The Lodge of Šung'manitu-Išna...A Tribute to the Oglala Lakota People

Lakota Culture

Lakota Language

Lakota Music

Native American Law

Appendix

Lakota - In

25 June 1999 thru 16 June 1999

(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)

25-JUN-99

New Computers for Managing Indian Trust Accounts Unveiled

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Friday unveiled the federal government's new computer system for tracking $3 billion in trust accounts his agency manages for American Indian tribes and their members. The $60 million project, introduced in the Bureau of Indian Affairs office here, is intended to address decades of mismanagement of the accounts.

The government is now defending itself in a class-action lawsuit filed by some account holders claiming the mishandling of the accounts has resulted in underpayments to Indians. Critics claim the mismanagement may have shortchanged Indians and tribes by billions of dollars in royalties and lease revenues from Indian land and from court settlements. Babbitt said estimates of the money the government may owe Indians are "wildly overstated." "I don't know if it's $10 million or $100 million," he said. "The dollar figures are manageable."

The computer system will be testing in the Billings BIA region _ Montana and Wyoming -- for two months before it is introduced in other parts of the country. The project is expected to be complete by 2001 when it will be in operation in 250 BIA and tribal offices.

The BIA handles 300,000 individual Indians' accounts worth $500 million and another 1,600 tribal accounts worth $2.5 billion. The accounts have been plagued by poor bookkeeping and information systems, and records have been lost or ruined over the years.

The new computer system is supposed to give Indians and tribes better access to their records and to link land ownership files with financial records, but it has been criticized by the General Accounting Office as haphazard and possibly unworkable.

Babbitt acknowledged the poor condition of some account records will mean the new computer system will not be totally accurate. "There is no such thing as 100 percent certainty; there is 99 percent certainty," he said.

23-JUN-99

Tribes Seek Injunction Against Tobacco Settlement Reuters

NEW YORK, June 23 (Reuters) - A coalition of American Indian tribes late on Tuesday sought an injunction against major tobacco manufacturers, trying to block part of the companies' $206 billion tobacco settlement with U.S. states, an attorney for the tribes said. The request for a preliminary injunction, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, follows a lawsuit the tribes filed against tobacco companies on June 2. The suit argues that the settlement, reached last November between Big Tobacco and 46 states, does not provide for direct payments to American Indians and infringes on tribal sovereignty.

William Audet, lead attorney representing the tribes, said in a telephone interview that the injunction was needed to protect settlement money the tribes think is rightly theirs from being lost in accounts set up for general settlement money.

The amounts being paid to each state, which are now collecting in escrow funds until they are allowed to be released, are based upon U.S. census population data that includes American Indians. The injunction request calls for the portion of payments based on each state's tribal population to be redirected to a separate fund. In California, for example, about $234 million of the state's $25 billion settlement payment is based on its tribal population, Audet said.

In total, the tribes maintain they are entitled to at least $1 billion of the $206 billion, 25-year agreement. The companies, which face hundreds of outstanding lawsuits related to the health risks of smoking, agreed to the settlement in hopes of limiting their litigation risks.

The injunction also asks the court to block the portion of the nationwide settlement that interferes with tribal sovereignty. Because American Indian tribes who live on tribal land are considered sovereign entities by federal law, the agreement interferes with tribal sovereignty and should be deemed invalid, Audet said.

Audet said he expected a hearing on the injunction request would be held in late August.

((--Tracy Sacco, 212-859-1655, tracy.saccoreuters.com))

Tuesday, June 22, 1999

Clinton To Visit Reservation

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- White House officials confirm that President Clinton will travel to the Pine Ridge Reservation in south central South Dakota July Sixth. Clinton will address the lack of private sector investment in Native American Communities and discuss economic potential in the area. Pine Ridge has been picked as a federal "Enterprise Zone" and is the first reservation in the nation to receive the designation.

Disaster Unemployment Aid Available

(PIERRE) -- Governor Bill Janklow says disaster unemployment assistance is now available to workers in Shannon County. He says workers who were displaced when tornadoes swept across the area earlier this month may qualify for disaster the aid. To be eligible, workers must be self-employed or work on a farm.

