Indian Country Today

The U.S. Mint has issued commemorative state quarters as well as Susan B. Anthony, Sacajawea and presidential dollar coins.

Both of North Carolina’s Senators [Richard Burr and Kay Hagan] have done a good thing by jointly supporting a bill that will grant federal recognition to the Lumbee Indian Tribe. This is something that should have been done decades ago.

Thank you for the very fine article, “Christmas for babies in the dump,” by Mary Kim Titla, which appeared in the Sept. 16 [Vol. 29, No. 15] edition of your excellent newspaper.

I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the latest, unfortunate and embarrassing action of the “illegal council” of the Hopi Tribe. I say the “illegal council” because that is exactly what this group is. The Hopi Tribe’s Constitution clearly requires that the “tribal council shall consist of the Tribal Chairman and Vice Chairman.”

Attorney General Eric Holder has scheduled a listening conference with Indian nations in Minneapolis Oct. 28 and 29 to discuss public safety and criminal justice in Indian country.

As the NAACP legal redress chairperson, I have become aware of many racial problems within our communities that are truly disconcerting. Many of these problems we dealt with during the 60s and 70s. But as you are aware the laws set perimeters and guidelines to operate legally, however, if one has not had a rebirth or a change in their heart, attitudes die hard.

I loved the “Storyteller” section of the Sept. 9 [Vol. 29 Iss. 14] issue. “Two Quills’ Secret” was wonderfully written and the message was both profound and much needed by everyone regardless of how good they think they are.

I write this letter to ask for your support and signature for California Assembly Bill no. 544 (Coto): Teaching Credential: American Indian Languages.

Regarding the article “Thinking Indian at tribal colleges” by Richard B. Williams [Vol. 29 No. 11] I find his total indictment of Indian boarding schools to be troubling, especially his statement, “Our children were forcibly removed from home to be educated at boarding schools, where cemeteries are filled with the bodies of children who were starved, beaten and abused.”

As a high school teacher and a collector of oral history for my tribe, I find it troubling that professor Michael Yellow Bird of The University of Kansas would jeopardize the validity of oral history in his support of Ward Churchill. Ward Churchill’s scholarship is factual on many levels but his “identity theft” as an indigenous person only serves to place that scholarship and real history in serious doubt in the minds of the general population.

It seems like someone ought to let the president know that an American Indian man fasted in front of the White House for one week. Someone ought to say this man sat on a bench in Lafayette Park, starving in a silent protest, not taking even water.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his best-selling book about the history of the American West, “Many of the best of the backwoodsmen were Bible-readers. They looked at their foes as the Hebrew prophets looked at the enemies of Israel. What were the abominations because of which the Canaanites were destroyed before Joshua, when compared with the abominations of the red savages whose lands they, another chosen people, should in their turn inherit?”

I am the band booster director at Central High School in Phoenix, Ariz. In August, our plan to go to Japan was approved by the district, leaving us only with a few months to raise any necessary funds to make this trip possible.

The North American Iroquois Veterans Association is searching for Native American troops serving in Iraq or Afghanistan at the present time.

I recently visited the Whitestone Hill Massacre site [in North Dakota]. We came for the Friday Educational Day. I brought two students from Tiospa Zina Tribal School. Recently, we have been learning about the massacre that took place Sept. 3, 1863. It was a massacre on hunting bands of Dakota and Lakota. We came in Thursday evening and camped. It was a very beautiful night, nearly a full moon. We missed the riders that had made the long journey by horseback, they had spent most of the day at Whitestone to honor their relatives who were killed.

On Aug. 18, I met with Minnesota Rep. Dean Urdahl and representatives of two Dakota/Sioux Indian communities. The meeting was mostly about drafting a resolution apologizing for the mistreatment and exploitation of Minnesota’s Indian peoples.

Tucked aside, on a well beaten path just outside of the Foxwoods Casino, stands a one-of-a-kind trading post, especially for Connecticut. It’s called Frank’s Trading Post in No. Stonington and it is run by a kindhearted man, Frank Limpert, who has taken his passion to its fullest. He conducts his business with the utmost respect for Native American heritage. He works off a handshake and has gotten by without the help of the Internet or advertising for the past 20 years. His business has always been respectfully word of mouth.

Once again Leonard Peltier’s hopes of returning home to his family a free man were crushed. Parole denied.

I wanted to mention how much I appreciated the two articles on indigenous peoples in Peru by Jose Barreiro and Renzo Pipoli in the Sept. 2, 2009 issue of Indian Country Today.

I am and will be forever a great admirer of Teddy Kennedy for many reasons, but two stand out in recent years: His opposition to the Iraq War and his support for universal health coverage. He, while born with a silver spoon in his mouth, personified the battle to save the poor kids in this country from having to fight the rich capitalist white man’s wars.