Archives

August, 2006

• State's 12,000-year-old artifact goes missing
  State archaeologist Rick Jones has been displaying one of Indiana's oldest man-made relics at public events for so long that he never considered the possibility someone might steal it.

• New Pine Ridge jail offers big improvements for inmate care
  One of the first things Jean Whirlwind Horse, captain of corrections for Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, emphasizes about the new 73,000-square-foot Oglala Sioux Tribal Offenders Facility is its nine classrooms.
  These classrooms signal a change in the way inmates will serve their sentences in the direct-supervision facility set to open this fall two miles southeast of Pine Ridge.

• Red Lake students prepare to head back to school
  There's lots of activity in the halls of Red Lake High School. Workers are busy painting, cleaning and installing new security locks on classroom doors. As Principal Chris Dunshee walks the white cinderblock corridors to check on the work, he can't help but pass by the places where Jeff Weise caused so much terror.

   
• Red Lake Tribal Council ousts public safety commissioner
  RED LAKE, Minn. - The Red Lake Tribal Council has fired public safety director Pat Mills and named Pat Graves as his temporary replacement, Graves confirmed.Graves said Friday that he will remain as conservation enforcement supervisor for the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
   
• Red Lake, feds at odds over pace of recovery help
  (MINNESOTA) -- Five months after murderous violence at the high school here convulsed the Red Lake Indian Reservation and brought the world's eyes to its unique borders, the band's leaders are unhappy that all the attention and reassuring words haven't been accompanied by more help from the source that has always mattered most: the band's longtime treaty partner, the U.S. government.

• Red Lake youth will be tried as juvenile
  (MINNESOTA) -- The 16-year-old son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. will be tried as a juvenile for his alleged role in the March 21 shootings at Red Lake High School, the teenager's grandmother said this afternoon.

• Suit against Oneida councilman goes forward in state court
  (NEW YORK) -- A civil suit against Oneida Men's Council member Clint Hill over a 2002 ''belly-bumping'' incident can go forward in the New York state court system, a state judge ruled on Aug. 8.

• Navajo EARTH Study is seeking data collectors
  WINDOW ROCK — Because Native Americans seem more prone to chronic diseases, a long-term health study has been undertaken on the Navajo Nation to determine the causes and in order to collect the data needed, Native American volunteers are needed.
   
• Pine Ridge tribal officers soon to patrol Nebraska village
  LINCOLN, Neb. - Tribal police from South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian reservation will soon be patrolling the tiny Nebraska border town of Whiteclay.
  The agreement allowing tribal police to be deputized in Nebraska was signed Tuesday by Gov. Dave Heineman, Attorney General Jon Bruning and Cecelia Fire Thunder, the Oglala Sioux Tribe president.

• A brief history of recognition battles in Connecticut
  HARTFORD, Conn. - Federal recognition rules allow tribes to submit various evidence and combinations of evidence to prove their existence as an American Indian entity, including evidence of ''relationships with state governments based on identification of the group as Indian.''
   
• School district and parent clash over Native American Cultural Issue
  LOS FRESNOS, August 25, 2005 — Two Resaca Middle School students have spent the first days of the fall semester isolated from classmates because of a hairstyle their mother says is part of their culture and the school district says is against policy.
   

  Please visit this petition site, sign and forward to others. Schools must stop violating Native American Culture.

  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/698452276?ltl=1125163789#top

• Red Lake, feds at odds over pace of recovery help
  (MINNESOTA) -- Five months after murderous violence at the high school here convulsed the Red Lake Indian Reservation and brought the world's eyes to its unique borders, the band's leaders are unhappy that all the attention and reassuring words haven't been accompanied by more help from the source that has always mattered most: the band's longtime treaty partner, the U.S. government.

• Navajo Nation seeks to block uranium development
  (RENO) -- The effort of the new national U.S. energy bill to revive the nuclear industry has not generated much enthusiasm among members of the Navajo Nation--which although it stands to benefit from grants and subsidies for power generation--banned uranium mining and processing last April.

