Indian Country Today (Oneida, NY) articles from April 2005

Indian Country Today (Oneida, NY) archives from April 2005

California congressman withdraws proposed San Pablo casino support.
April 1, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 1--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Congressman George Miller, D-Calif., seemed to regret his previous action that paved the way for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to create the first urban casino in California. Lytton...

Chumash cultural center opposed.
April 6, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 6--SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- A coalition of community groups is opposing an expansion project by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. At issue is a nearly seven-acre annexation on which the Chumash plan to build a...

EDITORIAL: At Red Lake and everywhere: Importance of the children.
April 6, 2005... Apr. 6--Everything about the Red Lake tragedy evokes thoughts of our connection to our children: how tight and intense it must be, how much in fact we must do for our children -- every day, from infancy to full adulthood -- in order to actually...

EDITORIAL: Conservative judicial activism defines high court's Oneida ruling.
April 6, 2005... Apr. 6--Judicial activism is alive and well in the U.S. Supreme Court. In a resounding 8-1 decision that underscored the severely anti-Indian property rights direction of the country, the court let it be known it would not countenance any...

Tribal chairman's son charged with conspiracy.
April 6, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 6--ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The teenaged son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. was arrested March 28 and charged the next day with conspiracy in the March 21 shooting incident at Red Lake High School. ...

Lawmakers propose gaming negotiations moratorium.
April 6, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 6--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Stemming from concerns about the possible spread of tribal casinos into urban areas, two California lawmakers have proposed a nearly three-year moratorium on gaming negotiations. ...

Observers weigh media coverage of Red Lake slayings.
April 6, 2005... Byline: George Joe Apr. 6--Before 16-year-old Jeffrey Weise gunned down nine tribal members and then himself the afternoon of March 21, Michael Barrett's privately-owned Red Lake Net News Web site (www.rlnn.com) was getting a couple...

ANALYSIS: President's voice comes late to Red Lake.
April 6, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 6--ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Ten people died in the worst school shooting since Columbine in 1999, and President Bush did not get into a condolence mode until almost a week later. His role is compared by tribal leaders...

Tribes say Forest Service's treated sewage desecrates sacred peaks.
April 6, 2005... Byline: Brenda Norrell Apr. 6--FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- American Indians announced their decision to appeal a Coconino National Forest Service decision to use treated sewage water to make snow for tourism on San Francisco Peaks. Since time...

Supreme Court rejects Oneida taxation defense.
April 6, 2005... Byline: Jim Adams Apr. 6--ONEIDA NATION HOMELAND, N.Y. -- Rejecting an expansive theory of tribal sovereignty, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8 -- 1 against the Oneida Indian Nation's attempt to assert immunity from local property taxes on...

ICWA approved.
April 6, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 6--After four years of impassioned pleas by tribal members on the State-Tribal Relations committee, legislation passed both houses requiring the involvement of tribes and families or custodians of children placed...

Northeastern debuts degree in Cherokee education.
April 13, 2005... Apr. 13--TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- Campus conversation will take on a whole "new" language as Northeastern State University debuts the Bachelor of Arts in Education in Cherokee Education. Believed to be the nation's only four-year degree offered...

Gaming commission request reduced.
April 13, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 13--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has scaled back plans to double the staff at the California Gambling Control Commission. However, he still plans to expand the staff by about half the number he...

Pine Ridge Chamber message is growth.
April 13, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 13--KYLE, S.D. -- The first woman to lead the Oglala Nation said she wants to see a $10 million pool established to assist new and future entrepreneurs on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Oglala President Cecelia...

Aftershocks from Sherrill case spreading.
April 13, 2005... Byline: Jim Adams Apr. 13--ONEIDA NATION HOMELAND, N.Y. -- Ripples of shock from the U.S. Supreme Court decision in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York are tearing at the intricate fabric of state-Indian and internal...

Lawsuit to halt Kitt Peak telescopes filed.
April 13, 2005... Byline: Brenda Norrell Apr. 13--SELLS, Ariz. -- While San Carlos Apache led decades of court battles and protests to protect their sacred Dzil Nchaa Si An (Mount Graham) from massive telescope construction, many American Indians questioned...

Senate committee debates Feinstein bill.
April 20, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 20--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The battle over a proposed urban casino near Oakland has spilled over the ultimate halls of power, about 3,000 miles east of the proposed site in the town of San Pablo. At a hearing in...

One more disease to watch closely.
April 20, 2005... Apr. 20--Most of the time in Indian country, the list of things that can get you is long indeed. If too much sugar and fatty foods don't kill you, the PCBs and the mercury upstream will; if the black mold infestation doesn't wipe out your...

