PA RT F O U R

REVIVING THE HOMELANDS

This Powerpoint is subject to continuous revisions.

Written and revised by Scott Fritz, Ph.D. on December 3, 2015 at 2:45 p.m.

Western New Mexico University

USING SELF-DETERMINATION TO REBUILD COMMUNITIES

• Assimilation and Termination destroyed Indian communities• “Now after a long deadening time, they (Indian tribes)

had to rebuild their communities to capture the best of their traditional ways and also meet the demands and opportunities of the modern industrial superpower within which they lived.” (Blood Struggle, p. 271)

• How did tribes use their ‘self-determination to revitalize their communities?• Lets look at examples of revitalization in Indian Country

CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE WARM SPRINGS RESERVATION, OREGON

• Context:• Tribes: Warms Spring, Wasco, and Paiute (became recognized as one tribe• Poverty, Relocation, Loss of Culture, reservation allotted to non-Indians• BIA overcut forests on reservation• Incorrect survey of reservation, i.e. the McQuinn Strip• Tribal constitution created in 1938 (under Indian Reorganization Act)

• Warm Springs use money given to them to buy land• Warms Springs Indians receive $4 Million in payment for Celilo Falls being

flooded in 1958• Payout to families ($1 Million) and $3 Million to tribal government

(Tribalism)

• Used that money to buy land• Land along Warm Springs River and nearby hot springs• Buy parcels of allotted lands within the reservation• Buy lands that had been ceded in 1855, like fishing areas along Deschutes

River

• Used government money to fund reservation businesses and programs

• Also reacquired the McQuinn Strip

WARMS SPRINGS INVESTS IN BUSINESS WITH CELILO FALLS MONEY

• First tribal businesses• Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, est. 1964• Hot springs, cater to non-Indian tourists

• Warm Springs Forest Products, est. 1967• Timber mill in town of Warms Spring

• Other businesses• Cultural Museum• Shopping mall• Dam on Deschutes River for energy

• Shows how Self-Determination was acted upon vis-à-vis tribal owned businesses

OTHER ASPECTS OF SELF DETERMINATION ON THE WARMS SPRINGS RESERVATION.

• Employment• 700 working in tribal government• 1,100 working in tribal enterprises, one of largest

employers in central Oregon

• Education• Scholarship started in 1965• 1986 = permanent fund of $6 million created for

scholarships; today $12 Million, tribal students can go to any college

Forest seen as backbone of the reservation. Forest used for religious ceremonies, hunting, fishing, gathering berries

REBUILDING TRIBAL COMMUNITIES AFTER TERMINATION

EDUCATION

DURING THEERA OF SELF-DETERMINATION

GOVERNMENT STUDIES RE: EDUCATION

• Context: • 1870s = on reservation day schools, run by missionaries• 1880s = expanded number of boarding schools, with religious and

military discipline

• Merriam Report 1928• 40% Indian students in boarding schools• Lack of qualified teachers, low funding levels, bad food, • Criticized standardized curriculum • Tens of Thousands of Indian students had dropped out or not enrolled• Led to Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

• Senate report (1969) “Indian Education: A National Tragedy-A National Challenge” Kennedy Report• Discrimination • No teaching of their culture• “alienation, hopelessness and powerlessness”

ROUGH ROCK DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL

• Established in 1966 with EOE money on Navajo Reservation• First Indian tribe to control their own education• Navajo teachers• Community members volunteered time

• Started as an elementary school• English and Math• Navajo language and culture

• Became first tribal college in American History• Navajo Community College, est. 1969• Later called. Dine’ College

Exercising Sovereignty over Education

National Indian Education Association , est. 1969

Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards est. 1971

Promoted all-Indian school boards

SINTE GLESKA COLLEGE

• Established on Rosebud Reservation in 1971• Passed by Rosebud Tribal Council

• Who was Sinte Gleska?• Spotted Tail: tribe’s “wicasa itancan” (tribe’s highest leader) in late

