Klamath Lake. New legislation in the U.S. Senate would enact a water-sharing agreement and authorize the Interior Department to carry out the terms of a new agreement signed by tribes, ranchers and other stakeholder groups in the Upper Klamath Basin. | credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. senators from Oregon and California introduced legislation Wednesday that’s aimed at restoring the Klamath Basin ecosystem and enacting a water-sharing agreement in this arid region that straddles the two states.
The legislation puts into law the Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement, an accord that was negotiated and signed last month by ranchers, tribes, and federal and state officials, according to a statement issued by Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
“The people of the basin have set aside their differences for the benefit of the region,” Wyden said in the joint statement from the four senators. “Congress should follow their example, pass this legislation and put the Klamath Basin on the road to recovery.”
The Senate bill gives congressional authorization to the U.S. Interior Department to act and achieve the agreement’s benefits. That includes a water-sharing agreement for ranchers and farmers, tribes, native fish runs and bird refuges. It also puts into law a plan to improve and protect streamside areas and provides economic aid for the Klamath Tribes and their members.
In all, the Klamath Basin restoration is expected to cost about $495 million in federal spending. The bill also clears the way for the removal of four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River, with the Secretary of the Interior making the final decision. Experts say that would be the largest dam removal in history.
Last summer, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden brought stakeholders together to rework the restoration agreements. They had been previously drawn up but never passed in Congress.
Several of those stakeholders signed onto a statement praising the new legislation. They included Trout Unlimited, the Karuk Tribe, the Klamath Water Users Association, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, PacifiCorp and the Upper Klamath Water Users Association.
Other conservation groups such as Oregon Wild and WaterWatch of Oregon say the Klamath Agreements don’t provide adequate water for the Klamath Basin’s wildlife refuges, or go far enough to reduce overall water demand.
The legislation will be referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Wyden is a member and the former chairman.
Pedestrians of American Indian descent at are at higher risk of death in Washington state, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a branch of Smart Growth America.
Washington placed 36th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in a ranking of the most dangerous states to the least dangerous based on the Pedestrian Danger Index, a combined measure of total pedestrian deaths, annual pedestrian deaths and the percentage of people commuting by foot over the past five to eight years. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area ranked 49th out of 51 large metro areas.
But for Washingtonians of American Indian descent, the statistics aren’t as reassuring. Nationwide, Native Americans have higher rates of fatal traffic accidents than other ethnicities. But that difference is particularly notable in Washington state where all other ethnic groups’ fatality rates are consistently lower than national averages.
Credit Rae Ellen Bichell
‘The Gap, Unfortunately, Is Widening’
The Washington Traffic Safety Commission doesn’t plot pedestrian deaths against ethnicity, although it does publish statistics on factors like age and gender. A report on factors in Washington pedestrian fatalities from 2008 to 2012 acknowledges that “Native Americans are disproportionately killed in pedestrian crashes, representing 8.4 percent of pedestrian deaths but less than 2 percent of the total population.”
“The gap, unfortunately, is widening,” said MJ Haught, a program manager and tribal liaison for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. Over the course of the past few decades, Haught said, the rate of Native American fatalities went from about 2.4 times that of the general population to 3.3. And in 2013, she said, “the data told us that Native American fatalities are 3.9 times higher than the general population. This is obviously not the way we want to go.”
Unlike Other Groups, Native Americans More At Risk On Rural Roads
Both statewide and nationwide, most pedestrian deaths occur in the more populated urban areas. But according to state data, more Native Americans were killed in crashes on rural roads than on urban ones, opposite the pattern seen with pedestrians of all other ethnicities.
Why? There’s no easy answer, but here are a few factors to consider.
Washington state has 29 federally-recognized American Indian tribes. Alaska, California and Oklahoma are the only other states with more tribes within their borders. According to 2010 U.S. Census data, only six states have American Indian and Alaska Native populations greater than that in Washington.
Each reservation is its own sovereign nation with its own laws, which means roads and signs are built and distributed differently. In rural areas, on tribal lands or off, there aren’t always sidewalks, and not all roads are well-lit.
According to the Center for Disease Control and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Americans of Native American and Alaska Native descent tend to be at higher risk of car injuries overall, not just as pedestrians. Some tribes don’t have seat belt laws.
