Tribes who oppose construction at Arizona Snowbowl, because wastewater is used in snowmaking on their sacred sites, have asked a judge to stop construction there, the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff reports here:

Attorney Howard Shanker filed a request for a temporary restraining order on Tuesday with Judge Mary Murguia, in the U.S. District Court for Arizona.

The action comes after Friday’s decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow snowmaking and related construction on the (San Francisco) Peaks, an approval that becomes effective next week.

Shanker’s tribal clients failed to prevail in court in arguing that making snow with reclaimed wastewater on the sacred San Francisco Peaks violated their religious freedom.

A court hearing is scheduled for next week on the issue. Meanwhile, the Daily Sun writes that Snowbowl owner Eric Borowsky has said he will ask the Flagstaff City Council for potable water.

That would necessitate approval of a new contract from the council, which has already approved the sale of reclaimed wastewater to Snowbowl. Potable water is, of course, more expensive than wastewater.

Thirteen tribes consider the mountains sacred. Only the Navajo Nation has said the potable water would be preferable.

The Daily Sun lists the following as claimants: Save the Peaks Coalition and Kristin Huisinga, Clayson Benally, Sylvan Grey, Don Fanning, Jeneda Benally, Frederica Hall, Berta Benally, Rachel Tso and Lisa Tso.

A Daily Sun editorial, here, counsels restraint – and communication:

We’d urge Snowbowl to hold off before cutting any trees up on the mountain. There appear to be a lot of loose ends to tie up, and we’d hate to see something done today that we all might want to see undone tomorrow.

Our recommendation remains to get all parties to the same table to talk it out, not negotiate separately, as the Forest Service and now the USDA appear to have done.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Judge Mary Murguia, Native American news, Navajo Nation, San Francisco Peaks, Snowbowl, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Court

The Navajo Election Administration has formally backed presidential term limits, in a legal brief submitted late yesterday on its behalf to the Navajo Supreme Court.

Jason Begay of the Navajo Times writes here that the brief is the Election agency’s response to President Joe Shirley Jr.’s attempts to run for a third term:

“The reason for the term limit was to address the concentration of power determined to be the central cause of the governmental crisis,” states the brief, which was prepared by Scottsdale, Ariz., attorney Michael Upshaw. “As such, it is not arbitrary and is not simply a response to one person.”

The limits are actually “reasonable public policy,” and based on “strong and substantial public interest to implement checks and balances to avoid a repeat of such concentration of power,” the brief states.

Shirley has claimed term limits violate his civil rights by restricting him to run for public office.

The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case next Friday, July 9, at 10 a.m. in the Navajo Nation Museum auditorium.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Dine, Gwen Florio, Joe Shirley Jr., Michael Upshaw, Native American news, Navajo Election Administration, Navajo Nation, Navajo Supreme Court

Susan Montoya Bryan of the Associated Press writes about that very question, here:

Not a Native American (AP photo)

As senators questioned U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, the American Indian community watched with interest, and with a mounting sense of frustration.

While they hoped to glean any insight into Kagan’s views of justice issues in Indian Country, some saw the process as a missed opportunity by President Barack Obama to nominate a qualified American Indian lawyer, law professor or tribal jurist to the nation’s highest court.

Prior to Kagan’s nomination, both the National Native American Bar Association and the National Congress of American Indians sent letters to the White House extolling the qualifications of prominent Natives who they deemed worthy of consideration.

While other ethnic groups and women have made strides in reaching the federal bench, there has never been an American Indian appointed to the Supreme Court or the federal appellate bench, and out of the nation’s more than 860 federal judgeships, not one is currently occupied by an American Indian.

The Federal Judicial Center, the education and research agency for the federal courts, lists only two Native American judges as having served in the nation’s history.

“The time has arrived for President Obama to correct this deficiency,” says Richard Austin, retired Navajo Nation Supreme Court Justice.

Why does it matter?

