National Native News Special Features

Today's feature on National Native news fish wars on the Columbia River. I'm Steve Heibel. Earlier this month for Pacific Northwest tribes had to go to federal court to get their fishing treaty rights recognized. A settlement with the federal government gave the tribes a few more days to fish for Chinook salmon in the Columbia River but as Patrick Cox of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the days of a Native American fishing industry in the Northwest may soon be over. A century ago salmon migrating up and down the Columbia River by the billions. But so few were left. Now the fish trade as he imports nearly all of the salmon from Alaska from Chile and from Norway. Two species of Northwest salmon and listed is endangered. Another has been declared extinct as a result authorities have severely restricted fishing on the Columbia Native American fishermen like will from the minute get to drop that gill nets via just a handful of days every year that want to Sirius for. Four bites and. Three to lease. A Yakima tribe member from Washington state isn't pleased that it's full of just seven

Chinook salmon in the three hours since he last checked his net. He remembers catching far more fish in previous years. But things have changed so much so that Lumia now has to supplement his fishing income with other jobs. He blames the lack of fish on eight massive dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers dams built by the federal government to produce cheap hydro electricity. They killed. 90 percent 80 percent of the juvenile fish one of the downsides. We got this about the dances save the fish. The four tribes of the Columbia River Basin Yakima Umatilla Nez Perce and Warm Springs have seen their commercial fishing season dwindle to just a few days. Once the cornerstone of the tribes economies the fishery brings in little wealth nowadays. This year's season was cut short by federal fishing authorities. They said some of the fish taken by the tribes just a fraction of a percent would be Snake River not an endangered species. The tribe sued arguing that their fishing rights were being trampled on a settlement between the parties gave the tribes a few more days of

fishing. Increasingly tight restrictions on the tribal catch were intended to bring back the fish but they haven't. Many observers say that's because the federal government has all the wrong priorities. Michael Blom is a law professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. This system is is thoroughly bankrupt because it imposes disproportionate burden on those who harvest fish especially those who are at the end of the line on the Columbia that's the tribes. Well almost completely ignoring major Harvester the dams. The power generating tons of these dams filled billions of juvenile fish headed out to the ocean. Others die at the dam sites on their way back up the river to spawn. Experts consider the dams the greatest human threat to salmon survival but policy analysts merit Tufnell at the National Marine Fisheries Service says there's only so much the government can do to improve these huge steel and concrete structures.

We're trying our best to change the way the dams operate and the way the dams are configured so that we can move fish safely up and down the river. But it's not something that can be done overnight. But the tribes say there's plenty the government can do right now. They say more water could be spilled over the dams to help juvenile fish migrate out to the ocean for a few weeks earlier this year. That happened but the spills reduce the amount of electricity generated by the dams costing the government 12 million dollars. The industries that rely on cheap hydro power are pressuring government agencies not to spill any more water over the dams. But soon the agencies may have no choice. A series of federal court orders this year have sided with the tribes saying the federal government must do more to save the salmon killed by the dams. For Yakima fisherman Wilson Lumia turnaround in the salmon's fortune would be welcome news. In the meantime he says he'll keep coming back here to fish.

It's in life it's a way of life. It's something that. It is going to do for. Thousands of years before the courts give up this notion of sport fishing on the Columbia this year with no ocean fishing for salmon off the Oregon Washington coast. The mayor is alone here on the September morning on what is the phony tribal commercial fishery left on the Columbia. He says he doesn't want his generation to be the last to fish here. The National Native News I'm Patrick Cox in Portland. National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. International. Today's feature on National Native news uneasy neighbors on the Nez Perce reservation. I'm Diane Hamilton. A controversial right wing political leader is building a settlement

