Several tribes are asking for more organization when it comes to managing bison in Yellowstone National Park.

The Bozeman Chronicle reports:

Representatives from the Nez Perce tribe, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes and the Intertribal Buffalo Council said there was a lack of protocol and choreography among the groups involved and asked that there be a written procedure for the way they make decisions, meet and conduct business.

Representatives from several government agencies said they agreed written protocol as needed.

Those at the meeting also asked about the fate of bison that are part of a quarantine project. The animals in question do not have brucellosis, a disease that can cause miscarriages. The disease has made bison a controversial topic once they wander onto state land because of a fear that the sickness could spread to cattle and threaten the livestock industry.

Pat Flowers, Region 3 supervisor for FWP, said environmental assessments are ongoing at four locations where quarantined bison could temporarily be taken. Flowers noted that though the Department of Livestock tends to have a say in the management of potentially infected bison in the state, it would not have jurisdiction over the quarantined animals because they are disease-free.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: bison, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, intertribal buffalo council, Nez Perce, Yellowstone National Park

Since I began moderating this blog more than a year ago, I’ve posted nearly every day – something that has made for a rich and intensive learning experience.

But now it’s time for a little break, for a family trip to Glacier National Park

It’s a place that, as this story by the Missoulian’s Michael Jamison showed, has a long and tangled history with the tribes around it. Note that these days, they live around it — despite the fact that the region is their ancestral territory.

The park in recent years has done much to acknowledge that history, scheduling talks by Native American speakers nearly every night. So the learning experience, even on vacation, will continue. That’s a good thing.

In the meantime, if you’re on vacation — or even just have this weekend off — here are a couple of interesting events:

The 133rd Commemoration of the Big Hole Battle will take place Saturday in southwestern Montana when Nez Perce veterans and tribal elders honor all who have fought and died on the battlefield through pipe and empty saddle ceremonies. Commemorative activities will begin at approximately 10 a.m. near the Nez Perce Camp, a 3/4-mile walk from the lower parking lot. Bring water, sunscreen and a folding chair or blanket. A minivan will be available to assist those with small children and/or walking limitations. Tours of the battlefield also will be available.

Also this weekend, the Big Hole summer speaker series will feature Michael Penney along with Nez Perce Nation Drum. Their presentations will take place at the battlefield contact station following the commemorative events and at noon Sunday. A campfire program will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the May Creek Campground, located seven miles west of the battlefield on Highway 43. Admission to all the events is free.

And Flagstaff, Ariz., is hosting the 61st annual Navajo Festival of Arts and Culture. It runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days at the Museum of Northern Arizona, 3101 N. Fort Valley Road, and will feature the following, according to the Flagstaff Daily Sun:

– More than 75 Navajo artists, performers and artisans will gather at the festival, bringing their work to market and sharing what makes it distinctive. There will also be kids’ activities and food.

- A dedication to the late Alice Nez Horseherder, a lifelong sheep herder and weaver from Hard Rock in Arizona’s Black Mesa region. She died in 2009 at the age of 102.

- Performances by Blackfire, an award-winning alternative/punk/Native rock band that tackles socio-political messages. Blackfire, made up of siblings Klee, Clayson and Jeneda Bennally, has fans around the world.

- The Pollen Trail Dancers will perform colorful social and storytelling summertime dances, including the Dance of the Holy People, the Corn Grinding Dance, the Sash Belt or Weaving Dance, the Basket Dance, and the Bow and Arrow Dance.

- Grammy-nominated flutist and guitarist Aaron White will perform original songs and talk about the history of the Navajo flute.

- Radmilla Cody will serve as emcee in the Heritage Insights tent and sing traditional Navajo songs. Also, the film “Hearing Radmilla,” the story of Cody, the first bi-racial Miss Navajo Nation.

- Clarence Clearwater, who is known for entertaining passengers on the Grand Canyon Railway, will perform traditional and contemporary songs.

Festival admission is $7 adults, $6 seniors (65+), $5 students, $4 Native people, $4 children (7-17), and free to museum members. For more information, call 774-5213 or visit musnaz.org.

