USE
ABOVE TABS FOR MORE UPDATES ON SPECIFIC ISSUES |
NEWSLETTER |
See
Sidebar at Left for Other Indigenous News and Dine'h Support Web
Sites
Don't forget to check for
breaking news in our
World,
U.S.,
Human Rights, and Indigenous News feeds. |
WORLDWIDE
PRAYER GATHERINGS CONTINUE
3rd WEEKEND OF EACH MONTH
|
KNOW
AND DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS
|
Land
Developers Face Dispute Over Indigenous Cemetery
- FinalCall.com - 14 JUNE 2004
LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - In light of the discovery of the remains of 270 Native Americans at a real estate development site, tribal members are calling on the developer to side-step a 13-year-old pact that permits the excavation of bodies during construction.
As expected, according to the parties, the Playa Vista Development
unearthed human remains during the digging phase for a water throughway that will collect run-off from nearby neighborhoods. Although the firm set a
programmatic agreement on the guidelines for handling remains with the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe, the large discovery has sparked debate over renegotiating procedures. Opponents want digging to stop and the throughway redirected....
|
Bush
Adviser Says Yucca Decision Did Not Violate Pledge
Process relied on 'sound science,' Rove
says - Las Vegas Review-Journal - 14 JUN
2004
President Bush's top political adviser said the
administration's approval of Yucca Mountain as the nation's
nuclear waste repository did not violate a 2000 promise to
Nevada voters to base such a decision on "sound science,
not politics."...
|
Bush
Thanks Veterans, Then Cuts Their Health Care - The
Daily Mislead - 01 June 2004
President Bush
spent the Memorial Day weekend thanking the nation's veterans for their
service, saying "we acknowledge the debt [we owe them] by showing
our respect and gratitude." Yet, his rhetoric came just hours
after the Bush Administration announced new plans to slash veterans
health care funding if it returns to power in 2005....
|
136th
Anniversary of Long Walk to be Marked - The
Farmington Daily Times - 13 JUNE 2004
FARMINGTON — On June 18, 1868, thousands of
Navajo people were released from Fort Sumner, to began making
their way back to their beloved land, Dinetah.
That
journey would forever be remembered by the Navajo people as the
Long Walk and despite plans by the U.S. Peace Commissioners to
relocate the Navajo to the lower Arkansas territory, the Navajo
insisted on going back home to their own land.
Now,
136 years later, the Diné Nation Bikers want to hold a memorial
biker run to honor the history of the Long Walk by going back to
Fort Sumner....
|
Concerned
for Navajo Aquifer - Natasha Grail, Ft. Defiance, AZ -
10 JUNE 2004
My concern for the Black Mesa Coalition has brought
me to writing this imperative letter. I have been reading about
that area for sometime now and I have heard about how the U.S.
government has tried to move our people off of their own lands,
in order to get the coal which lies beneath them.
I am
also concerned about the U.S. government pumping water out of
the Navajo Aquifer. They are pumping an estimated 300 gallons
every 10 seconds. This means over a billion gallons are being
pumped every year. Most of us don't know it, but we are losing
our only reliable source of water very rapidly. If this
continues it could be gone in 10 years....
|
ABA
to Add Native American Team - Washington Times
- 07 JUNE 2004
Indianapolis, IN, Jun. 7 (UPI) -- The American
Basketball Association is adding an expansion team based out of
Albuquerque, N.M., comprised exclusively of Native American
players.
League
co-founder Joe Newman made the announcement Monday....
|
Bikers
to Pay Homage to Indians Long Walk - Gallup
Independent - 08 JUNE 2004
WINDOW ROCK — A memorial biker run will be held
to honor the history of the Long Walk June 18 and June 19.
"(We
want) to pay spiritual reverence to honor the ancestors who were
lead there," said Etta Arviso, one of the organizers of the
run.