1800s• Sinte Gleska said that to survive, Indians must learn white society

while retaining Indian ways• He sent his children to Carlisle Indian School, but when he learned that

it was military like and assimilationist, he brought them to teach them both white and Indian knowledge

• Pedagogy• Lakota Studies Program: culture and language• English, math and science• Taught Indian and non-Indian students

• College’s Motto: “Never forget where you came from”

OTHER TRIBAL COLLEGES

• Little Big Horn College, Crow Reservation• Sitting Bull College• Salish Kootenai College at Flathead• Today, 32 tribal colleges, there is still need for

better infrastructure, etc.• Growing number of Native American college

students• 1950s = 2000 students• 1970s = 10,000 students• Today = 147,000 students

REBUILDING TRIBAL COMMUNITIES AFTER TERMINATION

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

DURING THEERA OF SELF-DETERMINATION

INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL SYSTEMS IN INDIAN COUNTRY

• Unlike European systems, Indians relied on banishment and restitution to victims and their families• Ex: Crow Dog killed Sinte Gleska on Rosebud Reservation

because of his advocation of accommodating to whites• Lakota decided that Crow Dog would pay eight horses, $600,

and a blanket to Sinte Gleska’s family

• BIA adopted in 1883, Code of Federal Regulations (CRF)• CRF Courts• BIA jails and police• Prosecuted against practitioners of ceremonies, like the

Sun Dance

TRIBAL COURTS

• Indian Reorganization Act, 1934• CRF courts replaced by tribal courts• By 1970, there were eighty-five tribal courts

• Like non-Indian courts• Indian Civil Rights Act (1968) requires due process and

other protections of civil liberties (as required by the U.S. Constitution

• Use of evidence, judicial procedures, etc.• Looks like a typical court: flags, judge’s gowns, etc.

• Major crimes, like murder, are tried in non-Indian courts

• Unlike non-Indian courts: • For non-serious crimes, tribal courts use traditional forms

of law (like restitution or the customary laws of the tribe)

NAVAJO COURT SYSTEM

• In 1959, Navajo created their own judiciary• Seven district courts and a 3-judge supreme court• Chief Justice Robert Yazzie• Oberlin College and University of New Mexico

• Court advocates for defendants who cannot afford lawyers• Use of Navajo Common Law• Example: case can be heard in district where defendant’s

mother resides, even though they might not live their• Allows for juries who are sympathetic to defendant

• Following slide: Navajo Peace Making Court

NAVAJO PEACEMAKER COURT

• Established in 1982• Form of Restitution to mediate disputes• Use of ‘Peace-Makers’ • Medicine men, elders chosen by respective Chapter Houses• Respected by both parties

• To get the wrongdoer and victim to talk out their problems• No one treated as “good” or “bad”• No “eye for an eye” or “tooth for a tooth”

• Bring harmony back to parties involved• Use of ceremonies • To “purify” parties involved• To ratify solutions

• Legislation now requires use of peacemaking court in all cases

Anglo system: Vertical -Judges at top -Judges viewed as superior in solving problems with lawNavajo system Horizontal -Judges, defendants, victims viewed as the same

Compare with Tohono Oodham maka’i = medicine men, troubled youth are assigned to be mentored by a maka’i

INDIANS MANAGING THEIR LANDS DURING THE ERA OF SELF DETERMINATION

STEWARDS OF THE LAND

• Using Self Determination, tribes have sought to control their own natural resources according to their traditions and western science• Apache word ni’ = mind and land are

the same• Vine Deloria Jr. “Indians can be

unhappy, but I do not think that Indians are ever lonely. They are never alone. The plains, the canyons all have so many stories.” (Wilkinson, p. 305)

NATIVE AMERICANS CONTROLLING FISHING RESOURCES

• After Boldt Decision 1974, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission was created in mid 1970s• River: Salmon, etc.• Ocean: Rock Fish, etc.

• Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission (Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakima), est. mid 1970s• Scientist staff• Law enforcement• Research

• Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, est. in 1980s

Compare with: Intertribal Bison Cooperative which seeks to bring back the Buffalo, central to Great Plains Indians’ historic pasts.

Like bringing back the Salmon is key to traditional practices of the Northwest tribes.

QUINAULT TRIBE RECLAIMS ITS TIMBER RESOURCES

• Led by Joe DeLaCruz barricades the Chow Chow Bridge from access to forest for timber companies, in 1971

• Forced negotiations • Tribe argued that destruction of forest destroyed salmon

runs• After passage of the Self-Determination Act 1975, tribe

reclaimed control of its timber resources

• Quinault created a combined forest and fisheries conservation program• To protect and use timber resources efficiently• To protect and conserve Pacific Salmon, Quinault River

Blueback, halibut, shellfish

OTHER EXAMPLES OF NATIVE MANAGEMENT OF RESERVATION FORESTS

• Warms Springs Tribe (Oregon) set policy regarding timber cutting• Warm Springs Forest Products, est. 1967• Hired Oregon State University faculty to

conduct study• Recommended that cutting be reduced for

cultural reasons, even though a larger cut was sustainable

• Fort Apache Timber Co. does not allow non-Indian timber companies on reservation

WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE ASSERTED THEIR SOVEREIGNTY OVER HAWLEY LAKE

• Context: 1950s tribe dammed lakes to make deeper and lakes opened up to non-Indians for recreation

• In 1959, non-Indians allowed to purchase 25 year leases to land in the Hawley Lake area

• In 1977, tribal council prohibited new leases and did not renew old leases non-Indian homeowners angry

• Hawley Lake Homeowners Association appealed to Interior Department, but were denied

• Homeowners lost houses, tribe reclaimed area because self-determination gave rights to a sovereign Indian nation

• Like the Menominee who stopped the Legend Lake land sales • DRUM supported ending the sale of reservation lands to vacationers

and succeeded in restoring Menominee tribal government and reservation

DRUM = Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Shareholders

INDIAN CASINOS

INDIAN CASINOS: SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

• Tribal Chairman Howard Tommie• Built high-stakes bingo hall, 7 miles from Ft. Lauderdale,

in the late 1970s

• Bingo Hall was against Florida state law• Open 6 days a week, jackpot winnings over $100 • Sheriff Robert Butterworth of Broward Co. promised to

close down bingo hall and make arrests

• Seminole Indians sued Broward Co.• In 1980, Judge Norman Roettger decided in favor of tribe• Cited Worcester v. Georgia (1832), states cannot pass

laws on Indian land, only the federal government has jurisdiction on reservations

INDIAN CASINOS: CABAZON AND MORONGO INDIANS OF S. CALIFORNIA

• Cabazon Band open bingo and poker club in 1980, outside of Los Angeles • Sheriff of Riverside Co. closed club, issued citations, and made arrests

of employees and customers• Cabazon Band sued Riverside Co.

• Morongo Indian Reservation opened bingo hall several months later• Riverside Co. was to raid bingo hall, and Morongo Indians sued county

• Federal judge combined Cabazon and Morongo suits into one case• Cabazon and Morongo prevailed through several courts• Supreme Court accepted the case in 1986

• Supreme Court case California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (1987) said tribe has right to have a casino and that Congress can regulate it, not the state of California • Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988) = Tribes can regulate their

casinos except when contrary to federal law

Indian Head Gaming Center at Kah-Nee-Ta

In 1995, the Siletz Tribe, Oregon establish Chinook Winds Casino.

PRESERVING THE OLD WAYS

TRADITIONALISM

• Aspects of contemporary Native American life that predates non-Indian influence• Language• Dances and Ceremonies, • Art• Tribal museums• Literature• Analysis?: • The old and new are often combined • What else?

