National Native News Special Features

Today's feature on National Native news the high rate of cervical cancer among Native women. I'm Diane Hamilton native women with cervical cancer die at a rate three times the national average. Dr. Tom Welty is an epidemiologist with the Indian Health Services. Susannah hospital in Rapid City South Dakota a state where the rates for Native women are even higher. Four to five times as many native women in South Dakota die from cervical cancer than the national average. Welty has been involved in studies of cancer risks among natives. He says the cervical cancer statistics are alarming. They're quite shocking because these deaths are preventable if women come in on a regular basis and have pap smears once a year over the age of 18 or when they become sexually active. Cervical cancer is almost always curable when it's detected early. But if it's not the tactic can spread and often causes that. And so is what you're seeing then is that Native women for whatever

reasons are not coming in to have regular pap smears and are not seeing the doctor often enough. That's correct. Oftentimes women do come in regularly during their childbearing years. But as they get older and after their menopause frequently they say. They don't think they need to come in to have checkups but those women still need to come in and have their checkups once a year. Now I know that one form of cervical cancer has been related to a sexually transmitted disease which might be news to some people. This is something that's been learned in the last five years that a large number of these cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papilloma virus which is transmitted through sexual intercourse. And we know that the earlier. A woman acquires this virus the more likely she used to have cervical cancer so we

knew it would be prudent for women to postpone sexual activity until they're 18 or older and that way the cervix is more mature and less likely to be invaded by this virus which later might or might turn into cancer. And so from from what you've seen in the statistics and so forth are Native American women having sex at a young age and so are more susceptible to the human papillomavirus. We're not sure if that's the case or not I don't have any good information on why. The rates of cervical cancer deaths are or that are so high. It it could be that these cancers are just not being detected early enough to be cured and we need to do more work to answer that question. We do know that you know other studies in other populations women and smoke. Are twice as

likely to get cervical cancer. So smoking cessation would be another way to reduce the risk of developing cervical cancer. Is there any cultural component to Native American women not going to see the doctor for for routine pap smears. I believe that there is a cultural factor. That women tend to prefer to go to female providers and often times because we have a small clinic there may only be one provider available and that provider might be male. So that some of the especially older women might feel uncomfortable going there. Not sure that that's totally specific to the native women. Many women I think feel that way. And one innovative program that we're. Implementing in the northern plains with the help of Mayo Clinic is to train. Clinic nurses to be able to do the pap smear and breast exams. So

that in clinics where there's only male physicians or male physician assistants. We would be able then if the patient preferred a female to you utilize a clinic nurse. Dr. Tom Welty an epidemiologist with the Susa hospital in Rapid City South Dakota speaking about the fight against cervical cancer in Native America. National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. This is National Native news our producer is not only more engineering by Kevin Smith and Kristen Bell like music by Mickey Hart for the Alaska Public Radio Network. I'm Dionne Hamilton. For. Today's feature on National Native news. A look back at the intertwined histories of

African and Native American peoples in the western hemisphere. I'm Nelly Moore. Although many African Americans can trace their heritage back to some native ancestry the alliance that was shared by Africans and the native peoples of South Central and North America remains an under explored chapter of American history. However a book published in 1986 called black Indians a hidden heritage has been helping to bring that African Native American history to light as African-American communities are recognizing and celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King Jr.. This week we celebrate their bond with Native America. From our archives Deon Hamilton has the story. William Lawrence Katz has written many books on Africans in America including the Invisible Empire the Ku Klux Klan impact on history and he got the idea for black Indians while researching yet another book The Black West. I had an awful lot of black faces staring out at me from pictures of Native

American. And really I researched that and wanted to write a book that told the story of the intermixture of people from Africa and Native Americans a story that really hasn't been told anywhere else. What Katz found was the first alliance between two peoples that the invading Europeans then believed were inferior. I think it's a heartwarming story. And I had to be put together factually how these two people stood up and fought for one another. In the early days of the Americas. One topic cats explorers and black Indians that he says is not in the history books is that native women and children were the first slaves taken by the colonists Native Americans were enslaved Now it wasn't the men so much they were killed in warfare. This is in colonial times. But the women and children were then fees and used as slaves but of course what was needed was a huge source of cheap labor.

