articles-august 25

Thorpe, the great: What he achieved at 1912 Olympics still astounds today
Eddie Chuculate

"Thanks, King."

Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Olympics after King Gustav V of Sweden declared him the greatest athlete in the world

As the champion of the decathlon is crowned today at the Athens Olympics, it's time to reflect upon the winner of that multidiscipline event at the 1912 Stockholm Games: Jim Thorpe, the Sac-and-Fox Indian from Oklahoma.

There'll never be another athlete like him. Sure, a few guys have played a couple of pro sports, but Thorpe won Olympic golds in both the pentathlon and decathlon, was an NCAA All-American at halfback, played major league baseball and pro football, and probably would have made an outstanding grappler. His manager with the New York baseball Giants, John McGraw, created a clubhouse rule to protect the other players from injury: "No wrestling with the Indian."

He accomplished all this, apparently, without much practice. According to a Sporting News article, Thorpe sat in silence as other U.S. athletes trained on a makeshift track while aboard an ocean liner bound for the games in Sweden.

Review team raps U. of I. on Illiniwek issue
August 25, 2004

BY JIM PAUL ASSOCIATED PRESS
URBANA, Ill.-- A three-member team from the association that accredits the University of Illinois chastised the school Wednesday for failing to resolve the controversy surrounding its use of Chief Illiniwek as the symbol and mascot for athletic teams on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

However, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools did not sanction the campus. Another team will visit the campus in the 2006-2007 academic year to see whether progress has been made, the report said. full article

Management of ancient sites turned over to Utah state parks

By: PAUL FOY - Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY -- When an influential lobbyist got a retired congressman to push for funding to buy a private Utah ranch, they expected the land to be thrown open for public hunting and recreation.
But since the discovery that the land was filled with the ruins of an ancient civilization, the plan to open the ranch to unrestricted public access has taken a turn.

State officials confirmed Tuesday that Utah's park agency is taking over management of Range Creek canyon, grabbing control from a pro-hunting wildlife division of the same department.

The switch appears designed to satisfy archaeologists worried about looting in a canyon largely untouched since Native Americans left stone pit houses, granaries and rock art there more than 800 years ago full article

Report explains Bonneville's desperate water appeal

Posted: August 24, 2004 - 11:29am EST
by: Jean Johnson / Correspondent / Indian Country Today
PORTLAND, Ore. - What part of ‘no’ doesn’t the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) understand? Maybe the same part of the answer that every other interest group contending for the American West’s scarce supply of water hears. ‘No’ for the other guy, but surely not for us. No for the Columbia River tribes and the salmon, for not for the BPA. The for-profit federal agency as more money at stake. And more power.
Power is what drives the BPA - the lowest possible rates for the power it markets to the region’s public utilities.

That’s why BPA wanted to significantly reduce the amount of Columbia River water it spills over its dams this August. Water critical for getting young salmon out to sea. Water critical for supporting the recovery of the basin’s salmon runs. Water the BPA wanted to use to generate power. Water that would purportedly allow the agency to reduce users rates by 10 cents day. The state of Oregon joined the Columbia River tribes and environmental groups in opposing the BPA’s proposal, and in late July, District Court Judge James Redden of Portland ruled against the BPA. full article

Documentary explores experiences of urban Indians
By MELANIE DABOVICH, Associated Press Writer August 24, 2004

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Helen Waukazoo was scared to get on the elevator at her new home, a hotel in San Francisco. She had no idea where the large metal contraption was going to take her.
Coming from the Navajo reservation near Crownpoint, the young woman had never seen an elevator, much less a hotel or even a big city.

Living away from her family, rural homeland and traditional Navajo culture, Waukazoo had to survive in a frightening, foreign new world.

Now, Waukazoo provides support to fellow American Indians as executive director of San Francisco's American Indian Friendship House. But she can never forget the traumatic experience of being forcibly removed from her family at age 13, sent to a government boarding school and relocated in the 1960s to the Bay Area to work.

Waukazoo's experiences and those of other Indians living in urban areas are the focus of "Looking Toward Home," a 90-minute documentary exploring the history of relocation and issues affecting urban Indians. full article

Bolivia Heats Up Once Again
A "Communal Justice" Killing and the Imprisonment of a Landless Movement Activist Shake the Country

By Pablo Francischelli
2004 Narco News Authentic Journalism Scholar

August 24, 2004

La Paz, BOLIVIA: An unusual murder, a clash of cultures, and an upheaval in the social movements mark a new socio-political moment in Bolivia. On June 14, Benjamín Altamirano, mayor of the small town of Ayo Ayo, was kidnapped, tortured, assassinated, and burned. His body was then displayed in a public plaza. The town’s entire population, most of them ethnic Aymaras, took part in the act, which was explained as part of the tradition of communal justice. Since these events took place, several leaders of local social movements have been imprisoned, despite the lack of any concrete evidence against them. Among the most prominent of these detained leaders is Gabriel Pinto, regional head of the Bolivian Landless Movement (MST in its Spanish initials). Pinto’s August 12 imprisonment has the potential to set off a series of acts of resistance by social movements across the country. full article

The Death Squads of Colombia
Uribe's Boys

By PHILLIP CRYAN

"The judgment of History will recognize the goodness and nobility of our Cause."[i]

--Salvatore Mancuso, military commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)

Salvatore Mancuso delivered these triumphant words in a July 28 address to the Colombian Congress. He and two other commanders of the AUC flew to Bogotá in a Colombian Armed Forces plane, as part of their negotiations with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Vélez's administration. The AUC is a right-wing paramilitary federation responsible for murdering tens of thousands and terrorizing millions of Colombian civilians, often using unspeakably gruesome means, and working together with Colombia's armed forces.

The latest AUC proposal turned out to be pretty straightforward: not only should the government pardon their crimes, Mancuso argued, but the whole society should celebrate their heroism. "The reward for our sacrifice for our country, for having freed half the country from the guerrillas and having prevented another Cuba or the old Nicaragua establishing itself on the nation's soil, cannot be to send us to prison."

A human rights defender named Dilia Solano was dragged from the Congress shouting, "The victims' blood cries out. Peace can't come at the cost of impunity!"[ii] Solano had been seated next to the daughter of the late Senator Manuel Cepeda, who was murdered by the paramilitaries. full article