News Collection Diary For Monday June 28th

"UC Davis Native American studies prof wins Guggenheim fellowship" (4.00 / 1)

Zoila Mendoza, a professor of Native American studies at UC Davis has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship to continue her research on a recurring pilgrimage that Peruvian highlanders take through the Andes.
. . .
Her latest research focuses on a pilgrimage in which Quechua-speaking peasants and herders walk for three days and two nights up and down mountain paths, amid almost constant music and dance, to reach a sanctuary for worship.

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by: Aji @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:01:35 PM UTC

"TGen find aids kidney disease fight" (4.00 / 1)

New findings by Arizona researchers may eventually lead to better treatment and prevention of diabetic kidney disease.

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute have identified a genetic link to kidney disease in a DNA study of Native Americans in Arizona. The study found five genetic biomarkers associated with kidney failure, all within a receptor gene previously linked to diabetic kidney disease. This means that the receptor gene may signal in five ways that diabetes-related kidney disease could be on the horizon.

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by: Aji @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:04:34 PM UTC

"1976 deaths still haunt Halbritter" (4.00 / 1)

. . .
In Washington, he wrote, "when I was 21, an event occurred...known as the "Trail of Broken Treaties." It was a Native American protest against the federal government that ended in a standoff lasting several weeks in the offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

It was 1972, and it was "a great awakening for many Native American people, and for me in particular," Halbritter wrote. "I started to think about where... we were going as a people and what it was we were trying to do."

"I came back to Central New York and got involved in the issues here," Halbritter said. "The big issue that happened was the fire where my aunt and uncle (Samuel and Janice Winder) burned to death and the City of Oneida refused to send the fire department to their assistance. I was living on the territory and the fire was right across from my trailer."

With no assistance from any of the public safety agencies, "the bodies just laid there smoldering."

"The odor, the aroma from that fire drifted right over to where we lived in our trailer...to this day when I smell something (similar), it all of a sudden will trigger a reaction," he said.

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by: Aji @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:09:03 PM UTC

"GOP-led filibuster blocks resolution of Indian lawsuit" (4.00 / 1)

WASHINGTON - Native Americans spent 14 years in court to win the multibillion dollar Cobell lawsuit. Now they'll have to wait some more, this time for congressional approval, before they get their money from the federal government.

The $3.4 billion settlement, known as the Cobell lawsuit for lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell, was tied to a contentious package of tax breaks and unemployment benefits that came up three votes short Thursday of the 60 needed to prevent a Republican-led filibuster.

Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., didn't allow a separate vote on the Cobell settlement because he didn't want to break into pieces the bill known as the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.

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by: Aji @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:17:57 PM UTC

"At end of the day, may honor remain" (4.00 / 1)

. . .
[Jim] Thorpe's son, 72-year-old Jack Thorpe, understandably wants the celebrated American Indian's remains returned to his native Oklahoma. A lawsuit recently filed in Scranton seeks to transfer Thorpe's body to tribal grounds from his current resting place, the Carbon County community named Jim Thorpe - a picturesque town and popular weekend getaway that also bills itself as "the Switzerland of America."

The crux of the lawsuit apparently involves a federal law designed to give Native American artifacts back to their tribal homelands. To those of us outside the courtroom, it seems a legal long shot. After all, the law most likely aims to recover from private collections and museums any funerary items that had been plundered from places such as pueblos, battlegrounds and sacred sites.

By contrast, Jim Thorpe's body was interred in Pennsylvania by mutual agreement. Two merging towns (Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk) brokered a deal with Thorpe's third wife, agreeing to rename the community in his memory.

NOTE: This is an op-ed that seems to hint that Pennsylvania should get to keep Thorpe's remains.  They cite as "mutual agreement" the deal made by Thorpe's third wife (no reference to what Thorpe himself wanted).  My personal take is that PA has no right to the remains, and its insulting of the town or the state to assume "ownership" of someone's physical remains in this way.

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by: Aji @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:31:02 PM UTC

Now, this one pisses me off: (4.00 / 1)

"Sotheby's to Sell Custer's Last Flag, Preserved Until now at Detroit Museum"

NEW YORK, NY.- One hundred and thirty-four years ago today, George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry were overwhelmed near the Little Big Horn River by warriors of the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. No survivors remained among those who fought under Custer's direct command and few physical artifacts of the battle were left on the field, the Indians carrying with them anything that might reflect on their prowess or prove to be of utilitarian use. But a cavalry guidon, or swallow-tail flag, was hidden under the body of a dead trooper and discovered three days after the battle by Sergeant Ferdinand Culbertson, who was assigned to a burial party. Today Sotheby's announces that this sacred relic, emblematic of one of the most significant events in American history, will be offered for sale in October 2010: Custer's Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from The Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Since 1895, this fragile silk flag has been preserved at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The guidon had been given by Culbertson to Charles and Rose Fowler of Detroit in approximately 1880. The flag was purchased from Rose Fowler Reidel, by a public contribution in 1895. It will be offered for sale at Sotheby's in October 2010 with an estimate of $2/5 million and proceeds from the auction will be used by the museum exclusively for future art purchases. The guidon will be unveiled to the public in September.

"This immortal battle flag represents the spirit, the bravery and the tragedy of one of the most dramatic moments in American history," commented David Redden, Vice Chairman of Sotheby's. "Battle-worn and bullet-torn, the Culbertson Guidon conjures the ferocity of that terrible battle."

"Sacred relic," MHBA.  And $2.5 mil?  They ought to be forced to turn it over to the Lakota.   Think what that could do for housing, jobs, and health care at Pine Ridge.

Okay, I better stop before I really say something I shouldn't.

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by: Aji @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:36:07 PM UTC

I think I originally posted this in the wrong post (0.00 / 0)

so I'll put these in again...

Not sure if this has been covered.
I've not been keeping up lately.

Tulalip Tribes Tracie Stevens confirmed by Senate as chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission

Stevens formerly acted as senior adviser to Assistant Interior Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk.

As chairman, Stevens will oversee the regulation and oversight of gaming on Indian lands.

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we might also mention the bit about the scam perpetrated on the Yakamas - I sent mail to the newsgroup a few days ago on this.

Here's the consumer alert from the WA State Attorney General site:

Oil clean-up jobs offered to Yakama Nation members too good to be true

A more extensive article in the Yakima Herald -

Are Gulf cleanup jobs awaiting Yakamas?

Late last week a van pulled up to the Toppenish Armory on the Yakama reservation, and its occupants began offering tribal members $40-an-hour jobs cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

On the reservation, where poverty is high and opportunity slim, the generous offers struck a chord. A number of Yakamas quit Legends Casino or other tribal jobs in anticipation of high wages and free housing.

The state Attorney General's Office says it has been unable to determine whether the jobs are legitimately tied to BP's cleanup efforts but says it's unlikely.

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by: exmearden @ Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 22:02:34 PM UTC