articles-august 31

IRS Seize Canadian Gas Headed For Reservations

Jane Flasch (Niagara Falls, NY) 08/30/04 -- Officials estimate that taxpayers are being cheated out a half-billion dollars every year by suppliers who haul in gas from Canada to avoid US taxes. This week, IRS agents are targeting gas headed for sale on Indian reservations in a sting operation near the border.

In the early morning fog, armed IRS agents camp out at the Queenston/Lewiston bridge near Niagara Falls, NY. Their targets are fuel tankers filled with thousands of gallons of gasoline. The feds say the St. Regis Mohawk tribe imports this gas from Canada to avoid paying federal taxes. full article

Klamath Salmon Dispute Nears Compromise
Tuesday August 31, 2004 9:46 AM

By JEFF BARNARD

Associated Press Writer

EUREKA, Calif. (AP) - Two years after more than 35,000 salmon died on the Klamath River due to low water, the different groups fighting over the future of the area are inching toward a so-far elusive goal: compromise.

Groups including American Indian tribes, commercial fishermen and conservationists said Monday they are tired of battling each other and moving closer toward the compromises necessary to find long-term solutions.

About 120 people attended a forum sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson to assess the status of salmon in the Klamath River after the 2002 deaths of between 35,000 to 70,000 fish, mostly adult chinook salmon. full article

Descendants of massacre victims oppose ceremony
Mountain Meadows: Some Indian groups plan healing rites on the site of the controversial event
By Rhina Guidos
The Salt Lake Tribune

Some descendants of victims of the Mountain Meadows massacre are asking American Indians to cancel an upcoming healing ceremony at the site of the tragedy.

On its Web site, the Mountain Meadows Association (MMA) posted Monday its displeasure about plans by several Indian groups to mark this year's 147th anniversary of the massacre. On Sept. 7th, and through the 11th, Indian spiritual leaders plan to gather at the southern Utah location, near Enterprise, where as many as 120 emigrants headed to California were killed by Mormons.

"We'd hope they'd cancel the plans for this year," said Oregon's Lynn-Marie Fancher, the MMA's board secretary. full article

Workshop focuses on peacemaking as means to justice

By Krystal Spring/Havre Daily News/kspring@havredailynews.com

ROCKY BOY AGENCY - The Chippewa Cree Tribe is one step closer to implementing the traditional Native American justice method of peacemaking on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

The University of Montana's Division of Educational Research and Services sponsored "Excavating Indian Justice on the Rocky Boy Reservation" - a three-day workshop at Stone Child College aimed at teaching participants dispute resolution procedures - mediation tools that rely on the abilities of both disputing parties to reach their own resolution, with the assistance of a trained "peacemaker."

About 15 people attended the workshop, led by UM adjunct professor Art Lusse last week. The mediation training was funded through a federal grant UM received from the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Project. full article

Economic renaissance on the Columbia River

Posted: August 30, 2004 - 5:42pm EST
by: Jean Johnson / Correspondent / Indian Country Today

PORTLAND, Ore. - The "thickest bellies and reddest meat, hands down." That’s what five Northwest fish sellers said about Columbia River spring chinook. And it was a blind taste test that included Alaska’s prized Copper River salmon.  

If that’s the case, then why do consumers practically line up to buy Copper River Salmon for $20 to $30 a pound in the groceries while Columbia River tribal fishers only get from under a dollar to $4 a pound on river bank sales?

Supply. Demand. Marketing. And ice - flaked ice. Even as these variables figure in to a long history of disenfranchisement, they also point to a new era, a tribal renaissance on the Columbia.  

The ice, of course, is critical. And not hard-edged cubed ice that bruises the fish. Buyers want the fishers to use nice flaked ice in which the catch can hold without losing quality. full article

Ancient site in Indiana plundered
Digging did 'extraordinary damage' to village location, archaeologist says; 3 arrested.

By Fred Kelly
fred.kelly@indystar.com
August 31, 2004
 
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. -- The secrets of a prehistoric village that once stood in Decatur County may remain locked away forever after thousands of ancient axes, arrowheads and other primitive tools were dug up and carted away.

Three southern Indiana men have been arrested in the case after conservation officers, following a tip, found the men digging with shovels, picks and garden hoes, said Steve Reinholt, a state Department of Natural Resources field officer.

Investigators found thousands of artifacts in the men's homes worth potentially tens of thousands of dollars, DNR officials said. full article

Traditional medicines a fast growing industry
August 31, 2004, 17:49

Selling African traditional medicines has become one of the fastest growing industries in South Africa with an annual turnover of about R250 million. The market has also emerged as a major employer. It is estimated that there are some 200 000 traditional healers in the country and that 80% of South Africans prefer to take their ailments to these healers.

Mountain plants are just some of the medicines used by traditional healers. They are sold to the public in liquid or powder form for prices ranging between R5 and R30. Ruby Sentsho says she prepares medicines from herbs and other wild plants. She had to employ seven people to keep up with the growing demand. "I think government should give us land where we can plant these indigenous herbs, and the land should be regulated, to preserve these plants," she said. full article

A tea against cancer

Cape Town (South Africa) Aug.31: (GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE) : Scientists say there are three major ways to cut the risk of cancer. Don’t smoke, don’t become fat, and follow a balanced diet. Now from South Africa comes a potential fourth tip: drink rooibos tea. If you have never heard of it, you are not alone.

Rooibos has been one of the more esoteric products in the herbal-remedy section of health shops, a strange-sounding name to match a strange taste drawn from the needle-like leaves of a plant found only on the slopes of the Cederberg mountains outside Cape Town.

For centuries, indigenous bushmen have sworn by the health-giving properties of the tea. European settlers who picked up the habit agreed there was something special about rooibos - Afrikaans for red bush – and even bathed their children with it. Now science suggests they may have been on to something. New research provides tantalising evidence that the tea can help ward off cancer. Rats and mice that drank it were found to have effective protection against a variety of cancers. full article

What Does America have to Fear from Me?
by Tariq Ramadan
 
In 20 years of studying and teaching philosophy, I have learned to appreciate the inherent difficulty in defining the truth. Descartes put it simply: "A clear and distinct idea is true," while Kant aptly added the needed word "consistency."

Over the years, I have also learned that in the world of the mass media, truth is not based on clarity but on frequency. Repeated suspicions become a truth; an assumption said three times imperceptibly becomes a fact. There is no need to check because "it is obvious" - after all, "it is being said everywhere."

I was reminded of this lesson during the past few weeks, when, after having been granted a visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, by the U.S. government, it was revoked without explanation at the last minute, causing grief for my family and me. full article

Israel's Albatross: U.S. Neocons
by Robert Scheer
 
With friends like these, Israel doesn't need enemies. The purported Israeli "spy caper" is another sign that the neoconservatives in the Bush administration, who claim to be big supporters of Israel, on the contrary, have increased the risks for the Mideast's only functioning democracy.

As the developing story goes, a neocon Pentagon official allegedly gave classified documents to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, which then passed them on to the Israeli Embassy.

So far, these are only unproved accusations. It is disturbing that some well-placed officials in the Bush administration have leaked to the media allegations of spying against the Pentagon official and a respected ally. As demonstrated in the phony, Clinton-era China spy case, in which Los Alamos nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee was smeared, such lurid charges may not stick. But the charges now circulating do call attention to the regime-change ideologues in the Pentagon, whose antics have left Israel more vulnerable than at any time in recent memory. full article