|
American-Indians-R-Real
Archive for 200606 ( return to current blog )
Wednesday June 28, 2006
| Producers honor Maria Tallchief |
|
| Posted: June 28, 2006 |
| by: Babette Herrmann / Today correspondent |
 |
|
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Maria Tallchief Paschen, Osage, was honored along with five other luminaries of the production world, a few known for their work on and off the set, at the Producers Guild of America's ''Celebration of Diversity'' awards in May.
The wisecracking Jeffrey Tambor, well-known for his comedic roles in the hit series ''The Larry Sanders Show'' and later ''Arrested Development,'' emceed the event.
Tallchief, 81, escorted onstage by actress Daryl Hannah, was honored for her contribution to ballet in addition to her artistic guidance to aspiring ballerinas.
Actress and dancer Marilu Henner presented Tallchief with the award. ''I can't tell you how excited I am to introduce one of my idols,'' she said. ''As an American, I believe in great individualism.''
''Thank you for bringing this old lady out on the stage,'' Tallchief quipped as she accepted her award, adding a thank you to the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, a sponsor of the event and owners of Four Directions Media, Inc. (Four Directions Media Inc. is the publisher of Indian Country Today.)
According to the PGS's written bio on Tallchief, when she retired as a dancer in 1965, she passed on her love and valuable knowledge of ballet to young dancers. She became the artistic director and instructor of the Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet in 1975, and from 1981 - '87 she served as the founder and artistic director of the Chicago City Ballet.
Tallchief was born in 1925 in Fairfax, Okla., to an Osage father and Scottish/Irish mother. She took dance and piano lessons as a child, and continued her lessons when her family moved to the Los Angeles area. Her love for dance easily trumped any aspirations to become a concert pianist.
''I think it's an innate thing in the American Indian to want to move. We want to dance; this is the way we are, we express our happiness in our song and dance, and this is our heritage,'' she said in her pre-award video bio.
At age 12 she began dance lessons at Bronislava Nijinska's studio in Beverly Hills. Nijinska, a renowned Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, gave Tallchief instruction that fueled her passion to pursue her ballet career. After five years of study, she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where she soon achieved solo status.
From there, she met famed choreographer George Balanchine and the two fell in love and married in 1946. She was reportedly the inspiration for his ''Symphonie concertante,'' ''Sylvia: Pas de Deux,'' ''Orpheus,'' ''Night Shadow,'' ''The Four Temperaments'' and ''Scotch Symphony.''
Additionally, the couple spent time at the Paris Opera working and honeymooning before returning to Balanchine's ballet society in New York, which later transformed into the New York City Ballet.
Tallchief's popularity skyrocketed as she asked to perform in about eight productions each week. Her marriage to Balanchine fizzled, but she remarried in 1956 and left ballet for two years to start a family. She returned to the New York City Ballet to dance in Balanchine's ''Gounod Symphony,'' joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1960 and retired as a performer five years later.
''Maria Tallchief is one of six women known as a prima ballerina absoluta,'' said Ken Heidecke, founder and director of the Chicago Festival Ballet. A prima ballerina absoluta is the highest ranked soloist in the ballet community.
The ''Celebration of Diversity'' event made its debut in 2002. Prior to its formal beginnings, since 1995, diversity awards were given in honor of Oscar Micheaux, a first-generation black producer, director and entertainment entrepreneur. The festival has its roots in honoring film and television, but in 2004 it branched out to award individuals who promote diversity in the theater and corporate ranks.
Anne Sweeny, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney ABC Television, and named the ''Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment'' by the Hollywood Reporter, was awarded the President's Citation for her promotion of diversity in the entertainment industry.
Including Tallchief, diversity awards went out to Charles Floyd Johnson, co-executive producer of the CBS drama series, ''NCIS.'' ''American Idol'' producers Ken Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe were presented their diversity award by ''Idol'' judge Randy Jackson.
| | | | |
|
|
| Posted: June 26, 2006 |
| by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today |
|
|
QUITOVAC, Mexico - While O'odham in Mexico were never told about a planned hazardous waste dump being permitted in their sacred ceremonial
community of Quitovac, documents show the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency knew about the dump nearly one year before O'odham in Mexico were informed.
O'odham in Mexico did not learn of the hazardous waste dump near the United States border until April 2006. Mexico had already issued state and federal permits for the dump in 2005, without notifying O'odham.
The EPA, however, knew of Mexico's plan for the hazardous waste dump as early as the summer of 2005, according to EPA reports obtained by Indian Country Today.
The EPA described the dump in 2005, with the conclusion that ''no significant impacts'' were expected. The report was written by EPA's Emily Pimentel in the Fall Report 2005 for Region 9. It states the 30-day public comment period ended in June 2005.
