INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY

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The Pueblo of Zuni became the first tribe in the nation to join the MainStreet Project—a national economic development project focused on cultural and historical preservation. The tribe signed a proclamation of their participation at 2 p.m. at the Zuni Visitor and Arts Center, reported the Cibola Beacon.

WASHINGTON – It’s been two months since the U.S. Senate voted 68 – 31 to approve a reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) that included major tribal court jurisdiction and protection order provisions for tribes in the lower 48 states. The U.S. House in May passed its version of the legislation sans the same pro-tribal protections. Since then, a delegation of Indian women has taken shape nationwide to work to get the legislative branches to negotiate a deal that strongly supports Native women and their families.

If U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren was telling the truth back in May when she said that she listed herself as an American Indian minority in order “to find some more people like me” while a professor from 1986 to 1995, she seems to have altogether abandoned that mission. That’s the conclusion of a group of four Cherokee women who are traveling in Massachusetts this week with the intent of meeting with the candidate to talk about her unproven claims of Indian ancestry and her understanding of tribal issues. During their time in Boston, Warren has dodged them – much to the delight of local press pointing out the oddness of the situation – and her campaign has labeled them as out-of-staters cavorting with extremists.

Well, folks, Mitt the Mormon has locked the GOP presidential candidacy, and for the first time in 10 years I’m giving serious consideration to spending the morning of Nov. 6 at the beach or bar or breakfast table—anywhere but that vile voting booth.

I read with great interest the opinion piece written by Lise Balk King entitled, “Vern Traversie and the Worst Place to Be an Indian.” I was born and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota, attending the public schools and experiencing much of what Lise writes of from her point of view. As I have grown older and had the good fortune to live and work around the world, I often think of my youth and how the adventure that my life is would have been unthinkable if I had stopped and done so 40 years ago.

What and who are the “Ins and Outs” of Indian Country?

Okay, so Elizabeth Warren is out as an Indian academic, but the 1/256 by blood folks I have worked with in academia are in. Johnny Depp is in and the nearly full-blooded Indian kid from southwestern Oklahoma whose 1/16 Comanche ancestry coupled with four or five other tribes is out. Pamunkey and Mattaponi Indians who have lived on their reservations for nearly 20 generations are out, while people whose aunties found a link to an Indian ancestor through Ancestry.com and are now enrolled with a federal tribe are in.

What was meant to be a “Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation” to commemorate the August 15, 1812 Battle of Fort Dearborn on Tuesday, June 5 turned out to be anything but when a city councilman inadvertently made an offensive remark.

Beer Profiteers Fight Oglala Lawsuit That Seeks Control of Alcohol Sales

The Oglala Lakota elder spread out the map on her kitchen table. It showed the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where possessing, consuming or selling booze can land you in jail. “People living in the western part of the reservation can get alcohol in the border town of Oelrichs, South Dakota, where carryout is available, and I hear a second bar has just been built,” she said, sweeping her hand across the left side of the map. “If you live on the eastern side, around Allen, for example, you can drive over to Martin to drink or buy carryout. In the northern part of the reservation, you can go to [the town of] Interior. And of course, there’s Whiteclay, to the south of us in Nebraska.”

(Source: indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)