Tribal and union leaders gathered on Capitol Hill today to kick off the Native Construction Careers Institute (NCCI), in a partnership designed to develop long-term careers in the building trades for Indian people around the country, according to this story in Indian Country Today.

The group has already launched its first project, announced Conrad Edwards, a member of the Colville Tribe and president of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights The Council represents 300 tribes and Alaska Native villages that have established what are known as Tribal Employment Rights Offices.

That initial project, funded by the federal stimulus act and administered through the Department of the Interior, is an initiative to train approximately 20 Native Americans on each of nine different reservations that have current unemployment rates in excess of 70 percent to become skilled craft professionals in various trades, writes Indian Country Today’s Rob Capriccioso

Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, said that “America’s Building Trades Unions are immensely proud to be a part of the NCCI and to work with tribal leaders to provide the much-needed training and expertise that will enable thousands of young Native Americans to secure careers as skilled craft professionals.

Ayers and Edwards will co-chair NCCI, whose board comprises union officials and 12 tribal leaders, including the chairs of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes, the Crow Nation of Montana, the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe of North Dakota, and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, buffalo post

A grand jury in South Dakota has indicted two people – one of them already facing federal charges – on state charges in connection with the 1975 shooting death of American Indian Movement activist Anna Mae Aquash.

John Graham, 53, and Thelma Rios, 64, are both charged with felony murder in relation to kidnapping and with premeditated murder in connection with the shooting death of Aquash, reports Heidi Bell Gease in this Rapid City Journal story. Each count carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison upon conviction.

Aquash’s body was found on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation some time after her death.
Graham, who’s in custody awaiting trial in federal court on similar charges, is also charged with felony murder related to rape. Rios, described as a well-known activist in Rapid City over the years, was arrested Wednesday and is being held in the Pennington County Jail on $250,000 bond.

News of the state indictment came one day after U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol agreed to another continuance in the federal case against Graham and Richard “Dickie” Marshall, who were scheduled to go to trial Oct. 7 for Aquash’s murder.

Details of the incidents allegedly surrounding Aquash’s killing came to light in the 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, who was convicted in Aquash’s murder and is serving a life sentence. Graham’s then-girlfriend testified that Rios called her in Denver and said Aquash was a government informant and needed to be brought back to Rapid City.

Looking Cloud, Graham and Theda Clark then drove Aquash to Rapid City, according to testimony at Looking Cloud’s trial. Prosecutors believe Graham then raped Aquash in Rios’s apartment.

Federal prosecutors have accused Marshall of providing the gun that was eventually used to kill Aquash. They have not said whether they plan to drop federal charges against Graham, now that he has been indicted in state court.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Anna Mae Aquash, buffalo post, Native American news, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

The Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place near Fort Pierre, S.D., has been sitting incomplete for three years now, ever since federal funds ran out.

But now work could resume if federal stimulus money comes through, according to this AP story in the Rapid City Journal. The Wakpa Sica organization is applying for $30 million in stimulus money for construction.

The center is designed to promote cultural understanding among South Dakota’s American Indian tribes and non-Indians, and would include a museum and cultural center, as well as a justice center intended as a neutral setting for settling reservation disputes. It also will display and interpret tribal history, art and culture.

Stacey LaCompte, Wakpa Sica’s executive director, says the center, once constructed, could provide jobs for as many as 200 people.

“Economic development and the judicial system go neck and neck,” LaCompte says. “Businesses can come in and feel comfortable. Lenders will have precedent to move forward – there’s something in writing that lets them feel more secure in coming to our reservations.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, buffalo post, Fort Pierre, Native American news, Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place

A couple of announcements came over the transom today with good news for Montana’s tribes.

From Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s office, the news that nearly $1 million in federal grants will go to two tribal youth programs.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and Salish Kootenai College will use a $359,667 grant to place 250 students in grade school to high school in service learning projects focusing on protecting the environment and preserving Native language and culture.

Hopa Mountain Inc. is a nonprofit organization that invests in rural and tribal citizen leaders who are working to improve education, ecological health and economic development. Its $580,000 grant will go to the Youth Leaders in Service program that fosters civic engagement for 11- to 17-year-olds.

The grants are from Learn and Serve America, a program administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Also, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s office announces that two northern Montana reservations could benefit from the latest chunk of federal stimulus change proposed for the state.

The Fort Peck-Dry Prairie Rural Water System would receive $14 million. The rural water system serves the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, as well as Valley, Daniels, Sheridan and Roosevelt counties. Once completed, the project will deliver treated water from the Missouri River through 3,200 miles of pipeline to 31,000 people in northeast Montana.

The Rocky Boy’s-North Central Montana Regional Water Authority would receive $16 million to deliver clean, safe drinking water to more than 50,000 people who live across north-central Montana. The project will eventually deliver treated water from Lake Elwell to the Chippewa Cree Tribe and 22 public water systems. Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation is currently experiencing severe shortages of clean water.

The Senate has approved the legislation funding the projects; now it goes to a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions.

