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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: American Indian Religious Freedom Act
- Message-ID: <1992Sep3.020910.7725@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 02:09:10 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 144
-
- /** gen.nativenet: 331.0 **/
- ** Topic: ECONEWS: Freedom Law Key To Struggl **
- ** Written 12:09 pm Sep 2, 1992 by nec in cdp:gen.nativenet **
- From: Northcoast Environmental Center <nec>
- Subject: ECONEWS: Freedom Law Key To Struggle
-
- /* Written 11:56 am Sep 2, 1992 by nec in cdp:ecotopia.news */
- /* ---------- "ECONEWS, September 1992" ---------- */
-
- Freedom Law Key To Indigenous Struggle
-
- by Tim McKay
-
- From Brazil to Table Bluff indigenous peoples are struggling to
- protect their sacred sites and the larger environment from
- destruction.
-
- The issues are diverse. For those who have migrated to cities,
- economic programs may be a priority. But for those who still live
- in the land of their creation myths, cultural survival is the key
- goal. For example, federal records show that 15 of 17 study sites
- for a possible high-level nuclear waste dumps are on Indian lands.
-
- Protection for contemporary native life involves preservation of
- language, documentation of oral histories and safeguarding sacred
- sites.
-
- Those working to preserve native religions believe that amendment
- of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) is of
- critical importance.
-
- Local Proof
-
- The weakness of AIRFA was proved in the North Coast confrontation
- pitting the Forest Service against native tribes and environmental
- groups over agency efforts to build a paved forest highway through
- sites used by Yurok, Karuk and Tolowa peoples.
-
- The effort to halt the so-called Gasquet-Orleans (G-O) Road on the
- Six Rivers National Forest resulted in 16 years of administrative
- appeal and litigation. The result was the adverse Lyng v.
- Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (NICPA) ruling
- that came out of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988.
-
- Although the G-O Road itself was ultimately banned by an act of
- Congress, Lyng v. NICPA gutted AIRFA by saying that the First
- Amendment doesn't bar the government from taking actions on public
- lands that would destroy a religion.
-
- To remedy this defect, an American Indian Religious Freedom
- Coalition for amendments to AIRFA was formed and reached out to
- national environmental groups at a meeting in Washington.
-
- Restoring The Earth
-
- Author Vine Deloria said, "We are on the edge of an explosion of
- passion... that will demand fundamental changes... not just to
- renew the Endangered Species Act, but to restore the Earth. (A
- vision) twice as powerful as the values of the civil rights
- movement of 30 years ago... we are talking about whether or not to
- have a natural world anymore."
-
- The AIRFA coalition has drafted legislation that would provide
- protection for sacred sites on federal lands, evaluation for
- possible return of sacred sites to tribes, allow traditional use
- of peyote, afford religious rights for Native American prisoners,
- and allow religious use of eagles.
-
- Many of the same concerns expressed in Washington were echoed at
- the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples near Rio in the week
- prior to the recent Earth Summit. The delegates claimed wider
- responsibility as stewards of the Earth.
-
- At conference after conference the theme that repeats is that the
- natural world that sustains native peoples is under devastating
- assault from logging and flooding of the rain forests, nuclear
- testing and storage of nuclear wastes, dams in Quebec and
- geothermal development in Hawaii.
-
- Local Resistance
-
- On the North Coast, a center for indigenous culture in North
- America, the remnant peoples of the region's native cultures
- continue their resistance to the dominant culture.
-
- On the southern end of Humboldt Bay, the Wiyot tribe of Table
- Bluff has started work on a new 102-acre village, culmination of a
- 32-year effort begun when the federal goverment attempted to
- terminate the tribe.
-
- Wiyot survivors (600 or so remain) also are asking for portions of
- Indian Island in Humboldt Bay to be turned over to the tribe. The
- island was the site of a massacre on February 26, 1860, when
- pioneer Humboldters murdered some 60 sleeping Wiyot children,
- women and men. Comments can go to Eureka City Council, 531 K
- Street, Eureka, CA 95501.
-
- The Wiyots want the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to put the
- Island into federal trust status, and would like a place available
- for reburial of Wiyot remains.
-
- The Karuk people of the Salmon River are urging the Forest Service
- to return certain lands to their recently recognized tribe.
- Central to their efforts is acquisition of Ka'tim'iin (God's
- Mountain).
-
- Klamath National Forest had agreed to transfer the mountain to the
- tribe, but during recent conflict over the Salmon River allotment
- of the Tripp family--who claim to go back 1,500 years on the
- river--the Forest Service backed off from its earlier agreement.
-
- Yuroks Struggle, Seek Name
-
- In the wake of the 1988 Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act, the Yurok
- tribe is working to establish a constitution and basic services
- for its members. The EPA recently declared water on part of the
- Yurok Indian Reservation at Requa unfit to drink.
-
- The tribe is even searching for a new name. Robley Schwenk,
- chairman of the constitution committee, says that "Yurok is a name
- given us by another tribe. We call ourselves Downriver." Tribal
- members can submit ideas and comments by calling 1-800-848-8765.
-
- Farther afield, indigenous Canadian Inuit people recently voted to
- form Inuktituk, a homeland larger than Alaska and California
- combined, out of lands between the Northwest shores of Hudson Bay
- and the Arctic Ocean.
-
- In Minnesota, the Chippewa tribe is buying back its historic
- tribal lands one piece at a time. Today only 7% of the land is in
- Chippewa hands.
-
- In Montana, the Crow tribe finds itself in the midst of the battle
- over wilderness. The state's Crazy Mountains contain sites sacred
- to the Crow but timber sought after by Montana's Brand S Lumber
- Company. Montana residents reportedly favor protection of
- wilderness by a wide margin even if it costs jobs, according to
- polls by the Billings Gazette.
-
- (From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental Center,
- September 1992. Write 879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521, or e-mail
- nec@igc.apc.org, for a free copy.)
- ** End of text from cdp:gen.nativenet **
-
-