NDNZ's topics - tribe.net

Fukkerpantz Memorial

nikkrokk — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:18:08 GMT

The family memorial will be sometime in May...along with the stone setting.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to arrange a memorial dance for him at the UW First Nations Powwow April 11,12, & 13th.

I'll keep ya posted!

aho!

posted in NDNZ - 2 replies

condemnation of atrocities against Armenians

Pequamo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:22:03 GMT

Why is congress so worked up over this particular genocide? In view of the Columbus and his inheritors of oppression up to the present, did genocide not occur here?

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

hello...is anyone still here?

Wild_Pride — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:21:45 GMT

Hey all. I just wanted to apologize for being an absentee Moderator. I don't have a computer at home and I can't get on the internet at work so.....anywayz here I sit at my sister's house while our kids run amok. I just went and approved a bunch of ppl wanting to join this lil tribe. Greetings and welcome new ppl :) Introduce yourselves and help revive this place. We're all pretty laid back here and we all like to joke around here so don't be a lurker.

I was shocked and sadend to hear about fellow tribesman FP's death. My condolences to family & friends. He was a great guy and I'm sure all of Tribe misses that guy.

Hope you guys have a good day. Don't know when I'll get back on-line but I'll try to drop back in soon.

Sorry I didn't get to approve all the requests to join. I'm kinda in a hurry here - gotta get off the internet and help referee the kids!

C-ya

posted in NDNZ - 3 replies

RIP Fukkerpantz

nikkrokk — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:03:11 GMT

http://www.yakima-herald.com/obit/show/3407

posted in NDNZ - 2 replies

F*ckerpants, Do you remember?

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:26:50 GMT

Hey F*ckerpants do you remember that one game WildPride started a loooong time ago about making up words (what the heck you call those things? acronyms?) with someones name? Do you remember why it was deleted? I wish I would have been able to see the last comments on that thread. I think I was the last one to do one on someones name. Oh well, anywayz just bringing up what I thought was a good ol' past time

posted in NDNZ - 1 reply

California & Indian Law

LandaLakes — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 07:06:29 GMT

By a closely divided 4 - 3 vote, the California Supreme Court has allowed the state's Fair Political Practices Commission to sue tribes in state court for violating state election campaign reporting laws. This decision flies in the face of federal law guaranteeing tribes immunity from lawsuits without their consent, as well as language in the U.S. Constitution committing Indian affairs to the federal government, not the states. It also fits a pattern of California carving out exceptions for itself from federal Indian law. As early as the first years of statehood, when California's governor was literally calling for the extermination of Indian people, the state defied U.S. Supreme Court precedent in extending state authority over tribal groups still living on their ancestral lands. In more recent times, California has refused to recognize tribal jurisdiction in the wake of Public Law 280, a position it reversed less than 10 years ago.

What may be most disturbing about the California Supreme Court's decision, however, is its treatment of the sovereign gestures that the tribe involved, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, made to the state to resolve the dispute without litigation. The Agua Caliente offered to make voluntary compliance with the state's campaign reporting laws, and to enter into a government-to-government agreement with the state binding them to adhere to state requirements. As the tribe pointed out, this arrangement would satisfy all of the state's needs for election monitoring while respecting tribal sovereignty. Yet the California Supreme Court dismissed the tribe's proffered alternative as inadequate and "uncertain." "Absent the threat of a lawsuit," said the court, "we see no incentive for the tribe to agree to comply with the [state's] reporting requirements."

That assertion could not be further from the truth, as one look at the area of tribal/state tax agreements reveals. If it were true that Indian nations refuse to make agreements unless they are subject to suit, one would expect to see no such tax agreements. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has said that states can apply their sales taxes to on-reservation cigarette or gasoline purchases by non-Indians, and tribal sellers can even be required to collect these taxes on behalf of the state, there is no way for states to sue tribes that refuse to turn over the tax money. Tribal sovereign immunity - the same sovereign immunity that the California Supreme Court should have recognized - protects Indian nations from such suits. Nevertheless, tribes regularly make tax agreements with states regarding collection of such taxes. In fact, as the National Conference of State Legislatures recently noted, ''Nearly every state that has Indian lands within its borders has reached some type of tax agreement with the tribes.'' Thirty-four such agreements exist with the state of Oklahoma alone.

Why do tribes make such agreements, even without the threat of litigation? They do so for the same reason that governments make agreements in the international realm - to achieve gains through cooperation, avoid conflict and curry favor with powerful actors. For example, the tribal/state tax agreements provide creative ways to improve the economic situation of both tribes and states, often facilitating economic development and developing revenue streams that would not otherwise exist. In the case of Indian nations, the additional incentive to make agreements is the plenary power that Congress claims in the realm of Indian affairs, a power that Congress has often used to the detriment of tribes.

Given the greater representation and influence that states have in the Congress, Indian nations must always be mindful of the possibility that Congress will act to strip tribes of their jurisdiction or sovereign immunity if they appear to be too uncooperative. Even apart from such threats, however, tribes have reason to make agreements because they must coexist in the United States with states, counties, municipalities and other units of government. All of these governments are interdependent. For example, no one unit can effectively regulate in areas such as zoning and the environment, which transcend political boundaries.

Elections and initiative campaigns perfectly illustrate the reasons why tribes would want to make compacts with states. The whole purpose of campaign contributions is to influence outcomes in the donor's favor. But if Indian nations acquire a reputation for flouting state campaign-reporting requirements that the general public views as necessary for fair elections, tribally favored candidates and causes will be rejected. Indian nations in California, as elsewhere, depend on state government support to achieve important goals, such as beneficial gaming compacts, adherence to the Indian Child Welfare Act, and retrocession of Public Law 280 jurisdiction. A state government that views tribes as undermining state elections will be less favorably disposed on such matters.

The California Supreme Court could only imagine Indian nations responding to a show of force through lawsuits against them in state court; it could not envision California tribes as responsible actors making agreements with the state on a government-to-government basis. The state needs to break out of its old pattern, and join the modern era of federal Indian law.

Carole Goldberg directs the Joint Degree Program in Law and American Indian Studies at UCLA, and is the Faculty Advisory Committee Chair of the UCLA Law School's Native Nations Law and Policy Center.

<http://www.kumeyaay.com/news/news_detail.html?id=4335>

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

elder abuse alleged in navajo nation

henryphillip — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:35:39 GMT

Elderly abuse march ignored

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

Dr. Marjorie "Grandma" Thomas pushes a wheelchair while walking with Mary Gilmore, right, Ruth Gilmore, Marybeth Sage and Leon Skyhorse-Thomas on Monday to protest the abuse of elderly people. The small group marched from the Navajo Nation fairgrounds to the office of President Joe Shirley Jr. in order to meet with him and voice their concerns over allegations of a recent incident involving the BIA, but neither Shirley nor Vice President Frank Dayish were in the office to meet with them. Allegations of abuse against an 84-year-old Navajo woman spurred "Grandma" Thomas into action once again Monday.

Dr. Marjorie W. Thomas organized a last-minute protest that began at the fairgrounds in St. Michaels and proceeded to the executive offices of the Navajo Nation. The protest march was prompted by reports of Hopi police officers abusing Rena Babbitt Lane of Black Mesa.

Thomas was angered by the alleged treatment of Lane and the lack of a response from the Nation's leaders.

"I'm really concerned about the elder abuse, and no one is saying anything," Thomas said. If the leaders won't speak up, then she will, Thomas said. She will make sure the elders know that she cares about them, she said.

Her concerns that the administration is turning a deaf ear to elder issues was highlighted as she entered the administrative offices only one of the double doors was unlocked and it required an extra effort for Thomas to get her wheelchair into the building.

Then there was no one there to meet with Thomas and the small group of marchers.

"I made a courtesy call to let them know we were coming," Thomas said. But she received the same answer as she asked if she could speak with President Joe Shirley Jr., Vice President Frank Dayish or Shirley's Chief of Staff Patrick Sandoval: they're not in. "Come on, you people, who works here?"

"President Shirley is Grandma's neighbor," said Leon Skyhorse-Thomas, "Grandma" Thomas's son and one of the marchers.

"I'm his nal," Grandma added. "He doesn't want to see his nal that's why he took off. His nal has a big mouth."

Clinton Jim, an assistant to the president, came to the outer office and sat with the protestors and discussed their complaints.

"Something in my mind says something bad but we're here on a peaceful walk," Thomas said. She wondered why Navajo officials have made no statements regarding the Lane situation.

"I want the president to say something. Why doesn't he wake up?" Thomas wondered. "We need help, I need help. The youth and the elders need help." She recalled another march to support the elders in Chinle, and only Dayish showed up on behalf of the administration.

"I'll be reading the papers and if I don't see anything happening, I'll walk again," Thomas said.

The president's office is receiving reports on the matter, Jim said; however, the president in the interest of government to government relations must move cautiously, he added.

"We can't go on hearsay," Jim said.

The people want to know that somethng is being done, Thomas said. She's willing to speak up for them, she added.

"I'm a very open person, I say what I want to say," Thomas said. "I know there are other people out there (being abused) and I have to say something."

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at hopkins1960@hotmail.com or by calling 505-371-5443.
Tuesday
December 5, 2006

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

just saying

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:31:48 GMT

What's up eveyone? Nobody says much no more. Wildpride can't be on the computer anymore but for business. She has no home computer either. Thought i would just let you all know why she hasn't been posting. Kinda quiet without her. she kept it interesting in here.

posted in NDNZ - 2 replies

i'm mad as hell!!

