articles-july 16

Temporary rail blockade only the beginning: First Nation
WebPosted Jul 15 2004 02:55 PM PDT PRINCE GEORGE -
Some people from the Seton Lake First Nation say their temporary rail blockade Thursday was only the beginning of their fight for justice.   
 
It came one day after the $1 billion sale of B.C. Rail to Canadian National was finalized.  
 
Members of the Seton Lake Indian Band stopped one freight train south of Lillooet before lifting their blockade. full article

Native Americans feel racist sting

By SARA KINCAIDSun Staff Reporter07/16/2004

Catherine Williams speaks three languages and is college-educated. But when she walks into a store, the store clerk does not always see the multi-lingual, well-educated woman. They see a Native American.

She is sometimes followed around by a wary store clerk, she said. "I was at the Goodwill by the Safeway Shopping Plaza looking for a spatula," she said. "The store clerk followed us around."

To see if maybe it was her imagination, she and her two other relatives kept an eye on the clerk as they browsed other areas of the store. It wasn't their imagination. It was as if the clerk was part of their shadow. full article 

Religious groups clash over Bear Butte

State park managers work to keep access for all groups, including 17 tribes.By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer PIERRE --

The religious freedom that the U.S. Supreme Court extended to American Indians in 1978 to practice traditional tribal religions at Bear Butte is now clashing with the same freedom granted to members of other religions.Relations between state officials and leaders of the 17 tribes that hold Bear Butte sacred have improved greatly in the past five years, but problems remain among various religious groups, state Game, Fish & Parks Department managers and one practitioner of traditional tribal religion told the state Legislature's State-Tribal Relations Committee Thursday.

"Some of these New Agers, they're really far out in doing their ceremonies. Sometimes, it's a direct insult to what I practice every day for our rituals," Sonny Richards, an American Indian from Rapid City who regularly goes to Bear Butte to perform religious ceremonies, said. full article 

Tribe marks raid with unity ceremony

CHARLESTOWN -

Healing, unity, perseverance, and the struggle for sovereignty.Those were the central themes on Wednesday, during an all-day ceremony held on tribal lands, as the Narragansett Indian Tribe marked the first anniversary of the now-infamous smoke shop raid.  

The remembrance began at the site of the tribe's tax-free smoke shop, a trailer located in a small dirt lot off Route 2.It was there on Monday, July 14, 2003, that more than 30 Rhode Island State Troopers, under order from Gov. Don Carcieri, entered the property - on sovereign tribal land - and confronted smoke shop customers and tribal members two days after the shop had opened for business.

It has been closed ever since, but now serves as the tribe's sovereignty headquarters.   A year ago, television cameras captured the disturbing images of troopers and their dogs confronting tribal members who resisted the execution of a search warrant on the property. Several people were injured.  full article

Tribes quit long fight over Kennewick Man's remains

The case appears to be over and the stage set for scientific study, barring a federal appeal to the Supreme Court Friday,

July 16, 2004 RICHARD L. HILL

The convoluted legal fight for Kennewick Man's bones -- the remains found along the Columbia River almost eight years ago that make up one of the oldest, most complete skeletons found in North America -- is likely over.

Four Northwest tribes seeking to bury the 9,300-year-old bones indicate they will not take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing in lower federal courts to scientists who want to study the remains. The bones now await a formal study plan by the scientists. full article 

WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS TO MEET IN GENEVA IN LARGEST ANNUAL EVENT

Over 1,000 representatives of indigenous peoples and communities from around the world will join Government delegates, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies in Geneva from 19 to 23 July for the largest international meeting on indigenous peoples’ rights.

The gathering, the annual session of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, gives indigenous communities an opportunity to increase international awareness of the state of their human rights and allows participants to discuss solutions to existing problems, including the setting of standards on specific issues like land or cultural rights full article

Court Orders Restoration of Trinity River Flows

A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes By DAN BACHER

In a landmark decision greeted with jubilation by representatives of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the release of flows proscribed under the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) of December 2000.

"Nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the ROD, including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River," the Court ruled on Tuesday, July 13. "We're just elated," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. "Hoopa is a very happy town. The timing of the decision surprised us, since we were told the decision could go either way." Marshall said the decision would compel the federal Bureau of Reclamation to release 47 percent of river flows for fish and 53 percent for agriculture and power.

Prior to the ROD, up to 90 percent of the river had been diverted to agriculture and power users, resulting in dramatic declines in salmon and steelhead populations. full article

All Together Now

by Barbara Ehrenreich 

Their faces long with disapproval, the anchors announced that the reason for the war had finally been uncovered by the Senate Intelligence Committee, and it was "groupthink," not to mention "collective groupthink."

It sounds so kinky and un-American, like something that might go on in a North Korean stadium or in one of those sex clubs that Jack Ryan, the former Illinois Senate candidate, is accused of dragging his wife to. But supposedly intelligent, morally upstanding people had been indulging in it right in Langley, Va.

This is a surprise? Groupthink has become as American as apple pie and prisoner abuse; in fact, it's hard to find any thinking these days that doesn't qualify for the prefix "group." Our standardized-test-driven schools reward the right answer, not the unsettling question. Our corporate culture prides itself on individualism, but it's the "team player" with the fixed smile who gets to be employee of the month. In our political culture, the most crushing rebuke is to call someone "out of step with the American people." Zip your lips, is the universal message, and get with the program. full article  

Bush's tip top flip flops
Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it.

Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it.

Bush is against a WMD investigation; then he's for it.

Bush is against nation building; then he's for it. (Even before 9/11 it was part of his foreign policy, PNAC. So drop the "everything changed after 9/11" malarky.)

Bush said he'll provide money for first responders (emergency services); then he doesn't.

Bush is against deficits; then he's for them.

Bush is for free trade; then he's for tariffs on steel; then he's against them again.

Bush said he'll reduce Greenhouse gases; then doesn't do it.

Bush is for a patient's bill of rights then; then he fights against it.

Bush say that "help is on the way" to the military; then he cuts benefits. Bush talks about helping education; then he cuts funding.

Bush says the U.S. won't negotiate with North Korea; then he says we will.

Bush campaigns at racist Bob Jones University; then says he shouldn't have.

Bush says he will demand a U.N. Security Council vote on whether to sanction military action against Iraq; then he announces he won't call for a vote.

Bush says the "mission accomplished" banner was put up by the Navy; then he admits it was his advance team.

Bush is for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the US; then he's against it.

Bush is for a state's right to decide on gay marriage; then he's for amending the constitution to prevent it. (Cheney, whose daughter is a lesbian, shared this flippety-flop big time. "Gee thanks, dad." "Don't fret, hon, daddy's only playing up to the rubes!") full article