PRESERVING LANGUAGE: BLACKFEET TRIBE (MONTANA)

• Darrel Robes Kipp founded Piegan Institute 1987• Piegan Institute - research and preserve Blackfeet

language

• Kipp traveled to Hawaii visited Punana Leo • Punana Leo, first native language immersion school

• Punana Leo gave Kipp ideas to have Piegan Institute to teach the language of the Blackfeet

• Kipp established:• Moccasin Flat School (k-8th grades), and later schools

• Students attending school take classes and speak only in Blackfeet language• (Like how boarding schools forced English, language

immersion schools only allowed Blackfeet language?)

Piegan =Pikuni “far off spotted robes” true name of the Blackfeet.

Washoe Tribe (Nevada) est. Washiw Wagayay Mangal “The House Where Washiw is Spoken.

“MEXICAN” INDIANS RECEIVED RESERVATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

KICKAPOO INDIAN TRIBE

• Originally from Great Lakes region, pushed onto Great Plains and south into Coahuila, Mexico by mid 1800s• Received ‘ejidos’ as reward for generations of Kickapoo

raids which drove cattle from Texas into Mexico• Brought their traditions, like belief in Manitou, the Great

Spirit

• In the 1900s, tribal members crossed the U.S. Mexican border for seasonal work

• Kickapoo put through a bill in Congress to create a small reservation near Eagle Pass, Texas, their tradition border crossing site

• Reservation approved in 1977

Mexican President Benito Juarez gave ‘ejidos’ to Kickapoo.

PASCUA YAQUI INDIAN TRIBE

• Yaqui Indians = southern Sonora, Mexico• Engaged in seasonal work, in Arizona• Industrial production, large scale mining, ranch work

• Yaqui brought with them their traditions• Replicated their culture in U.S., for generations

• Yaqui petition for a reservation in Arizona• Took a long time

• Received reservation in 1964, Guadalupe, Arizona, in the Tucson area• Pascua Yaqui Association (non-profit) created to receive title

and funds• Federal government recognize as a tribe in 1978• Constitution created in 1988

HAWAIIAN INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT

HAWAIIAN INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT

• To preserve and promote Hawaiian culture and empowerment

• Context:• Missionaries convert King Kamehameha II, in 1820s• Land redistribution forced onto King Kamehameha III• Anglos get land, build ranches and sugar plantations

• Sugar planters toppled Queen Liliuokalani in 1893, Planters in control of Hawaii until U.S. annexation in 1898

• World War II = military buildup, bases• Post WWII = Anglo immigration• Tourism resorts during the 1960s and 1970s

• Movement began around 1976 with occupation of the island called Kaho’olawe see next slide

OCCUPATION OF KAHO’OLAWE

• History of Kaho’olawe• King Kamehameha III distributed land to Anglos• Goat and sheet ranching by Robert Wyllie

• WWII – Island target range for bombing, continued as property of U.S. Army to the 1970s

• Kaho’olawe “embodied all the injuries to the land, the culture, and the sovereignty.” (Wilkinson, 371)

• Group paddled to island and were arrested, in 1976 • Were arrested several times for other attempts to occupy island, “peaceful

non-violence”

• Raised national attention of the movement• Hawaiian musician George Helm, “cultural leader”• Doctor Noa Emmett Aluli, “political leader”, filed lawsuits against U.S. military

• Military gave permission to conduct ceremonies on the island, 4-days each month

• Empowered Hawaiian Indigenous Movement• Agenda = Sovereignty, protection of beach access rights, environmental

restoration of Kaho’olawe and transfer of island to Hawaiian ownership

OTHER EXAMPLES OFTRADITIONALISM

POWWOWS

• Evolved from the “Grass Dance”, popular on reservations in 19th century• Grass Dance Societies provided opportunities for warriors

to re-enact deeds in battle

• Became popular, commercialized by last half of 20th Century

• Powwows involve• Traditional type dancing for competition• Drumming for competition• Vendors

• Open to the public, but alcohol sales• Examples:• Gathering of Nations Powwow, Albuquerque, NM• Siletz Tribe (Oregon, confederated tribe), timed to celebrate

the Siletz Restoration Act•

Confederated Tribes of Siletz became 2nd tribe to have reservation status restored, in 1877.

