Author: Adrea Korthase

Water Contamination and Fracking in Wyoming

Adrea Korthase

Tonight’s CBS Evening News included a story on fracking in Pavillion, Wyoming that can be found here.

The NPR story on the subject can be found here. An excerpt:

People in Pavillion, located on the Wind River Indian Reservation, contacted the EPA three years ago, complaining that their water smelled and tasted bad.

The agency started sampling drinking water wells in 2009 and found low levels of methane and other hydrocarbons in most of those wells. Although the levels did not exceed drinking water standards in most cases, the agency recommended that people get other sources of water for drinking and cooking, Encana, the company which drilled the wells, started providing water. The company says it provides drinking water to 21 households at a cost of about $1,500 per month.

The agency was concerned that higher concentrations of some of the chemicals might be lurking elsewhere in the aquifer.

So EPA researchers drilled two wells and found lots of chemicals, which could be tied to drilling. For example, they found levels of benzene, which is known to cause cancer and other health effects, far higher than safe drinking water standards. The presence of other chemicals — like synthetic glycols and alcohols — persuaded them that the contamination was likely coming from fracking.

Finally, a recent post about fracking can be found here.

Water Pollution Regulations Ignore Native Community Fish Consumption

Adrea Korthase

Huffington Post article is here. An excerpt:

For many communities, the consequences also go beyond just health concerns.

“Traditional families are still very active in the smokehouse. They are still fishing for their primary source of living,” says Jamie Donatuto, an environmental specialist for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, in La Conner, Wash. “Fish are not just a source of nutrients, they have cultural and spiritual meaning for these people.”

Donatuto has been working with the Swinomish tribe for more than a decade on the issue. She recently conducted a survey and found that if tribal members had access to as much safe seafood as they wanted, they would consume more than 100 times the state’s estimate.

“In the Pacific Northwest, fish consumption is a way of life. It’s an important cultural hallmark of tribal nations that live here,” adds Elaine Faustman, a professor of environmental and occupational health studies at the University of Washington.

In fact, as she points out, it’s not uncommon to find kids “teething on salmon jerky.”

Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, Accepting Submissions

Adrea Korthase

Journal announces new Publication Policy that can be found here. Currently accepting submissions on environmental law, science, and policy topics.

Navajo Nation to Offer Bonds

Adrea Korthase1 Comment

Bloomberg Businessweek article here. An excerpt

The largest American Indian tribe, the Navajo Nation, plans to issue its first bonds in a $120 million offering that would be the biggest sale of nongaming tribal debt in at least a decade. The tribe intends to use the money to create thousands of jobs and stimulate the economy on its reservation in America’s Southwest. Despite the Navajo Nation’s energy revenue, more than 37 percent of the reservation’s 170,000 residents lived below the federal poverty level in 2009. “I am concerned with the time when we won’t have revenues from our natural resources,” said Katherine Benally, head of the Navajo Nation Council’s resources and development committee, while taking a break from a council budget session in Window Rock, Ariz. “We need to be ready for that.”

and

The Navajo bonds will be sold to institutional investors in a private placement as soon as yearend and will likely include both taxable and tax-exempt debt, says Goe, the bond counsel. The Navajos intend to seek investors willing to settle disputes in tribal courts, a first for a bond issue, Goe says. Clarkson says the requirement “would be a reaffirmation of the legitimacy of tribal courts—this time from the financial market.” Yet it may also make the issue harder to sell. Lyle Fitterer, who helps oversee $26 billion of municipal bonds at Wells Capital Management in Menomonee Falls, Wis., says the tribal-court stipulation “is one more hurdle in terms of investing in a deal like this” and could lead to the Navajos paying higher rates.

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Changes Tribal Membership Criteria

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

Here is the news coverage. An excerpt:

A deeply divided Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council has voted to change the requirements to become a member of the Tribe.

In a 6 to 5 vote, the council voted to tighten the source of the Indian blood quantum requirement for members.

The Tribe’s constitution, adopted in 1986, requires that members be descended from a person on one of three lists compiled in the 19th century, or from a Tribal base role compiled in 1982, plus be at least one-quarter “Indian blood.”

The constitution does not, however, define what is meant by Indian blood.

Early version of the Tribe’s enrollment ordinance also left it largely undefined, and it was interpreted to mean descent from most North American indigenous people. The council then tightened that to define it as descent from a member of any federally recognized Tribe.

