Cherokee Nation helps tornado victims

Cherokee Nation Lends Support for Moore Tornado VictimsThe Cherokee Nation has offered immediate and ongoing support to victims in the Moore area, following yesterday's devastating tornadoes. The Cherokee Nation's emergency management team is organizing tribal resources and is on standby for further direction from those managing the crisis that continues to unfold in central Oklahoma.

“Words simply cannot describe how heartbreaking the scene in Moore and the surrounding area is, and will continue to be,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker.

"Our hearts, minds and prayers are with all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the two dozen victims and their families, a number which includes at least nine innocent children. The Cherokee Nation is in constant contact with emergency management teams in the area, and we have offered every available resource to assist with rescue, recovery and ongoing support. Teams of volunteers, including the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, first responders, Cherokee Nation employees and our Cherokee Nation Businesses entities, are ready and standing by. However great the need, it will be met. We stand committed to our fellow Oklahomans and will do everything in our power to help lift them up during this time of immense tragedy. As our neighbors in central Oklahoma begin to rebuild, our support will not waver as we look forward, together, to brighter days for all."

The Cherokee Nation will deploy at the discretion of emergency management teams in the area and will be notifying Cherokee citizens and employees of ways to help.Comment:  For more on Indians and disasters, see Twilight Tribe Seeks Fans' Help and San Manuel Donates to Japan.

Twilight tribe seeks fans' help

U.S. Tribe Cites Tsunami, 'Twilight' In Bid To Expand

By Tom BanseAn Indian tribe in Washington state wants to move its village to higher ground, citing concerns over a possible tsunami from earthquakes around the Pacific Ocean.

But it takes an act of Congress to expand a reservation. So the Quileute tribe is hoping to get the word out—in part by relying on its newfound popularity as a tourist site for fans of the Twilight series of books and movies. In those stories, the Quileute lands are teeming with werewolves.Restating the point in a bit more detail:Only Congress can adjust the boundaries of a national park. And it's done that before—in December, lawmakers gave the nearby Hoh Indian Tribe a sliver of Olympic park land. That tribe is now planning its move out of the tsunami zone.

But the Quileutes are asking for much more land: about 785 acres of the national park, some of it designated wilderness. And to help its cause, the tribe is seeking to enlist an unusual ally: the huge fan base of the Twilight vampire saga.Comment:  Other than doing what it's already done--communicating via its website and YouTube--it's not clear how the tribe plans to enlist Twilight fans. Ask them to write letters or e-mails? The article should've discussed this point since it was in the headline.

For more on the subject, see Quileute Exhibit Says "We're Not Werewolves" and Fans Still Ignorant About Quileutes.

San Manuel donates to Japan

San Manuel tribe hands out money, awards

By Michel NolanOn Tuesday, the People of the Pines shared financial assistance and hope.

Members of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, who call themselves "Yuhaviatam," or People of the Pines, hosted their third annual Forging Hope luncheon by giving to those who give.

The luncheon brought together nonprofit groups for an awards ceremony at San Bernardino's National Orange Show Events Center, where the tribe's Yawa' Award was bestowed upon four charities.

In addition to the Yawa' Awards, Ramos announced the tribe would provide $100,000 to the American Red Cross--Inland Empire Chapter--and $50,000 to the International Medical Corps for relief efforts to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Natives Raise Funds for Japan.

Natives raise funds for Japan

I didn't think I'd find another Native connection to the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and reactor crisis, but I was wrong:

Native artists aim to raise relief funds

By Anne ConstableThree prominent Native American artists are raising funds for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan using the Web.

Darryl Dean Begay, Lyndon Tsosie and Raymond Yazzie, all well-known jewelers, will be launching a website next week for their new organization, Native American Artists for Japan. The concept is to get Native artists to donate work that will be auctioned off on eBay, with proceeds to go to the Japanese Red Cross Society.And:On Wednesday, Begay started a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/darryl.d.begay) announcing the effort. So far, the page has 88 members, and about 40 artists have announced their intention to donate works.

Begay said that he was planning to make a new piece—a figure of a samurai warrior—for the auction.

Yazzie, he said, is making a ring with a Japanese flag. And contemporary painter Tony Abeyta is donating a painting and a limited edition book about prominent Native American potters, which is signed by a number of them.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Yurok Man Is Tsunami Victim. For a previous relief effort, see Olbermann Seeks Aid for Reservations.

Yurok man is tsunami victim

Man swept out to sea sought a new beginningLeaving his teenage drug abuse behind in Oregon, Dustin Weber was seeking a new beginning along California's rugged far northern coast, happy to be in the land of his mother's heritage, the Yurok Tribe.

Yet before Weber could get a proper start, the 25-year-old was swept out to sea at the mouth of the Klamath River by a tsunami surge generated thousands of miles away by the earthquake off Japan's coast. Rescuers were unable to reach him Friday and called off their efforts; he is presumed dead, though his body has not been found.

His would be the first death of a person on the West Coast by a tsunami since 1964, when 11 people in nearby Crescent City died from the surge created by an earthquake in Alaska.

"His life was always challenged with drug issues and being Indian," said his mother, Lori Davis, of Bend, Ore., after searching miles of beach with family members and friends for her son's body.Comment:  For more on earthquake victims, see Blame Indians and Haitians for Problems?

Below:  "This February 2009 photo released by Bonny Elliott via NewsChannel 21/KTVZ.com, on Saturday, March 12, 2011, shows Dustin Weber at his mother's house in Bend, Ore. Weber, 25, was swept out to sea during Friday's tsunami in Northern California. Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson says Weber was swept away and disappeared while taking pictures of the tsunami near the Klamath River." (AP Photo/Bonny Elliott via NewsChannel 21/KTVZ.com)

Olbermann seeks aid for reservations

Storm disaster for Sioux flies under compassion radarNo photos or video of sweet suffering faces. No popular vacation landscape for a backdrop. No personal connective ties. Are those the reasons the natural disaster in the Great Plains has gone below our philanthropy radar?

How many of us knew anything about the massive winter storms that have left the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation without power or water or heat for nearly two weeks? (Yes, I know many reading this are on the East Coast, like me, nervously wondering if today's latest blizzard will knock out our power. But we have resources that tribal people with 80% unemployment in the remote plains simply don't.)

USA TODAY carried a story nine days ago but, like most media focused on millions suffering in Haiti, we didn't keep an eye on Native American who are still as freezing, isolated, and miserably unsafe now as then.

Outraged Keith Olbermann is now raising funds at MSNBC for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief--Emergency Assistance Fund.Keith Olbermann Links to Two More Donation Links for S.D. Rezs





Comment:  For more on the subject, see Senate Committee Is Olbermann's "Worst Person" and Blame Indians and Haitians for Problems?