The
Hweeldi Beenilniih run, sponsored by the Diné Nation Bikers,
will leave Farmington early on June 18, travel through
Albuquerque, and then on to Fort Sumner. A camp out and
traditional prayer services will be held. The run is scheduled
to end in Window Rock on June 19....
|
City
Is Losing a Part of Its Soul in Playa Vista - LA Times -
07 JUNE 2004
Over the last few months, one of the largest
American Indian burial grounds ever found in California —or
the nation—has been rising out of the earth in West Los
Angeles, more than 275 bodies at last count. You can see the
site from Lincoln Boulevard — those big green tents on land
that developers mean to turn into an Edenic stream, open space
for the 13,000 people who will populate the master-planned Playa
Vista community.
Each
day more resting places of Los Angeles' original inhabitants,
those we know as the Gabrielino-Tongva, are being exposed and
their bones brushed clean. Rib cages and skulls, basketry
remnants and personal goods are sifted from the dirt. Some of
the remains are 4,000 years old; some date from the days of the
Spanish missions. Each is laid in a cardboard banker's box —
stacks of them fill metal shipping containers — to be
reinterred someplace else....
|
Gathering
Clouds: Arizona's Navajo and Hopi Tribes Have Won a Water-Rights
Battle Against the
Coal Company That Has Sustained Their Fragile Economies. But on
the Threshold of Victory,
a Sobering Question: Now What? - LA Times -
06 JUNE 2004
"Somewhere far away from us, people have no
understanding that their demand for cheap electricity, air
conditioning and lights 24 hours a day have contributed to the
imbalance of this very delicate place." — Nicole
Horseherder, Navajo, Black Mesa
For
years upon years beneath star-heavy skies, the Navajo awakened
before the sun rose over northeastern Arizona's Black Mesa to
guide their sheep to the natural waters of desert washes and
springs to beat the overwhelming heat of day. For those who kept
cattle in more modern times, they dug wells powered by windmills
to pump groundwater into drinking troughs. The Hopi, farmers
whose reservation borders Black Mesa's fringe, channeled these
same waters onto hillside terraces where they planted their
sacred and sustaining crops of corn.
But
that was when there was water on Black Mesa....
|
An
Indian Country Model - The Navajo-Hopi Observer
- 05 JUNE 2004
FLAGSTAFF— Navajo Foster Grandparents came from
every corner of the Diné Nation to be recognized for
volunteering with children on May 26 at Little America Hotel.
“Thank you for volunteering. You really deserve
this respect and we are all very proud of you,” said Anslem
Roanhorse Jr., executive director of the Navajo Division of
Health. Roanhorse addressed the 195 elders present who
volunteered more than 150,000 hours this past year. The
recognition ceremony is an annual event....
|
Cultural
Focus Helps Hopi School Buck Graduation-rate Trend
- AP - 31 MAY 2004
Hope
springs eternal at Hopi High School.
Every
spring, that is, when this school in isolated Keams
Canyon graduates another large group of seniors, bucking
the trend for Native American graduation rates.
Nearly
87% of students graduate within five years of starting
Hopi High, well above the 63% statewide average for
Native Americans. The statewide graduation rate for all
races is 76%.
What
makes the school a standout?...
|
Navajo
Elders Give 150,000 Hours to Nation - Farmington
Daily Times - 30 MAY 2004
FLAGSTAFF — Navajo foster grandparents came from
every corner of the Navajo Nation to be recognized for
volunteering with children at Little America Hotel in Flagstaff
May 26.
“Thank you for volunteering. You really deserve
this respect and we are all very proud of you,” said Anslem
Roanhorse Jr., executive director of the Navajo Division of
Health, who addressed 195 elders who volunteer over 150,000
hours this past year. The recognition ceremony is an annual
event.
“You truly are the fabric of our nation,” added
U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., a guest speaker.
The Navajo Foster Grandparents program, a program
under the Navajo Area Agency on Aging office within the Navajo
Division of Health, is one of only four programs within the
state of Arizona, but with a volunteer rate that is 3-4 times
higher than other Arizona projects....
|
Navajo
VP: Water Accord "Essential" - Farmington
Daily Times - 30 MAY 2004
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Passage of the proposed
Navajo Nation water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin is
absolutely essential to provide water and economic development
to the Navajo people, Navajo Vice President Frank Dayish Jr.
said Friday in a news release.