The newest version, adopted at a special session of the Tribal Council Oct. 26, specifies that only “Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan” blood counts toward the one-quarter Indian blood.

“Tribal Council finds that the current definition of ‘Indian blood’ provided in (the enrollment ordinance) is overly broad and inconsistent with the constitution,” said the resolution adopting the revised law. “The Tribal Council finds that blood inherited from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan is the only blood directly relevant to membership under the constitution of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.”

Under the old law, for example, a child born to a Saginaw Chippewa Tribal member with one-fourth Indian blood and a full-blooded member of the federally recognized Navajo Nation would qualify for membership. By most reckonings, that child would have five-eighths Indian blood quantum.

Under the new law, that child would not qualify as a Saginaw Chippewa.

Members of United Houma Nation Seek Federal Recognition with Online Petition

Adrea Korthase

From Houma Today article:

Members of the tribe have created a digital petition on the White House’s website, “We the People,” which promises to provide an official response from the Obama administration if the issue can gather enough signatures in a month.

“The goal is to get federally recognized,” said Adam Credelle, who started the petition. Credelle is a United Houma Nation member from Patterson who currently attends law school at Southern University.

The United Houma Nation’s petition must get 25,000 signatures before Dec. 1. As of Friday evening, the petition had garnered 1,972 signatures since Tuesday, when it was launched.

Here is a link directly to the petition to get a presidential response: Federally recognize the United Houma Nation.

Alaska Court Reaffirms Tribe’s Inherent Jurisdiction Over Child Support Orders

Adrea Korthase1 Comment

The first part of the article from SitNews:

The Superior Court for the State of Alaska, First Judicial District at Juneau, issued a decision with significant implications for tribal courts throughout Alaska in Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska v. State of Alaska Child Support Services Division. The Court’s order on October 25, 2011, reaffirms the Tribe’s inherent jurisdiction to handle the full range of family law issues affecting its citizens, including the particular issue of child support for the benefit of tribal children.

The Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s Press Release can be found here.

The order can be found here.

Los Coyotes Tribe Evicts Military Training Center

Adrea Korthase1 Comment

The first part of the article from Sign On San Diego:

The Los Coyotes Indian tribe can evict the military training center that has been operating on its remote North County reservation since last year, according to a ruling a federal judge issued Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge William Q. Hayes refused to grant a temporary restraining order against the tribe, which would have barred it from evicting ERTC LLC, formerly known as the Eagle Rock Training Center. The business, which caters to the military and law enforcement, insists it has a valid 25-year lease to conduct business on virtually the entire 25,000-acre North County reservation.

NNBA Supports DOJ Investigation into Killing of Ditidaht Carver

Adrea Korthase

The statement from the National Native American Bar Association can be found here. An excerpt:

The National Native American Bar Association (NNABA) condemns the killing of John T. Williams by a Seattle Police officer in August of 2010. Williams was a talented Ditidaht First Nations carver who for many years endured the significant challenges facing homeless Native people in Seattle. His killing has outraged the Tribal community and raised serious concerns about equal justice and Seattle Police Department accountability.

The following is a story about the investigation from earlier this month in the Seattle Times:

Two Seattle police officers have agreed to cooperate in the FBI’s investigation into the fatal shooting of woodcarver John T. Williams by a former officer, but only after they were subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury, according to police officials.

and

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI are investigating whether Birk violated Williams’ civil rights.

The federal review into the shooting is separate from the Justice Department’s broad civil-rights investigation of the Police Department announced in March. That federal investigation is focused on allegations related to use-of-force and biased policing.

Removal Begins on Washington’s Condit Dam

Adrea Korthase1 Comment

A portion of the article from the Seattle Times:

Yakama Nation tribal elders have called the area a “paradise,” recalling stories about tribal members fishing, hunting and gathering berries and other native plants before the dam was built. Tribal houses and drying sheds sat at the confluence with the Columbia for processing abundant salmon, steelhead and lamprey.

Removal of the dam opens up at least 33 miles of habitat for steelhead. Habitat for tule fall chinook will double.

Yakama Nation chairman Harry Smiskin likened the return of fish to the river’s upper stretches to “welcoming back a relative that has been missing for many years.”

“It is sad that the dam is coming out, but again, it is a return to something our Creator, our Mother Nature, created for us and to put it back to as close to its natural state as it can be,” he said.