And remember, here’s where you can check the flow of stimulus money into Indian Country.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Fort Peck Indian Reservaton, Hopa Mountain Inc., Native American news, Rocky Boy's Reservation, Salish Kootenai College

Oglala Woman To Head USDA Agency in South Dakota
Elsie Meeks, who is Oglala Lakota, will lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency in South Dakota, according to this Rapid City Journal story. Previously, Meeks headed the First Nations Oweesta Corp., which helps provide investment capital and assistance to help Native communities develop financial institutions.

Keep Up With Stimulus Projects in Indian Country
Rather than getting news piecemeal from around the country, here’s a government site that puts it all together. So far, it highlights the water projects on reservations, money to combat violence against Native women, and other health care efforts. Let’s keep an eye on it and see what else is in the pipeline.

Navajo Nation Marks Anniversary of Spill that Spurred Uranium Ban
There’s a reason the Dine ban uranium mining, despite intense pressure to allow it. Thirty years ago this month, what Navajo President Joe Shirley called “the largest peacetime, accidental release of radioactive contaminated materials in the history of the United States” occurred on the reservation. Some 94 million gallons of acidic water poured into the north fork of the Rio Puerco after an earthen uranium-tailings dam failed, according to this AP story in the Arizona Daily Star. Unfortunately, the incident was overshadowed by the Three Mile Island disaster the same year. But the tribe is working hard to make sure that people remember. People made a seven-mile walk last week to commemorate it.

Native Wedding Traditions
On a much happier note, Indian Country Today has this story about Jody Colbert, a member of the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma, and her Native-themed floral wedding designs. The fourth-generation granddaughter of Quanah Parker now heads Mother Earth Floral Design, which combines her beadworking skills with those as a floral designer. In addition to weddings, she also creates centerpieces for conferences.

Native-owned PR Firm is Liaison Between Indian Country, Media
Jason Oberle at American Indian Policy Blog posted an item about a 1680 PR, a Native-owned public relations firm in Albuquerque. The company is the brainchild of Herman Gallegos, who is Jicarilla Apache, and Ken Lingad of Isleta Pueblo. Read the post here.

Preserving Native Languages, Ten Teens at a Time
NPR had this piece this morning on efforts to preserve Native languages. It focuses largely on a program in Utah aimed at Shoshone teenagers, but also mentions other efforts.

And Native Radio Stations, Too
NPR followed up its story on languages with this piece on the proliferation of radio stations on reservations. Both stories make for very enjoyable listening.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Apache, buffalo post, Comanche, Indian Country Stimulus Plan, Native American news, Navajo, Oglala Lakota, Shoshone, USDA

The South Dakota reservation is finally getting a new health center, three times the size of the old one, thanks to the federal stimulus program, according to this New York Times story. That’s the good news, and we’re inclined to focus on that, given that it’s the start of a new week.

The bad? The poignant paragraphs in the story that say people on the reservation are so accustomed to promises vanishing into thin air that they really don’t believe the health center will be completed. That’s because the new hospital was approved by the Indian Health Service seven years ago. The tribe’s been waiting for a new hospital ever since. The problem? A few details – oh, let’s say funding – never got resolved.

There is, said tribal member John Hunt, who works for the contractor building the site, “a lot of disbelief. A lot of – ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’ ”

Despite the fact that the money is finally in hand (!) some details are still hanging. The new center won’t have a CT scanner. The Times points out that the nearest one is three hours away, in Rapid City.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, buffalo post, Cheyenne River Sioux, Native American news

Still more details are trickling in (sorry, couldn’t resist) about the water projects on reser-vations being funded by the federal stimulus. Turns out that the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota is getting the biggest chunk – $3.2 million – of the $9.5 million in allocations to reservations in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, according to this story in the Rapid City Journal.

It may be a drop in the bucket (ahem) compared to what’s needed, but gosh, it’s good to report good news.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, buffalo post, Native American news, Rosebud Sioux

Yesterday, we wrote about the stimulus money being directed to water projects on Indian reservations. Today, a news release from the offices of U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, details how it will play out on five Montana reservations:

* The Crow Tribe on the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana will receive $1,033,610 to improve their sewer and water lagoon infrastructure.

* The Chippewa Cree Tribe on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in north central Montana will receive $542,710 to repair the wastewater lagoon.

* The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes on the Fort Peck Reservation in north east Montana will receive $589,680 to improve their wastewater infrastructure by stabilizing the walls of the water lagoon.

* The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes on the Fort Belknap Reservation in north central Montana will receive $572,700 to make upgrades to the water treatment plant.

* The Blackfeet Tribe on the Blackfeet Reservation in north west Montana will receive $29,900 to improve drinking water infrastructure by fixing a water main.

“This money will make such a difference for the folks in Indian Country,” Baucus said. “These are critical upgrades to water infrastructure that will help the entire community’s health, safety and economic development.”

“Access to clean water is essential for healthy communities, and this money will go a long ways toward making that a reality for Montana’s Indian Country,” said Tester, a member of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Add new tag, American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Assiniboine, Blackfeet, buffalo post, Chippewa Cree, Crow Tribe, Gros Ventre, Native American news, Sioux