Jersey Indians get taunted

Report blasts treatment of Ramapoughs"The committee overall was surprised at the invisibility of the state's 20,000-plus Native Americans," said Christine Grant, co-chairwoman of the New Jersey Committee on Native American Community Affairs.

"There were too many examples of discrimination or extreme cultural insensitivity toward these citizens brought to the committee's attention during many interviews and public hearings," said Grant, a former state health commissioner.Proving the point:

Mom angered by school's reaction to racial commentSiewertsen said that in class he overheard students talking about his facial hair and when he asked what they were talking about, one girl replied, "Who the (blank) you talking to, Tonto," police report say.

He told police about four other girls began chanting "Woo! Woo! Woo!" reports said. The 16-year-old said the substitute teacher did nothing.

"I was humiliated, angry," he said.

Chuckling at Lakotas' absurdity

Means' empty gesture still makes pointOf the people who called or e-mailed me, most are chuckling at the absurdity of it. Means and his group, of course, would be speaking for themselves and not tribes, whose tribal councils speak for them. But Means and his group have some points--perhaps 200 years too late, but they do have some points.

The land grabs that made Indian country shrink into mostly small land areas involved territory taken mostly “by hook and by crook.” And if you look at many reservations, they are in areas unwanted at the time--rough terrain such as the Badlands of the Dakotas, poor land for growing gardens and in isolated areas.Comment:  Means's so-called point is that bad things happened to Indians. No surprise there. People have made the same point in a hundred ways, and this seems like one of the least effective alternatives. It makes people think Indians are angry or crazy without compelling them to think about the issues.

If you ask me, it would be more accurate to say Means makes a point, but it's still an empty gesture.

Harjo names this year's losers

Harjo:  2007 Mantle of Shame AwardsThe pope--for not withdrawing the doctrine of discovery papal bulls that have wrought so much havoc on Native peoples of this hemisphere.

The Associated Press, Washington--for erroneously reporting that Makah hunters used a machine gun to kill a gray whale, which made a complex, tragic situation a dangerous one for the entire Makah Tribe and all Native peoples.

Uncle Tomahawk Chops--for their unusual focus on and attachment to "Indian" sports references and their singular disregard of the views or situations of living Native Americans. The hands-down winner in this category this year is the University of North Dakota, whose fans would rather spend tens of millions of dollars in court to keep their team name and images than pay attention to the actual Sioux peoples who are telling them to retire "Fighting Sioux."

Russell Means--for his mid-December announcement in D.C. that he is unilaterally withdrawing the Lakota Sioux from treaties with the United States. News flash to Means: treaties are made between nations; you are a person and not a nation; you are not empowered to speak for the Great Sioux Nation; as an individual, you can only withdraw yourself from coverage of your nation's treaties.Comment:  Follow the link to read about all the losers. And for last year's losers, click here.

Native medicine couldn't cure Hulk

Watch Hulk videos onlineThe television series opened each week with the following opener: “Doctor David Banner, physician, scientist, searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have. Then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation alters his body chemistry and now when David Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs. The creature is driven by rage and pursued by an investigative reporter. The creature is wanted for a murder he didn’t commit. David Banner is believed to be dead and he must let the world think that he is dead until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him.”

Episode 2.5: Rainbow’s End: October 13, 1978: This episode focused on Banner’s attempt to use a Native American medicine to control the Hulk. In a sense, rather than use science to combat a problem brought on by science, he seeks to use an organic means to control the Hulk. Back when this episode aired, a lot of people believed in the power of natural medicines to cure modern ailments (it was a hot topic issue in cancer research). Other than that, the story dealt with a horse racing matter.

OST to establish tourist routes

Scenic highways to help tribal economy, improve understanding

Federal grant helps Oglala planners join tribal byways networkThe lonesome roads of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could one day lead tourists to a better understanding of the Native American culture, history and landscape.

They could help drive economic development for members of the financially troubled Oglala Sioux Tribe, as well.

The tribe's Parks and Recreation Authority has been awarded a $120,320 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help tribal officials begin a program to establish a scenic-byways system on the reservation, a starkly beautiful landscape of sweeping grasslands, rugged badlands and sporadic woods of pine and cedar covering all of Shannon County and half of Jackson County.

Star Wars filmed at Tikal

Massassi TempleFor their brief appearance in Star Wars: A New Hope, the Massassi temples were actually the ancient pyramids found in Tikal, Guatemala. A skeleton crew of ILM cameramen traveled to Guatemala to film the handful of scenes required. When they arrived, they discovered that the path to the 300-foot summit was completely overrun by the jungle. They hired locals to hack through the brush with machetes.

