Native Village
Youth and Education News
March 17, 2004, Issue 130 Volume 3
"Please do not touch the forest, because it gives us life. Please stop the bulldozers." Ayoreo Indians, Paraguay
News from Native Village,
March 2004
Native Village has been very busy during the past few months, and we'd
like to share our progress with you!
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Native Village is honored to join the
Native Web
Internet Community. Native Web is a project of many people whose vision touches
ancient teachings and modern technology. Their purpose is providing a cyber-place for Earth's indigenous peoples. Native
Web has been called "the premiere website on native peoples" and was named by the National Endowment for the
Humanities as one of their original 21 top Humanities sites on the Internet.
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The National Heritage
Foundation has taken
Native Village under its wing. The National Heritage Foundation promotes project activities that help restore,
maintain and extend national heritages in the U.S. and cooperating countries throughout the world. Native
Village's acceptance into the NHF is truly wonderful, and we thank them.
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Gina Boltz, Native Village Director, has been named one of the Top
Ten Online Educators 2004 by Surfaquarium. The award is given to educators singled out by their peers
as being an inspiration to educators both locally and across the online community. Walter McKenzie and his first-rate
Surfaquarium website are being praised by educators, universities, and educational institutions across the country.
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Mrs. Boltz has also joined the Board of Advisors for the Ready
to Learn for Infants Initiative. This project, supported and created by Mesa, AZ United Way, educates
families and friends about the importance of proper brain development for children Pre-birth-6. Ready To Learn
also offers online materials and a wonderful free video called "What We Have Always Known." The video focuses
upon Native American communities, their youth, and the wealth of learning experiences within Native cultures.
To learn more, visit: http://www.mesaunitedway.org/
Native Village Publications
Ben Nighthorse Campbell
retires
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 70, will be leaving the U.S. Senate after
"much soul-searching and reflection." After a brush with prostate cancer last year and suffering chest
pains this March, Campbell wants to "return to my ranch with my family that I love." Campbell, the
only American Indian senator in Congress, is a Northern Cheyenne tribal chief, a rancher and a distinguished artist. He
is among only eight Indians to ever serve in Congress. Colorado elected Campbell to the Senate as a Democrat in 1992 In
1995 Campbell switched parties. He won again in the 1998 election as a Republican.
IndigenousNews Digest
Judge again orders
shutdown of Interior computer systems
For the third time, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has ordered the
Interior Department to shut down most of its Internet connections to protect oil, gas, timber and grazing royalties held
in trust for the Indians. "The interest of the 300,000-plus current beneficiaries of the individual Indian
trust outweigh the potential inconvenience of those parties that would otherwise have access to Interior's Internet
services," Lamberth wrote.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/03/15/build/nation/33-interior-computers.inc
Housing awaits elders
Pokagonek Edawat means "where Pokagons live,'' and it's taking shape
as housing development in Dowagiac, MI. Spread across 40 acres, the $4,000,000 development will provide
housing for elderly members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Work on the first 17 houses began in September,
and it's expected tribal elders will begin moving in as soon as July. Each three-bedroom, two-bath home will be
about 1,300 square fee. Each will have a two-car garage, full basement, sun room and patio. The development is laid out
in a traditional village-type setting. "The homes are clustered together to increase the common spaces around
the homes,'' said Jeff Fullhart, building inspector. Including the environment also follows tribal tradition.
"We are currently growing about 18,000 plugs of native grasses and plants that will be incorporated in the
landscaping around the homes and in the common areas. The common areas will include walking paths and gathering areas
with fire pits for socializing and cultural ceremonies.'' The project is largely funded through a grant under terms of
the Native American Self Determination Act.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2004/03/14/local.20040314-sbt-MICH-C1-Housing_awaits.sto
Unique alcohol treatment
center to rise on rez
Thanks to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the Navajo Nation is now
$2,000,000 closer to its projected $8,000,000 for a Department of Behavioral Health refurbishing project. The new
project, housed in Shiprock's old IHS hospital, will include a 20-bed male unit, a 12-bed female bed unit, an 18-bed
unit for six women and their children and a 12-bed unit for patients who transition out of the facility. In addition,
women at high-risk for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can live there and receive treatment. The facility will provide kitchens
so patients can eat with their families. The new programs also includes traditional healing and medicine, an on-site
sweat lodge, and Navajo-speaking psychologists and traditional counselors. "The most important thing is this is
located within the vicinity of the Navajo Nation," Lynette Willie, information office. "Families
who want to participate no longer have to travel to Albuquerque to get treatment."
