Link to “Proposed Kohler golf course laden with Native American artifacts” from The Political Environment here.
One of Governor Walker’s big donors, Herbert Kohler Jr., is seeking DNR approval for a world-class golf course on the shoreline dunes and wetlands between Lake Michigan and the Black River. The amount of artifacts found qualify the site for the National Register of Historic Places.
Download complaint in United States v. City of Española, 16-cv-00391 (D. N.M.) here.
The DOJ is using its authority as trustee under the Indian Right-of-Way Act to sue the City of Española over expired easements for water and sewer systems. Much of the City is on the Pueblo and both the City and the Pueblo rely on the infrastructure the City provides, but the grants expired in 1994 and 2002. The federal government claims the City is trespassing and seeks monetary damages and ejection if the City cannot negotiate settlement.
Link to editorials here.
Link to CBC radio segment and article by Shelagh Rogers here.
Here is “Elem Pomo File Federal Suit Against Banishment.”
Here is the complaint in John et. al. v. Garcia et. al., 16-cv-02368 (N.D. Cali.)
An excerpt:
At this time it is unclear who will be defending the federal suit, Boland said. Last week, the Elem Colony Executive Committee’s longtime general counsel, Tony Cohen, publicly stated that he withdrew his representation in a blog post.
He said that in his 35 years practicing Indian law, “I have always worked to improve the lives of tribal members and have never helped tribal governments to be oppressors.”
As usual, Alexie was an incredible speaker. He had the audience of thousands at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, WA laughing and crying and then signed books until past 11 pm. More about the Library’s program is here.
As tweeted by Native News Online with link to article:
— NativeNewsOnline (@Native_NewsNet) May 1, 2016
Excerpt:
The City’s contract provisions expressly state the company renting land from the City at the airport shall “not enter into any written agreement with the Tribes” without the City’s approval. Further, the agreement provides if the City’s tenant receives communications from the Tribes, the tenant must “immediately provide” the City “with a copy of any written correspondence or material” received from the Tribes.
Link to “The Quiet American” by Franklin Foer on Slate here.
Paul Manafort is a lobbyist and consultant who has advised Republican presidential nominees going back to Gerald Ford.
Excerpt:
Manafort and Stone pioneered a new style of firm, what K Street would come to call a double-breasted operation. One wing of the shop managed campaigns, electing a generation of Republicans, from Phil Gramm to Arlen Spector. The other wing lobbied the officials they helped to victory on behalf of its corporate clients. Over the course of their early years, they amassed a raft of blue-chip benefactors, including Salomon Brothers and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Another early client was Donald J. Trump. What Trump wanted was help fending off potential rivals to his Atlantic City casino business. He especially feared the rise of Indian gaming. As the 2016 campaign has graphically illustrated, Trump doesn’t treat rivals gently. Testifying before a congressional committee in 1993, he began with his rote protestations of friendship. “Nobody likes Indians as much as Donald Trump.” He then proceeded to worry that the tribes would prove unable to fend off gangsters. “There is no way Indians are going to protect themselves from the mob … It will be the biggest scandal ever, the biggest since Al Capone … An Indian chief is going to tell Joey Killer to please get off his reservation? It’s unbelievable to me.”
Trump poured money into a shell group called the New York Institute for Law and Society. The group existed solely to publish ads smearing his potential Indian competition. Under dark photos of needles and other junkie paraphernalia, the group asserted, “The St. Regis Mohawk Indian record of criminal activity is well documented.” (It wasn’t.) “Are these the new neighbors we want?” We know that Trump and Stone were behind the New York Institute because Gov. George Pataki investigated its doings. He slapped Trump and Stone with a $250,000 fine and required them to publicly apologize for running the ads.
Manafort didn’t own the Trump account at the firm. But one of his former partners told me that he would dispense advice and pitch in, winning Trump’s trust.
Previous article about Trump’s Foreign Policy Advisor, Joseph Schmitz, here.
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