Tribes take Klamath dams woes to Buffett HQ

Dressed in traditional regalia, with woven baskets on their heads and earthy symbols of renewal in hand, about 20 Native Americans chanted, danced and prayed in a circle. They surrounded Karuk tribe member Kathy McCovey, a medicine woman, sitting next to a fire burning angelica root, her eyes closed, meditating. Their shell-encased skirts made the sound of water.

The Klamath River Basin coalition -- a group of Native Americans, commercial fisherman and conservationists -- had arrived in Omaha Thursday, May 3, for a salmon cookoff at Heartland of America Park. The next day at the same spot under the Interstate 480 bridge, the natives demonstrated the aforementioned "brush ceremony," an ancient, healing ritual.

Artikel lesen

Building Beds for Lakota Tribe

The Connection Newspapers - 10.05.07

Sports teaches teamwork, but the boys on the SYA Mazda Mets travel baseball team are also learning caring and compassion.
A year ago, they collected backpacks full of school supplies for elementary-school children on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, S.D. And last month, they gave up their spring break, flew to South Dakota and built the children some beds.

Artikel lesen

Artifacts pit American Indians against museums

Orlando Sentinel -10.05.07

It was a hot and arid day in Pecos, N.M., when the elders and leaders of the Jemez Pueblo tribe welcomed an outsider into the fold: archaeologist William Whatley.

Wearing colorful headbands, the old men sat down on the ground with Whatley. Then they began drawing images in the dust -- images of bones, masks and pottery that were missing or had been looted from the tribe. The elders implored Whatley to use his scientific knowledge to find the objects and help return them to the tribe. Not an easy task.

Artikel lesen

Native American rights still denied

Detroit Free Press - 10.05.07

A May 4 letter writer commented that her ancestors followed the "rules." Whose rules? The majority of the "ancestors" refused to acknowledge the citizens who were already calling this continent home for tens of thousands of years.

The European white man and all the others like him are guilty of stealing this continent from the original citizens. The original natives still don't have all the rights we are due and owed due to broken treaties.

Artikel lesen

Group sues NovaStar for alleged discriminatory lending

Kansas City Business Journal - 10.05.07

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition filed a lawsuit against NovaStar Financial Inc. on Wednesday, alleging that the company has discriminatory lending practices.

The civil rights lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also names NovaStar Mortgage Inc., a subsidiary of Kansas City-based NovaStar Financial (NYSE: NFI), as a defendant. The plaintiffs claim NovaStar violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

"NovaStar intentionally structured its underwriting to exclude Native American tribal communities, persons with disabilities and row house neighborhoods where African Americans and Latinos reside," NCRC President John Taylor said in a release.

Artikel lesen

Buchkritik: Indianersohn unter Verdacht

Berliner Zeitung - 10.05.07

Vom Leben der Indianer bekommt man hierzulande schon als Kind eine feste Vorstellung - mit Tipi, Federschmuck und Traumfänger zum Aufhängen. Die Autorin Antje Babendererde, 1963 in Jena geboren, arbeitet mit ihren Büchern schon seit mehr als zehn Jahren daran, dass sich wenigstens bei größeren Kindern diese Vorstellung der Realität annähert. Sie schreibt von den amerikanischen Ureinwohnern in den Reservaten, von jungen Leuten, die aus der Tradition ausbrechen wollen und sich dennoch verantwortlich fühlen für ihr Volk. Welche Wirkung manche ihrer Legenden bis heute haben, davon erzählt Babendererdes neuestes Buch: "Zweiherz". Bei den Navajo-Indianern gilt der Kojote Zweiherz - ein Geschöpf halb Tier, halb Mensch - als der ewige Unruhestifter unter den Menschen. Der scheint nun also auch zwischen Kaye und Will zu spuken.

Artikel lesen