Thanks to Jackie Trotchie for calling our attention to the work of Jeane LaRance, a member of the Little Shell Band of Chippewa in Montana, who is a graduate student in photography at the Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design (SCAD). She began working in Haiti long before the recent earthquake that drew worldwide attention to the island nation’s issues.

She’s created this blog as a space where people can see the work she’s doing in Haiti in conjunction with the Louisiana-based non-profit A.H.D.H. (Association Haitienne Dèvelopment Humain).

Here, she describes a 2007 exhibition of her work at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., as “The most effective way that I, as a Native American woman, could explain to those who have not had an opportunity to visit Haiti the importance of the work A.H.D.H. is providing for Haiti’s people.”

Gwen Florio

Bad enough that the Little Shell Band of Chippewa, in west-central Montana, lost their land a century ago. Then they fought for decades to obtain federal recognition – even obtained state recognition – only to see the ultimate decision postponed again and again.

But now, Matt Brown of the Associated Press writes here, the tribe’s 4,300 members – fragmented by political infighting – face what is perhaps their biggest challenge of all.

“If all this continues, I don’t know what the future will be,” says tribal member Patricia Maki. Brown writes:

Maki is part of the faction that blames the upheaval on tribal president John Sinclair, a 54-year-old plow operator for the state Transportation Department.

Those detractors say Sinclair’s leadership style – which they called autocratic – undercut the recognition petition just as that 31-year effort came to a head. As an example, they cite his decision to unenroll members of the opposition in the run-up to his re-election last year.

Opponents held an election earlier this month, choosing as their chairman Great Falls businessman John Gilbert.

But Sinclair says those who oppose him don’t have the correct blood quantum to be members, and says those voting against him could be victims of a sort of tribal identity theft.

Meanwhile, others familiar with – but with no stake in – the situation blame the government. Jack Campisi, a retired Wellesley College professor and expert on the federal recognition process, tells Brown that “it’s the government that screwed up this one.”

Their landless history – members of the tribe once were banished to Canada – works against them, he says, by making a paper trail of their background impossible.

“The Little Shell is a tragedy,” he says. “They continued to operate as a people who are not locked to one piece of land and that’s been held against them.”

World champion Salish boxer brings event home to Flathead Indian Reservation
Former world champion boxer Marvin Camel comes home to the Flathead Indian Reservation Tuesday to talk about how boxing opened doors to him. He was a two-time world champion boxer who won the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation Cruiserweight Championships, the Char-Koosta News reports here. The newspaper writes that Camel is Montana’s only world championship boxer, and was named by Sports Illustrated as one of Montana’s top 50 athletes of the 20th century. Videos of his championship matches will be shown on the Flathead Reservation this week.

Report alleges mismanagement of tribal welfare funds
A investigative report by the Palm Springs (Calif.) Desert Sun alleges the 200 members of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians have seen millions of dollars disappear from a tribal welfare program meant to help them. More than $6 million disappeared in just two years, it says. Read it here.

Seneca Nation billboard calls for defeat of PACT act
The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act would prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from delivering cigarettes and certain other tobacco products, effectively putting Indian-owned mail order tobacco businesses – an industry developed by the Seneca Nation over the past two decades – out of operation, writes Indian Country Today’s Gale Courey Toensing here. A Seneca Nation billboard on Interstate 190 urges people to vote against it.

Reinstated Navajo President Joe Shirley offers options for smaller council
Members of the Navajo Nation voted last month to decrease the size of their tribal council from 88 to 24. Now President Joe Shirley Jr., who recently returned after being placed on leave during a probe into the tribe’s business dealings, has offered 10 reapportionment plans for consideration. The Navajo Times has the story here.

First Nations eager to use new cross-border status cards
Some First Nations in the Yukon are ready to try secure new Indian status cards, but federal officials have chiefs to list concern before before a pilot program begins, the CBC reports here. The idea is that the card will make it easier for First Nations members to cross the Canada-U.S. border. The cards are to be tested in Yukon communities near Alaska.

