Bush chooses new Bureau of Indian Affairs leader
Washington, D.C. (AP)
President Bush has nominated Carl J. Artman to oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Interior Department agency that manages the 55.7 million acres of land held in trust for American Indians. Artman, a member of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, serves as the Interior Department’s associate solicitor for Indian affairs. Before joining the department, Artman was chief counsel for the Oneida Tribe. He also worked on the staff of Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio. If confirmed, Artman would replace Dave Anderson, who resigned in February 2005 to focus on business interests. Associate Deputy Interior Secretary Jim Cason has held the post temporarily since Anderson left.
Pequot sue Ledyard over taxes on slot machines
Mashantucket, Connecticut (AP)
The owners of the Foxwoods Resort Casino and a New Jersey slot machine distributor are suing the town of Ledyard over property taxes levied on leased machines. The Mashantucket Pequot and Atlantic City Coin and Slot Service Co., of Pleasantville, N.J., say the taxes, collected since 2003, violate federal law. The lawsuit alleges that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act “completely pre-empts state or municipal attempts to regulate, tax or otherwise control Indian gaming, except as set forth in IGRA’s express provisions.” It also alleges that the town’s taxing practices are interfering with the tribe’s “self-determination and sovereignty.”
Rising Sun sentenced
for murder cover-up
Billings, Montana (AP)
A Crow Agency man who pleaded guilty to helping cover up a double murder and who later helped prosecutors convict his brother of the crime was sentenced Aug. 11 to 15 months in prison. Moses Rising Sun, 22, has already served 14 months and 20 days in federal custody, meaning he has 10 more days to serve. Rising Sun pleaded guilty in January to being an accessory after the fact in the November 2003 beating deaths of LaFonda Big Leggins, 23, and Koren Nola Diebert, 26. Earlier in August, Eugene Rising Sun, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree murder and faces two consecutive life sentences.
Challenge of Redskins name made to patent office
Tulsa, Oklahoma (AP)
Tribal represenatives have filed a new legal challenge to the Washington Redskins’ trademark, contending the NFL team’s name is racially offensive, speakers at the Native American Journalists Association national convention said Aug. 11. The petition to cancel the trademark was filed Aug. 11 with a board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington. “There is no compromise with racism,” Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute, said at the conference. The institute is a Washington-based nonprofit organization that advances Indian causes. “Power concedes nothing,” she said. “You have to go in and make change happen.”
Committee approves bills compensating SD tribes
Washington, D.C. (AP)
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved two bills during August that would compensate South Dakota tribes for land lost to government water projects on the Missouri River. Legislation sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., would increase payments to the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux tribes for land lost during the construction of the Fort Randall and Big Bend dams several decades ago. The legislation would increase payments to established trust funds for the two tribes. Another bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, would similarly provide compensation to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe for land lost to the Oahe dam and reservoir north of Pierre, S.D.
Woman pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter
Rapid City, South Dakota (AP)
A Rushville, Neb., woman has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for using her vehicle to hit a woman. Jessica Lou Twiss, 25, could get six years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine upon sentencing. No sentencing date has been set yet. U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley said the charge relates to a Nov. 3 incident on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Court papers indicate Twiss, while driving a vehicle, got into a fight with passenger Shelly Poor Bear, shoved her from the vehicle and drove away – running over her in the process. Twiss knew she had struck Poor Bear but left the scene without reporting it to authorities or getting medical help, court papers said.
AG seeks end to Connecticut land claims
New Haven, Connecticut (AP)
A federal judge is being asked to dismiss all land claims by the state-recognized Golden Hill Paugussett. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal during August filed a motion in U.S District Court to dismiss the tribe’s claim to thousands of acres of land in Fairfield and New Haven counties. Blumenthal argues that the Trumbull-based tribe failed to gain federal recognition and it is time for property owners in Orange, Trumbull and Bridgeport to be relieved of the 14-year stress of possible land claims from the tribe.
2nd Congressman abandons re-election bid
Columbus, Ohio (AP)
Republican Congressman Bob Ney abruptly abandoned his bid for re-election during August, becoming the latest Capitol Hill figure to fall victim to the congressional corruption scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The six-term congressman insisted in a statement that he was innocent and said he was acting for the sake of his family. He is the second congressman to announce his retirement in the fallout from the probe. Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas resigned from Congress earlier this year after being indicted on unrelated charges he illegally funneled corporate contributions to Republican candidates. He has also come under suspicion for links to Abramoff.
Tribal police departments get new federal funding
Albuquerque, New Mexico (AP)
Seven tribal police departments around New Mexico will share more than $1.1 million in grant money from the U.S. Justice Department. The pueblos of Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Nambe, Sandia, Pojoaque and the Navajo Chapter of Ramah can use the funding for salaries, training, new equipment and crime fighting technology. Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Tom Udall, both New Mexico Democrats, announced the grants during August. They said the money will help provide the resources Indian communities need to adequately staff and equip their police departments.
Senecas, Buffalo at
odds over casino details
Buffalo, New York (AP)
A breakdown in talks between the city and Seneca Nation could alter what the tribe’s Buffalo casino will look like. Mayor Byron Brown said he told tribal leaders he was no longer considering selling part of a street that runs through the site of the planned casino to the Senecas because they would not make certain promises in return. “They gave us no choice but to end the discussions,” Brown said. The Senecas did not immediately respond but have said that without the two-block stretch of street, they would build a less ambitious casino than their preferred $125 million facility. Among the city’s demands were that Buffalo residents make up half of casino employees and that a third would be minorities and women. Brown also was seeking assurances that the Senecas would not add to their sovereign territory in Buffalo by buying property beyond the nine-acre casino site.
Judge orders lift on HUD freeze on housing money
Fairbanks, Alaska (AP)
A judge has lifted a funding freeze that had blocked Indian housing authorities, including some in Alaska, from receiving federal grants. The money stream had been halted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development after a May court decision involving a Montana tribal housing authority. The Kodiak Island Housing Authority has received its yearly $4 million block grant. The judge in the Montana case wrote HUD in late June, telling the agency it improperly used his decision to freeze Indian housing block grants across the nation. The case involved the housing authority on the Fort Peck Reservation. It was not a class action and other tribes had no chance to give their input, said U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch. The judge ordered HUD to limit its response to his decision to actions that would only affect Fort Peck. The agency had frozen about $300 million of the governments $620 million in yearly housing block grants to tribes. It did so in response to the May 25 decision by Matsch that the law requires the government to provide money to Fort Peck based, in part, on the number of housing units its housing authority had in 1997 as opposed to currently.
