articles of interest

Shooters target pictographs
By Darren Marcy/The Daily Times
Jun 29, 2004,
DELGADITO CANYON — When Larry Baker made his last stop while leading a tour of early Navajo sites Thursday, he was excited to see the snakehead man, one of the pictographs on a wall of rock art in Delgadito Canyon.

Instead, what he found sickened him.

The site had been used as target practice with eight of 12 shots centering on the painted art on the sandstone rock wall.full article

Nelson refers Daschle concerns to authorities
June 28
By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer

South Dakota's U.S. attorney, Jim McMahon, will look into voting problems reported after the June 1 statewide election at the request of Secretary of State Chris Nelson.
Nelson forwarded a letter from Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and sent a letter of his own to McMahon last week.

"I said if there was intentional activity to violate state or federal law to prohibit Native Americans or anyone else from voting, it needs to be investigated and prosecuted," Nelson said.full article

Oglala Sioux Tribe files trust lawsuit
June 29
By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer

PIERRE - The Oglala Sioux Tribe has filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to force the U.S. Interior Department to give a full accounting of land and money it is responsible for managing for the tribe.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that the Interior Department and the U.S. Treasury Department have failed to account for land it holds in trust for the tribe and the money earned from leases and other uses of that land.

"Defendants have kept and continue to keep the Tribe, as the trust beneficiary, uninformed as to the trust property it owns, what income the trust property has produced, and what disposition has been made of the income," according to the lawsuit.full article

Gang life
Redwood Falls Gazette
June 29
There are, however, certain identifiers taken in concert with each other that could indicate a child is in a gang. A unique and disturbing trend among some Native American gangs is to identify gang affiliation by burning, cutting or even branding their bodies," Grant said. "Certain individuals have informed me that this behavior is part of proving you are a warrior in today's society."

Although this practice has primarily been seen in the Dakotas, Grant said it is making its way to other Indian Nations across the countryfull article

Machu Pichu called "endangered"Tuesday,
June 29, 2004

LIMA, Peru (AP) A century after American explorer Hiram Bingham hacked through jungle-shrouded mountains to reach the overgrown ruins of Machu Picchu, heavy tourism and nearby sprawl have endangered the "Lost City of the Incas."

That's the finding of U.N. evaluators, who recommended that the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization place Machu Picchu on its endangered list.

The recommendation by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, was confirmed Monday by Peru's National Institute of Culture.full article