“If you drill down, a huge factor is unbelted fatalities,” said Haught. “The unbelted fatality rate for native Americans is 7.2 times higher for Native Americans in Washington.”
Alcoholism is often cited as a contributing factor. But intoxication, particularly intoxicated pedestrians, is a contributing factor across the board and is not limited to one ethnicity.
Fatality Rate Likely Underreported
Even with the comparatively high rate of Native American pedestrian deaths reported, we may not be getting the full picture. Because each reservation is a sovereign nation, not every tribe shares data with the state, and the data that is available is conservative.
“The rates for fatalities are coming in with death certificates. We’re pretty good at getting all the reports that happen on Washington land, but not necessarily the reports from reservation land. That varies very much by the tribe and the reservation,” said Haught. “We are confident that the traffic deaths are underreported, so it’s an even worse problem than we realized.”
Thomas Holsworth is commander with the Colville Tribal Police Department in Nespelem, in northwest Washington. The reservation covers 1.4 million acres and, as in many rural areas, most of the roadways that crisscross it are narrow, windy country roads without sidewalks.
“The pedestrian walkways are basically the dirt shoulders of the roadways,” says Holsworth. “But I think a lot of it is, they just tend to walk more, sometimes out of necessity, because … they may not own an operable vehicle. There are others that just like to get out and walk, and there’s not a whole lot of safe places to do that.”
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation have gone to great lengths to try to reduce traffic-related deaths on tribal lands, assimilating state traffic codes into their tribal code and launching multiple highway safety programs. Funded by a state grant, the tribes ran a public education campaign to increase awareness about using seat belts, driving under the influence, and launched projects to identify problem roads and walking paths.
In the last five years, Holsworth says, there has only been one pedestrian fatality.
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona is making history. Nearly 40 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe (1978) that American Indian tribes did not have jurisdiction over non-Indians who committed crimes on reservations, the Pascua Yaqui are preparing to try as many as 10 non-Indians alleged to have committed domestic violence crimes on their reservation.
The stats for crimes against women in Indian country are appalling. A Department of Justice report states that American Indian/Alaska Native women are significantly more likely to be raped, physically assaulted and stalked than are white women. If, on an Indian reservation, that abuse was committed by a non-Indian, tribal law enforcement was not authorized to arrest the perpetrator and tribal courts did not have the jurisdiction to try him. Both arrest and prosecution were the responsibility of the federal government. But these are such challenging crimes to successfully bring to justice, federal resources are seldom deployed to deal with them.
The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization of 2013 radically changed that. Under VAWA Indian tribes will have jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit domestic violence crimes on reservations. The law will go into effect for all tribes in March 2015, but the Justice Department in February designated three tribes – the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Tulalip Tribes of Washington – for a pilot program that allows them to exercise the authority immediately.
Troy Eid, chairman of the Indian Law and Order Commission mandated by TLOA, says, “The Pascua Yaqui Tribe has put a lot of energy into being ready for this day. My impression is they really tried to err on the side of caution so there would be no justification for overturning a tribal court verdict on federal review.”
Listening to Pascua Yaqui Tribe Chief Prosecutor Alfred Urbina describe what has gone into this moment makes “a lot of energy” seem like an understatement. Urbina detailed some of the issues the tribe has had to deal with and what has been learned in an effort to help other tribes put their justice systems in order to begin prosecuting these cases. “The ability to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence brings up a lot of questions for the tribe,” he says.
Urbina explains that there have been 11 recent incidents on the reservation with American Indian victims and non-Indian suspects; some are still in investigation or waiting for warrants to be served, while some are in the process of being prosecuted. The first trial is scheduled to begin August 19, but some cases could be resolved through plea agreements before that.
One thing that has been surprising is the number of cases. “We thought we’d have 5 to 10 cases for the whole calendar year,” Urbina says. “But in just the first two months since the tribe has had the authority to arrest non-Indians, there have been more than 10 arrests.”
Demographics are critical to predicting how many cases tribes will need to prepare for. So is location – whether or not the reservation is near an urban center or a major highway. Among the questions tribes will have to address is: Who is actually living in tribal housing? The perception is that tribal members live in tribal housing, but there are probably other people as well, especially if there are a lot of single mothers, says Urbina.