The EPA knew Mexico had issued state and federal permits to store 45,000 tons of asbestos, organocholorides and industrial waste sludge. The operating permit is for 50 years in the O'odham community of Quitovac, where annual sacred ceremonies are held.
Earlier, the Mexican government, led by the federal Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), and the private company CEGIR (Centro de Gestion Integral de Residuos S.A.), quietly planned the dump. The dump was formerly known as Servicios Ambientales La Choya and was also referred to as ''La Cholla'' in the United States.
Whistleblowers exposed the hazardous waste dump in February 2006, following CEGIR's report to the Border 2012 Program in Monterrey, Mexico, on Feb. 7. However, few O'odham learned of the dump until April.
O'odham in Mexico said the Border 2012 program, a binational program for the United States/Mexico border region, is working with the United States, the EPA and Mexico to promote the dump. O'odham said the government entities are working in collusion and ignoring the impact on the traditional O'odham communities and their culture, traditions, sacred sites and spiritual well-being.
Tohono O'odham Chair Vivian Juan-Saunders did not return calls from ICT for comment. However, traditional O'odham in Mexico now question when the tribal chair in Sells, Ariz., was informed of plans for the dump.
The EPA said it has been working with the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona regarding Mexico's plans for the dump, according to EPA memos written in June 2006 and obtained by ICT.
O'odham in the state of Sonora, whose communities are separated from O'odham in Arizona by the international border, said the hazardous waste dump would expose children to deadly toxins, contaminate underground well water, desecrate ceremonial grounds at Quitovac and impact those who depend on tourism for livelihood at the beach town of Puerto Penasco.
Traditional O'odham leaders of the O'odham territories, Cu:Wi I-gersk communities, in Sonora, Mexico, issued a statement of protest:
''We the O'odham (the people) the original people of these lands, have the sole authority over these lands mandated by the creator. We oppose the proposed chemical waste dumpsite in our homelands and the on-going and future destruction of O'odham lands. We continue to oppose these types of projects that are initiated without notification and communication to the original people of these lands.
''We oppose the destruction of the natural habitat of this entire ecosystem, plant life, animal life, waterway and mountains. The effects of solvent chemicals are fatal to all life and will impact future generations of human life, animal life and plant life. By our O'odham Him'dag, our principles, the O'odham way of life, maintains all life is connected and any destruction impacts the entire O'odham culture and very existence of O'odham and all life.
''We oppose this outright threat to our O'odham way of life by storage of hazardous chemical in our sacred lands and near our scared ceremonial grounds.
''In the 1990s, Hecla Mining Company was responsible for unprotected cyanide leaching ponds, which leaked in Quitovac. An absent monitored system and very lenient enforcement of environmental policies places all life at great risk,'' O'odham said.
''As O'odham we maintain our legacy through our oral history, as the original peoples of these lands. Through our teachings, by our Elder Brother I'itoi, we maintain our inherent way of life including conducting our ceremonies and making offerings to the lands and the sea, as well as using all life in the region as our food source, medicinal source from the plant and animal life, which is all face irreparable danger.
''We demand the strongest implementation of existing environmental and cultural protection laws to stop this project and demand protection of O'odham and all life in this region. The planned devastation of the region is in total neglect to humanity and the natural life. Environmental ethics have been disregard without regard to the future generations of the O'odham communities and surrounding communities.''
In March, the Pima Association of Governments in Pima County, Ariz., learned of the planned hazardous waste dump and called for a report. The organization of town and tribal governments, including the Pascua Yaqui and Tohono O'odham Nation, stated that Mexico violated an international treaty by not informing Arizona of the hazardous waste dump near the United States border.
Millions of tons of hazardous waste cross the border annually and most of it is coming into the United States as required by law under the La Paz Agreement of 1993, Mexico's factories (maquiladores) return hazardous waste for disposal to U.S. companies who initially export raw materials to Mexico for manufacturing.
Since the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, North American companies have been shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous waste annually across the borders of the United States, Mexico and Canada, according to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Mexico reports it produced 3.1 million tons of hazardous waste in the year 2000 alone. NAFTA resulted in border industries that produce cell phones and a multitude of electronics.
O'odham said they do not want to become a hazardous waste dump for either the United States or Mexico and joined a 120-car caravan protest in Sonoyta, Mexico, in May, as CEGIR was seeking a municipal permit for the hazardous waste dump.
Meanwhile, in recent years, a gold mining company has sought to increase investors for yet another gold mine in the O'odham community of Quitovac, near the site of the planned hazardous waste dump.
This is troubling news to O'odham in Mexico, who question how Hecla Mining obtained its mining permit in Quitovac in the 1990s and what happened to promised payments to O'odham, including a $100,000 payment to which Hecla agreed.
In 2004, Copper Ridge Explorations Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, described the Quitovac gold mine as a target ''open-pit, heap leach gold deposit.''