• New career Web site launched
  (CALIFORNIA) -- Clearly Indian country is coming into its own when a startup dot-com devotes itself to matching Native employers with Native and non-Native job seekers. Patterned after monster.com and careerbuilder.com, nativecountrycareers.com brings Indians across the continent together with just a mouse click.

• Syracuse University offers 'Haudenosaunee Promise'
  Full scholarships to qualified students starting fall 2006
  SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Students of Haudenosaunee ancestry now have a strong incentive - a free college education - to study hard in high school. Syracuse University announced on Aug. 19 that it will foot the bill for an undergraduate education to any enrolled Haudenosaunee student who qualifies for admission to the university. ''Education at its best is a two-way process,'' said Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor in a news release.

• Hearings open on Makah whale hunts
  (WASHINGTON) -- The federal government will hold three hearings in October to gather public comment and suggestions on a proposal by the Makah Indian tribe to resume hunting gray whales in waters off their reservation at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula.

• Zuni paper releases premiere issue filled with pueblo news
  (NEW MEXICO) -- Zuni news is abundant and a team of young entrepreneurs hope to capture it all on paper.

• Cherokee man killed in Iraq suicide attack / Dawes was a former marshall and army veteran
  (OKLAHOMA) -- A former Cherokee Nation Marshall has died in Iraq.

• Cobell to update account holders on lawsuit
  (USA) -- Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the Cobell v. Norton lawsuit, will be giving Indian Country an update on the latest developments in the landmark trust fund case.

• Federal courts try to decide who is legally Indian
  (USA) -- When the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990 ruled that tribal governments lack the inherent authority to prosecute members of other tribes, Congress quickly reacted by passing the "Duro fix."

• Ninth Circuit Rejects Challenge by Indian Activist, Says Navajo Court Has Power to Try Nonmember
  (ARIZONA) -- An Indian tribe has constitutional and statutory authority to try an Indian who is not a tribal member for a crime committed on the tribe’s reservation, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.

• Judge rules in South Dakota redistricting case / Adopts plan put forward by Indian plaintiffs
  (SOUTH DAKOTA) -- A federal court in South Dakota has issued a final ruling ordering the redrawing of legislative districts in South Dakota.

   

   
• Disenrollin' Down The River
   goes up there with land quandaries, casino problems, and ... requirements, they are not officially Indian; they would ... myself to be Native American (both internally ..

• Keetoowah Tribe Plans Move Against Cherokee Chief On Holiday
  (OKLAHOMA) -- Cherokee Nation Chief Chad Smith's dual membership in the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees will end automatically if he doesn't appear Sept. 3 to defend himself against charges he's out to destroy the smaller tribe, a Keetoowah official said Monday.

• Trail of Tears ride set for Sept. 17
  Trail of Tears Commemorative Ride Committee has used proceeds from the sale of t-shirts to place markers along the trail, supply Native American education

• Oklahoman leads BIA program
  (OKLAHOMA) -- An Oklahoma native has been named head of law enforcement for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

• Politics plagued bones of Kennewick Man
  (WASHINGTON) -- It's an irony, says genetic anthropologist David Glenn Smith, that just as the technology was evolving to extract ancient DNA, it got more difficult to get bones to study.

• Grant helps reservation secure water supply
  (SOUTH DAKOTA) -- A South Dakota Indian reservation will be able to sidestep a looming emergency on water supply because money is now in place to pay for a better delivery system from the Missouri River.

• Tribe May Prosecute Famous American Indian Activist
  (CALIFORNIA) -- Affirming the sovereign powers of American Indian tribes, a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled the Navajo tribe may prosecute American Indian activist Russell Means even though he is not one of its members.

• Verona predicts budget shortfall
  (NEW YORK) -- Verona may have to raise taxes or cut services next year, as it struggles with an estimated $500,000 shortfall related to Oneida Indian Nation property assessments.

• Cheyenne taking comprehensive approach to meth problem
  (WYOMING) -- Declaring that methamphetamine abuse and addiction could not be treated simply as a law enforcement problem, community leaders here announced a comprehensive program to reduce meth use, including community education, policing and drug treatment.

