Ruffled Feathers

“As a child, Bonnie Wethington remembers hunting for ’star-crossed fairy rocks’ and catching lizards in thigh-high grass below the majestic Ship Rock and Church Rock on the Navajo Nation, near Four Corners (where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet). Now in her 40s, Wethington, a member of the Nation, laments that the grass is sparse and scrubby, and there is hardly a lizard in sight. She says the changes in the land have much to do with the noxious plumes pumping out of two massive coal-burning power plants in the area, and the harvesting of coal from a wide gash in the red and gold earth that runs for miles near her family’s land.” (04/28/08)

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3614/dirty_smoke_signals/

“Read Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and you will feel palpably that your ancestors brutally murdered Indians so you could live on that happy little plot of land where you sit reading. Don’t expect it to feel good. In fact, it feels so bad that Americans have repressed, suppressed, and finessed the truth about our nation’s founding for more than 200 years. It’s hard to retrieve a truth so manhandled even when you want to: Native American History Month, which is this May, comes and goes each year with none of the educational earnestness of Black History Month. When it comes to making movies about Native Americans, even solid filmmakers can look like drama teachers putting on a Thanksgiving play.” (05/30/07)

http://tinyurl.com/2rzsad

“Today, Indian Nation leaders are having to take a hard look at who cannot and should not be a member of their nation. Under their government sovereignty they have every right to do so. Concerning the Freedman Group and Intermarried Whites, Indian Nation leaders are stating their tribal nation membership was set up and based on Indian blood quantum proof and tribal roll number linking a person to that Indian nation. The Freedmen Group is playing the race card, calling the action from Indian Nations as racist toward them. Fact: there are full blooded Indians today that cannot join their Indian Nation because their past family members did not take a tribal roll number of their nation. The Indian roll number system came about because of the U.S. Government’s illegal ‘Indian Removal Act of 1830.’” (03/17/07)

http://tinyurl.com/26h5x6

“Wallace Dale tells the story of his daughter’s death in clipped, even sentences; the only time his eyes mist over is when he talks about how the anniversaries of her birth and death still get to him. And the only time he laughs is when he reminisces about growing up traditional in the remote folds of the reservation’s Chuska Mountains. His mother hewed to Navajo dress and the ancient creation stories; his father, a Comanche, practiced the healing arts of medicine men. The family raised sheep and horses, and grew corn, squash, and beans. There was no running water, electricity, or gas. ‘It was a lot of work but fun, and we learned a lot from it too,’ Dale says. ‘I always held on to their ways. Without them, we all would have been lost.’ But after Deirdre was murdered, tradition could not keep Dale anchored. He got sick; bills piled up; his marriage fell apart. He was consumed by fantasies of revenge, and he came to believe that his people’s tradition was getting in the way of justice for Deirdre. It was time, he decided, for the Navajo to embrace the death penalty.” (for publication 01/07)

http://tinyurl.com/yh2egz

“Like the explanations of Third World poverty, the explanation of poverty on Indian reservations lies in the structure of property rights and the rule of law. And that is where PERC’s interest lies—how do the institutions in the form of laws, customs and rules on the reservations affect the stewardship of natural, human, and physical capital assets? The following insights into reservation institutions help us understand the problems surrounding stewardship and economic development.” (06/06)

http://www.perc.org/perc.php?id=801

“Like many tribal lands across North America, the Sokaogon Chippewa reservation in Northern Wisconsin faces environmental perils that threaten not only the land, but also the livelihood and culture of the people who live on it. The Sokaogon spent close to three decades battling one of those perils: the proposed reopening of a nearby zinc and copper mine. In 2003, thanks in large part to the efforts of environmental director and tribal council member Tina Van Zile, the tribe joined forces with the neighboring Forest County Potawatomi to end the battle — by buying the mine.” (03/23/06)

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/03/23/wiltenburg/

Interview with Peter Evon, director of Native Movement, with reader questions welcomed: “Native Movement is a collective of around 15 organizers who work on a myriad of projects focusing on youth leadership development, sustainability, protection of sacred sites, and social, political, economic, and environmental justice. We work mostly with Indigenous peoples in the Southwest and Alaska, although we consciously outreach to the non-Indigenous community as well.” (02/06/06)

http://tinyurl.com/cunu8

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http://www.urlgoeshere.com

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