This bill has already passed the House. It's been received in the Senate and read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. This petition will target President Obama The Committee on Indian Affairs and a few other Senators.
Please share this petition on Twitter, Facebook, Email and any other way that you are able to. Thank you for signing!
There is a provision in current law that allows unrecognized tribes to gain recognition through appeal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924 has hurt the Virginia tribes in their prior appeals to the BIA, according to the Washington Times. Tribe officials say the Act forced Indians to identify themselves as "colored" and led to the destruction and alteration of genealogical records.
Tribal proponents say the Virginia law amounted to a "paper genocide" and makes the bureau process difficult for the six groups, although there are some genealogical records that do exist and have been submitted to the bureau. Va. Gov. Tim Kaine called the vote "a major step towards reconciling an historic wrong for Virginia and the nation."
President Barack Obama has reversed from past presidents and pledged to support recognition of the Lumbee Tribe, which has sought federal oversight for more than a century. According to the AP, Obama has not said whether he will support recognition of the Virginia tribes.
Here is the official website for Healing Turtle Island. The video is now up from the Reconciliation Ceremony between the Dutch Collegiate Church and three of the last Lenape tribes that took place in lower Manhattan on November 27, 2009.
Cross posted from Daily Kos and Blue Jersey Diary updated by navajo to include video
In lower Manhattan, on what will now be known as Native American Heritage Day, November 27, 2009, in front of the Museum of the American Indian, a historical event centuries in the making occurred as the Collegiate Church, formerly known as the Dutch Reformed Church, apologized to three of the four Lenape tribes left - NJ The Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians, the Oklahoma Delaware, and the Lenape of Ontario, Canada, the Munsee.
The irony is that the very same NJ tribe that the Collegiate Church apologized to, and the one recognized by the State Department of the Federal Government and the Obama Administration, is the very same one that the State of NJ and its Commission on Indian Affairs REFUSES to recognize as indigenous and is attempting to write OUT of history. History 400 years in the making was taking place in lower Manhattan while a few miles west across the Hudson, 12,000 years of history was being systematically, ruthlessly, maliciously erased.
With Native American Indians having some of the highest dropout rates, Gevena Wiki founded Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, or KRECR (pronounced "krek-er") to provide a culturally relevant program for tribal high school students in 2005. Since then, KRECR students have surpassed other local schools on high school exit exam scores.
However, KRECR students currently have no scientific calculators. My husband took down a stack of regular calculators today, left over from his business, but we don't have, and can't afford, the scientific calculators the kids need. So he set up an Amazon.com wishlist account that will deliver scientific calculators directly to KRECR. The address for the school is included, in case you happen to have an old scientific calculator collecting dust and want it put to good use.
I know times are tough right now; a lot of people are out of work, others are working two or three jobs to make ends meet. Prices are rising on the necessities.
But I am asking you to stop and see if you have $20 or $10 or even $5 to spare for My Sister Friends' House - Mita Maske Ti Ki, a Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault shelter for women and children.
They have lost their grant funding and face closure by September if they don't get enough funding to continue to operate as a shelter. They need $11,000 by August 31st to operate through September.
The end goal is $35,000 by September 30th - three months of operating expenses as they apply for grant funding and get established out on their own.
Will Native American women finally get equal protection under the law?
Right now Native American women on reservations are 3 times as likely to be raped as a white woman. Due to an insanely complex series of jurisdictional issues, limited law enforcement, minimal political will and racism, perpetrators of sexual assault and domestic violence against Native American women often commit their crimes with impunity, knowing they will likely never face prosecution. All of this was documented in sickening detail last year by Amnesty International's report Maze of Injustice
The legislation is designed to boost law enforcement efforts by providing tools to tribal justice officials to fight crime in their own communities, improving coordination between law enforcement agencies, and increasing accountability standards.
This title is not an exaggeration or misstatement, although I really wish it were. I did not go to Netroots Nation to learn that it was possible to rape a woman, right here in the United States and walk away with absolutely no consequences to the rapist. But that's what I learned in a panel discussion on Friday morning.
Come over the fold and I'll tell you exactly how this happens - and you can take an action, a small first step towards ending this nightmare.
I've always acknowledged my Abenaki heritage and for a long time, I've wanted to take part in the tribal council and the political process it involves. However, the council in my opinion, is a puppet council.
There is no tribal democracy here. Instead, the chief came to power by nepotism and not a fair vote. Her father was chief and she became chief while he was on his last legs.
My email below is an attempt to shake things up and get the gears of change started.
Note: I originally posted this diary at Daily Kos as well.
