Archive for 'NEWS & POLITICS'
Officials for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe believe their plans for a casino on the shore of Lake Oahe in central South Dakota will create jobs and generate essential revenue for programs on the financially strapped reservation.
The tribe is considering several casino locations, including one in Stanley County on the west side of the massive Missouri River reservoir. That location would be on tribal trust land outside of the reservation boundaries.
“It’s near the lake. It’s a beautiful location,” Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe administrative officer Harold Condon said Wednesday.
(more…)
Posted on 5 July '08 by admin, under NEWS & POLITICS. No Comments.
In federal court, a harsh light is cast on Red Lake crack trade — and tribal police
By Mike Mosedale
Monday, June 30, 2008
On June 16, seven members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians appeared before U.S. District Court Judge James Rosenbaum in Minneapolis, where they had come to plead guilty in connection with the biggest cocaine bust in the history of the isolated and crime-plagued northern Minnesota reservation.
After the defendants formally confessed to their roles in the drug ring, it seemed the long-running case, which ensnared a total of 33 Red Lakers and one Mexican national, would come to an end without a single trial or, for that matter, any consequential disclosure of the evidence.
All that changed when Judge Rosenbaum refused to accept a plea bargain from one defendant, Ramon Charles Sayers. Under questioning from the judge, Sayers, a 33-year old ninth-grade dropout and convenience-store clerk known on the reservation as “Razor,” admitted he arranged cocaine deals over the phone, which was the basis of a reduced charge to which he attempted to plead guilty.
But when Rosenbaum asked Sayers to identify his supplier, the defendant balked. At that, the judge rejected the plea deal and ordered Sayers to stand trial. On Thursday morning, after three days of testimony, a 12-member jury convicted Sayers on two drug-conspiracy counts, the most serious of which carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence and a maximum of life.
Vivid portrait of drug trade
While Sayers never took the stand, secretly recorded telephone conversations and testimony from his fellow defendants created a vivid portrait of the burgeoning crack trade at Red Lake, a trade in which dealers operated with near impunity and, sometimes, with the assistance of tribal police.
Among those swept up in the investigation were two former tribal police officers, Herbert May and Robert Jeffrey Van Wert. Earlier this month, May and Van Wert pleaded guilty to using a telephone to facilitate a drug deal, a felony charge that carries a maximum of four years in prison. Both officers admitted under oath that they tipped drug dealer Gary Lee Strong to the existence of investigations. Van Wert also testified that Strong paid him $300 in cash for alerting him to a pending warrant.
The officers’ pleas confirmed long-running suspicions at Red Lake that tribal police have, at least on occasion, protected drug dealers on the reservation. In a 2006 article in The New York Times, one former investigator for the Red Lake police complained that dispatchers “would narc out” police when they were planning raids.
Another former investigator told the Times that tribal officials, including Floyd “Buck” Jourdain, the tribal chairman, pressured police to drop drug investigations that involved relatives and friends. (Jourdain, who has denied the allegation, did not return calls for this story).
But it isn’t just the Red Lake police department whose reputation was sullied by the recent court proceedings. Others defendants in the case come from some of Red Lake’s most prominent families. Two adult children of the tribal treasurer have already pleaded guilty, as did sons of a former Red Lake court administrator and the band’s cultural director.
Star witness was investigation target
As it happened, the government’s star witness in the Sayers case was also the chief target of its investigation: Gary Strong, also known as “Baby Gar.” According to his own testimony, Strong started dealing at Red Lake shortly after his discharge from the United States Air Force in 2004. Strong said another defendant, Austin “Rooster” Head, introduced him to the fundamentals of the business. After several months, Strong struck out on his own.
Unlike other defendants who described themselves as either addicts or heavy users, Strong testified that he became involved strictly for the money. He said he sold mostly crack, rather than powder cocaine, “because it sells faster.”
By 2006, Strong had emerged as a major source on the reservation, investing an average of about $22,000 per week to supply a flourishing operation he ran out of the home of his mother, Mavis Strong. He had little trouble recruiting friends and relatives to help out. “My friends seen what I had,” Strong said. Asked to elaborate, Strong responded with a single word: Money.
On August 10, 2006, Dana Alphonse Oliver, who acted as a courier for Strong, was arrested after driving to Minneapolis to pick up a kilogram of cocaine (roughly 2.2 pounds) from an illegal immigrant named Augustin Martinez-Miranda. In an indication of how brazenly Strong conducted his business, just one week later Strong was arrested after purchasing a second kilo from Martinez-Miranda on another trip to Minneapolis.
Charges led to becoming an informer
Facing charges that could have sent him to prison for life, Strong quickly became an FBI informer. He fingered numerous associates and participated in three “controlled buys” involving one of his on-reservation suppliers, Frederick Desjarlait. In a subsequent raid at the home of Desjarlait’s mother, federal agents seized two kilograms of cocaine from a safe. Desjarlait, who testified at the trial, previously pleaded guilty to a 10-years-to-life conspiracy charge.
In one of the more stunning revelations of the trial, Strong admitted that after his arrest and subsequent agreement to cooperate with the FBI, he resumed selling cocaine. Dulce Foster, an attorney for Ramon Sayers, cited Strong’s double dealing as a reason to distrust Strong’s claims to have been involved in drug transactions with Sayers. “Gary Strong is a dishonest man,” Foster told the jury.
Foster pointed out that Strong told FBI agent Robert Woldt that he didn’t do business with the Sayers family, allegedly because of his rivalry with Craig Sayers, Ramon’s brother, over a woman. On cross examination, Foster asked Strong, “Mr. Strong, did you ever tell anyone that if you went down, you’d take the Sayers’ family with you?”
Foster also highlighted the lack of evidence about any direct communications between Strong and Ramon Sayers. Over a two-month period, the FBI recorded approximately 5,000 calls on Strong’s two phones lines, many of them involving drug transactions. In those recordings, Strong and Sayers never spoke to each other.
Conversations with Strong associate
But while the wiretaps didn’t establish a clear connection between the two men, they included a series of frank drug-related conversations between Sayers and Marida “Missy” Seki, who sold cocaine for Gary Strong. In those exchanges, Seki, who testified that she was a heavy crack smoker at the time, arranged to purchase cocaine from Sayers on occasions where Strong was out of town or “ran dry.” Some of the purchases were made on credit, she testified; others with cash or food stamps.
With Sayers’ conviction, all 33 cases involving Red Lakers have been resolved. The government dismissed the charges against one defendant, Loretta Kingbird. Twenty-six other defendants — including kingpin Gary strong — were convicted of a conspiracy charge that carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. The remaining six defendants pleaded to the so-called “telephone charge” and face up to four years.
On the reservation, the legacy of Red Lake’s biggest drug case remains unsettled. Since the first wave of mass arrests in 2006, most of the defendants, including Gary Strong and Ramon Sayers, have remained free on bond. They will likely remain free until sentencing, which is not expected until fall or early winter.
Relief, sadness, sympathy and fear
For Red Lakers, the case elicits a complex mixture of relief, sadness, sympathy and fear. Because so many families are involved — and because of concerns about violent retribution — many will only discuss the matter with a promise of anonymity.
“We’re all somehow related to each other, and all of us have someone in our extended family mixed up in this,” said one elder.
“I know some of the people who were arrested. I like them. They are nice people. And you can’t hate people who you watched grow up. And I hate to run the name of Red Lake in the mud. But this stuff [crack] has just taken over and you wouldn’t believe the people who are using. There are grandmas that are hooked.”
“It’s just very sad,” she added. “But I still believe this is a good place to live. It’s still possible to have a good life here. Otherwise, I wouldn’t stay here.”
For others, that conclusion is less certain.
One former tribal official, who also asked not to be named, said he despaired over the extent of the continuing drug problem on the reservation and the seeming inability of the tribe to address it.
“Even after this, we see dealers that haven’t been touched. The trafficking still goes on. It’s just not as open as it used to be,” he said, adding: “My own grandsons are probably headed down that road and I can’t do a damn thing about it.”
Mike Mosedale, who has written for City Pages and newspapers in Connecticut, Wisconsin and California, reports on the environment, Indian affairs and other topics.
Copyright © 2008 MinnPost.com
Seven indigenous Maori tribes signed New Zealand’s largest-ever settlement Wednesday over grievances arising from 19th century losses of lands, forests and fisheries during European settlement of the country.
The $319 million Treelords agreement will transfer ownership of 435,000 acres of plantation forest and forest rents from the central government to the central North Island tribes.
