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Wednesday, October 06, 2004

articles -october 6

Fleecing the 'monkeys'
Posted: October 05, 2004
by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - Days after the week-long celebration of the new National Museum of the American Indian, tribal members and Congressmen were fuming over revelations about a new scandal in Indian country, the doings of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associate, Michael Scanlon.

At a Sept. 29 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on $66 million in lobbying fees that the two received from several tribes, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye noted the contrast, saying that attention now turns from the museum and its promise for the Native future to ''another most unseemly manifestation of the exploitation of the American Indian.''

In e-mail exchanges that the Committee blew up on large panels in the hearing room, Abramoff and Scanlon referred to tribal clients who paid them $66 million over three years in terms of ''absolute contempt,'' said Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo. Campbell said Abramoff on one occasion sent an e-mail stating ''I have to meet with the monkeys,'' referring to his clients, the Mississippi Choctaw tribe.

On other occasions, Campbell said, the e-mails refer to tribal clients as ''morons, stupid idiots ... troglodytes, losers.'' Campbell, the only Indian in the Senate, said the words offended him personally. full article

Attorneys eye victory in trust case
By Valarie Lee/The Daily Times
Oct 6, 2004, 10:48 pm

NAGEEZI — Lawyers suing the federal government on behalf of American Indians told a crowded standing room only audience that they have “won every phase of this case.” The litigants say their trust money has been mismanaged by the U.S. government for more than 100 years.

Dennis Gingold, representing American Indian plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said he wanted to update allottees on the case.

Gingold is the lead lawyer on the case along with Native American Rights Fund. full article

Mohawk land deal in the works
Plan said to include $100 million, hundreds of acres of property

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau

ALBANY -- Mohawk tribal leaders met with Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday to complete a proposed land claim settlement important to a plan to create a casino in the Catskills.

Tribal officials declined to provide details before a news conference today on the Franklin County reservation. But sources familiar with the deal said it improves on a 2003 agreement that later collapsed after the election of a new tribal government. full article

Tribe appeals to state's high court

The Mattaponi say the construction of the King William Reservoir contradicts a 1677 land treaty.
BY MATTHEW SABO
(804) 642-1748

October 6 2004

RICHMOND -- The Mattaponi Tribe has filed an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court to review lower court rulings allowing the proposed King William Reservoir to proceed - decisions the tribe says violate its treaty rights and strip the state's waters of the statutory protection given them by the legislature.

In the petitions filed last week, the tribe asks the court to review lower court decisions the tribe says would forever bar it from asserting its treaty rights and close the doors of the state's courts to tribal members. full article

Diabetes program honored

ROSEBUD - The Rosebud Sioux Tribe's innovative promotion of health and fitness has changed lives and won national recognition.

The tribe's Diabetes Prevention Program has been awarded the Indian Health Service Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Award for Excellence. The award was presented in September to program director Connie Brushbreaker at the Healthier Indian Communities Through Partnerships and Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C.

The clinically based Rosebud program hired eight certified fitness assistants, created a facility with exercise and weight-training equipment and used incentive programs and community involvement to help young people discover a healthy lifestyle. full article

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