An annual pow wow in honour of the old fishing village of Neerchokikoo. Photo courtesy of NAYA Family Centre.

By Michelle Tolson
PORTLAND, Oregon, U.S., Apr 29 2014 (IPS)

As a child, 78-year-old Yakama Nation elder Russell Jim was forced to go to a boarding school in Washington State and was beaten for speaking his language.

After returning home at the close of the school year, his aunt vowed to protect him, even if that meant “taking me to the hills,” he tells IPS. His father brought him to their local, all-white school and threatened to sue if they did not enroll him."When asking tribal people their definition of poverty, it is usually ‘having no culture.’ It is not defined by money." -- Janeen Comenote

While he retains his language today, he’s well aware that the ways Native American communities have been torn apart by displacement from government efforts to force integration into mainstream society.

“I notice when asking tribal people their definition of poverty, it is usually ‘having no culture.’ It is not defined by money,” Janeen Comenote, director of the National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC), tells IPS.

She says this is an important distinction in a demographic experiencing some of the highest rates inequality in the U.S. There is a perception that leaving reservations changes this.

“Disparity is disparity and both populations face it,” says Comenote of urban and rural tribal populations.

A report by NUIFC shows 20 percent of urban Indians live in economic poverty. However, compared to the general population they also face 38 percent higher rates of accidental death, 54 percent more diabetes cases, 126 percent more disease of the liver and cirrhosis, and 178 percent higher death rates related to alcohol use.

Yakama Elder Russell Jim. Credit: Jason E. Kaplan/IPS

Native American children have the highest rates of foster care placement of all minority groups according to another report. Kings County and Multnomah County in Washington and Oregon States are among the highest in the U.S. at seven to five times disproportionate to Native populations.

Matt Morton, executive director of Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Portland, Oregon, tells IPS over 20 percent of native children are in foster care in Multnomah County.

“Our families experience a much higher rate of removal compared to white families in similar situations. We know this is due to biases and expectations of how Native Americans should act when living in severe conditions of poverty. This has not changed [since the Indian Child Welfare Act].”

Before its creation in 1978, the rate was 25 percent.

How do indigenous people live in poverty? According to NUIFC, urban native people are 1.8 times more likely have no plumbing, twice as likely to have no kitchen, three times as likely to have no phone and three times more likely to be homeless than the general population.

On reservations they might live in large, extended families. Yakama fisherwoman Caroline Looney Hunt, age 54, tells IPS her mother adopted children informally despite having 11 of her own.

“My mom used to say ‘watch out for the White Man.’ I asked ‘which one?’ She said ‘DSHS [Department of Social and Health Services] – they steal your kids.’

“They would try to go back to their families after they turned 18. But after being away from their culture, they would see how we lived and wouldn’t want to stay. Our culture is not about material things, it is about family.”

Today according to the law, native children are supposed to stay within their community for foster care services, but sometimes children are placed into general population services because they are not enrolled in the tribe.

Families struggling with alcoholism might forget to enroll their children. “They told me children who are not enrolled are recorded as white,” says Looney Hunt, who had to intercede when her granddaughter was placed in foster care outside her community.

Russell Jim says the introduction of alcohol to the Yakama has been devastating, while the loss of their traditional hunting and gathering places to hydroelectric dams and the Hanford nuclear reservation has further impacted their health.

“We are not genetically adapted to the foods or alcohol of the settlers,” he says. He thinks this is why diabetes and alcoholism plague the tribe.

Members of the NAYA community in Portland, Oregon. Photo courtesy of NAYA Family Centre.

While reservation community members like Russell Jim and Looney Hunt work to preserve their cultural traditions, urban tribal organisations like NAYA focus on reintroducing cultural value systems.

Morton thinks regaining the traditional diet will be a “pivotal point” for Native communities in the Pacific Northwest, both urban and rural. They are working to restore a section of land forcibly ceded to the European settlers in north Portland.

The last indigenous person was removed in 1906 from the ancient fishing village of “Neerchokikoo,” which morphed into an industrial area. NAYA centre, now located in the area, has worked with Verde organisation to restore a former waste dump into a neighbourhood park.

“What we are doing is creating livable neighbourhoods and regaining cultural connections through the restoration of natural areas and reintroducing native plants and building open spaces for our community to gather,” says Morton of Cully Park.

NAYA uses the Relational Worldview Model created by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). The Eurocentric linear worldview is “rooted in the logic that says cause has to come before effect.”

In contrast, “the relational worldview sees life as harmonious relationships where health is achieved by maintaining balance between the many interrelating factors in one’s circle of life,” says NICWA’s website.

“I’ve noticed,” says Comenote, “a difference between Eurocentric and tribal institutions. Eurocentric institutions ask ‘do they have enough money?’ Tribal institutions ask ‘does the child have a culture?’ They also ask, how do they help each other?”

Many tribal people were forced out of their reservations during the 1950s and 1960s federal relocation period and sent to live in cities, creating a Native American diaspora. Morton explains “there were many relocation spots around the country and Portland was but one.”

The American Indian Movement of the 1960’s and 70’s fought to reverse the policy but many tribes lost federal recognition and sovereign status, according to NUIFC. Relocated tribe members also intermarried with other races after their forced removal. However, tribe members have also relocated to cities to pursue opportunities not available on reservations.

Comenote says urban tribal organizations function as “multi tribal embassies.” NAYA’s members come from 380 different tribes and Portland has the ninth largest urban Indian population in the U.S.

“NAYA is in the process of creating an intergenerational community, Generations, by partnering with the City of Portland and the Portland Public Schools system,” Oscar Arana, director of strategic development and communications, tells IPS.

The project will create affordable housing for foster parents seeking to adopt foster youth and Elders who want to be part of the community and volunteer their time to support the families.

“There are many positive outcomes that occur when three generations come together to support each other including improved health, education, and sense of purpose and meaning. The project earned an enthusiastic endorsement by Governor John Kitzhaber.”