''Quitovac is a gold deposit located in Sonora State in northern Mexico, near the Arizona border. The deposit has many similarities to the nearby La Choya gold mine that profitably produced approximately 400,000 ounces of gold for Hecla Mining during the period 1994 - 1999,'' according to the Copper Ridge Explorations Inc. Web site.
''It also has similarities to a number of other nearby structurally controlled gold deposits, such as La Herradura (Newmont and Penoles - 145,000 ounces of gold produced in 2002) and El Chanate deposits in Sonora as well as the Mesquite, Picacho and American Girl deposits in the adjacent United States.''
''Presently, the Quitovac deposit remains open along strike in both directions and down dip,'' the company states.
Western Shoshone joined indigenous from Peru and Ghana in Denver in April to protest Newmont mining and ''No More Dirty Gold'' during a stockholder meeting.
|
| |
When asked by an anthropologist what the Indian called America before the white man came,
an Indian simply said, "Ours"
Vine Deloria | | | |
|
|
| Posted: June 26, 2006 |
| by: Kara Briggs / Today correspondent |
| |
Editors' Note: Cecelia Fire Thunder was interviewed in the Rapid City, S.D., office of the First People's Fund on June 16 by Indian Country Today ''Healthwise'' columnist Kara Briggs and ICT senior editor Jose Barreiro. Mohawk midwife Katsi Cook, Mohawk Bear Clan Mother Louise McDonald and Lori Lea Pourier, of the First People's Fund in Rapid City, also participated in the discussion.
RAPID CITY, S.D. - Cecelia Fire Thunder, the elected though currently suspended chairman of the Oglala Sioux Nation, believes that stopping sexual violence, domestic assault and incest - and caring for its victims - needs to rise to the top of the political agenda on the Pine Ridge reservation.
Fire Thunder got in trouble with her tribal council and some on the reservation this spring when she announced that abortions could be provided on the reservation under federal law even if a proposed state ban was enacted by voters next November.
''I got really angry about a bunch of white guys in the state Legislature making decisions about my body, again,'' the 59-year-old nurse and first female chairman of the Oglala Sioux told Indian Country Today in June. She spoke to ICT in defiance of a tribal council order that she not speak to the media.
When she took her stand for legal abortion this spring, a flurry of outside feminist and Christian Right opinions obscured the story of a group of Oglala women, including Fire Thunder, who are incorporating the Sacred Choices Wellness Center in Kyle.
Fire Thunder was suspended by the council in late May when outside dollars to support the center started arriving by mail at tribal headquarters. The council says Fire Thunder solicited these donations, while her supporters say she didn't. On the same day as her suspension, the council voted to ban abortions on Pine Ridge.
A group of tribal women who are organizing Fire Thunder's proposed Sacred Choices Wellness Center as a private, nonprofit organization met and agreed to honor the tribe's abortion ban.
Still, Fire Thunder faces an impeachment hearing on June 29. She plans to fight for her office.
''The abortion issue,'' she said, ''is the key that opens the padlock to sexual deviancy that is occurring on the Pine Ridge reservation.''
Sexual deviancy is what Fire Thunder calls rape and incest: crimes that are rarely adjudicated on the reservation. The epidemic nature of the abuse is noticed in drug and alcohol treatment programs where, Fire Thunder said, 87 percent of women will disclose that they were sexually abused, many as children. The ultimate end of domestic assault is rape, what Fire Thunder calls the ''ultimate subjugation.''
Most women on the Pine Ridge reservation, she said, know someone who has been raped. And the stories pour out as women across the reservation start to talk: stories about children bearing male relatives' babies.
Rape victims in particular, Fire Thunder said, need to have the option to terminate the resulting pregnancy.
''Having sex with a female member of your family was something that we banished for, speaking traditionally,'' she said.
Lakota tradition - not the influence of little white churches that dot the countryside - is at the heart of conversations in communities and families across Pine Ridge.
Some, including Fire Thunder, say that historically Lakota women knew how to perform abortions and caringly send that spirit back where it came from. Others disagree, including language and culture teacher Philomine Lakota, who said she can't find a word in Lakota for the purposeful termination of pregnancy.
For 15 years Lakota has held womanhood ceremonies for about 10 young teenage girls a year in the hope of preventing unplanned pregnancies and encouraging healthy families. She wishes that someone like Fire Thunder would raise money to support these ceremonies and expand them so more young women could be reached.
Near the town of Oglala, community elders have drafted a petition which, in part, reads, ''As members of the Oglala Sioux tribe, we are vehemently against the murder of innocent babies any circumstances.''
As preparations for a Sun Dance began, an Oglala woman said that there should be a tribal election about legal abortion - but only the women should be allowed to vote.
Many of the quiet majority of women who elected Fire Thunder would speak out, said Lori Lea Pourier, of the First People's Fund in Rapid City, but they don't want to get involved in the shrill tone that politics around abortion has taken.
