From: EcoNet (via Jym Dyer) <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,alt.native,talk.environment,ca.environment
Subject: NEWS & ACTIVISM: Freedom Law is Key to Indigenous Struggle
Followup-To: alt.native,talk.environment,ca.environment
Date: 29 Sep 1992 18:36:51 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu

[From EcoNet ecotopia.news Conference]

Freedom Law Key To Indigenous Struggle

by Tim McKay

From Brazil to Table Bluff indigenous peoples are struggling
to protect their sacred sites and the larger environment from
destruction.

The issues are diverse.  For those who have migrated to cities,
economic programs may be a priority.  But for those who still
live in the land of their creation myths, cultural survival is
the key goal.  For example, federal records show that 15 of 17
study sites for a possible high-level nuclear waste dumps are on
Indian lands.

Protection for contemporary native life involves preservation
of language, documentation of oral histories and safeguarding
sacred sites.

Those working to preserve native religions believe that
amendment of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act
(AIRFA) is of critical importance.

                          Local Proof

The weakness of AIRFA was proved in the North Coast
confrontation pitting the Forest Service against native tribes
and environmental groups over agency efforts to build a paved
forest highway through sites used by Yurok, Karuk and Tolowa
peoples.

The effort to halt the so-called Gasquet-Orleans (G-O) Road
on the Six Rivers National Forest resulted in 16 years of
administrative appeal and litigation.  The result was the
adverse Lyng v.  Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective
Association (NICPA) ruling that came out of the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1988.

Although the G-O Road itself was ultimately banned by an act
of Congress, Lyng v. NICPA gutted AIRFA by saying that the
First Amendment doesn't bar the government from taking actions
on public lands that would destroy a religion.

To remedy this defect, an American Indian Religious Freedom
Coalition for amendments to AIRFA was formed and reached out
to national environmental groups at a meeting in Washington.

                      Restoring The Earth

Author Vine Deloria said, "We are on the edge of an explosion
of passion... that will demand fundamental changes... not just
to renew the Endangered Species Act, but to restore the Earth.
(A vision) twice as powerful as the values of the civil rights
movement of 30 years ago . . . we are talking about whether or
not to have a natural world anymore."

The AIRFA coalition has drafted legislation that would provide
protection for sacred sites on federal lands, evaluation for
possible return of sacred sites to tribes, allow traditional
use of peyote, afford religious rights for Native American
prisoners, and allow religious use of eagles.

Many of the same concerns expressed in Washington were echoed at
the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples near Rio in the week
prior to the recent Earth Summit. The delegates claimed wider
responsibility as stewards of the Earth.

At conference after conference the theme that repeats is
that the natural world that sustains native peoples is under
devastating assault from logging and flooding of the rain
forests, nuclear testing and storage of nuclear wastes, dams
in Quebec and geothermal development in Hawaii.

                        Local Resistance

On the North Coast, a center for indigenous culture in North
America, the remnant peoples of the region's native cultures
continue their resistance to the dominant culture.

On the southern end of Humboldt Bay, the Wiyot tribe of Table
Bluff has started work on a new 102-acre village, culmination
of a 32-year effort begun when the federal goverment attempted
to terminate the tribe.

Wiyot survivors (600 or so remain) also are asking for portions
of Indian Island in Humboldt Bay to be turned over to the tribe.
The island was the site of a massacre on February 26, 1860, when
pioneer Humboldters murdered some 60 sleeping Wiyot children,
women and men.  Comments can go to Eureka City Council, 531 K
Street, Eureka, CA 95501.

The Wiyots want the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to put the
Island into federal trust status, and would like a place
available for reburial of Wiyot remains.

The Karuk people of the Salmon River are urging the Forest
Service to return certain lands to their recently recognized
tribe.  Central to their efforts is acquisition of Ka'tim'iin
(God's Mountain).

Klamath National Forest had agreed to transfer the mountain
to the tribe, but during recent conflict over the Salmon River
allotment of the Tripp family -- who claim to go back 1,500
years on the river -- the Forest Service backed off from its
earlier agreement.

                   Yuroks Struggle, Seek Name

In the wake of the 1988 Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act, the Yurok
tribe is working to establish a constitution and basic services
for its members.  The EPA recently declared water on part of the
Yurok Indian Reservation at Requa unfit to drink.

The tribe is even searching for a new name.  Robley Schwenk,
chairman of the constitution committee, says that "Yurok is a
name given us by another tribe.  We call ourselves Downriver."
Tribal members can submit ideas and comments by calling
1-800-848-8765.

Farther afield, indigenous Canadian Inuit people recently voted
to form Inuktituk, a homeland larger than Alaska and California
combined, out of lands between the Northwest shores of Hudson
Bay and the Arctic Ocean.

In Minnesota, the Chippewa tribe is buying back its historic
tribal lands one piece at a time.  Today only 7% of the land
is in Chippewa hands.

In Montana, the Crow tribe finds itself in the midst of the
battle over wilderness.  The state's Crazy Mountains contain
sites sacred to the Crow but timber sought after by Montana's
Brand S Lumber Company.  Montana residents reportedly favor
protection of wilderness by a wide margin even if it costs jobs,
according to polls by the Billings Gazette.

(From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental
Center, September 1992. Write 879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521,
or e-mail nec@igc.apc.org, for a free copy.)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive