A number of seeds from Native American chilies are being stored in the so-called Doomsday Vault on the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard, between Norway and Greenland, according to this interesting and entertaining BBC report.

The center, built deep inside a mountain in 2008, is designed to protect the world’s main food plants in case of a disaster.

It stores seeds from more than half a million crops:

“The chillies really are an interesting story,” said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which funds the operation and management of the seed vault.

They are traditional varieties; they have colourful names and histories,” he told BBC News.

“A number of the varieties were provided by a fantastic group of nine US government organisations called Native Seed Search who work with Native American communities.”

The peppers include Wenk’s Yellow Hots, a pepper that starts out yellow and hot before losing some of its potency and turning red. There’s also the San Juan Tsile, described as “ranging as anything from mild to medium to hot.”

The BBC reports the San Juan Tsile is still cultivated by Native American elders in New Mexico.

Those seeds, along with others, came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Plant Germplasm, based in Colorado.

Now you know.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Doomsday Vault, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Gwen Florio, National Plant Germplasm, Native American agriculture, Native American news, Native Seed Search, San Juan Tsile, Svalbard, U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, Wenk's Yellow Hots

Tribes who oppose construction at Arizona Snowbowl, because wastewater is used in snowmaking on their sacred sites, have asked a judge to stop construction there, the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff reports here:

Attorney Howard Shanker filed a request for a temporary restraining order on Tuesday with Judge Mary Murguia, in the U.S. District Court for Arizona.

The action comes after Friday’s decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow snowmaking and related construction on the (San Francisco) Peaks, an approval that becomes effective next week.

Shanker’s tribal clients failed to prevail in court in arguing that making snow with reclaimed wastewater on the sacred San Francisco Peaks violated their religious freedom.

A court hearing is scheduled for next week on the issue. Meanwhile, the Daily Sun writes that Snowbowl owner Eric Borowsky has said he will ask the Flagstaff City Council for potable water.

That would necessitate approval of a new contract from the council, which has already approved the sale of reclaimed wastewater to Snowbowl. Potable water is, of course, more expensive than wastewater.

Thirteen tribes consider the mountains sacred. Only the Navajo Nation has said the potable water would be preferable.

The Daily Sun lists the following as claimants: Save the Peaks Coalition and Kristin Huisinga, Clayson Benally, Sylvan Grey, Don Fanning, Jeneda Benally, Frederica Hall, Berta Benally, Rachel Tso and Lisa Tso.

A Daily Sun editorial, here, counsels restraint – and communication:

We’d urge Snowbowl to hold off before cutting any trees up on the mountain. There appear to be a lot of loose ends to tie up, and we’d hate to see something done today that we all might want to see undone tomorrow.

Our recommendation remains to get all parties to the same table to talk it out, not negotiate separately, as the Forest Service and now the USDA appear to have done.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Judge Mary Murguia, Native American news, Navajo Nation, San Francisco Peaks, Snowbowl, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Court

Happy Father’s Day!
Jim Boyd’s song, “Father and Farther,” was featured in “Smoke Signals,” the movie based on Sherman Alexie’s short stories. Meanwhile, in Carroll County, Ark., the annual Father’s Day Powwow is going on this weekend, according to this Carroll County News story. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!

Sounding off on New York’s latest cigarette tax plan aimed at Native Americans
Managing editor Eric DuVall of the Tonawanda News does not think much of New York’s plan to tax tribes’ cigarette sales. Of the complicated plan, he says here: “Either system would be surely subjected to a court review, and considering either system does mean that Native Americans will be taxed on sales to fellow Native Americans, it’s likely to be struck down. And if it isn’t, I sincerely hope they go back to burning tires on the Thruway.”

Deadline extended in Keepseagle suit on behalf of Indian farmers and ranchers
Shades of Cobell – the deadline to settle a lawsuit on behalf of Native American farmers and ranchers denied access to USDA loans has been extended until July 29. A tentative agreement in a similar case involve Hispanic ranchers reportedly has been reached, Rob Capriccioso of Indian Country Today writes here. A report in the Keepseagle v. Vilsack case estimates Native farmers and ranchers were denied about $3 billion in credit, resulting in between $500 million and $1 billion in damages.

Salish language camp attracts students of all ages
Last week’s Salish language camp on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana was a blend of old and new, B.L. Azure writes here in the Char-Koosta News. Part of the Salish Language and Culture Camp held by the Salish Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee involved lessons by Shirley Trahan, who used a MacBook Pro computer loaded with the Salish language font.

Wisconsin tells school to dump Ho-Chunk chief logo
The state of Wisconsin wants the Osseo-Fairchild high school to ditch its nickname — the Chieftains — and logo of a Ho-Chunk chief. Local parents Harvey and Carol Gunderson filed a complaint about the logo. “It’s about a matter of psychological harm to students. Research has found that it lowers the self-esteem of American-Indian students, but it raises the self-esteem of European-American students,” Harvey Gunderson tells WQOW, here. The state agrees, but a school board member is fighting the order. A hearing is set for June 28.

Gwen Florio

Tags: cigarette tax, Father's Day, Flathead Indian Reservation, George Keepseagle, Ho-Chunk, Keepseagle v. Vilsack, MacBook Pro, Native American farmers, Native American ranchers, Native American sovereignty, New York, Osseo-Fairchild High School, Salish, Salish Language and Culture Camp, Salish Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee, school mascots, Tribal cigarette sales, U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA

This just in from The Hill’s Briefing Room blog. The Hill is the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill.