Monday, June 21, 1999

Two Accused Of Woman's Murder

(STURGIS) -- Meade County authorities will arraign two people on murder charges today in Sturgis. Sheriff Ron Merwin announced that police have arrested three people in connection with the murder of a native American woman whose body was found in a field in a rural part of the county last Wednesday. Chaske White and Dawn Frazier, both of Rapid City, will appear in court this morning to be charged with the murder of 22-year-old Morning Star Shalimar Standing Bear, of Rapid City. A third suspect, a 15-year-old juvenile male, was also arrested in connection with the murder.

Clinton Wants Community Investment

19-JUN-99

COLOGNE, Germany, June 19 (UPI S) _ President Clinton is planning an early July trip to several underprivileged urban and rural American communities to emphasize his campaign for new business investment in what he calls ``under-served markets.�� According to the schedule (released Saturday), Clinton will visit the Kentucky highlands, the Mississippi Delta, East St. Louis, Mo., and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The president will also attend an economic development conference in Anaheim, Calif., between July 5 and 8.

Clinton Wants Poor Areas Helped

19-JUN-99

COLOGNE, Germany, June 19 (UPI) _ President Clinton is planning an early July trip to several underprivileged urban and rural American communities to emphasize his campaign for new business investment in what he calls ``under-served markets.��

Between July 5 and 8, Clinton is scheduled to lead a delegation of business leaders and members of Congress to communities that are trying to attract businesses to their area. According to the scheduled released by the White House today, Clinton will visit the Kentucky highlands, the Mississippi Delta, East St. Louis, Mo., the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, South Phoenix, Ariz., and the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles. The president will also attend an economic development conference in Anaheim, Calif. Clinton has estimated that there is as much as $85 billion in untapped investment potential in these communities.

Clinton to Tour Distressed US Areas July 5-8

Reuters 20-JUN-99

COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - President Clinton will tour economically distressed parts of the United States from July 5 to 8 to call attention to the need for new investment in the rural and urban communities, the White House said Saturday.

Clinton will be joined by a bipartisan delegation of business representatives and members of Congress on a trip that will take him across the country.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, with Clinton in Germany during a European tour, said Clinton will begin his trip in the depressed Appalachia area of the Kentucky Highlands and then will travel to Clarksdale, Mississippi, a rural community on the Mississippi Delta, to focus attention on rural markets.

On July 6, Clinton will visit East St. Louis, Missouri, an urban areain a former industrial center.

From there Clinton will travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and will discuss the lack of private sector investment in Native American communities and their economic potential, Lockhart said. On July 7, Clinton will visit to South Phoenix, Arizona, which has a large Hispanic population to publicize the need for Hispanic communities to gain access to capital.

From Arizona, he will travel to the depressed Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles where Clinton will talk about the importance of disadvantaged youth receiving job training.

Clinton is to end the trip at a conference of chief executive officers in Anaheim, California, to encourage the private sector to invest in adding disadvantaged young people to their work force.

Gambling report urges restraint

MAP: Click here for a look at the 26 states that have casinos

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A study of America's gambling habit released Friday urges lawmakers to slow the rapid expansion of state lotteries, stiffen regulation on Native American gaming and close loopholes in currentgaming laws. The National Gambling Impact Study -- with 76 recommendations -- is the work of a nine-member commission, an ideologically diverse group whose members include a casino executive and an anti-gambling socialcommentator. None of the recommendations would take effect without changes to federal, state or local laws.

The 200-page report is being formally submitted to Congress, the White House, state governors and tribal governments.Gambling 'epidemic' A chief concern of the report is that millions of Americans cannot control their gambling, and compulsion may be leading to higher crime, bankruptcies, domestic abuse and suicides.

"Often families are devastated, it undermines the work ethic and it ultimately destroys those who become addicted," said commission member James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family.

America is in the grips of a gambling "epidemic," Dobson told CNN. "Fifty years ago, the entire culture knew -- not just conservatives, but everybody knew -- that gambling was dangerous ... and we've forgotten that," he said. "We think of it now as just harmless entertainment." Dobson estimated more than 15 million Americans "are problem or pathological gamblers, and that's associated with divorce, suicide, bankruptcies, child abuse, spouse abuse and homelessness." Recommendations Dobson says gambling "undermines the work ethic" Another commission member, casino executive J. Terrence Lanni, agreed that the United States has a "significant number" of gambling addicts.

