wood panels, totem poles, blown glass bowls, bronze ravens and sculpted whale fins that mix ancient and contemporary styles. His art is inspired by the imagery of the southern Coast Salish, and incorporates northern formline designs into his work as a tribute to his Northwest Coast heritage, according to a description on the website quintanagalleries.com. His work “Mystical Journey” is prominently featured at the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and he has had many other public art pieces displayed across the United States, Canada, Japan and Italy, according to the artist’s website.

Oliver currently serves as the department director of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, where he also teaches two-dimensional design, woodcarving and art history. He also holds the title of curator of contemporary Native American art at the Burke Museum in Seattle.

“Best of Class” award recipients are listed below. A full list of winners and this year’s judges is at heard.org/fair, click on “Competition Winners.”

I – Jewelry and Lapidary – Benson Manygoats (Navajo/Diné), “Shush”

II – Pottery – Jennifer Moquino and Russell Sanchez (San Ildefonso Pueblo / Santa Clara Pueblo), Lidded Pot

III – Paintings, Drawings, Graphics, Photography – Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa), “Profile Portraits”

IV – Wooden Carvings – Curtis Naseyowma (Hopi/Taos), “Vision of Mongwi”

V – Sculpture – Marvin Oliver (Quinault), “A River’s Spirit and Offering”

VI – Textiles, Weavings, Clothing – Jason Harvey (Navajo), “Red Mesa”

VII – Diverse Art Forms – Leith Mahkewa (Oneida), “Raotonnets – His Spirit”

VIII – Baskets – Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band Cherokee), “Separating the Chaff”

Conrad House Award – Susan L. Folwell (Santa Clara Pueblo), “Love Gun”

The 55th Annual Guild Indian Fair & Market took place on Saturday and Sunday, March 2 & 3, 2013.

US clergy victims make demands of new pope

By Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press

Associated Press/Nick Ut - Ken Smolka, 70, who alleges he was molested in 1958 by a Jesuit priest, poses at his home Friday March 15, 2013 in Glendora, Calif. The election of a new pope could help heal the wounds left by a Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis that has savaged the church's reputation worldwide. For alleged victims, much depends on whether Pope Francis disciplines the priests and the hierarchy that protected them. (AP Photo/Nick Ut ) — Associated Press/Nick Ut – Ken Smolka, 70, who alleges he was molested in 1958 by a Jesuit priest, poses at his home Friday March 15, 2013 in Glendora, Calif. The election of a new pope could help heal the wounds left by a Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis that has savaged the church’s reputation worldwide. For alleged victims, much depends on whether Pope Francis disciplines the priests and the hierarchy that protected them. (AP Photo/Nick Ut )

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Most Roman Catholics are rejoicing at the election of Pope Francis, but alleged victims of clergy abuse in the U.S. are demanding swift and bold actions from the new Jesuit pontiff: Defrock all molester priests and the cardinals who covered up for them, formally apologize, and release all confidential church files.

Adding to their distrust are several multi-million dollar settlements the Jesuits paid out in recent years, including $166 million to more than 450 Native Alaskan and Native American abuse victims in 2011 for molestation at Jesuit-run schools across the Pacific Northwest. The settlement bankrupted the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus. The order also paid $14 million to settle nine California cases.

“I would like to see this pope stand up and say to those cardinals, ‘You need to square this away and change everything that was covered up,’ ” said Ken Smolka, a 70-year-old retired actor who claimed in a lawsuit he was abused as a teen by a Jesuit priest. “You need to get them on their knees, and let them spend the rest of their lives on their knees praying for the victims.”

Pope Francis, who has already set the tone for a new era of humility and compassion, is likely to be sensitive to the plight of clergy abuse victims and aware of the need to work with the worldwide church to prevent more abuse, said Christopher Ruddy, an associate professor at Catholic University of America. Meting out punishment to individual cardinals, however, is much less likely, Ruddy said.

“My sense is that if a bishop really wanted to dig in his heels, it would be very difficult to get him to resign. We have this idea that the pope says something, and everybody just leaps. It doesn’t really work that way,” Ruddy said. “The bishops themselves have certain rights under church law and they have authority, so that’s a hard thing to talk about.”

