Bison relocation plan challenged in Mont. court

Bison relocation plan challenged in Mont. court

 

Opponents of a plan to relocate 68 wild bison filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the transfer of the animals to two American Indian Reservations in Montana. The plaintiffs contend Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks should be blocked from relocating the animals until the agency crafts a statewide bison management plan and conducts further environmental reviews. The suit was filed in state District Court in Blaine County by a coalition of property owners, ranchers, public land access advocates and a state lawmaker. It alleges bison can cause extensive property damage such as tearing down fences and eating hay intended for domestic cattle.

 

USAToday: SD tribe looks to teenagers to revive bison demand

 

It seems an unlikely concept: teenagers forgoing the immediacy of a McDonald's Big Mac to learn how to cook their own lower-fat version. But that's what some students at the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota are doing, and it has a deeper significance. The experience is teaching them about bison, an animal considered sacred in their Native American culture. The students are part of a pilot project started by the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe and South Dakota State University researchers to restore the cultural significance of the animal and consumption of bison meat among community members, particularly young people.

 

First Openly Gay Indian Woman Elected to MN State Legislature

 

On Tuesday Minnesota made history by electing the first American Indian woman to serve in the Minnesota Legislature. Democrat Susan Allen won 55 percent of the vote in Minneapolis’ 61B district. “It reminds me of a lot of the places I grew up. It’s 62 percent minority,” Allen said about her district to Minnesota Public Radio. Half the children in her district live in poverty. Allen’s parents came from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota but they moved around a lot when she was young. She lived in several small towns and reservations in five different states by the time she was 14.

 

Boston Globe: ‘Shapeshifting’ exhibit puts Native American art in a new light - The Boston Globe

 

Four pairs of purple-gloved hands moved to place a wood-framed side chair gently atop a pedestal in the gallery of the Peabody Essex Museum, each chair leg landing on a protective square of plastic. The piece on loan from the MFA was not a treasure from Versailles. It was an Algonkian/Mi’kmaq chair from the mid-1800s, delivered to the Peabody Essex last month, with designs on the upholstery rendered in porcupine quills. Often Native American artworks have been viewed as artifacts or simple expressions of a collective culture. “Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art,’’ opening to the public tomorrow at the PEM, treats native art as art, intending to shake up how we see the work of its creators through the years.

Aboriginal chief questions Canada’s commitment to environmental review of Pacific oil pipeline

 

The chief of an aboriginal community that stands to be most affected by a proposed pipeline to Canada’s Pacific coast called the Canadian government’s environmental review of the project a song-and-dance on Tuesday. Haisla First Nation Chief Ellis Ross questioned whether the Conservative government already has plans to approve the pipeline just as the review gets under way. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has ratcheted up support for Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would allow Canadian oil to be shipped to Asia. Harper’s new staunch public support for the pipeline comes after the United States delayed a decision to approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline that would take oil from Canada to the U.S Gulf Coast.

 

AP: Minn. holds first-ever Indian education summit

 

The Minnesota Department of Education is holding a first-ever American Indian Education Summit aimed at reducing barriers facing the state's Indian students. Gov. Mark Dayton is scheduled to deliver opening remarks at Monday's all-day conference. The event features keynote speeches from Denise Juneau, the superintendent of public instruction in Montana, and Kevin Lindsey, the commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Human Rights.

 

Native American vets aim to ease civilian shift

 

Like all soldiers returning from the Iraq War, Dennis Quigley met with a mental health professional before his return to civilian life. Quigley, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, had the 15- to 20-minute meeting at the Veterans’ Administration and he was on his way. But he says that was far too little time for a proper diagnosis and understanding of how his American Indian culture would shape his transition back to civilian life as a veteran.

 

LA Times: Coastal Commission fines Huntington Beach property owner $430,000

 

State coastal regulators Wednesday criticized and fined a property owner for unearthing artifacts at a 9,000-year-old Native American village site near the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach. In a settlement with the California Coastal Commission, the Goodell Family Trust agreed to pay a $430,000 penalty, rebury artifacts and restore areas disturbed when archaeologists dug a series of pits on the family-owned land on the Bolsa Chica Mesa in 2010. The work was conducted without the state's authorization and without a Native American monitor present, a requirement under state law. State officials said the excavation damaged prehistoric shells, animal bones, scorched rocks and other cultural artifacts that might help determine the boundaries of the 9,000-year-old village and burial site on the mesa, above one of the state's most treasured coastal wetlands.