“The
settlement reflects years of discussions and negotiations
between the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico to resolve
the nation’s outstanding claims in the San Juan Basin,” he
said....
|
San
Juan River Basin Settlement Critic: "Pulling a Fast
One" - Navajo Times - 28 MAY 2004
WINDOW ROCK - Farmington attorney Gary Horner and
attorneys for the Navajo Nation are at opposite ends of the
spectrum when it comes to what kind of agreement is needed for
the San Juan River water rights settlement.
Earlier
this week he said that the Navajo Nation is trying to pull a
fast one by seeking more water than it needs. The nation, he
said, plans to sell the excess water to cities like Phoenix, Las
Vegas and Los Angeles and make tens of millions of dollars of
profit a year.
But
Stanley Pollack, the Navajo Nation's chief water rights
attorney, said Horner doesn't know what he is talking about. If
he did, Pollack said, he would know that the settlement does not
allow the Navajo Nation to sell off any excess water....
|
Native
Activism Class Takes it on - Indian Country Today
- 27 MAY 2004
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - When class began, on screen
were the portraits of Buffy Sainte Marie, Floyd Westerman, John
Trudell, XIT and Red Earth, as University of New Mexico students
shared the history of the Red Power Movement of the 1960s and
1970s with Jemez Pueblo and Taos Pueblo high school students.
"Music
is the voice of the people," said Roxanne Olguin, Isleta
Pueblo and Navajo, during her group project presentation of the
Native American Activism class, the brainchild of Zuni Pueblo
adjunct professor Mary Bowannie....
|
Using
Their Language to Save Lives - Arizona Daily Sun
- 28 MAY 2004
It sounded like gibberish to the Japanese in World
War II -- the Navajo-inspired code used by the U.S. Marines in
the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Today, the message is coming in
loud and clear: Cherish and honor our last remaining code
talkers while we still can.
Five
local Navajo code talkers -- Arthur Hubbard Sr., Dan Akee,
Alfred Peaches, Teddy Draper Sr. and Lloyd Oliver -- are being
honored tonight at a public reception at 5:30 at the Little
America Hotel.
The
reception is part of the long weekend of festivities that mark
the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in
Washington, D.C., on Saturday, and Memorial Day on Monday....
|
Environmentalists
Sue over Medicine Lake Geothermal Plans - AP - 19
MAY 2004
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Environmental groups have sued
the federal government over geothermal projects it has approved
in the remote Medicine Lake Highlands region considered sacred
by Indian tribes.
The
suit, filed Tuesday and announced Wednesday, challenges approval
of the first two geothermal power plants proposed by Calpine
Corp. Both would be built within the Medicine Lake caldera, the
remnant of an ancient volcano 30 miles east of Mt. Shasta and 10
miles south of the Lava Beds National Monument in northeastern
California....
|
Victims
of Nuclear Fallout Tell Their Stories - Gallup
Independent - 21 MAY 2004
WINDOW ROCK—They talk of
watching the clouds, playing in the "snow" in the summer, sweeping the
ash from their cars and the ash burning their skin as it fell on them. They talk
of being farmers who became bankrupt because nobody would buy their produce or
milk, of being so poor they didn't have a choice to throw away goods that had
been grown on ground covered with nuclear ash....
The
United States conducted more than 900 nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test
Site, 100 above ground and 804 detonated underground. The "Sedan Shot"
was detonated at 635 feet underground. "Shot Baneberry" was detonated
at 900 feet. The two tests vented radioactive debris to heights of 16,000 feet
and 10,000 feet respectively, with fallout reaching as far as Kentucky and
Tennessee.
"We have been
involved with people and their families that have been devastated by
cancer,"...
|
Ex-miners,
Shirley Seek Changes in Radiation Law - The Navajo
Times - 21 MAY 2004
WINDOW ROCK - Leroy Harry, 65, remembered his days
of bull riding on and off the Navajo Reservation with a huge
smile.
"I
was young," said Harry, who doesn't show signs of the fatal
lung and throat diseases caused by radiation exposure.