The new pontiff, who comes from Latin America where the clergy abuse scandal has been more muted, will likely lean on the American cardinals for advice when it comes to handling the crisis – particularly Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who was instrumental in setting up a meeting between alleged victims and Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

O’Malley himself voiced confidence in Pope Francis’ willingness to address the clergy abuse crisis at a news conference in Rome.

“This is a man who has a great sense of mission, and he values transparency,” O’Malley said Thursday. “He will further the process of healing.”

Alleged victims said that while that is their hope, they will nonetheless scrutinize the new pontiff and his actions.

Elsie Boudreau, a Yup’ik Eskimo, was abused for nine years by a Jesuit priest in a tiny village in northern Alaska.

She settled her case in 2005 and now works as a social worker helping 300 other sex abuse victims in Alaska. She has since learned that Vatican officials had been aware of her alleged abuser since before she was born, she said.

“If Pope Francis were to defrock him and all the other perpetrator priests and all those who covered up the crimes and send a clear message to everybody else in the church I would be like, ‘Hmm, OK, there could be a change,”’ said Boudreau, 45, who now lives in Anchorage. “But I don’t believe that will ever happen. There’s no track record.”

Other alleged victims called on Pope Francis to order the release of all confidential records on pedophile priests to cleanse the church and make amends.

Some of those files have been made public through litigation and released under court order, including in Los Angeles where a judge ordered more than 10,000 pages of priest personnel files be made public in January after a five-year legal battle over privacy rights.

In many other dioceses, however, alleged victims still don’t know everything the church knew about their abusers.

“The pope has an opportunity to bring about true justice, change, and transformation in a church torn from scandal and the rape of children,” said Billy Kirchen, who is one of 550 plaintiffs fighting to see files from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. “Real change has to come from the pope.”

Other abuse victims said they were disgusted that cardinals who covered up abuse helped elect the next pope.

Michael Duran, a 40-year-old special education teacher from Los Angeles, said Pope Francis’ elevation is tainted because of their presence. Duran and three others settled with the Los Angeles archdiocese earlier this week for nearly $10 million over childhood abuse by the Rev. Michael Baker.

Recently released confidential files show Baker met privately with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed to molesting children, but he was put back in the ministry for 14 years, where he abused again. Authorities believe Baker, who was convicted in 2007 and paroled in 2011, may have molested more than 20 children in his 26-year career.

If Pope Francis did take action against any U.S. cardinals, it would be a departure from the way his predecessors addressed the clergy abuse crisis.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II issued a decree saying all clergy abuse cases needed to be funneled through the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith – then headed by the future Pope Benedict XVI.

In 2002, in his strongest comments about the unfolding scandal, Pope John Paul II denounced U.S. bishops for the American clergy abuse crisis after summoning them to Rome for a special meeting. He said there was “no place in the priesthood … for those who would harm the young.”

In 2003 and 2004, he approved changes to canon law to allow the Vatican to quickly defrock abusive priests without cumbersome internal trials.

Given the progressive decline in his health, however, it is widely presumed that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – the future Pope Benedict XVI – was the architect of those measures in his role as head of the Vatican department that handled petitions to defrock abusive clergy.

Earlier this year, the Vatican’s new sex crimes prosecutor, quoting Benedict, said the church must recognize the “grave errors in judgment that were often committed by the church’s leadership.” He added that bishops must report abusive priests to police where the law requires it. The comments came days after the release of the Los Angeles confidential files.

Now, with a new pope, victims in the U.S. hope more change is coming.

“If it’s not this pope who will do it, maybe it will be another one,” said Molly Harding, of Spokane, Wash., who waited 40 years to come forward about her abuse at a San Gabriel, Calif., school.

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Associated Press writers contributing to this report include Nicole Winfield in Rome; Mike Warren in Buenos Aires; Donna Blankinship in Seattle; Matt Volz in Helena, Mont.; Jay Lindsay in Boston; Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee, Wis.