Other questions shed light on matters such as – What is the composition of law enforcement on the reservation? Do people trust law enforcement? Urbina explains that if people have seen non-prosecution of DV cases for many years by both tribal and federal authorities, distrust may have built up and this will affect the success of the cases the tribe brings to trial. How does the tribe get a warrant served off-reservation and the suspect extradited back to the reservation for trial? What if a suspect does not speak English—will an interpreter be available for court proceedings and for conferring with an attorney?
Then there is the question of public defenders. “Some tribes are saying we just need to hire a lawyer, but that person would need to have a background in Indian law, Indian sovereignty issues, different ways of doing things in Indian country and tribal court history. If the lawyer doesn’t have that kind of information it will impact the case.”
One compromise that had to be made to get the law passed was that the attorneys and judges in cases where whites are being tried have to be state-licensed. This brings up the question of access. How will public defenders hired by the tribe have access to their clients on rural reservations?
And that in turn brings up the question of costs—of public defenders, judges, travel, housing of both legal personnel and of those being held for trial and medical care for prisoners. These are issues that if not handled correctly could lead to federal appeals on constitutional grounds, Urbina explains.
Urbina estimates it could cost up to $500,000 for a tribe to get their justice system set up to meet the prerequisites to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence crimes. “The process will be out of reach for some tribal governments without significant assistance from the federal government, but in order to get this law passed, no money was appropriated for that purpose,” says Urbina.
Nonetheless, the Pascua Yaqui are in a financial position to bring justice long delayed to women on their reservation and they are wasting no time in getting started. Says Eid, “Nothing could be more important for a tribal government to do. This has been an area where law and order breaks down. It’s important that this works.” Urbina puts it this way: “There is nothing more basic than the right to live in peace. Everything else flows from that.”
WASHINGTON, DC – The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) congratulates Diane J. Humetewa of the Hopi Indian Tribe on her confirmation as federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Arizona. As the newest member of the federal bench, she is the first Native American woman ever appointed to serve in that position.
The Honorable Humetewa is impeccably qualified for her new role. She has practiced law in federal courts for over a decade – as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, as Assistant U.S. Attorney, and as the U.S. Attorney for Arizona – and is experienced in a wide array of complex proceedings, hearings, and cases.
Further, Judge Humetewa has dedicated time to serving the interests of Native peoples. She has been the Appellate Court judge for the Hopi Tribe, counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and special advisor to the President on American Indian Affairs at Arizona State University.
NCAI greatly appreciates the efforts of the President and Senate in achieving this historic confirmation. There are many qualified, talented people like Diane Humetewa in Indian Country who are able and willing to serve. We eagerly anticipate many more nominations of Native people to the federal bench and other offices.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) has come out in favor of the bipartisan congressional conference report on pending legislation that would enable direct cooperation between the Army Corps of Engineers and tribes.
“The Columbia Basin tribes and the Corps have long mutually agreed that acquisition of such authority would substantially advance project expertise and efficiency and allow the Corps to meet its statutory obligations by accessing tribal expertise,” the CRITFC said in a statement, adding that the language in the relevant section, 1031, was “short and simple but will remedy prior inefficiency in projects such as cultural resources protection, water quality monitoring and lamprey passage research.”
Lamprey passage has been an issue for the tribes in the northwestern United States, to whom they are a cultural icon. Dam construction has impeded the fish’s ability to spawn.
Section 1031 “authorizes the Corps of Engineers to carry out water-related planning activities and construct water resource development projects that are located primarily within Indian country or impacts tribal resources,” the conference report stated. “Previous Water Resources Development Acts have authorized individual Tribes to carry out these activities. This section is intended to provide this authority generically so that all Tribes may benefit.”
The commission also gave a hat tip to Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, calling him “instrumental” in getting the Cooperative Agreement Authority language included in the bill that passed the Senate in 2013. The tribal organization also noted the contributions of House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster and Ranking Member Nick Rahall, who “were integral to affirming House commitment to the policy improvements.”
A final vote on the bill is pending.
“We look forward to swift passage of WRRDA in both the House and Senate and look forward to working with the US Army Corps of Engineers to quickly implement this authority,” said CRITFC Executive Director Paul Lumley in the statement.
