16 June 1999 thru 11 June 1999 (start)

(These are national news stories that I have found and clipped to post here for your information. Follow the "next" image thru the archives to 11 June 1999)

U.S.-Rights: Sacred Native American Sites Threatened
Inter Press Service
15-JUN-99

LAGUNA, New Mexico, (Jun. 15) IPS - Many areas of the United States considered holy by Native Americans -- from sacred valleys to traditional burial grounds -- are under threat by proposed mining projects and nuclear dumps. Federal laws, aimed at protecting sites of religious or historic significance, often are being overlooked if the place exists on mineral-rich land, say participants at the Indigenous Environmental Network Conference held here last week.

"The mining laws of the United States are stronger than the laws that protect Native American religious rights," says Roland Manakaja, director of the Havasupai Natural Resource Department Native American groups have been meeting annually at these conferences for the past 10 years to discuss environmental and land rights issues.

On the Havasupai reservation in Arizona located near the famous Grand Canyon, tribal leaders say plans to mine for uranium near threatens their sacred site of a sunset colored land formation known as Red Butte. "The mining threatens not only our sacred land but also tourism as well," says Manakaja.

After nearly a decade of legal battles between the of Forest Service, the US Supreme Court and tribal leader, the federal government eventually approved the uranium mine. Luckily for the Havasupai, even with government approval, the company, Energy Fuels Nuclear Incorporated, says it currently has no plans to begin operations since the demand for uranium is declining. But proposals to mine for radioactive uranium on Mount Taylor, where the conference was held, would desecrate the peak considered holy by several Native American groups in the southwestern United States, says John Redhouse of the Navajo Dine indigenous group.

"Mount Taylor is considered sacred to four tribes: the Acoma, Laguna, Navajo, Zuni," he says. "It is one of the four holy mountains of the Navajo."

At the conference -- attended by 1,000 indigenous people from around the world -- a series of about 20 signs displayed the names of different U.S. sites that Native American groups consider "endangered."

In another part of New Mexico, Indian tribes such as the Hopi, Havasupai and Navajo -- are fighting plans to expand a pumice mine in the Coconino National Forest, located in the northern Arizona. The pumice is used to make fashionable "stone-washed" blue jeans and lightweight concrete.

While groups consider the mountains -- known as the San Francisco Peaks -- sacred, the land falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service which has approved expansion of the local small mining company Tufflite Inc. "It really comes down to which is more important to the Forest Service: the health of the land or the manufacture of soft faded blue jeans," declares Vincent Randall, chairman of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. "It is our hope that our grandchildren will not have more faded blue jeans than green forests," he says in a letter to the state's forest service.

In 1994, the Network's conference was held in the northern state of Wisconsin on Mole Lake, a body of water considered holy by the Chippewa tribe. The site is downstream from a proposed zinc-copper mine to be operated by the Canadian mining company Rio Algom. "The mine is upstream from the nearby wild rice beds of the Mole Lake and the sacred Wolf River that flows through the Menominee nation, another Native American tribe," says Zoltan Grossman with the Midwest Treaty Network, which works to support the land rights of Native Americans.

In the gold-rich state of Nevada, mining on territories claimed by the Western Shoshone tribe has made permanent changes to the landscape, leaving open pits where mountains once stood and artificial mountains where there were none before

.

Corbin Harney, a member of the Western Shoshone which call themselves "Newe", says historical and cultural sites, including burial areas, have been excavated or destroyed without the group's permission if mineral riches lay beneath the soil.

"One of our responsibilities is to protect our ancestors, protect their graves," says Harney. "We can't just go out there and dig them out and move them someplace else -- this makes a lot of our elders back home angry because things like this are happening all over no matter where you go," he says.

There have been some success stories in the fight to protect sacred sites. On the Mojave Indian Reservation located at the crux between the three states of California, Nevada and Arizona, plans to place a low-level radioactive storage facility in the sacred area, known as Ward Valley, have been halted.

A coalition of tribal leaders and environmentalists have been occupying Ward Valley since February to prevent the waste from nuclear reactors from being stored on the site. "This has been a sacred area for us for centuries," says Wally Antone, the Ward Valley Coordinator of the Mojave Indian Tribe. "Our ancestors were cremated here.""

The valley is also critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise, which is also considered sacred by the Mojave people and appears in many of the tribes myths and legends, according to Bradley Angel, director of California-based Greenaction, an environmental organization.

"From an environmental point of view, the waste should not be stored here," says Angel. "The dump would be right above the aquifer that filters into the Colorado River which is a drinking and agricultural water source for more than 20 million people," he says.

The new governor of California, Gray Davis, is reportedly against the proposed dump, yet Angel warns that even though the construction of the facility has been halted, total victory has not been achieved.

