Felice Pace

Last week I had the honor to meet in Bozeman with a group of people who might just manage to change the dominant realities of everyday life on the Indian reservations of Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming. It might surprise you that no political leaders were in attendance – at least not political leaders of the type we usually think about. The event was a gathering of reservation-based native non-governmental organizations (NGOs) formed and operated by individuals, couples, friends and relatives who are dedicated to serving the native youth of their far flung communities. They were brought together by another NGO that goes by the name Hopa Mountain. The focus was organizational development and the sessions were about writing grants, grassroots fundraising, governing board development, strategic planning and other similar topics.

Sounds pretty benign, right? So why do I make apparently grandiose claims about the potential impact of this group of youth workers?

To answer the question I must tell you something about the reservations of these three western states. If you are non-native you likely wouldn’t know that NGOs in general and social service NGOs in particular are, for the most part, a new phenomenon on these reservations where civil society institutions and structures are at best underdeveloped. That’s because since their founding those who control the reservations – first and always the federal Department of Interior and in recent decades the tribal governments - have been in charge of youth and other social services. With federal funding and institutionalized programs named after long-dead members of congress it has long been assumed that there was no need for non-governmental organizations to care for the reservations’ youth. But now community-based youth programs are sprouting on the reservations like cottonwoods after a flood. On the Pine Ridge Reservation alone there are at least 15 such programs which have begun operations over the course of the last five years and the spontaneous generation of more programs and services does not appear ready to abate anytime soon.

How can we explain this phenomenon? For the answer we need look no further than the federal agencies and tribal governments which were presumed to be providing all the services reservation youth could possibly need. The naked truth is that these government agencies with their dozens of programs and solid year-after-year funding are failing the reservation youth; there is a growing cadre of adults who are no longer willing to stand by and watch the debacle.

Many of the new youth programs are focused on traditional culture and language preservation. While tribal programs have long claimed to teach traditional culture and reservation schools all have native language programs, traditional values continue to erode and few younger people have become fluent in their native tongues. This erosion of tradition and language along with the epidemic of negative youth behaviors has prompted the folks who gathered in Bozeman last week to take matters into their own hands - undertaking the daunting task of establishing youth programs outside tribal government and education structures.

(Read on …)

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

In Utah, off-roaders are drawing a line in the sand, pushing for their right to drive all-terrain vehicles on public lands. Washington County resident Dan Jessop was just found guilty of riding his ATV on a closed road. He got six months’ probation and a $300 fine; now he’s planning to appeal the case.

Jessop says that Sawmill Road is county-owned and that the Bureau of Land Management had no business shutting it down. The feds say the road, on BLM land, is under their control. Fellow four-wheelers have raised more than $30,000 to help Jessop fight the fine. (As an interesting aside, a hiker ticketed by the Forest Service for not paying a much-loathed access fee rallied only $4,500 to her defense — see our story “Fed up with paying to play“. Apparently if you’ve got a $5,000 ATV, you’ve also got bucks to burn).

With crackdowns on illegal off-roading all over the West, and with many Utah counties feuding with the feds over control of dozens of dusty backroads, ATVers see Jessop’s case as their chance for a showdown. They’ve already won one round — last fall, the BLM recognized Kane County’s claim to Bald Knoll road, on public land near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (see our story “The road more traveled“).
(Read on …)

Francisco Tharp

Neon pink bubble letters. Rainbow-colored text. Flaming buzz words. Awkwardly placed parenthetical phrases. A hits ticker numbering in the mere thousands. And it all adds up to one long, raving block of righteously amassed “evidence.”

Most of us who hang ten online on a regular basis have stumbled across it at some point: that’s right, I’m talking about the conspiracy theory website.

So when I happened upon “AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?” a website claiming to prove that John McCain is guilty of “brutal genocide” of the Navajo people of the Black Mesa area, the attention-deficit format made me immediately suspicious.