A diver, Susan Bird, cleaning the skull of a prehistoric teenage girl, recently discovered in an underwater cave in Mexico. Credit Paul Nicklen/National Geographic, via Associated Press
Most geneticists agree that Native Americans are descended from Siberians who crossed into America 26,000 to 18,000 years ago via a land bridge over the Bering Strait. But while genetic analysis of modern Native Americans lends support to this idea, strong fossil evidence has been lacking.
Now a nearly complete skeleton of a prehistoric teenage girl, newly discovered in an underwater cave in the Yucatán Peninsula, establishes a clear link between the ancient and modern peoples, scientists say.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers report that they analyzed mitochondrial DNA — genetic material passed down through the mother — that was extracted from the skeleton’s wisdom tooth by divers. The analysis reveals that the girl, who lived at least 12,000 years ago, belonged to an Asian-derived genetic lineage seen only in Native Americans.
Though her skull, found intact, is more narrow and angular than those of modern Indians, and her face smaller and her features more protruding, “we know that at least the maternal ancestry is shared,” said an author of the study, James Chatters, a forensic anthropologist with Applied Paleoscience, a company in Bothell, Wash.
The reasons for the differences in skull size and shape are still a mystery, but modern American Indians may have evolved to have broader, larger skulls because of adaptations to different food, social or environmental conditions, Dr. Chatters said.
Angélique Corthals, a forensic anthropologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who was not involved with the study, said the find was “very exciting” because it was a full skeleton.
“That’s really rare,” she continued. “They’ve been able to retrieve so much of the mitochondrial DNA; that’s what makes it monumental.”
The researchers also used radiocarbon dating to approximate the skeleton’s age.
They now hope to retrieve nuclear DNA to determine paternal ancestry and study the skeleton to understand the teenager’s health history, diet and body structure.
But that will have to wait: For now, the skeleton remains in the cave.
“Ultimately we’re going to have to retrieve her,” Dr. Chatters said.
A view of Hoyo Negro, a submerged cave in the eastern Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico where the prehistoric girl’s skeleton was discovered. Credit Roberto Chavez Arce, via Science, via Associated Press
Correction: May 16, 2014
An earlier version of a picture caption on the home page for this article misidentified one of the groups of people that scientists say are linked by a prehistoric skeleton. They are modern American Indians and Siberian ancestors who crossed the Bering Strait, not Siberian descendants.
“Group libel” lawsuits claiming that a race, ethnic group, religion, and the like was libeled by knowing or reckless falsehoods about them aren’t allowed under modern American libel law. But the matter is different when the group is small enough; in the words of the Restatement (Second) of Torts,
One who publishes defamatory matter concerning a group or class of persons is subject to liability to an individual member of it if, but only if,
(a) the group or class is so small that the matter can reasonably be understood to refer to the member, or
(b) the circumstances of publication reasonably give rise to the conclusion that there is particular reference to the member….
Comment a. As a general rule no action lies for the publication of defamatory words concerning a large group or class of persons. Unless the group itself is an unincorporated association, as to which see § 562, it cannot maintain the action; and no individual member of the group can recover for such broad and general defamation. The words are not reasonably understood to have any personal application to any individual unless there are circumstances that give them such an application. The extreme example is the statement of David that “All men are liars,” which in a sense defames all mankind and yet could not reasonably be taken to have any personal reference to each member of the human race. On the same basis, the statement that “All lawyers are shysters,” or that all of a great many persons engaged in a particular trade or business or those of a particular race or creed are dishonest cannot ordinarily be taken to have personal reference to any of the class.
Illustrations:
1. A newspaper publishes the statement that the “Stivers clan” have been engaged for years in a feud in the course of which many murders have been committed. There are in the community a great many interrelated families named Stivers. Neither the entire group nor any member of it can recover for defamation.
2. A newspaper publishes the statement that the officials of a labor organization are engaged in subversive activities. There are 162 officials. Neither the entire group nor any one of them can recover for defamation.
b. When the group or class defamed is sufficiently small, the words may reasonably be understood to have personal reference and application to any member of it, so that he is defamed as an individual. In this case he can recover for defamation. Thus the statement that “That jury was bribed” may reasonably be understood to mean that each of the twelve jurymen has accepted a bribe. It is not possible to set definite limits as to the size of the group or class, but the cases in which recovery has been allowed usually have involved numbers of 25 or fewer.