Feds allocate Klamath water during drought.
April 20, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 20--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In early March, the question was how an ongoing five-year drought would affect water allocations on the Klamath River on the California-Oregon border, a river in which area tribes have...

American Indian delegation to Washington urges clean energy.
April 20, 2005... Byline: Brenda Norrell Apr. 20--WASHINGTON -- A coalition of American Indians recently lobbied Congress for clean energy and a halt to the long-held tradition of making Indian country a dumping ground for nuclear waste, disease-producing...

Cabazon disbands police and fire departments.
April 20, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 20--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In a surprising move April 8, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians dismantled its tribal public safety departments, both police and fire, to focus on its casino resort. An additional six...

Back to school at Red Lake after shooting rampage.
April 20, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 20--RED LAKE, Minn. -- Ninety students showed up for an abbreviated school day with no classes scheduled at Red Lake High School just three weeks after a fatal shooting rampage that took the lives of 10 people on...

Sherrill case sets off N.Y. land scramble.
April 20, 2005... Byline: Jim Adams Apr. 20--ONEIDA NATION HOMELAND, N.Y. -- As central New York tribes scramble to preserve their sovereignty in the aftershock of the U.S. Supreme Court's Sherrill decision, the BIA is puzzling over a major, and possibly...

New village shows progress.
April 20, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 20--WINNEBAGO, Neb. -- It is all coming together for the new Ho-Chunk Village. More than two years ago the village was just an idea, a somewhat far-fetched idea at that. But because the Winnebago Reservation,...

Pueblo protest Albuquerque Tricentennial.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Brenda Norrell Apr. 27--SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. -- Santa Ana Pueblo and other pueblo are opposing the city of Albuquerque's Tricentennial celebration and sculptures of Don Juan de Onate in the Southwest, which they say celebrate the...

EDITORIAL: An appreciation of Floyd Westerman.
April 27, 2005... Apr. 27--In San Diego recently to meet with tribal leaders at the NIGA conference, we ran into Floyd Westerman. Floyd -- Red Crow -- is the Lakota musician, actor and all-around activist who is the true eyapaha to Indian country. Indeed,...

Lawsuit Filed Over Critical Habitat.
April 27, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 27--PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that too much land was placed into federal protection for "critical habitat" for the...

Piestewa home and Tuba City veterans center get 'Extreme Makeover'.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Brenda Norrell Apr. 27--TUBA CITY, Ariz. -- Working around the clock, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" staff and volunteers built not only a new home in Flagstaff for the family of Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, but created the new...

Horse track industry gets Native money.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Jim Adams Apr. 27--UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Scandal-plagued and tattered, American horse racing is receiving a much-needed infusion of new investment from American Indian tribes. But the welcome has been mixed. While some of...

Mounting resistance kills dubious Gov. Pataki land claims bill.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Jim Adams Apr. 27--ALBANY, N.Y. -- Mohawk delegates met with negotiators for New York state Gov. George Pataki April 19 to push forward their land settlement in the aftermath of the governor's sudden withdrawal of his omnibus...

Third try for California 'Redskins' mascot bill.
April 27, 2005... Byline: James May Apr. 27--SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California Assemblyman Jackie Goldberg, D-L.A., is hoping that the third time really is a charm. Rebuffed during two previous efforts to ban the use of American Indian-themed mascots,...

Navajo president reflects on Long Walk days of suffering as memorial prepared.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Brenda Norrell Apr. 27--WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- Reflecting on the Long Walk and imprisonment at Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner, N.M., Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said the suffering of those days made Navajos what they are today....

Minority businesses find support.
April 27, 2005... Byline: Jim Adams Apr. 27--MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- Nervous minority businesses said they felt some reassurance after hearing from panels of government diversity specialists at the recent 5th National Multicultural Business Conference, held...

New York governor's strategy needs work.
April 27, 2005... Apr. 27--New York Gov. George Pataki failed his recent exams in the quest for an honorary Indian policy Ph.D. After withdrawing his settlement legislation with out-of-state tribes last week (a bad idea from the start), he is back to the drawing...

Suicide rate high in South Dakota, higher on reservations.
April 27, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 27--PIERRE, S.D. -- Cooperation between the state and tribal governments of South Dakota may finally happen because of one of the most distasteful and least talked-about problems -- suicide. South Dakota...

Si Tanka graduation scheduled at Eagle Butte.
April 27, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 27--EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. -- Seniors attending the financially beleaguered and now defunct Huron campus of Si Tanka University will graduate, but not at the campus where they attended classes. Graduation will be...

Water supply critical for Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
April 27, 2005... Byline: David Melmer Apr. 27--EAGLE BUTTE, S.D -- Water on the Cheyenne River Reservation and surrounding communities is at a critically low level, bringing tribal officials and county and community leaders together to find a solution. ...