• L.I. Tribe's Leaders Reveal a Hidden Enemy: Addiction
  (NEW YORK) -- Leaders of the Shinnecock Indian Nation on Monday publicly acknowledged for the first time that an unusually high percentage of tribal members are substance abusers whose addictions contribute to an above-average unemployment rate and a below-average life expectancy on their reservation.

• Tribe granted judgement against former councilors
  (OKLAHOMA) -- The Cherokee Nation was granted judgment against three former tribal councilors accused in tribal court of using tribal funds to pay attorney expenses for a challenge to the 2003 Cherokee election.

• Indian Land Working Group
  WORLEY, Idaho - The special trustee for American Indians was peppered with questions about doubtful policies and unkept promises when he addressed attendees of the annual land consolidation meeting of the Indian Land Working Group in Worley.
  Ross Swimmer acknowledged some of the shortcomings shown by the federal government in its trust capacity for tribes and individual Indians, but pointed to new technology which he said will help sort out the mess.

• The newest Indians
  The only real proof we had that we were Indian was this stub,'' Morgan went on to say. She had brought along a copy of a century-old receipt entitling an ancestor to receive some money from the United States government for being an Indian. With the help of an amateur genealogist named Bryan Hickman, Morgan was able to connect her line to its Indian roots, and she began to raise her son, Jo-Jo, as a Native American. She was particularly proud of Jo-Jo; only a teenager, Jo-Jo had been chosen to serve as honorary headman and lead the grand entry just after the grass dancers performed later that afternoon
   
• Book shares wisdom of tribe’s elders

  CHEROKEE — A project that focuses on Cherokee elders may help preserve the community’s culture.The project, “Cherokee Elders: Our Greatest Generation,” is an oversized book of photographs and memories of the elders.

• Pueblos protest on anniversary of 1680 revolt
  SANTA FE, N.M. - On the anniversary of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Pueblo tribal members protested at the New Mexico state capitol in opposition to the city of Albuquerque's Tricentennial Celebration and the creation of statues of Juan de Onate, which they say honor conquistadors.

• South Dakota heads for the Supreme Court on voting rights
  PIERRE, S.D. - The state of South Dakota is appealing a ruling by a three-judge federal panel over a voting rights issue.
  The state was ordered to submit a redistricting bill passed by the Legislature that would allow counties, with permission from the governor and secretary of state, to redistrict in years not covered by the constitution. Redistricting is restricted to the second year after an official census.
   
• Journal Views: Mascots aren't biggest problem for NCAA
  What you won't see, announced NCAA honcho Myles Brand more than a week ago, is mascots which are derived or make reference to any part of Native American culture. That means when Utah next makes the NCAA Tournament, Vern Lundquist is going to pretend the team's name isn't the Utes.
   
• Campaign against fry bread causes quite a stir
  SELLS, Ariz. - When you first see it, plopped down on a paper plate in all its caloric bliss, the round, doughy treat is so appealing, so alluring it's hard to believe this wondrous sight can cause anything but delight.

• Native Americans shouldn't be wed to battle against same-sex ..
  First, the Navajo Nation Council passed a ban on same-sex marriages in June, overriding the veto of Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. The
  legislation banned marriages between members of the same sex on the nation's largest Indian reservation.

• Bravehearts get their land back
  PINE RIDGE, S.D. - On July 1, Basil and Charlotte Brave Heart successfully pulled the family's 720 acres out of the Bureau of Indian Affairs land-leasing program.

• Tribe's recognition bid recalls 1976 land claim
  Now that the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs has agreed to rule on the tribe's petition for federal recognition by March 2007, the memory of the tribe's 1976 suit to reclaim the entire town is likely to revive old worries about how much land the tribe might want or be awarded.

• New Suicide Hot Line For Native American Youth
  And that's exactly what many American Indian community leaders are trying to do. On Wednesday, Yellow Bird gathered with American Indian teens and community leaders to kick off the Honor the Youth Spiritual Run and introduce the Native Youth Crisis Hotline.