Annette — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 22:45:59 GMT

First of all-hello! I'm back too--and with a vengeance. It has been a horrendous week and would like some input. I live in a small town in central Oklahoma ., pop. 7000 people,(instead of projects, our whole town is ghetto). Maybe i'm being over-dramatic or maybe not. You decide.(not that it's gonna influence my motivation for justice)

I started bartending at a neighborly bar in town. fOn April 13, 2006.After clearing out my register, I join some friends on the other side of the bar. Yes, I start feeling pretty good and we decide to go visit some friends who reside on the edge of town. We start hitting the whiz anddecide to take a road trip (save your judgement). Needless to say, it went downhill after that. To make a long story short, we wrecked on a state highway, which then changed it's jurisdiction to state case. I am and look native Kiowa, the friends i rode with two men, 1 full blooded Pawnee and the other was full blooded caucasian. We have known each other for a number of years. We wrecked, and both men were ejected and I was pinned in a burning truck until one courageous man made 2 attempts to get me out. Sad to say, we lost our caucasian friend (who by the way, was as much Kiowa as me in his heart.) The other was mediflighted to Oklahoma City where he is still improving, but may never use his legs again. Being the only person conscious, I lay in the emergency room with pain in my knee ,shoulder and back of the head, but I'm gonna live and someday heal physically. I get interogated over and over by a cop with a chip on his shoulder. To my horror, because I could not and still not able to remember anything surrounding the wreck I am booked for DUI, negligent homicide, open containers (beer and alcohol) no seatbelt and obstruction of justice. This stemmed because I would not place the Indian man as the driver. But as I have told all the investigators, unless I could without a doubt name the person driving, I would not jeopardize anyone since I AM NOT ABLE TO REMEMBER.

Now remember, I was pinned in and rescued by the fire chief. There were plenty of witnesses that I was sitting in the back and still was booked with these charges. Of course our litte redneck paper editor made my charges Front Page Headlines. Also, this was Easter weekend so I spent 4 nights and 4 days in the county jail until they HAD to release me monday due to lack of evidence. It took me 4 days to get it printed that my charges were dropped and they still had to add.."pending further investigation".

I may not own a damn thing, but I'm a human being. This has affected my family and friends not to mention me. I really used to believe in this fuckin justice thing. Of course, I'm pissed off. I can't help thinking, If I was white, would I have spent the night in the hospital for observation instead of leaving ER with a gauze around my knee and no clearance for even tylenol? Would my memory loss be result of a traumatic event instead of blackout from drinking/lying about memory loss to help my (ndn) friend out? With all the witnesses there, would I have been allowed to grieve and think about things instead of being thrown in jail breaking my record of almost 50 years without any incarceration?

On the other hand, I am very grateful to be alive, to be NDN, and to be right!!! The only women in jail with me were 6 other powerful NDN women...and i was humbled and empowered by the spirit of these women who were able to get me to laugh in spite of the ugliness of this system.

IT IS NOT OVER.....Someday I may thank that cop who unleashed a dragon wanting to bring something good out of this and honor all who walk this struggle of injustice....

posted in NDNZ - 6 replies

petition - need signatures

Wild_Pride — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:37:28 GMT

http://www.petitiononline.com/NNAVA001/petition.html

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

This will make you mad if you read it

Wild_Pride — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:30:04 GMT

This is what was posted on Hi5 bulletin board...

(I don't have a link. Someone just copied it and e-mailed it out.)

"Natives" - Becky night_scream9@hotmail.com

Did you know that native americans in canada have a card that allows them to buy things at a cheaper price. Its called a status card. It also lets them hunt and fish as much as they want without a license. Its not even just left at that, they have special educational programs at school as well. That fucking cards gives them tons of advantage over white people and everyone else. How can a government promote equality, how can anyone promote equality (seeing as how natives always complain about how they want to be treat the same as US FUCKIN WHITIES, when they're giving or getting free shit for being a certain race. As a white person I find it very difficult to treat some drunk homeless fucking indian, the same as I'd treat a drunk homeless white person. And, let me clarify, that is not because of the colour of their skin or any other reason. It is because I know they'd had a huge advantage over that homeless white person. Im not going to lie. I'd feel that the native person, was probably a shitload scummier, and I can definately say that I'd feel a lot less sorry for them. It is conditional, it depends on what has happened to the person, but in general, at first glance that would be how I feel. ESPECIALLY SINCE THERE ARE FUCKING PROGRAMS SPECIFICALLY TO HELP HOMELESS INDIANS (NO ONE ELSE JUST INDIANS!!!!), AND GODAMMIT THEY SHOULD APPRECIATE IT, GET THEY'RE FUCKING SHIT TOGETHER. If I was homeless I'd have a hell of a lot harder time getting help then some lazy native person. And, as a majority, they really do not look good as race by the way they present themselves. Have you ever been to canada. The majority of the bums are native. In BC that is. So how am I supposed to feel about them when the majority of them are poor and homeless, even after they've gotten all these benefits. SO, I think the government should quit. Let everyone be equal, let there be no reason for racism and see how all the native americans fair without there free fucking shit. We could be putting money into so much better things. Now, I'm sure you're all thinking. BUT LOOK AT HOW POORLY THEY WERE TREATED. WHITE PEOPLE STOLE THEIR LAND. Yes that was terrible. But that happened over 200 years ago. And I'm not going to, nor should anyone else, feel guilty for a crime they did not commit. I dont feel that I should have to pay for something I did not do. But that is what our government is teaching us, feel bad that your white, and that is just as bad as a white person making some one else feel like shit for being, native, asian,black, ect. And, all the native kids that I've talked to, who come from well off families (and, let me clarify, these are people that would've made it whether they had these advantages or not). Say that they would be just fine if they didnt have a status card, they dont really care who's land they live on, and they certainly do not want to be on some fucking reserve eating ferns and hunting for their food. They are perfectly happy being Canadian. These people, native people, who are looking for these free benefits and causing shit because they want there land back, dont have any ground. They're just looking for a free ticket. Its not because they think they'd be better off if they had they're own its because; they're too fucking lazy to work like ever other fucking person in Canada.

What the fuck would they do if they got their land back anyways? They wouldnt set up teepees and have pow wows they'd just open up a casino or bar and probably manage it poorly. That's not expressing appreciation for your culture. Thats getting a handout for doing fuck all.Thats my opinion. If you want me to elborate even more. Ask. Email address Becky - night_scream9@hotmail.com

posted in NDNZ - 2 replies

Back again????

LandaLakes — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 20:14:43 GMT

Stanford University in California got rid of its "Indian" mascot in 1972 but some students and alumni have a hard time letting go.

At a recent game, some people wore t-shirts featuring a big-nosed, angry-looking "Indian." That prompted the Stanford American Indian Association to condemn the resurrection of the mascot. Stanford President John Hennessy also condemned the mascot.

That didn't end the debate. Letters started pouring into The Stanford Review, an independent newspaper, and The Stanford Daily, the official school newspaper. Kimball Bighorse, a Haudenosaunee/Dine senior and columnist for The Daily, got into a war of words with The Review, which expressed sympathy for the people who resurrected the mascot.

The Review is now publishing even more about the mascot. Bighorse contributes a column, as does Joe Fairbanks, an Indian alumnus from Oklahoma. Luukas Ilves, an editor for the paper, said more views are welcome on the subject.
"http://www.stanfordreview.org/Archive/Volume_XXXVI/Issue_4/stanfordindianmascot.jpg

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

SAVE Urban IHS Programs/Clinics

Sat, 04 Mar 2006 21:53:56 GMT

As you may have heard, President Bush has proposed eliminating the entire urban Indian health program as part of his budget strategy. This would be a cut of $33 million for the 34 urban Indian health programs that are located throughout the United States. Some of these programs have no other source of funding and would have to close. Others would have to reduce services significantly.

This happened before, in the 1980's, when Reagan did the same thing. We waged a large and widespread grass-roots campaign to fight it and won. We will need to do the same this time around and we need your help. I think we can win again but we will need a response from as many people as possible.

Also, if you know anyone who can help us in this fight, please contact them and let them know what's going on.

Attached are 2 documents that the National Council of Urban Indian Health programs (NCUIH) has prepared for this fight. The first is a statement from individuals about why the urban Indian health program is important to them; the second is a letter to the members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Please have people put in their name and home address and sign each one, and then fax or send them to NCUIH's attorney, Greg A. Smith (info below). In addition, distribute these attached documents to anyone you know anywhere in the country. The more we can show nationwide support, the better. Anything you can do to help get these in would be greatly appreciated!

PLEASE FAX/MAIL THE COMPLETED LETTERS TO:

Greg Smith, The Smith Law Firm
2099 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20006

Tel: 202-265-1551
Fax: 202-265-4901

Email: gsmith@johnstondc.com

***************************************************************************************************

PLEASE OPPOSE THE PRESIDENT’S FY 2007 BUDGET REQUEST
TO ELIMINATE THE URBAN INDIAN HEALTH PROGRAM

President Bush has proposed the elimination of the Urban Indian Health Program within the Indian Health Service. Urban Indian health programs report that such a cut would result in bankruptcies, lease defaults, elimination of services to tens of thousands of Indians who may not seek care elsewhere, an increase in the health care disparity for American Indians and Alaska Natives and the near annihilation of a body of medical and cultural knowledge addressing the unique cultural and medical needs of the urban Indian population held almost exclusively by these programs. According to the 2000 Census, nearly 70% of Americans identifying themselves as of American Indian or Alaska Native heritage live in urban areas. Notably, the Urban Indian Health Program receives only 1% of IHS funding, stretching those dollars to achieve extraordinary results.

Urban Indian Health Clinics provide unique and non-duplicable assistance to Urban Indians who face extraordinary barriers to accessing mainstream health care. What Urban Indian health programs offer cannot be effectively replaced by the HRSA’s Health Centers program.
• Urban Indian Health Programs Overcome Cultural Barriers.
• Urban Indian Health Programs Save Costs and Improve Medical Care by Getting Urban Indians to Seek Medical Attention Earlier.
• Urban Indian Health Programs Are Better Positioned to Identify Health Issues Particular to the Native Community.
• Urban Indian Programs Are Better Able To Address The Fact That Movement Back And Forth From Reservations Has An Impact On Health Care.
• Urban Indian Programs Are a Key Provider of Care to the Large Population of Uninsured Urban Indians Who Might Not Go Elsewhere.
• Urban Indian Programs Reduce Costs to Other Parts of the Indian Health Service System by Reducing Their Patient Load.

Rather than the President’s proposal, please urge Congress to support a $12 million increase for Urban Indian programs in the FY 2007 budget.

