Ruffled Feathers

Welcome to Ruffled Feathers! The newest ISIL “channel” will be edited and moderated by Meaghan Champion-Williams, and will deal with the rights and aspirations of aboriginal peoples. Meaghan is currently in the process of moving from the US to her tribal home (Hul’qumi’num — Coast Salish on Vancouver Island, British Columbia) and will commence her editorship of Ruffled Feathers in March. In the interim, other editors may post occasional items related to First Nations affairs.

Regards,
Tom Knapp
Editor
ISIL Channels Project

This is a test post to invoke the channel templates. Please pardon our (re)construction.

“The Narragansett Indian Tribe bought a 31-acre lot in 1991, saying it would be used for ‘economic development’ and housing for the elderly and poor. However, the state of Rhode Island, fearing the tribe really wants to create a tax-free zone or build a casino, sued to block the Narragansetts from putting the land into federal trust, which would essentially free it from state and local law.” (11/02/08)

“There is heavy police presence in Deseronto, Ont., near Belleville, after an escalating land dispute in eastern Ontario calmed following a heated confrontation between native protesters and police. Members of the Mohawk First Nation who live on a reserve in the area occupied a chunk of disputed land Monday morning and refused to co-operate with police who asked them to leave when they arrived to remove a barricade blocking the road. Natives occupying the area say they are protesting in an effort to halt plans to develop land, which they say belongs to them.” (04/28/08)

“Years of legal battle between the government and Northwest Indian tribes finally ended this week with the parties signing a 10-year, $900-million compromise. Idaho Rivers United Executive Director Bill Sedivy said four Native American tribes in Washington and Oregon had agreed to remain silent for 10 years on the issue of the four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River. In exchange, federal agencies would expand tribal efforts to protect endangered and threatened fish in the Columbia River Basin, spending up to $900 million on hatchery improvements, stream restoration work, screens to protect fish and additional spillways on some of the dams.” (04/08/08)

“The Australian government has ignited a fierce debate about indigenous rights by banning alcohol and pornography in some Outback Aboriginal communities as a response to child abuse. ‘This is another attack on Aboriginal people,’ said Charlie King, an adviser to the Northern Territory government on child welfare issues. ‘This is the big stick approach.’ John Howard, the Prime Minister, announced yesterday that his government plans to usurp some of the powers of the Northern Territory government in response to a report that found child abuse is rampant in indigenous communities on Australia’s tropical northern frontier.” (06/21/07)

“Martha Stewart’s attempt to trademark ‘Katonah’ — a move that has already riled some of her village neighbors — has now upset some American Indians because the name originally belonged to a 17th-century chief. Autumn Scott and Steven Burton, two members of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation — which claims Chief Katonah as its own — have joined the anti-trademark battle being waged by the Katonah Village Improvement Society. Other American Indian leaders yesterday said that Stewart’s trademark application was offensive. ‘If I wanted to trademark ‘Martha Stewart’ and put out a line of tea towels, she would have me in court very quickly,’ said Suzan Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute, an advocacy group. Stewart’s company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), wants to trademark Katonah for home furnishings, paints and other products.” (05/30/07)

“As a child, Bonnie Wethington remembers hunting for ’star-crossed fairy rocks’ and catching lizards in thigh-high grass below the majestic Ship Rock and Church Rock on the Navajo Nation, near Four Corners (where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet). Now in her 40s, Wethington, a member of the Nation, laments that the grass is sparse and scrubby, and there is hardly a lizard in sight. She says the changes in the land have much to do with the noxious plumes pumping out of two massive coal-burning power plants in the area, and the harvesting of coal from a wide gash in the red and gold earth that runs for miles near her family’s land.” (04/28/08)

“Read Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and you will feel palpably that your ancestors brutally murdered Indians so you could live on that happy little plot of land where you sit reading. Don’t expect it to feel good. In fact, it feels so bad that Americans have repressed, suppressed, and finessed the truth about our nation’s founding for more than 200 years. It’s hard to retrieve a truth so manhandled even when you want to: Native American History Month, which is this May, comes and goes each year with none of the educational earnestness of Black History Month. When it comes to making movies about Native Americans, even solid filmmakers can look like drama teachers putting on a Thanksgiving play.” (05/30/07)

“Today, Indian Nation leaders are having to take a hard look at who cannot and should not be a member of their nation. Under their government sovereignty they have every right to do so. Concerning the Freedman Group and Intermarried Whites, Indian Nation leaders are stating their tribal nation membership was set up and based on Indian blood quantum proof and tribal roll number linking a person to that Indian nation. The Freedmen Group is playing the race card, calling the action from Indian Nations as racist toward them. Fact: there are full blooded Indians today that cannot join their Indian Nation because their past family members did not take a tribal roll number of their nation. The Indian roll number system came about because of the U.S. Government’s illegal ‘Indian Removal Act of 1830.’” (03/17/07)

“Wallace Dale tells the story of his daughter’s death in clipped, even sentences; the only time his eyes mist over is when he talks about how the anniversaries of her birth and death still get to him. And the only time he laughs is when he reminisces about growing up traditional in the remote folds of the reservation’s Chuska Mountains. His mother hewed to Navajo dress and the ancient creation stories; his father, a Comanche, practiced the healing arts of medicine men. The family raised sheep and horses, and grew corn, squash, and beans. There was no running water, electricity, or gas. ‘It was a lot of work but fun, and we learned a lot from it too,’ Dale says. ‘I always held on to their ways. Without them, we all would have been lost.’ But after Deirdre was murdered, tradition could not keep Dale anchored. He got sick; bills piled up; his marriage fell apart. He was consumed by fantasies of revenge, and he came to believe that his people’s tradition was getting in the way of justice for Deirdre. It was time, he decided, for the Navajo to embrace the death penalty.” (for publication 01/07)

“Like the explanations of Third World poverty, the explanation of poverty on Indian reservations lies in the structure of property rights and the rule of law. And that is where PERC’s interest lies—how do the institutions in the form of laws, customs and rules on the reservations affect the stewardship of natural, human, and physical capital assets? The following insights into reservation institutions help us understand the problems surrounding stewardship and economic development.” (06/06)