> Survey Finds More Prejudice Toward American Indians
> >
> > by Associated Press
> > Oct 2, 2007, 22:11
> >
> >
> >
> > TULSA, Okla.
> >
> > Results of a racism survey at the University of
> > Tulsa showing American
> > Indians more likely to be regarded with prejudice
> > than other minorities by
> > White students surprised researchers.
>
> > A written survey of 55 White, middle-class college
> > students in their 20s who
> > had been in college for more than a year found that
> > American Indians were
> > consistently regarded less favorably on social
> > factor indicator scales than
> > Black people.
> >
> > Researchers said the mix of the state’s many
> tribes
> > increased the likelihood
> > of students coming into contact with an Indian
> > person.
> >
> > “The findings support the idea that although
> overtly
> > racist ideas toward
> > African-Americans appear to be less prevalent in
> > contemporary America, overt
> > racism towards American Indians is present,” UT
> > researchers reported in the
> > study.
> >
> > According to 2006 U.S. Census estimates, 43,364
> > self-identified American
> > Indians live in Tulsa County. Statewide, the number
> > is 397,041.
> >
> > Findings from the study indicate that although the
> > respondents knew that
> > Indians are different in culture, they were viewed
> > less positively than
> > Black people. One aspect was perceived privileges,
> > such as free health care,
> > researchers noted.
> >
> > Dr.. Dennis Combs, a former UT associate psychology
> > professor who now works
> > at the University of Texas at Tyler, participated in
> > the research.. Combs
> > says the findings are surprising because college
> > students are perceived as
> > liberal regarding race issues.
> >
> > “Also, American Indians may also be subject to a
> > newer form of racism called
> > subtle racism, which is centered on them as being
> > different, having poor
> > work ethic and unfavorable,” says Combs, who
> > conducted the study along with
> > student Melissa Tibbits.
> >
> > Indians also are more likely to be regarded with
> > “blatant prejudice” than
> > Black people, the survey showed.
> >
> > Officials with the Tulsa Indian Coalition on Racism,
> > who viewed the study’s
> > results, say that when generalities about Indians
> > abound, negative
> > viewpoints are nurtured and sustained.
> >
> > “People think we have privilege and all get
> gaming
> > checks. … That’s not
> > true,” TICAR President Louis Gray says.
> “People
> > don’t think of us as human;
> > we’re just symbols, but we have hopes and dreams
> > like everyone else.”
> >
> >
> >
> > >>
>
>

PLEASE JOIN THE MENDOTA MDEWAKANTON DAKOTA COMMUNITY

A WORLD PEACE AND PRAYER DAY CEREMONY

THIS SATURDAY, JUNE 21

11:00 A.M.-3:00 P.M.

AT COLD WATER SPRING

INIPI TO FOLLOW AT CHRIS LEITH’S HOME AT PRAIRIE ISLAND

DIRECTIONS TO COLD WATER:

1.5 MILES SOUTH OF MINNEHAHA FALLS

FROM HWY 55, TURN EAST AT 54^TH STREET

TAKE AN IMMEDIATE RIGHT ON TO THE FRONTAGE ROAD

FOLLOW THIS SOUTH THROUGH THE CHAIN LINK FENCE PAST THE BRICK BUILDING

YOU’LL SEE IT!

Pease bring a dish to share

HERE’S A LINK TO A MAP THAT MAY BE HELPFUL

http://friendsofcoldwater.org/common/map/map.html

(FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE CEREMONY THAT WAS TO BE HELD ON FRIDAY, MAY 20 AT COLD WATER – THAT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND ONLY THE SATURDAY EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE)

______________________________________________________________________
This outbound email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Skyscan service.

Ancient Seed sprouts tree

A 2,000-year-old seed found in Israel may help restore a species of biblical trees. » Tree is doing ‘lovely’

• Photos of the date palm tree
• Ancient Roman burial ground located

From: “Black Mesa Indigenous Support” <blackmesais@riseup.net >

Please Forward Widely to Everyone You Know!