Here is what the Urban Indian Health Program has meant to me: ____________________

Name:_________________________________________________________________

Address:________________________________________________________________

CC: National Council of Urban Indian Health

**************************************************************************************************

February 10, 2006

Chairman John McCain
Ranking Member Byron Dorgan
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Washington, DC

By Fax (202-228-2589)

Dear Chairman McCain, Senator Dorgan and Members of the Committee:

President Bush has proposed the elimination of the entire Urban Indian Health Program (UIHP) from the Indian Health Service FY07 budget in the Department of Health and Human Services. This would be a cut of $33 million for the 34 urban Indian health programs that are located throughout the United States. Some of these programs have no other source of funding and would have to close. Others would have to reduce medical services significantly. I urge you to not only restore full funding to this vital program, but actually increase funding! According to the 2000 Census, nearly 70% of Americans identifying themselves as of American Indian or Alaska Native heritage live in urban areas. Notably, the Urban Indian Health Program receives only 1% of IHS funding, stretching those dollars to achieve extraordinary results. Overall, the President has proposed to increase funding for the Indian Health Service by 4.1%; it is nonsensical to eliminate this critical program.

The Urban Indian Health Program was created in 1976 to address the enormous health needs of American Indians who had been relocated from the reservations during the 1950s through the 1970s. All American Indians, urban and reservation, have vast health disparities compared to other racial/ethic groups (i.e., diabetes is three times higher in the American Indian population than in whites). While the federal government has other community health clinic programs in the Department of Health and Human Services, only urban Indian health programs provide culturally proficient health care that is crucial to decrease these health disparities. Moreover, these programs save money by providing quicker and better care and lightening the patient load at regular Indian Health Service facilities, where many urban Indians would go if they did not have access to an urban Indian health program.

The federal government has a trust responsibility through treaty obligations and federal statutes to provide heath care to American Indians whether they are living on a reservation or elsewhere (i.e., living in an urban area) as Congress found in the legislation that was passed in 1976 creating the Urban Indian Health Program. Full funding for both the tribal and urban Indian health programs must continue.

Please help keep these vital health services for our Indian people!

Sincerely,

cc: National Council of Urban Indian Health

posted in NDNZ - 1 reply

I'm back!

Wild_Pride — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:36:48 GMT

holy shit this site has changed since the last time I was on and that wasn't too long ago!

so what's everybody been up to?

posted in NDNZ - 13 replies

rez drugs

pantsy — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 22:56:33 GMT

anybody read the New York Times article today about drug smuggling and reservations. it seems the jurisdiction issues have made rez's a haven for drug operations. it's a large article

posted in NDNZ - 3 replies

Public Law 280

LandaLakes — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:21:04 GMT

As of 12:01am Thursday morning, the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska resumed full civil and criminal jurisdiction on its reservation.

The tribe fell under Public Law 280, which granted the state of Nebraska jurisdiction in Indian Country. But the state voted to retrocede in 2001, a move that was finally approved by the Interior Department on Tuesday.

"This is a great day for the Santee Sioux Nation and its tribal members," Santee Sioux Chairman Roger Trudell said. "It serves as an affirmation of the tribe's inherent sovereignty and jurisdiction over its reservation lands."

The tribe has signed cooperative agreements for law enforcement with Knox County and the state of Nebraska.

posted in NDNZ - 1 reply

writing like an NDN

LandaLakes — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:42:24 GMT

he Esquire piece, as successful as it was heartbreaking, was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and helped establish Nasdijj as a prominent new voice in the world of nonfiction. “Esquire’s Cinderella story,” as Salon’s Sean Elder called it, “arrived over the transom, addressed to no one in particular. ‘The cover letter was this screed about how Esquire had never published the work of an American-Indian writer and never would because it’s such a racist publication,’ recalls editor in chief David Granger. ‘And under it was... one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I’d ever read.’ By the time the piece was published in the June issue, the writer (who lives on an Indian reservation) had a book contract.”

The contract was for a full-length memoir, The Blood Runs Like A River Through My Dreams, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2000 to great acclaim. It was followed by two more memoirs, The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping (Ballantine, 2003), and Geronimo’s Bones: A Memoir of My Brother and Me (Ballantine, 2004). As if losing a son was not enough, the memoirs portray a lifetime of suffering.

Nasdijj was born on the Navajo reservation in a hogan in 1950, he claims, the son of an abusive white cowboy “who broke, bred, and bootlegged horses” and a Navajo mother. “My mother,” he writes, “was a hopeless drunk. I would use the word ‘alcoholic’ but it’s too polite. It’s a white people word... There is nothing polite about cleaning up your mother in her vomit and dragging her unconscious carcass back to the migrant housing trailer you lived in.”

Nasdijj says his father would sometimes pimp his mother to other migrant workers for “five bucks” and that she died of alcoholism when he was 7. Though their time together was short and turbulent, Nasdijj says his mother instilled in him the Navajo traditions that now inform his work.

His father, he says, was a sexual predator who raped him the night his mother died. Because his father was white, Nasdijj says he was treated like an “outcast bastard” on the reservation. Like Tommy Nothing Fancy, Nasdijj claims to have fetal alcohol syndrome and to have been raised, with his brother, in migrant camps all over the country.

Nasdijj knows how to pull heartstrings. Both The Blood and The Boy revolve around the lives and deaths of his adopted Navajo sons. “Death, to the Navajo, is like the cold wind that blows across the mesa from the north,” Nasdijj writes in The Blood. “We do not speak of it.” But Nasdijj does speak of it. In fact, he speaks of it almost exclusively. Death and suffering are his staples.

“My son comes back to me when I least expect to see his ghostly vision,” he writes. “He lives in my bones and scars.”

But Nasdijj hasn’t built his career purely through the tragic and sensational nature of his stories. His style is an artful blending of poetry and prose, and his work has met with nearly universal critical praise. The Blood “reminds us that brave and engaging writers lurk in the most forgotten corners of society,” wrote Ted Conover in The New York Times Book Review. Rick Bass called it “mesmerizing, apocalyptic, achingly beautiful and redemptive... a powerful American classic,” while Howard Frank Mosher said it was “the best memoir I have read about family love, particularly a father’s love for his son, since A River Runs Through It.”The Blood was a New York Times Notable Book, a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award and winner of the Salon Book Award.

The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping was published to more glowing reviews — “vivid and immediate, crackling with anger, humor, and love” (The Washington Post) and “riveting... lyrical... a ragged wail of a song, an ancient song, where we learn what it is to truly be a parent and love a child” (USA Today).

Shortly after The Blood came out, Nasdijj writes, he moved back to the Navajo reservation, where word of his book and his compassion spread. One day while fishing, a Navajo man and his 10-year-old son approached him. The man took Nasdijj aside and explained that he, his wife and their son, Awee, had AIDS. “They were not terrific parents,” Nasdijj wrote “but they wanted this child to have a chance at life.” Nasdijj was that chance. For the next two years Nasdijj cared for Awee until his death from AIDS-related illness.

The Boy won a 2004 PEN/Beyond Margins Award and helped solidify Nasdijj’s place as one of the most celebrated multicultural writers in American literature. But as his successes and literary credentials grew in number so did his skeptics — particularly from within the Native American community. Sherman Alexie first heard of Nasdijj in 1999 after his former editor sent him a galley proof of The Blood for comment. At the time, Alexie, who is Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, was one of the hottest authors in America and was widely considered the most prominent voice in Native American literature. His novel Indian Killer was a New York Times notable book, and his cinematic feature Smoke Signals was the previous year’s Sundance darling, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and winner of the Audience Award. Alexie’s seal of approval would have provided The Blood with a virtual rubber stamp of native authenticity. But it took Alexie only a few pages before he realized he couldn’t vouch for the work. It wasn’t just that similar writing style and cadence that bothered Alexie.

“The whole time I was reading I was thinking, this doesn’t just sound like me, this is me,” he says.

Alexie was born hydrocephalic, a life-threatening condition characterized by water on the brain. At the age of 6 months he underwent brain surgery that saved his life but left him, much like Tommy Nothing Fancy, prone to chronic seizures throughout his childhood. Instead of identifying with Nasdijj’s story, however, Alexie became suspicious.

“At first I was flattered but as I kept reading I noticed he was borrowing from other Native writers too. I thought, this can’t be real.”

Indeed, Nasdijj’s stories also bear uncanny resemblance to the works of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko and especially Michael Dorris, whose memoir The Broken Cord depicts his struggle to care for his adopted FAS-stricken Native Alaskan children. Although there was never more than a similar phrase here and there, Alexie was convinced that the work was fabricated. He wasn’t alone.

Shortly after his review of The Blood came out in The New York Times Book Review, Ted Conover received an Internet greeting card from Nasdijj chastising him for his piece. Conover, an award-winning journalist whose 2003 book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, was taken aback. Not only is it highly unusual for an author to attack a reviewer, but it is especially unusual when the review in question was overwhelmingly positive — Conover’s flattering words would grace the paperback cover.

Conover’s main critique was that Nasdijj was “stingy with self-revelation.” He questioned certain inconsistencies in the author’s background, noting that Nasdijj sometimes said his mother was “with the Navajo,” sometimes she was “Navajo, or so she claimed,” and other times she was just “Navajo.” Conover never accused Nasdijj of lying, he merely suggested that the writer be more forthcoming. Nasdijj, however, rejected this suggestion and sent the angry letter, which Conover characterizes as a sprawling diatribe.

“The whole thing was just really bizarre,” Conover says.

Conover sent a copy of the card to Anton Mueller, Nasdijj’s editor at Houghton Mifflin and an acquaintance. “I wondered if he might shed a little light on this,” he says. Mueller, however, never responded and the incident left Conover wondering whether he should have been more thorough in investigating Nasdijj before writing his review. It didn’t take him long to find an answer. Several weeks later, Conover was contacted by an expert in fetal alcohol syndrome who had read his review. She informed him that while she sympathized with the plight of Nasdijj and his son, the symptoms described in The Blood are not actually those of FAS.

Says Conover, “I immediately thought, ‘Oh no, I’ve been duped.’”

This work is a memoir and represents, to the best of my ability and my memory, an accurate reporting of facts and events as I know them and as they have been told to me. I have attempted to protect the privacy of people through the editorial decision to frequently change names, appearances, and locations, as these are not relevant to the focus of the work or the issues the work strives to deal with.

No, these are not the words of James Frey, author of the exaggerated A Million Little Pieces, but of Nasdijj in the author’s note for The Blood. But why? Was this just standard legalese or was Houghton Mifflin concerned about the veracity of this book? Had Sherman Alexie actually gotten through to them? Is the “author’s note” a cynical attempt to protect a piece of fiction passed off as memoir?

