More Slot Machines for Tribes, and $1 Billion for California

SACRAMENTO, June 21 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger struck a bargain on Monday with five California Indian tribes that will provide the state with a quick cash infusion of $1 billion while permitting a sizable expansion of tribal gambling operations in the state.

The deal is a sharp reversal for the governor, who in his campaign last fall demonized the tribes as a "special interest" that did not pay a fair share of its billions of dollars in gambling revenue to the state.

The five tribes that signed new compacts with the state own something less than 20 percent of the slot machines now in operation at 50 Indian casinos around California. Mr. Schwarzenegger said he hoped the dozens of other casino-operating tribes would reach similar agreements with the state.

Deal Is Near on Casinos in California

LOS ANGELES, June 16 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to conclude a deal with California Indian tribes that will bring a major expansion of gambling on tribal lands while providing the state a bigger share of their casino revenues.

The agreement would essentially undo compacts between the state and the tribes negotiated five years ago by former Gov. Gray Davis, under which the tribes pay virtually nothing to the state from their estimated $5 billion in annual gambling revenues.

State officials said Wednesday that they hoped to announce an agreement next Monday with five tribes that would bring the state an immediate infusion of $1 billion in badly needed cash and annual payments of several hundred million dollars for the next 25 years.

When the Bush Energy Policy Confronts Ancient Art

PRICE, Utah - Blaine Miller, a quiet, slow-talking 57-year-old archaeologist, has made a career of studying the haunting scenes of net-wielding hunters and sinuous horned snakes on the smooth rock faces of Nine Mile Canyon near here. His colleagues consider him a leading expert on the 400- to 1,500-year-old images etched and daubed on the canyon walls. But Mr. Miller's bosses at the Bureau of Land Management barred him from evaluating recent proposals for natural gas exploration around the canyon after a gas company executive complained about his work.

Mr. Miller said he had sought more stringent protections for the rock art than the government eventually required. His bosses said he had the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The quiet drama that has played out in the last year because of Mr. Miller's removal from the development review reflects not just the polarization typical of battles between industry and preservationists, but also the pressures on the regulators controlling federal land.

Catskills Casino Advances in Deal Between Tribe and State

A $500 million Las Vegas-style casino in the Catskills moved significantly closer to reality yesterday when the Pataki administration signed an agreement with the Cayuga Indian Nation, settling the tribe's 200-year-old claim to 64,000 acres in upstate New York in exchange for casino revenues.

If it is built, the casino in Monticello in Sullivan County will be the closest one to New York City, only 90 miles away, and will dwarf the four Indian gambling halls already operating in the state. With analysts estimating that it could pull in $1 billion a year in revenues, the casino would likely pose significant competition to the Atlantic City gambling resort and the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut.

Developer Unearths Burial Ground and Stirs Up Anger Among Indians

LOS ANGELES, May 28 - With the precision of a watchmaker, an archaeologist clasped a small paintbrush and gently swept the brown, sandy dirt off the spine of a Native American woman buried some 200 years ago.

From the condition of the bones, the archaeologist, Penny Minturn, deduced that the woman was 30 to 40 years old when she died, had suffered from arthritis and had recently given birth, and that her diet had probably consisted of shellfish, native plants, nuts and berries.

U.S. apology to Indians considered

WASHINGTON -- An official apology for the way the United States and its citizens have mistreated American Indians and the country's other indigenous people is starting to move through Congress.

"I know there's potential for this being controversial," said the apology's author, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. He recalled the barrage of vitriolic phone calls a few years ago that blocked a similar attempt by former Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, to obtain an official apology to the descendants of former slaves.

"But the circumstances are different," he said. "With the maturity of the sovereign tribes being acknowledged, the opening this fall (on Washington's Mall) of the museum recognizing the contribution of Native Americans, this is a moment that could be used, not to heal all old wounds, but to start building a new relationship."

Iqaluit Journal: Snuffing Out a Smoky Way of Life in the Canadian Arctic

IQALUIT, Nunavut - Smoking bans are infiltrating even the haziest corners of tobacco-loving cultures. When Ireland moved to ban cigarettes from pubs last year, the world watched in wonder. The Netherlands, facing its own ban in 2005, has experienced a hullabaloo over the issue. The shivering sidewalk smoker has become a predictable part of the Manhattan winter streetscape.

But all that may pale compared with the icy Canadian Arctic. Smoking has been an integral part of life here since European whalers introduced tobacco while docking in the region's fjords in the late 19th century. It is so common among the native Inuit who dominate the local population that grandfathers are known to light up with their grandchildren during breaks from hunting.

Portion of Indian Island returned to Wiyot tribe

EUREKA -- "We're about to create history," said City Manager David Tyson at the Eureka City Council meeting on Tuesday night.

The Council Chambers were packed with supporters of a resolution to return 40 acres of Indian Island to the Wiyot people. The resolution passed with the unanimous support of the council, making Eureka the only city in California to return a sacred site to native people.

Explorers Still Seek El Dorado in the Mountains of Peru

CUZCO, Peru - It was just a sparkle on the horizon, where the sun hit what appeared to be a flat plain on an otherwise steep, untamed mountain in the Peruvian Andes. But Peter Frost, a British-born explorer and mountain guide, surmised that the perch would have made a perfect ceremonial platform for Inca rulers.

So Mr. Frost and the adventure hikers he was leading slogged through heavy jungle growth and at 13,000 feet uncovered remnants of the Inca civilization that flourished here. They found looted tombs, a circular building foundation and the stonework of an aqueduct.

The discovery in 1999 of Qoriwayrachina (pronounced co-ree-why-rah-CHEE-nah) was instantly hailed as a major find. It evoked the romantic image of the swashbuckling explorer unearthing a Lost City, an image embodied by Hiram Bingham, the American who in 1911 made the greatest Inca discovery of them all, Machu Picchu.