Arriving at the summit, ILMers Lorne Peterson, Richard Edlund and Dick Alexander discussed who should be the one to play the Rebel sentry standing atop the slender tower. Peterson "won" that honor by virtue of him having no children. The crew lacked appropriate props, so the scanner that the Rebel trooper carries is actually several light meters held together with gaffer's tape.

Billionaire gives to monument

Sanford to donate up to $5 million to Crazy Horse

Matching grant is expected to give workers a big boost to carving efforts over the next year.The head of the horse on the giant Crazy Horse Memorial sculpture could begin emerging in the next couple of years as the carving is spurred by a $5 million matching grant from billionaire philanthropist T. Denny Sanford.

Crazy Horse officials announced the grant Thursday on the viewing veranda, saying Sanford has pledged to match dollar for dollar the donations from others toward completing the mountain carving begun by Korczak Ziolkowski and his wife, Ruth, nearly 60 years ago.

Cage awed by Black Hills

Film's cast say Hills 'inspired' performersAlthough they only spent two weeks filming in the Black Hills, the actors and filmmakers of "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," say they were deeply affected by their experiences in South Dakota.

"The Black Hills are very unique," Nicolas Cage said in a news release authored by Disney Studios. "They were very, very special because it's Native American sacred ground. I found it uniquely beautiful and still something of a secret. I don't think people realize how beautiful that is in our own backyard."

Means declares independence

Lakota group pushes for new nationA group of "freedom-loving" Lakota activists announced a plan Wednesday for their people to withdraw from treaties their forefathers signed with the U.S. government.

Headed by leaders of the American Indian Movement, including activist, actor and Porcupine resident Russell Means, the group dropped in on the State Department and the embassies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and South Africa this week seeking recognition for their effort to form a free and independent Lakota nation. The group plans to visit more embassies in the coming months.

The new nation is needed because Indians have been "dismissed" by the United States and are tired of living under a colonial apartheid system, Means said during a news conference held at Plymouth Congregational Church in northeast Washington. He was accompanied by a bodyguard and three other Lakota activists--Gary Rowland, Duane Martin and Phyllis Young, all of South Dakota.

"I want to emphasize, we do not represent the collaborators, the Vichy Indians and those tribal governments set up by the United States of America to ensure our poverty, to ensure the theft of our land and resources," Means said, comparing elected tribal governments to Nazi collaborators in France during World War II.How it might work:Members of the new nation would not pay any taxes, and leaders would be informally chosen by community elders, Means said. Non-Indians could continue to live in the new nation's territory, which would consist of the western parts of North and South Dakota and Nebraska and eastern parts of Wyoming and Montana. The new government would issue its own passports and drivers licenses, Means said.

"Our withdrawal (from the treaties) is fully thought out," Means said, referring to peace treaties the Lakota people signed with the government in 1851 and 1868. "We were mandated by our elders in 1974 to do two things. First, to establish relationships with the international community... and the second mandate, of course, was to reestablish our independence."Some comments from readers:Posted by: smerp Posted: 12/20/07 1:27 pm

Russel Means never grew up on the reservation nor does he live there.

Posted by: Elvis with a Bra on Head Posted: 12/20/07 2:43 pm

It does smack of grandstanding.

Posted by: dustyj Posted: 12/20/07 3:32 pm

What is up with these self-appointed leaders? I am amazed people are even paying attention to this. Do we have a trained army and police force prepared to oust squatters??

Posted by: WhateverSD Posted: 12/20/07 4:10 pm

Russell Means and thugs like him are the reason that nobody wants to do business on the reservations now. You get rid of him and get a real government with stable business laws and businesses with move to the reservation.Rob's comment:  Does this have anything to do with Russell Means's inability to get elected chairman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe? I wonder why he ran for office if he thinks tribal leaders are Vichy-style "collaborators."

So this withdrawal is "fully thought out," eh? Did the activists fully think out that they're not the elected representatives of any Lakota nation? That even if they were, they'd have no power to abrogate treaties unless the US Congress granted them that power? Which it hasn't done and won't do?

This is a cute political stunt, but Means and company are delusional if they think it has a chance of happening. As in the TRIBAL FORCE comic book, the US will declare war on a tribe that declares independence before it lets the tribe go. Means better have a few Native superheroes up his sleeve or his scheme is bound to fail.

For more of the activist's views, see Russell Means Speaks.