Only four out of 10 indigenous youth graduate from high school in Portland public schools.

“When first assuring the safety of kids, then we can help the parents get housing, help with education and offer assistance,” Morton explains.

Tar sands in Alberta, Canada. Credit: Dru Oja Jay/ CC 2.0

By Samuel Oakford
NEW YORK, Feb 26 2014 (IPS)

The Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota Nation, in the midwest of the United States, is one of the most abandoned places in the country and in the world.

Unemployment on the reservation hovers around 80 percent and only one in ten graduate from high school. Women live an average of 52 years, men 48. Half the population over 40 has diabetes and one in four children is born with some kind of foetal alcohol disorder.

So when the big companies behind the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline traced its proposed route around Pine Ridge, they probably thought little of this community of fewer than 30,000. If anything, they assumed, the Lakota would be happy to have jobs.“We are concerned about the preservation of our life and the earth for future generations. That’s not fear, that’s common sense.” -- Debbie White Plume, Lakota activist and resident of Pine Ridge

But what Pine Ridge lacks in material riches it makes up for in a unique attachment to the environment.

In 2012, when trucks belonging to a pipeline company attempted to drive through the tribal land in South Dakota, they were blocked by native authorities and locals who had sent out a call over the local radio station’s Facebook page.

Despite their poverty, locals knew that contrary to industry talking points, potential jobs in the area would be short-lived and outside experts flown in to maintain the pipeline.

Debbie White Plume, a Lakota activist and resident of Pine Ridge, says the pipeline runs against their conception of life and relationship with Mother Nature. They will never allow the pipeline to be built without putting up a fight, she told IPS by telephone.

Plume helps organise “Moccasins on the Ground”, a training programme that teaches native people the skills and tactics of non-violent direct action. Travelling from settlement to settlement, often hundreds of miles apart, Plume teaches local communities about their rights as sovereign citizens and how they can protest encroachment by corporations.

“We see what the tar sand oil mining is causing in Canada, we see what the oil drilling in the Dakotas is doing – as they gouge her (Mother Nature) and rape her and hurt her, we know it’s all the same ecosystem that we all need to live in,” Plume told IPS. “For us it’s a spiritual stand – it’s our relative, it hurts us.”

The Keystone XL is the final of four phases of the Keystone Pipeline system that brings highly corrosive oil called diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico to be refined.

Oil sands, by far the most polluting of any fuel, require huge quantities of energy to be extracted and leave behind byproducts like “petcoke”, a high-sulphur coal-like substance that burns dirtier than coal.

The U.S. portion of the fourth phase would be built between the frontier town of Morgan, Montana and Steele City, Nebraska, where it would join existing pipelines headed south.

This final northern segment would cross several major rivers including the Red Rivers, the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers and pass over the Ogallala Aquifer, a shallow underground water table that supplies over a quarter of the United States’ irrigated land.

If it is completed, the pipeline would transport fuel equivalent to 181 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of 51 coal plants.

Though technically skirting the reservation’s borders, the proposed pipeline would pass between Pine Ridge and the Rosebud Reservoir, where communities draw their water.

“In our mind, that’s our water,” Plume told an August gathering in Bridger, South Dakota. “We love our water and we have to protect our water.”

Plume says the Lakota have been joined by non-native ranchers and farmers in places like Nebraska who fear contamination could ruin their cropland.

Spills

With the Alberta oil sand boom pumping out record levels of Canadian crude, accidents are on the rise. In March 2013, between 5,000 and 7,000 barrels of Canadian heavy crude spilled from a gash in ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas, leading to catastrophic environmental damage.

In October, 20,600 barrels of fracked oil spilled out of a pipeline in North Dakota.

According to the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), last year there were 364 pipelines spills in the U.S.. And in Alberta, accidents are just as common. One investigation found more than 25,000 spills there in the past 37 years.

It is virtually guaranteed that Keystone would have a spill at some point. Incredibly, when Texas activists locked themselves inside a newly installed segment of the pipeline, rays of sunshine poured through huge cracks in an exterior meant to be water tight. Later that day, the portion was buried.

Corruption

After years of opposition from activists, the U.S. State Department released its environmental impact statement on Jan. 31, finding that construction of the Keystone XL would not significantly worsen carbon emissions.

This was the test by which U.S. President Barack Obama said he would approve or veto the project. But the study assumed the oil sands would be extracted at the same rate and shipped via rail should the proposal be rejected, even though industry studies had shown the rail system was incapable of absorbing excess crude.

Democratic Party lawmakers had urged the State Department to postpone releasing the impact statement until its own Inspector General completed an investigation into whether Environmental Resource Management (ERM), the company contracted by the State Department to carry out the assessment, had hidden conflicts of interest.

Environmental groups publicised documents indicating the State Department made little effort to verify if what ERM told them was true.

In reality, the London-based company receives much of its profits from existing deals with companies like Conoco Phillips, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Canadian Natural Resources, all of which stand to benefit from the pipeline and further tapping of the Alberta oil sands.

Several ERM analysts who wrote the assessment appeared to have also been former employees of TransCanada, the company building the pipeline.

“We’ve submitted tons of evidence that the company lied on their disclosure forms,” Ross Hammond, senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth’s Climate and Energy Programme, told IPS.

“The investment community sees Keystone as critical and the State Department glossed over that issue,” Hammond told IPS.

“So basically they’re saying ‘since there’s no climate impact, you might as well build Keystone.’ There are definitely instances in the analysis where it’s really shoddy.”

Friends of the Earth alleges that TransCanada schemed to employ former Obama administration officials as State Department lobbyists.

Anita Dunn, former White House communications director and now chief lobbyist for a firm that represents TransCanada, visited the White House over 100 times after leaving office in 2009.