on 600 acres of land partially within the Nez Perce reservation in central Idaho. A former Green Beret colonel and one thousand ninety two populous party presidential candidate James Boag Rights says he will head what he calls a Christian covenant community near County Idaho. The Nez Perce tribe is concerned that gripes may attract the same kind of social unrest associated with the white supremacist group area Nations which is headquartered a few hundred miles away in Hayden Lake Idaho. At the least tribal members say they're likely to lose the solitude they value from Northwest Public Radio league Arnett reports. About 1000 residents live in Cammy I and many of them are Native Americans. Kemi eyes sets on the scenic Clearwater River and borders the Nez Perce reservation. Most of the town seems to be here tonight. Several hundred people filled the school gymnasium. The front rows are divided between gripes followers mostly from out of state and a group of white and native locals organized by tribal activists. They wear buttons reading

strength through unity. Rites is here surrounded by his followers some of whom ascribe to the Christian Identity faith which teaches that people of color are a subspecies and whites are the only human beings. Wright says this will be his last public remarks about the settlement he calls almost heaven. He describes it as a community that will live off the grid with its own power supply systems and food production. He denies he's building a paramilitary compound for white racists. I don't know the people that are coming here I don't know their background their color their religion. Much of Grant's motivation for this community revolves around a vision he had two years ago. He says his vision revealed Armageddon the collapse of civilization inflamed by a Thai radical federal government and the virtuous people would pour from the cities to the hinterlands. He warns this audience to prepare for an invasion. You better put a fence around Idaho because a whole bunch of the earth shrugs again in California. You're going to see a tsunami of people headed this way.

Rights run survivalist training camps in 10 cities and he says one of the skills they teach is how to pick a lock. He insults some of the Nez Perce in the audience when he speculates on his community's relationship with the tribe. Teach me how to make rope. Maybe I'll teach him how to pick locks or whatever. Tribal member Marion Bohannan rises to protest right remark. Everyone laughed. That's so crazy. There is a chance for many of them on this reservation but there still is the answer. And I think in the first five whites you know about this maybe we might see rights tonight is he's a racist. He says he's a great respect or of natives who as he put it were here long before we came but a resolution from the Nez Perce tribal council says gripes encourages armed conflict and will polarize the reservation community. Yes Perce tribal member Mary

tallboy goes to the microphone and turns away from gripes to address the crowd. She challenges Gratz assertion that his settlement won't impact the Cammy I community which includes deep canyons and grazing lands for deer and elk. I'm a lifelong resident and we are the first people. This is our land. What are we or what Maher said. What happened to our country. Bill was a meth heads the Seattle based Northwest coalition against malicious harassment. He says while he's not sure whether Greg is personally a racist some of his followers are and they could be dangerous. My point is that he attracts around him these kinds of people.

And when you feed people that kind of hyped up language sooner or later somebody is going to act out. Not necessarily at the direction of Mr. Bright's but somebody will act out. The Idaho Human Rights Commission says it will be watching the rights and almost heaven with concern. And it is encouraging local civil rights groups to be on guard for National Native news. I'm league Arnette in Moscow Idaho National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Our. Public. Radio. International. Today's feature on National Native news a dance group maintains native culture in the middle of an urban environment. I'm Diane Hamilton Native Americans all over the country struggle with the problem of being native in the city. One way they pass on their culture is through dance groups. From our archives we present a portrait of the

sacred circle dance group in Madison Wisconsin. A group whose intertribal dancers range from age four to 40 Sharon sidebar reports that the adults in Sacred Circle pass on their tribal heritage to the children in the group and in performances like this one at the Madison Civic Center. The group as a whole builds bridges to non-natives. The performance begins with what's called a grand entry. The dancers in their traditional dress represent as many as 10 tribes. They enter the stage in a line each performing the dance steps unique to his or her own heritage. When they're finally all on stage they form the sacred circle moving around and around. The group singer is Steve Shore by his tribal name.