Republic Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma moved today to effectively block funds to compensate Native American and black farmers who were victims of discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Hill writes:

(Senate Majority Leader Harry) Reid blamed Republicans for denying much-needed funds to farmers who have been discriminated against by USDA.

“There is no excuse for Republicans to continue to employ these partisan delay tactics — in this case, as in so many others, they are only hurting those who were wronged and are fighting for what is rightfully theirs,” Reid said in a statement. “My view on this is simple: justice delayed is justice denied.”

But Coburn accused Reid of trying to push the measure through on a slow Friday and said he should wait until the full Senate can consider it.

And Coburn issued a statement of his own:

“By dropping a racially charged measure into a $5.1 billion disaster bill at the last minute, he was essentially threatening senators to give their immediate consent or risk being demonized. I am not intimidated by the majority leader’s gambit, and I’m confident the voters will sort who is playing partisan politics in November.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Native American farmers and ranchers, Native American news, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, USDA

When the historic $3.4 billion Cobell v. Salazar settlement was announced last fall, it was heralded as cause for celebration, something that would finally address – however short it fell of the actual mark – decades of Indian people being swindled out of the trust money due them from the federal government.

That settlement, in turn, gave rise to hope that the Keepseagle v. Vilsack case would soon be resolved, too. That case involves Indian farmers and ranchers being denied the sorts of U.S. Department of Agriculture loans readily given their white neighbors.

It’s going on six months since the Cobell settlement, and no one has seen a dime. That’s because Congress has three times delayed signing off on it, to the point where a judge had to order a May 31 deadline.

Meanwhile, the two sides in the Keepseagle case, whose settlement once appeared imminent, are said to still be far apart.

Indian Country Today’s Rob Capriccioso explores the holdups here. Check it out.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, George Keepseagle, Gwen Florio, Indian farmers and ranchers, Indian trust case, Keespeagle v. Vilsack, Native American news, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Interior Department

April 15 is the day taxes are due, but this year, the date has special significance for Native American farmers and ranchers who lost out on millions of dollars in loans from the federal government.

That’s the day a status report is due in the case of Keepseagle v. Vilsack, as in U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The case is a huge discrimination lawsuit against the USDA, which alleges the agency favored white farmers and ranchers over Native Americans when it gave out loans – resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in credit over a quarter-century, according to this National Law Journal story by Marcia Coyle. It says the agency also ignored complaints by Native farmers and ranchers.

Vilsack is seeking a settlement in the case, originally filed in 1999, so U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia agreed to halt the litigation for 60 days.

That stay runs out April 21, with the status report due to Sullivan next week.

“We are nowhere close to a settlement, but it remains to be seen what our clients are prepared to do in connection with the stay,” says lead counsel Joseph Sellers, of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington, D.C.

“Given the case has been pending more than 10 years and has lost some of the named plaintiffs, the passage of time can be very cruel,” he tells Coyle. “The concern is moving the case along, whether through settlement or continuing the litigation.”

She writes that:

U.S. Reps. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., and Tom Cole, R-Okla., co-chairs of the Native American Caucus, sent a letter on March 26 urging Vilsack to settle the litigation on terms comparable to the department’s recent settlement with African-American farmers. The department settled late-filed claims of black farmers for $1.25 billion, in addition to the $1 billion previously awarded for timely filed claims in that litigation.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, D-Mich., George Keepseagle, Gwen Florio, Keepseagle v. Vilsack, Native American Caucus, Native American farmers, Native American news, R-Okla., U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole

New data show that American Indian farmers generally have more land but less money than others and are less likely to receive government aid – something that would seem to support a suit filed a decade ago by Native farmers.

This AP story details Census data that points out those discrepancies:

The census found stark differences between the nation’s 80,000 American Indian farmers and those of other races. The typical American farm is 400 acres, but American Indian farmers average about 1,400 acres. Many are ranchers. Most live in the desert Southwest, Oklahoma or Montana.

Their farms average about $40,000 a year in sales, compared to $135,000 for farms overall. But relatively few get government aid — only 13 percent, compared to 39 percent of white farmers.

George Keepseagle, the North Dakota farmer who filed the lawsuit, attributes the differences to discrimination.

“Native Americans are stereotyped, either as drunk or lazy, and not capable of, I guess, competing with white farmers and ranchers,” Keepseagle says. “White people farm here, too, but they can get financing and we can’t.”

A hearing set for next month in the long-running suit, but Keepseagle fears resolution will come too late.

“If that happens, we have basically worked all our life for nothing,” he says. “It’s devastating.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, George Keespeagle, Native American farmers, Native American news, U.S. Department of Agriculture

This appears to be a day for movement in long-running federal lawsuits. Here’s the latest on the suit filed by Native American farmers against the USDA:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has approved settlement talks in a decade-old discrimination lawsuit filed by American Indians against the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Both sides asked Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington for 60 days of settlement talks. Sullivan moved a status hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday to Feb. 10.

The lawsuit contends Indian farmers and ranchers lost hundreds of millions of dollars during the past three decades because of discrimination in lending by the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency.

It was filed in 1999 by a couple who ranch on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation straddling the North Dakota-South Dakota state line.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last month that the department was committed to resolving litigation.

Attorneys for both sides had no immediate comment Tuesday.

Tags: buffalo post, George Keepseagle, Native American farmers, Native American news, U.S. Department of Agriculture