“The only way to approve Keystone XL is to ignore the multiple lies that TransCanada told the State Department in its application. I’m sorry to see the State Department is comfortable with that,” said Democratic congressman Raúl Grijalva, who serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources.

A 30 day public comment period following the report’s release ends Mar. 7, after which input from federal agencies, NGOs and citizens will be released for review by Secretary of State John Kerry. The last time they took public comments, the State Department was inundated with over 1.5 million letters, emails and faxes, the majority disapproving of the plan.

In Pine Ridge, Plume says the choice is clear.

“We are concerned about the preservation of our life and the earth for future generations. That’s not fear, that’s common sense.”

“Our creation story places us here at the beginning of time,” says Plume. “We are hoping president Obama will say no – if he says yes, then we’ll put our moccasins on the ground and engage in civil disobedience.”

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

In a lawsuit that could have nationwide implications for ballot-box access for tribes across the United States, Native Americans from Montana are pushing for early voting precincts to be placed closer to the locations of three tribal reservations – the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Fort Belknap reservations.   

“I live in the most isolated area of the reservation. There are no services at all. This is the smallest community of the reservation. We have to drive 21 miles just to go to post office, go to store, go to clinic, gas station, stuff like that,” Mark Wandering Medicine, 66, of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, and the lead plaintiff in the suit,  told IPS.

He and others filed on Oct. 10, 2012, with the hope of obtaining emergency relief in time for the November 2012 election, as well as permanent relief going forward.

The case recently headed back to the U.S. District Court of Montana, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voided an earlier ruling by the district court.“Everyone [in the tribes] is aware of the importance of voting, because it means progress for us when we exercise our vote.” -- Mark Wandering Medicine

On Nov. 6, 2012, the district court ruled against Wandering Medicine on the request for emergency relief, arguing that there was already sufficient evidence that Native Americans in Montana had sufficient political power to elect candidates of their choice.

Wandering Medicine appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that any relief related to the 2012 election – now in the past – was a moot point. However, in vacating without comment the lower court’s ruling, Wandering Medicine can now have a full hearing on the merits of the claims for permanent relief, which have remained pending in the lower court.

The state of Montana allows early voting state-wide for the 20 days leading up to each election; however, the early voting locations are all at the county seats, which are often far away from the reservations.

“When they organised these counties there was no Native American involvement – back then, we were probably still at war… and they put them [the county seats] pretty far away from actual reservations,” O.J. Semans, executive director at Four Directions, a Native American advocacy organisation, told IPS.

Wandering Medicine lives in an area called Birney Village, Montana, about 33 kilometres away from Lame Deer, where the tribe has an office. Birney Village does have a voting precinct, but only on election day; not during early voting.

The problem is Wandering Medicine and others often have difficulties getting to their polling locations on election day itself, so the early voting period becomes very important.

“There’s a hardship of getting back and forth to Lame Deer,” Wandering Medicine said, noting he missed the November 2012 election day due to a vehicle problem.

“The weather being a factor also. If somebody lives in outlying districts and we get one of these Montana winter storms on election day, you can’t make it,” he said.

The distance from Birney Village to Forsyth, the county seat for Rosebud County, Montana – where early voting is held for the county – is about 140 kilometres.

“It’s a little over a two-hour trip one way. We don’t have transportation services with the tribe here,” Wandering Medicine said.

Wandering Medicine said voter turnout helps determine where services go in the different counties.

“If you don’t get the proper numbers of the people that can be registered to vote and they don’t make it because of hardship conditions, then the numbers appear to be less at the county, and then we don’t get that much revenue sharing,” he said.

“Everyone [in the tribes] is aware of the importance of voting, because it means progress for us when we exercise our vote,” he said.

Semans said that they were fighting for equality.

“If you look at the [U.S.] Census, in a house [on the reservations], it’s usually two to three families, and probably one car to every one family, so transportation really doesn’t exist on the reservation where they could take advantage of this early registering to vote,” Semans said.

He said that what a lot of people did not realise was that the elections were held on the first Tuesday in November, explaining that it was around the time of the month when people did not have money and were just struggling to survive until their next social security payment.

“If you look at the social programmes that happen in Indian Country to help people survive – you have people that get Social Security or disability cheques – they only get paid once a month. For the 30 days in between, they have charge accounts,” Semans said.

“On election day, a lot of the poor people have to take care of business to survive for the next 30 days,” Semans said.

Four Directions has been working to promote equal access to early voting for tribes across the U.S.  He said that after early voting was established in Mission, South Dakota, Native American turnout increased by 140 percent.

“Every study has showed that if you are not involved in the electoral process of elected officials, your social and economic development will be non-existent. These plaintiffs are trying to get equality because they know if they’re able to do this, they can improve their schools, their businesses, any type of social programme,” Semans said.

David Bradley Olsen, attorney for the plaintiffs with the Henson Efron law firm, told IPS: “Native Americans have less opportunity to participate in the political process because they’re denied the same rights to late registration and early voting that are afforded to non-Indians.”

“The original district judge [Richard Sebell] picked up on a couple of words in the Voting Rights Act, and concluded [that because] it has been showed that Indian candidates and Indian-preferred candidates, meaning Democrats, had been elected… that’s good enough, that’s the end of the inquiry, no violation,” Olsen said.

“We argued, that’s not the law, that the law is: do they have an equal opportunity to vote, to participate in the political process?” Olsen said.

If not, “there’s a denial of their right to vote, their right to vote has been abridged.”

In an interesting twist of events, Sebell was forced to retire in April 2013 while the case was on appeal, for sending racist emails concerning President Barack Obama.

Olsen said the case would be assigned to a new federal judge, and that he was pushing for the case to be expedited in time for the November 2014 election.

If the plaintiffs are successful, it will likely increase Native American early voting access throughout the federal Ninth Circuit, which includes most of the Western U.S., where the ruling would be controlling. The ruling could also influence courts throughout the nation, Olsen said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana and the U.S. Department of Justice have filed briefs on behalf of the Native Americans in this case.