• Morongo Band donates to Habitat for Humanity
  CABEZON, Calif. - California is now the state with the largest population of American Indians/Alaska Natives and Los Angeles County is now the urban area with the largest Indian population, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Census. Housing tops the needs of American Indians in urban areas. Indians, however, are not the only ones who will benefit from the 14 tons of home construction materials donated by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians to Habitat for Humanity in the Los Angeles area.
   
• White Mountain Apaches lauded for conservation work
  The White Mountain Apache Tribe has been selected as an outstanding example of conservation partnerships and will give a presentation at the upcoming White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation.

• Pueblos protest on anniversary of 1680 revolt
  SANTA FE, N.M. - On the anniversary of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Pueblo tribal members protested at the New Mexico state capitol in opposition to the city of Albuquerque's Tricentennial Celebration and the creation of statues of Juan de Onate, which they say honor conquistadors.

• South Dakota heads for the Supreme Court on voting rights
  PIERRE, S.D. - The state of South Dakota is appealing a ruling by a three-judge federal panel over a voting rights issue.
  The state was ordered to submit a redistricting bill passed by the Legislature that would allow counties, with permission from the governor and secretary of state, to redistrict in years not covered by the constitution. Redistricting is restricted to the second year after an official census.
   
• Journal Views: Mascots aren't biggest problem for NCAA
  What you won't see, announced NCAA honcho Myles Brand more than a week ago, is mascots which are derived or make reference to any part of Native American culture. That means when Utah next makes the NCAA Tournament, Vern Lundquist is going to pretend the team's name isn't the Utes.
   
• Campaign against fry bread causes quite a stir
  SELLS, Ariz. - When you first see it, plopped down on a paper plate in all its caloric bliss, the round, doughy treat is so appealing, so alluring it's hard to believe this wondrous sight can cause anything but delight.

• Native Americans shouldn't be wed to battle against same-sex ..
  First, the Navajo Nation Council passed a ban on same-sex marriages in June, overriding the veto of Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. The
  legislation banned marriages between members of the same sex on the nation's largest Indian reservation.

• Crow Creek replaces dorm
  Dilapidated 43-year-old residence and dining facilities at the Crow Creek Tribal School that were destroyed by fire in April will re-emerge in the form of 23 new modular housing units with amenities such as Internet access and cable television in every room, according to school superintendent Scott Raue.

• Reservation schools struggle to meet federal standard
  Montana schools cheered this week at the results of their annual report card from the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act.

• Conviction upheld in SD 1975 slaying of American Indian activist
  PIERRE, S.D. - A federal appeals court has upheld Arlo Looking Cloud's murder conviction for the 1975 execution-style slaying of American Indian Movement activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota.

• 90% of Montana schools meet federal requirements
  Of the 58 schools not making the grade this year, all but 11 are on or near American Indian reservations, reflecting a history of low student test scores among ..

• Bearskin: My Indian world
  One of my first observations is that the majority of Indian tribes are small. Many of them do not possess the capability to compete with the rest of the world for contracts, small or large business ventures. Some chiefs operate their tribes out of their homes. They do not have attorneys, grant writers or secretaries to assist them. These facts should be made known to congressmen, the secretary of Interior, the BIA, IHS, and state and community governments. All policies and procedures developed for American Indians should take this into consideration.
   
• Diabetes target of walk-a-thon - Rosebud Sioux Tribe
  As a way to raise awareness, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Diabetes Prevention Program and the Sinte Gleska University Diabetes Initiative will host "Hecel Oyate Ki Nipi Kte (So Our People May Live), a 24-hour walk-a-thon for people with chronic illnesses and diabetes.

• RED LAKE SCHOOL: Police want 3 armed officers
  RED LAKE, Minn. - Police on the Red Lake Reservation want to increase the number of armed officers patrolling schools this fall to at least three to beef up security after the school shootings there.The Red Lake School Board originally planned on putting two officers at the combined high school/middle school campus, but Public Safety Director Pat Mills is pushing for at least three officers who would rotate among the Red Lake schools.

