First Nations stage huge protests in Canada against sales tax
Tribes blocked the Trans-Canada Highway in three places, and First Nations members also rallied in Toronto to protest the “Harmonized Sales Tax,” saying that one nation – in this case, Canada – has no right to tax another, according to the NewsWire. “Today is just the beginning,” says Grand Chief Randall Phillips of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, representing eight First Nation communities across Ontario. “We have put the Federal and Provincial governments on notice that we are prepared to fight the imposition of the HST on First Nations.”

Support for sacred Black Hills site as national monument
The group calling itself Defenders of the Black Hills has endorsed the designation of the roughly 40,000 acres of National Forest System lands as the Okawita Paha National Monument, Indian Country Today reports here.

Within the hills, the sacred peak, Opahata I, also known as Harney Peak, is considered the “center of all that is” to many Native American nation. The surrounding Okawita Paha area, literally “Gathering Place,” also is considered sacred, the newspaper writes. The monument – where activities such as logging and prescribed burns would be off-limits – would be jointly managed by the National Park Service and the Great Sioux Nation.

Morales’ re-election means more pro-indigenous policies in Bolivia
Here’s an interesting story from Bolivia on the re-election of Evo Morales to the presidency. The result is likely to be more pro-indigenous policies in Bolivia, where Morales would not have won without strong support from the country’s indigenous people.

Dawes Rolls prove great tool for Native family research
Whatever you may think about the Dawes Rolls – created to allocate (vastly reduced) amounts of land to tribes – they’ve turned out to be a huge help to people doing geneaological research, according to the Terre Haute (Ind.) Tribune Star, here.

Top aide to Navajo president asked to resign
Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly has asked Patrick Sandoval, chief of staff to President Joe Shirley Jr., to resign, the Navajo Times reports here. Shirley, under investigation in connection failed business dealings, has been on administrative leave for six weeks.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Black Hills, Bolivia, Dawes Rolls, Evo Morales, First Nations, Great Sioux Nation, Harmonized Sales Tax, Harney Peak, indigenous, Iroquois and Allied Nations, Joe Shirley Jr., Navajo Nation, Okawita Paha National Monument, Opahata I

Where are the Indians in Black Hills bison roundup?
Tim Giago’s column here in the Native Sun News addresses something we wondered about when we read this Rapid City Journal story about lat month’s bison roundup in Custer State Park in South Dakota. Something seemed missing. Giago addresses that something.

And speaking of bison roundups …
The one last week at the National Bison Range on western Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation went off without a hitch, the Char-Koosta News reports here. Crowds were down from previous years, but that’s probably because the temperature took a precipitous dive last week.

Indigenous communities around the world face extra H1N1 flu threat
People on Indian reservations in the United States and on Canada’s reserves aren’t the only ones being hit extra-hard by swine flu. (See previous posts here and here.) Australia’s aboriginal people and Peru’s Matsigenka tribe are among indigenous communities reporting disproportionate numbers of cases of swine flu, according to this story in London’s Sunday Independent.

Piikani Nation asks Shell Canada to hold off on gas drilling
Tribal elders of the Piikani Nation held a prayer ceremony yesterday and performed a traditional offering in the hopes of persuading Shell Canada not to drill at the base of Mount Backes in southern Alberta. The First Nation considers the site sacred, but Shell Canada wants to explore there for sour gas, CTV Calgary reports here.

Gila River Tribe seeks to woo Chicago Cubs for spring training
So reports the Arizona Republic, here. The tribe is offering to build a new training facility if the Cubs do their spring training on the Gila River Reservation, rather than in Mesa. The The Gila River community also tried to land the Arizona Diamondbacks, who eventually opted for a site near Scottsdale on the Salt River-Pima Indian Community.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Black Hills, Chicago Cubs, Custer State Park, First Nations, Flathead Indian Reservation, Gila River Tribe, H1N1 influenza, Mount Backes, Piikani Nation, Salt-River Pima Indian Community, Shell Canada

Sioux spiritual and government leaders representing tribes seeking the return of Black Hills land will meet again next month in the hopes of forming a proposal to present to the Obama administration, which they see as sympathetic to their cause.

Obama met with tribal representatives during his presidential campaign and left the strong impression that he was serious about trying to find a settlement beyond a 29-year-old U.S. Supreme Court award, according to this story in today’s Rapid City (S.D.) Journal.

That forced settlement was about millions of dollars, not acres of land, and it has consistently been rejected by tribes of the Great Sioux Nation.

“The consensus is that they will never take the money,” says Gay Kingman of Rapid City, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association. “It’s the land that matters.”

Some tribal members have filed suit, seeking distribution of the money, but most leaders want the land returned. The idea now is to find consensus, which is why leaders for Sioux tribes in the Dakotas, Montana and Nebraska are holding the meetings on the issue.

Previous attempts to return land taken by the federal government to the Sioux, most notably a bill in the mid-1980s by New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley that would have turned over 1.3 million acres of federal forest and park lands, have failed.

Bradley left the Senate more than 12 years ago, and none of South Dakota’s three congressional members has shown an interest in supporting a rerun of the Bradley bill, although Democrat Tim Johnson recently said, significantly, that he’s open to discussing the issue (See previous post here.) Still, support would likely be a liability in a statewide campaign.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Black Hills, buffalo post, Great Sioux Nation, Native American news

Experience advises: Don’t hold your breath. But read on.

Under any other circumstances, the old “open to discussion” line could legitimately be called wishy-washy. But when South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson tells columnist Tim Giago, here, that’s his position on the return of the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation, it’s significant.

That’s because, as Giago writes, the subject is radioactive. “This issue is one that could be the destruction of a political career and all South Dakota politicians to date wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

The open-to-discussion argument about the Black Hills got a boost last year when then-candidate Barack Obama used words to that effect when he talked to tribal leaders during a South Dakota campaign stop.

Lower Brule Sioux Chairman Michael Jandreau tells the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus Leader, here, that his memory of the May 2008 meeting was that Obama promised “to do everything in his power to work with the tribes to bring about a settlement.”

The paper reports the tribal leaders have formed a proposal that reads: “Barack Obama is a strong believer in tribal sovereignty. He does not believe courts or the federal government should force Sioux tribes to take
settlement money for the Black Hills. … Obama would not be opposed to bringing together all the different parties through government-to-government negotiations to explore innovative solutions to this long-standing issue.”

Sioux tribes have sought the return of the Black Hills for generations, and in the 1980s, a bill sponsored by then-New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley would have turned over 1.3 million acres of federal lands to the tribes.

Tribal leaders are going to keep meeting in an effort to resolve the legal thicket surrounding the land, its return, and the disbursement of funds awarded the Great Sioux Nation for the improper taking of the Black Hills

That’s progress – moving at a glacial pace, but progress nonetheless.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Black Hills, buffalo post, Native American news, Sen. Tim Johnson, Tim Giago