http://www.gallupindependent.com/021704uniquealcohol.html
Traditional Iroquois way
of growing works for today’s farmers
Jane Mt. Pleasant from Cornell University studies traditional Iroquois
planting and cultivation methods for the "three sisters:" beans, corn and squash. These staples of
Iroquois cropping are grown together on a single plot, known today as polyculture planting. Corn provides
protection from weeds and insects and acts as a scaffold to support twining bean plants. The beans, in turn, produce
nitrogen, essential for plant growth. Adding squash also controls weed growth. After harvest, recycling crop
residues back into the soil promotes fertility. Mt. Pleasant believes polyculture agriculture is more connected to
earth than monocultural planting, which is growing only one crop in a field, making it more vulnerable to disease and
insects. Iroquois people have always recognized their role in an ecological system, she observed. "As we
watch a lot of the ecological problems coming, like global warming and water contamination, we recognize that we have a
contract with the Earth, not domination over it," she said. This realization has fueled an upsurge in
interest in native science. "More and more young native people are … questioning conventional science" as
tribal colleges include native teachings in their curriculums, said Mt. Pleasant.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/agricultural_sciences/report-25830.html
MAPLE Syrup Festival draws
a sweet crowd
More than a 1,000 years before Europeans landed in North America, Native
American discovered that boiling down the sap from maple trees would produce a sweet, brown sugar. During a recent
festival at Malabar Farms, OH, Roger Moore explained how his people hollowed out huge logs, filled them with sap and
added heated rocks to create evaporation. The result, he said, was very filthy, sweet stuff... "the only sweet
stuff we had." He explained to visitors that honey was not available. "Bees are not native to the Americas.
They were brought here, and we called them English flies," he said. Between 50-60 gallons of maple syrup was
harvested this year at the farm. During the best years, 150 gallons are produced
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/news/stories/20040307/localnews/31316.html
Yellowstone Lures More
than 30 Buffalo into Trap with Hay
Yellowstone National Park is the only place in America continuously
occupied by native buffalo. The Yellowstone herd--which was reduced to only 23 individuals after massive slaughters--is
now the largest remaining population of genetically pure bison. In the recent months:
Last week, using a trail of hay through Yellowstone Park, rangers have
lured more than 150 buffalo into the Stephen's Creek area INSIDE Yellowstone for capture;
At Stephens Creek alone, the Park Service has captured 463 wild
buffalo in the past month.
Since November, over 165 Yellowstone buffalo have been killed.
The Park Service is now holding 154 healthy buffalo, including calves
and yearlings, which could be release back into the herd.
"Buffalo slaughter is becoming an almost daily routine in Yellowstone," said Dan Brister of the Buffalo Field
Campaign. The slaughter has prompted members of Congress to introduce the Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act
(H.R. 3446). The act would place a three-year ban on the capture and slaughter of Yellowstone buffalo, dismantle the
Stephen's Creek trap, and allow buffalo to roam public lands next to the park. It currently has 75 co-sponsors in
the House of Representatives.
National Call-In Week: Join
national efforts by calling your representative and urging them them to support the Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act
(H.R. 3446)
Find your reps at: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Check to see if your Representative has signed on http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/politico/3446.htm
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
Scientists Back Navajos
Fighting Uranium Mining
Navajos fighting a proposed uranium mine near Yucca Mountain in Nevada
have gained strong support from scientists. The area, once devastated by a radioactive spill, has been approved for a
new mine by the Nucear Regulatory Commission. The new mine could contaminate drinking water and lead to kidney failure
for 15,000 Navajos. "I've never seen such poor science, poor accountability and poor traceability,’ said Mike
Wallace, a groundwater hydrologist who has worked in the nuclear industry at the Yucca Mountain site. In 1998,
Shlomo Neuman, world-respected water hydrologist, disputed the U.S. government's environmental studies in the same
area. After the NRC issued a statement saying Neuman had changed his mind, Neuman wrote another statement saying
that he has not changed his mind and confirmed the data is flawed. "There are very suspicious things going on
here," Wallace said. ‘We don’t want that uranium mining polluting our clean water, our clean air."
Indian Country Today
Where have all the big
fish gone?
Salmon are smaller, and there are fewer females salmon in the Yukon
River. "They were around 65, 70 and 80 pounds," said Tlingit elder Pearl Keenan. "We could
hardly lift them. We don't get them anymore. There's something wrong there we have not got those big ones in quite
a while now." The Yukon's Federal Fisheries manager Gord Zealand says biologists are at a loss to explain.
"We've got good water conditions, normal summers, good rain - but at the same time the oceans are changing and
mother nature just keeps throwing new variables at us," Zealand said.
http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=11mar04salmon
bigfoot sightings
reported
Several people on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation have
reported seeing a Bigfoot-type creature in recent weeks. Paul Danks from the Three Affiliated Tribes has marked the
sightings on a map, and tribal officials have taken pictures of the tracks. No conclusive evidence has been found.
http://www.imdiversity.com/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=22638>Three<http://www.imdiversity.com/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=22638
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