The site, maintained by the Canaanite Independent Political Committee (sorry, no website that I could find) said,

John McCain (a/k/a “Saddam McCain”) introduced and arranged for the enforcement of unethical and Constitutionally unlawful legislations which brutally displaced thousands of Navajo farmers onto a Nuclear Waste Dump to live after brutalizing them for two decades in peaceful resistance…Using a phony tribal counsel composed of paid stooges, McCain and Peabody Western Coal Company have been progressively stealing and exploiting their lands for mutual personal gain, brutalizing the natives to leave, bulldozing their sacred sites and sweat lodges, beating their members and abusing their elders to the point of terrorizing them and causing health failure and heart failures.

(Read on …)

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

A dozen years, 10 circuit judges, 3,504 entries on the case’s docket…and still, Elouise Cobell’s suit claiming mismanagement of Indian lands by the federal government remains unresolved.

On January 31, U.S. District Judge James Robertson released a 165-page decision stating that although “completion of the required accounting is an impossible task” for the Interior Department, he would schedule a hearing in February to discuss ways to solve the problem. He said a remedy must be found for “the department’s unrepaired, and irreparable, breach of its fiduciary duty over the last century.”

“We’ve argued for over 10 years that the government is unable to fulfill its duty to render an adequate historical accounting, much less redress the historical wrongs heaped upon the individual Indian trust beneficiaries,” Cobell said.

The government offered a $7 billion settlement in March 2007, but Cobell and other plaintiffs refused, saying liability could exceed $100 billion. The Interior Department estimates that it has spent $127 million on its attempts to provide accounting.

A previous judge, Royce Lamberth, was removed from the case after writing in a decision that it “is…the morally and culturally oblivious hand-me-down of a disgracefully racist and imperialist government that should have been buried a century ago.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said Lamberth had lost his objectivity.

According to AP, Robertson said the case has become so complex that “no two lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises.”

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

A delegation of Lakota leaders led by activist Russell Means this week announced their withdrawal from the United States at a press conference in Washington, D.C., after earlier delivering their message to the State Department.

“We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,” said Means.

Means said the new country, including parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, would not levy taxes and would issue its own passports and driver’s licenses.

The treaties signed with the U.S., some more than 150 years ago, are “worthless words on worthless paper…repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life,” according to the Lakota freedom activists’ website.

The website draws sharp contrasts between the tribe’s health and well being and that of the general U.S. populace:

- Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States.

- The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300 percent more than the U.S. average.

- Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is about 800 percent higher than the national average.

- Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.

- Median income is $2600-$3500 per year, and 97 percent live below the poverty line.

- One-third of the homes lack clean water and sewage while 40 percent lack electricity.

- Unemployment rates on Lakota reservations is 85 percent or higher.

- Teenage suicide is 150 percent higher than the national average.

Means said the Lakotas’ rights are ensured by the Vienna Convention of 1980, and bolstered by the United Nations’ non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — opposed by the United States when it was adopted in September.

The press conference was attended by Bolivian Ambassador Gustavo Guzman. “We are here because the demands of indigenous people of America are our demands,” he said.

Means said the new country, including parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, would not levy taxes and would issue its own passports and driver’s licenses.

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

By a margin of 62 percent, Oregon voters yesterday approved Measure 49, referred to the electorate by the legislature to fix problems with the property-rights law known as Measure 37, which voters adopted by a margin of 61 percent in 2004.

Measure 37 ordered governments to either compensate landowners for land-use restrictions adopted after they acquired their property, or to waive those rules. The law generated more than 7,500 claims on 750,000 acres.

“Thousands of these claims propose something other than a few homes — subdivisions of dozens, hundreds and even thousands of homes are proposed, as are strip malls, destination resorts, gravel and mines and other inappropriate developments,” said a press release from Yes on 49.

Measure 49 protects farmlands, forestlands and lands with groundwater shortages in two ways. First, subdivisions are not allowed on high-value farmlands, forestlands and groundwater-restricted lands. Second, claimants may not use this measure to override current zoning laws that prohibit commercial and industrial developments, such as strip malls and mines, on land reserved for homes, farms, forests and other uses.

