News Archive: February 21, 2007 Archives

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February 21, 2007
New Mexico governor backs Indian health care push
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is urging the state's congressional delegation to support the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Richardson wrote a letter to the delegation on Tuesday. He said the bill would improve health care...

Land-into-trust requests fall into BIA's 'black hole'
What happens when a tribe submits a land-into-trust application to the Bureau of Indian Affairs? Tribal leaders hope it will be processed in a timely manner. But in the face of lengthy waits, many are wondering what is going on...

Navajo officers undergo training to fight meth
Navajo Nation police officers are undergoing additional training to deal with an increase in methamphetamine use and the violent crime the drug breeds. From 2005 to 2006, the number of murders on the reservation doubled, after four years of steady...

Tulalip boys basketball team heads to state finals
The Tulalip Tribes of Washington will be sending its boys basketball team to the state finals for the first time. The Tulalip Heritage School team had a record season. The boys won 20 games -- 18 of them in a...

First Nations seek inquiry into police-related death
The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs is calling for an inquiry into the death of a Native man who was dumped in an alley by police officers in Vancouver. Frank Paul, a Mi'kmaq from the Big Cove First Nation...

Opinions: 'Chief Illiniwek' going out like Custer
Mark Kiesling: "Today is Chief Illiniwek's Last Stand, and it doesn't look like he is going to come out of this any better than Custer did. The University of Illinois mascot, a student dressed in authentic regalia provided to the...

Column: The only good Indian is an honored Indian
"With each cleansing of a racial caricature from the sports scene, the pressure mounts on the 'Fighting Sioux' logo and name of the University of North Dakota, which finds itself in a small rump group of nickname offenders. At this...

Editorial: Keep safeguards for Native burial sites
"Strict protections for Native American graves have served this state well. Although it is a fair bet that the state Department of Transportation has had some thoughts to the contrary, the state's Indian graves law has enhanced respect for history,...

Tex Hall: Tribe's $100M-plus crisis calls for solutions
"I am writing in response to the wildly inaccurate and biased article by Jodi Rave about the current governmental crisis at the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Make no mistake, there are problems on our reservation, but the fault...

Pechanga Band runs ad against disenrollment story
The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians paid for a commercial on KNBC to challenge a news story about the tribe's disenrollment of an elderly couple who helped rebuild the reservation. In the ad, Chairman Marc Macarro said the state and...

Freedmen in court to halt Cherokee Nation vote
The Cherokee Freedmen are in federal court this afternoon to halt an election that would deny them citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. The Freedmen are descendants of former slaves. They are citizens of the Cherokee Nation because their ancestors...

Manhunt for two Indian inmates who fled Wyoming
Authorities are searching for two Indian inmates who escaped from a Wyoming work-release program on February 9. Shannon Parazoo, 44, is a member of an Oregon tribe. His son, Alonzo Durgin, 28, is a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe...

Sentencing hearing for Pine Ridge drug dealer
Witnesses, including a 15-year-old boy, testified at the sentencing hearing for Geraldine Blue Bird, a woman convicted of running a drug trafficking ring on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The boy said he started using cocaine at age...

Donation helps Sisseton-Wahpeton food pantry
A donation of venison helped the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe feed families on its reservation in North and South Dakota. The tribe's food pantry was running out of money and reserves. That's when Ken Harty, the director of Child Protective Service...

Former Campbell staffer still under investigation
A former chief of staff to retired Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colorado) remains under investigation, nearly three years after allegations of corruption surfaced. Ginnie Kontnik allegedly tried to steer a no-bid contract to a politically-connected firm in Colorado that was...

Column: 'Lobbyist' now a dirty word in Washington
"On Capitol Hill, there is talk of lawmakers evoking ever-more-stringent ethical standards when it comes to lobbying, and some recent suggestions border on the extreme. Proposed 'reforms' are so absurd that lawmakers may as well suggest that anyone registered under...

Sen. Johnson moved to private rehabilitation center
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) has left the hospital for a private rehabilitation center. In December, Johnson suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and underwent surgery at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was recovering in the hospital's...

Yellow Bird: Signs of spring already in the air
"This time of the year is unsettling - deep and gripping cold, then the changes to slush and sun. I can feel the earth spirits turning, moving and readjusting for a new season. Time is passing, and the elements...

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