Recent Events
Sept 14, 2009 Animals and the Indian got along just fine and lived as nature intended before the white man came and ruined the balance of nature. My answer to the newly opened wolf hunt in Montana and Idaho. The story can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32757255/ns/us_news-environment/ You can also vote whether to hunt or not hunt wolves.
EAGLE FEATHERS
On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Janet Littlecrow wrote:
I just received this email about the feather busts up in Oregon (an OK Kiowa guy) and Washington. Apparently the Kiowa guy from OK that they caught in Oregon is singing. I know White Eagle PD was taken over by BIA police, but that was several weeks ago. Anyway, I'm forwarding the email. Subject: Feather Busts
This is just a heads up as to potential problems with migratory bird feathers. I have had two e mails today, dealing with illegal migratory feather black market activity. First one - several Indians in Oregon were busted for shooting/killing bald and golden eagles, and selling them to powwow people. The second one was from Florida, where several white boys were caught shooting 15 species of migratory bird feathers - they seemed to have no connection to Native American culture and activities. As a result of the Oregon activity, one of those caught, a Kiowa boy, whom I have personally met, has been "singing" his heart out to the feds. And as a result, I am told, there were busts at White Eagle today, and also up at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. In regards to all of this, the BIA has taken over control of the Ponca Indian Police Department, and has started to arrest people with outstanding warrents for anything and everything. They might start showing up at dances to enforce feather laws. With the April Hethushka coming up, you might wish to alert any of your members planning to attend our Spring dance, to be careful with feathers. Just a warning. As I was finishing up this e mail, just had another phone call telling me that Patrick Scott, Navajo fan maker was busted too. Looks like a major sting operation.
This is an email from Willow Jack that made the rounds yesterday.
Hello everyone,
I have been following this since some friends of mine were raided last week. It has been part of an ongoing investigation for two years and anyone, ANYONE who does feather work is being targeted. Other targets are those who trade or give feathers to any of these feather-workers. From what I have noticed, the main targets have been N.A.C. peeps. Now the Eagle Act says bartering of feathers is illegal, so NO-ONE TRADE any feathers. The FEDS are really watching. Don't even openly give away any feathers.
I think those who have been involved need to contact the Native American Rights Fund. This is a form of "policing" how we handle our own sacred items. Now, I am not overlooking the fact that there were some feathers poached by individuals but many of the people targeted don't even kill eagles, they trade.
Whoever 's feathers were with them people caught at the time, HAVE LOST their feathers!!!
Now if the FEDS want us to be required to carry documents, what is happening to our religious freedom and our sovereignty? What is next, peyote? More loss of sacred sites and sacred practices? I really think we should pay mind to things like this because, as one friend said "YOU WOULD NEVER SEE THEM CONFISCATING CROSSES OUT OF A CHURCH".
So if you know of anyone involved, take a stand and perhaps file a class action lawsuit or gather leaders to advocate for their people. We cannot act like this is nothing because the decisions made by the FEDS affect each and every one of us.
THANK god I have papers for my feathers and fans, they all came from the National Eagle Repository, But what about our old old feathers? I know my fam carries a warbonnet from a battle in 1867. How do we protect feathers given to us by our elders or feathers we have gotten from family members who have passed? We don't bury those things, they are sacred and must live on to carry them prayers out.
Anyway, sorry for the rant but so far the case has been building for two years, the FEDS have pics of powwow peeps and N.A.C. peeps. They have someone on their side who knows people and they are keeping tabs through snowballing.
They even have pics of peeps at Denver March last year!
IF YOU KNOW of anyone who has been raided, make sure they take names of officers, ask for a list of items taken and be as careful as they can. I suggest a class action law suit and I suggest action be taken by our tribal leaders. Do not allow the FEDS to tell us how to be, we know how to be and do not need more paternalism than we have as Indigenous people.
Aho,
Willow Jack
Original news story - read the whole story on the link
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1236934512263350.xml&coll=7
Friday, March 13, 2009
BRYAN DENSON
The Oregonian Staff
Federal authorities have charged one man in Oregon and three in Washington in killing birds of prey -- including America's most enduring symbol, the bald eagle -- to feed the black market for raptor feathers.
In July 2007, an undercover agent assigned to the Fish and Wildlife Service, attended the Julyamsh Powwow in Post Falls, Idaho, where he found a man hawking fans of bird feathers. The agent paid the man $450 for three fans.
According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, the man gave his name, J. J. Lonelodge, and gave the agent a cell phone number.
"I can hook you up with anything you want," the man said. Court documents now identify the man, a tribally enrolled Kiowa, as Reginald Dale Akeen, of Anadarko, Okla.
Federal agents, still undercover, made a series of phone calls to Akeen to buy feathers of golden eagles and other birds. The National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland confirmed that the feathers purchased from Akeen belonged to golden eagles, anhinga, and a Cooper's hawk.
In September 2007, according to federal authorities, Akeen brokered the sale of a "black and white" fan on the Warm Springs Reservation.
American Indian activist Robideau dies at 61
The Associated Press - Thursday, February 19, 2009
http://www.grandforksherald.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D96EP0E85
PORTLAND, Ore.
Robert Robideau, an American Indian activist who was acquitted of killing two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout in South Dakota, has died. He was 61.
Robideau had been living in Barcelona, Spain, where authorities said that his death Tuesday may have been related to seizures caused by shrapnel left in his head from an accidental explosion.
Robideau, a Portland native, was the cousin of Leonard Peltier and a member of the American Indian Movement who had occupied the reservation town of Wounded Knee, S.D., for 71 days in 1973, two years before the shootout.
His son, Michael, told The Oregonian that Robideau attended Roosevelt High School and received a degree in cultural anthropology from Portland State University.
The newspaper said that Robideau left for South Dakota in the early 1970s with several family members, including Peltier, to join AIM and its protests against poverty and corruption on tribal reservations.
In June 1975, two FBI agents followed a man wanted in the theft of a pair of cowboy boots onto the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The agents soon came under heavy rifle fire and were killed.
The FBI identified Peltier as a suspect in the shooting and placed him on its most wanted list.
Months later, Robideau was driving Peltier's station wagon through Kansas with other AIM members when ammunition in the car accidentally exploded.
Robideau, who was seriously injured, was arrested and tried for the FBI agent killings, but was acquitted.
Peltier was arrested by Oregon State Police troopers while driving through Oregon and later convicted of the FBI shootings. He is serving two life sentences.
Robideau appeared in "Incident at Oglala," the 1992 documentary about the Pine Ridge shootings narrated by actor Robert Redford and directed by Michael Apted.
Robideau later became a painter, concentrating on tribal themes. He led a committee seeking a pardon for Peltier and served as director of the American Indian Movement Museum in Barcelona, which displayed some of his paintings.
He is survived by his wife, Pilar of Barcelona, Spain; and sons, Michael of Portland and Bobby of South Dakota.
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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com
Red Cloud
"They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one...They promised to take our land...and they took it".....Red Cloud