Here’s a copy of the Petition filed by ENDAUM (Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining) with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to challenge the NRC’s issuance of a uranium mining license to HRI.
Author: Singel
Reality TV Show aired on BBC Presents Horribly Distorted Portrayal of Matsigenka Indians in Amazonian Peru
As reported in The Guardian (link here).
Here’s an excerpt:
A series about an Amazonian tribe that aired on the BBC has been accused of “faking” scenes and mistranslating interviews to negatively portray the tribe as “sex-obsessed, mean savages”, according to accusations made by two eminent experts.
The show, called Mark & Olly: Living with the Machigenga, was shown on BBC Knowledge in South Africa in June and July last year and by the Travel Channel in the US in 2009, and made by Paddington-based Cicada Productions.
The six-part series followed travellers Mark Anstice and Olly Steeds journeying to live in the remote Matisgenka Indian village in the Amazon rainforest over a period of several months.
However, the show has been called “staged, false, fabricated and distorted” by Dr Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist who has worked with the tribe for 25 years and speaks their language fluently, and Ron Snell, who grew up with the tribe as the son of US missionaries and also speaks their language.
Dr. Shepard published an article on the Mark & Olly show’s portrayal of the Matsigenka in Anthropology News. An extended version of his article is available on his blog, Notes From the Ethnoground, here.
Navajo Group Petitions Human Rights Commission in Effort to Halt Uranium Mining
This story was filed in May in the NYTimes (here’s the link), with televised news coverage on KRQE News (link here).
An excerpt from the NYTimes coverage:
In a last attempt to deep-six a controversial project to mine uranium near two Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico, a Navajo environmental group is taking its fight to the global stage.
Tomorrow, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, with the help of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, will submit a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arguing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant Hydro Resources Inc., a license to mine uranium ore near Churchrock and Crown Point, N.M., is a violation of international laws.
The groups contend the mines, first permitted by NRC in 1999, could contaminate drinking water for 15,000 Navajo residents in and around the two communities, which lie just outside the Navajo Nation. In 2005, the Navajo’s tribal government passed a law prohibiting uranium mining within its borders.
“By its acts and omissions that have contaminated and will continue to contaminate natural resources in the Dine communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock, the State has violated Petitioners’ human rights and breached its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man,” the petition reads.
“We’re very hopeful,” said Eric Jantz, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center who is filing the petition on behalf of ENDAUM. “I think we have very solid claims. It’s always been our client’s position that clean water is a human right.”
Journal Article Evaluates Treaty Provisions and their Import for Michigan Indian Education
From the Indigenous Policy Journal’s Winter 2010 issue (link to article here).
The article, titled “The Treaty Basis of Michigan Indian Education,” was authored by Martin Reinhardt and John Tippeconnic, III.
Here’s the abstract:
A socio-historical content analysis of 16 treaties and 3 contemporary American Indian education laws at the federal level revealed that a certain amount of the treaty obligation may yet be unfulfilled regarding tribes currently located within the State of Michigan. Both monetary and non-monetary provisions were analyzed using the United States Supreme Court’s Canons of Treaty Construction. The treaty provisions were further categorized according to certain criteria based on the trust doctrine. The outcomes of the treaty analysis were then compared to the provisions of the Indian Education Act, the Indian Self-Determination & Education Assistance Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Responsibilities of each level of government, implications for school policy and procedures, and recommendations for further study are included.
Nisqually Tribe Addresses Climate Change Impacts on Nisqually River
From the NYTimes (link to article here).
Here’s an excerpt:
For 10,000 years the Nisqually Indians have relied on chinook salmon for their very existence, but soon those roles are expected to reverse.
Based on current warming trends, climate scientists anticipate that in the next 100 years the Nisqually River will become shallower and much warmer. Annual snowpack will decline on average by half. The glacier that feeds the river, already shrunken considerably, will continue to recede.
Play the scene forward and picture a natural system run amok as retreating ice loosens rock that will clog the river, worsening flooding in winter, and a decline in snow and ice drastically diminishes the summer runoff that helps keep the river under a salmon-friendly 60 degrees.
To prepare for these and other potentially devastating changes, an unusual coalition of tribal government leaders, private partners and federal and local agencies is working to help the watershed and its inhabitants adapt. The coalition is reserving land farther in from wetlands so that when the sea rises, the marsh will have room to move as well; it is promoting hundreds of rain gardens to absorb artificially warmed runoff from paved spaces and keep it away from the river; and it is installing logjams intended to cause the river to hollow out its own bottom and create cooler pools for fish.
Settlement in Havasupai blood samples lawsuit
The New York Times reports that the Havasupai have settled their lawsuit over the misuse of tribal members’ blood samples by ASU researchers for $700,000. ASU has also agreed to return the samples and help build a high school and health clinic for the tribe.