Native medicine eats flesh

Doctors warn against use of "Black Salve" for skin cancerA Utah man who used an herbal treatment that promised to remove skin cancer ended up loosing a large portion of his nose and now doctors are warning against the use of a Native American medicine called black salve or bloodroot.

"A friend of mine that I worked with told me about it,” said Pleasant Grove resident Leland Overson in reference to an Herbal remedy known as black salve. The friend told him it would draw out spots of skin cancer Overson had on his face and arms. "It eats up the cancer it gathers it and actually pulls it right out of your flesh." Overson said. "

But after only a few weeks of use the salve ate away a large section of Overson's nose. "It was a little bit too radical for me and I didn't realize that it was going to eat my nose up."

The Native American's supposedly invented black salve which is a mixture of an indigenous plant called bloodroot and crushed ash. The salve embalms the skin and then kills it. The Native Americans apparently used the salve to draw out infections. But in recent years herbal companies have promoted the salve as a cure for skin cancer. "The one I got came from an Indian reservation,” Overson said. “Supposedly the medicine man figured it out."

Wrestler teams with Indians

Hulk Hogan to appear at LNI

Famous wrestler to help present assistance to nonprofit organizations.World famous wrestler, actor and media personality Hulk Hogan will be among the thousands of attendees at this weeks annual Lakota Nation Invitational Tournament in Rapid City.

Hogan, who rose to prominence in the 1980s as one of a cavalcade of professional wrestlers with larger than life personalities, is expected to present financial assistance to a number of local area nonprofit organizations on behalf of Dreamseekers.

Hogan co-founded the new organization with the National Indian Gaming Association chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. The foundation's goal is to create healthier communities by assisting young Native Americans in areas related to health, education and leadership development.Comment:  You can see Hulk Hogan meeting with Ernie Stevens Jr. in my pictures of the Global Gaming Expo.

Berkeley turtles tell creation story

Local sculptor Scott Parsons' turtle sculptures win place in CaliforniaAfter a three-year process, Scott Parsons' four life-size loggerhead turtle sculptures are being cast in bronze for the city of Berkeley, Calif.

Parson's turtles will be installed as part of renovations at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, which has more than a million visitors each year.

Alongside Parsons' turtles at the fountain will be eight stone medallions designed by Native American artists from across the nation--including South Dakota's Harley Zephier. The public art display is based on a Native American story involving turtles.Comment:  The story is the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) legend about Turtle Island--i.e., how Sky Woman created the earth on the back of a great turtle.

Manitobans bootleg superjuice

'Superjuice' homebrew wreaks havoc on First NationsA home-brewed drink called superjuice is having a devastating impact on young people living on a remote Manitoba First Nation, a round table on native youth issues heard Tuesday.

Superjuice is created using packets of high-potency yeast, usually purchased at brewing stores in Winnipeg, Bobby Monias, the regional youth adviser for Assembly for Manitoba Chiefs, told the round table on northern aboriginal youth issues.

People bring the yeast—which can produce more potent alcohol than regular yeast in just a few days—into the community, mix it with water and sugar in pails, and leave it to ferment for a couple of days, he said.

It's then put into two-litre bottles and sold for between $80 and $100 for each bottle.

Indian Wars led to Iraq?

Iraq:  Is It All the Indians' Fault?Armed with the right to conquer and clear the land that had for centuries been inhabited, the United States faced little genuine resistance, and the ruthless expansion killed great numbers of Indians.

With the Iraq adventure now on the brain, we must ask: Is it possible that the success of westward expansion produced a natural disposition toward external conquest—and, worse, the tempting belief that such civilizing missions were easily accomplished?

One has to wonder whether the collective American mind began to imagine that all further attempts at foreign conquest would be as fruitful as the original.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Manifest Destiny = America's Pathology.

Comanche joins Arizona Adrenaline

Native American Player Signs with Pro Indoor Football TeamFull blooded Native American football player Toqua-Hanai Ticeahkie who is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma has signed a contract with the Arizona Adrenaline of the American Indoor Football Association.

Ticeahkie, 27, a lineman who Adrenaline head coach Andrew Moore says will be the premier nose tackle and might play on the other side of the ball, played his high school football at Warren High School in Downey, Calif. and was named Central League Defensive Line Player of the Year in 2006 while playing for the semi-pro Oklahoma Rebels in Lawton, Okla. and just finished playing semi-pro for the Soboba Warriors on the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians reservation in the Labelle Community Football League in southern California where he was the best interior defensive lineman in the league.

1% Yeagley: danger or joke?