"What we really need to do is to have more research to determine what level of problem pathological gambling exists," said Lanni, the chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas-based MGM Grand Inc. The FBI does not collect statistics on gambling-related crime. Estimates of compulsive and addicted gamblers vary widely. Several studies claim between 1 percent and 25 percent of all gamblers have a problem controlling their losses.

"I'm very much committed to seeing legislation come forth that would help us understand (gambling addiction)," Lanni said.

Among the recommendations in the commission's 200-page report:
A moratorium on new lotteries and casinos
1 percent tax on legal gambling proceeds
Lanni calls for more research into the problem of pathological gambling
Warning signs posted at gambling facilities
A nationwide minimum age of 21 to place bets
A ban on betting on collegiate sports Restrictions on campaign donations by the gambling industry
Removal of ATMs from casino floors
A reduction in state lottery advertising Ban on Internet gambling
Prevent credit card companies from collecting Internet gambling debts
Prohibit wire transfers to pass money to an Internet gambling site
Closer monitoring of casinos on Indian reservations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

South Dakota Afternoon News UPI 18-JUN-99

(OGLALA) RED CROSS OFFICALS ESTIMATE THEY WILL SPEND OVER THREEQUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR DISASTER RESPONCE TO SHANNON COUNTY ANDOGLALA. MARK LOEFFER (LEF-FER) SPOKESMAN FOR ARC IN SHANNON COUNTY SAID THE ORGANIZATION WILL CONTINUE TO OPERATE IN THE REGION UNTIL THE NEEDS OF THOSE EFFECTED BY THE TORNADOES HAVE BEEN MET. ARC DOES NOT RECEIVE FEDERAL FUNDS AND RELIES ENTIRELY ON DONATIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS. LOEFFER SAID ARC HAS MOBILIZED A NATIONAL EFFORT IN THEIR RESPONCE TO SHANNON COUNTY BRINGING IN 122 STAFF PEOPLE AND 8 EMERGENCY RESPONCE VEHICLES. OUTREACH TEAMS ARE OPERATING IN THE FIELD IN ORDER TO BRING RELIEF EFFORTS TO THOSE UNABLE TO TRAVEL TO THEIR MAIN OFFICES IN PINERIDGE. DIRT ROADS, HEAVY RAINS AND RUGGED TERRAIN COMPLICATE EFFORTS NEAR OGLALA. IN SPITE OF HARDSHIPS, LOEFFER SAID A ``TRUST�� BETWEEN HIS ORGANIZATION AND TRIBAL LEADERS HAS BEEN FORGED AND MADE FOR AN EXCELLENT WORKING RELATIONSHIP.

DAKOTAWIRE PIERRE / UPI CALLAHAN 061899 1100 DAKOTAWIRE IS PROPRIETARY MATERIAL FOR USE BY SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Prairie Island to Donate $100,000 to Pine Ridge Tornado Relief; Leaders Challenge Other Tribes to Match Prairie

...PRNewswire18-JUN-99

PRAIRIE ISLAND, Minn., June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tribal Council for the Prairie Island Indian Community today announced that the tribe will donate $100,000 to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to help tornado relief efforts there. In addition, Prairie Island's tribal leaders issued a challenge to the nation's other tribes to match or exceed the $100,000 gift.

"We are glad to have the means to be able to help out our friends at Pine Ridge in this time of great need, and we hope that other tribes will put their resources to good use and answer our challenge with matching gifts," said Audrey Kohnen, president of the Prairie Island Indian Community. "In cases like these with one tribe helping another, we are seeing an example of the tribal cooperation and good works that Congress intended when it passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. I am proud that Prairie Island can play a part in that inter-tribal support network."

The gift comes in response to a devastating tornado outbreak on June 4 and 5 that struck the community of Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is located in southwestern South Dakota, about 80 miles south of Rapid City. One person was killed and more than 40 were injured when the area was hit by four tornadoes over two consecutive nights. The storms destroyed countless buildings on the reservation, leaving hundreds of families homeless.

The Prairie Island Indian Community is located 30 minutes southeast of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi River. The tribe owns and operates Treasure Island Resort and Casino.