The lawsuit could potentially determine the balance of the U.S. Senate because U.S. Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, is retiring, leaving an open seat.

The Athabasca River from Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada. Credit: dicktay2000/CC by 2.0

By Matthew Charles Cardinale
SPOKANE, Washington, Sep 1 2013 (IPS)

Native American tribes in the United States have taken the lead in opposing the expansion of the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, engaging in civil disobedience to the point of arrest and attempting to physically block shipments of construction equipment from passing through their native lands.

Native opposition is based on concern over the environmental destruction associated with the expansion and with the related Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline would convey oil from the tar sands through Canada and the United States to southeastern Texas.

As previously reported by IPS, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation says the expansion of the world’s third largest crude oil deposit so far has caused significant damage to the ecosystem, including the disappearance of bugs, decline in the numbers of migratory birds, elevated rates of certain types of cancers, and the possible extinction of caribou herds. "They're trying to conquer Mother Nature, and they're not going to do it."
-- Silas Whitman

The Nez Perce tribe are also concerned about the Megaload shipments coming through their tribal lands, without their permission, and the ecological damage these shipments might cause. The most recent, a Megaload shipment, contains a 322-tonne, 225-foot-long evaporator to be used in the oil refining process in connection with the Tar Sands expansion.

“What it really amounts to is our association [with] our surroundings, our environment,” Tony Smith, a member of the Nez Perce tribe, told IPS in an interview at the recent Spokane Falls Northwest Indian Market, Encampment and Pow Wow.

“Outsiders believe they’re apart from the environment, that we’re above it, that we can control it,” Smith said. “But we believe we’re a part of the environment; it’s a symbiotic relationship. Whatever we do to our environment we do to ourselves.”

“The issue is really hot,” he added. “A lot of emotions are flowing over, with the protests that happened.”

Protests and arrests

Nineteen members of the Nez Perce tribe, including eight members of the tribal council, were arrested for disorderly conduct on Aug. 6, 2013, near downtown Lewiston, Idaho. They were released shortly thereafter. About 200 protesters had gathered beginning the night before, according to the Spokesman Review newspaper. They chanted and banged drums until the Megaload shipment approached in the early morning hours on Aug. 6.

The protest delayed the Megaload shipment by about four hours. About three quarters of the protesters were estimated to be Native Americans. Others included activists with an environmental group, Wild Idaho Rising Tide. A video of the protest has been posted to Youtube.

The protesters continued to block the shipment at four different points over four different days as the Megaload shipment attempted to move through tribal lands.

Other tribes, however, have received advance payments from TransCanada for allowing the Keystone Pipeline to come through their tribal lands, according to Silas Whitman, chairman of the executive committee of the Nez Perce Tribal Government.

Whitman also said he was concerned about how companies were shipping equipment “without any consultation with the tribe or without any impact study”.

“Corporate Canada has been used to rolling over indigenous populations for quite some time. We thought the only way to get their attention is to conduct civil disobedience. We tried diplomacy, we tried outreach,” Whitman said.

“They’re using our wilderness corridor, where our treaty rights are still intact. They’re using us to further more misery and exploitation of Native resources in Canada. We’re taking a stand for those who can’t speak for themselves – the fish, the wildlife, the cultural resources, including our brothers in Canada who are having a tough time,” Whitman said.

Going to court

The Nez Perce tribe has joined with other Native tribes in opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline, noting that such efforts begin with the Megaload protests.

“It starts with us. They’re trying to ship…through our corridor, to Canada. That’s where the Native first nations have their lands destroyed for tar sands,” Whitman said.

In February, a federal court mandated approval from the tribe and the U.S. Forest Service before the Megaload shipments could come through the Nez Perce tribal lands. The state of Idaho, however, approved the shipment, despite the court order, and without tribal approval.

“The judge told them the first time they [the Forest Service] had the authority to do [block the shipment]. Now we’re taking them back to court to enforce that authority,” Whitman said.

“They have staff here conducting interviews. We’re saying the Forest Service has to uphold its duties and obligations. The Forest Service said they are afraid of losing a court battle because there’s no federal regulation that allows them to stop it,” Whitman said.

“General Electric has now decided to intervene. They think they can beat us in court,” Whitman said. Delays of the shipments could cost General Electric millions of dollars.

“Sep. 9 we’re going back to court [to see] if we can get a cease and desist on [the basis of] the order,” Whitman said.

With the ongoing litigation pending, Omega Morgan, the company responsible for the shipments, has said it will not move forward on any more shipments until at least Sep. 18.

“We’re gaining more support every day. The newspaper poll was two-thirds against [the protests]. Now, it’s 50/50. We’re standing up to the corporate giants and we’re doing it on a shoestring,” Whitman said.

Potential problems with the shipment include the truck or shipment falling into the wilderness river, which could block fish passage during the critical migration season, breaking roads and river banks, and causing soil to accumulate on the campgrounds.

Whitman says the trucks are going about 50 miles per hour on a “two lane road next wilderness river through high mountains in Idaho. They’re trying to conquer Mother Nature, and they’re not going to do it.”

Relations between the United States and Native American tribes have historically been poor. Credit: Shannon Kringen/CC by 2.0

By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, Jun 27 2013 (IPS)

Indigenous rights groups are applauding U.S. President Barack Obama’s creation of a new high-level council aimed at coordinating government actions relating to Native American communities, a move that advocates have been urging since early in the president’s first term.

The new White House Council on Native American Affairs will consist of top officials from all agencies and departments, including the budget office, that implement policies affecting Native American tribes.

Critically, these tribes are considered sovereign nations under U.S. law, so that much of the council’s mandate has to do with strengthening this government-to-government context.

The new body will be tasked with improving the atrocious track record of consultation between tribes and the government. That history, coupled with the sometimes bewilderingly complex bureaucracy governing this relationship, has long exacerbated the anger and suspicion already felt among Native American (also known as American Indian) communities towards the U.S. government.