He
pops another throat lozenge in his mouth before talking about
his days as a uranium miner, which started at the age of 19 in
1958.
Harry
was among about 500 people that came from across the
reservation, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico to attend a one-day
hearing on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program on
Tuesday....
|
Navajo
Rugs' Appeal Transcends Time and Style - Los Angeles
- 13 MAY 2004
Entertainment lawyer Lawrence Rose spends his days
fighting for his clients, and at night he retreats home to be
watched over by nine dancing Yei-be-cheis. The figures, woven
into a Navajo rug in the entryway, represent the protective
grandparents of Native American gods.
"There's
a calming quality about the Southwest style and a spirit to
Navajo rugs," said Rose from his Adobe Revival house, which
overlooks Beverly Hills, Calif. "People in my business need
a peaceful place to inhabit, a vacation house in the city. Once
I'm here, I can forget what happens outside."
That's
the power of Navajo rugs, a 300-year-old art form inspired by
nature and the supernatural, created one line at a time by
weavers using upright looms....
|
ACTION
ALERT!
Grave Desecration in Southern California
- SENAA International
- 10 MAR 2004
An Indigenous American cemetery has been discovered
in Playa Del Rey, California. Part of the cemetery was uncovered
at the Playa Vista development that began in October of 2003.
Currently, there has been destruction of Indigenous American
burials, removal of Indigenous American human remains, and the
separation of funerary objects from the human remains to which
the objects belong....
Below are links to documents released by the
Gabrielino/Tongva detailing the issue. You will find three fact
sheets that will inform you of the situation, a letter that you
can download and/or print to voice your support for preservation
of the site, and a list of names and addresses of those who
should be contacted and urged to stop the desecration and
restore the disturbed graves....
|
ACTION
ALERT!
Despite Protest, the Deadline Stands for Comments on
Peaks Snowmaking
Arizona Daily Sun - 09 APR 2004
In a tense public demonstration against snowmaking at
Arizona Snowbowl, about 40 protesters led by the Save
The Peaks Coalition gathered Thursday in front of the
new Coconino National Forest Supervisor's Office during
its open house.
Carrying signs with sentiments such as, "We
don't desecrate your church, don't desecrate ours,"
the group was relegated to the sidewalk about 75 yards
from the main entrance to the office....
The public comment period ends Tuesday at midnight
for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the
Arizona Snowbowl Improvement Project.
To submit a comment to the Forest Service: e-mail...
|
|
Discovery
of Human Remains Halts Multi-million Dollar Pigeon Forge
Development
WBIR-TV, Knoxville, TN - 26 APR 2004
According to state archaeologist Nick Fielder, human
remains discovered in Sevier County on what is known as the
"Jake Thomas property" may be part of a native
American burial site.
Thursday's
find has put a temporary halt to the multi-million dollar "Riverwalk"
project, planned to include restaurants, hotels, retail,
condominiums, and a Pigeon Forge Civic Center. The development
is located along Teaster Lane, next to the West Prong of the
Little Pigeon River.
Artifacts
and human remains were uncovered in one area of the 185 acre
development area by an archaeologist working for Riverwalk's
developer. The archaeological testing was a required part of the
federal permitting process in order for Riverwalk to divert a
stream.
According
to Fielder, the remains could be up to 2000 years old....
|
Fed
Heads Shocked by Rez Living Conditions - Gallup
Independent - 05 MAY 2004
TUBA CITY — It was a historic day in Tuba City.
Members of Congress met with Native leaders for the first time
ever on a native nation.
Navajo
Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor
Jr. provided testimony before House Financial Services, Housing
and Community Opportunity Subcommittee members.
Those
members of the subcommittee toured the Navajo Reservation and
saw the widespread poverty.
And
they were shocked by what they saw....
|
Navajo
Housing Decried: Lawmakers Tour Life on Reservation -
Arizona Republic - 04 MAY 2004
NAVAJO RESERVATION - Marie Keams, 49, humbly
welcomed members of Congress into the two-room house south of
Cameron where she raised seven children.