“Fairness and balance have been restored to the land use system in Oregon,” said Bob Stacey, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Oregon, an organization dedicated to preserving land use planning in the state.

It “staves off what we know eventually would have become a crisis for Oregon’s farmland, forests and groundwater,” said Russ Hoeflich, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Oregon.

Oregonians In Action and various supporters drummed up support for Measure 37 during the 2004 election using the case of Dorothy English, a then-92-year-old woman, as a cause celebre. Enacted zoning regulations prevented English from dividing her land into pieces that could go to each of her children.

For an in-depth look at “takings” legislation, see Ray Ring’s HCN cover story, Taking Liberties.

The city of Prineville, Ore. just became the first government entity to shell out a pile of cash under Measure 37, a state “takings” law passed by voters in 2004. The law is designed to compensate landowners when zoning and other land use restrictions reduce their property values. City manager Robb Corbett handed over the landmark $180,000 check on Sept. 12th.

The recipients? Eighty-year-old Grover Palin and his wife Edith, who purchased property with a view of downtown Prineville in 1963 and planned to build their retirement home. At the time, there were no construction restrictions on the lot, but the city’s regulations have changed. Last year, after telling the couple they could not build their dream house, the city council agreed to pay them $47,000.

The Palins then upped the ante by proposing to build a hotel on their property, which increased their projected losses and more than doubled their payment. The city opted not to protest the couple’s new claim and instead signed the check, saying “if government comes in and regulates the use of property, then the property owner should be compensated.”

In November, Oregon voters will decide on another measure (this time, number 49) that would modify the law, clarifying private landowners’ rights to build homes and limiting large developments.

Read the Statesman Journal’s coverage of the Palins’ windfall here, or read more about Measure 49 here.

Check out HCN’s coverage of Measure 37 here and here, or get a perspective from one of our “writers on the range” here.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

The West’s biggest bully.

That was the headline High Country News ran atop my 2003 story about John Stokes, a hate-mongering radio talk-show host in Kalispell, Montana.

For years, Stokes has used the air waves to taunt and humiliate many enemies he sees on all sides, including enviros and lesbians and government officials at all levels.

His kind of anger can be found in crevices here and there around the West and nationally — always self-satisfying to those who practice it, and counterproductive to communities.

Finally, reports the Missoula Independent, Stokes may be going under.

The Independent begins its story with the headline:

The bitter end?

The reporter, Paul Peters, tried to get a comment from Stokes, and Stokes — or someone using an e-mail address containing “Stokes” and the radio station numbers — replied:

“How much you want to bet I’ll be your fornt (sic) page story tomorrow? You guys are such homosexual pussy men pukes. You never interviewed me at all fo (sic) this story.”

When I interviewed Stokes, he was riffing and chain-smoking and laughing. He wasn’t exactly unpleasant to me. He’s been super unpleasant to a lot of good folks, though, and I know they wouldn’t miss him at all.

My long story on Stokes and the politics is here, and the Independent’s update is here.

If Stokes goes under, the blessed silence will be louder than he ever was.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Packs of journalists tear into Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s bust in the Minneapolis airport bathroom. Did the conservative Republican senator solicit gay sex in a toilet stall, or not? Is he a hypocrite taking anti-gay stances in Congress?

I haven’t seen a need to jump in, because the volume of coverage seemed adequate without me.

But now, the chronically angry American Land Rights Association, led by libertarian Chuck Cushman, has jumped in, so I will too.

Cushman’s group charges that the Minneapolis cops are part of a conspiracy to knock off champions of property rights. In a press release, the Cushmanites say:

By ambushing Senator Larry Craig, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport police have effectively declared war on the West …

They are primarily responsible for greatly weakening private property rights and Federal land use advocates in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and in Congress.