“President Obama’s Executive Order represents a very strong step forward to strengthen our nation-to-nation relationship,” Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, a six-decade-old advocacy group that has been at the forefront of pushing for the creation of such a high-level body, said Wednesday."The relationship between the tribal governments and the U.S. government is still very rocky in a number of places."
-- Ruth Flower

“The Council has been a top priority of tribal leaders from the earliest days of the Obama administration. It will increase respect for the trust responsibility and facilitate the efficient delivery of government services.”

Legal decisions, official treaties and agreements have repeatedly confirmed the sovereignty of the country’s more than 560 officially recognised tribes. Yet that understanding has been regularly violated on the ground, resulting in centuries of oppression and marginalisation.

Increasing self-determination

Official relations with Native American communities have come under increased legal scrutiny in recent years. Last year, courts found federal mismanagement of native funds to have been so egregious that they awarded tribes more than a billion dollars in settlements.

Perhaps more than any past president, Obama appears to have made concerted efforts to strengthen these relationships and begin addressing past wrongs. Advocates say creating the new council is the latest of these steps, aimed at ensuring that these relations extend into subsequent administrations.

“Honouring these relationships and respecting the sovereignty of tribal nations is critical to advancing tribal self-determination and prosperity,” Obama stated in the executive order creating the council, released Wednesday. “We cannot ignore a history of mistreatment and destructive policies that have hurt tribal communities.”

The order also noted that restoring historically tribal-owned lands taken from Native American control – a particularly contentious issue for both indigenous and non-indigenous communities – “helps foster tribal self-determination”.

The White House Council on Native American Affairs will be required to meet at least three times a year, with the first session this summer. The body builds upon an annual conference that Obama began in 2009, which marked the first time that Native American leaders were regularly brought together with high-ranking government officials.

An important part of the council’s responsibilities will also be in educating, or reminding, government officials of the federal government’s roles and responsibilities regarding Native American tribes.

“I never fully understood these ideas of self-determination and governance, and I would expect many colleagues will also not be steeped in those issues,” Sally Jewell, the recently appointed secretary of the interior, who will chair the new council, told reporters Thursday.

“This council will bring [high-ranking officials] together to understand these issues more deeply and to make sure that as we fulfil our relationships and obligations, that we do that at the right government-to-government level.”

Federal impact

Proponents are hoping the new council indicates the consolidation of improved coordination between the U.S. government’s many departments and the concerns of Native American communities throughout the country.

According to both advocates and the government, this shift will require better communication both between agencies and engagement with community leaders.

“All areas, agencies and policies of the federal government impact American Indian citizens in almost every single aspect of our lives, more than other American citizens, from education, health services, natural resources issues and land management, to tribal criminal and civil jurisdiction,” Helen B. Padilla, director of the American Indian Law Centre, told IPS.

“These matters are complex and require that federal agencies become knowledgeable about the federal trust responsibility and their role in carrying out the current policy of Indian self-determination.”

Padilla noted that tribal governments have an “arduous and sometimes insurmountable task” in “providing for their people while navigating…comprehensive federal laws, rules, regulations and policies impacting their ability to provide those services”.

Even with this new step, relations between the federal government and Native American communities have traditionally been so poor and one-sided that it will take years of such regular contact before substantive impact can be gauged.

“Tribal governments do have much more direct access to the administration, and Obama has directed key agencies to engage in far more extensive consultations with tribal agencies,” Ruth Flower, legislative director with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, an advocacy group, told IPS.

“There’s still a lot to do,” she added, “and the relationship between the tribal governments and the U.S. government is still very rocky in a number of places.”

She cited continued complaints regarding land use, with widespread instances in which Native American lands are taken or used by the federal government without thought given to legal status.

The currently debated immigration reform bill, for example, includes a provision that would allow the Department of Homeland Security to place personnel or infrastructure anywhere within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, including on sovereign tribal land.

“There’s no sense of consultation in these instances, just an assumption that the lands there are open to the use of the U.S. government – there’s no sense that these lands are being reserved for the tribes,” Flower said.

“I’ll be looking very closely at the recommendations guiding the direction in which this new council is expecting to go. If it’s just going to be filing more reports, that’ll be a good indication that it will be pretty ineffectual.”

Native American youth working for change. Top, from left to right: Joaquin Gallegos, Vance Home Gun and Dahkota Brown. Bottom, left to right: Sarah Schilling and Cierra Fields. Credit: Center for Native American Youth and Vincent Schilling

By Sudeshna Chowdhury
UNITED NATIONS, May 31 2013 (IPS)

It’s Sarah Schilling’s usual manner of greeting when she meets other members of her tribe: “Aanii Sarah Schilling n’diznakaas, which translates to ‘Hello, Sarah is my name’ in English,” she said.

“The language is called Anishnaabemowin, the Odawa native language,” Schilling explained.

She belongs to Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, a Native American tribe. It was in 2009 that she and her peers decided to come up with the tribe’s first youth council.

And it’s no child’s play. Schilling and other members of the council created their own constitution, bylaws and code of conduct. Schilling organises conferences and retreats to address issues that teenagers like her are grappling with, such as drinking and suicide prevention.

“I guess young people from the tribe are confused as to what their role is as Native Americans,” Schilling told IPS.

While she acknowledges that straddling two worlds can be a challenge, she also thinks that the U.S. educational system often depicts Native Americans as “aggressive and bad guys”.

There’s more to Native Americans than beads and feathers, but in an urban setting Native teens have a hard time fitting in, said Schilling, who chose home schooling over public school after sixth grade.

She is one of the “2013 class of Champions for Change”, a new programme run by the Center for Native American Youth, a non-profit organisation in Washington.

Native Americans make up about one and a half percent of the total U.S. population, but 12 percent of the homeless population, said Erin Bailey, the centre’s director.