The Latest South Dakota News from States News Service Reuters 18-JUN-99

Friday, June 18, 1999

Meade County Murder Investigated

(STURGIS) -- Meade County authorities are investigating the discovery of a body in a field north of Rapid City in Meade County. Sheriff Ron Merwin ordered an autopsy after a preliminary examination turned up signs of foul play. The autopsy revealed yesterday that the death was indeed a homicide.

Witt Reviews Tornado Damage

(OGLALA) -- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt has made a stop in Oglala to view the storm-ravaged area and meet with state and tribal officials. Governor Bill Janklow asked Witt to come to the state to view damage left by two F-Two class tornadoes that nearly wiped out the small Pine Ridge Reservation Community of Oglala. All of Shannon County has already been declared a disaster area by President Clinton... clearing the way for much-needed FEMA funds to assist area residents in the recovery process.

Tribes Join Tobacco Lawsuit

(STATEWIDE) -- South Dakota Indian Tribes have joined more than 30other tribes across the nation in a class action lawsuit against tobacco companies. The tribes are seeking compensation for the medicaltreatment of tribal members that suffer from tobacco- related illnesses and disease. The suit claims the tobacco industry specifically targeted Native- Americans

American Indian Museum Gets Go-Ahead from Fine Arts Commission

AP18-JUN-99 WASHINGTON (AP) -- After months of design disputes, the federal government's Commission on Fine Arts gave a unanimous go-ahead Thursday to plans for the National Museum of the American Indian on the NationalMall. Groundbreaking is expected in the fall, with opening scheduled for 2002, next to the popular Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.Cost is estimated at $110 million.

Commission Chairman J. Carter Brown was pleased that the new design eliminates a thick column that would have held up the overhanging roof which is meant to recall the cliffs where native Americans built multistory dwellings in the Southwest.

"We all threw up our hats about that," said Charles H. S. Atherton, secretary of the commission.

Brown called the column an engineering element, disguised as part ofthe design. The roof remains but the column is gone. The design is based on an original plan by David Cardinal, a Canadian architect of Indian ancestry. His design did not have a column. Following a dispute over detailed drawings, the Smithsonian hired a new architectural firm that submitted a new design aimed to preserve Cardinal's basic plan, but it added the column. After the commission decided that was ugly, said Brown, the architectural firm deleted the column.

Rick West, a Cheyenne who is to be director of the museum, said the dispute had delayed groundbreaking by several months, but would not postpone the opening.

The National Capital Planning Commission still must approve the design, but officials said they don't expect further difficulties following the Fine Arts Commission approval.

The Smithsonian is a federally funded museum and research complex,which operates 15 museums and the National Zoo in Washington.

American Indians Say Gambling Report Recognizes Their Rights

AP18-JUN-99 WASHINGTON (AP) -- After two years of friction, advocates of Indian gambling are praising a federal commission as it prepares to releaseits findings on gambling in America.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission has had a rocky relationship with the National Indian Gaming Association. Yet the association offered advance praise for the commission's report on gambling in America, due out Friday.

"We need to acknowledge that (the commission) did recognize sovereignty" and gambling's "important role in healing our communities that have been hemorrhaging for decades," said Rick Hill, chairman of the Indian gambling association.

In anticipation of the report, the association has run advertisementsin Capitol Hill periodicals this week calling Indian gambling "moderate, responsible, regulated."

Tribal leaders who joined Hill at a press conference Thursday said they are most concerned with a controversial sentence in the report urging governments to consider a moratorium on more lottery games, casinos and slot machines. Though the word "moratorium" divided the commission,even pro-gambling commissioners agreed to call for "a pause" in the proliferation of gambling.

But Anthony Pico, chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians in California, said even a pause would be "devastating" to Indian tribes. "Native Americans have had a pause on economic development for the last 150 years," he said, "thereby putting us in a situation of extreme poverty and all the suffering that goes with it."

Congress created the commission to study the explosive growth of legal gambling in America. Nowhere has that growth been more dramatic than on Indian reservations.

Twenty-six states have reached compacts with Indian tribes allowing some form of gambling on their land, Hill said. The commission's report estimates there are 260 casinos or Bingo halls now operating on Indian reservations, compared with 70 in 1988.