Hundreds of Maori, some wearing traditional feather cloaks, thronged the nation’s Parliament in Wellington to witness the signing of the agreement. Chants, challenges and conch shell notes rang out during the ceremony; some wiped tears from their eyes during the speeches and signing.
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police brutality against Indigenous Peoples’ March in Columbus, Ohio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRrtl3jJnrI&feature=email
Duluth bridge renamed for American Indian vets
Associated Press
Last update: June 29, 2008 - 9:26 AM
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Way to go, Duluth!
DULUTH, Minn. - A highway bridge in Duluth has been renamed in honor of American Indian war veterans.
A dedication ceremony on Saturday made official that the Highway 23 bridge over the St. Louis River is now the Biauswah Bridge. The name comes from a well-regarded Ojibwe chief in the Lake Superior region in the late 17th century.
But Rick Defoe, a member of the Fond du Lac band of Ojibwe, says the bridge is in memory of all Native American veterans.
Backers of renaming the bridge worked for 11 years on getting the designation.
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Enjoy this video starting with “The Talking Circle” used to solve problems like improving Tribal resources.
Posted on 29 June '08 by admin, under NEWS & POLITICS. No Comments.
Barry Carter barryc@indigenousway.net
There is a war going in the state of Virginia and the United States against Native Americans. Virginia is on the front lines of this war and Prince William county is the front lines in VA.
There are 70,000 Native Americans under attack as I write.
In 2008 over two dozen anti-Native American bills were passed by the Virginia State legislature.
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| Bison return to Minnesota prairies |
| |
 Bison are once again roaming free on the prairies of Minnesota.The release of the large animals is part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. The bison were released onto 220 acres of land in Washington County Saturday morning.
More than 200 people showed up to see the return of the large animals return to the nature at the Belwin Nature Center in Afton.
Experts say that the Bison are critical to the environment because they spread seed and kill unwanted plants on the prairie.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO
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Action Alert today! See below.
Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH
Chair, Awakening the Spirit Team
American Diabetes Association
From: American Diabetes Association [mailto:MakingNoise@diabetes.org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 1:32 PM
To: Lisa Foster
Subject: Next Step for Special Diabetes Programs
Dear ,
Good news! Thanks to the ongoing support of Diabetes Advocates like you,
yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted 355-59 in support of a
Medicare package that included a two-year extension of the Special
Diabetes
Programs. This is a great step, but we’re not done yet!
The Medicare package will be voted on in the Senate tomorrow, so we
need to keep
up the pressure. Please send a letter to your Senators asking them to
vote in
favor of the Medicare package that includes a two-year extension of the
Special
Diabetes Programs at the National Institutes of Health and the Indian
Health
Service.
Thank you for your tireless efforts this week asking Congress to help
us change
the future of diabetes. Please ask your Senators to fight diabetes by
letting
this vote happen and supporting the Medicare package that includes a
two-year
extension of the Special Diabetes Programs. Click on Take Action Now to
send
your letter.
To Take action, go to this link:
https://secure2.convio.net/adap/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr009=9k3zy2m
yd1.app10b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1282
Quoting Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH <yvetter@email.arizona.edu:
SDPI Reauthorization Update
While those of you at the meeting are hearing this in person, I
wanted to make
sure those of you not at the meeting know that today is an important
day for
SDPI Reauthorization - see below
Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH, Chair, Awakening the Spirit Team
American Diabetes Association
From: American Diabetes Association [mailto:MakingNoise@diabetes.org]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 2:18 PM
To: Lisa Foster
Subject: The vote on the Special Diabetes Programs is happening
tomorrow!
Forward to a Friend
Dear ,
We mentioned this would be a busy week and we have just found out that
the House
of Representatives is expected to vote on the extension of the Special
Diabetes
Programs tomorrow, June 24th, as part of the Medicare package.
As you know, this legislation will extend vitally important funding
for
research
on type 1 diabetes and funding for research, treatment and prevention
programs
for Native Americans populations who are affected by diabetes in
disproportionate numbers. The bill will come up under a "suspension of
the
rules", a procedure intended to speed up the process and move the
legislation
forward. It also means that two-thirds of the Members need to vote
for
the bill
for it to pass.
Many of you have already written your Members of Congress on this
issue, but
your voice needs to be heard again!
Help us get closer to a cure! Click on Take Action Now to urge Del.
Norton to
vote in favor of the two year extension of the Special Diabetes
Programs.
Take Action Now!