URGENT! PLEASE ACT NOW!  Big Mountain, Black Mesa Elder Faces Threat
of her Ceremonial Lodge/Home being dismantled while Peabody Coal
Company is pushing their massive coal-mining expansion plans on the
sacred ancestral homelands of the Dine’ (Navajo) & Hopi peoples of
Black Mesa, AZ.  Your voices are urgently needed before these two
very important deadlines close!

PEABODY COAL COMPANY ‘S PLANS UNDERMINES PLANETARY LIFE SUPPORT
SYSTEMS BY ACCELERATING ECOLOGICAL & CULTURAL COLLAPSE! We cannot
allow a small cartel of energy corporations and their financial
backers to knowingly de-stabilize our planet’s climate and devastate
whole communities & ecosystems for their own personal gain. This may
turn out to be the most devastating crime ever perpetrated against
humanity, the planet and future generations. We are at a critical
juncture. Indigenous and land-based people globally have maintained
the understanding that our collective survival is deeply dependent on
our relationship to the Earth.

Please, act now in support of the communities on the front lines of resistance!

Big Mountain, Black Mesa Elder Faces Threat of her Ceremonial
Lodge/Home being dismantled on her ancestral homeland. Elder Served
Notice That Rebuilding Ceremonial Lodge is Illegal.

On Wednesday, May 20th,Traditional elder and resister to relocation
laws, Pauline Whitesinger was served notice that her recently rebuilt
ceremonial lodge was illegal and under threat to be dismantled. She
was ordered to halt all construction of her earthen lodge, called a
hogon, as it is being prepared for an upcoming ceremony. She is
refusing to cooperate and is requesting assistance to finish her
ceremonial hogon.
Whitesinger, in her mid-eighties and living alone, has been an active
resitor to the U.S. Government’s laws and efforts to relocate her
off of her traditional homeland. She has also been an outspoken
opponent to the existing coal mine on her homeland of Black Mesa,
owned by Peabody Coal, as well as current plans for expansion of the
strip mine, construction of pipelines and the mining of the area’s
aquifers, stating that “Our very mother is being carved up there (at
the coal mine)…if the mine is further permitted or expaanded, the coal
company will eventually kill her.† This recent BIA funded action is
an affront not only to this elder and her people but to all advocates
of the indigenous lifeways that maintain the health of the planet.

Read the report in full:
http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

*  Volunteers are needed right now to stay with Pauline to assist her
with herding sheep,  to monitor for more threats,  and to complete the
hogon.
*  Demand that Pauline be left alone on her ancestral homeland. Send a
letter on her behalf TODAY! For more information and where to send
comments and/or demands:
http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/

———————————————————-
URGENT ACTION ALERT! On May 23, 2008 the Office Of Surface Mining
(OSM) opened a 45 day public comment period concerning the proposed
Black Mesa Project: Peabody Coal Company’s massive coal-mining
expansion plans on the sacred ancestral homelands of the Dine’
(Navajo) & Hopi peoples of Black Mesa, AZ.  Peabody Coal’s plans
would devastate whole communities & ecosystems and de-stabilize our
planet’s climate for their own personal gain. Your voices are
urgently needed before the comment period closes July 7, 2008!

Please send a letter to OSM to Protect the Indigenous ancestral
homelands of Black Mesa!
Stop Predatory Development and Catastrophic Climate Change!
Support a Community-Led Just Transition to a Green Economy!
No to mining fossil fuels!
No to Peabody’s Preferred Alternative B.
Yes to The People’s Preferred Alternative C which is a ‘No
Action’. (No dirty coal mining expansion!)

STAY POSTED UNTIL FURTHER DIRECTION COMES FROM THE COMMUNITIES WHO ARE
ON THE FRONT LINES OF RESISTANCE!  A SAMPLE LETTER WILL BE POSTED OUT
IN THE NEXT COUPLE DAYS. (Visit http://www.blackmesais.org and other
websites listed below for a sample letter &/or for additional info.)