We’ll be back midweek next week!

Gwen Florio

Tags: Blackfeet, Chief Joseph, Glacker National Park, Navajo, Nez Perce

Indian Country Today’s Richard Walker takes a look, here at four Native American candidates running for Congress in Washington state.

They are:

Dino Rossi, who is of Tlingit, Irish and Italian ancestry, is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. In a fairly standard campaign kickoff ad from him, above, he mentions his Italian grandparents, but not his Native heritage.

As Walker writes:

Rossi’s Tlingit ancestry has been mentioned in official biographies, but he talked more openly about it in the 2008 campaign than in 2004. A group called Swift Canoe Indians for Truth accused Rossi of pandering in the 2008 election, saying he needed the Native vote to win.

The group ran YouTube clips of TV interviews in which Rossi characterized contributions from tribal governments to his opponent’s campaign as “money laundering.” Rossi also said he opposed tribal gaming.

Also running are:

Jeff Morris, Tsimshian, is running for an eighth term as state representative from the 40th House District

John McCoy, Tulalip, is running for a fifth term as state representative from the 38th House District.

And Claudia Kauffman, Nez Perce, seeks a second four-year term as state senator from the 47th District.

Walker’s story also looks at other Native American and Alaska Native candidates in Washington state, and includes mini-profiles and where they stand on the issues. Check it out.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Claudia Kauffman, Dino Rossi, Jeff Morris, John McCoy, Nez Perce, Tlingit, tsimshian, Tulalip, U.S. House, U.S. Senate

School can’t oust Lipan Apache boy over braids
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Needville (Texas) Independent School District can’t punish a Lipan Apache boy for wearing his hair in braids. Kenney Arocha and Michelle Betenbaugh had argued that their son’s hair, which has never been cut, conforms to their Native American religious beliefs, according to the Houston Chronicle, here.

Federal disaster declaration for Rocky Boy’s Reservation
President Barack Obama yesterday declared the Rocky Boy’s Reservation a disaster area, making it eligible for federal money for repairs. Flooding on the reservation broke water lines, leaving hundreds of members of the Chippewa Cree tribe without water for two weeks and causing millions of dollars in damage, according to this Associated Press story.

Navajo Nation Supreme Court says no third term for president
The Navajo Supreme Court has denied President Joe Shirley Jr.’s quest for a third consecutive term, the AP reports here. “I respect the decision of our Supreme Court justices,” Shirley said. “They had the final say. They decided and now I know that this is the end of it.”

Report details abuse of indigenous people in Peru
A report by the Missionary Indigenous Council takes a look at the treatment of indigenous people in Brazil. The report shows they are dealt abuse by police and landowners, lack proper nutrition and health care, and crowded out of their homelands by vast public works such as the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the state of Para. Read more in this Agence France-Presse story.

New Nez Perce National Historic Trail map released
A new map of the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail is now available at Forest Service and National Park Service offices and online through Discover Your Northwest, the National Forest Store and the USGS Store, according to the Char-Koosta News, here. The map details locations along the 1,170 mile trail. Or, you can see it online here.

Aboriginal warrior’s remains, once displayed in museum, are reburied
A 19th century Aboriginal warrior named Yagan whose severed head once was displayed in British museum, has been reburied with proper ceremony in western Australia. The Associated Press reports here that the private ceremony was held yesterday by the Noongar Tribe, and coincides with the opening of the Yagan Memorial Park outside of Perth.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, aboriginal, Belo Monte dam, Brazil, Chippewa Cree Tribe, Disaster aid, Discover Your Northwest, indigenous, Joe Shirley Jr., Lipan Apache, Missionary Indigenous Council, National Forest Store, National Park Service, Navajo Nation, Navajo Supreme Court, Nee-Me-Poo, Needville Independent School District, Nez Perce, Nez Perce National Historic Trail, Noongar Tribe, President Barack Obama, Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, U.S. Forest Service, USGS Store, Yagan, Yagan Memorial Park

Here’s the story from John Miller of the Associated Press:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – The Nez Perce Tribe in north-central Idaho said Friday it doesn’t want 200 oversized loads of oilfield equipment traveling a reservation highway en route to an oil sands project in Canada.

