Archive for November 20th, 2009

20
Nov

“We changed the course of history.” Forty years later, a look back at the American Indian Movement’s 1969 takeover of Alcatraz

   Posted by: admin    in American Indian Movement, Quechua


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“Forty years ago Friday, dozens of Native Americans – mostly California college students – boated to the largely abandoned island in San Francisco Bay, starting an unarmed occupation that lasted nearly 19 months and captured the attention of media around the world,” says this CNN report.

“We changed the whole course of history, not only for the island, but for the government and its relationship with the Indians,” Adam Fortunate Eagle tells CNN.

The group’s ideas were both lofty – they wanted to call attention to persistent mistreatment of Native people – and practical. They also sought to use the abandoned facilities on Alactraz for, among other things, a replacement for an American Indian center that had burned down.

Among the occupiers was Benjamin Bratt, now a television and film actor. His mother, a Quechua Native from Peru, brought him and his siblings there as children.

“Forty years later, Native people still recognize the occupation for what it was and re-mains: a seminal event in American history that brought the plight of American Indians to the world’s attention,” Bratt and his brother Peter said in a statement.

Gwen Florio

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20
Nov

“Green” building firm, North American Indian Charter, sign agreement to provide badly needed First Nations housing

   Posted by: admin    in First Nations

Poor housing conditions affect many First Nations reserves, such as Ahousaht on the west coast of Vancouver Island. (Debra Brash/Times Colonist photo)

Poor housing conditions affect many First Nations reserves, such as Ahousaht on the west coast of Vancouver Island. (Debra Brash/Times Colonist photo)



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CNN’s Marketwire has this story announcing that Intelligent Living Corp. has signed a letter of intent with North American Indian Charter of Shipping and Trade Inc. that would result in the delivery of 300 homes annual to First Nations reserves in Canada.

Housing on Canada’s reserves is no better than on Indian reservations in the United States – that is, the situation is dire.

“There is an enormous immediate opportunity to provide First Nations communities with energy-efficient and cost0effective housing that combines culturally sensitive design, modular concept construction and opportunities for skills training,” says Michael Holloran, Intelligent Living’s CEO.

What’s seems significant about this agreement is that, beyond providing badly needed housing, North American Indian Charter acquires an equity interest in Intelligent Living.

Gwen Florio

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20
Nov

Suit: Pregnant woman denied necessary medication, put in solitary confinement, while in Montana jail on traffic offenses

   Posted by: admin    in Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Health



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Bethany Cajune is a young woman in western Montana who sought treatment from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Health Clinic Behavioral Health Program for an addiction to the painkillers she was given following a surgery. She made good progress there. As part of that recovery, Cajune – who was five months’ pregnant – sought to complete an outstanding sentence at the Lake County Jail. That’s when things began to go downhill. The Missoulian’s Vince Devlin tells her story here:

POLSON – A Ronan woman who says she was repeatedly denied a prescribed medication while pregnant and serving time in the Lake County Detention Facility for traffic violations has sued the county, Sheriff Lucky Larson, chief detention officer Luke Mathias and Dr. Stephen Irwin, the jail’s medical doctor.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana announced the lawsuit in a news release issued Thursday, shortly after the suit was filed in Missoula District Court.

It says that over the course of nine days in jail last spring, Bethany Cajune, 25, experienced constant vomiting, diarrhea, rapid weight loss, dehydration and other symptoms, all “extremely dangerous” to her fetus.

Rather than receiving the necessary medical care, it says, she was instead placed in solitary confinement.

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