Tribes Seek to Put Big Tobacco on Hot Seat

AP - 16-JUN-99 (Albuquerque, New Mexico-AP) -- More American Indian tribes are going after Big Tobacco.

Thirty-four tribes, mostly from the West and Midwest, are expected to file suit today in New Mexico. They accuse the industry of deliberately targeting Indians.

The move comes less than two weeks after 20 tribes filed a (b) billion-dollar federal suit in San Francisco. They charge they were left out of the 200 (b) billion-dollar settlement reached between states and the industry last year. The new lawsuit seeks an end to tobacco ads geared toward attracting Indian teens. Attorneys say damages could reach into the billions of dollars.

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Indian Tribes Expected to File Tobacco Lawsuit

AP - 16-JUN-99

The 34 American Indian tribes that were to file a lawsuit today against 14 tobacco companies, by state, tribe and location:

California

Robinson Rancheria, Nice

Michigan

Grand Traverse Reservation, Sutton Bay

Little Traverse Bay Bands Reservation, Petoskey

Sault Ste. Marie Reservation, Sault Ste. Marie

Minnesota

Red Lake Band Reservation, Red Lake

Missouri

Eastern Shawnee Reservation, Seneca

Montana

Fort Peck Reservation, Poplar

Nebraska

Santee Sioux Nation, Niobrara

Nevada

Duckwater Reservation, Duckwater

Fallon Colony & Reservation, Fallon

Lovelock County, Lovelock

Yerinton Colony & Reservation, Yerington

New Mexico

Acoma Pueblo, Acomita

Isleta Pueblo, Isleta

Laguna Pueblo, Laguna

Picuris Pueblo, Penasco

Zia Pueblo, Zia Pueblo

Zuni Pueblo, Zuni

North Dakota

Turtle Mountain Reservation, Belcourt

Trenton Indian Service Area, Trenton

Oklahoma

Chickasaw Nation, Ada

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Durant

Iowa Reservation, Perkins

Pawnee Tribe, Pawnee

Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma, Wewoka

Oregon

Klamath Reservation, Chiloquin

Confederate Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Pendleton

South Dakota

Ogalala Sioux Nation, Pine Ridge

Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, Eagle Butte

Rosebud Reservation, Rosebud

Utah

Confederate Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Ibapah

Washington

Quileute Indian Reservation, La Push

Wisconsin

Bad River Reservation, Odanah

St. Croix Chippewa Reservation, Hertel

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press.

The Latest South Dakota News from States
NewsService
Reuters
Tuesday, June 15, 1999

Double-Murder Investigation Continues

(PINE RIDGE) -- F-B-I officials continue to investigate a double murder on the Pine Ridge reservation. F-B-I agents were called in last Tuesday after the discovery of two bodies more than a milesouth of Pine Ridge. Police have identified the two men as Wilson Black Elk and Ronald Hard Heart. Agents say evidence of foul play was found atthe scene.

Ground Broken For Visitor Center

(DEADWOOD) -- The Crazy Horse Memorial in Deadwood has broken ground on a new, more than 40-Million- dollar visitor center.The mountain carving near Custer attracts Millions of visitors each year. Original plans called for a smaller visitor center, but officials decided only last week that a larger center was both necessary and more cost effective. The new center will be the first stop for visitors to the mountain and will contain two theaters, displays, a Native-American museum, meeting rooms, and other facilities.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.

Disaster Relief Office Opens
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)14-JUN-99 --

Senator Tom Daschle will be opening an office in Pine Ridge today to help the area recover from the devastating tornadoes.His temporary office will be located in the Lands Committee office in Pine Ridge and his staff will be available to answer questions about federal disaster assistance relief. President Clinton declared the region a disaster area last Wednesday, opening the way for much-needed federal assistance to help with immediate and long-term recovery efforts. The aid will include assistance for displaced families in Oglala and other areas that need temporary housing and help with immediate expenses. It will also help communities repair damaged buildings and infrastructure and assist in long-term economic recovery efforts.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

Michael Apted Named Recipient of Ida Career Achievement Award
PRNewswire
14-JUN-99
LOS ANGELES, June 14 /PRNewswire/ --

Michael Apted will receive the 1999 International Documentary Association (IDA)Career Achievement Award here during the IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards gala on October 29th.

"Michael Apted has earned the respect of his peers for his willingness to tackle controversial and challenging subjects, and he does it with integrity and flair," says IDA President David Haugland. "His work has made a deep and lastingimpression."

Apted joins the ranks of such former IDA Career Achievement recipients as Walter Cronkite, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Fred Friendly, Henry Hampton, John Hendricks, Albert Maysles, Bill Moyers, Sheila Nevins, Ted Turner and David Wolper. His documentary credits include such landmark films as "Moving the Mountain," "Incident at Oglala," "The Long Way Home," "Bring on the Night" and "Inspirations."