Little Shell opposition plans election to replace tribal council
Leaders of an opposition faction within Montana’s Little Tribe of Chippewa Indians are planning an election to replace the existing Tribal Council, the Associated Press reports here. The tribe recently was denied federal recognition, but has long been recognized by the state of Montana.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – The leader of a Montana Indian tribe says state agencies are withholding almost $900,000 in grants and stimulus funds after an audit revealed the tribe’s lax accounting practices had opened the door to potential financial abuse.

Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa president John Sinclair says a $70,000 economic development grant and $617,000 in federal stimulus money for the tribe were recently put on hold.

That comes after a tobacco use prevention grant for $180,000 was suspended in September – when state auditors first raised questions about how the tribe was spending the money.

The tribe has been given until Nov. 23 to show it has fixed its accounting procedures. A Dec. 1 meeting in Helena is planned between Sinclair, representatives of Gov. Brian Schweitzer and other state officials to discuss the issue.

Gwen Florio

John Sinclair, chairman of the Little Shell Band of Chippewa, is in Washington, D.C., today to testify to exactly that point.

Matthew Brown of the Associated Press reports here that the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, including Chairman Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.) and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, say the process for obtaining federal recognition for tribes is broken.

“They point to the experience of Montana’s Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa, which filed its recognition petition in 1978, the same year the current process was established by Congress.

“It took 31 years for the tribe to get a negative decision from Interior’s Bu-reau of Indian Affairs – an outcome Montana’s Congressional delegation has vowed to overturn,” Brown writes.

Sinclair says the Little Shell spent $2 million over the years trying to meet requirements that generated 70,000 documents – a stack 35 feet high. “The process is completely run amok,” he says.

“Simply put, the administrative recognition process is a mess and, in all fair-ness and justice to Indian people, the Congress must step in and fix it,” he says in a statement.
Meanwhile, the state of Montana recognized the tribe nearly a decade ago. Its 4,300 members have no reservation, but mostly live in and around Great Falls.

Gwen Florio

White House tribal summit is Thursday!
Thursday, of course, is the first White House tribal summit in 15 years, since President Clinton hosted tribal leaders. Hopes are high because the concern for tribes evidenced by then-candidate Barack Obama as he campaigned in Indian Country. This Green Bay Press Gazette story nicely lays out the issues. Can you say health care, crime, education? Just about everything that’s been under-funded for decades now in Indian Country will certainly be discussed.

Little Shell Chippewa to address “broken” recognition process
Only representatives of federally recognized tribes were invited to the White House meeting. That dis really stung state-recognized tribes, one of which – the Little Shell Band of Chippewa in Montana – saw their three-decade bid for federal recognition rejected last week. Tomorrow, Little Shell leader John Sinclair will be in Washington for a Senate Indian Affairs Committee oversight hearing. Sinclair will testify about a recognition process that Sen. Jon Tester – who invited him to the hearing – calls “broken.” Tester, fellow Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and Montana GOP Rep. Denny Rehberg all are pushing legislation that would grant the tribe that long-overdue recognition. The hearing will be webcast.

Standing Rock leader: Fighting Sioux nickname debate not a priority
In North Dakota, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has yet to schedule a vote on the University of North Dakota’s use of the Fighting Sioux nickname for its teams. The NCAA strongly terms tribal nickname for teams “hostile and abusive”; North Dakota decided to resolve that by leaving it up to the tribes. The Spirit Lake Sioux have OK’d the nickname, but the Standing Rock remain divided. An Oct. 30 deadline passed with no resolution, and the state Board of Higher Education agreed to a 30-day extension. Now, the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer reports here that new Standing Rock chairman Charlie Murphy says resolving the controversy isn’t a top priority and that furthermore, the tribe rejects any deadlines imposed by the board.