• LEONARD PELTIER TRANSFERRED AGAIN
  August 15, 2005 Aho My Relations, On August 15, 2005 I was transferred to USP Lewisburg in Pennsylvania. Life has been extra difficult for me since I was transferred from Leavenworth. This system is designed to make one feel very powerless, and what they are doing with me now is definite.
   
• Conference to highlight 53rd Cherokee National Holiday
  TAHLEQUAH, Okla. - The 53rd Cherokee National Holiday, celebrated since 1953 in commemoration of the signing of the 1839 Cherokee Constitution, will be observed Sept. 2 - 4 this year. The holiday has grown into one of the largest events in the state of Oklahoma, attracting more than 70,000 people from around the world. More than 100,000 are expected to attend the Labor Day weekend event in Tahlequah, where the theme of this year's celebration is ''Cherokee Communities Celebrating the State of Sequoyah.''

• Oneida Nation loses official ruling
  In a decision released Monday, state Supreme Court Justice William O'Brien ruled that two Oneida Indian women did not wait too long before filing their suit in February against nation Men's Council member Clint Hill.
   
• Washington tribe sues to rebury hundreds of ancestors
  A Washington tribe whose ancestors were removed from an historic cemetery filed suit against the state on Friday, demanding that the remains be reburied. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe said the lawsuit was not an attempt to break negotiations with the state over the Tse-whit-zen Village. The two sides have been trying to come to an agreement about the future of site, considered one of the most important in the Pacific Northwest.

• New judge requested in Indian trust case
  (WASHINGTON, DC) -- The Justice Department took the unusual step Monday of asking that a new judge be assigned to a 9-year-old lawsuit by American Indians seeking a century's worth of unpaid oil and gas royalties. 

• Alcoholism, the Reservation, and the Government
  (NORTH DAKOTA) -- In my eyes, alcoholism has a way of becoming an unwanted guest: it comes to stay with you and it never leaves. Along with living in teepees, frequenting casinos, and scalping (and I don’t mean tickets to the Fighting Sioux games), alcoholism has also become one of the many stereotypes that are forever etched into the minds of many when they think about Native Americans.

• Keetoowahs vote to start banishment proceedings against chief
  (OKLAHOMA) -- The United Keetoowah Band tribal council voted unanimously to begin banishment proceedings against the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith.

• Oneida tribal officials take oaths
  (WISCONSIN) -- The inauguration ceremonies for the newly elected Oneida Business Committee will be held at 6 p.m. today at the Oneida Pow Wow grounds on Seminary Road.

• Oneida police, teens steer youth away from alcohol
  In an effort to break the cycle, the Oneida Police Department is teaming with other local law enforcement agencies and Oneida Social Services to help teens find healthy alternatives to drinking.
   
• Hecel Oyate Kinipikte (so that the people may live)
  Informal markers of the rite of passage for young people include drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, having sex, obtaining a driver's license or getting a vehicle. These benchmarks signal to a child their entrance into the realm of adulthood. But the question remains: are these appropriate markers that signify admirable and proper qualities we want our children to emulate?

• OP/ED: A Lakota's vote can count after removal from district
  (SOUTH DAKOTA) -- There is a voting-rights lawsuit that directly affects the voters of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations. The American Civil Liberties Union brought this suit against the state on behalf of Lakota voters in the current District 27. At issue is the fact that state Senate District 27 is heavily concentrated (84 percent) with Lakota voting-age population.

• NCAI Applauds NCAA Decision to Ban Use of Indian Mascots in Postseason Activities
  (WASHINGTON, DC) -- The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) strongly supports a decision by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), banning the use of Indian mascots by sports teams in all postseason tournaments.

• Why Indians Aren't Celebrating the Lewis and Clark Expedition
  (USA) -- Allen Pinkham has been doing a lot of soul-searching about the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

• Nation celebrates Navajo Code Talkers Day
  (NEW MEXICO) -- The Navajo World War II veterans who used their language to describe the location of allied and enemy forces in an unbreakable code will be honored today as part of National Code Talkers Day in Washington, D.C.