The tribal government passed a resolution concluding the giant shipments, scheduled to move at night starting this fall along U.S. Highway 12, “would establish a dangerous and unacceptable precedent in one of the most beautiful and pristine federally protected corridors in the U.S.”

The Nez Perce also wrote that extracting petroleum from the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta was an “environmentally destructive method … that will have profound negative impacts on the First Nations communities of Canada.”

The shipment route, starting from the Snake River port of Lewiston, follows the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers through 70 miles of the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. The oversized loads will come over Lolo Pass and through Missoula en route to Canada.

With its resolution, the tribe joins others who fear potential environmental and safety risks from loads that could weigh up to 140 tons and be 170- to 210-feet long.

“The tribe will explore all options in terms of achieving our policy goals,” tribal attorney Mike Lopez said Friday, adding the Nez Perce haven’t considered a blockade to thwart the shipments.

“The tribe is aware that the state has a right of way though the Nez Perce Reservation,” Lopez said. “The tribe hasn’t considered pursuing that possible avenue yet.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alberta oil sands, Alberta tar sands, buffalo post, Clearwater River, ExxonMobil Corp., Gwen Florio, Idaho Transportation Department, Imperial Oil, Kearl Oil Sands, Lochsa River, Native American news, Nez Perce, Snake River

Chaske Spencer may be best known now for role as Sam Uley, the alpha wolf in “New Moon,” the second movie in the insanely popular “Twilight” series.

But in Montana, folks remember him for his roots on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Spencer lived on the reservation town of Poplar from from 1987 to 1991, Elizabeth Harrison of the Great Falls Tribune reports here.

There, his mom Jan Spencer tells Harrison, he sang in a Christmas play with his school and went to a theater arts program in Helena during the summer of 1987.

“He wanted to audition and had a real interest in acting, movies, arts, music — down that line,” she says.

A significant part of the “Twilight” series centers on the Quileute Nation on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and the movies feature many Native actors.

Spencer is an enrolled member of the Assiniboine Sioux tribe on his mother’s side and the Nez Perce tribe on his father’s side – yet says “I’ve lost roles because I wasn’t Indian enough. I can’t figure it out, and I don’t want to waste time trying to figure it out.”

After a stint at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, Spender took off for New York with $100 in his pocket and a one-way ticket, Harrison reports.

He looks back on the move as “Pure stupidity. I don’t think I actually thought about it. So, would I do it again? I probably would. I always liked taking risks like that. I don’t recommend it to everybody.”

Clearly, the risk was worth it!

Gwen Florio

Tags: "New Moon", "Twilight", Assiniboine, buffalo post, Chaske Spencer, Fort Peck Reservation, Native American news, Nez Perce, Quileute Nation, Sam Uley

Anyone who ever watched the “Northern Exposure” – the early 1990s hit TV series that featured a big-city doctor coping with life in a small Alaska town – remembers Marilyn Whirlwind, the doctor’s receptionist, whose deadpan humor frequently flattened his stereotypes.

Elaine Miles, the actress who played Marilyn, says it was a total accident that she got the part.

Miles recalled her work on the series yesterday to a group of students at Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon, according to this East Oregonian story.

Her mom, Armenia Miles, actually was the one to answer the casting call for Native women. Elaine Miles, who is Nez Perce and Cayuse and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, was just along for the ride. But one of the show’s agents saw her and asked her to read.

For the record, writes Kathy Aney, her mom also got a part in the show.

“Marilyn was like a jack of all trades,” Miles recalls. “She spoke French. She played piano. She learned how to Cajun dance.”

Miles says that throughout her acting career, she’s fought stereotypes of Native American women. For instance, on “Northern Exposure,” she wore her hair long and loose, despite constant pressure to braid it.

She also made sure the show correctly portrayed Alaskan Native dress and customs, rather than mixing them up with practices of other tribes.

