NUCLEAR WASTE CHALLENGED BY TRIBE
RED WING, Minn. – The Prairie Island Indian Community is joining three
states in a lawsuit over the storage of nuclear waste.
The tribe says it will join with New
York, Connecticut and Vermont in a lawsuit against the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
The Prairie Island Nuclear Generating
Plant near Red Wing is just 600 yards from the tribal community. The
NRC in August opened the door for on-site nuclear waste storage for
100 years or more.
The tribe says the NRC has failed to
do a complete analysis of the risks associated with the onsite
storage of nuclear waste.
Prairie Island plant executive Kevin
Davison agrees with the NRC assessment that the nuclear waste is
safely stored near Red Wing. But, Davison says the federal government
still has an obligation to create another storage option.
ONLINE NATIVE MEDIA GOES TO PRESS
FT. YATES, N.D. – Last Real Indians,
an online Native media and advocacy Web site, unveiled its first
print edition in October.
A nearly three year-old endeavor,
founded by Chase Iron Eyes (Standing Rock Sioux) in January of 2012,
LRI features almost daily content provided by writers from across
Indian country. “Our network continues to expand as we inform our
own, inform the world, strengthen our ties, shatter stereotypes,
protect our image, essence and portrayal against appropriation,
objectification & [sic] mascotry and share our stories,” Iron
Eyes wrote in the first edition.
According to the mission statement on
its Web site, “LRI is a media movement grounded in our pre-contact
ways of life. We are independent media with direction. We are an
adaptation of our story-tellers. We are content creators of many
origins with a vision of returning Indigenous peoples of all
‘races’ to a state of respect for
generations unborn.”
Its first edition features topics on
environmentalism, Lakota tribal politics, lacrosse, Lakota language,
law and health. The paper is headquartered on the Standing Rock Sioux
reservation in South and North Dakota.
MAN SENTENCED FOR TRESPASSING ON
RESERVATION
PIERRE, S.D. – A Chicago man barred
from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has been
sentenced to nine months in federal custody for repeatedly ignoring
the tribal order.
Forty-three-year-old Steven Nichols
recently pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to criminal trespass
and was sentenced. He’ll be on supervised release for a year after
his time in custody is over, and he can’t re-enter the reservation.
Nichols was barred from the
reservation and escorted off tribal lands in September 2011. The
reason wasn’t immediately clear.
U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says
Nichols was caught on the reservation three times over the next two
and-a-half years.
TWO RED LAKE CITIZENS SENTENCED FOR
VIOLENT CRIMES
MINNEAPOLIS – The United States
Attorney’s Office announced the sentencing of two men who committed
unrelated violent crimes on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
In the U.S. District Court in Duluth
on Oct. 22, Fernando Luis May-Gil-Garcia, 29, and 25-year-old Avery
Wade Schoenborn both received sentences of 84 months, or 7 years, in
prison. Both are enrolled members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa
Indians.
May-Gil-Garcia was sentenced for
striking a female victim multiple times with his fist as well as
biting her on the face and back. The victim was holding a baby at the
time and unable to defend herself. She suffered multiple broken bones
in her face and the baby was also struck during the assault.
Schoenborn was convicted for entering
a house and sexually assaulting an intoxicated victim, who was
unconscious at her friend’s home. She was later taken to the
hospital where she regained consciousness, was treated and released.
Both cases resulted from
investigations conducted by the FBI and Red Lake Police Department.
They were both prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Clifford
Wardlaw.
CASS LAKE SPRUCE SELECTED AS CAPITOL
CHRISTMAS TREE
CASS LAKE, Minn. – An 88-foot tall white
spruce, destined to be the nation’s Christmas Tree on the U.S.
Capitol grounds, will be cut in Minnesota’s Chippewa National Forest.
The tree will be cut from a spot in
the forest about 10 miles from Cass Lake in a ceremony attended by
Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Rick Nolan. There will also be a
traditional blessing ceremony by Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe members.
Jim Scheff, who is the state’s Logger
of the Year, will cut the tree.
The tree will then be wrapped and
taken by truck to Washington, D.C., on a long trip with many stops.
The tree’s route can be followed online.
The Capitol’s Christmas tree comes
each year from a national forest around the country. The last
Minnesota tree, also a white spruce, was cut from the Chippewa
National Forest in 1992.
ANTI-WASHINGTON TEAM AD LAUNCHED BEFORE
VIKINGS GAME
– The National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media
launched a new anti-Washington team ad campaign though the
Minneapolis-based advertising agency Red Circle.
The agency is owned by Chad Germann –
a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The agency works primarily
with the hospitality industry, including many Native American
casinos.
“I was tired of people avoiding what
I think is the real issue. There is no word in the American lexicon
that is more hurtful to the Native American,” Germann said in a
statement. “We’re left with this ugly word. People don’t talk about
how ugly it is. We need to talk about it.”
The ad opens with a black woman
looking into the camera and saying, “I am a n—–.” The ad
continues with people of Vietnamese, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Chinese
and Cuban descent speaking their own, censored racial slurs into the
camera. "Why would the FCC ban all those other words and allow
this one?” asked Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille
Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
The ad is punctuated by a Native
American man saying, “I am a Redskin.” “This is equally
profane,” the ad says. “There’s no honor in racism.”
The ad comes days before the
Washington team is scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings in
Minneapolis. The Hennepin County board passed a resolution for the
team to find a name that it says isn’t racist and derogatory.
Commissioner Peter McLaughlin said the nickname “has no place in
the 21st century.”
Team owner Daniel Snyder insists he
will not change the name.
The word came from a time when there
was a bounty on Native Americans and people would kill them and
present their bloody scalps as proof to get paid. "I think if
people understood that and thought about it and knew what that word
really means, then maybe they’ll think differently about that and
maybe we can get some more effective pressure on Redskins ownership,”
Germann said.
PUBLIC SIGNAGE TO FEATURE BOTH ENGLISH
AND OJIBWE
CLOQUET, Minn. – St. Louis County and
Fond du Lac leaders unveiled some new signage on Oct. 22. Two lakes
on the Fond du Lac Reservation are now labeled with bilingual signs
that list the names in both English and Ojibwe.
The signs are the result of an
agreement between St. Louis County and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa. The band asked the county to install bilingual
traffic signs to identify natural features, such as lakes and rivers,
as a way to preserve the their culture.
The county’s public works department
will post the signs along several county roads. The band has a
similar agreement for bilingual signs with Carlton County.
HO-CHUNK NATION WOMAN NAMED PRESIDENT
OF GIRL SCOUTS BOARD
CHICAGO – Kathy Hopinkah Hannan, a
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin citizen, was named president of the
national board of the Girl Scouts on Oct. 23.
Hannan, a Girl Scouts alumna whose two
daughters also went through the program, is the first Native American
in the post. She is the highest-ranking volunteer member of the Girl
Scouts.
"I am extremely honored and
excited to have been selected by the delegates of the Girl Scout
Movement to serve as National Board President to GSUSA," Hannan
said in a press release. "The opportunities presented to girls
today have never been greater, but the challenges they face have also
never been more difficult to overcome. That is why the Girl Scout
mission remains so vitally important in today’s world."
Hannan is the national managing
partner of diversity and corporate responsibility at KPMG in Chicago,
Illinois. She is a past board member of the Anti-Defamation League,
the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, The Chicago Network, and
Loras College.