The Black Mesa Project Environmental Impact Statement (BMP-EIS)
outlines harmful impacts to every level of the ecological and cultural
systems on Black Mesa and has global repercussions. If we don’t stop
these plans, Peabody will have the green light to:

* Lock in mining rights until the coal runs out or until 2025!

* Substantially accelerate global warming and cause an ecological  meltdown.

* Destroy thousands of acres of canyon lands, vanishing indigenous
vegetation and shrines or burials.

* Blast the land for coal & deplete air quality, increasing the health
risk of the local residents and their livestock.

* Deplete an underground source of water that residents depend on to
survive by pumping massive amounts of water.

* Uproot & relocate families from their ancestral homelands where the
coal mining expansion are.

* Sacrifice human dignity and planetary health for elite profit!
Peabody would cause many more problems than what is reflected here.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN SEND YOUR COMMENTS: (STAY POSTED FOR A SAMPLE
LETTER SOON!) You can send as many
comments as you want on different issues, as long is it’s before the
deadline on July 7, 2008. Your comments must directly address
components of the EIS. Alternative C, (No Action), is our preferred
alternative. Alternative B is Peabody Coal’s preferred alternative.
Stay posted for a sample letter or write your own. At the top of your
letter or in the subject line of your e-mail message, indicate: “BMP
Draft EIS Comments.” Include your name and return address in your
letter or e-mail message.

The Draft Black Mesa Project Environmental Impact Statement for
Peabody Coal’s preferred Alternative B is available for review on
OSM’s Internet Web site at:
http://www.wrcc.osmre.gov/WR/BlackMesaEIS.htm

*EMAIL: BMKEIS@osmre.gov. You should receive a confirmation that OSM
has received your e-mail comment, or contact (303) 293-5048.

*WRITTEN COMMENTS sent by first-class or priority U.S. Postal Service:
Dennis Winterringer, Leader, Black Mesa Project EIS,
OSM Western Region, P.O. Box 46667,
Denver, Colorado 80201-6667.

*COMMENTS DELIVERED by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail or by
courier service:
Dennis Winterringer, Leader,
Black Mesa Project EIS, OSM Western Region,
1999 Broadway, Suite 3320,
Denver, Colorado 80202-5733.

FURTHER INFO:
The Black Mesa Water Coalition has additional information about
protecting Black Mesa and is spearheading the Just Transition
Campaign, “an innovative plan to transition tribal economy,
employment, and energy off fossil fuel extraction and onto a
sustainable renewable energy path”.
Visit http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org to learn more and to show
your support.

Black Mesa Indigenous Support will have updated to share as community
organizers issue new info. BMIS is requesting funds for Dine’
community organizers to visit their relatives and organize meetings to
protect Black Mesa.  http://www.blackmesais.org

Sierra Club Environmental Partnerships Program:
http://www.sierraclub.org/partnerships/tribal

Peabody coal company, like most corporations mining the Earth for
profit, is rooted in sacrificing human dignity and planetary health
for elite profit and is out of alignment with common sense values. Its
roots remain sunk deeply in the history of colonial genocide,
corporate power grabs, and ecological devastation.

http://www.blackmesais.org
.
.
.
.
.
.
Tom B.K. Goldtooth
Executive Director
Indigenous Environmental Network
PO Box 485
Bemidji, MN 56619 USA
Email: ien@igc.org
Web: www.ienearth.org

To view Winona LaDuke on Stephen Colbert yesterday, 6/12

Tom Hawthorn

Special to The Globe and Mail

June 11, 2008

VICTORIA

The horse-drawn covered wagons rolled toward Fort Snelling as part of ceremonies organized to mark 150 years of Minnesota statehood.

A wagon train of carts and prairie schooners – the drivers and their passengers clad in fringed buckskin and other pioneer costumes – travelled 160 kilometres from Cannon Falls to St. Paul.