Apted is a multi-dimensional filmmaker with a diverse body of work. In "Inspirations" Apted visits with seven great artists who reveal what inspired them, which he followed up withanother film in the same vein about seven scientists. "Incident at 0glala" focuses on Native American activist Leonard Peltier whohas been imprisoned on a murder charge since the 1970s. "Moving the Mountain" chronicles the events leading up to the 1989 massacre on Tianamen Square and its aftermath. The centerpiece of his documentary work is a series of films Apted began shooting in 1963 tracking the lives of 14 British school children at seven-year intervals. The films, "7 Up," "14 Up," "28 Up" and "35 Up," earned the English equivalent of Oscars(R) from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), an international Emmy(R) and an IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award. The series continued when "42 Up" was aired by BBC last July.

Apted has also compiled an impressive list of creditsas a narrative film director, including "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Continental Divide," "Gorky Park," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Class Action," "Thunderheart," "Blink," "Nell," and "Extreme Measures," and he is currently working on "The World Is Not Enough," the 19th in a series of James Bond movies. IDA Executive Director Betsy A. McLane observes that Apted is a great role model for young filmmakers because he has proven you can be a successful narrative director and still make important contributions to the documentary form.

"I'm touched and thrilled by this acknowledgement," Apted says. "I've tried to make adifference with the documentaries, but maybe that's asking too much of a film. Sometimes we are only able to create ripples, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth making those films."

The IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards were inaugurated in 1985 and have been sponsored by Kodak since their inception.

"Documentary filmmakers are the eyes, ears and conscience of the world," says Michael Zakula, Kodak's liaisonwith IDA. "They show us who we are and what we stand for, and create enduring records of our times, captured on film for posterity. We are proud to play a role in encouraging and recognizing the pursuit of excellence. Michael Apted is proof that one dedicated and talented person can make a difference."

Apted was born in England in 1941. He studied law and history at Cambridge University. Apted began his career as a researcher at Granada Television, where he became an investigative reporter and director for the newsmagazine World in Action. He subsequently received BAFTA awards for "The Lovers," a comedy series, "Folly Foot," a children's episodic program and another for best director for "Kisses at 50." Apted has compiled more than 60television credits.

"Every time I direct a documentary, I learn things which help me with my fiction film," says Apted. "There are also times when I use narrative techniques in documentaries. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you tell the truth. Truth hasnothing to do with the techniques you use. Every cut, camera angle and lens choice is an interpretation of reality. Truth is about the honor of the filmmaker." Apted says he will use the IDA Career Achievement Award as a platform for encouraging young filmmakers to persist in following their dreams. He notes that it is very difficult getting support to produce documentaries that are seen by the public. "I am committed to keeping this struggle alive," he says. "Fortunately, there is a deep pool of talented people who have the will to persist. When student filmmakers ask me what it takes to succeed, my answer is don't wait for something to happen. Make it happen. You can find ways to make meaningful documentaries with limited resources."

IDA was founded in 1982 as a not-for-profit membership organization. It has some 2,000 members in 25 countries. The organization provides a global forum for the exchange of ideas, and it acts as an advocate for the rights of documentary filmmakers.

For more information about the IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards, contact the IDA at 1551 S. Robertson, #201, Los Angeles, Calif. 90035-4257, or call 310/284-8422 ext. 26, or fax 310/785-9334 or e-mail: ida@artnet.net . An entry form can also be found on the Internet at the IDA website located atwww.documentary.org.

(c) 1999 Cable News Network, Inc. A Time WarnerCompany

HHS Approves Child Welfare Demonstration for New Mexico
U.S. Newswire
14-JUN-99

WASHINGTON, June 14 /U.S. Newswire/ --

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today approved a child welfare demonstration project for New Mexico that will for the first time delegate authority to Native American tribes to operate their own child welfare programs. "This is a truly historic project for a state and its tribes to help children most at-risk of harm," said Secretary Shalala. "The Adoption and Safe Families Act signed by President Clintontwo years ago provided this opportunity for New Mexico to create a new relationship among the state, tribes, and the federal government in administering child welfare programs to ensure the safety, well-being and permanency for vulnerable children."

Under the demonstration, New Mexico will delegate full authority and responsibility for administration of child welfare Title IV-B and foster care and adoption Title IV-E programs to as many asfive tribes. The Navajo Nation is expected to be one of the five. The foster care funds can also be used to subsidize guardianships as permanent placement options for children in state or tribal custody for whom reunification and adoption are not options. Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, HHS is authorized to approve up to 10 demonstration projects each year through 2002. HHS has encouraged states to develop innovative child welfare projects aimed at increasing adoptions of special needs children, promoting community- based services to prevent child abuse and neglect, improving access to needed health and mental health services, and addressing the unique needs of American Indian children. This is the 19th waiver approved under this authority.

