native americans

I want to re-emphasize something I wrote before: my enthusiastic endorsement of Diane Benson for Congress in the August 26th primary and on to the general election. This is a repeat of a diary I wrote back in March. My support for Diane Benson has only grown since then.

I met Diane Benson, Congressional Candidate in Alaska, about a month ago and was very impressed. But I only got to hear her speak as a candidate tonight. Again I was impressed. Diane is a genuine American who has worked hard all her life to get an education and to better the life of her son. Often she and her son have worked hard for our country and for their community. She has the confidence of someone who worked their way through school driving trucks while raising her son. She has the confidence of a woman who worked in the male dominated workers camp on the Alaskan pipeline. She has the confidence of someone who has had to work for everything, being given nothing easily. The contrast with the spoiled brat who inhabits the White House is about as striking as you can get.

I have been reading two books that deal with pre-Columbian America: 1421 by Gavin Menzies and 1491 by Charles Mann. Both present controvesial but interesting theories of what happened before Columbus in the Americas. I find my self only partly convinced by each book and, in fact, think that the two theories wind up, in their extreme forms, to be mutually exclusive.

My mother was an Anthropologist and as a kid we often went to museums of all sorts. I was exposed to pre-Columbian art and archaeology, but never found it as compelling as European and Asian art and archaeology. Looking back, I felt little connection with pre-Columbian cultures. I had more connection to modern Native American culture than ancient, as if in some ways I bought the olf fallicy that Native Americans didn't really have a history of their own. I think I first awakened to the pre-Columbian cultures in graduate school when I was lucky enough to see the Treasures of Sipan exhibit at UCLA (the only US museum that got to display the exhibit...it is permanently housed in Peru). This was billed as being as spectacular as the Treasures of King Tut which I had seen and was amazed by as a kid. I scoffed at that, but still went to see it. It was just as spectacular as any ancient art and I was blown away. The Treasures of Sipan showed artifacts from a nearly untouched tomb from the Moche culture in South America. It made me appreciate just what the ancient Andean cultures were really like and was the first time I felt an affinity with a pre-Columbian culture.

The University of Alaska Anchoraage Alaska Native Oratory Society Statewide Competition or AkNOS will be held on Saturday April 12th on the UAA campus in the Social Sciences Building (SSB), room 119. Pre-event activities will be held on Friday April 11th.

AkNOS is open to all Native and Non-Native college and High School students who are registered at least part-time. Eligible students can participate in one or more of four speaking categories: Oratory, Declamation, Storytelling, & Native Languages. These four categories award prizes to the top three contestants in each category. This year we're also happy to include for the third year a new category, Traditional Introductions. This category is a People's Choice award category. We've included it to encourage students to learn how to formally introduce themselves in the style of their communities and regions.

To register for the AkNOS Statewide Competition click here and fill out the online form.

Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse Neglect

Type of Event: Conference
Hosted By: NICWA
Event Dates: 4/20/2008 - 4/23/2008
Event Location: Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Isla Dane
Contact Phone:503-222-4044
Website: http://www.nicwa.org/conference/

Course Description:This year’s conference will focus on the future of Indian child welfare and how each of us—tribal leaders, ICW workers, and other stakeholders—share the important responsibility in continuing this work. Workshops and presentations will feature innovative strategies to effectively meet the needs of our children and families through strong, collaborative partnerships.

How to Register: http://www.nicwa.org/conference/

Annual Native Amercian Education Summit

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: J. Dalton Institute
Event Dates: 4/24/2008 - 4/26/2008
Event Location: Albuquerque, NM
Contact: J. Dalton Institute
Email: jdalton98@aol.com
Contact Phone:1-888-886-0664
Contact Fax:920-338-8683
Website: http://www.jdaltoninstitute.com

Course Description:Six Essential Strategies for an Effective Prevention Model, Community Resource Assessment, Critical Elements of Effective Prevention and Community Readiness, Ethics, Professional Networking