Anton Mueller, editor of The Blood, says no. “Nasdijj’s life is hazy and complex, and we both felt it would be a good idea.”

Indeed, getting to the bottom of Nasdijj’s story is no easy task. He alleges a nomadic existence that is virtually free of specific names or places, rendering it difficult to substantiate his claims. A Google search brings up first and foremost his blog — www.nasdijj.typepad.com. (Shortly after Nasdijj was contacted for this story, his blog was taken offline.) A sampling of his almost daily blogs over several months suggests that one (and perhaps only one) thing is clear: Nasdijj is a very angry man. If in the books his passion and fierceness are modulated and concentrated, his blog posts are full of rants and denunciations. Targets include the American health care system, government treatment of Indians, middle-class values and, especially, the publishing industry.

He has recently made a routine of calling ReganBooks über-publisher Judith Regan a “cunt,” a designation that in Nasdijj’s estimation she shares with Gina Centrello of Random House among countless others. “Like the naked Jew who covers his penis before he turns the shower on, there is no fucking hope for you,” he admonishes them.

Non-metaphorical Jews alike are not immune from Nasdijj’s wrath. “Jews [in publishing] would sell the gas chamber shower heads if they thought it might make a buck.” In his acceptance speech for the prestigious PEN/Beyond Margins Award, an edited version of which was delivered in absentia, he took the opportunity to call New York literary agent Binky Urban a “white bitch.” (It’s available online at www.literaryrevolution.com/mr-nasdijj-62804.html.)

Nasdijj’s blog is typical of a recent shift in his work. Though his first book was thoughtful, even tender, as his career has progressed Nasdijj has increasingly taken the role of an artist whose willingness to push boundaries often borders on disturbing. His most recent book, Geronimo’s Bones, brought Nasdijj’s tales of suffering to startling heights, or lows depending on your perspective. Surrealistic accounts of forcible incest by his father read less like rape and more like lukewarm trysts. “His lips to mine. His tongue in my mouth. His words: ‘Nasdijj, please, please love me.’ ...He was a lousy lover with his tongue in my mouth. The same tongue that had just been inside my bowels.”

Though incestuous rape may be difficult to trump, perhaps even more disturbing is Nasdijj’s tendency to sexualize teenage boys. A recent post on his Web site featured a nude photograph of the open anus and testicles of a supposedly cancer-ridden teenager. Nasdijj claims this was done in an effort to humanize the disease, but such pictures are often posted alongside graphic accounts of adolescent sexuality. Indeed, they are sometimes posted alongside naked sadomasochistic pictures of Nasdijj himself.

But Nasdijj’s explicit Web site isn’t the only curiosity a Google search of his name reveals — it also brings up a rather caustic reader review of The Boyand the Dog are Sleeping on BookBrowse (www.bookbrowse.com). “I find this book full of the author’s misinformation regarding his family,” it begins. “I take exception with his opinion of his ‘Anglo father’ and his ‘Navajo Mother.’ I happen to be related to this author and his family is tracable [sic] back through the American Revolution on his father’s side and to Holland on his mother’s side. I resent the fact that he seems to be ashamed of his notable ancestor’s (i.e., Cyrus McCormick, a great grandfather that pioneered nerve block dentistry, couragous mem [sic] that lost their lives at Valley Forge). This kind of dribble [sic] should have been investigated prior to printing or should have been labeled as purely fiction.”

While such a review could easily be dismissed on its own, a Yahoo search of the name attached to it offers up a comprehensive genealogical site. And when the reviewer’s name is searched in conjunction with the name of Nasdijj’s daughter, Kree, one name comes up: Timothy Patrick Barrus.

Barrus, the site says, was born in 1950 (the same year as Nasdijj), is married to Tina Giovanni (also the name of Nasdijj’s wife), and has a daughter named Kree. The site then charts his family lineage back several generations to the 1700s, and, indeed, as the review states, to the McCormick family.

Evidence compiled from other searches seems to corroborate the site.

Just like Nasdijj, Tina Giovanni also hosts a blog — www.autism911.blogspot.com. (It also was taken offline in the past week but has returned minus its archives.) A post from Giovanni in July 2005 shows a picture of Nasdijj’s daughter, Kree, and Kree’s husband, Steve, both of whom, Giovanni says, are teachers in La Paz, Bolivia. A follow-up Internet search reveals the December 13, 2004, meeting minutes of the American Educational Association of La Paz, announcing the hiring of Kree Barrus and Steve Poole as teachers at the American Cooperative School in La Paz. (A photograph of Steve Poole on the American Cooperative School’s Web site confirms that he is the same Steve pictured in Giovanni’s blog.) As for Giovanni, a records search reveals her legal name to be Tina Giovanni Barrus, with addresses in and around Taos, New Mexico. This obviously begs the question — who exactly is Timothy Patrick Barrus?

Yet another Google search, this time for Tim Barrus, brings up the heading “Sadomasochistic Literature” and the following: “Some of the best pornographic fiction to come out of the leatherman tradition is by Tim Barrus whose Mineshaft (1984) describes the sexual exploits of the infamous New York S/M palace of the same name.” The site is GLBTQ: an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and queer culture. The section in which Barrus’ name appears is titled “Gay Male Writers Since the 70’s.”

Could the heart-wrenching Navajo memoirist actually have been the gay leather novelist in a previous life?

The streets of downtown Lansing, Michigan, are crowded on a Friday night, but not with people; with squirrels. They congregate in the middle of Washington Street, staring with incredulity as a lone car approaches. Despite an impending collision, they don’t bother to move out of the way, apparently shocked to see anyone out at this time of night. The oncoming car doesn’t slow down and crushes one of them into the red brick street. No one is around to notice. It wasn’t always like this.

In the 1950s and ’60s, when Tim Barrus was growing up here, Lansing was a prosperous middle-class community. Washington Street wasn’t a sight of squirrel manslaughter, but the heart of a thriving theater district. Oldsmobile, Fisher Auto Parts and General Motors all had factories nearby.

No cowboy, Maynard Barrus worked as a shift foreman at the Lansing Board of Water and Light. In 1948 he married Barrus’ mother, Jean Anne Steginga, a local Lansing girl of Scandinavian descent. Two years later, Timothy Patrick was born.

Tim Barrus was raised with his younger sister, Suzanne, in a modest three-bedroom home off of Aurelius Road close to the Michigan State University campus. His mother was in fact around throughout his childhood and is still alive today. He has no younger brother.

Barrus attended Eastern High School in Lansing, where he was far from a slayer of suburban values. He was a member of the student council, the forensics team, the forum club as well as a homeroom officer. He was also an actor, playing several minor roles in the 1968 class production of Moliere’s The Physician in Spite of Himself.

“He was a good, good actor — very passionate,” says one former castmate of Barrus’ who wishes not to be named. “He was able to completely absorb himself into the mind of a character in a way that most people are never able to.”

“He was a thinker — very pensive,” the castmate continues. “But he was a warm person, very friendly.”

Beneath his generally pleasant veneer, however, a simmering temper would occasionally boil over.

“You didn’t know what you were going to say to the guy to make him angry,” recalls Rosemary Taylor, who was also in the cast alongside Barrus, “so you were extremely careful with him because you wanted to stay in his orbit. He was one of those guys that was a little ahead of his time.”

Barrus graduated from high school in 1969 and a year later married Jan Abbott, a local girl from neighboring Okemos. According to a source close to the family, the couple took in foster children to make ends meet. In 1971 Barrus and his wife moved to Largo, Florida, where his sister, Suzanne, lived with her husband, Steve Cheetham. Barrus attended community college while Abbott worked at Winn-Dixie to support him, according to Cheetham. Although Barrus wasn’t publishing his work at the time, he wrote constantly. “He wrote most of his life in one way or another,” says Cheetham by phone from Lansing. “He’s a storyteller. You never knew if he was telling you something true, or part of his imagination or what.” In 1973 the couple moved again before finally winding up back in Lansing. Cheetham never saw Barrus again.

In 1974, Barrus’ only daughter, Kree, was born and, according to sources, the couple also adopted a mildly autistic boy around this time. The boy could have inspired Tommy Nothing Fancy, although several discrepancies exist between his story and Tommy’s.

Nasdijj claims that he adopted Tommy as an infant and that he died at age 6. A Kree Barrus resumé posted online, however, indicates that as a girl she helped care for a mildly autistic 7-year-old. Likewise, an article written by Barrus in 1996 asserts that he adopted his son at age 4 and that he was alive and well as of the ’90s, having survived adolescence and grown “almost as big as I am.”

Cheetham, who was still married to Barrus’ sister at the time, tells a slightly different story. According to him, Barrus and his wife did indeed adopt an autistic boy, but that the boy’s “emotional problems” proved too much for the couple to handle. After less than a year they were forced to give the boy up, and to Cheetham’s best recollection he returned to being a ward of the state.

Address records indicate that the young family lived in an apartment on Cooper Avenue near downtown Lansing until 1975. It is unclear where they moved immediately after that. At some point, Barrus and his wife divorced, and he moved to San Francisco where he began to write — primarily for the gay leather magazine Drummer. Barrus was widely praised for coining the term “leather lit,” and for being one of the founders of the newly formed genre.

In 1984 he moved to Key West and, according to his friend Bill Bowers, took residence with his partner Adolfo. (Barrus would later deny being gay.) There he published his first book, The Mineshaft, a sloppy attempt at erotica, but one that nonetheless garnered him some attention. He soon became a regular contributor to The Weekly News, the local gay newspaper, writing fictional stories reminiscent of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.

It was in Key West where Barrus met Bowers, a local artist and photographer, and the two began work on a number of projects together.

“He was a crazy queen. He did things other people just didn’t do,” says Bowers fondly of Barrus. “He was really a master of publicity.”

Bowers remembers collaborating with Barrus on an erotic photo exhibit called Sadomasochism: True Confessions. After the opening night of the show drew lukewarm interest, Barrus assumed the fake name John Hammond and wrote an open letter to The Weekly News attacking the exhibit.

“Sadomasochism is a disease,” the letter read “and gay men who are into that scene are wrong.” He then had Bowers write a response to their mythical antagonist Hammond, inviting him to “take a Valium, take a douche,” and published it in The Weekly News. “The next time Mr. Hammond wants to show his ignorance he should do some heavy research before he rejects his very own brothers.” The ensuing controversy rallied the gay community around the artists and propelled the exhibit to a successful run.

