News – Page 189 – Turtle Talk

Former Sen. Mark Hatfield (R. Ore.) Walks On — Was a Member of the American Indian Policy Review Commission

August 8, 2011Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the WaPo article with his extended biography.

And a link to the Willamette University library (named after Sen. Hatfield) bio, which says he was a defender of Indian treaty rights. In this excerpt from Ronald Satz’ monograph on the Chippewa treaty rights fight in Wisconsin, Rep. Hatfield is quoted as labeling the backlash against treaty rights as “racism in all its ugly manifestations.” He also helped to negotiate the Umatilla Basin Project (here).

He introduced legislation to restore the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians of Oregon (here).

Finally, the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State is home to the Institute for Tribal Government.

Puget Sound Public Radio on Suquamish Same-Sex Marriage Law

August 3, 2011Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is a link to the audio and a transcript. An excerpt:

The Suquamish tribe has about a thousand members. One of them, a 28–year–old Seattle woman, pushed the tribe for years to open up marriage to same–sex couples. This week, the tribal council finally approved the change.

Now, the tribal court can issue a marriage license to two men or two women, as long as one of them is a member of the tribe.

Michelle Hansen is the tribe’s attorney. She says the new law gives gay couples the same marriage rights and benefits as others.

Hansen: “They don’t have to leave the reservation in order to get married. They don’t have to get a state, or a jurisdiction under the state type of license. They can just come here, and many tribal members would rather have those kinds of intratribal matters handled by their own government and by their own courts. So, this gives them that opportunity.”

Hansen says couples can also turn to the tribal court for divorces or some paternity issues.

The seven–member Suquamish Tribal Council unanimously approved the ordinance. The head of the council says he’s heard very little opposition, if any.

The Coquille tribe of Oregon appears to be the only one other tribe in the country with similar recognition for same–sex marriage.

Matthew Fletcher: “In general, I think it’s kind of off the radar.”

Reality TV Show aired on BBC Presents Horribly Distorted Portrayal of Matsigenka Indians in Amazonian Peru

August 3, 2011Singel

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

August 3, 2011Singel

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.”

WaPo on Same-Sex Marriage Vote at Suquamish

August 3, 2011August 3, 2011Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, via Indianz.

An excerpt:

On Monday, the Suquamish Tribal Council ratified the people’s wishes and recognized gay marriage, making it only the second tribe in the country known to do so.

The new law allows the tribal court to issue a marriage license to two unmarried people, regardless of their sex, if they’re at least 18 years old and at least one of them is enrolled in the tribe.

It will be up to other courts to decide if unions granted under the Suquamish ordinance will be recognized elsewhere in Washington, said the tribe’s attorney, Michelle Hansen.

Gay marriage is still illegal in the state, but the Legislature this year approved a measure recognizing same-sex unions from other jurisdictions, which include other nations. State lawmakers also have approved a so-called “everything but marriage” law, granting same-sex couples many rights.

“I wanted to feel accepted by my tribe,” Purser said. “I was expecting a fight to be ugly. But I was so shocked. I guess I was expecting the worst out of people. I was expecting the worst out of my people.”

Incidentally, I’m on record as saying that the only other tribe that has approved same-sex marriage is the Coquille Tribe:

The Coquille Indian Tribe on the southern Oregon coast is the only other tribe that recognizes same-sex marriage, said Matthew L.M. Fletcher, a law professor at the Michigan State University Indigenous Law Center.

If there are others, please let us know!

Suquamish Tribe Approves Same-Sex Marriage

August 2, 2011Ann Tweedy

The news article is here.

Nisqually Tribe Addresses Climate Change Impacts on Nisqually River

August 2, 2011Singel

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.

GTB and LTBB among Nine Tribes Nationally that have Substantially Complied with Sex Offender Registration Laws

July 29, 2011Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the press release. An excerpt:

The States of Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming; as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Pueblo of Isleta, Tohono O’odham Nation, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe; and the United States territory of Guam have been found by the SMART Office to have substantially implemented SORNA. Tribes that have not implemented SORNA by the deadline and can show that they will be able to do so “within a reasonable amount of time,” as determined by the Attorney General, may submit a request to the SMART Office.