Quoting Alisa.Katai@UCHSC.edu:
Please forward this information to all program staff attending the
June
Grantee Meeting next week!
Dear Grantees:
We are really looking forward to spending some time with you next
week
at the SDPI Demonstration Projects Grantee Meeting, Year 4 Meeting 2.
Here are a few quick miscellaneous notes to assist you in being
prepared
before you get here.
* An updated agenda is attached. Please note that though the
content of the meeting hasn’t changed much, the schedule is different
than previous drafts of the agenda. Please plan accordingly.
* In order to get the most out of the Semi-Annual Progress Report
presentation, please review the progress report in detail in the days
prior to the meeting. Also, please print your own copy of the
General
Progress Report to bring to the meeting so you can easily follow
along
with the presentation. You can download it from the CC website,
under
Publications on the left navigation bar. You can also find your
Grantee-Specific Progress Report at the same location. There will be
ample time for questions and comments following the presentation, so
please make a note of anything you want answered.
* The continuation application and carry-over issues will be
discussed at this meeting. Please come prepared with your questions
on
these two issues.
* Meals reminder: A hot lunch will be provided on Thursday. On
Wednesday, you are on your own for lunch before the meeting and only
beverages will be provided during the afternoon break. The bus
leaves
the hotel at 12:00 p.m., so please plan to eat before then. Please
also
plan to bring your own morning and afternoon snacks for both days if
desired.
* Gamma grantees’ regular Tuesday data submission is still due the
week of the grantee meeting; however you can send in your electronic
submission on any day of that week.
* Weather for the week is predicted to be in the mid-to-high 80s,
dry and sunny.
* Though there is no special evening bus to an area mall just for
grantees this meeting, the hotel runs a free shuttle to the nearby
Northfield Mall. A shuttle schedule will be provided by the hotel at
check-in.
Safe travels, and we look forward to seeing you next week!
Alisa
__________________________________________________
Alisa D. Katai, MHA
Project Coordinator, Diabetes Prevention Program
IHS SDPI Demonstration Projects Coordinating Center
Nighthorse Campbell Native Health Bldg/MS F800
delivery: 13055 E 17th Ave, First Floor, Aurora CO 80045
mail: PO Box 6508, Aurora CO 80045
p: 303-724-0288 f: 303-724-0332 Alisa.Katai@uchsc.edu
For general questions or when I’m unavailable, please contact
Meghan Berrier 303-724-0426 meghan.berrier@uchsc.edu
For questions on data and forms, please contact:
Jenn Russell 303-724-1422 Jenn.Russell@uchsc.edu
seeks Superfund site fix
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Worthington Daily Globe
Published Thursday, June 19, 2008
BEMIDJI , Minn. (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the owner of a contaminated site in Cass Lake to come up with a permanent cleanup plan.
Ever since the St. Regis Paper Company plant was shut down in 1985, government agencies have been trying to figure out how to clean up the site. Under the state’s Superfund law, tons of soil have been removed, and wells and extraction systems have been installed to clean contaminated groundwater.
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> 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.”
> >
> >
> >
> > >>
>
>
Rosebud Sioux leaders make strides, despite fearby: Rob Capriccioso WASHINGTON - The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is still reeling from the devastating effects of suicide; and some tribal leaders, fearful of the situation, are doing their best to reflect inward regarding tribal and federal efforts in dealing with the outbreak.
”We are in the midst of an ongoing battle,” said Ken LaDeaux, CEO of the tribe. ”The problem hasn’t diminished.”
Many tribal members had hoped the epidemic might improve after President Rodney Bordeaux declared a state of emergency on suicides and attempted suicides in March 2007. The declaration authorized him to seek assistance from the Aberdeen Area IHS, the BIA and the Public Health Service.
Since that time, multiple news reports have touched on the issue. The New York Times highlighted two shocking Rosebud youth suicides last June. The Associated Press noted the hundreds of suicide attempts at the tribe in the last few years alone. And the tribe’s own law enforcement officials have kept track of several recent cases where suicide attempts within the reservation’s small population have been successful.
While the press was rather quick to cover the issue, federal help was somewhat slow to come. Many say the real educational and prevention work is just now beginning.
Bordeaux recently helmed a Gathering of Nations event focused partly on suicide prevention and mental health issues. A suicide summit, aimed at increasing awareness, is also planned to be held on the reservation in July. Federal and tribal officials from across the nation are expected to attend.