• Tohono O'odham Tribe mourns own of its own killed in Iraq
  The Tohono O'odham Nation is grieving the death of a 20-year-old tribal member killed in action in Iraq.
  Pfc. Seferino Reyna, an Army combat engineer and father of two, died Sunday when his vehicle was hit by a homemade bomb near Taji, about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.

• Tribe unearths artifacts on site slated for cultural center
  ORANGEBURG - The Croatan Indian tribe is conducting an archaeological dig on property it planned to use for a cultural center.
  The tribe bought 57 acres of land for an Orangeburg Native American Living Village Museum/Cultural Center in 2003
   
• Tribal history records at issue
  The Schaghticoke tribe "cannot prove it existed as a social community or political entity from historical times to the present," the state, a coalition of towns and the Kent School argue in their final submission to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. "This evidentiary gap is overwhelming, stretching across multiple generations and exceeding by orders of magnitude the gap in continuity that requires a negative finding under BIA precedent."
   
• Oklahoma Tribe ok with Seminoles name, logo
  TALLAHASSEE - Florida State University filed an appeal to the NCAA on Friday, saying the Seminole name and logo should not be on the organization's list of offensive American Indian images banned from postseason NCAA tournaments.
   
• FSU receives tribes help
  TALLAHASSEE -- In a four-page letter sent to the NCAA on Friday, Florida State protested its inclusion among the 18 schools with "hostile and abusive" mascots in an appeal that could turn on the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, a group whose opinions university officials only three days ago labeled inconsequential.

• Oneidas lower offer for claims
  ALBANY -- The Oneida Nation of New York proposes to resolve the giant Oneida land claim in central New York for $250 million from the state and the
  right to a reservation of 27,500 acres, according to a confidential document submitted to a federal mediator.
   
• Navajo president scouts for gaming site in Shiprock
  More than 30 people will travel this month from Catalina Island to South Dakota to visit 100 of the island's former buffalo adopted last year by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The buffalo were shipped to the South Dakota reservation in December to reduce pressure on the island's fragile vegetation. About 100 bison remain on Catalina, off the coast of Los Angeles.

• California's to visit Bison at Rosebud
  More than 30 people will travel this month from Catalina Island to South Dakota to visit 100 of the island's former buffalo adopted last year by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The buffalo were shipped to the South Dakota reservation in December to reduce pressure on the island's fragile vegetation. About 100 bison remain on Catalina, off the coast of Los Angeles.
   
• Modern-day warrior society
  BOULDER, Colo. - Are you looking for a modern-day warrior society? Try the Native American Rights Fund's 13 attorneys, support staff, board of directors, the national Indian legal defense fund and, most recently, the Tribal Supreme Court Project that NARF was asked to lead. Gone are the days when, with the smoke of early-morning fires at their backs, warriors leveled arrows at invading marauders who had an untamed lust for possession.

• Indian country benefits from voting act
  WASHINGTON - Indian country has been protected by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but that could change in 2007 if the section is not renewed before the expiration date. Section 5, added to the VRA in 1975 to prevent some Southern states from gerrymandering or otherwise diluting the black voting bloc, covered American Indians as well (they were listed as a racial group protected by civil rights laws).
   
• Education reform elevates status of Navajo-controlled education
  WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - While state lawmakers in the Southwest have succeeded in passing English-only legislation, the Navajo Nation Council passed the Dine' Sovereignty in Education Act to encourage Dine' language and culture in schools on the Navajo Nation.
   
• The NCAA is learning what it's like to be Indian
  The NCAA is learning what it's like to be mocked, cartooned, lampooned and vilified - in short, what it's like to be Indian in the world of sports.
  After only days of this treatment, the NCAA should appreciate even more keenly the importance of their decision to the health, safety and emotional well-being of Native and non-Native students, who are and should be their first concern.

• Abusive mascots still a serious issue
  Persistence is the operative principle in the fight to convince the sporting world that it is doing a disservice to American Indian and Native children by labeling teams and mascots with Indian nicknames and imagery. It speaks to American obtuseness that so many sports people and media are so thick-headed about the brazen insult and the easy dismissal of the predominate Indian position on the subject. The national media channels will sometimes put on a serious Indian viewpoint, but then assume the issue is bogus and not worth respecting.

