News Archive: February 23, 2007 Archives

February 23, 2007
Editorial: Interior's lack of accountability
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has a lot of work to do if he intends, as he has stated, to bring greater accountability to the department in charge of oil, buffalo and Indians. So far, there haven't been too many promising...

Monteau joins forces with Indian law firm
Harold Monteau, a former chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, has joined a new Indian law firm. Monteau, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Montana, is joining Rosette & Associates as a named partner. The firm will...

Navajo police investigate employees' sickness
The Navajo Nation Police Department is trying to figure out why its dispatchers keep getting sick. The dispatchers have repeatedly complained of headaches and nausea. They have been moved out of their room at the police headquarters in Window Rock,...

Nebraska governor to discuss Native youth suicide
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) plans to visit the Santee Sioux Reservation and meet with tribal leaders to discuss youth suicide. The Santee Sioux Tribe has suffered a rash of suicides. Since September 2005, at least three teens have committed...

Hoopa Valley Tribe asked to stop political donations
The Hoopa Valley Tribe of California is being asked to stop making political contributions as a condition of joining a board of local governments. Mayor Virginia Bass of Eureka is concerned that the tribe's donations will influence the Humboldt...

Richardson wants Cabinet-level Indian department
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) says he will seek to create a Cabinet-level Indian department if he is elected president. "I would propose to make the cabinet secretary of Indian Affairs the Secretary of Indian Affairs; I would...

Ceremony honors Umatilla soldier killed in Iraq
An honoring ceremony was held on the Flathead Reservation in Montana for Lucas T. White, a 28-year-old member of the Umatilla Tribes of Oregon who was killed in Iraq last November. White, who left behind a wife, was killed...

Andrew Old Elk, former Crow secretary, remembered
About 800 people attended the funeral of Andrew Old Elk, the Crow Tribe's secretary who died on Sunday at the age of 62. Old Elk was remembered for the emphasis he placed on education. After graduating from Haskell in...

Kempthorne meets with tribes to discuss meth
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne met with tribal leaders in Arizona on Thursday to discuss the methamphetamine crisis in Indian Country. Representatives of 13 Arizona tribes said meth is a problem on their reservations. The Navajo Nation has linked meth to...

Editorial: Republicans turn on tribes and treaties
"Republicans are generally against the extinction, by the state, of local communities and their norms. Conservatives should want to conserve, and that should include the social institution of self-governing tribes. But inspired by the outcry against illegal immigrants and the...

Harjo: Nothing honorable about 'Chief Illiniwek'
"The Chief was a halftime performance character portrayed by a white student in red face. The barefooted chief did turns and leaps in a buckskin costume and a garish headdress of orange, red, black and white feathers. Chief performers,...

Minnesota tribes sign child welfare agreement
The state of Minnesota signed an agreement with tribes in hopes of better compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act. The agreement calls on county social workers to collaborate with tribes in Indian child welfare cases. The state and...

Ohio man cites 'conversion' to Native spirituality
A Ohio man is trying to avoid jail time by citing his "conversion" to Native American beliefs. Steve Coulter calls himself "White Buffalo" and runs a group called "The People's Nation." He says he was raised Baptist but converted to...

Elder calls attention to epidemic of suicides
Five young people have committed suicide on or near the Sandy Bay Cree First Nation in northern Saskatchewan. All the suicides were hangings. The most recent was a 15-year-old girl who was buried last weekend, CBC News reported. Elder Cornelius...

Inquiry called into Native man's police-related death
The British Columbia government has called 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 in New Brunswick, died...

Tule River Tribe seeks cross-deputization in county
The Tule River Tribe of California is getting closer to having its police officers cross-deputized in Tulare County. The tribe formed a police department last December. The tribe pays for three county sheriff's deputies to patrol the reservation. The tribe...

Indian student's wrist broken during police scuffle
An Indian high school student's wrist was broken during a scuffle with adults at a high school in Rapid City, South Dakota. The boy was taken into police custody and charged with assault last Thursday. The incident prompted a...

Coeur d'Alene Tribe to meet over field burning
Leaders of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho will meet this spring to discuss the future of field burning on the reservation. The tribe regulates field burning by tribal and non-tribal members. A spokesperson said 30,000 acres of grass and...

Pentagon cancels massive 'Divine Strake' blast
The Pentagon has dropped plans to explode more than 700 tons of explosives on Western Shoshone territory in Nevada. Tribal members sued to stop the "Divine Strake" blast, worried that the test would stir up radioactive particles at the Nevada...

Former Rep. Ney to report to prison next week
Bob Ney, the former Republican congressman convicted for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal, will start serving his 30-month prison sentence next week. Ney reports to the federal penitentiary in Morgantown, West Virginia, on March 1. It's a...

Commentary: Wampanoags helped Pilgrims survive
"As Governor of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, I am pleased to congratulate the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on their recognition as a sovereign Native American nation by the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. Nearly 400 years ago,...

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