HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
We answer a question about global warming …
Play music from Paul Simon …
And tell about American Indian tribes in the state of Virginia as the United States remembers the first European settlement at Jamestown.
KINGSPORT - Representatives from three Native American tribes - the Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians and the United Keetoowah Band - were in the Model City this week, meeting with city officials about how to incorporate parts of Long Island into the King's Port on the Holston project.
The King's Port on the Holston project calls for the creation of an arts, entertainment and heritage district along the riverfront area of Kingsport. City leaders envision the district including new restaurants and condos, a riverboat, the restoration of the old hospital, and the creation of an amphitheater on Long Island.
Kingsport has employed Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing and Watson (KCRW) to create a 20-year phased master plan for the project by June. The plan will include land use and zoning recommendations, vehicular and pedestrian infrastructure improvements, and other ideas such as public art and the incorporation of a civic magnet project.
ITHACA — Imaginary works by Pop Chalee, including wide-eyed deer that were the inspiration for Walt Disney's Bambi, are featured in a collection entitled “Walk in Beauty: Discovering American Indian Art” on display at Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.
A 1983 Chalee work, “Enchanted Forest,” a casein image with colorful trees and running deer suspended in space, is also among the 40-plus works in the exhibit, which runs through July 8.
Native American women face pervasive sexual violence and little help from the laws meant to protect them
An Amnesty International report released late last month revealed a stockpile of shocking statistics about the pervasive sexual violence confronting Native American women. According to the report, "Maze of Injustice," more than one in three Native American women will be raped at some point in their lives. What's more, Native American women are nearly three times more likely to be victims of rape and sexual assault than white women in the United States.
Writing for the Progressive, Rita Pyrillis, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, notes that, sadly, these statistics aren't even a full accounting of the number of victims. Confronted with a "chronically understaffed and underfunded justice and law enforcement system and its confusing jurisdictional lines," victims of sexual violence lack for both protection and advocacy. "Not surprisingly, most Indian women never report sexual assaults," Pyrillis writes. "When they do, they risk further pain and humiliation only to watch the perpetrator usually go free."
FORT BELKNAP — More than a dozen Native American farmers and ranchers testified Wednesday at a Fort Belknap tribal council hearing that they have faced discrimination from government loan and farm programs.
"It's been a long, hard road," said Ken "Gus" Helgeson.