Powwow from Narragansett Language meaning “meeting.”

SACRED AREAS AND CEREMONIES CLOSED TO NON-INDIANS

• Mescalero Apache’s sacred mountain Dzil Ligai Si’an closed to non-Indians• White Mountain Apache do not

allow hikers on top of their sacred mountain• Tourists cannot go to Blue Lake, of

the Taos Pueblo• Kachina Dances not opened to

outsidersNative American ChurchPeyote usage pre-ColumbianCombined with Christianity (Quanah Parker’s idea). Usually, all Indians, but non-Indians can be invited

NATIVE AMERICAN ART AND LITERATURE

• Art• Allan Houser• Trained at Santa Fe Indian School and Utah State University• Receive Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949, became full-time artist• “Sacred Rain Arrow” donated to Congress

• Literature • Vine Deloria Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969) • History: Challenged stereotypes, critical view of American History and U.S.

expansionism

• Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977)• Novel: Tayo, WWII veteran from Laguna Pueblo, shell-shocked, alcoholism,

but is helped by grandmother and a Navajo shaman Betonie through traditional ceremonies, finds who he is as a member of the Laguna Pueblo

• Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)• Novel: Protagonists are two Spokane Indians from Washington, plot

includes Indian man leaving his white girlfriend in Seattle and returning to reservation, depicting Indians surviving in world that remains hostile to their survival

QUINAULT CANOE JOURNEYWASHINGTON, 1994

• Ocean canoes stopped being used in 1940s• In 1980s, tribes of Northwest built ocean canoes

once again• Ex: rebirth of traditional culture• Canoes (historically for fishing), and totem poles (gods of

the ancestors) central to the culture

• Quinault Canoe Club sponsored the event• Canoe journeys each year

OTHER ASPECTS TO CONSIDER

NAGPRA

• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) – Museums, individuals must return funeral items, cannot dig up Indian burial grounds

• Background: Wana the Bear v. Community Construction (Echo-Hawk Ch. 10)• California, Miwok Indians, driven away by miners in 1800s• Bulldozing, Stockton, CA housing development, unearthed Miwok

graveyard

• Wana the Bear sued company• California law of 1854 said six or more human bodies constitutes a

ceremony

• Calif. Court of Appeals: Burial ground is not cemetery in it was not used continuously for five years• Did not take in account: Miwok had been driven away

• Disagreement – led to NAGPRA• Suzan Shown Harjo (director of NCAI) and Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse

Campbell (Cheyenne)

AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT 1994

• Background: Employment Division v. Smith (1990) (ch. 11)• Native American Church members in

Oregon fired from a drug rehabilitation clinic, as employed counselors

• Counselor included Al Smith – Klamath Indian Reservation• Peyote saved him from alcoholism

• AIRFA of 1994 overturned Supreme Court Decision• Native American Church now legal

LYNG V. NORTHWEST INDIAN CEMETERY ASSOCIATION (1988, CH. 12)

• First Amendment (religious freedom) does not necessarily apply to Indians worshiping on sacred ground

• Background: Six Rivers National Forest – open “High Country” in N. California to logging

• Yurok, Karok, and Tolowa Indians asked courts to protect their worship in the mountains

• Smith River National Recreation Act 1990, created Siskiyou Wilderness• Protected sacred sites from logging

• Compare: Taos Blue Lake and Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States (1955)

CONCLUSION

• Warms Spring Reservation• Ka-Ne-Tah Resort, Inn of the Mountain Gods• Red Capitalism• Education: Rough Rock Demonstration School, Diné College,

Sinte Gleska College• Law: Restorative Justice, Navajo Peace Making Court• Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission• Indian Gaming: California v. Cabazon Band of Mission

Indians (1987)• Hawaiian Indigenous Movement• Preserving Language, Religion• Powwows• Grave protection, religious freedom, etc.