Don't bring Fighting Sioux name to playoffs !

Don't bring Fighting Sioux name to playoffs

 

University of North Dakota teams risk forfeiting any post-season games if their athletes, cheerleaders or band wear or display the school's Fighting Sioux nickname and American Indian head logo, an NCAA official said Wednesday. Bernard Franklin, an NCAA executive vice president, said in a letter to university provost Paul LeBel that the university "must forfeit competition" if "it has not adhered to this requirement" in any post-season games that UND teams have been invited to play in.

 

Radical theory of first Americans places Stone Age Europeans in Delmarva 20,000 years ago

 

When the crew of the Virginia scallop trawler Cinmar hauled a mastodon tusk onto the deck in 1970, another oddity dropped out of the net: a dark, tapered stone blade, nearly eight inches long and still sharp. Forty years later, this rediscovered prehistoric slasher has reopened debate on a radical theory about who the first Americans were and when they got here. Archaeologists have long held that North America remained unpopulated until about 15,000 years ago, when Siberian people walked or boated into Alaska and then moved down the West Coast. But the mastodon relic found near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay turned out to be 22,000 years old, suggesting that the blade was just as ancient.

 

Talking Dictionaries' Help Preserve Endangered Tribal Languages

 

Usually it is good news when the Northwest appears on a top five list. But this one is not. Our region ranks near the top of a list of global hotspots for disappearing languages. The reason is that speakers of Native American languages are dwindling. Now digital technology is coming to the rescue of some ancient tongues. Members of the Siletz tribe on the Oregon coast take pride in a language they say "is as old as time itself." But today, you can count the number of fluent speakers on one hand. Bud Lane is one of them.

NYTimes: Indian Tribe’s Dispute Heats Up in California

 

For two months, following a disputed election, the fight for control of the Chukchansi Indian tribe was a standoff: two groups from the tribe each claimed the be the rightful tribal council, each holding separate meetings and appealing to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition as the legitimate tribal government. But the bureau said it was an internal tribal matter, and the two sides had to work it out on their own. Here is what working it out on their own looked like: supporters of Morris Reid, who claimed he was elected the new tribal council chairman in December, cut locks and smashed a window to gain access to one of the tribal government offices early Monday morning.

 

CSMonitor: Land disputes trigger old racial tensions on Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast

 

An eastward push by Nicaraguan cattle ranchers, loggers, and farmers looking for cheap land has suddenly met an unexpected hurdle. The country’s marginalized indigenous groups, who have populated the remote Caribbean “Mosquito Coast” long before Nicaragua was even a country, are taking a stand, and calling for respect of autonomy and indigenous rights to land.

 

AP: Navajo Nation sues Urban Outfitters over 'Navajo' trademark

 

The Navajo Nation has sued Urban Outfitters months after the tribe sent a cease-and-desist letter to the clothing retailer, demanding it stop using the "Navajo" name. The lawsuit filed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico alleges trademark violations and violations of the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which makes it illegal to sell arts or crafts in a way to falsely suggest they're made by American Indians when they're not.

 

Calif. Tribal Standoff Turns Violent; 2 Injured

 

A two-day standoff between factions of a California tribe divided on leadership and the expulsion of members has ended after a sheriff stepped in, threatening to arrest anyone who stayed at a government center where a scuffle left at least two people injured. The rival Chukchansi Indian factions on Tuesday voluntarily left the center in Coarsegold, about 200 miles southeast of San Francisco, and agreed to stay away for 48 hours to give the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs time to intervene in the conflict, Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said. Three people were taken into custody, he said.

 

Forbes: Ten Ways for Mining Companies to Work Better with Indigenous People

 

Why is there such a big gap between what’s important to ondigenous people and how mining companies are addressing their priorities? As a follow-up to the piece I wrote last week (see: Why the Future of Mining Depends on Social Change) I felt it was important to explore this question and to provide some direction for what should mining companies could do differently to improve their relationships with indigenous people. I got perspective on this issue from Joseph K. Ingram, President and CEO of The North South Institute, Kelly J. Lendsay, President and CEO, of the Aboriginal Human Reource Council, and Leonardo A. Crippa, Senior Attorney for the Indian Law Resource Center.

 

Weekly round-up of Indian Country News: http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2011/06/indian-country-in-the-news.html