News Archive: July 26, 2007 Archives

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July 26, 2007
Blackfeet Reservation man dies after severe beating
A man from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana died on Tuesday after a severe beating. Authorities are investigating the death as a possible homicide. Michael Alan Walling, 22, went out for a walk in the early morning hours of July...

Tribes protest UC-Berkeley's cut of NAGPRA unit
Five tribes announced a coalition to oppose the University of California at Berkeley's elimination of a specialized Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act unit. The Phoebe Hearst Museum created the unit in 2001 to comply with NAGPRA. But the...

Meth and gangs on the rise in Indian Country
Methamphetamine and gangs are on the rise in Indian Country, Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Pat Ragsdale says. When Ragsdale retired from law enforcement in 1998, he had seen two meth cases. But after working for the Cherokee Nation in...

Letter: Native Americans are victims of hate crime
"In 2001, Students and Teachers against Racism reported that American Indians and Alaska Natives experienced the worst rate of violent crime in the nation in 2000, according to a Department of Justice study. Native Americans were the victims of violence...

Jodi Rave: Sacred Hoop Journey inspires hope
"Don Coyhis can feel the electricity building, growing daily with a healing energy that will one day burst upon Native communities. For the last 19 years, Coyhis has been traveling to tribal communities and sharing a message of healing and...

Prayer planned at Bear Butte during biker rally
The Bear Butte Prayer Gathering will be held August 1-12 to call for protection of sacred Bear Butte in South Dakota. The gathering takes place during the same time as a major motorcycle rally in Sturgis. Indian activists and...

White House revised Grim's testimony on trust
Hearing MP3 Files: • Opening Statements • Panel 1 • Q&A | Q&A The White House Office of Management and Budget revised Dr. Charles Grim's testimony to eliminate references to the trust responsibility for Indian health care. Grim, the director...

BIA director faults management for jails
Management, not rank and file employees, are to blame for deficiencies in Indian Country jails, the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs said. Pat Ragsdale was in Billings, Montana, for a BIA corrections conference. He said the agency...

Fisher River Cree Nation to perform drug tests
The Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba is conducting drug tests on people running for political office. Not every candidate has agreed, however. Chief David Crate said he can't force them to take the drug tests. But Crate supports the...

Tsawwassen First Nation approves treaty
Members of the Tsawwassen First Nation voted 130-50 to approve the first urban treaty in British Columbia. The First Nation will receive $40 million, a share of the Fraser River salmon catch, about 919 acres of land and $16...

Walk in border town promotes racial tolerance
The Southwest Intertribal Voice of Cortez, Colorado, plans to hold a second annual walk on September 1 to promote racial tolerance. The group's first walk drew more than 1,000 people from the Ute, Navajo and Hopi tribes. Cortez is located...

Ferrell Secakuku, former Hopi chair, dies at 69
Ferrell Secakuku, a former chairman of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona, died on Wednesday. He was 69. Secakuku was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this month. He refused chemotherapy treatment and chose to let the disease take its course,...

Editorial: Return land to Nansemond Tribe
"It has taken years — centuries, if you want to go back to the start — but the time has come to return part of Suffolk to the Nansemond Indians who originally claimed it as their own. The history of...

County rejects Cayuga land claim settlement
The Native American Affairs Committee in Seneca County, New York, has rejected a land claim settlement with the Cayuga Nation. The committee voted 4-1 to reject two proposals, including the tribe's recent offer to drop all of its land-into-trust applications...

Teacher in Onondaga school abuse case on trial
A New York man accused of sexually molesting more than a dozen girls at the Onondaga Nation School is on trial. Albert Scerbo, 45, was charged with endangering the welfare of 17 female students and sexually abusing 16 of them....

IHS slow to resolve audit recommendations under Grim
The Indian Health Service has been slow to resolve deficiencies under the leadership of Dr. Charles Grim, according to a recent audit. Of more than 6,600 pending audit recommendations, 94 percent were past due for resolution, the Inspector General of...

Study cites potential for obesity epidemic
Obesity can spread among family and friends, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. Researchers tracked more than 12,000 people over 32 years. They found that a person's chances of gaining weight increase...

Panel backs White House contempt citations
The House Judiciary Committee voted 22-17 along party lines to hold two White House aides in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the U.S. Attorney scandal. The contempt citations against chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten and former...

Senate confirmation hearing for Dr. Grim of IHS
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a confirmation hearing this morning for Dr. Charles Grim to be director of the Indian Health Service. The hearing started at 9:30am and lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes. You can download audio...

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