The nine-member commission received testimony from about 100 tribal representatives and visited the Foxwoods Indian casino in Connecticut. Yet most tribes that run casinos refused to fill out a commission survey, saying the information was private. After briefly discussing issuing subpoenas to obtain the information, the commission considered calling for creation of a new panel, "with full subpoena power," to look at Indian gambling. The idea was discarded after commission member Robert Loescher, an American Indian, objected to singling out tribal casinos. "We've had some ups and downs" with the commission, Hill said, "but I think the report is more of an up than a down."

The commission report commission recommends that:

_Tribes use some gambling revenue as "seed money" to diversify their economies.

_Congress and the president strengthen federal laws to ensure regulatory oversight of tribal gambling finances.

_An "independent, impartial decision-maker" be brought in when states and Indian tribes deadlock over new casinos. Tribal leaders say they have long sought appointment of mediators.

The report also says the panel received no evidence "suggesting any viable approach to economic development across the broad spectrum of Indian country, in the absence of gaming."

That has been a core argument for Indian gambling advocates. "This is the only thing that has worked for us," Hill said.

Indian Official Apologizes to Judge in Trust Funds Case
AP18-JUN-99

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration's top-ranking American Indian appealed to a federal judge Friday to leave the government in control of $500 million in Indian trust funds that have been mismanaged for decades.Kevin Gover, a Pawnee who has run the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a year and a half, said it would destroy his agency -- and by extension the government's special relationship with tribes -- to lose control of the accounts.

"I deeply believe that not only is the bureau the right organization to do this, but it is the only organization that can do it," he told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth.

The BIA is responsible for 300,000 accounts that handle rent, royalties and other income from 11 million acres of land owned by individual Indians, many of them very poor.

Earlier this year, Lamberth held Gover, Interior Secretary BruceBabbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt for their failure to turn over records sought in a class-action lawsuit that seeks to reform the trust system and reconcile the accounts.

Gover, a lawyer and Princeton graduate who is Interior's assistant secretary for Indian affairs, apologized "for the failure of my agency to do what it was told to do." He was the government's leadoff witness in a trial of the lawsuit.

The trial began June 10, starting with testimony on behalf of the plaintiffs, the individual Indian account holders who brought the class-action lawsuit over the $500 million. The BIA controls an additional $2.5 billion in trust funds that belong to tribes and arenot covered by the lawsuit.

BIA has already lost much of its role in everyday Indian affairs now that many tribes have taken over programs the BIA once managed forthem. Taking away the trust funds would be the next step toward eliminating the agency altogether, Gover said.

While tribal leaders are often the BIA's harshest critics, many of them share Gover's concern that the government would phase out its support for tribes if the agency didn't exist.

"The BIA, for all its warts, is the icon, it is the symbol, of the commitment of the United States to the tribes," Gover said. The trust system has vexed a series of administrations, but Gover insisted the BIA is committed to cleaning it up. Next week, the agency will start testing a new computer system for managing the trustaccounts and records.

The records are scattered in more than 100 BIA offices, and many of the accounts are quite small -- Gover said his own account contains just 7 cents -- because of the way ownership of Indian land has splintered through inheritances.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs scoffed at Gover's concerns for the future of the BIA, which they contend is incapable of managing the money. Under cross examination, Gover could not say whether the officials he's put in charge of the accounts have any previous experience in managing trusts. Lawyers for the account holders who filed the lawsuit also say the records are in such poor condition that the new accounting system can't be reliable.

"The question is, is the BIA here to support the trust, or is the trust here to support the BIA?" attorney Dennis Gingold said in an interview.

South Dakota Morning News

UPI
17-JUN-99

(OGLALA) THE HEAD OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY WILL BE IN OGLALA THIS MORNING. JAMES LEE WITT WILL MEET WITH GOVERNOR BILL JANKLOW AND OTHER STATE AND TRIBAL OFFICALS TO DISCUSS THE FEMA RESPONCE TO THE SHANNON COUNTY DISASTER. UP TO 500 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LEFT HOMELESS FOLLOWING A NIGHT OF TORNADOES ACROSS SHANNON COUNTY. OGLALA, THE MOST SEVERLY HIT WITH TWO F-2 CLASS TORNADOES, IS STILL STRUGELING TO GET ESSENTIAL SERVICES RESTORED. WITT WAS INVIVTED TO VIEW THE DAMAGE BY GOVERNOR BILL JANKLOW. STATE AND REGIONAL FEMA OFFICALS HAVE BEEN WORKING IN THE AREA FROM THE TIME OF THE DISASTER, BUT THIS IS THE FIRST VISIT BY WITT. SOUTH DAKOTA'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION HAVE ALL SPENT TIME IN THE AREA IN PAST WEEKS WITH SENATOR DASCHLE SETTING UP A TEMPORARY OFFICE IN PINE RIDGE TO HELP DISASTER VICTIMS WITH QUESTIONS AND ASSISTANCE.

