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Ad offering to “clean” city of First Nations youth probed as a hate crime
Indian Country Today’s Gale Courey Toensing follows up here on this disturbing story about an online ad offering to cleanse the Canadian city of Winnipeg of Native youth. The ad ran with a picture of three Native boys and was headlined “Native Extraction Service.” It offered to relocate the “pesky little buggers” to their “habitat.” It’s now being investigated as a hate crime. As Valerie Talliman points out in her commentary, here, ignoring the ad is not an option: “Our silence is our consent.”

Ghost town haunted by wolves – Alaska village on high alert after teacher’s fatal mauling
A town hall meeting has been held in Chignik Lake, Alaska, to keep residents informed about wolves on the outskirts of town believed to have killed a teacher last week. Whiteout weather conditions hampered a hunt for the wolves. In the meantime, people are staying inside. This KTUU report calls Chignik Lake “a ghost town haunted by wolves.” Click on the link to watch a video report.

Native Hawaiians closer to establishing own government
This Associated Press report points out the fact that Native Hawaiians are the last remaining indigenous group in the United States that hasn’t been allowed to establish their own government. But a U.S. Senate vote this month – and President Barack Obama’s expected signature – could give federal recognition to 400,000 Native Hawaiians.

First Nations University funding denied; school could close within weeks
Canada’s aboriginal-run university could be forced to close by the end of this month, according to some reports, as a result of federal refusal to restore $7.2 million in funding that was cut after allegations of financial mismanagement. Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl tells the Toronto Globe & Mail, here, that “It is time to focus our attention on those aboriginal students themselves,” rather than the university.

Casino workers’ union contract brokered under tribal law
Among the very few tribal casinos whose workers have a union contract is huge Foxwoods Resort Casino complex, run by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in Connecticut. What makes the contract unusual is that it was brokered under tribal law. NPR has the story here.

Gwen Florio

In this 1959 photo, 6-year-old Dodie Brown of Honolulu holds a newspaper noting Hawaii's new statehood. (AP file photo)

“Instead of state government having huge parties and fireworks, we’re having a convention,” says Manu Boyd, cultural director for the Royal Hawaiian Center, a shopping and entertainment area in Waikiki. “That shows the strength and spiritual power of the Hawaiian people, whose shattered world has not yet been addressed.”

In addition to the statehood conference, according to this story by Mark Niesse, the Hawaii Statehood Commission has been airing TV and radio ads with “50 Voices of Statehood” interviews, inviting schools to place commemorative items in time capsules, displaying artwork on the meaning of statehood in the Hawaii Convention Center and showing exhibits in state airports.

“Out of respect, we decided not to do the parade and the big party,” says Kippen de Alba Chu, who chairs the Statehoood Commission. Those kinds of events “would have been a waste of state funds, especially given the economy.”

Besides, says Poka Laenui, a Hawaiian and attorney who has worked for independence for more than 30 years, “This newfangled idea of celebrating statehood shows that people don’t understand Hawaii’s history, or if they do understand, then they’re celebrating a lie, a theft, that essentially stole a people’s right of self-determination.”

Meanwhile, legislation is working its way through Congress that would treat Native Hawaiians similarly to Native American tribes and Alaskan natives.

Gwen Florio