Norma Rendon, who works in a domestic violence shelter run by the nonprofit Canleska Inc., spoke scornfully of the men, including some tribal council members who have been quoted in the local newspapers, for talking about women's business.
''I may not be for abortion,'' Rendon said. ''I had six children. I raised all six by myself without any kind of financial or emotional support. But I can't make that choice for other women.''
Former tribal council member Deb Rooks-Cook, whose father was once tribal chairman, remembered calling on the council to take a stand against sexual violence 20 years ago.
But he told her not to expect any response. She remembered him saying, ''You're talking to the perpetrators.''
Two years ago, Rooks-Cook was part of the two-thirds majority who voted for Fire Thunder. She supported her because she believed that a woman could solve the tribe's financial and organizational problems. She said Fire Thunder, like other politicians, has gotten waylaid by other issues.
But Fire Thunder said the clinic was always going to be run by other tribal women from the Kyle area, not by the tribe. The group recently met to discuss their future.
Sacred Choices board member Emma Featherman Sam said that the newly incorporated organization would honor the tribe's abortion ban. The group also renamed itself the Sacred Choices Wellness Center, which would allow the board to open a gymnasium and offer a wider range of medical care than only gynecological care.
Fire Thunder said she is spending time in prayer and seeking guidance in anticipation of her June 30 impeachment hearing. She acknowledged that her term has been tumultuous, though other leaders say there are people who would criticize Fire Thunder for issues as innocuous as the color of shoes she might wear on a given day.
Soon after her election in November 2004, she was suspended after the tribe was forced to relinquish management of its Head Start Program because of its mismanagement during the previous administration.
She was again suspended when she secured a $38 million loan from the Shakopee Mdewakanton, which operates Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minn.
More than $18 million of the loan was used to pay part of the debt inherited from the past administration, Fire Thunder said. Twenty million dollars went toward new construction at the tribe's casino in the hope of bringing in more revenue.
Fire Thunder said she was inspired to speak out against South Dakota's abortion ban by Tex Hall, the former National Congress of the American Indian president, who in 1999 brought the organization's first resolution against domestic violence. Fire Thunder remembered tears filling her eyes as Hall, in his customary cowboy hat and boots, expressed outrage over the abuse of women and children.
She was left with the belief that national Indian leaders must acknowledge abuse if communities are going to end it. More than that, she talks about the need for recognition of ''women's sovereignty,'' which is the right of women to make decisions for their own bodies.
''We're in the middle of a quiet revolution,'' Fire Thunder said. ''And it's awful painful.''
Kara Briggs is senior fellow for the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative at Buffalo State College.
| | | | |
|
|
 
National Native News ...
To learn more about NNN and listen to the radio newscast online, visit www.nativenews.net
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
A week before the Fourth of July holiday a proposed flag amendment to the U.S. Constitution fails by a single vote. Yesterday's vote in the Senate would have prohibited the desecration of the U.S. flag. 67 votes were needed to send it to states for ratification, but it only received 66. Tribal leaders across the country have varying opinions about the amendment. Jeff Parker is the President of the Bay Mills Indian Community in upper Michigan. President Parker says Congress should spend its time on other matters. Some tribal leaders say they would support an amendment to protect the U.S. flag because of the high number of Native people in the U.S. military.
This is the final week of oral arguments for the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 session. The justices will be writing opinions over the summer and will wrap up the session at the end of September. One Native American project is closely watching the rulings. The Tribal Supreme Court Project is a collaboration between the National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund. Richard Guest with NARF oversees the project. He says tribes need to be aware of Supreme Court rulings in Indian Country and Indian law. There are several cases before the high court that will directly impact Indian Country.
Fish in the Spokane River are a little safer to eat. New data shows some chemical levels are decreasing in the fish. By federal law, the State of Washington has to meet PCB standards set by the Spokane Tribe. The tribe says the state still has a long way to go to meet its standards.
...Understanding our Present by Honoring Our Past
On this day in 1989, the Coquille Restoration Act was passed. It restored the Oregon tribe's federal recognition status which was stripped 35 years earlier under the Termination Act.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Listener Alert
NNN will bring you student reports from Native Nations coast to coast on the last Friday of every month. To find out how your Native student journalists can submit their news reports, contact us at agonzales@nativenews.net
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Did you receive this email from a friend? If so, Click Here to Subscribe.
Send This E-mail to a Friend! Using this link will ensure that your friend receives the NNN E-Update properly formatted plus you can include a personal note to your friend. We will only use your friend's email address to send the newsletter this one time. Your friend will not remain on our list, unless he or she chooses to subscribe to the NNN E-Update.
Send your comments to nnn@nativenews.net
Thank you for listening to National Native News! | | | |
|
|
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330
| |
13502 Visitors
|