(PIERRE) SOUTH DAKOTA TOURISM OFFICALS ANNOUNCED THE STATE HAS TWO OF THE TOP THREE FAMILY TRAVEL DESTINATIONS. ``FAMILY FUN�' MAGAZINE SURVEYED READERS ABOUT THEIR TOP TRAVEL DESTINATIONS. BASED ON 10 CATEGORIES, MOUNT RUSHMORE TOOK TOP HONORS AS THE BEST FAMILY VACTION DESTINATION. CLOSE BEHIND AT NUMBER THREE WAS THE CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL. TOURISM SECRETARY PATRICIA VAN GEREPEN SAID THE SURVEYS WERE BASED ON MIDDLE INCOME FAMILIES WITH KIDS, THE GROUP SOUTH DAKOTA ATTRACTS THE MOST OF. AVERAGE DAILY COST, MOTEL ROOM RATES AND AVAILABILITY, EDUCATIONAL LEARNING OPERTUNITIES, AND ENTRANCE FEES WERE ALL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE SURVEY.

(PIERRE) THREE OF THE STATES INDIAN TRIBES HAVE JOINED WITH 31 OTHER TRIBES ACROSS THE NATION IN SUEING THE TABACCO INDUSTRY. OGLALA SIOUX, CHEYENNE RIVER AND ROSEBUD SIOUX TRIBES HAVE JOINED THE CLASS ACTION SUIT SEEKING DAMAGES FROM THE TABACCO INDUSTRY CLAIMING NATIVE AMERICANS WERE TARGETED BY THE TABACCO INDUCSTRY. LIKE THE SUCCESSFUL STATE'S CLASS ACTION SUIT, THE TRIBES WANT COMPENSATION FOR THE COST OF TREATING TRIBAL MEMBERS WITH TABACCO RELATED ILLNESS AND DESEASE.

DAKOTAWIRE PIERRE / UPI CALLAHAN

U.S. Native Americans File Tobacco Lawsuit
Reuters
16-JUN-99

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., June 16 (Reuters) - Thirty-four U.S. Native American tribes on Wednesday filed suit seeking millions of dollars from tobacco companies, saying their people have suffered more from smoking than other ethnic groups.

Attorneys and leaders of seven of the litigating tribes, or nations, told a news conference they need the money to fund anti-tobacco education efforts and pay for the treatment of smoking-related illnesses among Native Americans.

"Indian people have been injured and continue to be injured," said Albert Hale, an attorney and former president of the Navaho Nation. "We allege that through misrepresentation, fraud, and conspiracy and violation of fair trade practices, they have promoted a product on Indian people across this country," Hale said. The lawsuit, filed in New Mexico district court in Santa Fe, says lung cancer is the leading cause of death among Native Americans.

One of two Indian high school students smokes, compared with 20 percent of African American or Asian American students and 33 percent of young Hispanics, the suit claims.

The lawsuit, filed by Hale and tobacco litigation lawyers Ron Motley and Turner Branch, charges that cigarette makers manipulated nicotine levels in their products to deliberately create tobacco addiction and "targeted Native American teenagers through advertising campaigns."

The suit does not specify the amount of damages sought. But in a statement the plaintiffs said smoking-related health costs for Indians total at least $200 million a year. The action is separate from a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month in San Francisco by another Native American group seeking $1 billion of the $206 billion settlement reached earlier between 46 states and cigarette makers.

That group, the Native American Council for Tobacco Litigation, said Indians' civil rights had been violated because they were excluded from the settlement.

The New Mexico attorneys said this latest suit was an attempt by Indians to collect their own damages from tobacco firms, not a share of a larger pie.

It specifically requests restitution from the tobacco industry for Indians who received treatment through Indian Health Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and at hospitals run by the tribes.