First Book Award Competition

Guidelines for the First Book Award Competition from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas are now available.

Guatemalan Jungles Yield a Wealth of Maya Treasure

For archaeologists, the digging this season has been especially good at remote Maya ruins in the jungles of Guatemala.

Beneath a royal palace in the ancient city of Waka, they made a rare discovery: the tomb of a Maya queen who reigned more than 1,200 years ago. The royal skeleton rested on a stone platform, surrounded by fineries of wealth and power like pearls, obsidian, crown jewels of carved jade and the remains of what appeared to be the queen's war helmet.

At the eighth-century city of Cancuén, archaeologists uncovered a stone panel decorated with beautiful images and inscriptions carved in high relief. Experts described the panel, portraying ceremonies at the royal ball court, as a masterpiece of Maya art.

Peabody’s Closure Could Signal Financial Downward Spiral for Hopi Tribe

Black Mesa learned that beginning in 2006, PWCC will commence shutting down mining operations which means a direct loss of $7.7 million or approximately 1/3 of the Hopi Tribe’s operating budget.

“If Mohave is not guaranteed an alternate water supply, Peabody will begin partial shutdown by the end of 2005 for a few months and launch full closure from 2006 for four years,” John Wasik, Peabody’s group executive for southwest operations, told the crowd consisting of tribal council members and department managers last month.

The mines closure spell a significant decrease in scholarship funding for the Hopi tribe. Peabody has since contributed $2.7 million dollars since 1987 and contribute $165,000 annually for Hopi scholarships.

Discovery Pushes Back Date of 'Classic' Maya

A discovery of monumental carved masks and elaborate jade ritual objects in 2,000-year-old ruins of a city in Guatemala is raising serious questions about the chronology of the enigmatic Mayan civilization. In many respects, the city appeared to be ahead of its time.

The leader of excavations there, Dr. Francisco Estrada-Belli of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said yesterday that the city, Cival, appeared to have been one of the earliest and largest in what is generally regarded as the preclassic period. But it has been found to have all the hallmarks of a classic Mayan city: kings, complex iconography, grand palaces, polychrome ceramics and writing.

Red Rhythms Conference

Red Rhythms: Contemporary Methodologies in American Indian Dance, May 5-7, 2004, UC Riverside Campus.

Announcing a conference exploring contemporary American Indian dance as a vibrant, active, socio-cultural historical practice.

This event will showcase some of the exciting new work that contemporary Native American and Aboriginal dancers and choreographers are doing now, and facilitate a way for these artists to meet and network with one another. It will include dance performances by local California Indian dance groups, and an evening of Aboriginal and American Indian stage dance featuring works by both established and emerging Native dancers and choreographers.

Sorry for not being a stereotype

How many of you would know an American Indian if you saw one? My guess is not many. Certainly not the bank teller who called security when an Indian woman -- a visiting scholar -- tried to cash a check with a tribal identification card. When asked what the problem was, the teller replied: ''It must be a scam. Everyone knows real Indians are extinct.''

And not the woman who cut in front of me at the grocery checkout a few months ago. When I confronted her, she gave me the once over and said: ''Why don't you people just go back to your own country.''

OK, lady, after you, I said, when I thought of it the next morning.

Rap, Rage, REDvolution by Cristina Verán

Conjuring up the charge of cavalries and natives on some futuristic-western warpath, OutKast stormed the 2004 Grammys in February with the brazenness of the former, while bedecked as the latter. Resplendent in neon green Halloween-Hiawatha approximations of Native American regalia%u2014fringe, headbands, and feathers%u2014Andre and Big Boi rose before smoking teepees, prancing proudly through their chart-slaying "Hey Ya!," the chorus of which is itself evocative of powwow singing. Was it some kind of tribute, or did the winners of the Album of the Year Grammy unwittingly channel Al Jolson's "Mammy"?

New! Joy Harjo Mailing List Available

A mailing list has been established for information about Joy Harjo's performances, appearances, new books and CD releases. You may sign up for this list now.

Must see sculpture exhibit

You must visit the online version of the Roxanne Swentzell's "Juggling Worlds" sculpture exhibit that was held last yeat at the Poeh Museum on Pojoapue Pueblo. The introductory essay by Mateo Romero describes it well:

"Rhythm, balance, emotion, shyness, children, love; these are words I use to describe the sculpture, art and life of my friend Roxanne Swentzell. If I were to respnd to the es- sence of her work, it is the mastery of the three- dimensional form within the emotive context of the human figure."

See this exhibit online and, if you ever get the chance, see the sculpture in person. For those in the Southwest, see a few at the Heard Museum.

Cayugas Not Subject to N.Y. Local Zoning

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday ruled that property the Cayuga Indians want to turn into a gaming hall is sovereign land not subject to local zoning laws.

The ruling, which could affect similar disputes in New York state, allows the tribe to convert a former auto parts store in Union Springs into a gaming hall.

The ruling also bars the three municipalities involved in the case from trying to block construction of the gaming hall, which is designated to include bingo and other competitive games of chance, but excludes slot machines or other casino games.

'First American Art': Artifacts for Art's Sake: An Eclectic Array

Can a carved and painted Native American mask from the 19th century provide the same aesthetic frisson as, say, a 20th-century Modernist work? By the standards of Charles and Valerie Diker, longtime collectors, yes indeed. In their Manhattan apartment they prove the point by setting out top-flight historical Native American objects with works by Joan Miró, Mark Rothko, Louise Nevelson and others of the Modernist persuasion.

In their eyes, there is no difference between the aesthetic and emotional pleasures derived from European and American art and that of Native Americans. And they are spreading the word.