Here’s an interesting story from Matthew Brown of the Associated Press:

BILLINGS (AP) – American Indian leaders on Thursday asked Congress to streamline the development of energy projects on tribal lands by curbing some federal oversight and providing incentives for companies to strike deals with reservations.

Reservations from Oklahoma to Montana and Alaska sit atop large amounts of oil, natural gas and coal. Others in wind-swept regions of the Northern Plains and on the West Coast have huge renewable energy potential.

But existing government rules make it easier for energy companies to pursue projects on non-tribal land, some members of Congress and tribal leaders say. As a result, tribes often miss out on the chance to develop their natural resources.

“Tribes in some of the poorest counties in America have vast renewable energy resources that can help them overcome poverty,” said Joe Garcia, Chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council of New Mexico.

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Tags: All Indian Pueblo Council, buffalo post, Congress, D-N.D., Energy development, environment, Gwen Florio, Indian reservations, National Wildlife Federation, Native American news, R-Wyoming, Sen. John Barrasso, Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Sovereignty, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan

More than 100 people protested outside the New York Appeals Court today during a hearing on whether the state has the authority to tax Indian cigarettes.

Inside the courthouse, prosecutors contended that the state can both impose the tax, and prosecute those who sell tribal cigarettes to nontribal people without taxing the smokes, according to this Associated Press story by John Kekis and Michael Virtanen.

But Cayuga Nation attorney David DeBruin said that would violate tribal rights.

Outside, the Seneca Nation’s Arthur Montour Jr. told protesters that “We are being attacked today. We are nontaxable. We are not under the thumb of New York state. It’s up to us to decide. There is nothing to negotiate, no matter what those black robes say. We will be there to defend.”

As the AP reports:

More than one-third of the cigarettes sold in New York by licensed agents go without tax stamps to Native American merchants, according to state officials. If all were stamped and taxed, New York would have collected $825 million more in 2008. Seneca and Cayuga county officials estimate the Cayugas’s LakeSide Trading stores in Union Springs and Seneca Falls owe $485,000 in state excise taxes.

Laws requiring taxes on the cigarettes have been on the books for years, but the state never enforced them. Now, with New York looking to make up budget shortfalls due to the recession, the taxes are being eyed anew.

A ruling by the court is expected next month.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Cattaraugus Reservation, Cayuga Nation, Gwen Florio, Lakeside Springs, New York, NY, Onondaga County Courthouse, Seneca Falls, Seneca Nation, Sovereignty, tribal cigarettes

In the past, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle has opposed congressional bills giving sovereignty to Native Hawaiians. No more.

She’s sent a letter to every U.S. senator opposing the latest bill that would allow Hawaii’s Native people to form a sovereign government, according to this Honolulu Star Bulletin story by Richard Borreca.

She said, he writes, that the bill moves too fast and goes too far. And she tells reporters that the bill would exempt Native Hawaiians “from many state laws and that is a big problem.”

But Hawaii Sen. Dan Akaka says that “the issues raised by the governor are not new. … In fact, many of the state’s concerns were accommodated and additional language was included in the bill which passed the House of Representatives last month.”

Both he and Sen. Daniel Inouye say the bill will probably pass. Akaka and Inouye are Democrats; Lingle is a Republican.

“With the Obama White House we have the opportunity, at long last, to provide for a meaningful process of self-determination for native Hawaiians in a manner akin to the other indigenous people of this land. I look forward to a vigorous debate and historic passage,” Inouye says.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, D-Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle, Gwen Florio, Native American news, Native Hawaiian, Sovereignty, U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, U.S. Senate

The Vancouver Olympics begin tonight with an opening extravaganza that will include an unprecedented amount of participation by First Nations members.

That fact stirs both pride and, as NPR’s Martin Kaste says here, resentment. The 2010 Winter Games are taking place on land never formally ceded to the Canadian government.

Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, says that “Unlike the rest of Canada, we have not entered into nor have we signed treaties, and therefore we still enjoy unextinguished aboriginal title to all the land and resources of British Columbia.”

He won’t be attending tonight’s ceremonies. “I don’t think it’s proper for me to stand there and hold hands with government officials and be part of the misrepresentation of the well-being of our people.”

But Tewanee Joseph, who is Squamish and who heads the Four Host First Nations that partnered in Olympic planning, says that partnership is not just for show.

Our chief said, ‘We’re not going to be just brought out for beads and feathers,’ ” Joseph says. ‘This has to be real participation.’ ”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, First Nations, Four Host First Nations, Native American news, Sovereignty, Squamish, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, Vancouver Olympics

Here‘s the entire story from the Associated Press:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – An American Indian tribe in Idaho wants to give its police more power.

The Couer d’Alene tribe introduced legislation Tuesday that would allow its police to arrest non-tribal members accused of violating state law on reservations. The measure was unanimously approved by the House Judiciary committee Tuesday.

Tribe lobbyist Bill Roden told the committee that tribal officers would have to be certified by the state police academy, as Coeur d’Alene tribal officers are now.

The legislation was prompted by a dispute between the Couer d’Alene tribe and a local sheriff.