We are urging you to make all your flight arrangements avoiding the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport for at least the next year and probably longer. We’ll keep you posted as the boycott develops.

Urge your friends, neighbors and fellow workers to try to avoid any flights that take them through Minneapolis St Paul Airport. We must inflict economic pain on the airport authorities to get them to change their behavior.

And they must apologize to Senator Larry Craig.

Joel Connelly, a columnist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has details about it. Connelly writes:

(The American Land Rights Association), based in Battle Ground in Clark County, seems to argue that “out of control” airport cops were thinking of Columbia River salmon and national forest logging when they set a “trap” for the innocent Craig.

(Read on …)

I know Alaska is slightly out of our coverage area, but when a congressman threatens to bite another congressman, in the manner of a murderous mink, it’s wildlife news that can’t be ignored. Here’s the operative quote, from U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-AK (courtesy the wonderful website TPMmuckraker.com):

“If we continue this we’ll be called biting one another, very much like the mink in my state that kill their own,” Young said. “There is always another day when those who bite will be killed, too. And I’m very good at that.”

And here’s the video. Enjoy.

Oh, I almost forgot. The mink-biting threat involves a school-funding bill.

Last week, a group of retired rangers from every major U.S. public lands agency held a press conference to announce their plans to clean up what they called the nation’s biggest threat to public lands: illegal off-road vehicle use. One by one, they took the microphone to talk about their combined decades of experience with irresponsible ORV users. They described riders driving off designated roads onto fragile lands, being severely injured after ignoring safety rules, becoming increasingly belligerent towards rangers and other public lands users, and destroying signs and fences.

The group, “Rangers for Responsible Recreation,” says it’s not against ORV use per se; what they have a problem with is people who ignore the law. According to Daniel Patterson of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, in 2005 there were more than 5,000 law enforcement incidents involving ORVs on BLM lands alone. (The next biggest category was drugs, which accounted for 900 incidents.)

(Read on …)

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

The backlog for getting federal records under the Freedom of Information Act is out of control, reports the Associated Press.

The act that gave citizens the power to request information from federal government files celebrates its 40th anniversary on July 4. But those seeking data continue to encounter long delays despite a 2005 order by President Bush to clear the unanswered backlog.

By law, agencies must respond to such requests within 20 days, but a dozen agencies have requests that have gone unanswered for more than 10 years.

Recently we got a taste of this tardiness here at HCN. We file a fair number of federal information requests while researching stories. In May, we received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice denying an appeal we’d filed after an agency told us it had absolutely no relevant documents in response to a request — more than two years after we’d first filed the request. “We regret the delay in responding to your appeal,” wrote Associate Director Janice Galli McLeod. But we feel lucky — one requester has been waiting 20 years for the State Department to cough up its documents about the Church of Scientology.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

The LA Times has the best analysis of the Supreme Court term that just ended. The Times headline warns:

High court has entered a new era

President George W. Bush’s appointments to the court — John Roberts and Sam Alito — as the Times says, have:

… moved the law to the right on abortion, religion, campaign funding and racial diversity.

And the rightward swing will likely last for many years. For the analysis, click here.

Meanwhile, the LA Times also has the best take on one of the high court’s Western rulings.

The basics on that: Wyoming rancher Frank Robbins sought to ruin a few federal Bureau of Land Management staffers, claiming they were racketeers conspiring to apply grazing regulations unfairly. If Robbins could use the federal anti-racketeering law, he could’ve sought huge monetary damages from the BLM folks. That would’ve brought chaos in the West, making all staffers in the BLM and other agencies — Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service etc. — vulnerable to anti-racketeering lawsuits.

Even stacked by Bush, the Supreme Court rejected Robbins’ racketeering claim, by a slam-dunk margin. For the Times’ analysis of that ruling, click here.

In the Self-Interest Department: Are the Supreme Court justices afraid they would also be hit with anti-racketeering suits? If all federal employees could be targeted, why would they be immune?