On June 15, President Barack Obama fulfilled his promise to appoint a high-level White House advisor on Indian affairs. Obama announced his selection of Kimberly Teehee for the newly created position of senior policy advisor for Native American Affair in videotaped remarks during the conference of the National Congress of American Indians, which took place at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

“She is rightly recognized as an outstanding advocate for Indian country, and she will provide a direct interface at the highest level of my administration, assuring a voice for Native Americans during policy making decisions,” said Obama.

Along with the announcement of Teehee’s appointment, Obama also said the White House would hold a Tribal Nations Conference in the fall – the fulfillment of another promise he made on the campaign trail.

Teehee is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., and a Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa – College of Law. Teehee worked for the Democratic National Committee as deputy director of Native American Outreach and held various positions with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She served as director of Native American outreach for the Presidential Inaugural Committee for President Clinton’s second inauguration.

Since January 1998, Teehee has been senior adviser to Congressman Dale Kildee, D-Mich., co-chair of the House of Representatives’ Native American Caucus.

Teehee joins a number of American Indians that Pres. Obama has chosen for high profile positions in his administration. Jodi Gillette, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is the deputy associate director for White House intergovernmental affairs office; Larry EchoHawk, a Pawnee of Oklahoma, was recently confirmed as head of the BIA; and Yvette Roubideaux, a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, is director of IHS. Additionally, Mary Smith, Cherokee, is assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice; and Hilary Tompkins, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, has been nominated as solicitor of the Department of the Interior but has not yet been confirmed.

Get the entire story in Indian Country Today.

Indian Country Today reports that a complaint filed against the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which alleges violations of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, is under investigation and will be heard at a NAGPRA Review Committee meeting in the fall.

The Tribal Historic Preservation Officers Cheryl Andrews-Maltais of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, Aquinnah; John Brown III of the Narragansett Indian Tribe; and Sherry White of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians filed the complaint in May 2008.

It will be heard by the NAGPRA Review Committee this fall, said White, who has been coordinating documentation from the three tribes.

The complaint alleges that UMass Amherst has violated the federal law by failing to respond to the tribes’ request for repatriation of human remains that are in its possession, and for failing to consult with the tribes.

The complaint also says the university failed to publish a complete inventory of the human remains and other items of cultural patrimony in its possession, and listed the remains as “culturally unaffiliated” even while admitting that the three tribes had a historical presence in and historical ties to the area where the remains were found. In addition, these three tribes are the only federally recognized tribes with standing to claim the remains.

Now that two people charged in federal court with stealing archaeological resources from federal lands in Utah have apparently committed suicide, questions are being asked whether the long tradition in some areas of people looking for “Indian trinkets” is really a serious crime.

Utah’s two U.S. senators have called for an investigation about how the U.S. agencies and officials carried out the raids etc.

An editorial in a Las Vegas paper today, June 21, asks, “Do the feds own everything?” The author says there are reports of neighbors being roughed up and confronted by federal agents in bulletproof vests with their weapons drawn and that some 300 federal agents were involved.

The writer appears to downgrade what the people are charged with by writing: “Federal indictments accuse the suspects of stealing, receiving or trying to sell artifacts belonging to Indian tribes that vanished
from the area centuries ago. But the artifacts — bowls, stone pipes, sandals, arrowheads and pendants — were “stolen” only in the sense that they were dug up from the desert sites where the Anasazi
abandoned them, perhaps more than a thousand years ago. Such “pot hunting” has been a common hobby around the Four Corners area — and other sparsely inhabited parts of the Southwest — for generations.

The writer overlooks that these people are on federal lands and taking artifacts that are protected by federal law. Many or most “pothunters” also sell what they find.

Another article takes a different slant on this issue.

It’s written by Veronica Egan the executive director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, a nonprofit, public lands organization headquartered in Durango and dedicated to preserving and protecting wilderness and wild lands.

“Utah grave-robbing arrests highlight old conflict between locals and Feds

“. . . . last week in San Juan County, Utah, which borders Colorado, the BLM, the FBI and tribal governments executed the largest sting in U.S. history over the theft and sale of ancient artifacts, nabbing members of some of the most respected southern Utah families for possession and attempted sale of artifacts taken from the public and tribal lands - in other words, grave robbing. Local reaction was swift, and predictable. San Juan County is furious, and feeling victimized.

