WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fulfilling a campaign pledge, President Obama welcomed nearly 400 tribal leaders to his White House Tribal Nations Conference on Thursday and assured them that his support of Native issues is genuine and his historic summit is no mere "lip service" to Indian Country.
Tribes to gather for conference of meditation and renewal
By Rob CapricciosoFAIRFIELD, Iowa – Organizers are preparing for a unique gathering of tribal elders, leaders and members to focus on building sustainable communities through meditation, renewable energy, organic agriculture and cultural preservation.The event, billed as the “International Conference on Building Healthy, Sustainable American Indian Communities,” is largely being put together by the Hocak Elders Council, the Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council, the David Lynch Foundation and members of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.
It will be held at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa Sept. 25 – 27. Planners expect hundreds of participants to attend.
“We are very excited to be able to help offer this one-of-a-kind experience,” said Bob Roth, vice president of the David Lynch Foundation, which focuses on spreading scientifically-proven stress-reduction transcendental meditation techniques to at-risk youth.
The meditation techniques focus on regular, quiet reflection times aimed at reducing stress and its harmful health impacts.
Studies have shown the methods to have health benefits, such as curbing behavioral disorders in youth and reducing the need for insulin in those with Type 2 diabetes.
Planners with the foundation are using the conference as a platform to highlight their commitment for the past three years to a project called the “Model American Indian Community Initiative” on the Winnebago Reservation.
The project strives to help at-risk youth relieve stress through meditation. It has achieved some promising results which conference organizers are eager to share.
John Boncheff, an event organizer who co-directs the Winnebago project, said Indian youth in the program are not only doing better in school, they are absent less and have a better chance of graduating.
Esteemed Indian leaders have taken note. Joe A. Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians; Robert Cook, president of the National Indian Education Association; Lucille Echohawk, a strategic planner for Casey Family Programs; and Kevin Skenandore, acting director of the Bureau of Indian Education are scheduled to attend and present at the sustainability gathering.
The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine have started similar projects, hoping for equally positive results. Planners said many more tribal leaders have requested information.
Roth said it has been an honor to see more tribes get involved and for Native Americans to teach each other the benefits of healthy meditation and its similarity to some traditional spiritual beliefs.
Prosper Waukon, a leader with the Hocak Elders Council and a citizen of the Winnebago Tribe, said the project has also attracted keen interest from his tribe’s elders.
In 2007, Waukon said several older tribal members took a trip to Maharishi University to learn about transcendental meditation, which the institution strongly promotes. Many were suffering from debilitating side effects of diabetes and wanted to understand ways to meditate to improve their well-being.
Some of the elders have since been able to dramatically better their health outcomes, and some rely much less on diabetes medications, Waukon said.
“Many elders found there was something missing with medication alone. Using meditation to relieve stress ended up helping them connect with traditional ways. It has been a win-win situation.”
As a part of studying the elders’ progress, IHS has contributed $560,000 to the project in in-kind testing services. They are hopeful that IHS may end up promoting the program to more tribes in the future upon seeing positive results.
Information about the elder diabetes program will also be highlighted at the conference.
Waukon said the event won’t just be about promoting sustainability through meditation. It will also feature sessions on organic farming, wind and solar energy development and cultural preservation.
“These are areas of sustainability that all connect to each other,” he said, adding that experts in the various fields will be in attendance.
Boncheff would like the conference to raise awareness of the Winnebago project’s success and to see what can be done to take it to the next level. He is hopeful that at least seven more tribes launch similar sustainability projects by next year.
For people who can’t afford to attend the conference, it will be Web cast onilne. Registration information and more details are also available online.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/17/AR2009041702106.html
Growing up on Native American reservations in the West and in the pueblos of the Southwest, Walter Lamar got a front-seat view of law enforcement riding around in his father’s police patrol car. Not surprisingly, he decided to go into his dad’s line of work, eventually training to become an FBI agent.
Four years ago, after serving 20 years as an FBI agent and acting director of law enforcement for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Walter began pursuing his dream of starting his own law enforcement-related business. Taking $25,000 from his savings, he launched Lamar Associates, offering investigative services and law enforcement training in the federal reservation lands known as Indian Country. He located his firm in the District, where he has a home, so he could build on his relationships with government agencies that serve Indian Country. (He and his wife have another home in Albuquerque.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/opinion/11duthu.html
ONE in three American Indian women will be raped in their lifetimes, statistics gathered by the United States Department of Justice show. But the odds of the crimes against them ever being prosecuted are low, largely because of the complex jurisdictional rules that operate on Indian lands. Approximately 275 Indian tribes have their own court systems, but federal law forbids them to prosecute non-Indians. Cases involving non-Indian offenders must be referred to federal or state prosecutors, who often lack the time and resources to pursue them.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/07/03/news/local/doc486cbf9ab3d1e177773830.txt
1 and 2. Leonard Peltier and Anna Mae Pictou Aquash
At first blush, these are very two distinct stories. Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1975 killing of two FBI agents on the Jumping Bull Ranch on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, is one of the highest profile members of the American Indian Movement. Long known as the only American on Amnesty International’s political prisoner list, Peltier has been the primary subject of books and movies, including Robert Redford’s documentary “Incident at Oglala.”
There haven’t been a whole lot of stories on Peltier recently, but his name popped up lately on the visits by former president Bill Clinton (who considered but then refused to pardon Peltier, who is serving a life sentence in federal prison) and his candidate wife Hillary Rodham Clinton. Meanwhile, the Anna Mae Pictou Aquash story remains in the news as the trial of John Graham (formerly known as John Boy Patton) has been set for October. Graham is believed to have killed Aquash in 1975. Some believe he was ordered to kill her because AIM leaders thought she was an informant for the FBI.
http://www.reznetnews.org/article/feature-article/‘love-bread’
PAWHUSKA, Okla.—Indian tacos might not be a staple of the American Indian diet, but they are known throughout Indian Country as a delicious entrée. For some it’s all about the frybread. For others the chili makes the taco. However, there is one certainty for Indian taco lovers everywhere: It depends on the cook.