Aney writes that “in 1994, Miles was torn between attending two different award ceremonies scheduled for the same night. One was the Screen Actors Guild Awards – the cast was nominated for best cast in a comedy series. The other was a First Americans in the Arts award that honors American Indian participation in the arts. Despite pressure to attend the Screen Actors Guild, she chose the First American gathering.”

Miles has appeared in “Tortilla Heaven,” “Skins,” “Smoke Signals,” “The Business of Fancy Dancing,” “Scattering Dad,” “Pandora’s Clock,” “Mad Love,” and, this year, “Wyvern” on the Sci Fi channel. She also does stand-up comedy and appeared in a Canadian TV series, “The Rez.”

She also created created “RezRobics,” a workout video that encourages Native Americans to avoid diabetes and other health problems with exercise.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Mad Love", "Northern Exposure", "Pandora's Clock", "Scattering Dad", "Smoke Signals", "The Business of Fancy Dancing", "The Rez", "Tortilla Heaven", "Wyvern", Blue Mountain Community College, Cayuse, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Elaine Miles, First Americans in the Arts, Nez Perce, Screen Actors Guild

Many places will commemorate Columbus Day on Monday. For some people, that means a long weekend. For others – and not only Native Americans – it’s an affront. Lots of news organizations weighed in on the topic. Here’s a sampling:

The Wall Street Journal gets us started, with this story archly headlined “Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar?” It outlines the various ways in which places celebrate the day – or have decided not to. And even the ones that do tread lightly.As Dan Williamson, a spokesman for Mayor Michael B. Coleman of Columbus, Ohio, says: “It would be stupid to pretend there is no controversy around Christopher Columbus.”

In Barre and Montpelier, Vermont, the Times-Argus features letters from Spaulding High School students on the topic. One of those students, Jacob Eli Trepanier, recommends replacing the current parades and other celebrations with a moment of silence in recognition of the slaughter and suffering of Native people that began with Columbus’ arrival. (Read his letter and the others here.)

This Christian Science Monitor piece recounts how Hawaii has changed the name of the holiday to Discover’s Day – and goes on to suggest changing it, nationwide, yet again to honor a Native American, such as Crazy Horse or Chief Joseph. And it quotes the latter, terming his words a “distinctly American” philosophy:

“Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think, and act for myself – and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.”

In Denver, which has seen decades of controversy and violent protest surrounding that city’s Columbus Day celebration, things are even uneasier than usual this year as a result of a false report that the scheduled Columbus Day parade had been canceled, HispanicBusiness.com reports here. The same story quotes an organizer of the parade, a member of the Sons of Italy, as saying he felt personally wounded, as he feels the parade celebrates his heritage.

I heard that argument a lot when I lived and worked in Denver, with its rich mix of Native, Hispanic and Italian communities, all of whom took an intense interest in the day’s activities. Given that my grandparents came to this country from Italy, some of those people figured they knew where I stood on the subject. And indeed, there’s much in my heritage to honor. But Columbus? Please. This particular Italian finds nothing there to be proud of.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Chief Joseph, Columbus Day, Native American news, Nez Perce

“This ride is so much more than just a ride,” says Seymour Young of the annual trail ride that takes one week each year to tackle a stretch of the 1,350-mile route taken by Chief Joseph as he tried to find safety for his people.

This year, the ride stopped at the Big Hole Battlefield in southwestern Montana, where 140 people – both Indians and U.S. soldiers – died in 1877 when soldiers and civilian volunteers attacked a Nez Perce camp as people slept.

“It’s hard to really talk about it,” a tearful Bonnie Ewing, founder of the Chief Joseph Foundation, told Ravalli Republic reporter Will Moss (here).

Young Dog says he has “really mixed feelings” about the ride – “Mixed feelings means my feelings are really low ands really deep because of what they did to the Indian people. I get a big ol’ lump in my throat and I want to cry.” But on the other hand, says Young Dog, who drummed and sang through his tears as riders came into the battlefield, he and the other riders are survivors.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Chief Joseph, Native American news, Nez Perce, Oglala Lakota