Here.
NYTs: “Time to Move the Standing Rock Pipeline”
Here.
News
Amended Press Release: Navajo Nation Announces Chief Prosecutor
Obama Administration Takes Action to Protect and Restore Puget Sound
Here.
The Atlantic: Why Several Native Americans Are Suing the Mormon Church
Links: Sunday’s article by Lilly Fowler, earlier post with briefs
Excerpt:
The location where the cases are litigated will prove crucial. These lawsuits have been filed in Navajo Nation District Court in Window Rock, Arizona. But the LDS Church is fighting to have the lawsuits dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, arguing the alleged abuse took place outside the reservation. The Navajo Nation allows alleged sexual-abuse victims to bring claims up to two years from the time when the harm of their abuse is discovered, accounting for the time it can take for people to realize the nature of their injuries. Other jurisdictions have stricter statutes of limitations to ensure claims are brought in a timely manner. In Utah’s civil courts, the statute of limitations for child sex abuse was recently eliminated, but only when the case is brought against the alleged perpetrator personally. The recent change in Utah law would not benefit those in the Indian Student Placement Program because the LDS Church is named as a defendant, and many, if not all, of the perpetrators are deceased. If the lawsuits were refiled in Utah, or one of many other states with a shorter statute of limitations, they would likely be dismissed.
David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests, an organization dedicated to helping victims of sexual abuse, said it often takes years for those affected by abuse to talk about it. “The more isolated and powerlessness victims … feel, the longer it takes for them to come forward,” Clohessy said. And “even if they had the smarts to understand they were being hurt, the courage to report it, given how many whites felt about Native Americans, many would find these boys and girls not particularly credible … This particular program is a predator’s dream.”
Further documents and briefs in the matter of the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, et al v. RJ et al, 16-cv-00453 (D. Utah):
Doc. 17 Second Amended Complaint for Declaratory Judgment
Doc. 19 Amended Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Doc. 25 Reply to Plaintiffs’ Response to Defendants’ Objection and Motion to Dismiss
Police Killing at Muckleshoot
Here.
The Times’ Article on Wells Fargo Targeting Per Capita Payments
Link: ‘Lions Hunting Zebras’: Ex-Wells Fargo Bankers Describe Abuses by Stacy Cowley
Excerpt:
In the Phoenix area, managers gleefully looked forward to the days when the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community made its quarterly per capita distribution payments, said Mr. Hansen, the former branch manager in Scottsdale.
Members of the Native American community would head straight to the bank with their checks, and employees would encourage them to use the money to open new accounts. Sometimes it was on the up and up: Mr. Hansen said that he looked forward to being able to open several dozen new accounts in one day but that he always tried to match customers with products that fit their needs.
Others did not. Mr. Hansen learned that one enterprising branch manager had invented “per capita day packages,” jammed with five or more bank accounts. Customers would be told that they needed separate accounts for such purposes as traveling, grocery shopping and saving for an emergency.
“They would deposit their money and get hit with fees like crazy, because they got confused about what account they were using,” Mr. Hansen said. “They would use the wrong debit card and overdraw their travel account, and then when they came back three months later, they would lose hundreds of dollars from their next check paying off those fees.”
News Profile of Nooksack Tribal Court Issues
Apparent Hate Crime Against Native Protesters in Reno, NV
Here.
Press Release: Obama Administration Exceeds Ambitious Goal to Restore 500,000 Acres of Tribal Homelands
Date: October 12, 2016 Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov
(AS-IA) Nedra Darling 202-219-4152
Administration makes good on promise to place at least one half million acres of land into trust for tribal nations, working to make tribal communities whole again
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. “Larry” Roberts today announced that the Obama Administration has exceeded its goal of placing half a million acres of tribal homelands into trust for federally recognized tribes.
“Restoring tribal homelands has been a pillar of President Obama’s commitment to support tribal self-determination and self-governance, empowering tribal leaders to build stronger, more resilient communities,” Secretary Jewell said. “The Administration broke the logjam on trust land applications in 2009 and has worked steadily, collaboratively and effectively to restore Native lands that will help strengthen tribal economies and make their nations whole again.”
The 500,000 acre goal was surpassed Friday when President Obama signed into law the bipartisan Nevada Native Nations Lands Act, which conveys more than 71,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands to the U.S. Department of the Interior to place into federal trust status for six Nevada tribes. The tribes will use their newly acquired lands to expand housing, provide economic development opportunities and promote cultural activities for and by their tribal members.
“Secretary Jewell announced early on a goal of restoring 500,000 acres to Indian Country by the end of the Obama Administration and we view this as a meaningful start to correcting the enormous loss of tribal homelands Indian Country has endured,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Roberts told tribal leaders at the opening session of the National Congress of American Indians’ 73rd Annual Convention in Phoenix, AZ earlier this week.
Roberts further said, “I want to thank the Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Mike Black for his implementation of this important policy, the Regional Directors and their staff for their hard work to make it a reality. While our fee-to-trust process remains rigorous and tribes must expend precious resources to address the Carcieri decision, tribes continue to prioritize the return of their homelands, investing their own resources to ensure a land base for future generations.”
Restoring tribal homelands has been a key part of the Obama Administration’s Indian Country priorities, representing a shift from historic federal policy that previously resulted in tribes losing millions of acres of land across the U.S. over several hundred years. Since 2009, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has processed 2,265 individual trust applications and restored more than 542,000 acres of land into trust. And in partnership with tribes and agency staff at all levels, Indian Affairs continues to process additional applications for land into trust.
As part of President Obama’s pledge to work nation-to-nation with tribal leaders to strengthen their communities and build their economies, the Administration also has overhauled antiquated leasing regulations to provide tribes greater control over their homelands and issued new regulations to allow the Interior Department to accept land into trust for federally recognized Alaska tribes, thereby advancing tribal sovereignty and closing a long-standing gap that had not extended this eligibility to Alaska Natives.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 to acquire land into trust for federally recognized tribes. Lands held in federal Indian trust status, which cannot be sold, alienated, or transferred to non-Indians or non-Natives, benefit their American Indian and Alaska Native tribal owners through federal programs for business development, housing, and environmental and cultural protection. Typical uses of trust land include governmental operations, cultural activities, agricultural/forestry activities, housing, economic development, social and community services, and health care and educational facilities.
AVCP Names First Chief Executive Officer
Link: For the first time, a woman leads this big Alaska Native organization. Her grandfather was a founder by Lisa Demer from Alaska Dispatch News
At its annual convention on Saturday, the Association of Village Council Presidents in Alaska announced Vivian Johnson Korthuis as its first Chief Executive Officer after Tribal delegates decided to reorganize AVCP’s leadership structure. The CEO replaces the President of the non-profit with firing authority vested with an executive board that now has 3-year term limits. AVCP’s last President resigned in May amid growing concern over financial accountability within the organization.
Excerpt:
AVCP is one of the region’s most significant institutions, with a $52 million budget and some 400 employees – about half in villages — running programs in areas that include Head Start, tribal welfare and public safety.
Into the top job steps Korthuis, 52. She grew up in small rural villages and became an Ivy League graduate. She has worked for AVCP for 14 years, most recently as the organization’s vice president of programs, and before that was a leader at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp.
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.