“He would do anything to shock people,” said Bowers. “It works every time if you want a reaction, be it good or bad. Bad is good too, sometimes better.”

Not all of Barrus’ acquaintances found his antics quite so charming however. Lars Eighner grew quite tired of his routine. “If you look up dilettante in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Tim Barrus,” says Eighner.

Best known for his 1993 book Travels With Lizbeth (which The Blood would partially parrot), Eighner first became acquainted with Barrus around 1984 after he received a random letter from Barrus expressing his most frequent theme — “publishers are scum.” Eighner was just breaking into writing at the time and found Barrus’ angry candor instructive. The two soon began a three-way correspondence with another gay writer, T.R. Witomski, which lasted for several years.

Though he never met Barrus in person, Eighner came to know him quite well through his letters and phone conversations. Barrus would routinely harangue Eighner with long soliloquies about the evils of publishing. “There was always some great injustice that had been done him — he had been slighted by everyone, betrayed; there was treachery everywhere.” Eighner is quick to point out that he didn’t think Barrus was crazy — just irrationally angry.

“He didn’t think windmills were monsters, he just hated windmills.”

According to Eighner, Barrus and the established gay writer John Preston had a one-sided literary rivalry — and Barrus was the perennial loser. While Barrus’ books were well reviewed in the gay press (The Advocate called his 1987 book Anywhere, Anywhere “a rewarding encounter with compelling characters,”) he was never able to achieve the mainstream success that Preston, Witomski and eventually Eighner were able to. This made him, according to Eighner, “insanely jealous.”

That Barrus might have adopted a Native American persona to facilitate his career strikes Eighner as completely in character. Similar behavior was routine when Eighner knew him. Barrus’ third book, Anywhere, Anywhere is supposedly a novelized account of his service in the Vietnam War, which, Eighner says, “some serious publications thought was really a memoir of a gay soldier.” The book is a love story between wheelchair-bound Chris and his commanding officer in Vietnam, Boss. The pair fell in love fighting alongside each other and upon their return to America they used their feelings for each other to battle the physical and emotional scars inflicted on them by the war. Anywhere, Anywhere was praised in the gay press for revealing the previously untold gay experience in Vietnam. “Of course Barrus had never been near Vietnam or military service,” says Eighner. (When asked if his brother-in-law served in Vietnam, Cheetham replies, “Absolutely not.”)

In a 1994 article he wrote for the Lambda Book Report, however, Barrus claims to be a Vietnam vet, or so it seems: “I knew lots of gay men in Vietnam. Not that I had sex with them. No one was telling their story.”

Barrus, a natural mimic, would routinely take stories that had happened to Preston or Witomski, and tell them as if they had happened to him. Eventually, word got back to the other two that this was going on and they both fell out with him. “As you may have guessed, Barrus doesn’t wear well,” said Eighner. “Whether it’s the first or 15th time you catch someone telling your anecdotes as if they were his own, eventually, almost everyone has a limit.”

Witomski took special umbrage and in a 1992 article published in The Advocate shortly before his death, he labeled Barrus one of “five gay writers we could do without.” Other writers followed suit in their condemnation and Barrus’ delusions of censure became reality. In 1993, with his bridges burning in gay publishing, Barrus met and married his current wife, Tina Giovanni, in San Francisco and disappeared. Eighner never heard from him again. And neither did the Internet until 1996 when something (and someone) curious emerged. In an article now available only through the archives of an obscure Australian company called Infant Massage Australia, a kinder, gentler Barrus appeared in a service article on how to be a loving father. Though the piece is trite and filled with gooey, ’90s parenting clichés (“It takes a real man to nurture”), it appears to be his first experimentation with the caring father persona.

Sometime between then and the Esquire article that launched his career, Nasdijj was born.

Peering out from behind a pair of silver-framed glasses, Irvin Morris sits at his office desk thumbing thoughtfully through a weathered copy of The Blood. A quiet man with sad dark eyes and a closely trimmed head of raven black hair, Morris is focused as he reads, occasionally sighing in dismay when something he sees disturbs him. A giant fake plant hovers over him, draping plastic leaves onto a sizable portion of his cluttered desk. He looks up briefly from the text in time to catch me eyeing the plant strangely. “I don’t know where that thing came from,” he says with a smile, “but I really should do something about it.” But first thing’s first — another possible impostor needs to be dealt with.

Morris has suspected for years that Nasdijj is not who he says he is. A full-blooded Navajo and a professor of literature and Navajo studies at Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo reservation, Morris is among the world’s foremost authorities on Navajo culture. Shortly after The Blood was published, he saw Nasdijj’s name listed on the national index of Native writers. Under the author’s bio, it said Nasdijj claimed his name meant “to become again” in Navajo Athabaskan. This came as news to Morris, who is fluent in Athabaskan. “There is no word ‘Nasdijj’ in the Navajo language,” he explains. “It’s gibberish.”

Not long thereafter, Morris got a call from Sherman Alexie asking if he would take a look at The Blood. After reading the book, Morris felt certain Nasdijj was not Navajo. “He seems to know some facts aboutthe culture, but he has no sensibility of it.”

“Every Navajo he meets seems to live in a hogan,” Morris jokes. “No one has really lived in hogans since HUD housing started being built on the reservation in the ’60s. Only people who are extremely traditional live in hogans.” Traditional people who would not make the kind of cultural errors that Nasdijj depicts them making. Navajo Rose for instance.

Navajo Rose is a character in The Blood who, Nasdijj writes, lives in a hogan near his on the reservation. Navajo Rose is illiterate and, though Nasdijj says she graduated from high school, she somehow has never seen the inside of a library.

“You have to be really traditional to have never even seen inside a library,” says Morris.

Nasdijj takes it upon himself to teach Navajo Rose how to read and drives her off the reservation to “White People Town” to see her first library. “She was impressed with all the books,” Nasdijj writes.

Morris bristles at the condescending tone. “We do have libraries here.”

But the error that really made Morris crazy was a culinary one. To thank Nasdijj for his lessons, Navajo Rose routinely brings him Navajo tacos made of mutton. “Now that’s just disgusting,” says Morris of the tacos, which are traditionally made with beef. “We love our mutton but no one would use it in a Navajo taco; the spices just don’t mix.” (Indeed, in my experience on the reservation, the suggestion of a Navajo taco with mutton induces a nearly universal crinkling of noses in distaste.)

While a non-Navajo may see these gaffes as minor, Morris asserts they add up to a character that doesn’t exist. Like a rabbi eating pork or a Hindu beating his cow, they are culturally incriminating; and the book is littered with them, he says. Nasdijj writes that as a boy his mother used to have sings (a religious ceremony) for him to familiarize him with his culture. “That’s a communal activity,” Morris says. “To have a sing by yourself is highly aberrant behavior. Like holding a church service for yourself.”

Most startling and offensive to Morris is Nasdijj’s depiction of Navajo clanship, which plays a vital role in tribal identity. In Geronimo’s Bones, Nasdijj claims his mother was a member of the Water Flowing clan; no such clan exists however. “There’s a Water Flowing Together clan,” explains Morris, “but the difference isn’t insignificant. If I was going to claim my mother’s clanship I would at least make sure to get the name right.”

Nasdijj also writes that because his father was white and without a clan, Nasdijj had no clan and was therefore treated as an “outcast bastard” by other Navajo. This, says Morris, is misrepresentative in that it wrongly portrays the Navajo clan structure as an authoritarian caste system. It is also factually incorrect. “Our lineage is passed on through our mother. If his mother had a clan, he has a clan.”

Immediately after reading the book Morris contacted the Native author registry and asked them to take Nasdijj’s name off the list. Without specific information about Nasdijj’s true identity, however, the registry refused, and Morris let the subject drop.

“I have always been bothered by the false claim to the Dine identity by Nasdijj,” Morris says, “but if I spent my time tracking down every white writer pretending to be Navajo, I’d have no time left to do anything else.”

Indeed, in the long history of Indian appropriation by whites, the Navajo have become the primary target. Of particular ire to the Navajo is mystery writer Tony Hillerman. For the past several decades Hillerman has written detective stories from the perspective of his Navajo protagonists, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Though not actually claiming Navajo ancestry, Hillerman infuses healthy doses of Navajo spirituality into the story through his characters — sometimes accurately, sometimes not. Hillerman’s appropriation is well known and disliked across tribal lines and was the subject of parody in Sherman Alexie’s book Indian Killer. But despite the criticism from Alexie and other Native writers, Hillerman’s success has sparked imitators. So much so that Morris claims the existence of at least 14 white authors living in nearby Gallup, New Mexico, writing Navajo murder mysteries.

Of course, white appropriation of native identity far predates Tony Hillerman. Arguably the most infamous Indian appropriator is rabid segregationist and Ku Klux Klansman Asa Earl Carter, the former speechwriter for George Wallace who penned the notorious “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” speech. After Wallace’s failed presidential bid and the collapse of segregation in the South, Carter assumed the identity of a Cherokee orphan and began publishing memoirs under the name Forrest Carter, allegedly in honor of KKK founder Nathaniel Bedford Forrest. His 1976 book Education of Little Tree was a critically acclaimed best-seller, and despite being outed as fraudulent decades ago, it is, remarkably, still in print.

Though Carter’s is perhaps the most unusual case of Indian impersonation, there are many others, most of whom romanticize Native spirituality and culture, even though they often misrepresent the culture to suit their spiritual or literary aims. What’s interesting about Nasdijj is that, on the surface, anyway, he doesn’t. The Nasdijj persona lacks the spiritual ambitions that Indian appropriators have historically tried to capitalize on. He mentions Navajo spirituality as if only to prove he is familiar with its conventions. Instead, his preoccupation is the social world: the world of men and especially boys.

His Indians are often both spiritually and monetarily poor, sometimes gay, and have AIDS and FAS; mainly they are powerless and sometimes homeless little boys. There are no parents in their lives, other than the author, and an absence of embracing and strengthening culture. He uses these impoverished characters, including his own persona, as a springboard to attack the dominant white culture, which has, apparently, spurned him. In the pantheon of self-appointed Native spokesmen, this puts him more in the company of contemporary gadfly Ward Churchill, who uses his dubious heritage as a soapbox for an airing of his political ideology and personal grievances.