How to Register: http://www.jdaltoninstitute.com/registration.html

2008 Annual Tribal Self-Governance

Type of Event: Conference
Hosted By: Department of Health and Human Services
Event Dates: 4/27/2008 - 5/1/2008
Event Location: Las Vegas, NV
Website: http://www.tribalselfgov.org/2008_subpages/Conference2008.asp

Course Description:20 Years of Tribal Self-Governance: Celebrating Excellenece

How to Register: http://www.tribalselfgov.org/2008_subpages/Conference2008.asp

Tribal-State Comparative Law

Type of Event: Training
Hosted By: Tribal Judicial Institute
Event Dates: 5/1/2008 - 5/1/2008
Event Location: Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Melissa Johnson
Email: mjohnson@law.und.edu
Contact Phone:701-777-6306
Contact Fax:701-777-0178
Website: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial

Course Description:Many Tribal Justice Systems can benefit from the examination of how States resolve disputes. Tribal-State forums are important tools to achieve this result. The partners are actively involved in such forums in the Dakotas, Minnesota and New York and will bring these experiences to bear in this one session.

How to Register: Visit the Tribal Judicial Institute website to download a registration form at: http://www.law.und.edu/npilc/judicial/downloads.php

Awhile back I chastised all the Democratic candidates other than Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel for ignoring the Native American vote, a vote that can be critical in the West and even has proven critical in states like Pennsylvania, where efforts by Native American groups helped flip the State legislature from Repub to Dem.

Seems Barack Obama has done a lot to make up for past neglect. The Native American Times, impressed with outreach from his campaign, has endorsed Barack Obama for President:

US Senator Barack Obama is the choice of the Native American Times to become the next president of the United States. This choice made before the all important super Tuesday election to get as many Native Americans to the polls as possible to push Obama to victory. This is not an anti-Hillary vote but a decision based on what is best for Native Americans...

Obama has started to aggressively reach out to Native Americans in word and deed. In his words he has put together a policy which truly addresses Native problems. In his deeds he has actually gone to Indian reservations to seek our votes. He is also the co-sponsor of the all important Indian Health Care Improvement Act. And he continues to seek the Native vote...

Today is a big push to try and save Pretty Bird Woman House, a women's shelter on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. I have brought up the Pretty Bird Woman House Woman's Shelter before when I discussed the horrific Amnesty International report on the high incidence of rapes of Native American women by outsiders who seldom get procecuted. This shelter's sad story has continued. It was vandalized and is not being sold off. This will leave many women on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation with no support system. On Daily Kos a fundraiser is ongoing to raise enough money to buy the property and set it up to be a safe and secure women's shelter again.

I am asking you to help out. I donated $100. Some are donating as much as $500. This is pure, old fashioned good works in keeping with the holiday season.

Bottom line is, this shelter has in essence been shut down by lack of funds and vandalism. But the netroots are on the verge of saving it by helping buy it outright. The shelter has been recently awarded a Federal grant which can keep it going...but only if it has a place and it won't have a place if we don't help them buy the property.

Here is the background and scoop sent to me by a fellow blogger working on this:

About Pretty Bird Woman House

The shelter was founded in memory of Ivy Archambault, whose Lakota name translates to Pretty Bird Woman. In 2001, Pretty Bird Woman was kidnapped, raped and beaten to death. Her sister, Jackie Brown Otter, decided that something had to be done for other victims, to put an end to this nightmare.

Today is the very first time candidates from the major parties are in Indian Country to present themselves to Native Americans. Sadly, only three Democratic Candiadtes are attending. Bravo to Governor Bill Richardson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and Senator Mike Gravel for recognizing the worth of Native Amercans.

From the Indigenous Democratic Network (INDN):

Watch the historic Prez on the Rez forum presidential forum today via internet at www.prezontherez.org at 3:30pm Pacific time (5:30pm Central).

We are making history with the Prez on the Rez forum with these dedicated candidates -- Governor Bill Richardson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and Senator Mike Gravel. This is the first time presidential candidates will assemble on Indian land to lay out their visions for the future of Indian Country.

Mark Trahant, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the editor of the editorial page at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, will moderate the discussion between the candidates and tribal leaders.