At the fort, the procession was halted when a handful of protesters blocked the road. Among them was a 40-year-old professor named Waziyatawin. She was in no mood to honour a colonial triumph.

“They gained statehood at Dakota expense,” she said.

A Wahpetunwan Dakota from the Upper Sioux reservation, she learned stories about her people from her family as a little girl. As an adult, she earned a doctorate in history, bringing formal academic training to her studies.

Minnesota is having a birthday party. Talking about stolen land, broken treaties and of mass murder does not fit into the narrative of a celebration.

So she blocked the road. She was cited for misdemeanour disorderly conduct and held for an hour.

A few days later, a protest on the steps of the state capitol turned into a scuffle with police. Although not directly involved in that incident, she was warned not to continue shouting. When she did so, she was arrested again.

Two arrests on successive weekends made May a memorable month.

On July 1, she will leave Minnesota for British Columbia. Waziyatawin (pronounced Wah-ZEE-yah-tah-ween) will be taking up a five-year position as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples at the University of Victoria.

She plans to teach courses on such themes as truth-telling and reparative justice, indigenous women and resistance, and decolonization.

She was born to parents who were both educators. Her father earned a doctorate in the field, while her mother is currently a director of a social welfare agency in North Carolina.

“I grew up in a family with a strong oral tradition,” she said in a telephone interview from Granite Falls, Minn. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know stories. It was something I heard always when I was growing up.”

What she heard at home was unlike what was taught in class.

“All the children in U.S. schools learn all these myths we have about Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Those were all nightmares to me.”

She remembers a dark day in Grade 9 when a social studies teacher offered for debate the statement that the only good Indian was a dead Indian.

After gaining a double major in history and American Indian studies from the University of Minnesota, she earned a master’s degree and a doctorate from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Her doctoral thesis was an oral-history project that became the first of her four books.

Research into the history of her people has not eased the pain.

The skirmishes of 1862 go by many names – the Sioux Uprising, the Minnesota Massacre, Little Crow’s War. The details are familiar to her, even as they are unknown to so many others. The outcome was dismal for the Dakota, some of whom had risen in opposition to the occupation of their lands.

Survivors were marched across the state, held in a camp, and then forcibly expelled. (The camp was near the fort at which she was arrested last month.) Thirty-eight Dakota were hanged in what remains the largest mass execution in American history.

A price was placed on the head of any Dakota found in the state.

At lectures, Waziyatawin shows a newspaper clipping from an 1863 edition of the Winona Daily Republican. It offers a bounty of $200 for a single Indian scalp – enough, she notes, to purchase a 160-acre homestead.

“It’s still stunning to me. It still appalls me. There’s still the hurt, a recognition of just how expendable aboriginal persons have been. And still are.”

Twice she has embarked on Dakota Commemorative Marches, treks of nearly 200 kilometres retracing the route her ancestors were forced to follow in their expulsion a century-and-a-half earlier.

The marches “provide a wakeup call to all of us about the extent of the injustice perpetrated against us.”

She is also left with a thought – “as Dakota people we are very much visitors in our own homeland.”

An elder gave her the name Waziyatawin as a girl. It means “woman of the north.” She began using it regularly five years ago and last summer Angela Cavender Wilson legally changed her name.

The lone difficulty with bearing a single traditional name has been in booking an airplane flight, as the computer system demanded a first name. A boarding pass was acquired by signing in as Miss Waziyatawin.

“Felt like a pageant title,” she quipped.

She looks forward to learning the history of the indigenous peoples of Vancouver Island. British Columbia, she was told, is also marking a sesquicentennial this year.

2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted by Tom Hawthorn at 10:23 PM

Canada apologizes for decades of abuse of Indians

By MAGGIE FARLEY and CHRISTOPHER GULY Los Angeles Times

June 11, 2008

OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized Wednesday to the nation’s Indians for “a sad chapter in our history,” acknowledging the physical abuses and cultural damage they suffered during a century of forced assimilation at residential schools.

“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country,” he said to applause.

