News Archive: March 19, 2007 Archives

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March 19, 2007
Indian health care push heads to House
The push to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act continued last week with a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-West Virginia), the chairman of the committee, expressed anger at the failure to renew the...

Tim Giago: Venezuela steps up for Indian nations
Native American journalist Jodi Rave Lee of Lee Enterprise Newspapers was recently lambasted in a letter to the editor to our local daily for having the temerity to laud the donation of funds for heating fuel for the very poor...

Debate: Was naming Piestewa Peak the right move?
It's been four years since the state of Arizona named a peak in honor of Lori Piestewa, the Hopi woman who was killed in action in Iraq. But some people still can't get over it. Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts...

GOP lawmaker says Natives had 'limited vocabulary'
Montana Republican Rep. Ed Butcher finds himself in hot water again, this time over an e-mail in which he said Native people "had a limited vocabulary." Butcher questioned the wisdom of the state's Indian Education for All law. He...

Zuni teen headed to Poetry Out Loud competition
Fantasia Lonjose, a 17-year-old member of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico, is headed to the national Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington, D.C. Lonjose, a student at Santa Fe Indian High School, has been wowing audiences with her performances....

'Prez on the Rez' seeks all Democratic candidates
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is the only candidate to confirm attendance at the "Prez on the Rez" Democratic presidential forum that takes place August 23 on the Morongo Reservation California. Kalyn Free, the organizer of the event,...

Oglala Sioux Tribe's last election still in dispute
The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota went to the polls last November to choose a president but few are satisfied with the result. John Yellowbird Steele won the election but the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council and other...

Two teens die in accident on Washington reservation
Two teenagers died early Sunday morning after a car carrying a group of people plunged into the Elwha River on the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation in Washington. One victim was identified as Vanna Francis, a member of the Lower Elwha...

Upcoming Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has two hearings scheduled in the next two weeks. On Thursday, March 22, the committee holds an oversight hearing on Indian housing. It's the first of the 110th Congress to tackle the topic. On Thursday,...

Column: Freedmen still slaves to Cherokee Nation
"In 30 years as a journalist, I have written about many elections, always with the detachment expected of a professional. But the outcome of this one I take personally. The Cherokee Indians have voted overwhelmingly to exclude descendants of the...

Opinion: Cherokees have a right to oust Freedmen
"What has transpired at Cherokee is extremely disappointing. The majority of Freedmen are not wannabes (interlopers obsessed with Indian culture). Nor are they casino-greedy. Cherokee members do not receive gaming revenue checks each month. And though there may be a...

Letter: Power plant on sacred Navajo Nation land
"I oppose the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant near Sanostee/Burnham. Horizons are discolored, and anyone should realize this is polluted air coming from the two power plants near Farmington. A new plant will use about 4,500 acre-feet of water per...

Opinion:: Federal courts fail to protect sovereignty
"In San Manuel Band v. National Labor Relations Board decided last month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals departed from the canons of interpretation and held that the National Labor Relations Act can be imposed on tribes and their commercial...

Opinion:: All Code Talkers deserve recognition
"I am the nephew of the last living Hopi Code Talker, Travis Yaiva. On March 5, the Arizona Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 1010 urging Congress to establish a new postage stamp honoring three groups of veterans who fought bravely...

Opinion:: Cherokee Freedmen play the race card
"Today, Indian Nation leaders are having to take a hard look at who cannot and should not be a member of their nation. Under their government sovereignty they have every right to do so. Concerning the Freedman Group and...

Mark Trahant: The state of the changing news media
"Does our work provide more public context or entertainment? Is our future only on the Web? Are we engaging the broader public or serving narrowly defined audiences? I could ask 10 more question -- and "I don't know" would follow...

Yellow Bird: Remembering my aunt/mother, Pearl
"My grandmother used to say that if an elder who is ill makes it through winter to spring, they'll live to see another year. Spring is a marker of beginnings and endings of life, she said. This spring was...

Jodi Rave: Res2007 highlights tribal economies
"Welcome to Res2007, the longest-running business and trade fair in the United States, organized annually by the Mesa, Ariz.-based National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, or NCAIED. The four-day event ended Thursday. Scott Gregory, vice president of NCAIED,...

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