Together like that gives us a lot of power. Next is the men's traditional dance. Children in the audience are asked to try to guess which animals the dancers represent with their movements. Bears snakes and Buffalo seem to weave their way around the stage but the audience has the most fun during the suspense of the trick dance. A man and boy dance with very quick steps and must stop exactly whenever the drum stops no matter how unexpectedly. The dancers in the group braved the microphone to introduce themselves to the audience. My name is. Any. Indian name. Second grade. Michael yellow bird and a

crow Cheyanne. One of the adults in the group says the experience is important for the Native American children to ensure that they get enough of their own culture and dancing and enjoy it and learn to celebrate because it is part of our our tradition and in part of them and living in the city in the urban area it's difficult for them to get that sort of thing and unless we purposely do it. Leah Koehler does the fancy shawl dance performed by girls and women spinning around to make the fringe on the shawls around their shoulders fly out in front of people. This is the most visible evidence of perhaps a new understanding comes when children in the audience from babies that can barely walk to teenagers join hands with the sacred circle dancers and try to imitate their steps. One of the adult dancers says she hopes the whole experience teaches kids in the audience to see Native Americans as people just

like them. I had a mother bring her little daughter up to me today and wanted me to talk to her daughter about why people are not dead. And why they're not scary. You know she was afraid of Indian people because of what she'd seen on television. We get an opportunity to tell others and to show others that we come from a very beautiful ancient culture dancer Alan Caldwell finishes up by saying thank you in his Menominee language and would like to thank the dancers that joined us for this. And that's in the spirit of the Indian tradition. We are people that believe very strongly. With our neighbors with our friends in the group provide the cohesion the kids are what make the effort work says the.

Madison Wisconsin. National possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Today's feature on National Native news a white buffalo calf inspires the Sioux. I'm Steve Hamill. Native Americans from across the nation continue arriving at a small farm in central Wisconsin to view what many feel is the fulfillment of a prophecy. A rare white buffalo calf spiritual leaders of the Sioux call the animals birth the most significant cultural and religious event in a thousand years. Wisconsin Public Radio's Quinn Klinefelter reports.

A tangled mix of two dozen Caucasians and Native Americans lined a weathered metal fence strong with tobacco filled pouch isn't feathered hoops of red and turquoise glittering trinkets tied by twine and offered with prayer to the white buffalo calf gently nipping at the wild Wisconsin grass on the barriers other side some in the group bow their heads. Others speak in hushed tones. John Zamora of Denver Colorado simply rivets his gaze on the calf and says he feels its heartbeat flow through him like the Comanche in Cherokee blood in his veins. This is living proof to us as needed from people that God cares for us because he is just something very secret and people have to realize. From the little turning person to the very rich it just land here is sacred for all of us not just for us. And in fact more than 10000 people from around the world have traveled today hydrous farm in Janesville Wisconsin in the month since the calf was born. Drawn by the spiritual significance first

granted the white buffalo in the Black Hills of South Dakota. They're the legend goes. A woman robed in white approached two young warriors. The first desired her tried to touch her and was turned to a pile of bones. The second however was of pure spirit. The woman presented him with the first peace pipe and I conned to bind together all peoples. The woman promised to return and complete the joining of all nations then rolled away four times changing as she did so into a pure white buffalo Plains tribes revere the animal to this day. Yet the White Buffalo never came the closest approximation was an albino Buffalo born in one thousand thirty three and dismissed as the prophesied return of the woman because its lack of color stemmed from a defective gene. Then this past August the brown eyed brown nosed white buffalo calf appeared in Wisconsin you know we didn't include Do we feel very distant Just like secure coming of Christ Oglala Sioux medicine man Floyd hands as he saw visions predicting the cap's birth three times in one thousand sixty eight thousand nine hundred

eighty eight. And again this past March hand and his granduncle Orval looking Horace led a caravan of Sioux pilgrimage to the Hydra farm. Noah is a caretaker of the white buffalo calf type that he took it and it was so one. Therefore for all of us to perform the ceremony once with the food and one to offer to friends in hand says he prayed there for a world united and to stave off universal destruction he saw foretold in a vision and says the White Buffalo Woman came to him in a dream with a deadline. Humanity has twenty seven years after her return to literally clean up its act or watch the North American continent shred from years of environmental neglect that Hans says is why the calf was born among white people. The race poisoning of the earth's atmosphere and we're sitting on a time bomb in the cities of gases I developed in the tunnels of the city and all it takes is a spark to blow up the city and this is what the vision and the warning was about. Because if we do not listen then it's going to happen.