A group of 11 aboriginal leaders and former students sat before Harper in a circle in the House of Commons, some weeping as the prime minister delivered the government’s first formal apology to them. In the crowded, expectant chamber, Harper bowed his head as he read a carefully crafted speech, asking for forgiveness for separating children from their families and cultures, exposing the students to abuse, and sowing the seeds for generations of problems.

“The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language,” Harper said.

The apology was billed by the government as a chance to redress a dark chapter in Canadian history and to move forward in reconciliation.

Over more than a century, about 150,000 native Canadian children were sent to boarding schools run by churches and the government to “civilize and Christianize” them. Expressions of native heritage were outlawed, many children suffered sexual and psychological abuse, and grew up with neither traditional roots nor mainstream footing, their ties to family and community unraveled.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine, wearing a feather headdress, took the floor to declare that the occasion “testifies nothing less than the accomplishment of the impossible.” In 1990, he was one of the first to come forward with his story of abuse and push for an apology. “Finally, we heard Canada say it is sorry.”

Several churches offered apologies in the late 1980s and 1990s. A lawsuit settled in 2006 created a $1.9 billion compensation fund, and an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission was launched on June 1.

Analysts say that the next step for the government is to settle outstanding land claims with aboriginal groups, and to refocus policies to alleviate poverty and improve education among First Nations.

Geraldine Maness-Robertson, 72, a Chippewa, said her six years at an Anglican school were a “horrific experience,” and her hands were often whipped with a razor strap to break her spirit.

“When I left I was so full of rage and anger and hatred,” she said. “Today’s apology was so helpful, it hit all the areas of hurt. I have spent my whole life reconciling and I turned a page today.”

KFAI’s Indian Uprising, June 15, 2008 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. CDT #270

Rape and Sexual Violence.  “Native American and Alaska Native women in
the United States suffer disproportionately high levels of rape and
sexual violence, yet the federal government has created substantial
barriers to accessing justice, Amnesty International asserted in a
113-page report, Maze of Injustice: The failure to protect Indigenous
women from sexual violence in the USA.  Justice Department figures
indicate that American Indian and Alaska Native women are 2.5 times
more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the United
States in general.” – www.amnestyusa.org

The Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition (www.miwsac.org)
is a unique Coalition funded in October of 2001, through the US
Department of Justice, Violence Against Women Office and is one of 16
Tribal Coalitions around the Country formed to address domestic and
sexual violence in American Indian Communities. The Coalition is the
only sexual assault coalition in the state of Minnesota that is
specific to American Indian Women.  Guests are:

Nicole Matthews (Ojibwe), Director, Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual
Assault Coalition

Guadalupe Lopez (Ojibwe/Purepecha), Membership/ Outreach Coordinator, MIWSAC

* * * *

Indian Uprising is a KFAI Public & Cultural Affairs program relevant
to Native Indigenous people, broadcast each Sunday on 90.3 FM
Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul. Producer & host is Chris Spotted
Eagle.

For internet listening, visit www.kfai.org, click Play under ON AIR
NOW or for listening later via their archives, click PROGRAMS &
SCHEDULE > Indian Uprising > STREAM.  Programs are archived for two
weeks

Minnesota Public Radio: American Indians prefer to reflect on their own history
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/06/redlakesesquicentennial/

Dr. Waziyatawin joins UVic’s Indigenous Governance Program on July 1 as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples.

MEDIA RELEASE

June 10, 2008

INDIGENOUS HISTORIAN AWARDED UVIC’S NEWEST CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR

An historian who studies how settler societies have impacted Indigenous societies and how Indigenous nations can recover their traditional values is the University of Victoria’s newest Canada Research Chair.

Dr. Waziyatawin (pronounced Wah-ZEE-yah-tah-ween) joins UVic’s Indigenous Governance Program on July 1 as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples.