A long-standing traditional pastime in southern Utah, digging up artifacts in and around archaeological sites was, and apparently still is, a family affair. On weekends, groups would go out on what they called “skeleton picnics,” long before it was illegal to do so. They were unconcerned about the damage to the archaeological resource they were destroying, not to mention the disruption of Native American burial sites. In fact, a prevalent view in the area is that what they took was merely “trash and trinkets,” although the prices the pieces brought clearly indicated they had a higher market value.

It has become known to federal investigators that ancient artifacts are not only prized by collectors, but have become a source of ready cash for drug users, as well. Author Craig Childs says, “Pulling artifacts from the land without documentation and adding them to private collections is a form of archaeological genocide, erasing the record of a people from a place.”

The day after the arrests, James Redd, a respected Blanding physician and one of the suspects, committed suicide. (It should be noted here that in 1996, Redd and his wife, Jeanne, were arrested for the desecration of a corpse on tribal land while digging for artifacts, and ultimately, in a plea bargain, Jeanne “took the fall.” Charges against her husband were dropped.)The doctor’s suicide left the town of Blanding in an uproar of anger and grief. There was great public outcry over the perceived treatment of the suspects, who were said to be merely pursuing their time-honored family “hobby.” Many railed at the “Gestapo” tactics of agents, despite the fact that they used standard operating procedures while conducting the arrests, which is even more understandable considering the drug-related histories of some of the suspects. Some Blanding residents even seem to hold the federal government responsible for Redd’s death.

Within the week, Utah’s U.S. senators, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, called for a congressional hearing on the conduct of the two-and-a-half year investigation and the June 10 arrests. While this may be simple pandering to the inflamed sentiments in San Juan County, it also smacks of a serious double standard when it comes to law enforcement on federal lands in Utah, which has been a problem there for many years.

Federal land managers have been subject to various forms of coercion and interference from local officials over everything from road and trail designations to grazing management, off-road-vehicle enforcement and recreation permits. The very word “wilderness” - a designation offering the highest degree of protection to remote and fragile landscapes and resources - is loathed, as a form of “locking out the public.” Yet greater public access, especially with motorized vehicles, is known to increase the likelihood of looting and archaeological damage.

BLM and Forest Service managers have struggled to find a balance between open access and resource protection. Jerry Spangler, executive director of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, has documented the connection between looting of archaeological sites and off-road vehicle access. He says, “Any time you open up areas for motorized access, you open up areas for mischief. Archaeological sites become more vulnerable from illegal and inappropriate activities associated with ORVs, whether intentional or inadvertent.”

Local resentment of “the Feds” has been palpable in most of red rock country, the cultural estrangement continuing or even growing stronger. The current situation may not change that attitude in many of the older generation in San Juan County, but it does send a strong signal that the federal government will stand behind its managers there as they strive to enforce the law of the land.

The natural and cultural resources on Utah’s public lands belong to all Americans, not just the local residents, and the protection of those resources seems, thankfully, to be gaining priority status at last. It’s no longer “business as usual” in canyon country.”

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on June 20, 2009 that a second defendant in the federal crackdown on archaeological looting in southern Utah has killed himself. Steven Shrader, who faced two felonies in the antiquities case, shot himself twice in the chest late Thursday or early Friday in the village of Shabbona, Illinois.

Shrader, a resident of Santa Fe, N.M., was among 24 people indicted after a 2 ½-year investigation of illegal trafficking of American Indian artifacts taken from public and tribal land in southeastern Utah.

On June 10, federal agents simultaneously served warrants and arrested 19 residents of San Juan County and Moab. Shrader was one of five others also charged.

The next day, Blanding doctor James Redd, charged with one felony in the case, took his life while sitting in his vehicle by carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Shrader turned himself in last Friday at the FBI offices in Santa Fe and was taken into custody on a federal warrant, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Timothy Fuhrman of the Salt Lake City office.

Shrader was released after an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Albuquerque. Federal agents took him back to Santa Fe that day. His residence was not the subject of any of the search warrants executed by the FBI and Bureau of Land Management. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Salt Lake City on Friday morning, Fuhrman said.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said that during the sting, an undercover operative bought and sold more than 250 artifacts from the Four Corners area, including sacred prayer sticks, baby blankets, seed jars and other objects included in ancient Puebloan burial mounds.