Because, as Richard Guest, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund points out, “There’s just a lack of representation and that lack of representation leads to no voice, no voice whatsoever in the decisions that are being made about Natives.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Elena Kagan, Federal Judicial Center, Gwen Florio, National Congress of American Indians, National Native American Bar Association, Native American news, Native American Rights Fund, Navajo Nation, U.S. Supreme Court

Mark Trahant is a Kaiser Media Fellow examining the Indian Health Service and its relevance to the national health care reform debate. He is a member of Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Comment here.

A family member and I visited a clinic over weekend. First, a nurse, then the doctor, then X-ray, back to the nurse and finally back to the doctor. The patient took lots of steps. The providers were earnest, carefully asking good questions then filling in the details on the patient’s chart.

But what if one or more steps are eliminated? Well, two things happen: costs drop and patient care often improves.

How does less produce more? The answer is to shift the focus of the story – the programming – from the “doctor” to the patient.

For example, at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, that relationship is described as working, “With the patient as the hub, the team includes the patient’s family, the primary care physician, a nurse case manager, certified medical assistants, case management support, a social worker, and a behavioral health specialist. Additional ‘virtual’ team members include health educators, midwives, nutritionists, and pharmacists. Many specialists (including chiropractors, massage, acupuncture and ‘usual’ medical specialists) are ‘layered’ in.

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Tags: Affiliated Computer Services Inc., Alaska Native Medical Center, American Medical Association, buffalo post, Fort Defiance, Gwen Florio, Health care reform, Mark Trahant, National Congress of American Indians, Native American news, Navajo Nation, The Indian Health Service

Still catching up on stories after the long holiday weekend, including this one from the Navajo Times on historic action by the Navajo Nation’s high court:

Navajo Supreme Court Justice Herb Yazzie announces a ruling Friday, May 28, 2010 in Window Rock, Ariz. Yazzie, along with two other high court justices, ruled on two high-profile cases involving the tribal president. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

The Navajo Nation Supreme Court, in its most wide-ranging decisions in its history, on Friday changed the course of Navajo history forever.

In the most anticipated announcement in recent times, the court upheld the special election that reduced the Navajo Nation Council to 24 members, took away the power of the council to put the president on administrative leave and threw out council-approved law that prohibited the courts from using Navajo Fundamental law in making its decisions.

The ruling means invalidated last year’s Council action putting President Joe Shirley Jr. on administrative leave. And it means that an initiative or referendum can only pass with a majority vote of all Navajos. And, it says the council that will be sworn in next January will consist of 24 members, not 88. The court also ordered a new reapportionment plan to be presented by June 11 and approved by June 18.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Herb Yazzie, Native American news, Navajo Nation, Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., Navajo Supreme Court, Navajo Supreme Court Justice Herb Yazzie, Navao Nation Council

Wind gusts as high as 77 mph closed a 33-mile stretch Route 40 in Arizona for nine hours yesterday and forced a Navajo Nation school to halt classes. Students, however, were kept indoors rather than being sent home due to fears for their safety.

Teachers at the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Leupp Public School used yellow electrical tape and stuffed rag mop heads under the doors, trying to keep the red dust from sifting indoors, write Hillary Davis of the Flagstaff (Ariz.) Daily Sun, here. Teachers commuting by van from Flagstaff to Leupp had an exciting trip when the wind blew out the back window of their fan.

“It’s just part of being out here,” says Mary Jo Eldridge, principal of the school that serves children from Leupp, Birdsprings and Tolani Lake.

Still, it sounded grim. As Davis writes:

Tuesday’s wind – blowing as hard as about 60 mph near town, and 77 mph around Two Guns, according to the National Weather Service – closed Interstate 40 between Twin Arrows and Winslow yet again, stranding truckers along the side of the road or at Little America in Flagstaff. It overturned three tractor-trailer rigs. It reduced visibility to unsafe driving levels, turned the tails of horses diagonal to the fields …

“Gnarly” isn’t a meteorological term, but it would have fit.

