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CHEROKEES RE-ELECT SMITH TO THIRD TERM
On June 23, Cherokee voters re-elected Principal Chief Chad Smith to his
third consecutive term in office. Smith defeated challenger Stacy Leads,
garnering 59% of the votes to Leads' 41%.
Voters included the Freedmen, descendants of Black slaves once owned by
Cherokees who were voted out of the tribe in March. Because the Freedmen
weren't allowed to vote during the March election that ousted them from
the Nation, the BIA declined to validate the results of that election.
Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., has introduced a bill in the House that
would withdraw federal funding from the Cherokee, suspend the tribe's
authority to operate a casino, and expose the tribe to freedmen lawsuits
in nontribal court.
Tribal response was immediate and harsh.
According to Joe Garcia, President of the National Congress of American
Indians,
''This is an uncalled for response to a question of treaty
interpretation..... When Alabama or California takes an action
inconsistent with Congressional views, there is no discussion of
revoking their statehood. The attempt to revoke tribal nationhood is
equally inappropriate. Not since the Termination Era of the 1950s, when
the official policy of the federal government was complete destruction
of indigenous peoples, have we seen such a piece of legislation. NCAI
was founded to oppose termination of Indian tribes.''
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TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION SAY BORDER PATROL DESECRATING
ANCIENT BURIAL SITES
According to a news release from Reuters, Members of the Tohono O'odham
Nation have accused the US Border Patrol of uncovering and illegally
removing graves of their ancestors dating back to the 12th century. The
Border Patrol is building a
75 mile long barrier fence to curtail the amount of drug and human
traffic entering the US from Mexico.
"Human remains were discovered at 2 of the construction sites. Members
of five traditional families who say they are directly descended from
the dead, complained that their removal is a desecration of a site they
hold sacred."
"It is a place where our ancestors have slept for many, many years, and
someone just dug them out of their graves and put them in little bags in
storage," said Ofelia Rivas, a traditionalist who lives in the tiny,
cactus-ringed village of Ali Jegk, Arizona, a few feet from the Mexican
border.
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BIA DENIES ABENAKI BAND RECOGNITION
After 27 years of petitioning, the BIA has denied the St. Francis/Sokoki
Band of Missisquoi Abenaki Nation federal acknowledgement saying the
1,171 member Band failed to meet 4 of the 7 requirements for federal
status.
According to Chief April St. Francis Merrill,
''We may appeal. Recognition would be wonderful because we'd be eligible
for so much more as a people and especially for our children. But you
know what? I'm not going to disappear and our people are not going to
disappear because the federal government says we don't exist. I'm still
who I am and our people are still who they are,'' St. Francis Merrill
said.
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THREE ARRESTED IN SOUTH DAKOTA WHILE TRYING TO BLOCK ILLEGAL ALCOHOL
SALES
Oglala Tribal police in South Dakota have arrested three Native
Americans who set up a roadblock to keep alcohol out of Pine Ridge
Indian reservation.
The three warriors said they wanted to enforce a ban on alcohol on the
reservation, where alcoholism is said to be rampant.
"I'm sick of my people dying," said Duane Martin, one of the arrested
activists.
According to the AP, "four shops outside the reservation sell millions
of cans of beer a year, mostly to American Indians."
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BOLIVIA SEIZES LAND TO RETURN TO TRIBE
The Bolivian government seized 64,250 acres from a prominent politician
and said it would be returned to the Guarayo Tribe in Santa Cruz.
Vice Minister of Land Alejandro Almaraz said Branko Marinkovic, a
soybean oil magnate and outspoken opponent of President Evo Morales,
Bolivia's first Indian President, obtained the land illegally. Under a
new land reform bill, that means it can be seized.
Morales hopes to return up to 77,000 square miles -- about the size of
Nebraska -- to tribes over the next five years.
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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow
for those who do not." --Thomas Jefferson
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