The question that remains is how these frauds are perpetrated in such abundance. A writer, seemingly white in appearance and lacking anything resembling a verifiable personal history, turns in a manuscript filled with sage-like wisdom from an ancient and secretive people and no one bothers to check the facts? Houghton Mifflin’s Anton Mueller, presumably speaking for the publishing industry at large, has an answer: “As you know, we don’t fact-check books.”

There is a Chinese proverb: How is it that a toad this large comes to stand in front of me?

James Dowaliby can tell you. A former vice president of Paramount International Television Group, he decided to pick up a copy of The Boy after reading a review and noting it was about fatherhood, a topic Dowaliby considers too rare in publishing. A single father himself, Dowaliby was astonished by what he read: “I’d never seen a book that so articulated a father’s love for his son.” Dowaliby knew immediately that this was a film he wanted to make and after securing the rights to the book from Nasdijj he was able to bring FilmFour (the filmmaking arm of Channel 4 in the U.K.) into the project. By the end of 2004, a feature-length adaptation of The Boy was greenlighted for development.

After securing the film rights to The Boyand the Dog are Sleeping and negotiating the deal with FilmFour, in early 2004 Dowaliby was finally ready to get down to the business of making a movie with Nasdijj. What Dowaliby didn’t know at the time was the controversy that nearly derailed his new partner’s burgeoning career four years earlier.

When he received his galley copy of The Blood and determined the book was fraudulent, Sherman Alexie not only refused to blurb the book but openly accused Nasdijj of both manufacturing his identity and plagiarism at a private lunch with Nasdijj’s editor, Anton Mueller. Alexie says he begged Mueller to reconsider releasing the book.

“I said, you’re going to pay for this later — this is not real,” Alexie says.

According to Alexie, however, Mueller was unmoved by their conversation. “Basically his attitude was that it’s a great book and the art is more important than the truth.”

“I know I may sound like Tipper Gore here,” says Alexie, “but we have to hold our art to higher standards.”

Mueller acknowledges he spoke with Alexie but says that he found the allegation of plagiarism to be an “odd claim” and unjustified. Regarding Nasdijj’s supposed Native heritage, he says, “I think even Nasdijj would tell you his own biography or parentage is something he has never been entirely sure of.”

After his unsuccessful meeting with Mueller, Alexie sent a letter to Houghton Mifflin, asserting that the author was a fake who had borrowed heavily from several Native writers, including himself. His accusations were dismissed, however, and the publication went forward. “And every time I bring it up, I’m ignored,” says Alexie.

Alexie’s allegations, however, did have some apparent effect. After The Blood came out, Nasdijj’s then-agent, Heather Schroeder, dropped him and Houghton Mifflin declined to publish his next book. Mueller credits Nasdijj’s erratic behavior as the reason: “To be honest, Nasdijj is simply not the most stable person in the world. It showed up in the editing process. His instability wore me down. Sending inappropriate e-mails to people like Ted Conover. His blog. I couldn’t deal with it.”

Did this unstable behavior lead him to suspect the veracity of Nasdijj’s story? “Well, I didn’t publish a second book with him, so that indicates something. But I would say that it was mainly because of his instability.” Yet Mueller still regards Nasdijj as “one of the most, if not the most talented writer I have ever worked with.”

Nasdijj found a new agent, Andrew Stuart, and eventually secured a multibook deal with Ballantine. The Boy was published with the specter of The Blood hanging over the proceedings.

By the time Dowaliby began trying to make a film version of The Boy, he was stuck with a giant toad standing in the road in front of him. Following a few weeks of discussions, FilmFour and Dowaliby agreed to solicit a prominent British screenwriter, who had previously scripted a film about Navajo code talkers, to adapt the book. The writer had spent significant time on the Navajo Nation researching his film and had acquired a great deal of knowledge and respect for the Navajo culture. Immediately after reading The Boy, however, he called Dowaliby with his concerns.

The writer pointed out several inconsistencies in Nasdijj’s story that he found suspicious, particularly Nasdijj’s mischaracterization of Navajo clanship. “What did I know about clanship?” says Dowaliby. “I had taken Nasdijj for his word.”

For both creative and liability purposes, Dowaliby was already fact-checking the book and he promised the writer he would look into the matter further. Dowaliby then began the almost daily routine of trying to draw honest information from Nasdijj about his past. He had little success. Dowaliby needed specifics; Nasdijj gave him none.

“He just kept recycling the same story about sheep camps and migrant work,” Dowaliby says.

The producer intensified his background check of Nasdijj and found out about the Alexie incident. His doubts grew, and Nasdijj’s responses to his queries only raised more questions. As the deadline for hiring the writer neared, Dowaliby concluded that Nasdijj was either unable or unwilling to confirm the details necessary to back up the truth of his story. He briefly considered simply billing the project as “inspired by true events” or the weaker “based on the book by Nasdijj” and not offering it as true in any fashion. “But admitting it was fiction would have ruined the emotional truth — the core of the book.”

Dowaliby refused to go forward with the film until he got answers. Nasdijj refused to speak with him, claiming that he had moved back to the Navajo reservation. Dowaliby did, however, get a response from Nasdijj’s wife, Tina. Though Dowaliby will not repeat what they discussed in confidence, he admits that she came clean about a number of things. Shortly thereafter it became apparent to him “that this wasn’t just a fraud against the intellectual community, but against the entire Navajo nation, and that Nasdijj needed to apologize.”

Dowaliby then contacted FilmFour and told them the project needed to be dropped. “People like Nasdijj,” he says, “can’t exist without some sort of complicity.”

What can you do when the truth isn’t enough?

For as long as white writers have been impersonating Indians, Indians have been exposing them as frauds. Yet despite remarkable investigative successes in uncovering the truth, their efforts have been largely ignored.

“For some reason people lose their sense of discernment when it comes to Indians,” says activist and Indian Country Today columnist Suzan Shown-Harjo.

Harjo, who is Muscogee Creek and Cheyenne, has had her own battles outing those she believes to be Native American impostors. She challenged University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, who gained notoriety last year when he referred to the victims of the 9/11 attacks as “little Eichmanns,” and who claims to be of Cherokee and Creek descent. Though he has no specialized training in the field, he rose through the university ranks to become chair of the Ethnic Studies Department, largely on the basis of his claimed heritage. Yet as Harjo and other journalists have pointed out, he is not an enrolled member of any federally recognized tribe. Likewise, genealogical research carried out by the Rocky Mountain News and several Native journalists could find no trace of Indian blood in Churchill’s family. Despite the insistence of both the Cherokee and Creek nations that Churchill is not one of them, Churchill maintains his position as a professor of ethnic studies and is frequently paid to lecture on Native and political issues around the country. In response to those who question his identity, he simply denies everything and calls his accusers “blood police.”

“Indian identity has nothing to do with blood quantum,” counters Harjo. “You hear that from the phony baloneys trying to attach themselves to some 1,000th particle of Indian blood.”

For Harjo and many Native Americans, the issue of identity extends well beyond the existential or racial question of “Who am I?” It is a legal issue of citizenship. As sovereign entities, tribes have laws that govern who is and isn’t Native. “Someone who’s Italian doesn’t have to look a certain way or be a certain way,” Harjo explains. “They are Italian by virtue of being an Italian citizen. The same is true in Indian country.

“If I go to Italy and say, ‘I think the world of you people. I speak a little Italian, I love spaghetti, so I’m going to be voting in your next election. Give me preference as an Italian citizen as opposed to non-citizens. Give me a job. Give me grant money. And maybe I’m going to carry on your diplomatic relations with other nations,’ people would lock me up. But that’s what happens. The people that step into our world don’t do so in a respectful way. They rush right in and say ‘I’m your leader, I’m the articulator of your culture.’”

But given the response of many, including prominent publishers and Oprah Winfrey, to the James Frey affair — that his message of redemption is true and so who cares about literal untruths — is it possible that Tim Barrus is using the Nasdijj persona as a vehicle for social justice? After all, AIDS and FAS on the reservation have been themes of his for more than six years. Though his methods are misguided, could his intentions be genuine, and if so, what is the problem with that?

“It’s crazy,” says Harjo, “that’s the problem with it. Why can’t you be who you are, a non-Native person, supporting the same things Indians care about? Why do you have to be one of us to support us? That’s a little loopy, isn’t it? So you have to stand back and say why is that person lying about that? And the answer is because people like that don’t do it for altruistic reasons. It’s about profit. They think pretending to be Indian will help them sell more books.”

And provided the complicity of a publisher, they may be right. On many issues, preachy whites simply lack the political and cultural cachet of someone perceived to be Native American.

“My stepfather once told me, if you want anyone in the world to like you, just tell them that you’re Indian,” says Sherman Alexie. “For some reason we are elevated simply because of our race. I’m so popular I could start a cult. I could have 45 German women living with me tomorrow.”

Indeed, the world has had an Indian fetish since the days of P.T. Barnum. Certain steps have been taken to protect cultural integrity — the Native American Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, for instance, makes it a federal crime for anyone not enrolled in or associated with a federally recognized tribe to sell their art as “Indian.” Yet literature, strangely enough, is not covered under the Arts and Craft Act, leaving it vulnerable to exploitation.

“The backbone of multicultural literature,” says Alexie, “is the empathy of its audience — their curiosity for the condition of a group other than themselves. Nasdijj is taking advantage of that empathy.”

If Nasdijj is not Native American, he’s not only misinforming his audience, he’s making it harder for genuine work to come forward. The PEN/Beyond Margins Award is given annually to a Native American writer to help spread “racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities.” When Nasdijj accepted the award in 2004, he accepted money and prestige specifically earmarked to help Native Americans share their story.

“The last act of colonialism is for the dominant culture to completely supplant the Native one,” says Alexie. “Nasdijj is disappearing people. With every book he writes he makes Indians disappear.”

In the end it is, ironically, Nasdijj who sums up appropriation most eloquently. In an essay on Louis L’Amour titled “The Saddest Book I Ever Read,” Nasdijj writes, “The accumulated weight of fictions (like L’Amour’s), when added up, form a place that never was and a time that never happened. Fictions like this are murderous. They pass off illusion as fact, stereotype as portraiture... Counterfeit comes to be seen as the genuine article. It kills people. It kills culture. It kills even the shadow of truth.”