“Through this programme we wanted to create a narrative about what was really working within the community, and share inspirational stories that are impacting people’s lives,” Bailey said.

The programme honoured five young Native Americans for their services to the community. From healthcare to education, these “champions” range from 14 to 22 years old.

Like Schilling, Cierra Fields is a “champion”. A brave heart, who conquered cancer when she was barely five years old, Fields says she “was actually born with melanoma”.

Fields, who is 14, belongs to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Through her personal story, she encourages people to talk about cancer. She also shares tips on preventing cancer.

For the audience, Fields’ story is a huge wake-up call.

“Some of the young people are shocked when I tell them that I had melanoma,” Fields said. “When I share my story they realise that one could get melanoma even when they are really young.”

Fields is also part of the Cherokee Nation Youth Choir and can speak conversational Cherokee.

While Fields tries to spread awareness about cancer, 19-year-old Vance Home Gun from Arlee, Montana tries to spread awareness about the Salish language, which he says is dying.

Gun belongs to the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes. Every Sunday for four hours, Gun teaches the Salish language to a motley group of students interested in learning it.

Gun also helps make Salish language curriculum available in public schools.

He believes that language is more than a mere medium of communication but an integral part of culture.

“Salish is spoken by 40 to 50 people. Therefore, it is very important to keep our culture alive through our language,” said Gun, who intends to major in linguistics and anthropology in college.

Some of these “champions” have already charted out their career path in their heads.

For 14-year-old Dahkota Brown from Jackson, California, aspirations extend beyond going to a law school. “I want to be a tribal judge, possibly the first United States Supreme Court judge who is a Native American,” said Brown, who belongs to the Wilton Miwok tribe.

Brown started a study group called Native Education Raising Dedicated Students (NERDS). NERD helps Native American students with their grades in schools. Browns’ aim is to “instill confidence” among students who approach the group for help.

A magazine article on high suicide and dropout rates among Native American youth triggered the idea to come up with a project to help such students, Brown said. “Also, I noticed that Native American students around me weren’t doing well in school,” Brown said.

The reasons could be many, but “Bullying and criticism could kill their self-confidence,” he said.

Brown himself has been a victim of bullying. He was teased as “a girl” for his long hair.

“There is a custom in my family according to which I cannot cut my hair until someone in my family dies. Other students did not understand this when I tried to explain,” he said.

His peers also did not approve of his dress. “I love wearing feathers on my hat and Native American shirts. Therefore I stood out because of my traditional regalia and people would make fun of me,” Brown said.

But that did not stop him from identifying himself as a Native American or emerging as one of the winners in the “champions for change” programme, thus adding another feather in his cap.

But some are quick to point out the United States’ government’s failure to address Indigenous issues.

Joaquin Gallegos from Denver, Colorado doesn’t mince words. The United States has not done justice to internationally recognised treaties it has made with these Indigenous sovereign Nations, he said.

“Since the U.S. has not fulfilled these obligations, negative outcomes are seen in virtually all sectors of these populations including education, economic conditions, and health status,” said Gallegos, who belongs to the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Pueblo of Santa Ana. “This is the legal and political reasoning behind the conditions present in the U.S. indigenous population.”

One of the “champions” awarded for his work, Gallegos is part of a project that aims at improving the oral health status of Indian Tribes in the Southwest United States.

This 22-year-old also wants to work toward providing Native Americans with improved healthcare facilities.

Child dancers on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming. Credit: showusyourtogwotee/cc by 2.0

By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, Nov 28 2012 (IPS)

After 17 years in litigation, the U.S. government has announced that hundreds of thousands of Native Americans will soon be receiving payments from what has been described as the United States’ largest class-action lawsuit, which accused the government of massive mismanagement of trusts covering indigenous peoples’ monies and lands.

In total, the settlement will amount to some 3.4 billion dollars, about half of which will now go to 350,000 individuals across the country. According to the plaintiff’s lawyers, initial checks of 1,000 dollars each should be in the mail before Christmas.

“The settlement is finally final – even Monday morning there was still speculation that there may be another kink in the works,” Sherry Salway Black, director of the Partnership for Tribal Governance, part of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), said during a teleconference Tuesday. “But I’m very happy to note that it is settled.”

Additional funds will be paid out to Native American (also known as American Indian) landowners whose land assets were similarly mis-valued, in a process that will take place over the next six months. Another 60 million dollars will be put towards Native American higher education.

Finally, nearly two billion dollars has been set aside to address so-called “fractionated” lands, affecting around 260,000 people who over decades have come to possess only tiny sections of lands that were originally collectively owned. This consolidation process is supposed to be finished within the next decade.

The lawsuit was originally launched in 1996, in part by a Native American woman named Elouise Cobell, who died late last year. She and her co-litigants accused two departments of the U.S. government of mismanagement of what are known as Individual Indian Money accounts, made up of the assets of individual Native Americans.

While these assets were, out of historical compunction, meant to be held and overseen by the government as a trustee, Cobell said the government had for years misrepresented the total amount of assets and, hence, both underpaid rightful recipients and used some of the remainder for the government’s own purposes.

Trusts and trust

There has been discrepancy over how many people were actually impacted upon by government malfeasance, with the plaintiffs suggesting upwards of a half-million and U.S. officials suggesting only half that much. Likewise, the actual amount of money owed was and remains hotly debated, with some pushing for nearly 200 billion dollars.

In 2009, the 3.4-billion-dollar figure was agreed upon by both sides, and President Barack Obama approved the settlement the following year. Another two years of court tussles came to an end late last week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a counter-suit against the settlement.

On Monday, President Obama, who has been widely acknowledged for improving relations between Native American tribes and the U.S. government, heralded the end of the saga, which he said would “clear the way for reconciliation between the trust beneficiaries and the federal government”.

