articles-september 15

A trust issue

The Bush administration has not treated us justly when it comes to accounting for Indians' money

COMMENTARY

By Elouise Cobell

Imagine a bank that took your money on a regular basis, never gave you a statement, had no idea how much was supposed to be in your account and argued it has no responsibility to return your money to you or provide you any information about your money.

Now imagine that same financial institution destroying the documents, lying in sworn statements and in court, and routinely defying court orders.

It doesn't take a lawyer to understand federal and state regulators would be padlocking the door to that bank and walking the bank's managers off to jail. full article

Oil and gas sites need cleanup, say First Nations
WebPosted Sep 14 2004 08:56 AM PDT
VICTORIA - First Nations in the Peace River region are demanding that the B.C. government do more to clean up oil and gas drilling sites, following a study showing that wildlife are drinking from contaminated ponds.


Chief Roland Wilson of the West Moberly First Nation says the study is "hugely significant" – as it confirms complaints going back 30 years.

The study shows that many old drilling sites are contaminated with chemicals and metals. Moose, deer and other wildlife have been roaming freely those sites – using them as watering holes and salt licks, researchers say. Full article

Tribe's plight sparks fight
PARAGUAY

A group of indigenous people in the Amazon is felled, by illness and a search for help yields a great number of tensions.
BY JODI UPTON

CHAIDI SETTLEMENT, Paraguay - The last band of Indians untouched by modernity and south of the Amazon basin emerged recently from a forest, looking for help. It fell into one of the fiercest debates over indigenous people in South America.

The 17 Totobiegosode tribe members were desperate for medical help, water and an escape from the bulldozers destroying the arid forests of northwestern Paraguay where they live. And they got some of that.

CULTURE WARS

But now they are caught between Christian missionaries who can bring significant cultural changes, and indigenous-rights groups that want them to remain true to their culture even if it means skipping some of the advantages of Western civilization. full article

20,000 Indians to March at National Museum Opening

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
September 15, 2004
On Tuesday thousands of Native Americans are expected to march on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall to celebrate the opening of the new National Museum of the American Indian. (See photos of the museum.) To Jim Pepper Henry, the march will represent a homecoming of sorts.

The museum's assistant director for community services, Pepper Henry is a Kaw/Muscogee Indian. In the 1830s his forefathers were uprooted from their ancestral homes along the East Coast. They were forced to walk west on the infamous Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, where they were resettled.

On Tuesday, Pepper Henry will join the walk from the Smithsonian Castle along the Mall to the Smithsonian's newest museum—a journey that will take him from west to east. full article