One
room held two beds, two couches, dressers and a wood stove. The
other room had a propane stove and an U.S. flag taped over the
door.
No
electricity. No running water. And the well outside is
contaminated with oil, so Keams is forced to get her drinking
water from the Cameron chapter house several miles away....
|
Navajos Win Key
Victory in Coal Royalty Fight - Arizona Daily Sun - 01 MAY
2004
A federal
judge has handed a key victory to the Navajo Nation in its fight
over lost coal royalties.
Judge
Emmet G. Sullivan rejected efforts by Peabody Energy to throw out
legal claims by the tribe over the question of whether the company
engaged in illegal acts in its apparently successful efforts to
get a top federal official to approve a favorable royalty deal....
|
Display Says U.S. Has
Worst Genocide - AP - Originally Published 09 APR 2004
BRUSSELS,
Belgium (AP) - A display praising the merits of peacekeeping that
cited the killing of native North Americans as the world's worst
genocide shouldn't be considered a jab at the United States,
Belgian defense officials said Thursday.
Defense
Ministry spokesman Gerard Vareng denied criticism that the display
carried an anti-American message....
|
Judge
Won't Dismiss Navajo Nation Suit Against Peabody - Indianz.com
- 27 APR 2004
A
federal judge has again refused to let the world's largest coal
company off the hook for its role in the Navajo Nation's
billion-dollar trust asset mismanagement claim.
The tribe is suing Peabody Energy and the federal
government over a coal lease approved during the Reagan
administration. The suits allege that Peabody conspired with top
Department of Interior officials to deny the tribe a high
royalty rate on the coal deposit....
|
The
Broken Circle — 30 Years Later: Residents Say Racism Still a
Real Issue
Farmington Daily Times - 27 APR 2004
FARMINGTON — A Native American civil rights
movement incited by the brutal murder of three Navajo males at
the hands of Anglo teenagers shook the city of Farmington in
1974.
For the first time, Native American protesters said
they were tired of being treated like lesser people by
businesses, restaurants and the citizens of Farmington. But did
it make a difference?...
|
What
Did Navajos Want? - Farmington Daily Times - 24
APR 2004
FARMINGTON — At the culmination of a civil rights
protest march May 11, 1974, an estimated 1,500 Native Americans
presented the mayor of Farmington with a list of 10 demands.
The petition addressed basic problems in the
community affecting Native Americans and called for an immediate
response from the city’s leadership....
|
Renewing
the West: Energy Summit Attracts More Grassroots Navajos
Than Tribal Leaders
Indian Country Today - 26 APR 2004
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M.—When New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici urged passage
of the federal energy bill at the Western Governor’s
Association banquet, Navajos seated in the center of the
room, whose families had lived and died with the effects
of uranium mining and coal development, fell silent.
There was no applause here, no standing ovation.
When
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, however, went to the
podium at the North American Energy Summit at the Hyatt
Hotel, Navajos cheered for the governor who met with
Navajo grassroots organizations immediately after taking
office....
|
Navajo
Nation Negligent Towards Former Bennett Freeze Residents
Navajo Times Hard Copy - 26 APR 2004
This
dialogue is created on behalf of the people of the
former Bennett Freeze Area. It will detail how the
residents of the former Bennett Freeze are treated by
chapters, how the Navajo tribal government is negligent
in its duties, and challenges the responsible parties to
step up on the issues at hand.
I
am actively involved with the Naataanii area community
situated on the western fringes of Tolani Lake Chapter.
My people advocate rebuilding our community and taking
control of our future by our own will–not those
established by foreign governments or outsiders....
|
Human Bones
Found Near Wupatki - Arizona Daily Sun -
26 APR 2004
Human
bones were uncovered Thursday near Wupatki National
Monument, and preliminary findings indicate that the
bones might be those of a prehistoric ancestor of the
Hopi Tribe.
Ken
Frederick, spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service,
said that a National Park Service ranger found the bones
on an area of Forest Service land near the southern edge
of Wupatki....
|
Saving
Dook'osliid: Leaders Join Medicine Men Against Snow Bowl Plan
Navajo TImes - 24 APR 2004
WINDOW ROCK - President Joe Shirley Jr. made a
commitment late Tuesday evening to do everything in his power to
oppose the proposed expansion of the Snow Bowl Ski Resort and
use of reclaimed water Dook'osliid....