Obama plans to meet with representatives of all nearly 600 officially recognised Native American tribes in early December, in what will be the fourth White House Tribal Nations Conference, described as building upon the Obama administration’s “commitment to strengthen the government to government relationship with Indian Country”.

Obama’s secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, whose agency oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was held accountable for the trust mismanagement, sounded a similar tone of finality and accomplishment.

“With the settlement now final, we can put years of discord behind us and start a new chapter in our nation-to-nation relationship,” said Salazar, whose name graces the final court case, Cobell v. Salazar. He also suggested that the settlement marked a new opportunity for “reconciliation and empowerment” for Native Americans and a “new era of trust administration”.

This last will, of course, be particularly scrutinised by all sides going forward. Almost exactly a year ago, Salazar named a new commission to look into and make recommendations on how to overhaul the government’s management of Native American assets, which includes some 384,000 individual accounts and nearly 57 million acres of land.

The commission’s work is slated to finish by the end of next year, tasked with “Working on a plan to improve the trust situation so these kinds of mistakes don’t happen again,” according to NCAI general counsel John Dossett, speaking Tuesday with tribal leaders and community workers.

And while most Native Americans are reacting to the news as a victory – indeed, many are expressing shock that the wheels finally appear to be turning at all – there is still a clear sense of lingering hurt and bitterness.

“We all know that the settlement is inadequate,” NCAI President Jefferson Keel said following initial Congressional approval, “but we must also find a way to heal the wounds and bring some measure of restitution.”

Guarding a windfall

Incredibly, the Cobell decision is one of three major settlements from the U.S. government to various Native American constituencies, all of which are taking place almost simultaneously.

In addition to Cobell, in August the so-called Keepseagle settlement awarded 780 million dollars to 4,200 Native American farmers and ranchers for systematic discrimination in loan programmes under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Third, more than 50 smaller tribal trust settlements of various types are also nearing completion.

Although the timing of these settlements is accidental, together the payouts are leading to a windfall of expected cash infusions in Native American communities, one of the poorest demographics in the country. Yet many are now worried that this could bring it own set of problems.

“These grievances go back decades but they have all come down at one time, raising alerts that three billion dollars is coming into Indian Country by mid-2013,” NCAI’s Black says, warning that there is an urgent need for longer-term financial education in order to keep the money in the communities. (NCAI has a related information clearinghouse here.)

“At this point, it is important for tribal leaders to know when that money is coming and what they can do to be prepared,” she continues. “You need to be careful, and you need to watch out for your money – we’ve seen in the past that when payments like these come in, the potential for scams is high.”

A top United Nations official has presented the first ever international investigation into the situation of indigenous peoples in the United States, urging the adoption of new policies and mechanisms to “address persistent deep-seeded problems related to historical wrongs, failed policies of the past and continuing systemic barriers”.

Based on research in the United States this past spring, James Anaya, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, presented his final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Tuesday. The process marks the first time that the United States has allowed an external body to formally investigate and comment on the situation of its indigenous communities, a notably sensitive issue.

Speaking before the council, Anaya stated that indigenous communities in the United States (also referred to as American Indians) continue to “face significant challenges that are related to widespread historical wrongs, including broken treaties and acts of oppression, and misguided government policies, that today manifest themselves in various indicators of disadvantage and impediments to the exercise of their individual and collective rights.”

The U.S. mission to the UNHRC has offered a formal response to the concerns raised, highlighting several new and recent government initiatives and policy changes.

These include a three-percent increase – to 19.4 billion dollars – in President Barack Obama’s budget request for 2013 in funding earmarked for indigenous communities, as well as changes under the country’s newly expanded health insurance legislation that would include a 29-percent increase to the budget of the Indian Health Service over 2009 figures.

(By deadline, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs did not respond to requests for comment on the report.)

Yet the special rapporteur cautioned that “existing federal programmes need to be improved upon and their execution made more effective.”

Indeed, the 310 tribal-overseen “reservations” in the United States, on which about half of the 4.5 million-strong Native American population lives today, are sites of some of the country’s most grinding poverty. Some reservations see 66-percent unemployment figures, while rates of alcoholism are five times that of the rest of the U.S. population.

According to the most recent U.S. census statistics, a quarter of all Native Americans live in poverty and nearly a third lack health insurance, suffering from several health problems at far higher rates than the rest of the country. According to 2003 data, fewer than half of Native American youths were expected to graduate from high school.

Such marginalisation has led to rights abuses that advocates say have yet to be addressed by either the U.S. government – or, some suggest, by Anaya’s report.

“Although the special rapporteur failed to recognise the growing problem of human and civil rights violations among the indigenous people of the United States, I am not surprised,” John Gomez, with the American Indian Rights and Resource Organization, told IPS. “To acknowledge that the problem exists, and that the United States has taken no action to protect the rights of the individuals being persecuted, would expose the hypocrisy of the U.S. government and the current administration.”

Gomez says that U.S. policies in addressing rights violations abroad versus within its own borders are contradictory. “The indigenous people of the United States,” he says, “deserve the same type of action taken by the United States government to deter or quash cruel and unusual punishment … on foreign soil.”

Centrality of land

Last week marked the fifth anniversary of the U.N.’s adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognises a spectrum of indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination and governments’ concurrent responsibilities. When it was passed, in mid-September 2007, the United States was one of only four countries, out of 143, to refuse to vote for its adoption.

In 2010, however, President Obama announced that the U.S. would reverse its position. At the time, the president stated that “few have been more marginalised and ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans … While we cannot erase the scourges or broken promises of our past, we will move ahead together in writing a new, brighter chapter in our joint history.”

Anaya’s report underscores the continued relevance of the declaration, and calls on the United States to use it as “an important impetus and guide for improving on existing measures”.

Further, the special rapporteur appears to take some issue with President Obama’s suggestion that little can be done to address the past. In particular, he calls on the U.S. government to take a new look at how it deals with the issue of traditional lands.