Illustration:
3. A newspaper publishes a statement that the officers of a corporation have embezzled its funds. There are only four officers. Each of them can be found to be defamed.
The core issue is thus whether a statement about a group is seen as a statement “of and concerning” the particular plaintiff — the general view is that statements about large groups aren’t so seen (because listeners recognize that generalizations about a group often don’t apply to individual members), but statements about small groups might be so seen.
A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit over Out of the Furnace filed last December by 17 members of the Ramapough Lunaape Nation, a Native American tribe located mostly in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.
The film starred Christian Bale tracking his younger brother, played by Casey Affleck, who has been lured into a ruthless crime ring led by the evil character of Harlan De Groat, played by Woody Harrelson. The group is identified as the Jackson Whites and described as a community of “inbreds.” …
Note that the movie didn’t just refer to the group, but to at least one common surname (De Groat) within the group. Still, the court held, this wasn’t enough to make the statements “of and concerning” the plaintiffs:
Plaintiffs plead only that some of them share the same surname, but not first name, as two of the characters in the movie. They also contend that they are Ramapoughs, as are the characters in the movie, and that many of them live in the same region as the Ramapoughs. These allegations do not suffice to show that the alleged defamatory statements are “of and concerning” these Plaintiffs. In fact, Plaintiffs concede in their brief that the statements they complain of do not refer to them: “It is acknowledged that these Plaintiffs are not, specifically, characters in the movie ….”
There is of course, another issue here: The film wasn’t a documentary, and reasonable viewers would perceive it as a work of fiction. And while sometimes a work that is obviously “roman à clef” — i.e., is perceived by the public as making claims about real events, though under a fictionalized veneer or with some fictional components — might be seen as libelous, that would be a pretty high bar to pass, given viewers’ understanding that movies that aren’t sold as documentaries are generally about storytelling, not about factual accuracy (even when they are to some extent based on real surroundings). Still, the court managed to largely avoid this issue by simply concluding that the movie couldn’t be seen as making factual claims of and concerning any particular individual, whether or not it would be seen as making factual claims about the large group.
Originally posted by The Desert Sun | 10:40 p.m. PDT May 13, 2014
Agua Caliente tribal chairman Jeff Grubbe talks about the Coachella Valley’s aquifer and the tribe’s related lawsuit in the Indian Canyons, Thursday, June 27th, 2013. The United States Justice Department on Tuesday voiced support for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians’ lawsuit against two local water authorities that claims mismanagement of the Coachella Valley’s underground water supply. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun )
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday weighed in to support the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in its lawsuit against two water districts, backing the tribe’s claims that the local agencies are infringing upon its rights by over-pumping groundwater from the Coachella Valley’s aquifer.
In the motion filed in U.S. District Court, attorneys for the Justice Department are seeking approval to join the lawsuit, saying the government has a significant interest in ensuring water rights for the tribe.
“Here, the United States shares the Tribe’s interest in protecting its water,” the motion states. “The United States recognizes that water is the ‘lifeblood’ of the Tribe’s desert homeland.”
In the motion, government lawyers said the U.S. government has an interest “in protecting the federal reserved rights to groundwater” associated with the tribe’s reservation. They said the tribe notified the federal government of the lawsuit and requested that it intervene.
In a separate complaint, the government’s attorneys asked that the court quantify the tribe’s right to groundwater “necessary to satisfy the purposes of the Reservation,” and noted that for decades, more water has been pumped from the Coachella Valley’s aquifer than has flowed back in — a condition known as “overdraft.” They said the water agencies’ use of groundwater “infringes upon the senior reserved rights of the Tribe.”
The federal government asked the court for an injunction to protect the tribe’s rights to groundwater and prevent the water districts from “injuring the Tribe … by overdrafting the groundwater.”
The tribe filed its lawsuit in May 2013 against the Desert Water Agency and the Coachella Valley Water District, the two largest water suppliers in the Coachella Valley.