Epilogue: When I approached Nasdijj last week, via e-mail after many attempts to find a working phone number, I received a quick reply from someone called Mike Willis, who identified himself as Nasdijj’s assistant. He told me that Nasdijj was high in the Sierra Madres of Mexico without access to phones or the Internet. He offered no sense of when Nasdijj might return, adding that it was “quite sad” that the author couldn’t “defend himself.” When asked for a phone number for either himself or Tina Giovanni, Willis did not reply. Shortly thereafter, Nasdijj’s Web site was taken offline and all mention of his daughter Kree Barrus was removed from the archives of Giovanni’s blog. The next day, that blog was also shut down and queries sent to Nasdijj’s e-mail address went unanswered. But on Monday, the following post appeared on Nasdijj’s blog: “For those seeking Refuge consult the Hyena. Follow those directions to the Old Hotel. To find N, take the stairs to the roof. Bring your medication. The view is magnificent. And safe. You know who you are. Do not answer questions. Sealed. They do not care about you. You know that. Do not be fooled. Someone will. You will connect. Follow the Hyena’s path. Mike.”

posted in NDNZ - 13 replies

Buffalo Rounded Up and Slaughtered.

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:25:03 GMT

This is a post from one of my "Vegan" tribes. The salutation and closing indicates that this was written by a white person and a bit cheesy but I would like your opinion on this one. I am in NO way a free-loving-hippy just because I am vegan. I am vegan for health reasons so any comments about eating meat does not offend me... so sound off!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

URGENT! 524 buffalo in Yellowstone rounded up and slaughtered - worst since wicked winter of 1996-97 (Washington)

ANYONE WHO CAN, GO RIGHT NOW TO DEFEND THE BUFFALO!!! They're going to round up and slaughter more!!!

* Update from the Field - Buffalo Slaughter in Yellowstone

Dear Friends of the Buffalo,

It is hard to imagine that "Yellowstone" and "buffalo slaughter" would appear together in the same sentence, yet here they are. We have now entered the worst buffalo slaughter since the wicked winter of 1996-97. Buffalo history in America is like a broken record seemingly doomed to repeat itself again and again.

Since last Wednesday, Yellowstone National Park rangers have captured 524 of the country's last wild buffalo. These icons of the American West have been rounded up like cattle and crammed into the Stephens Creek Capture Facility, near Gardiner and Yellowstone's northern boundary. This trap is located inside our planet's first national park. These mighty buffalo, gentle creatures of freedom, strong spirit and tenacious strength, will all be sent to slaughter without being tested for brucellosis antibodies. This is ironic because brucellosis is the supposed reason for the government's lethal actions against wild buffalo. Another irony: The NPS is taking these actions without cooperation from Montana. Yet it is Montana that holds the irrational zero-tolerance policy against wild buffalo, and it is Montana's cattle industry that the Park Service says it's protecting, yet in order to save face while their illegitimate hunt is underway, Montana pretends to disagree with these actions; of course, not enough to denounce them. It is no secret that the Park Service's actions are a boon to the state's cattle industry. If Montana isn't urging this insane action, why is the Park Service conducting it? Another irony is that the native wild buffalo are being escorted to slaughterhouses in Montana and Idaho - as far away as 500 miles - by none other than the Bush Administration's Department of Homeland Security.

As of this writing, the National Park Service has sent 300 of the last wild buffalo to slaughter; 185 buffalo still remain locked in the Stephens Creek Bison Capture Facility. According to an article in today's print-version of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 50 buffalo that were shipped to a Nampa, Idaho slaughterhouse from Yellowstone on Tuesday never arrived at that slaughter facility. Their whereabouts remain a mystery. The government doesn't have an answer. Thirty-eight wild buffalo calves have been sent to prison at the Corwin Springs Quarantine Facility--joining the 14 who have been confined there since last year--where they will be raised in captivity, experimented on, and the majority slaughtered. On Friday, one baby buffalo died in the trap because while it was being "processed" the Park Service broke off its little button horns.
www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/med...7062

The buffalo suffer government madness for simply following the only law that matters, the Law of Nature. The Yellowstone buffalo are the last ones to follow the awesome instinct to migrate. Yet instead of celebrating this natural phenomenon, the government punishes it. Land of the free? Some buffalo crossed an imaginary line that says "you are awe-inspiring and respected here on this side, but you are vermin and expendable there on that side." Some buffalo never even crossed that illogical, unreasonable, invisible man-made line. The underlying themes are cattle and habitat: wild buffalo are provided zero habitat outside of Yellowstone National Park, even on our national and state public lands because the cattle industry hordes it greedily for fattening beef for the dinner table. Yellowstone has become nothing less than a mega-zoo that engages in the wholesale slaughter of native wildlife to do the bidding of the livestock industry. Money doesn't just talk, it screams. We the People have to scream LOUDER. We cannot let this injustice continue for another ten years.

The government agencies that take these monstrous actions are so wrapped up in their nefarious Plan and bureaucratic nonsense that they refuse to see what it is they are doing. They cannot see what we see when we're out in the field with the buffalo, the peace the buffalo bring, the completion they give to the landscape, their natural right to exist as wild, free buffalo. But the people see. And the people must act.

As of this writing, Yellowstone Chief of Public Affairs Al Nash, cooly and in good humor, tells us that they may capture another 50 wild buffalo today. Their justification: "It's in the Plan." It's only the last wild herd, after all. It's only Yellowstone National Park. And, it's is only January. Along the northern boundary, the NPS is capturing and slaughtering buffalo as quickly as they can in order to make room for more tax payer-funded murder, while trap sites along the Park's western boundary are being plowed to make way for even more.

Meanwhile, just miles from Park Service-run buffalo-slaughter, Montana's canned bison hunt goes on. Over the weekend tribal members from the Blackfeet and Chippewa-Cree Indian Nations used their permits here in West Yellowstone. Only three of eight Montana tribes decided to engage in the first phase of the hunt. On Monday, phase II of the hunt began and seven buffalo were gunned down in Gardiner. That same day, just across the Yellowstone River, the Park Service captured 211 wild buffalo.

If there is good news to report, it is that last week's ice-hazing catastrophe - when the Department of Livestock hazed 40 buffalo and caused 12 to fall through the ice, drowning two - is getting national media attention. This horrible incident has not gone unnoticed and continues to be a focus of the media and is drawing more and more outrage from Montanans and others across the country. Voices are being raised in defense of the buffalo. The DOL may have sealed their fate in their involvement in wild buffalo harassment with their latest foolish and unnecessary hazing operation.

If I were a better writer, by the time you read this email everyone you know would also know about what is happening to the last wild buffalo and each would take appropriate action. I can only hope that these words convey to you a sense of the urgent need to all join in solidarity NOW for the buffalo and take action NOW and UNTIL they are set free. What is happening here in the land of the last wild buffalo, in the land of the earth's first national park is a symptom of the larger illness plaguing our planet. We are the healers. Ours is the voice that must be heard. These are the last wild buffalo ... and once they are gone, they are gone forever.

Please take action now, and encourage everyone you know to do the same. If you can join us on the front lines, we need your help. But PLEASE contact Governor Brian Schweitzer (406-444-3111) and Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis (307-344-2002) and express your outrage at their zero-tolerance for wild buffalo, their lack of integrity, and their shameful participation in the wholesale slaughter of this gentle and majestic American icon. You might even suggest that the NPS replace their buffalo insignia with a cow, since that is the only thing they seem willing to take a stand for. Shame on Yellowstone, and shame on Montana. These buffalo belong to the country, not to the state or the government, and certainly not to slaughterhouses. We must demand that the buffalo be protected and respected and forever set free. It is high time to stop this senseless harassment and slaughter of the country's last wild buffalo. Enough Is Enough!

Save the herd... spread the word.

In Solidarity & With Strong Prayer for the Buffalo Nation,

posted in NDNZ - 1 reply

Collecting Dust here?

LandaLakes — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 01:52:16 GMT

Do you know about myspace.com? Well, there is a new one http://www.mytribalspace.com. Look me up, be my friend if you join my connect:

http://www.mytribalspace.com/view_profile.php?member_id=543

posted in NDNZ - 6 replies

White people are freaks.... read this...

LandaLakes — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:39:45 GMT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501728_pf.html

posted in NDNZ - 2 replies

creation? what's you story? what do you believe?

LandaLakes — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 23:17:38 GMT

In a sometimes tartly worded opinion, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that intelligent design is religion, not science, and that teaching it in Dover's public schools violates the First Amendment's insistence on the separation of church and state.

"In making this determination," wrote Judge John E. Jones III, "we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents. ... We hold that the ID policy is unconstitutional."

The ruling in Katzmiller vs. Dover Area School District concluded a widely watched six-week trial, the first court test of intelligent design. Although it is binding only for the district of Dover, the ruling may well prove influential if other such cases make their way into court, especially given the scholarly and substantive nature of Jones' 139-page opinion.

Last October, the Dover Area School Board voted to include a brief statement as part of the ninth-grade biology curriculum that questioned the Darwinian theory of evolution, and referred students instead to a Christian textbook titled "Of Pandas and People." Eleven parents of children in the Dover district, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other lawyers, sued the board.

In his opinion, Jones found that the religious nature of intelligent design "is evident because it involves a supernatural designer." Intelligent design holds that some parts of nature are too complex to be accounted for by evolution and therefore are the handiwork of an unspecified intelligent designer.

The judge wrote that evidence at the trial -- in which scientific witnesses were called by both sides and which often resembled a classroom more than a courtroom -- "demonstrates that ID is nothing less than the progeny of creationism." The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1987 decision, Edwards vs. Aguillard, ruled that creationism was also religiously based and, as such, could not be taught in public schools.

Because copious evidence was presented during the trial in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., Jones wrote, "no other tribunal in the United States is in a better position than we are to traipse into this controversial area." He concluded that the goal of intelligent design proponents "is not to encourage critical thought," as they asserted in testimony, "but to foment a revolution which would supplant evolutionary theory," the bedrock of biology, "with ID."

At a press conference Tuesday, the plaintiffs and their lawyers were jubilant. Tammy Katzmiller, who has two children in Dover High School, said it was a great feeling.

Witold Walzcak, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said he was thrilled and castigated the proponents of intelligent design for trying to "shackle our children's minds with 15th century pseudoscience."

But some proponents of intelligent design indicated they would continue to pursue their goals.