Join the proceedings online by watching the forum at www.prezontherez.org. The next President of the United States will realize tribes are a critical voting block and the opportunities and challenges in Indian Country deserve visionary leadership and dialogue with American Indian tribal citizens.

Recently, I wrote about how Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Barack Obama all participated in a Democracy for America (DFA) Q and A session where members ask the candidates questions and the candidates produce a You Tube video in response that is distributed to DFA members. This is, in essence, practically free advertising and a great chance to get your message out to a particularly active group of likely voters. I though Richardson, Edwards and Obama all did well, and if you go to my diary, I have the videos there for you to watch.

Hillary Clinton did not participate. I though this was both stupid and rude of her, particularly given the strong role DFA played in the 2006 elections. Some readers disagreed, suggesting she had no reason to participate. Well, before I cover the LATEST stupid and rude blow off by Clinton, I want to explain why her actions were stupid.

DFA boasts of a membership of well over half a million members. It is safe to say that most of these members are likely voters and, though some may be registered Green, or Working Families Party or Independent, most are Democrats. Of that half a million, about 50,000 are particularly active, organizing or participating in events, doing the footwork for candidates, and donating money...$2.6 million donated to candidates by the end of 2006. DFA's local affiliates cover 98% of America's Congressional districts. THIS is what Hillary Clinton chose to blow off.

In 2006, the Indigneous Democratic Network, set up by Kalyn Free of the Choctaw Nation, helped elect an unprecedented number of Native Americans across America. They continue to strengthen the voice of Native Americans in politics. They are working to set up forums for the Presidential Candidates on Reservations (called Prez on the Rez). Bill Richardson is the first candidate to commit to participte in these forums and the idea is supported by Howard Dean, head of the DNC. The first such forum is being planned for the Morongo Reservation in California.

We are excited to announce that we have selected the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Cabazon, California to host Prez on the Rez on August 23, 2007.

“No major presidential campaign event has ever come to Indian Country,” said Morongo Tribal Chairman Robert Martin. “This represents a historic opportunity for this country's First Americans to take a direct role in the future of America by holding a national level forum for presidential candidates. We couldn't be more proud to make history for Indian Country by hosting this extraordinary event.”

The announcement, and the official launch of Prez on the Rez, was held in conjunction with the winter executive meeting of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, DC. In a speech at that meeting, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico became the first presidential candidate to commit to Prez on the Rez.

Every year I write a special note regarding Thanksgiving. I think it is always good to examine our national myths as well as our national realities. And, as I indicated during my recent comments on Columbus Day, my thoughts regarding America's foundation myths have been recently affected both by my realization that my own family never would have survived had America not existed as a haven, and by the realization, reading about King Leopold II of Belgium's genocidal regime in the Congo, that the effects of colonialism on the natives of a nation for centuries after that colonial regime ends. But this year I have more hopeful thoughts at Thanksgiving, after the election, than I did at Columbus Day, before the election. The hope of the election reminds me of the real intention behind Thanksgiving, separate from its myth and its reality.

First off, one thing that Americans seldom consider is that Thanksgiving is an ambiguous holiday when viewed objectively. I, like most of us, love Thanksgiving because it is essentially our main feasting holiday, the day we all get together with friends and eat as much good food as we can stuff into our bloated bellies. But Thanksgiving, like Columbus Day, has two basic messages beyond the excuse to eat lots of food. The first, and most commonly recognized, meaning is a celebration of key events that led to our nation’s founding. We celebrate those who made our life today possible. Many of us have a particular reason to celebrate these holidays because without the founding of the United States, our families would not exist. I come from a family whose roots go back to Jewish communities in Germany and Lativia. We came to the United States early in the 1900’s, escaping one of many waves of anti-Jewish attacks in Europe. We came to the US and succeeded. Those of my family who remained in Germany or Latvia would almost certainly not have survived World War II. German and Latvian Jews were largely exterminated in the Holocaust. So in a very real way, I owe my life to the events celebrated (in almost mythical form) on Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Without these events, the United States may never have been founded and my family may have had no place to go and we would have been exterminated. These holidays represent the opportunity given many of our families to find better, safer lives apart from the Old World prejudices.