A ranch owner in Oregon wants to help restore hope in Texas, where a highly revered rare white buffalo calf was found dead.

This undated handout photo provided by Cynthia Hart-Button shows Chief Hiawatha, a white buffalo bull. (Photo courtesy of AP, via the Great Falls Tribune)

Cynthia Hart-Button has offered up white bull bison, Chief Hiawatha, to ease the pain, according to Linda Stewart Bull, for the Associated Press.

“It’s a sad tragedy,” she said of the calf’s death. “So, instead of them thinking that they lost their hope, we’re bringing their hope back in a different way.”

Hart-Button said she hopes the bull, named Chief Hiawatha, will produce another white calf for the Lakota Ranch. The bull will turn 7 on May 16.

She said Hiawatha has been like a guard dog, growling when someone comes near who “is not good in spirit.”

Lightning Medicine Cloud’s arrival last year was heavily celebrated.

According to Lakota Sioux lore, the goddess of peace once appeared in the form of a white buffalo calf.

As a non-albino white buffalo, Lightning Medicine Cloud was revered by Native Americans. Thousands of people of all races attended a naming ceremony for the unusual calf last year, and Little Soldier called it the “hope of all nations.”

Little Soldier said he found the calf dead and skinned, a few feet away from where it was born a year ago. Little Soldier said the calf’s mother, which was found dead and skinned the next day, was poisoned. The calf’s father was struck and killed by lightning in April.

An inspiring graduation story from Missoulian reporter Chelsi Moy:

Frank Big Man holds his daughter Mahala on the University of Montana campus, where he will graduate Saturday with a bachelor’s degree in community health. (Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian)

The highest grade he received in physics after his third try was a D.

Big Man didn’t have an easy college career.

It wasn’t easy leaving his home on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and his Crow family. It wasn’t easy when his baby daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, an abnormal formation of the hip socket, at 2 months old. As a patient with type 1 diabetes, it wasn’t always easy maintaining his blood sugar. Finances were never easy.

Countless times, Big Man thought about giving up. One time, he even tried. But with the support of university faculty and Big Man’s resilience and perseverance, he will accept his college diploma on Saturday.

Big Man is the first in his family to earn a college degree.
With one final left earlier this week, he watched as his 4-year-old daughter Mahala ran around the Payne Family Native American Center, happy and full of life.

The sight brought tears to his eyes.

“It’s not about me,” he said. “It’s about the little ones. I want to give them the tools that I never had.”

Big Man wants his daughters to see him in a cap and gown, accepting his diploma on Saturday. As they begin school in the coming years, he wants that memory to stick.

“I thought about giving up so many times,” he said. “I’m glad I stuck with it for them. So they can look up to me.”

Big Man took five years to earn a bachelor’s degree in community health at UM, after having fulfilled his general education requirements at Chief Dull Knife College, a two-year community college on his home reservation.

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Are you registered? Are you ready to vote?

Chaske Spencer. Courtesy of Racebending.com

Spencer is the star of a new video produced to convey the important role Native people can play by casting their votes this election season. Don’t be left out, he says in the short public service announcement video released this week by nonprofit group, Native Vote.

Native Vote is a non-partisan initiative of the National Congress of American Indians. NCAI sent a press release promoting the video Thursday.

Recent data suggests that over one million eligible American Indians and Alaska Natives were not registered to vote during the last election cycle; 34 percent of the total Native population is over 18 and eligible to vote.

Election day is only six months away. Here’s five things NCAI says can change that statistic.

Spencer is known for his year-round work to help improve the lives of Natives.

Spencer is actively involved in raising a national awareness of Native issues, especially through his organization, United Global Shift. United Global Shift empowers people from around the world to create sustainable, lasting change in their communities and countries.

Jenna Cederberg

By Vince Devlin, of the Missoulian:

Tim Ryan explains to fifth-graders from Ronan Middle School how a fish trap was made and used at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ annual River Honoring on Tuesday. The event brings hundreds of fourth- and fifth-graders to the lower Flathead River for two days of education. (Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian)

Fifth-graders from Ronan Middle School had lots of theories Tuesday morning at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ annual River Honoring.