From the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/21/us/AP-US-Havasupai-Lawsuits.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
How to Enter the Legal Academy: Pipeline Program
Occasionally we’re contacted by law students and colleagues who practice in Indian law who are interested in becoming a law professor. The process for breaking into the law teaching can be a bit mysterious for the uninitiated, but programs like the one below offer an excellent introduction. This one is held in conjunction with the Third National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, and the program’s title is How to Enter the Legal Academy: Pipeline Program. Topics include preparing your CV, what goes on at the “meet market”, interviewing, handling call backs, fellowships and visitorships, writing law review articles, developing a research agenda and advice for late bloomers. The program runs from 11 am – 3 pm on September 9, 2010 at Seton Hall, and registration is only $20.
Jury finds self-proclaimed Indian chief guilty
By Roxana Hegeman
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The self-proclaimed leader of a group that claims to be an American Indian tribe was found guilty Wednesday of defrauding immigrants by falsely telling them tribal membership would make them U.S. citizens.
Malcolm Webber was found guilty on six charges arising from the unrecognized tribe’s efforts to sell tribal memberships. The federal court jury found him not guilty on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Following the verdicts, the jury returned to court to hear arguments in the government’s efforts to seek forfeiture of proceeds from the alleged criminal acts.
Prosecutors argued that Webber, 70, of Bel Aire, marketed memberships in the Kaweah Indian Nation by telling immigrants the tribal identification documents could be used to get Social Security cards, U.S. passports, health care benefits and driver’s licenses.
Webber’s defense attorney, Kurt Kerns, argued that his client had no criminal intent and only sought to help undocumented immigrants become legal residents.
The defense called no witnesses during the trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson told jurors the Kaweah Indian Nation is Webber’s invention.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs ruled in 1984 that the Kaweah group had no historical link to American Indian tribes and that Webber — who calls himself Grand Chief Thunderbird IV — is not an Indian.
Federal prosecutors charged the tribe and 11 people last year. Charges have been dismissed against the tribe and two defendants, one remains a fugitive and seven others have pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
Robert Visnaw, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified that agents seized Kaweah enrollment rolls with the names of 13,142 people, plus an additional 2,000 to 3,000 applications that had not yet been processed.
Visnaw testified he had compared 1,000 of those memberships with ICE databases, and it appeared only 4 percent to 5 percent were lawful residents or citizens.
Aurelius Piper Sr., 92, Paugussett Tribe Chief, Is Dead
TRUMBULL, Conn. (AP) — Aurelius H. Piper Sr., hereditary chief of the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Tribe, died on Aug. 3 at the tribe’s reservation in Trumbull. He was 92.
His death was announced by tribal officials.
Mr. Piper, known as Big Eagle, was named chief in 1959 by his mother, Chieftess Rising Star, and later assumed responsibility for the tribe’s quarter-acre reservation in Trumbull.
Though small, the tribe, which has small reservations in Trumbull and Colchester, has been recognized by the State of Connecticut for more than 300 years. In 2004, however, the Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the tribe’s request for federal recognition.
In the fight to be recognized, the Paugussetts filed claims to more than 700,000 acres of land, setting off a flurry of legal challenges. The land claims, which stretched from Middletown to Wilton and from Greenwich through lower Westchester County in New York, were eventually dropped, but could have been revived if the tribe had received federal recognition.
In 1993, Mr. Piper’s son Kenneth, also known as Moonface Bear, was the central figure in a 10-week armed standoff between state police and the Colchester faction of the tribe, over the sale of untaxed cigarettes on the reservation. Kenneth Piper died in 1996.
Mr. Piper traveled the world as a representative of the Golden Hill Tribe, Native Americans and other minority groups.
He served on many boards and commissions throughout Connecticut, fighting for the rights of American Indians and other minorities. He also served as a spiritual adviser to Native Americans in prison.
Mr. Piper served in the United States military during World War II, and took part in the troop landings in North Africa, according to the tribe.
He is survived by his wife, the former Marsha Conte; five children; and several stepchildren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Washington Post Reports on the Lobbying Effort Surrounding the Sault Tribe and Bay Mills Land Claims Settlement Bills
Interests Clash as Mich. Tribes Pursue Land off Reservations
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008; Page A04
An unusual effort by several powerful congressmen to clear the way for two Indian casinos in Michigan is fueling a fierce multimillion-dollar lobbying battle of a scale not seen since the fall of Jack Abramoff.
More than a dozen lobbying firms have joined the fray on both sides, representing Indian tribes, well-connected Michigan developers and the Las Vegas-based gambling company MGM Mirage. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions have flowed to members of Congress considering bills that would allow the tribes to build casinos in populated areas away from their reservations. The bills pit senior Democrats against one another — among them three House committee chairmen, leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).
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