Shrader was indicted for allegedly trafficking in stolen artifacts — specifically ancient sandals and a basket.

Throughout history, American Indian cultures handled criminal matters in widely diverse ways and, of course, did not practice Anglo-American style incarceration. In the modern era, tribal governments are also seeking alternative methods for dealing with criminal issues.

For example, the American Indian Justice Conference was held this week on the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado.

Participants representing 40 tribes, attended the event. They discussed ways to improve the justice systems in Indian Country, with a focus on alternative methods of incarceration and punishment.

Tribes have already developed drug courts, wellness courts, and substance abuse treatment programs to deal with offenders. The Southern Ute Tribe has allows offenders to write letters of apology, participate in work or fitness programs, and sit in sweat lodges, The Durango Herald reported.

“We are seeing some positive outcomes,” associate judge Scott Moore said.

As a result of the alternatives, Moore said the number of juvenile cases on the reservation has decreased from 107 in 2006, to 95 in 2007 and to 68 in 2008. There are only 18 cases so far this year.

Tribal criminal-justice officials work at alternatives to prison (The Durango Herald 6/11)

With unemployment rates reaching 80-90% on some reservations in remote and rural areas of the United States, any kind of economic development is a great boon to the reservation community. One example are the small gaming/casino operations of many tribes in North and South Dakota. Due to the small populations and tourist travel in those states, Indian reservations are rarely going to make mega-bucks off of casinos.

But that does not mean that the construction work and 30-40 jobs that small bingo and gaming establishments provide are not very valuable tribal economic development tools.

For example, a North Dakota newspaper reports that the Spirit Lake Dakotah Nation of North Dakota will break ground on Monday on a $3 million casino expansion.

The tribe will add 15,000 square-feet to the Spirit Lake Casino and Hotel and remodel another 7,700 square-feet of existing space. Two ballrooms, an updated hotel lobby, salon and conference room are part of the project.

Spirit Lake Casino to begin expansion (The Grand Forks Herald 6/12)

It’s reported that the Seminole Tribe of Florida probably will not approve the terms of a Class III gaming compact proposed by state lawmakers, the tribe’s attorney said.

The tribe is concerned about the increased revenue-sharing rate the state is demanding in the new deal, attorney Barry Richard said. Also, the compact’s lack of a exclusivity for Class III games to the Tribes is an issue.

“I feel firmly that the tribe couldn’t live with it and the Department of Interior wouldn’t approve it,” Richard told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

When reviewing revenue-sharing, the Bureau of Indian Affairs typically determines whether the compact provides exclusivity. Non-Indian racetracks in south Florida already offer slot machines and could offer table games in the future but the new deal still requires the tribe to share revenues with the state.

Seminoles balk at Florida’s new casino legislation (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 6/12)

Native leaders and former students of residential schools gathered across Canada to mark the one-year anniversary of the government’s official apology.

As part of a $1.9 billion settlement, the government apologied for taking Native children from their communities and forcing them to attend boarding schools where many students suffered emotional, physical, mental and sexual abuse.

“I had waited all of my life to hear somebody accept responsibility for the sadness in my life — for the loss in my life, for the dysfunction and the anger and the rage. It helped to hear the prime minister of this country say, ‘I’m sorry.’” Chief Robert Joseph, who attended a school in British Columbia, told CBC News.

Ceremony marks 1st anniversary of residential school apology (CBC 6/11)
Commitments from apology not met: chiefs (The Winnipeg Free Press 6/12)

Navajo Nation officials say they could be forced to lay off 65 people due to proposed budget cuts.

The executive branch could lose 40 people and the judicial branch could lose 25 people, officials said. “I plea with you that we not do that — that we not subject employees to that trauma,” Chief Justice Herb Yazzie of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court told Navajo Nation Council delegates, The Gallup independent reported.

The council could also be forced to eliminate jobs, one delegate said.

Dine gov’t warns of layoffs (The Gallup Independent 6/11)

The U.S. State Department is being asked to mediate a dispute between Mohawks and the Canadian government.

Mohawks in the United States and Canada oppose the arming of guards on the Canadian side of the border. Protests led Canada’s Customs and Border Service Agency to abandon the crossing station, resulting in the closure of the Seaway International Bridge.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to resolve the issue. They also say the Department of Homeland Security should get involved.

Senators seek federal aid in bridge debate (The Watertown Daily Times 6/12)