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WOTANGING IKCHE- NATIVE AMERICAN NEWS
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 045
Distributed by Gary Night Owl

EDITORIAL
CONTENTS LIST
ELDER QUOTE OF THE WEEK
EDITORIAL
By: Gary Smith
 

O'siyo Brothers and Sister!

November is National American Indian Heritage Month. Expect lip service and little else. There have been five centuries of disregard that will not be overcome with a few feel-good speeches, and only the most naive will expect more.

At the turn of the 20th century, many people believed that Native Peoples would assimilate into mainstream society and disappear as unique peoples. In fact, the effort to make us copper-skinned versions of the Euro-Americans continues to this day. It is more subtle than in the days of Carlisle and Pratt or the 60s when the Eisenhower administration set about to close all reservations and vacate all existing treaties; but it continues to this day. Bush's efforts to vacate the Jay Treaty and close the northern and southern borders are but part of the effort to isolate native rights.

What each reader of this newsletter needs to do is re-energize and do all you can to help your Nations, your families, your cultural ways remain viable. Make sure your congressional representatives understand that that you oppose border restrictions on native communities in the United States, Mexico and Canada - especially if you live in someplace in the interior like Nebraska. Talk about this issue's importance to friends and family, and ask them to contact their representatives as well.

We (in each of our individual nations) have to start supporting each other. At less than 2 percent of the population, we are all we have. Our voices will mean nothing until we learn to speak with one voice.

Take pride that we have survived disastrous assimilation efforts. We have refused to "just disappear" into "the great melting pot". Instead of disappearing, we have attained legal rights that were being denied and revived our cultural ways. These are achievements we are responsible for maintaining, and where possible, expanding. We have come far, but are still well short of the cultural stability and political independence that establish us as sovereign peoples.

Stand strong and remember the next seven generations depend on you.

Dohiyi Ani Oginalii

Gary Smith (*,*) wotanging@bellsouth.net
P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org
Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w=== http://www.nanews.org
 
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CONTENTS LIST OF ARTICLES IN VOLUME 15, ISSUE 045
FOR ARTICLES GOT TO WOTANGING IKCHE-Native American News

Editorial Section: . American Indian Heritage Month
- Senator to BIA: Approve Virginia Recognition Bill
- FEMA Scolded For Phony News Conference On Fires
- Better Fire Protection Needed For Tribal Lands
- Tribes Band Together To Fill Gaps In Wildfire Aid
- Agency Won't Back Columbia River Dam Removal
- Shinnecock Nation Loses Sovereignty Bid
- BIA Recognizes Three Chief System
- Sonoran Pronghorn, Between Bombs And Border Walls
- American Indians Protest Racist Remarks On KQRS
- Military Debris Recycling on Native Lands
- Navajo Nation Vietnam Veterans to Lay Wreath
- Mohawk WTH Position on 'Corporate Borders'
- Septic Systems `Bad News' for First Nation
- Zapatismo in Spanish Harlem
- No To Plan Mexico
- Indigenous Concerned Over New Archeological Find
- Jodi Rave: Closing Remarks To Be Filed In Cobell
- Graham: Apologizing For The Indian Holocaust
- Yellow Bird: A Sad But Understandable Compromise
- Jodi Rave: Sifting Through `indian' Themes
- Martin: Mumpower's Insults Of Tribe Will Cost Him
- Patkotak: Natives Must Face Their Twin Demons
- Editorial: Outrage Over Trip To Niea Convention
- Mistaken Identity Clouds Native Rite
- Pojoaque: Fbi Probe Retaliation For Op-Ed
- Native Justice-- Native Americans 17 Percent Of Taser Incidents
- Rustywire: A High Silent Place
- Del "Abe" Jones Poem: Facts About Viet Nam
- Upcoming Events

 
FOR ARTICLES GO TO WOTANGING IKCHE-Native American News
 
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"Iraq is simply a replay of American foreign policy towards Indians of the 1780s forward. Invade them and when they resist label them terrorists." -- Vine Deloria Jr., Standing Rock Sioux

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As historian Patricia Nelson Limerick summarized in "The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West...
"Set the blood quantum at one-quarter, hold to it as a rigid definition of Indians, let intermarriage proceed as it had for centuries, and eventually Indians will be defined out of existence. When that happens, the federal government will be freed of its persistent 'Indian problem.'"

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Once a language is lost, it is gone forever. Of the 300 original Native languages in North America, only 175 exist today. * 125 of these are no longer learned by children. * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders; when they die, their language will disappear. * Without action, only 20 languages will survive the next 50 years. Source: Indigenous Language Institute

 

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CONTACT: Please send all submissions, subscription requests, questions or comments for this newsletter to Gary Night Owl at gars@nanews.org .

Website: Wotanging Ikche-Native American News
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