“To look for food,” guessed one.

“Hibernating?” asked another.

“Migrating!” shouted a third, and the man asking the question, Tim Ryan, couldn’t disagree with that.

“Yes, they’re moving from one place to another,” Ryan said. “But does anyone know why?”

Then a young boy offered the answer – to spawn – that Ryan was looking for.

It was, Ryan, explained, the opportune time for Native peoples to go to work catching fish – and it was considerably more involved, not to mention effective, than grabbing a pole and worms.

For more than a quarter of a century, the tribes have paid tribute to the river where Pend d’Oreille, Salish and Kootenai Indians have traveled, camped, hunted, fished and found solace for thousands of years.

For two of the days each May, the River Honoring brings virtually every fourth- and fifth-grader who attends public school on the Flathead Indian Reservation – plus schools from as far away as Trout Creek and Missoula – to this part of the lower Flathead River, at the north end of the Moiese Valley.

See a video of the River Honoring here.

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A UN official assigned to examine the U.S.’s implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples may recommend to a special UN council that the Black Hills, including Mount Rushmore, be returned to the Sioux tribes.

According to Associated Press reporter Suzanne Gamboa, the official has spent the past weeks meeting with tribal officials and doing research.

James Anaya said land restoration would help bring about reconciliation. He named the Black Hills as an example. He said restoring to indigenous people what they have a legitimate claim to can be done in a way that is not divisive “so that the Black Hills, for example, isn’t just a reminder of the subordination and domination of indigenous peoples in that country.”

Anaya met with government officials and tribal representatives from Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Washington State, South Dakota and Oklahoma both on reservations and in urban areas, the AP reported.

Anaya said he heard universal cries from the Native Americans and Alaska Natives for the federal government to protect their tribal sovereignty and for more ability to control their own affairs.

He added provisions in the Violence Against Women Act, recently approved in the Senate, give tribes the ability to prosecute people who commit violent crimes against Native American or Alaska Native women, even if they are not native peoples. That provision has been opposed by some Republicans in Congress. The House is expected to move on the act as soon as next week, with Republicans possibly drafting and pushing their own version.

Jenna Cederberg

The world premiere of the first mainstream movie about lacrosse is set to premiere in Syracuse, New York, this week.

Neal Powless is surrounded by "Crooked Arrows" promotional material in his office at the Native Student House at Syracuse University. (Photo by Mike Greenlar / The Post-Standard)

In fact, as Sarah Moses of the Syracuse Post-Standard reports, the movie has Neal Powless to thank for much of its real-life flair.

Powless, a member of the Eel Clan of the Onondaga Nation and director of Native Student Program at Syracuse University, said signing on to work with an independent film about a Native American lacrosse team was a huge risk for him.

“I was told if I did this movie I was no longer Neal Powless of the Onondaga Nation,” he said. “I was no longer Neal Powless of Syracuse University. I was on my own.”

It’s taken at least six years to get the film made. Powless was brought on early and went from being a consultant to a co-producer, the Post-Standard reported.

During the casting calls, the producers asked Powless to help find a team of great Native American players to play roles on the Crooked Arrows’ Hero Team.

The producers were looking for three things: the look, the acting ability and the lacrosse skills, Powless said.
“Instead of hiring actors and teaching them to play lacrosse, they wanted lacrosse players who had acting ability,” Powless said.

Eight lacrosse players from or near the Onondaga Nation were selected to be on the team and most of them had never been in front of a movie camera.

In case you’re in the area, “Crooked Arrows” premieres in Syracuse on Wednesday at the Crouse Hinds Theater at the OnCenter.

Jenna Cederberg

Interior to require disclosure of ‘fracking’ chemicals on Indian, public lands
Just what goes into the fluids used in hydraulic fracking?