"If they expand, that is desecration for our
way of life," said an emotionally charged Shirley.
"That's genocide. That's putting us aside. If we're going
to make a point on our sovereign way of life we need to come
together. We need to be together.
"There
ought to be all 300,000 of us defending that peak," he
said....
"(Northern Arizona University) professors
found that the reclaimed water has organic contaminants,
pharmaceuticals and non-ions," Cora Max-Phillips, Shirley's
staff assistant, said. "The medicine you swallow flushes
out of your system and that remains in the water."
She
said the components found in the water would not only affect the
environment but animals. Max-Phillips said there are hormones in
the pharmaceuticals.
"Who
puts a price on nature?" Max-Phillips said. "To us
that mountain is priceless."...
|
Navajo
Council Hears Message on the Wind: It's Earth Day. Be Sure to
Honor Your Mother
Gallup Independent - 24 APR 2004
WINDOW ROCK — When the Diné Medicine Men
Association met in Window Rock earlier this month to air their
opposition to use of reclaimed "sewer water" to make
snow on the sacred San Francisco Peaks, it rained and snowed
above the nation's capital. Thursday as the Navajo Nation
Council took up an amendment to the Navajo version of the Clean
Air Act, the power of the wind was felt in Window Rock. When
delegates broke for lunch in the afternoon, they heard the howl
of the wind at the Council Chamber doors and opened them only to
be greeted by a blast of sand in the face. What was the message
on the wind?...
|
Court
Upholds Tribal Power It Once Denied - NY Times - 24 APR
2004
WASHINGTON, April 19 - The Supreme Court ruled
Monday that Indian tribes have the authority to prosecute
members of other tribes for crimes committed on their
reservations. And because tribes act as sovereign nations in
such prosecutions, the court said, ordinary principles of double
jeopardy do not apply and do not bar the federal government from
bringing a subsequent prosecution for the same offense....
|
Navajo
President: Using Reclaimed Water on Sacred Peaks is the Same as
Genocide
Gallup Independent - 16 APR 2004
FORT DEFIANCE — Using reclaimed wastewater on the
San Francisco Peaks' Snowbowl amounts to desecration of a sacred
Holy site of the Navajos, said Navajo Nation President Joe
Shirley Jr. By allowing this desecration "the United States
of America will commit genocide."
Somewhere between bond issues and the Bush budget,
the president found time to deliver this comment and others in
writing on behalf of the Nation to Coconino National Forest
asking for an extension of the public comment period and
meaningful consultation on the proposed Arizona Snowbowl
Facilities Improvement plan....
|
Nonprofit
Advocacy - GuideStar
Newsletter - 06 JAN 2004 issue
There's a myth that nonprofits are barred from
acting as advocates. Not true. Although some forms of
advocacy—such as lobbying—are restricted, speaking out and
acting for change are integral parts of the missions of many
nonprofits. One site working to help nonprofits advocate wisely
and effectively is NPAction,
an online reference service hosted by OMB Watch....
|
Text of the USA PATRIOT Act
USA
PATRIOT ACT OF 2001
Also Available HERE
and in PDF
Format |
ALL
ARTICLES PUBLISHED ABOUT LORI PIESTEWA
ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR
VETERANS'
SECTION
|
WHAT
IF IT WAS YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S GRAVE? |
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT NATIVE AMERICAN
ARTS & CRAFTS AND THE LAW |
UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
In English and more than 300 Other
Languages
|
SEE
DROP- DOWN MENU BELOW FOR PAST ARTICLES |
The Official Cherokee Font Is Now Available
for Both PC and Mac
Computers!
|
Indigenous News Articles Index
Latest Developments at Black Mesa and Elsewhere
The Dine'h Struggle
at Black Mesa, Arizona
Big Mountain & Dineh History
Other Native American Issues and Concerns, Past and Present: |
Back
to Menu
|
|