Passamaquoddy’s BlackBear Communications Launches Campaign To Improve Healthcare Options for Natives

By Eisa Ulen, Indian Country Today Media Network

To create a healthcare ad for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Passamaquoddy-owned public relations, marketing and advertising company BlackBear Communications looked through a pile of Polaroid pictures of ordinary, everyday Native Americans. One of the images was of a beautiful girl, Ta’Shon Rain Little Light, who had been misdiagnosed with depression at the tender age of 5. This child’s real condition was cancer, and Ta’Shon’s young life was lost because of the poor healthcare she received at a local clinic. She became the cover image of a stunning BlackBear-produced NCAI campaign to improve healthcare options for Native people, people like Ta’Shon, whose lives are too often cut short because of the socio-economic conditions that limit their access to quality medical care.

Ta’Shon Rain Little Light (Facebook)

According to Elizabeth Neptune, BlackBear’s public health specialist and former councilor of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township, Maine, the BlackBear NIH campaigns “will range the spectrum of health initiatives, from anti-obesity efforts to reminders to schedule prostrate exams. On any campaign that BlackBear is selected to participate in, BlackBear will provide a number of different services to ensure cultural sensitivity and message penetration.”

BlackBear is a Tribal owned venture between the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township and a team of public relations, advertising and marketing professionals, and the firm’s reach through this NIH partnership will extend throughout Indian country.

Neptune says BlackBear will “micro-target” the hundreds of diverse tribes throughout the United States. The firm, Neptune explains, understands that a person might self-identify as Native American and Choctaw, or Alaskan Native and Haida, and BlackBear “hopes to speak with the target audience in their own voice. Just as one wouldn’t tell a Texan to ‘fer git a bout it’ or invite a New Yorker to hoedown, BlackBear does not take a one-size-fits-all approach to communications.”

With health disparities and income inequality plaguing Native people, this great diversity within Indian country demands that the communications firm in place to help save lives understand the full range of Native experiences. “The prevailing image of Native Americans,” Neptune says, “is of destitute reservations in the backlands of America. While roughly half of all Native Americans live in rural reservations, millions of Native Americans live in urban settings.”

Neptune says that Native Americans living in cities struggle with the same issues of drugs, violence, and poverty facing other urban Americans, but “these problems run deeper and with much greater impact in the Native American/Alaskan Native population. When a national politician talks about the horrors of over 10 percent unemployment in the African American [community], imagine the difficulty for a rural tribal council member who faces over 50 percent unemployment amongst their people. Studies have proven that socio-economics play a major part in health and healthcare management.”

The major health disparities impacting Native health, Neptune says, are diabetes and substance abuse. Education through public communication helps identify substance abusers who need help, the best places for them to go to get help, and the training addicts and their family members can get to learn how to help improve health outcomes. Likewise, Neptune says, through public education, ordinary people can identify a pattern of family diabetes, learn how to talk to a nutrition expert, and begin to think about ways to cook healthier meals to have a positive impact on family wellness.

Neptune says her background as a public health specialist gives her a distinctive perspective within the BlackBear Communications team. “My particular experience in direct care and the whole health care system has placed me in the unique position to talk about those challenges faced in Indian country with authority. But the issues that confront Native American communities are many. Communities are learning, talking and tackling the problem with internal and external resources is the only way we will ever see improvement. There are also opportunities if the Native American communities want to fight for them in the realm of public debate. Whether it is a local, state or nationa initiative, Native Americans will only be heard if they speak up. BlackBear, we hope, will be more than a communications firm to reach Indian country. We want it to be a megaphone for Native Americans to address the issues and opportunities important to them.”

Perhaps BlackBear’s new partnership with NIH will help more people who deserve better healthcare information and access—and prevent tragic, avoidable loss of life, life as precious as young Ta’Shon Rain Little Light.

Lightning Cloud Win ‘Battle for the Best’ at South by Southwest

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Photo by Joshua Touseym source: Facebook

It was a massive competition between the best new hip hop acts from New York and L.A., and when all was said and done it was LightningCloud — a Native act from the left coast — who reigned supreme.

The finale took place at South by Southwest, the entertainment-industry mega-event that descends upon Austin, Texas annually and which concluded on Sunday night. On Friday, LightningCloud, the delegate from Los Angeles as selected by hip hop radio station Power 106, faced Brooklyn product Radamiz, who had earned his spot in the finals by winning the contest held by New York’s Hot 97.