The tribe, too, has worked closely with Tillie Black Bear, director of the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, on strengthening the work of her suicide task force, which began meeting before Bordeaux’s emergency declaration. The group has worked to spearhead tribal health training and educational awareness programs through a partnership with Sinte Gleska University. It has also offered programs in local schools to offer support and information to students who may have questions about suicide.
In some respects, members of the tribe said, all of the attention on suicide has actually glorified the act for some. Many young people are hurting inside, and they’re desperately seeking attention - even if that attention comes in the form of an emergency response to a drug overdose or a slit to the wrist.
”We need to strengthen our young people’s feelings about themselves, as well as their connections with their parents,” Black Bear said, noting that her task force’s motto is ”Stop, think, honor, and celebrate your life.” One of the videos that she regularly shows to youth notes that suicide is not a video game. ”We want them to know you won’t be able to press play and start again.”
Tribal leaders are weary of the increased visibility of suicide on the reservation, and they do not want to see it glorified. Bordeaux, in fact, recently requested that IHS obtain his permission before allowing its officials to talk about their efforts to combat suicide at Rosebud. And IHS has followed his request.
”We want to be sensitive to our government-to-government relationship with the tribe,” Thomas Sweeney, a spokesman for IHS, told Indian Country Today. ”We need to honor the tribe’s wishes. … We don’t want to add to their difficulties.”
He added that it is quite rare for IHS to have hashed out such an arrangement.
”We don’t want copycat suicide attempts, and I do wonder if that’s happened over the past three years,” Black Bear said regarding the increased attention as of late. ”This is an area where sensitivity is key.”
LaDeaux said that various federal assistance, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resources, have started to flow the tribe’s way. He added that there is an ongoing dialogue with federal agencies to try to get more support staff and financial resources for prevention programs.
”As many resources that can be brought to bear are going to help not only this reservation, but any other reservation that is dealing with this type of problem.” Behavioral health specialists and other experts with the PHS and IHS have also visited the tribe.
Black Bear wishes that federal response had come more quickly. She estimates that it took nine months for Washington-based health officials to visit the reservation after Bordeaux’s emergency declaration.
”Not enough has been done,” she said. ”I think that help was slow to come, although I anticipate that the connections will now be long-lasting.”
Members of Congress from South Dakota seem keenly aware of the problem.
”I am both saddened and alarmed by the high rates of suicide on the Rosebud reservation, particularly among youth,” Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., told ICT. ”I meet regularly with President Bordeaux on tribal priorities which include eliminating suicide on the reservation and I continue to support the tribe’s efforts to address this problem, including their successful request to locate a mental health counselor at Rosebud’s IHS facility.”
Herseth Sandlin is a co-sponsor of the House version of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. She said she is working with her colleagues to pass the legislation, which addresses the need for mental health resources in Indian country.
”Make no mistake, this is a tragedy that continues to unfold, and we need to do more,” she said.
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A 2,000-year-old seed found in Israel may help restore a species of biblical trees. » Tree is doing ‘lovely’
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.”
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.
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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
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Waziyatawin, Ph.D.
Han Mitakuyapi.
I gave a radio interview with a radio station in Ontario with a program called Healing the Earth on the topic of the Sesquicentennial and the recent protests. You can listen or download the interview through this link:
http://www.resistanceisfertile.ca/
They do a great job of covering Indigenous topics and allow for far more depth than mainstream stations here…
Waziyatawin
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Waziyatawin, Ph.D.
Support from Italy for Native Protest against Minnesota celebration
Hi, my name is Alessandro Profeti, I live in Italy, I
published, in my italian Blog www.nativiamericani.it, an
article on your legitimate protest by inserting the Youtube
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ait0L50yA “May 10,
2008 - ‘Wagon Train” at Fort Snelling”. We support your
actions, we believe that it is necessary to stop the silence
about your true history. We ask for a long time recognition
of the Genocide of Peoples Native Americans, please see my
video “Genocide is true”,
http://www.nativiamericani.it/?p=342 in italian and english
language. Please send news, updates, and also indications on
how we can help. Your people arrested by the police is free
now?
Respectfully
Alessandro Profeti, Italy
Nativi Americani.it
http://www.nativiamericani.it
Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, hospitalized with a heart attack on June 14, 2008, after being attacked by special forces in Canada at the Cornwall/Akwesasne border. Photo by Sagowaiaks.