Gwen Florio

This issue is fresh on our mind because of this week’s refusal by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to grant federal recognition to the Little Shell Band of Chippewa – even though the state of Montana recognized the tribe nearly a decade ago, and the state’s congressional delegation is pushing legislatively for recognition.

The Little Shell, of course, are not alone. They’ve got plenty of company in the Lumbee in North Carolina, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape in New Jersey – the list goes on and on. Tribal people all – but they won’t be able to voice their concerns about Indian Country to President Barack Obama at Thursday’s meeting. That’s despite the fact that Obama received overwhelming support from Indian tribes – federally recognized and others – during his presidential bid.

“I don’t begrudge our federal brothers and sisters one iota. I know they deal with different issues in some respects and I think having an audience to deal with those types of issues is appropriate,” the Rev. John Norwood who heads the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tells Indian Country Today. “But to be snubbed and not to be told that there will be a meeting for us state recognized down the road is surprising.”

The president’s invitation to the first-ever Tribal Nations Conference came during the National Congress of American Indians’ annual meeting in Palm Springs.

“This organization is the National Congress of American Indians. It’s not the National Congress of the Federally Recognized American Indians,” says Larry Townsend, the tribal veterans service officer for the Lumbee Tribe.

Norwood tells Indian Country Today that the state-recognized tribes are thinking about coordinating their efforts to deal with their collective issues. Sounds like a good idea – even if it won’t happen in time for Thursday’s meeting.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the editorial in today’s Missoulian newspaper concerning the rejection of the Little Shell Band of Chippewa’s three-decade pursuit of federal recognition:

The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians waited more than 30 years for the U.S. government to formally recognize them. First, they were flat-out ignored. Later, the Department of the Interior simply delayed its decision time after time.

And then finally, on Tuesday, the Little Shell got their answer – and it was a rejection.

The fact that it took the Interior Department so long to deny the tribe’s claim for federal recognition is not so surprising as their reasons for the rejection. According to John Sinclair, tribal chairman for the Little Shell, the Bureau of Indian affairs felt that the tribe’s community cohesion is insufficient, and that it has not garnered enough recognition from other sources.

Somehow, after all their years of research, the Bureau of Indian Affairs must have missed the fact that the tribe of more than 4,000 members, many of whom live in the Great Falls area, has been pushing for some form of recognition since the 1860s – as a community. Few individuals, let alone groups numbering in the thousands, could have maintained that sort of commitment in the face in bureaucracy for a lifetime, let alone across generations.

That alone is proof enough of community for us.

Read the rest of this entry »

As we have been for years now, we remain mystified by the BIA’s actions regarding the Little Shell Band of Chippewa in Montana. Today’s action cites the “lack of community and outside recognition” even though the state of Montana has long recognized the tribe. Let’s hope the legislative process works better than this one.

Here’s the entire text of the story from the Associated Press:

By Matthew Brown of the Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Department of Interior has declined to formally recognize Montana’s Little Shell Tribe, its tribal chairman said Tuesday.

Tribal Chairman John Sinclair said its 4,300 members will pursue recognition through Montana’s congressional delegation, which has sponsored bills to circumvent the interior department.

“It’s going to be a lot harder. We’re going to have to fight in the House and Senate,” Sinclair said.

Nine years ago, Montana formally recognized the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The tribe has been trying to gain federal recognition since 1978.

Sinclair said the tribe was turned down over two factors: lack of community and of outside recognition.

“They’ve got their rules, and you’ve got to fit into the slot. But we know who we are,” he added.

The tribe’s drive for acknowledgment dates back to the late 1860s, when Chief Little Shell and his band were excluded from a federal treaty signed with related tribes.

Little Shell’s descendants spent time in Canada, where some married French-Canadian fur trappers whose influence can be seen in today’s tribal song, a fiddle jig.

They later returned to Montana, scattering across the northern part of the state. The largest concentration – several hundred members – lives in Great Falls.