Roden says Couer d’Alene police often address crime committed by non-tribal members because tribal members make up a minority of people living on the northern Idaho reservation.

Tags: buffalo post, Couer d'Alene Tribe, Idaho Legislature, Native American news, Sovereignty, Tribal police

As Crow Creek Sioux tribal Chairman Brandon Sazue continues his lonely, cold vigil on contested land on his tribe’s reservation, a move is afoot to replace his aging trailer with a tipi.

Since last month, Sazue has camped in the trailer on 7,100 acres sold by the IRS to pay a tax bill. But, as correspondent Stephanie Woodard writes here in Indian Country Today, the tribe contends that it doesn’t owe the money, and that besides, the IRS cannot sell the land of a sovereign nation.

Now, Gary LaPointe, of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, is trying to raise money to put up a large, lined tipi or two on the property.

The Navy veteran runs Northwest Tipi Sales and Rentals in Seattle.

“Large tipis, like the ones I want to acquire for Crow Creek, can cost somewhat over $3,000. They’re made of heavy canvas, with an outer layer as well as an inner lining that’ll be essential for the tribe’s chairman, Brandon Sazue, who is praying and fasting at the site – ‘forever, if necessary,’ he says. It’s very cold and snowy in the Dakotas now, so Chairman Sazue will need the additional protection from the weather a liner provides.”

Besides, says LaPointe, “what’s happening there affects all of Indian country. If their land can be seized, it can happen to any tribe.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Crow Creek Reservation, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Internal Revenue Service, Sovereignty

Indian Country Today finishes out the year – and the decade – with this piece that recounts the efforts by indigenous communities around the world for greater autonomy.

Most indigenous peoples are happy to join nation-states as citizens, but also want to enjoy the rights and privileges of indigenous peoples and nations. They prefer to live on their land, maintain considerable capability to make political, economic, and cultural decisions about issues that affect their interests, and future. Whenever indigenous communities are ignored by the central government authorities, they tend to maintain their cultures, social and political organization in an underground way that is hidden from the state system.

No group should have to operate underground. Not only does greater autonomy strengthen the groups in question, it also benefits the communities and governments that surround them by making for far stronger, healthier and better-informed, and ultimately – we have to believe this – more respectful societies. Let’s hope we see more of it in the next decade.

Happy New Year.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, indigenous, Native American news, Sovereignty

For more than two weeks now, Crow Creek Sioux tribal Chairman Brandon Sazue has been camped out in a trailer on 7,100 acres of reservation land recently auctioned off by the Internal Revenue Service to pay a tax bill the tribe says the IRS has no right to collect.

Sazue tells Indian Country Today correspondent Stephanie Woodard, here, that “I’m not going anywhere. This land never was and never will be for sale. Not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow. As chairman, I inherited the tax problem and tried to work with the IRS. They claim they ‘consulted’ with us, but all they did was tell us ‘here’s how it’s going to go.’” Woodard writes:

The IRS action appears to fly in the face of legal precedents as far back as a 1790 law prohibiting the transfer of Indian land without a treaty, according to a legal memorandum drawn up by the tribe’s attorneys, Mario Gonzalez, Oglala Lakota and Terry L. Pechota, Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The document was filed Dec. 2 in U.S. District Court in an effort to stop the sale. That request was denied; however, a trial will take place in March, during which the tribe will attempt to regain the site.

“It’s the Black Hills gold rush all over again,” said historian Waziyatawin, Ph.D., Wahpetowan Dakota from Upper Sioux and a University of Victoria research scholar. “Nowadays, the press is reporting on a green energy land rush and Department of the Interior efforts to free up millions of acres for wind and solar development. Open prairie land, such as that on Indian reservations in the Plains, is suitable for such enterprises. So the U.S. government is going after the poorest of the poor to find the resources it needs.”

Sazue says the tribe has “profound connections” to the land. “Our ancestors are buried here, and tribal members come to collect sage and other traditional medicines.”

Sazue’s standoff is playing out against the backdrop of another crisis on the Crow Creek Reservation. Despite subzero cold this winter, the electric company has been disconnecting power to many people’s home, saying they haven’t paid their bills – something that most power companies aren’t allowed to do in winter.

See a video about that issue, here.

This petition demands the return of Crow Creek lands.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Crow Creek Sioux, Internal Revenue Service, Native American news, Sovereignty, Waziyatawin

The Olympic torch relay passed through the Six Nations in Ontario last night, but only after the route had been altered under threat of protests.

The CanWest news service reports here that more than 1,000 people gathered to watch the flame being passed among 25 Six Nations torchbearers who jogged around a bingo hall, instead of through town as originally planned.

The idea was that any protests might be more easily contained in the new site. Some protesters were on the reserve southwest of Toronto that has the largest population of all of Canada’s First Nations.

The protesters carried signs that read, “No Torch, No Trespassing” and said they wanted to call attention to unfair treatment of indigenous people in Canada.

Among the torchbearers was Caytlen Burning, 12, a Six Nations resident who runs mid-distance races.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics and this is encouraging me to follow my dream,” she says.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Vancouver Olympics, buffalo post, First Nations, Native American news, Six Nations, Sovereignty