The matchup was decided by text voting on Friday, and LightningCloud were announced as the winners following a performance by hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar. For their victory, the group, which consists of MC Redcloud, Crystle Lightning, and DJ Hydroe, will open for Lamar on tour, and received a cash prize of $10,000.

LightningCloud were one of several Native acts to play during South by Southwest — as detailed at AboriginalMusicWeek.ca, the list also included A Tribe Called Red, Samantha Crain, Angel Haze, and Yelawolf.

Congressmen Explain Their Surprising Violence Against Women Act Votes

By Rob Caprioccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (left), Rep. Don Young, and Sen. John Barrasso

While the tribal court inherent jurisdictional provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed both chambers of Congress in February, and President Barack Obama subsequently signed them into law on March 7, the votes of three congressmen are getting special attention from Indian country.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a Cherokee Nation citizen, voted against VAWA in the House, perplexing many of his fellow tribal citizens and other observers.

“Mullin, a Tea Party darling and Constitutionalist, ran a campaign on fiscal conservatism,” reflected journalist Aura Bogado in a blog post for The Nation. “Perhaps he didn’t like money being poured into a federal program that protects women. In the end, he was one of only 27 House Republicans who voted against both reauthorization versions. As a first-term lawmaker, he has already illustrated that he won’t necessarily stand with other Natives and their best interests in Congress.”

Mullin’s vote stood in stark contrast to that of fellow Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole, who paved the way for the House’s passage of the Senate version of VAWA that included the strong Native protections. Cole is a Chickasaw Nation citizen.

Sensing he had a PR nightmare on his hands, Mullin finally said it wasn’t the Native provisions that bothered him—it was the protections for LGBT families that persuaded his vote.

“The language regarding ‘sexual orientation’ in the bill’s non-discrimination provisions was unacceptable to me, and in my opinion had no place in a bill whose primary intent was to deal with protecting women from domestic violence,” Mullin wrote in a letter published by the Cherokee Phoenix later in March.

Then there was the temporarily perplexing situation surrounding Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs. He was expected to be an affirmative vote on the House bill. But when the final votes were tallied, he was a no-show.

What was going on? Had Young backtracked?

Nope, he explained. He was too sick to vote.

In a personal note he had posted to the Congressional Record, Young explained, “Mr. Speaker, on February 28, 2013, I was unable to vote because of medical reasons and missed roll call vote No. 55, on passage of S. 47, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. Had I been present, I would have voted ‘yea.’ I strongly support reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was delayed for far too long. I am pleased that Congress was able to overcome the obstacles that blocked its final passage. VAWA’s programs are a critical component of our Nation’s effort to reduce violence and care for victims. Reauthorizing VAWA will help Alaska, and the rest of the country, combat the epidemic of abuse and rape that plagues our families and communities.”

Young’s spokesman, Michael Anderson, elaborated on the situation, telling Indian Country Today Media Network, “Congressman Young had a minor medical issue late last month that didn’t allow him to fly from Alaska back to D.C. He is now clear to fly and will be back in D.C. this week.”

On the Senate side, there were a few senators who raised alarm bells surrounding their tribal VAWA positions, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and John Thune (R-S.D.) among them. But it was Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-WY) “no” vote that has most concerned Indian country, in no small part because he is the vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Barrasso said he was concerned that the bill, which allows Indians to prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed on Indian lands, could be perceived as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, so he didn’t want to risk Indians losing sovereignty over the matter.

Barrasso’s spokeswoman, Emily Lawrimore, explained, “As a doctor, Sen. Barrasso is very concerned about the problem of domestic violence in Indian country and supports measures that protect women and children. He voted against the recent VAWA bill because it contains provisions that would likely be ruled unconstitutional by the courts. A Supreme Court ruling against this provision could be damaging to tribal authority and have irreversible consequences.”

Ryan Dreveskracht, an Indian affairs lawyer with Galanda Broadman, found that to be a “weak position” since the Supreme Court has already ruled that tribes have the inherent power to prosecute non-Indians.