"This demonstration offers a unique opportunity for tribes to build an innovative partnership with a state in the child welfare program," said Olivia A. Golden, HHS assistant secretary for children and families. "We are very excited to support this important project and look forward to sharing its lessons with the rest of the country." The tribes will be accountable for child outcomes and fiscal responsibilities inherent in operating a child welfare program. New Mexico will monitor the programs and provide quality control services.

New Mexico's project is for five years, will be cost-neutral, and include a rigorous evaluation.

--- Note: HHS press releases are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.hhs.gov.

(c)1999 Cable News Network, Inc. A Time WarnerCompany

South Dakota Morning News - 12-JUN-99 (PINE RIDGE)

TRIBAL POLICE AND THE FBI ARE INVESTIGATING THE DEATHS OF TWO MEN ON THE PINE RIDGE RESERVATION. THE BODIES OF WILSON BLACK ELK JR. AND RONALD HARD HEART WERE FOUND IN A CULVERT ABOUT A MILE AND A HALF SOUTH OF PINE RIDGE ON TUESDAY. THE TWO MEN WERE LAST SEEN ALIVE ON SUNDAY. NO ARRESTS HAVE BEEN MADE AND FEW DETAILS ABOUT THE DEATHS ARE AVAILABLE, BUT AUTHORITIES ARE SAYING THAT THERE IS EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY AND THE HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES.

(c)1999 Cable News Network, Inc. ATime Warner Company

American Indian Relief Council and Co-Defendants to Pay $395,000

PRNewswire
11-JUN-99
HARRISBURG, Pa., June 11 /PRNewswire/

-- Attorney General Mike Fisher today announced that a South Dakota charity and its co-defendants will pay $395,000 to resolve allegations that they intentionally exploited the plight of Native Americans to obtain donations and then used the contributions to primarily benefit certain officers and directors of the charity. "We contend that this organization's intent was to deceive potential donors and play on every human emotion imaginable to extract dollars from caring Pennsylvanians," Fisher said. "Consumers were told that Native Americans, on several South Dakota reservations, were suffering from widespread famine and other life threatening conditions that we determined either never existed or were greatly exaggerated."

Fisher said his Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section entered into a consent agreement with the American Indian Relief Council (AIRC), also known as National Relief Charities, located in Virginia and Rapid City, South Dakota;   AIRC president Brian J. Brown, Oregon;   AIRC formervice president Corrin Bare, San Jose, Calif.;   AIRC former secretary/treasurer Camellia Van Exel, Hempstead, N.Y.;   Great Plains Economic Development Corp., Rapid City, and its principals David G. and Bernice J. Myers, also of Rapid City. The agreement ends a lawsuit filed against the defendants in Commonwealth Court. According to the lawsuit, AIRC from July 1991 to December 1993 used direct mail solicitations to raise money for Native Americans living on reservations in South Dakota. The investigation revealed that the residents who received the solicitation were falsely told that:

-- Thousands of Native Americans on reservations in South Dakota are suffering from widespread food shortages and lack of heat and medicalcare.

-- The reservations were hit with catastrophic natural disasters and that funds were needed to prevent famine and death.

-- AIRC was significantly alleviating unemployment for Native Americans in the Rapid City area through a jobs training program.

-- AIRC was feeding thousands of starving and desperately poor Native Americans eachmonth.

-- AIRC provided significant quantities of medical supplies, heating fuel, gardening tools and supplies to Native Americans.

-- AIRC does not employ professional fund raising organizations or individuals and was therefore more efficient than other charities.

"Due to the egregious nature of these allegations, my office was intent on returning the money this charity solicited from Pennsylvanians under false pretenses," Fisher said. "We succeeded in that, and now we're making sure that the restitution collected will be distributed to Native Americans in need." The consent agreement requires the defendants to pay $350,000 in restitution that will be distributed to independent relief programs located on the Pine Ridge, Rosebud and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservations in South Dakota. The independent relief programs are not operated by AIRC.

"Our legal action has stopped this charity from using half-truths and outright lies to obtain donations and has resulted in increased funding for Native Americans living on three reservations in South Dakota," Fisher said. Under the terms of the consent agreement, the defendants admit no wrongdoing and are required to:

-- pay $350,000 in restitution, $15,000 in civil penalties and $30,000 for the costsof investigation.

-- maintain an autonomous board of directors.

-- maintain AIRC's existing level of program services benefitting Native Americans in South Dakota, in addition to the restitution mandated.

The case was handled by Mark A. Pacella Senior Deputy Attorney Generalof Fisher's Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section in Pittsburgh. Fisher thanked his former Senior Financial Investigator Steven C. Arter for his work in the case.

(c) 1999 Cable News Network, Inc. ATime Warner Company