Vandals damage ancient rock art in Colorado

Grand Junction, Colorado (AP)

Spray-painting vandals damaged ancient rock art at McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, and saving the images could be difficult, officials said. The blue, white and black graffiti was discovered during early June and was done between May 30 and June 4, the Bureau of Land Management said. The BLM administers the area, about 10 miles west of Grand Junction on the Utah border. Desert sandstone quickly absorbs paint, making it difficult to completely remove, officials said. They were awaiting word on what materials might help.

Native protesters hijack U.S Border patrol car

Caledonia, Ontario (AP)

Several Aboriginal protesters carjacked a United States Border Patrol vehicle and tried to run down a Canadian police officer, police said. The hijacking took place June 9 near a construction site where a three-month showdown is taking place between Native protesters who claim the land as their own and police who are under orders to remove them. The protesters surrounded the U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and dragged out its three occupants. The police officer was pulled out of the path of the stolen vehicle as it was driven deliberately at him but suffered minor injuries, Ontario Provincial Police Const. Doug Graham said. The stolen vehicle was recovered but no arrests were made.

Plaintiffs ask judge to hold Kempthorne in contempt

Washington, D.C. (AP)

On the job less than a month, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is already being pulled into a 10-year-old class-action lawsuit filed by American Indians that has dogged the Interior Department through the Clinton and Bush administrations. In a motion filed June 9, plaintiffs asked a federal judge to make Kempthorne the third successive interior secretary held in contempt of court in the lawsuit. They charge the Interior Department has continued to conceal computer security problems in violation of a 2005 court ruling requiring it to report weaknesses that could put Indian records at risk.

Muscogee Creek Nation opens $17 million clinic

Coweta, Oklahoma (AP)

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation hosted the grand opening June 15 of a multimillion dollar Indian health care clinic that should reduce caseloads at other area Indian health centers. The Koweta Indian Health Facility, located east of Coweta, is a 60,000-square-foot clinic that will be opened to patients June 20. The facility was funded by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Indian Health Services. The tribe funded $18 million for the building and land, and IHS is paying for staffing of the clinic. The clinic has 94 employees, a majority of which are tribal citizens. The Koweta clinic will be the largest and most modern of all of the tribe’s five health clinics. The tribe expects the clinic to serve at least 30,000 patients in the area.

Supreme Court won’t review Seneca land claim

Buffalo, New York (AP)

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision rejecting the Seneca Nation’s claim that New York’s purchase of Grand Island in 1815 was illegal. The nation’s highest court refused without comment to review the case, which began in 1993 with a lawsuit seeking a return of the island, occupied by about 18,000 people, and several others in the Niagara River north of Buffalo. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2004 upheld a federal judge’s findings that the state’s purchase of the islands for $1,000 was proper.

Eagle Butte man charged in connection with fatal crash

Pierre, South Dakota (AP)

Federal charges have been filed in connection with a fatal accident on the Cheyenne River Reservation. The March 2 crash on U.S. Highway 212 killed William Good Eagle Junior, 53, of Eagle Butte. Quincy Paul Sampson, 32, of Eagle Butte, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. He and another man were injured in the accident. If convicted, Sampson could be sentenced to up to six years in prison.

Second person convicted

in embezzlement case

Shawano, Wisconsin (AP)

A jury has convicted a second person in an embezzlement of nearly $200,000 involving fraudulent tribal loans. Joel S. Bosman, 35, of Gresham, was convicted during June of eight counts of being party to embezzlement in a scam involving former Stockbridge-Munsee tribal loan officer Cathryn Mohawk. A jury in Shawano County Circuit Court found him innocent of four other charges. According to the criminal complaint, fraudulent loans were made payable to Bosman, who cashed the checks, kept an agreed-upon amount of the money and turned the rest over to Mohawk.

Dupree man pleads

guilty to gunshot slaying

Pierre, South Dakota (AP)

A Dupree man could get up to 10 years in prison for the shooting death of another man on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Sam Andrew Reede, 18, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Pierre to involuntary manslaughter for the November 7 slaying of Quentin LeCompte in Dupree. Reede was originally charged with second-degree murder and using a gun during a crime of violence.

EPA says no asbestos in dust

Buffalo, New York (AP)

The dust being raised by the demolition of an abandoned concrete grain elevator contains no asbestos and is not a health threat, an Environmental Protection Agency official said June 14. The agency began sampling the air and ground over the weekend amid concerns that dust coating cars and homes from the 1930s H-O Oats elevator was dangerous. The EPA will continue to monitor air and soil at the site, he said. The Seneca Nation is clearing the area to ready it for construction of a $125 million casino.

Death of baby on Lummi Reserve ruled homicide

Lummi Nation, Washington (AP)

The death of a 4-month-old boy found in dirty diapers on a dirty mattress has been ruled a homicide. Tyrell A. Jackson was found dead at a home on the Lummi Reservation during early June, according to a death certificate signed by the Whatcom County medical examiner. The death certificate showed the baby was dehydrated and 2 pounds lighter than his birth weight. Chief Gary James of Lummi Law and Order, the police agency on the tribe’s land, would not release information about the case to The Bellingham Herald, but said the FBI was investigating the case.

Federal ruling prevents Oneida Nation forecloser

Syracuse, New York (AP)

A federal judge during June rejected Oneida County’s efforts to foreclose on Oneida Nation land. U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd said state and federal laws prohibit the county from taking the land. Hurd’s ruling was similar to one he made last year that prevented Madison County from taking tribal land. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling forcing the Oneida Nation to pay property taxes. That decision doesn’t entitle the county to foreclose on Oneida land, however, and the county must find other means to obtain any taxes owed, Hurd said.

Man pleads not

guilty to 2003 murder

Great Falls, Montana (AP)

A Poplar man pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of a man who has been missing since November 2003. Jordan Lee Martell, 22, is charged with killing Richard Red Dog, 25, of Poplar. He was arraigned during late May before U.S. Magistrate Carolyn Ostby. Authorities have not found Red Dog’s body. In August 2004, divers and police searched the Missouri River about eight miles southeast of Poplar for several days after the Fort Peck Tribe’s Criminal Investigation unit received a tip.

Famed Vancouver museum begins expansion

Vancouver, British Columbia (AP)

A $47.3 million addition that will add more than 50 percent to the exhibit space has been announced at the Museum of Anthropology, which features one of the world’s largest collections of totem poles. Work on the 48,800-square-foot project at the museum on the University of British Columbia campus began during early June and should be completed by 2009, museum Director Anthony Shelton said in a news conference. The museum commands a sweeping view of the water and mountains and contains 535,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects, many from the northwest coast of British Columbia. It is the largest teaching museum in Canada. Joining in development of the network are the Musqueam Band in Vancouver, Sto:lo Nation in the Fraser River Valley and the U’mista Cultural Society near the north end of Vancouver Island.