“Through years of collaboration with Indigenous peoples in Canada and elsewhere, UVic has become a North American leader in research related to governance and developing an understanding of how to redress the ways that Indigenous peoples have been historically treated by the rest of society,” says Dr. Howard Brunt, UVic’s vice-president research. “This Canada Research Chair will build on those strengths.”

The Canada Research Chairs program is designed to attract the best talent from Canada and around the world, helping universities achieve research excellence in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities.

Waziyatawin, who is a Wahpetunwan Dakota from southwestern Minnesota, says that UVic’s Indigenous Governance Program was the only one in North America that she was interested in joining. “What drew me is the program’s intellectual commitment to Indigenous liberation and its dedication to personal decolonization and social action,” she says.

Waziyatawin’s research interests include Indigenous women and the struggle for social justice, the recovery of Indigenous knowledge, and truth-telling and reparative justice. She holds an MA and PhD in American history from Cornell University, and spent seven years teaching history at Arizona State University before leaving in 2007 to work as an independent scholar.

Waziyatawin is the author, editor or co-editor of four books, including In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors (2006) and Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities (2004), which addresses the contemporary issues that Indigenous people face at all levels of the academy.

“My work is grounded in Indigenous world views and values, especially from a Dakota perspective,” she says. “That perspective has fostered my deep respect for Indigenous knowledge and ways of being that can be seen in all of my research and writing.”

Waziyatawin’s research frequently challenges the institutions and systems of “settler society” which, she says, continue to oppress Indigenous peoples in North America. British Columbia is no exception, she notes.

“Obviously, each Indigenous nation is unique with its own distinct culture and relationship to the land, but the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples on both sides of the Canada-US border are remarkably similar,” she says.

“I am most interested in how colonialism has impacted Indigenous societies and how we can continue our resistance while maintaining or recovering the ways of being that allowed us to live sustainably for thousands of years prior to invasion.”

The latest round of Canada Research Chairs was announced in Ottawa today. Also included were two UVic chair renewals: Dr. Neena Chappell, Canada Research Chair in Social Gerontology, and Dr. Sara Ellison, Canada Research Chair in Observational Cosmology. The renewals are for seven- and five-year terms respectively.

—30—

Media contacts:

Waziyatawin is currently in Minnesota but available for phone interviews at 320-564-4241 or by email at waziyatawin@gmail.com;

Valerie Shore (UVic Communications) at 250-721-7641 or vshore@uvic.ca

UVic Communications Services, PO Box 1700 STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2 Tel. (250) 721-7636 Fax (250) 721-8955 E-Mail: ucom@uvic.ca

–
Waziyatawin, Ph.D.

Remembering Sheila WhiteEagle

Dec. 2, 1948 – June 7, 2008

The Saint Paul Area Council of Churches is mourning the loss of Sheila WhiteEagle, who lost her four-year battle with breast cancer on Saturday, June 7. Sheila was the Director of the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches’ Department of Indian Work program for more than 20 years and worked for the program for 36 years. The funeral will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 12 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Saint Paul, MN. The DIW office will be closed Monday, June 9 through Thursday, June 12.

Under Sheila’s leadership, DIW has expanded from the Emergency

First Lady Laura Bush poses with Renita Picotte (SPACC) and Sheila WhiteEagle (DIW)

Services food and clothing rooms to include parenting and youth enrichment programs and diabetes education. Other career highlights include:

Began the Elders Transportation program with the American Red Cross

Worked with the community to build an Elders Lodge, now located in Saint Paul

For ten years, worked with the Church World Services CROP Walk event to raise awareness and help with local and global hunger

Worked

with community on 13 annual University of St. Thomas pow wow events

In 1989, Sheila launched the American Indian Parenting Program

In 1992, Sheila began the American Indian Youth Enrichment after-school and summer programs, which last summer was recognized by First Lady Laura Bush

In 1993, Sheila was recognized with the McKnight Award

In

Peace Pole

2001, Sheila led the Family Education Diabetes Program, which has grown to now include education for youth and a partnership with the University of Minnesota

To make a gift to the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches in memory of Sheila WhiteEagle, please click here.