I am currently in Nursing School and I am doing a project on Cultural Diversity in Healthcare. If any Native American female or male could post the answers to the following questions below & state what tribe they belong to I would GREATLY appreciate it!
1) Have you or anyone you know received care in a hospital or clinic?
2) How would you describe your interactions with your healthcare provider?
3) Did you feel any discrimination of any kind while receiving care?
4) Do you prefer a male or female nurse or physician?
5) Is there any special care or needs that you would like or need while in the hospital?
6) Are there any special requirements or traditions about receiving healthcare or with taking medications?
7) What do you feel is the best remedy for a cold?
Who do you receive health care from?
You have no idea how much you are helping me and others to help increase cultural awareness in the health care field to provide better care to everyone equally.
With 4.5 million Native Americans in the U.S., both Clinton and Obama need the Native American vote in some key states, and are therefore courting votes.
A while back, I diaried their policy proposals. Both were good, but I found Obama's more comprehensive.
Now, Obama has come out with a proposal that puts him ahead of Clinton as far as I'm concerned. Yet one more reason I support him.
Even though I have a very strong personal opinion based on my position as an anti-war voter, I want to present both Obama's and Clinton's policy proposals on Native American issues.
So, whomever you support right now, all of this is great news. Below I have blockquoted each set of proposals from the Clinton and Obama campaigns. They are long, but I wanted to give you the complete statements. I am just providing information here, not cheers or jeers for one or the other!
Update #1: I've been informed by an Obama supporter that I've left out some info, and am searching right now for more on his website. When I find it, I'll put the update below the fold.
Update #2Turns out I left out an extremely significant chunk of Obama's platform on Native American issues. Thanks so much to ivorybill and jennybravo for new links.
(crossposted on the Daily Kos and Street Prophets under betson08 and Docudharma under PiledHigherand Deeper - I guess I have an unstable identity!)
I want to update everyone who has been involved in the Pretty Bird Woman House fundraiser on the situation with the house purchase.
After you read this you might also ask: Why isn't anything easy in Indian Country?
While we were running this fundraiser, the City Council of McLaughlin, which exists as a separate entity within the boundaries of the Standing Rock Reservation, passed an ordinance requiring that any nonprofit wishing to establish a boardinghouse or shelter in a residential area get the approval of the City Council first.
This means that even though Pretty Bird Woman House could have closed on the house on January 4th, they had to wait for a Council meeting on January 7th.
Everyone was certain that after hearing about the shelter, the City Council would just say "of course you can" to their request.
My apologies; I only learned of the existence of this blog today when someone at Daily Kos suggested I crosspost this announcement. I hope this is not inappropriate. Thank you.
In October, Betsy Campisi, a volunteer on the last Pretty Bird Woman House fundraising drive called Georgia Little Shield, the shelter director to check in. After all, after the previous May fundraiser, things looked great - Pretty Bird Woman House had a building, funding from the Netroots until a grant kicked in in... things were going well. But when Betsy spoke to Georgia she heard grim news.
Our shelter was burned down. They stole everything. Then they burnt it down.
Betsy asked; how much to buy a new house with a security system? The answer: $70,000. Worse, all the grants Pretty Bird Woman House depended on required a physical building to use as a shelter. They needed the money FAST. It seemed so unlikely back in October that it could even be done...
Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and just hope that the net is there to catch you. This time there was no net. But you wonderful people... you wove that net even as everything was falling off the edge. You wove the net out of blog posts and $5 donations, out of human love and compassion.
In honor of my mother, THE FLORA SOMBRERO LIND NAVAJO ENDOWMENT FUND has been set up to accept your donations.
This scholarship endowment has been established at the American Indian College Fund to honor Flora Sombrero Lind, as an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who was born at Inscription House, Arizona of the Many Goats clan circa 1925. This scholarship endowment is funded by Flora's family and friends who want to see Navajo students pursue higher education and carry on their great Navajo heritage.
Please leave a comment here if you donate.
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- Please specify what your donation is for in the notes section of the PayPal window. Either propane for Pine Ridge or Rosebud or Hosting fees for this blog. --navajo
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About
Native American Netroots
...a forum for the discussion of political, social and economic issues affecting the indigenous peoples of the United States, including their lack of political representation, economic deprivation, health care issues, and the on-going struggle for preservation of identity and cultural history
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that provides legal representation and technical assistance to Indian tribes, organizations and individuals nationwide - a constituency that often lacks access to the justice system. NARF focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations.
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Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights News by Brenda Norrell
In honor of my mother, 