Report to CERTAIN, the SPLC, IndyBay.org, and Z MagazineYeagley only got 102 votes, or slightly over 10%, in an election that also had an extremely low turnout of only 10%. That means that the number of eligible Comanche voters who cast their ballot for Yeagley was about 1%. Already Yeagley's loss has earned him a new nickname in Indian Country, "1% Yeagley."

Yeagley and his supporters, in a rather bizarre denial of reality, claimed victory since he expected to only get "about five votes." Yet elsewhere in Indian Country, Natives that are familiar with Yeagley's chequered career are celebrating his getting his head handed to him.

Yeagley became enrolled with the Comanche Nation by accident, because his stepmother was Comanche. Kiowa disabled rights activist Cinda Hughes investigated and uncovered that it is a fairly open "secret" among Comanches that Yeagley was adopted. Comanche traditions do not allow for banishing anyone, no matter how contemptible their actions or beliefs.

Yeagley is a member of the white supremacist One Nation, which works against American Indians, especially on the issue of tribal sovereignty. He also is a speaker for the notoriously anti Semitic John Birch Society, best known for its bizarre conspiracy theories. Yeagley also is a supporter and associates with members of the National Alliance, the neo-Nazi skinhead group Storm Front (a Storm Front member moderated a section of Yeagley's message board on Jews), the eugenics website Gene Expression, and self described white nationalists and anti immigrant vigilantes the Minutemen.

Yeagley has long been a notorious character in Indian Country. He routinely refers to nonwhites (including American Indians) as "darkies." He has called for the mass murder of illegal immigrants and the mass deportation of all Arabs and Muslims. He frequently describes his admiration for Hitler, Columbus, and the Shah of Iran. Yeagley once compared Janet Jackson to an ape and called Martin Luther King "a blight on history." Yeagley received the strongest criticism when he attacked the Virginia Tech University shooting victims as "cowards."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Yeagley the Indian Apple.

Review of ON THE TURN

ON THE TURN is the second major comic book from the Healthy Aboriginal Network. It tells the story of Brianna, a girl in an urban Native family. Needing money for an iPod, she takes up gambling at school with predictable results. Eventually she lies to and steals from her family before admitting she needs help.

The good

The story by Jay Odjick (THE RAVEN) and Patrick Tenascon is reasonably well constructed and involving. It makes a reasonable case against compulsive gambling. One hopes readers will see how easily children can get sucked in over their heads.

The questionable

Except for a talking circle used as a response to problem gambling, there's nothing Native about this story. It could be about anyone. I don't know if that's good or bad.

The bad

The art by Odjick is supposed to be realistic, but it looks vaguely Cubist to me. You know, eyes, noses, and chins at weird angles? Kids may find it edgy, but I'd say it's merely crude.

The ugly

I believe that kids who think they're good at poker might be taken by kids who are better at it. But I find it hard to believe a novice like Brianna would think she could win against experienced players. When you know nothing about a game, you don't bet all your money against the big boys. You start off slow and learn the game gradually.

Conclusion

ON THE TURN isn't as good as the group's first effort, DARKNESS CALLS. But I've seen their third comic and it looks like another winner. Kudos to the Healthy Aboriginal Network for continuing to tackle social issues in comic books.

Longest suspension in NHL history

Islanders’ Simon Banned for 30 GamesNew York Islanders forward Chris Simon was banned for 30 games Wednesday, drawing the longest suspension in NHL history again.

Simon's latest infraction was stepping on Pittsburgh's Jarkko Ruutu with his skate during a game last weekend.

"Several factors were considered in imposing the longest suspension in NHL history for an on-ice incident," league disciplinarian Colin Campbell said. "While it was fortunate there was no serious injury to Mr. Ruutu as a result of Simon's action, the deliberate act of kicking an opponent with an exposed skate blade, especially where the opponent is in a vulnerable position, is and always has been a repugnant and totally unacceptable act in the game of hockey."

Hopi becomes US Attorney

First Native woman sworn in as U.S. AttorneyDiane Humetewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe, made history on Tuesday when she was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for Arizona.

Humetewa is the first Native American woman to serve as U.S. Attorney. She was confirmed by the Senate on December 13, having been nominated to the post by President Bush on November 15.

"I am extremely honored to serve in this capacity," Humetewa said after her private swearing-in ceremony in the courtroom of Judge Stephen M. McNamee in Phoenix. "This office prosecutes one of the highest and most diverse case loads in the nation. The staff are exemplary and highly dedicated to the mission of the office."

Whiny Indians can't do anything

Indians are "victims" of the past, not "self-sufficient individuals"