Link to Saint Paul Pioneer Press obituary.

On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 7:16 AM, brenda norrell <brendanorrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Sunday

Hi friends,

Really upset to get back here and find the northern route walkers with no gas money, and

no money for food. There’s no gas money for the runners to get out, or buy their lunch,

or the media bus to get to the powwow to broadcast today. They need money sent directly to the walkers, by

Western Union or WalMart money gram. It seems people are raising money all over

and none of it is reaching the walkers.

Thanks, Brenda

on the Longest Walk Northern Route in Cambridge, Ohio

–

Thursday, July 10, 7:30 pm, Free, Walker Art Center, Mpls
Four Sheets to the Wind
Introduced by director by Sterlin Harjo
A coming-of-age drama set within the rhythms and landscapes of Oklahoma, Four Sheets to the Wind depicts a young man’s search for identity on the reservation and beyond. Featuring a performance of quiet intensity by Cody Lightning, son of Georgina Lightning (Older Than America, 2008 Women with Vision Film Festival), the film enacts a delicate balancing act between the pathos and humor inherent in this transitional community. A project of the Sundance Lab, this film went on to win a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. 2007, 35mm, 91 minutes.Preceded by
Sikumi (On the Ice) [short film]
Introduced by director by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
The first film ever made in the Iñupiaq language tells the story of an Inuit hunter who drives his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean and inadvertently witnesses a murder. Winner of a 2008 Sundance Short Filmmaking Award, Sikumi was called by Film Threat “a work of great intelligence and artistry that demands to be seen by as many people as possible.” 2008, 35mm, 15 minutes.

This screening is co-presented with the Sundance Film Festival’s Native Initiative.

Rachel Lee Joyce
Assistant Director, Public Relations
Walker Art Center
612.375.7635
rachel.joyce@walkerart.org

To the Editor:

Columbus, OH has once again distinguished itself. After walking more than 2,400 miles from San Francisco since February, a group of men, women and children experienced their first police problem on their journey in Columbus. The Longest Walk is a group of about forty mostly Native American people who are walking to Washington DC for the Seventh Generation for youth, peace, justice, the healing of Mother Earth, heart conditions, alcoholism, drug addiction and other diseases. It is a spiritual walk, a historical walk, and a walk for educational awareness for the American and world communities about the concerns of the American Indian People. And, as they go, they are picking up trash.

On Monday, June 2, as this peaceful group walked in the parking lane and on the sidewalk on the west side of Columbus on Main Street, eight police cars zoomed up, one blocking their way. A police officer came up to a van that follows the walkers and reached into the window and grabbed and yanked the steering wheel. He yelled at the young woman who was driving a carload of young children and threatened Your children would be taken away and given to Childrens Services! As the children began to cry, their mothers who were walking came to see what was wrong and to comfort them. A walker charged with security came up and was grabbed, kneed, thrown to the ground and handcuffed. A police officer pointed a taser gun at the head of a walker who was also an attorney as he spoke to the police. A grandmother spoke softly to an officer asking what the concern was and trying to calm a situation that was becoming increasingly frightening. She pointed out We are like your mothers, your sisters, your children. Ultimately the walkers were allowed to continue, but were badly shaken by this unprovoked and frightening experience.

The walkers have walked though the snow, extreme rain, and the blazing sun. They are often tired, hungry, thirsty and sore. They will continue through Ohio on Route 40 to their destination of Washington DC, expecting to arrive next month.

I hope our leaders will ask questions about our Columbus Welcome to these peaceful people who were picking up our trash as they walked for health, justice and the environment.

If you are embarrassed for our city by our polices harassment, as I am, consider sending a message of support and a donation if you are able, to the Longest Walk at their website at www. longestwalk. org.