Dave Hyder knew none of this when he first spotted the newborn white calf along as a buffalo herd. But he soon realized and came to respect the native americans reverence for so much so in fact that hider rejected several very lucrative offers to buy the calf from circus people. Tribal casino owners even a rock guitarist Ted Nugent who recorded the song great white buffalo in 1978 hider remained unconvinced about the prophetical nature of it all however until handa telephoned him just days after the calf's birth with a prediction. The bull who sired the white buffalo was going to die. He told me over the phone that he could see a black obstruction inside the mall when we don't know. There was a large blood clot just at the entrance that enters his first comic and so much things these boys have told me that they want to scare me. I believe in God and I don't go to church a lot but I'm thinking really strongly by going to church on a regular basis now. HYDER already knows a part of the white buffalo prophecy is fulfilled for a slice of the world

gathers every day before his eyes assembling on a quiet Wisconsin pasture. One fence away from a small white calf for National Native news. This is Quinn Klinefelter National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Public. Radio. International. Today's feature on National Native news. The sound of an extinct language. I'm Dionne Hamilton. The first Bible ever printed in this country was not in English but a Native American language. Massachusetts from our archives Liz Roberts brings us the sound of a language no want to spoken for centuries even though the Massachusetts language hasn't been spoken for 200 years. Linguistic expert Dr. Ives Gawd believes it would sound like this. You you know what you're. An Englishman JOHN ELLIOTT published the first Bible in Massachusetts in 16

63 with the help of a team of Indian speakers all across New England small Indian Towns had copies of this Bible and the people used it as a basic primmer teaching their children to read and write in the Massachusetts language. By examining some of these documents which it mazing they still exist. Scholars have discovered these New England towns were self-governing with native judges teachers and officials. Kept their papers so successfully at the Smithsonian today has more than one hundred fifty of them expert linguist Dr. Guard has examined all these items closely and translated them. Here is one of a woman written just before her death in 1749. Naomi Omar gay had know that very soon I go the way of all the earth whence I shall not be able to return again. And now I hope if I should die this year I would have my sins be forgiven by the blood of my Lord the Lord Jesus Christ.

Naomi went on to dispense her belongings giving her blue calico dress to a friend Esther. A roll of red cloth to a neighbor and her 17 pewter spoons to the minister. But for the most part these papers on legal land transactions I have made a bargain with. I took them and I conveyed to him land that national may sit there for no one shall meddle with it even though it is my children they shall not meddle with it for we have used my children and that is why I gave our writing into the hand of Isaac. And we have a blog and six years ago. But now I give the writing at this time August 30 16 73. Some of the woods used in the Massachusetts language no longer exist but through cafe detective talk to God has been able to guess their meaning. There's a word that is used widely which is sort of an attention

getter in a plea or pleading or prayer and you could translate it something like woe is me. When it came for them to write a petition and send it by messenger up to Boston they use the same convention that they used in their orally delivered petitions. They say you know one could a monkey engine talk engine talk of course is just part from Indian but could the monkey As translated. Poor pitiful. This is a very old convention found in a number of related languages in prayers. When you're asking for for supernatural aid or aid from a more powerful person a very important part of the rhetoric of these official petitions within the Indian culture what is the use of some of these key words that the people in the small towns took charge of all their own affairs. There's also one from an Indian judge instructing a policeman to pursue a criminal. The warrant has been issued by the magistrate and given to the Indian

constable. The the Indian magistrate was named Isaac Simon and he says I am and the ruler which is their title of the magistrate order you constable arrest Joshua park and it by the authority of Queensland and hold him and bring him before the justice and he shall not be free until he is answered concerning his robbing of John ration of a coat. Doctor God thinks that some of these 400 year old Massachusetts documents may still be at large. And of course he'd love anyone who has any more information to contact him at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. I mean is Robert's National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. This is National Native news our reporter producer is Sarah big a feature production by Johanna euro engineering by Kevin Smith and crispy delicate music by Mickey Hart for the Alaska Public Radio Network. I'm Dionne Hamilton.

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