“This action comes as no surprise to us as the federal government holds land in trust for the Tribe,” DWA Board President Craig Ewing said in an emailed statement. “DWA and CVWD, since their inception, have worked to ensure a safe, reliable drinking water supply for all of the residents of the Coachella Valley. We will continue to work to protect our customers as we have for decades.”
A spokeswoman for Coachella Valley Water District said the agency’s general manager and board members had not had time to review the motion and could not comment.
Robert Anderson, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law with experience in tribal water cases, called the government’s motion a significant development.
“It’s huge for tribal interests involved in the case that they’ve got the U.S. on their side now,” Anderson said.
The U.S. government will routinely get involved in lawsuits like this, Anderson said, but only when officials believe a tribe’s case has merit.
Anderson said he has no doubts the court will support the government’s request to intervene in the case. The added expertise and legal experience the federal government brings to the arguments could end up helping the tribe’s case, Anderson said.
In a statement, Jeff Grubbe, chairman of the Agua Caliente tribe, called the motion “a significant step in our fight to protect the future of Coachella Valley’s water supply.”
“For more than 20 years, the Tribe and the United States have raised concerns about the overdraft of the valley’s aquifer and degradation of the drinking water,” Grubbe said in the statement. “We are working to ensure the valley has a clean, abundant drinking water supply for generations. This move by the United States further proves the value and importance of our case against the water districts.”
A Desert Sun analysis of groundwater data determined that water levels in wells across the Coachella Valley declined by an average of 55 feet between 1970 and 2013. Those declines have been especially pronounced in the middle of the valley, with drops of more than 100 feet since the 1950s in some areas of Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage.
Water agency officials have said the tribe’s lawsuit seems to be an attempt to take away the public’s water rights, and have also suggested the tribe could be trying to make money off the water rights. The tribe has denied those accusations.
The Agua Caliente tribe has a reservation stretching across parts of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage, and owns two casinos and hotels. The tribe is preparing to develop a 577-acre piece of vacant land near its Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Rancho Mirage into a 55-and-over residential community.
Leaders of the tribe have raised concerns about declining water levels in the aquifer and about worsening water quality due to inflows of imported water from the Colorado River with higher salinity levels. Water agency officials have stressed that the imported water is well within drinking water standards, and have said that treating the Colorado River water would lead to substantial rate increases for customers.
In February, lawyers for the water agencies and tribes appeared in federal court in Riverside, and District Judge Jesus Bernal set a timetable for pretrial procedures and motions, as well as a trial date of Feb. 3, 2015.
Attorneys for the Justice Department said in their motion that the government should be permitted to intervene in the case partly because “the United States asserts interests on behalf of all federally recognized tribes and all federal lands” relating to water.
A judge is scheduled to consider the government’s request at a hearing in Riverside on June 16.
Reach Barrett Newkirk at (760)778-4767, or by email at barrett.newkirk@desertsun.com
Elouise Cobell, right, looks on as Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes testifies in December 2009 during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. EVAN VUCCI/Associated Press
HELENA – The Flathead Reservation is among 21 Indian reservations that will be the focus of the next phase of a $1.9 billion program to buy fractionated land parcels owned by multiple individuals and turn them over to tribal governments, Interior Department officials said Thursday.
Besides the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, other Montana participants are the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation; Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation; Crow Tribe; and the Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana.
Government officials will work with tribal leaders to plan, map, conduct mineral evaluations, make appraisals and acquire land on the reservations from Washington state to Oklahoma in this phase, which is expected to last through 2015.
Other reservations could be added to the list, but the 21 named Thursday meet the criteria, particularly tribal readiness, said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn.
“We knew it wouldn’t be successful unless tribal leaders were interested in the program,” Washburn said.
The land buyback program is part of a $3.4 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by Elouise Cobell of Browning, who died in 2011. The lawsuit claimed Interior Department officials mismanaged trust money held by the government for hundreds of thousands of Indian landowners.
The 1887 Dawes Act split tribal lands into individual allotments that were inherited by multiple heirs with each passing generation, resulting in some parcels across the nation being owned by dozens, hundreds or even thousands of individual Indians.
Often, that land sits without being developed or leased because approval is required from all the owners.