Lynn Crevling
822 South Roosevelt
Columbus, OH 43209

(614) 291-0192 (W)

Deanna Rae StandingCloud-Green

612-998-7565 (Cell)

612-824-4060 (Home)

www.myspace.com/d_rae1979

We will be meeting at the Mendota office on June 27,28,29. Watch for more details

Commentary: Sesquicentennial missed reconciliation

Audrey Thayer, Bemidji Pioneer
Published Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Bemidji was one of the five honorary locations that celebrated “Capital for a Day” and the 150 years of Minnesota statehood which was called “Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial.”Being indigenous, I thought what an opportunity to attend at least a couple of the state’s presentations on the history of great things that have happened since the “arrival of the immigrants” to Minnesota which was Dakota Territory and then later home to the Anishinabe people.

Looking at history, you might even consider the “arrival of the immigrants as being illegal immigrants” as permission was never questioned but assumed when treaties were signed that these documents were correctly honored and the right to use the Indian land in our state was appropriate.

I was disappointed in the “Capital for a day” in Bemidji and disturbed by the approach toward the Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial in this state.

It was clear our friends who joined us in sharing of the land now called Minnesota basically have not learned much in the past 150 years in cultural understanding.

Many of the cities’ ceremonial activities were planned extensively. I wondered how many of the honored cities directly asked local native groups to assist in planning the events. It was clear, not many.

The native Americans were overlooked, in some cases not included, in events throughout the state.

Celebrations focused on the immigrant who arrived in this state, leaving out the indigenous peoples who had a rich history here prior to the arrival of our guests and a depressive history during the 150 years of Minnesota Statehood.

This is sad as the Indian population was the original keepers of this land, the landlords, always treating this sacred land with respect.

Unfortunately, the true history of the 150 years of statehood from 1858 to 2008 was genocide, dishonesty and bad mission work when it came to the native American.

It can be difficult to include these facts in any historical celebration but this is part of our history and if we want to reconcile with the native American, it must be included.

It was tragic one of the Sesquicentennial events on May 11, at Fort Snelling, located outside the Twin Cities, resulted in native peoples arrested trying to bring to light public education of what really happened when the wagon trains rolled into the state of Minnesota 150 years past.

The history of Minnesota’s influential leaders in government toward Indians was genocide.

It allowed the stripping of the native culture, bad land deals clearly knowing without the resources from the land the native lifestyles depending on it encouraged a loss of identity, which is part of the historical trauma for native people today.

For Bemidji’s capital for the day, I felt like it was a rushed sideshow with a lot of military pomp and circumstance, throwing in a respected native drum, a prayer from a well-intentioned priest whose church had a history of destructive mission work and this was Bemidji Capital for a Day.

I think the little dab of including something native American missed the mark for this day.

The Diamond Point Park dedication in Bemidji included for the list of events was important.

The event reflected hard work by good citizens in this community but lacked real substance to the history of Diamond Point Park.

On that day of re-dedication, the emphasis of the Diamond Point Park history could have been presented in more detail instead of the quick speeches congratulating on the upgrades to the park.

The history of this park is gone without a whisper of why to the public.

At the end of the day and all is said and done, I brought my granddaughters to the premier of “Bend in the River” a historical production produced by a local theater company.

The production was presented twice in Bemidji, the night before and at the very end of the Bemidji Capital for a Day.

It offered a real descriptive and sound history from the indigenous history to logging not to forget the Paul Bunyan mythology.

The “Bend in the River” should have been presented when the large crowd gathered to celebrate the Minnesota Sesquicentennial and dedication of the Diamond Point area.

If I had not attended this play I would have truly missed one of the most important events for Bemidji Capital for a Day and Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial celebration.

I want to thank the individuals that were in this production for giving of their time and energy to show history.

In closing thought, the 150 years Sesquicentennial for me was a strong reminder of the history of destruction and stealing of land from the original people who lived in this state.

I am glad I supported the events that tried to grasp the concepts of the past 150 years but I fear people missed an opportunity for reconciliation with native people and the word exclusion comes to my mind.

Audrey Thayer is coordinator of the Greater Minnesota Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union-Minnesota.