The 34 plaintiffs include tribes, or nations, from the Sioux, Pueblo, Choctaw, Pawnee, Chippewa, Chickasaw and Seminole Indians. Hale said the number of plaintiff tribes could grow to over 100.

"We've talked to other Native American leaderships and they support this litigation fully," Hale said.

Named defendants include American Tobacco Company Inc., American Brands Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., BAT Industries P.L.C., Philip Morris Inc., Liggett Group Inc., Lorillard Tobacco Company Inc., Santa Fe National Tobacco Company Inc., United States Tobacco Co., UST Inc., Hill & Knowlton Inc., The Council for Tobacco Research USA Inc., and the Tobacco Institute Inc.

Indian Leaders Sue Tobacco Industry for Allegedly Targeting Teens

AP
16-JUN-99

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- With a poster-sized drawing of a laughing Joe Camel in an Indian headdress as the backdrop, tribal leaders announced Wednesday they had filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the nation's biggest tobacco companies.

Thirty-four tribes with 450,000 members filed the lawsuit in state court in Santa Fe against Big Tobacco, mirroring the cases filed by states and foreign governments.

The Indians seek billions of dollars in damages as compensation for health care costs and for anti-smoking education programs. The tribes, which use tobacco for ceremonies, accuse the companies of manipulating the nicotine levels in cigarettes to lead to addiction.

The lawsuit also contends the tobacco industry directs advertising at Indian youths. Harold Salway, president of the Ogalala Sioux, said he was insulted by one such ad, the one with Joe Camel wearing a traditional headdress. "The headdress symbolizes leadership," Salway said. "I'm sure the Presidential seal of the United States would not be utilized to market a devastating material like tobacco." Philip Morris attorney Michael York said it is absurd to suggest Indians are persuaded to smoke by advertisements.

"The allegation is illogical on its face because the plaintiffs would literally have to bring a Native American witness into court who said he or she decided to smoke because of something the tobacco companies said in an advertisement," York said.

A spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Camel cigarettes, did not return messages for comment. Another company named in the lawsuit, the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., makers of American Spirit cigarettes, declined to comment.

The nation's Indian tribes were not included in a settlement between the tobacco industry and 46 states in November. In that settlement, the tobacco industry agreed to pay a total of $206 billion to 46 states that sued to recover Medicaid costs for smoking-related illnesses. Nearly 40 percent of Indians smoke, according to the Surgeon General. That compares to nearly 27 percent of blacks and whites, 19 percent of Hispanics and 15 percent of Asian-Americans.

Ameriresource Technologies, Inc. Establishes Residential Construction Subsidiary

PRNewswire
16-JUN-99

LENEXA, Kan., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- AmeriResource Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ARET), announced this morning that the company has organized and incorporated "First Plains Construction Corporation" for the primary purpose of producing residential housing for both on and off reservations Native American home buyers. First Plains Construction will team with ARETs' lending subsidiary, First Americans Mortgage Corporation to deliver a full turnkey approach to Native American housing.

Delmar Janovec, Chief Executive Officer commented, "The creation of First Plains Construction Corporation will allow ARET to concentrate its construction experience and near-term efforts in the area of residential housing. The company will utilize a state of the art 'Structural Insulated Panels (SIP)' as their cornerstone product." Janovec continued by saying "the company has identified SIP manufacturers and other building component suppliers who are committed to constructing affordable, energy efficient housing in Indian Country while assisting First Plains in achieving their objective of becoming this country's top developer of Native American housing." Dustan R. Shepherd, President, First Americans Mortgage Corporation commented, "With the recent successful trips to New Mexico and the Dakotas management felt that the time had come to begin focusing a substantial portion of our time and resources toward developing an all inclusive program for Native American home buyers," Shepherd continued, "the concept is not new to non-Native American communities. Companies like Pulte Homes, Kaufman & Broad Homes and Clayton Homes "have carved out the niche market of coupling financing and construction in those communities. FAMC will utilize their coalition of lending partners, PMI Mortgage Insurance, FT Mortgage Companies , Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac and George K. Baum & Company coupled with FAMC's web site ( www.nativeamericanlender.com ) to launch an aggressive strategy in order to dominate this wide-open market."

The release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties, including without limitations, continued acceptance of the company's products and services, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, The Company's dependency on financing third party supplies and intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the company's federal filings, annual reports, offering memorandums or prospectus.