The Discovery Institute of Seattle, which supports the teaching of intelligent design, issued a statement accusing Jones of trying "to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate, and it won't work."

The statement described Jones as an activist judge, a criticism that Jones, a Republican appointed by President Bush, anticipated in his opinion.

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge ... this is manifestly not an activist Court," he wrote. "Rather this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID."

Jones was referring to the Thomas More Law Center, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Its president, Richard Thompson, who litigated the case without a fee, told the New York Times Tuesday: "A thousand opinions by a court that a particular scientific theory is invalid will not make that scientific theory invalid. It is going to be up to the scientists who are going to continue to do research in their labs that will ultimately determine that."

An appeal of Jones' decision may be complicated. Eight of the nine members of the Dover school board who had approved the introduction of intelligent design in the classroom were defeated in an election last month. In interviews, the newly elected members indicated they were not inclined to pursue the matter.

At the plaintiffs teleconference, attorney Eric Rothschild said, "the only party that has standing to appeal is the Dover Area School Board, and they indicated they won't do that."

But Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, who was an adviser to the plaintiffs, said that just as creationism morphed into intelligent design after it was ruled unconstitutional, proponents of intelligent design "are going to continue working on ways of getting evolution out of science curricula."

Dr. John West, an associate director of the Discovery Institute, said in a statement: "Anyone who thinks a court ruling is going to kill off interest in intelligent design is living in another world." Jones was harshly critical of two fundamentalist Christian former members of the school board, Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham, who, Jones argued, drove the decision to teach intelligent design. "The inescapable truth is that Bonsell and Buckingham lied" under oath, the judge wrote.

Though the decision is not binding on other courts, Rothschild, the plaintiffs' attorney, said he believed the "carefully reasoned, highly researched opinion ... will exert tremendous persuasive" pressure on other courts, and in other school districts where intelligent design might be under consideration.

In a statement, Lawrence Krauss, a physics professor at Case Western Reserve University and a board member of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, called the decision "profoundly sensible. U.S. children are consistently scoring behind those of other nations in ... science. (This decision) should send a message to school boards across America and to those who attempt to use them as pawns in an ideological public relations initiative that we cannot expect to close this gap if we substitute ideology for sound science in our science classrooms."
The judge's decision

Excerpts from U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III's ruling:

"We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom, in violation of the Establishment Clause."

"Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs' scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator."

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on (intelligent design), who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy."

"The overwhelming evidence at trial established that (intelligent design) is a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory."

"The evidence presented in this case demonstrates that (intelligent design) is not supported by any peer-reviewed research, data or publications."

Associated Press

posted in NDNZ - 1 reply

BITCHIN

Wild_Pride — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 15:04:06 GMT

What is up with all these damn wannabes? It pisses me off! I mean if you're white you're white. There's no changing that no matter how hard you pray. Being Indian isn't a religion, WE ARE PEOPLE! GO GET YOUR OWN GOD DAMN CULTURE YOU FREAKING CULTURE VULTURES WITH ALL YOUR GOD DAMN CRYSTALS AND DREAMCATCHERS AND "AUTHENTIC NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE MUSIC". SHIT!

Sorry to be such a bitch you guys but I just had to vent. It's been building up for a few weeks. Most times I just laugh cuz it's so damn ridiculous but enough is enough.

I recently got a friend invite from someone claiming to be Dine then signed off by saying "M'takin oyasin" which he /i/graciously/i/ translated for me as being the LAKOTA word for "All my relations". DUH. Big fuckin deal. I've heard that damn saying in that movie, SKINS. So I know a Lakota word. Does that make me MORE INDIAN? So, I asked this person, if you are Dine, why are you spewing out Lakota words? I mean I'd be more impressed if they gave me some Navajo words. You know what I mean? I don't know. It just seemed sort of shady to me.

So anyways if you have something you need to vent about, here ya go. This thread is for BITCHES. (Yes, that even includes you, fuckerpants!) Ha ha. So have at it.......

posted in NDNZ - 50 replies

Buiding bridges....

LandaLakes — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:08:17 GMT

This Holiday Season NativeOUT is working to raise money for the 2006 Tulsa Two-Spirit Gathering. Every year the Tulsa Two-Spirit Society and the Denver Two-Spirit Society host this event, which is the largest Two-Spirit Gathering in the United States. This year the gathering is falling short of funding so the various Two-Spirit Societies/LGBT Organizations are banding together to raise the money needed to put on the event.

MOST OF THE FUNDS RAISED FROM THIS STORE WILL BE DONATED TO THE 2006 TULSA TWO-SPIRIT GATHERING. http://www.denvertwospirit.com/tulsa.html

Check out the NativeOUT fundraising store: http://www.cafepress.com/nativeout

About NativeOUT: NativeOUT is a grassroots Native American LGBT organization currently working to incorporate as a nonprofit 501(c)3 in the state of Arizona. Our mission is to build bridges between the LGBT and Native American communities by educating society about our traditions, advocating for relevant issues, and promoting visibility within our community.

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

Ndnz drink Starbucks coffee....

LandaLakes — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:11:44 GMT

Cabazon Band first tribe to license Starbucks
Tuesday, December 6, 2005

The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians is holding a grand opening today for its Starbucks coffee shop.

The tribe is the first in Indian Country to license Starbucks directly. There are two other Starbucks on reservations but they are held by a third-party licensee.

The tribe is donating all the proceeds from today's sales to the Boys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley.

The Starbucks is located at the tribe's casino resort.

posted in NDNZ - 0 replies

happy halloween everybody

pantsy — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:14:26 GMT

i wanna wear this guy's costume!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8266911800389644317&q=brave&time=170000

posted in NDNZ - 12 replies

Vine Deloria, Indian historian and activist, dies at 72

jojolism — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:29:37 GMT

Vine Deloria Jr., an influential advocate of American Indian rights and the author of the the groundbreaking "Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian
Manifesto," has died, family members said. He was 72. The full
article will be available on the Web for a limited time:
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/13166513.htm[1]
(c) 2005 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Links:
------
[1] http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/13166513.htm

posted in NDNZ - 4 replies

Rearing its ugly head....

LandaLakes — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:19:46 GMT

Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) 11/14/2005

© 2005, Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc.

I sometimes wonder if this Nation is moving forward or stumbling backward. The actions of the Kansas Board of Education would suggest the latter.

By a vote of 6 to 4 the board chose to adopt new science standards that are the most far-reaching in this country challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution in the classroom.

According to an article in the New York Times, “The standards move beyond the broad mandate for critical analysis of evolution that four other states have established in recent years, by recommending that schools teach specific points that doubters of evolution use to undermine its primacy in science education.” Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself, so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations.

Conversely, all eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board, a board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class, were kicked out of office by a slate of challengers opposed to the ID policy.

The verdict on the Pennsylvania school board should be handed down in early January. If the ID policy is defeated in court the new school board could refuse to pursue an appeal. Many believe the challengers will simply withdraw the policy.

Suppose the decision of the Kansas Board of Education becomes a reality? I would think that this would open the door on both ends of the spectrum. For instance, if creationism is to be taken literally there should be many questions asked of this theory also. As an example, when God created Adam and Eve were they created white, black, red, brown or yellow? If they were created white then how did they evolve into the different colors? Isn’t that evolution?

Several months ago I wrote on this same subject. I asked at that time to identify which creation theory would be accepted. There are many major religions in the world, some with much larger numbers than those calling themselves Christians, and they also have their theories of creation. Which theory of creationism should be accepted or should students study all of the different points of view?

News commentator Bill O’Reilly says that 85 percent of Americans are Christians and therefore majority rules. There was a time not so long ago when the American Indian was in the majority. The difference was that the Indian people did not try to force their religious beliefs upon the new comers. The immigrants from Europe believed that since the Indians were not Christians, they were therefore heathens to be converted to Christianity.

As the new settlers grew in numbers that soon overwhelmed the indigenous population, they not only forced their religion upon the Indians, they outlawed the religious practices of the indigenous people. Shaman and holy men were oftentimes imprisoned and more often than not, executed.

I attended a Catholic Indian mission on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. We did not have a choice of whether we could study Darwin’s theory of evolution or the creationism theory of the Holy Bible. We were indoctrinated into the creationism theory without question.

For me at least, it killed any interest I would have had in studying science. Not because I was totally converted to Catholicism, but because I was never given the opportunity to seek out a different perspective from a scientific point of view.

As the color of America changes and the different hues become predominant, this growth will also bring about a new face to the religious beliefs of those other than Christians. If things change so drastically that the races of color then become the majority and their religious beliefs are not those of the Christians, would the Christian minority allow them to push their religious theories into their classrooms?

Frankly, in the old days when saying Merry Christmas to someone went unnoticed, I never really thought of it as a religious expression. In fact, excuse my ignorance, but I never really thought of “Christ” in Christmas. To me it was just an expression of the season.

It wasn’t until several years ago when I heard a clamor to “put Christ back into Christmas” that I ever gave it any serious thought. To me, if a Muslim greeted me in a manner traditional to them, or a Buddhist or Hindu or Jew, I would not take offense. If the greetings were in keeping with one of their religious holidays I would accept that greeting without question or offense.

America is evolving into a nation of many races and many religions. There are indigenous religions dating back tens of thousands of years that are still alive and practiced amongst the indigenous people. The people of the Muslim faith are rapidly growing in numbers, as are those who practice a faith other than Christianity. So if we, as Americans, are to be held to a strict code of do’s and don’t by a faith that is now in the majority, what happens when it is in the minority? And you should not doubt for a single minute that this is not a possibility.

Americans cannot continue to force institutions of public education to promote any single faith because if and when that situation is reversed they certainly would not want to become the victims of a more powerful and numerically superior religion.

Now is the time to start looking 50 years down the road not when it is too late to do otherwise. In order to move forward America must go back to the beginning and look at what it says in the U. S. Constitution about separation of Church and State. But it must also confess and admit its suppression of the religious beliefs of those who did not practice Christianity.

In other words, America must become all-inclusive and knock down this ideology of superiority that seems once more to be rearing its ugly head.

(Tim Giago is the president of the Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc., and the publisher of Indian Education Today Magazine. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com or by writing him at 2050 W. Main St., Suite 5, Rapid City, SD)

posted in NDNZ - 3 replies