• Porcupine District buffalo poised for expansion.
  PORCUPINE, N.D. - About a quarter of mile away, the 46-head buffalo herd grazed and took dust baths. Majestic, hulking bulls watched us warily while cows and calves flopped their bulky bodies onto the ground and squirmed with gusto, short legs bobbling. Clouds of dirt billowed into the air as they
  performed their ablutions, then leapt to their feet.
   
• NCAA the mascot ban a step in the right direction
  The group has banned Native American mascots by sports teams during post-season tournaments. They can't be on uniforms or on the sidelines. Where such images are part of a gym or field, they'll have to be covered. And in 2008, the images also will be banned from cheerleader and band uniforms.
   
• NCAA takes the high road with ban of offesive mascots
  Much has been written over the past week about the NCAA Executive Committee's decision not to conduct championships on the campuses of memberinstitutions where the use of nicknames and mascots representing American Indians is considered hostile and abusive. Some of the articles have been supportive of the committee's decision; some thought it fell short and called for an outright ban of such mascots.

• Disenrolled Pechanga tribal members thwarted by appellate court
  An attorney representing the ousted tribal members said Tuesday that the 4th District Court of Appeal misinterpreted federal law in ruling that California courts do not have the jurisdiction to consider the lawsuit. The suit, filed by 11 disenrolled tribal members on behalf of more than 130 family members, accused members of the tribe's enrollment committee of violating the tribe's constitution with the disenrollments.

• Governor pledges to help Wind River Tribe
  LANDER -- Admitting defeat over the Indian gambling issue, Gov. Dave Freudenthal declared Tuesday that his administration is "committed to follow the law" and will do everything it can to ensure a positive outcome for the Wind River Indian Reservation, local communities and the state.

• Home court advantage gives lead to Mohegan-owned WNBA team
  UNCASVILLE, Conn. - At least one court is still friendly to Indians, but it helps that they own it.
  That's the basketball court at the Mohegan Sun Arena, where the tribally owned Connecticut Sun is the undisputed leader of the Woman's National Basketball Association.

• Gov. Bush criticizes NCAA officials for stance on Indian nicknames
  Jeb Bush criticized NCAA officials on Tuesday for their decision to penalize Florida State for using an American Indian nickname and symbols, saying

• Fond du Lac community college will offer four-year degree
  While not limited to American Indian students, one of the program's goals is to increase the number of American Indian social workers.

   

• Debate grows over state's power to commit offenders
  MINNEAPOLIS - Last month, an appeals court ruled that American Indian convicts living on reservations can't be forced by the state to register as predatory .

   

• Project seeks to preserve dying languages
   For decades children in American Indian schools were discouraged from speaking tribal tongues and punished when they did. That policy .

   
• Partners help Laguna teens
  Although Native American teens have as many pressures - and as ... a new grant and a new Native One Stop ... with the Laguna Department of Education (LDOE), especially .

• Flandreau Indian school to get $2 million grant for road upgrades
   Bureau of Indian Affairs will do the engineering, and construction is expected to begin next summer. The project will include road

• Suicide risk is high for Red Lake teenagers
   the federal health program for American Indians and ... Vanderwagen, chief medical officer of Indian Health Service ... the accounts department of Red Lake's casino.

• Let's make a deal: Let the Utes decide who can use their name
  For the past 513 years, people of European heritage have basically approached American Indian society in one of two ways: genocide or paternalism.

• Coming Native-American arts courses at Cherokee offer an exciting ..
  The opening of a course site in Cherokee by the country's premier institution for American Indian artists may be one of the most culturally significant.

• Pine Ridge tribal officers may patrol Nebraska village
  WHITECLAY, Neb. - Political leaders usually try to woo economic development to rural places like this dusty village on the Nebraska-South Dakota line.
  But the main business here is beer. Lots of it. Thousands of cans each week, millions of cans a year.

• Water Rights 101