Residents on Indian Reservations where companies want to use the controversial technique to drill for oil will soon have a better idea thanks to new regulations put in place by the Interior Department last week.

Associated Press reported Matthew Brown has the full story:

The Obama administration said Friday it will for the first time require companies drilling for oil and natural gas on public and Indian lands to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations.

The proposed “fracking” rules also set standards for proper construction of wells and wastewater disposal.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the long-awaited rules will allow continued expansion of drilling while protecting public health and safety.

“As we continue to offer millions of acres of America’s public lands for oil and gas development, it is critical that the public have full confidence that the right safety and environmental protections are in place,” Salazar said.

Read the full story here.

Killing of bald eagles divides Native American tribes
The bald eagle is a sacred bird. There is no question about that. But as Reuters reporter Laura Zuckerman found out, there’s some disagreement between tribal members on exactly how to best honor traditions and the beautiful bird.

Salmon, Idaho – A plan by a Native American tribe to kill two bald eagles for use in a religious rite has drawn the ire of a fellow tribe, which says it doesn’t want any eagles sacrificed on the Wyoming reservation they share.

An attorney for the Eastern Shoshone tribe told Reuters on Thursday that killing bald eagles on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming would violate its religious beliefs, threaten tribal sovereignty and was “unacceptable.”

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By Karin Eagle, Native Sun News Staff Writer:

Three generations of Sicangu Lakota: (Left to right) Clifford “Pops” Marshall Sr., Dacie Marshall and Owen Marshall. (Photo courtesy of Owen Marshall, via Native Sun News)

He finally enlisted the help of some of the mixed blood Indian cowboys that were still riding the rodeo circuit in the 1980s.

But the bygone days of Indian cowboys has not been forgotten and there will be an honoring ceremony to commemorate those days.

A family of the well-known, well respected and much missed rodeo announcer, Clifford “Pops” Marshall Sr., will be remembering him with an event that invites men and women from the rodeo circuits to participate in various competitions at the 4th Annual Clifford “Pops” Marshall Sr. Memorial Chute Out.

The event will be held in Rosebud on May 26, 2012 at “high noon” at the John Waln Memorial Arena.

Entries are open, with events including a Seniors Wild Horse Race, Senior Bulls, Jr. Wild Horse Race, Mexican Poker and Wild Memorial Ride.

The Marshall family opens the memorial to other families who wish to have their loved ones remembered during the Chute Out.
“We had put this event on because we love our hometown cowboys and wanted them remembered for years to come to help families heal,” explain Owen Marshall, son of Pops Marshall. “Memorial rides and honoring all keeping the families involved and busy, help the healing process.”

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Seized by white settlers 150 years ago, the lands of the Four Corners is finally back in the hands of the ancestors of the Native people who first lived there.

Martha Knight (left) and Hawk Rosales of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council walk through the 164 acres donated to the council by Save the Redwoods League of S.F. (Photo courtesy of Lance Iversen / The Chronicle)

“Our ancestors’ spirits now are dancing in the wind and the trees knowing that Mother Earth will be saved there and protected,” said Priscilla Hunter, the chairwoman and co-founder of the InterTribal council, which represents 10 federally recognized tribes with ancestral ties to the area. “I can hardly wait to go up there and have our celebration.”

The League, which has owned the property since 1997, donated Four Corners to the council on March 29 in return for a conservation easement preventing future development on the land, which is covered with 150 acres of second- and third-growth redwoods and Douglas fir.

As part of the easement, the council will establish a $150,000 stewardship fund that will be invested, said Ruskin Hartley, executive director of Save the Redwoods League. He said the interest will be used to pay for upkeep, conservation and a restoration program, including a major effort to improve habitat along the Mattole River for coho salmon and steelhead trout.

The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is made up 10 federally recognized tribes with ancestral ties to the area, Fimrite reported.

The council was fundraising to buy the Four Corners land and the donation was a “wonderful surprise,” one member said.

It is the first time the league has entered into a conservation agreement with a California Indian tribe.

Jenna Cederberg