“It’s like a blizzard, only it’s dirt,” Eldridge says.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Bird Springs, buffalo post, Bureau of Indian Affairs, dust storms, Gwen Florio, National Weather Service, Native American news, Navajo Nation, Tolani Lake, U.S. 40, weather

Above, please enjoy Gyasi Ross’ tribute to mothers everywhere.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. defies eligibility question to seek third term
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. has filed to run for a third term, making him one of 12 people seeking to lead the nation. But the question of his eligibility may end up before the Navajo Supreme Court. “Under the law, he can’t run,” said Edison Wauneka, director of the Navajo Election Administration, tells the Navajo Times here.

Diversity resolution could follow ‘white pride’ school incident
A group of parents in Fort Thompson, Lower Brule and Chamberlain are working with Chamberlain, S.D., school officials on passing a resolution establishing districtwide “cultural competence standards,” that call for schools to value diverse cultures, according to this story in the the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus Leader. The resolution was in the works before last week’s incident involving six white students who wore “White Pride World Wide” T-shirts to school.

Rising HIV rates termed crisis for First Nations communities
The head of the Saskatoon Tribal Council calls the rising rates of HIV in the province a “crisis” facing First Nations and Metis people, the Toronto Globe and Mail reports here. Provincial officials attributes 75 percent of the new questions to injection to drug use.

Cherokee Nation turns old jail into museum
The Cherokee Nation is restoring its former National Prison into a museum. This AP story following last week’s groundbreaking on the renovations tells the history of the jail. It was the only penitentiary building in what then was Indian Territory from its completion in 1875 until 1901, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Chamberlain School District, Cherokee Nation, First Nations, Fort Thompson, Gwen Florio, Gyasi Ross, HIV, Indian Territory, Joe Shirley Jr., Lower Brule, Metis, Mother's Day, Native American news, Navajo Election Administration, Navajo Nation, White pride

Repairs to schools in Indian Country are long overdue. Now it looks as though some of that work will get done. Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities say savings in the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ construction projects will be used to complete school repairs in Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Larry Echo Hawk, assistant Interior secretary for Indian Affairs, says favorable pricing and aggressive management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act large construction projects have resulted in savings of $33 million. That’s 11 percent of Indian Affairs’ construction allocation under the Recovery Act.

Echo Hawk says Indian Affairs will use the savings to complete a new K-8 Kaibeto School in Arizona and replace the snow-damaged gymnasium at the Shonto Boarding School, which also is on Arizona’s portion of the Navajo Nation.

Funds also will go to gym upgrade projects at the St. Francis Indian School in South Dakota and the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico.

Tags: buffalo post, Bureau of Indian Affairs, federal stimulus, Gwen Florio, Kaibeto School, Larry Echo Hawk, Native American news, Navajo Nation, Shonto Boarding School, St. Francis Indian School, U.S. Interior Department

Native American communities in Montana, New Mexico and several other western and Midwestern states will be targeted by a new federal ad campaign that aims to curb meth use in Indian Country.

The campaign launched today in Albuquerque, with more than $2 million of broadcast and print ads, and billboards, according to this story by Susan Montoya Bryan of the Associated Press.

“There are a lot of cool things about being native. Meth isn’t one of them,” says a voice in one of the commercials.

“We know that people fall through the cracks on the reservation and fall through the cracks in other places on tribal land. We have to work hard to change that,” says Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Byran’s story quotes statistics from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showing that meth use by Native Americans is among the highest of all ethnic groups.

Alvin Warren, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs, spoke of problems on the Navajo Nation, the nation’s largest reservation.

Larry Echo Hawk, assistant Interior secretary for Indian Affairs, says that “we’ve got to do is challenge our young people to make good decisions, do what’s right, to stay away from drugs and their ill effects.”

The ads will run for three months in New Mexico, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Wyoming, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin and Utah.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, drug abuse, Gwen Florio, Indian Country, Larry Echo Hawk, Meth, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Navajo Nation, New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs, Office of National Drug Control Policy, U.S. Interior Department