The land buyback program aims to consolidate as many parcels as possible by spending $1.9 billion by a 2022 deadline to purchase land from willing owners, then turn over that purchased land to the tribes to do as they see fit.
So far, the program has spent $61.2 million and restored 175,000 acres, said Interior Deputy Secretary Mike Connor. To buy even that much land, officials had to locate and contact owners in all 50 states and several countries to find out if they were willing to sell, Connor said.
The work primarily has been focused on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation until now.
Last month, tribal leaders from four reservations criticized the buyback program’s slow pace and complained they were being shut out of decisions over what land to buy. The leaders from tribes in Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington state spoke before a U.S. House panel.
Rep. Steve Daines, R-Montana, who called for the congressional hearing, said he welcomed Thursday’s announcement by the Interior Department.
“However, I am concerned their efforts here may not provide tribes with the necessary tools to ensure the Land Buy-Back program is properly implemented,” Daines said in a statement.
He said the Interior Department should use its authority to give tribes more flexibility, and it should move swiftly to address consolidation problems on other reservations not included in the announcement.
Washburn said Thursday that his agency has entered into or is negotiating cooperative agreements with many tribes in the buyback program, though others say they want the federal government to run the program.
21 reservations next up in consolidation program
These are the American Indian reservations the Department of Interior plans to focus on in the next phase of a $1.9 billion buyback program of fractionated land parcels to turn over to tribal governments. The program is part of a $3.4 billion settlement over mismanaged money held in trust by the U.S. government for individual Indian landowners.
– Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana.
– Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, Wyoming.
– Coeur D’Alene Tribe of the Coeur D’Alene Reservation, Idaho.
– Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Montana.
– Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Oregon.
– Crow Tribe, Montana.
– Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana.
– Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona.
– Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington.
– Makah Indian Tribe of the Makah Indian Reservation, Washington.
– Navajo Nation, Arizona.
– Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana.
– Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.
– Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Kansas.
– Quapaw Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma.
– Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation, Washington.
– Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota.
– Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, North Dakota and South Dakota.
– Squaxin Island Tribe of the Squaxin Island Reservation, Washington.
– Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota and South Dakota.
– Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation, Washington.
The University of North Dakota does not organize the Springfest bash for which the shirts were made, so it’s unclear whether the school will take disciplinary action against the students for the questionable apparel.
A group of college students made T-shirts showing a Native American head drinking from a beer bong that read “Siouxper drunk” for a huge party before finals week.
The University of North Dakota does not organize the Springfest bash, scheduled for Saturday, so it’s unclear whether the school will — or can — take disciplinary action against the students for the questionable apparel.
What is clear is that this is far from the first time people came to a head over the representation of Native Americans on the campus.
“There’s a really long history of fighting over the logo and nickname for the university. These T-shirts are just the latest event that connected to that,” Sebastian Braun, chair of the school’s American Indian Studies Department, told the Daily News.
Several years ago, the NCAA pressured the university to drop its “Fighting Sioux” logo and name, which were deemed offensive.
This T-shirt designed for a big, unsanctioned party near the University of North Dakota is being criticized for the use of an American Indian image. Photo: Twitter
University President Robert O. Kelley was appalled that people wore t-shirts that perpetuate derogatory and harmful stereotypes of American Indians.
“The message on the shirts demonstrated an unacceptable lack of sensitivity and a complete lack of respect for American Indians and all members of the community,” he said.
Just last week the Gamma Phi Beta sorority displayed a banner that read, “You can take away our mascot but you can’t take away our pride. Mens 2014 NCAA Frozen Four.” It was quickly removed, the president said in a statement.
Last month, students put up a poster on campus criticizing the old logo and presumably people who are nostalgic for it.
Racist or merely rowdy? ‘Siouxper Drunk’ T-shirts draw smiles, anger at University of North Dakota. Photo: Twitter
Braun said the upcoming party will be held off-campus but nearby.
“Part of it is in a city park and there’s a business in town with a liquor license. It’s a neighborhood with a lot of student residences,” he said.
Students who are upset about the T-shirts on Friday organized a walk from the American Indian Student Services building to the administrative building.
University spokesman Peter Johnson said the situation was under investigation.
The University of North Dakota Fighing Sioux logo has long been a source of controversy. Photo: University of North Dakota