In May, at the end of his research trip to the United States, Anaya create a brief public furore by calling for the U.S. government to hand back traditional lands that now include Mount Rushmore, an iconic national memorial comprised of the faces of four notable U.S. presidents carved out of a massive cliff face.

Anaya revisits the issue in his official report, calling the Black Hills an “emblematic case”. While the federal government has initiated some projects to restore control by indigenous peoples over their traditional lands, “My central recommendation … will be for there to be more of these kind of initiatives,” Anaya said in a short video released last week.

The land issue has been fingered as one of the main reasons behind the U.S. government’s initial reluctance to back the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognises indigenous peoples’ rights to traditional lands and resources and urges states to give indigenous communities “legal recognition and protection to these lands”.

Public’s responsibility

While much of Anaya’s report focuses on U.S. government actions, there has also been a significant cultural marginalisation of indigenous communities within U.S. society as well, a lesser-discussed factor that nonetheless has broad impact.

“Two of the biggest obstacles to change are the stereotypes and misconceptions that exist about history and why things are the way they are today,” Helen Oliff, with National Relief Charities, a group that focuses on poverty among U.S. indigenous communities, told IPS.

“The people are simply looking for a level playing field – they’re not looking for an easy life but for equitable opportunity. Importantly, the report echoes the voice of the American Indian people, and is representative of what we hear and see through our work in Indian country.”

Anaya, too, highlights the need for a broader understanding in the U.S. of the realities, both positive and negative, of its indigenous communities.

“What really is needed is greater awareness by the broader American public of the vibrancy and continuity of these peoples within the American social political fabric, and the contribution that indigenous peoples make,” he says. “The larger public, from what I’m seeing, is by and large ignorant about the presence of indigenous peoples … (and that) they face severe challenges.”

He continues: “With that awareness, people can take actions that are appropriate to their local circumstances.”

Although they are only five percent of the global population, indigenous people account for up to 15 percent of the world’s poor, according to a new study published by members of the World Bank.

The highest percentages of indigenous people in proportion to the total national population are in China (36 percent), South Asia (32 percent) and Southeast Asia (10 percent), according to “Indigenous Peoples, Poverty, and Development”, a treatise on indigenous peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The Brookings Institute, a think tank here in Washington, recently cited figures that roughly 900 million people live in poverty – that is, they live on less than 1.25 dollars per day.

Two girls from the Chortí indigenous community in their doorway in a village in Chiquimula. Credit: Danilo Valladares/IPS

The figure underscores one of the most significant issues facing development experts today: among many of the world’s poor, economic progress is being stymied, to the amazement of some of the world’s most highly regarded and reputable economists.

“You would think that the people at the lower end of the spectrum would be making more progress, but that hasn’t been the case,” Shantayanan Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, said.

While there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes an indigenous person, Marcelo Giugale, the World Bank’s director of poverty reduction and economic matters for Africa, defines it as “people bonded together by sharing” – primarily sharing resources, culture and experiences.

Typically, the 350 million indigenous people living in the world today have a higher rate of poverty because they are marginalised economically, politically and geographically.

The United Nations (U.N.) has recently increased its focus on indigenous people, with the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) holding the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in May to discuss how to increase the participation of indigenous peoples in politics.

“The ‘poverty trap’ is not an economic poverty trap, it’s a political one” for indigenous cultures, argued Devarajan. He pointed to apartheid as an instance where indigenous people were politically excluded solely for racial reasons.

The increased emphasis on indigenous people is due partly to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals – among them are ending poverty and hunger, and achieving universal education, gender parity, environmental sustainability – and the concentrated effort to improve the plight of the world’s poor.

“We will not be able to overcome poverty and inequality or achieve the Millennium Development Goals in our region if we don’t improve everyone’s lives, especially the most excluded,” said Heraldo Muñoz, director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the UNDP.

He pointed to “integrated social policies, financed through more progressive fiscal structures” to help bring about the necessary change.

The lack of economic progress for indigenous communities has been particularly prominent in Latin America. According to UNDP’s 2010 Regional Human Development Report on Inequality, extreme poverty, where people live on a dollar or less per day, in Latin America and the Caribbean is twice as high among the region’s indigenous peoples.

The only sustained progress in poverty for indigenous people in Latin America was in Chile, where levels fell from around 25 percent to about 15 percent between 1996 and 2005, according to Harry Anthony Patrinos, lead education economist at the World Bank.

Nevertheless, poverty levels in Latin America as a whole are at the lowest level in 20 years, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

“Poverty and inequality continue to decline in the region, which is good news, particularly in the midst of an international economic crisis,” said Alicia Barcena, ECLAC’s executive secretary.

“However, this progress is threatened by the…gaps in the productive structure in the region.”

Worldwide, the greatest success among indigenous people has been in China. China has been the only place where the reduction of poverty was higher in the indigenous minority than in the majority – in this case, the Han people.

There is one theory as to why the Chinese have been so successful in this regard. “China targets regions or areas rather than people,” Patrinos explained, by offering indigenous people more programs that allow for systemic changes, rather than vague political gestures meant to garner votes.

In the United States, Native Americans have historically had a difficult relationship with the European immigrants who took over their land and eventually condemned a significant of proportion of the native population to reservations and poverty.

The latest statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau put Native American poverty levels at 25.3 percent. But in 2010, they found that comparatively, only 15.1 percent of the total population was beneath the poverty line.

Yet those who viewed themselves as indigenous – that is, of Native American blood – in the 2010 U.S. Census comprised only 1.7 percent of the total U.S. population, or 5.2 million people.

Poor treatment of Native Americans has extended into modern times. In 2000, Congress allocated 1.6 billion dollars to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but not all of the funds were paid.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a five to four ruling, decided that the federal government was obligated to repay Native American tribes for the expenses incurred by Native Americans running federal programs such as education, homeland security and environmental protection.