And that's why Africans were important in his book Katz tells us that the alliance began when Native Americans helped the Africans who had fled to native villages to escape the brutality of slavery. Seven hundred twenty one. The governor of Virginia asked the five civilized nations to promise to return or African escapees who came to their villages and 1726 the governor of New York asked the Iroquois Confederacy the Six Nations to make the same promise and they did in 1746 the yuan's were required to make this promise and the next year the Delawares promise not returned a single slave and to best illustrate the strength of the alliance. Katz points to Florida and the relationship among the Africans and Seminoles together the two rundown alliance. That poor slave catchers. And then the entire United States Almy Navy and Marines for forty two years and they ran circles around half of the U.S. army was deployed in Florida. Forty million dollars was spent trying

to subdue this. This alliance Kat's book also depicts he says how the white man tried to destroy that alliance establish the hatred between Native Americans and negroes said Colonel Steven Boylan 19:00 70s. I think this is typical of a lot of the quotes that I have in black Indian that show the effort to destroy the relationship growing between two people. What may be the greatest overall aspect of this Bonn Kant says is that Africans and Native Americans often intermarried freely and together raise families. We know that so many black people were accepted in Native American nations throughout the United States. That today. Just about every black family can create Klayman Native American ancestry let me just throw some names that you the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Langston Hughes Frederick Douglass Michael Jackson Jesse Jackson and

even Alex Haley who of course explored his African roots. He also had a Native American branch in his family tree. So there was. Not a lot of friendship a lot of mixing going on and these two people together have something to be proud of and their combined fight for democracy and justice in the Americas. The book is gun positive response from the African American community count says and a seemingly interested reaction from the native community and Nothe interest in fact for the publisher and the name in New York to issue a revised third printing of black Indians for National Native news with producer Jim Buck by media and Hamilton National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Today's feature on National Native news native Hawaiians call for sovereignty.

I'm Dan Hamilton. Over a hundred years ago Queen plan to allow Oliver subjects the right to vote whether they owned land or not prompted influential plantation and business owners to push for Hawaii's annexation by the United States on January 16th 1893 U.S. troops landed in Hawaii took over the government and imprisoned the queen. This week natives are commemorating the 100 second anniversary of the overthrow. With ceremonies that Iolani Palace but over the last several years native Hawaiians have also been calling for the return of their lands. As we hear in the story from our archives by producer Joe Hannah you're a native leaders have a lot of different ideas about what form sovereignty should take but all agree that the state and federal governments must continue to address the issues. If people were happy Hawaiians as the visitors bureau would have you believe. The sovereignty movement would not exist today. And the greatest source of unhappiness again is this sense of being displaced

from their homeland. Mahela any Kamau executive director of the native Hawaiian legal corporation who wines today are asking difficult questions. They want to know why they are found in disproportionate numbers among the island's homeless poor and educated and sick. Increasingly the conclusion they're coming to is that the wrong people are making the decisions. They're calling for sovereignty so that they can have more control over their land and resources. Elizabeth Martin is president of who we now know an umbrella group which received a million dollar federal grant to educate Hawaiians about sovereignty issues. The movement's been going on for a hundred years it got much more active 20 years ago but people weren't saying the the big S-word you know that was you know that was taboo. It's sovereignty now it's on everybody's lips it seems like the winds are the only indigenous people in the United States that are not recognised by the federal government as a result they do not receive services and funds available to other Native Americans. Million money

trust leads Cullen who we hope the only group that has written a constitution and claims to have enrolled 16000 Hawaiians she says that because Hawaii was an independent nation before the overthrow of its queen and subsequent annexation Hawaiians have stronger claims the most Native Americans to an indigenous trust relationship with the federal government and that America could do at this point. It's acknowledged that we are Native American but where I don't have the same equity that they give to other native american me Calo WHOI Hawaii is based on a nation within a nation model employed by most Native American reservations. I'm not going to be pushed into reservation mentality. Where my power is will be enhanced. But limited. Linda Delaney lands officer with the Office of Hawaiian affairs which is a native Hawaiian advocacy organization established under the state constitution. It's semi autonomous and provides services to native

Hawaiians and would receive any reparations from the federal government. Delaney supports an as yet unclear model for Native sovereignty that covers all of territorial Hawaii but remains within the US jurisdiction. So I think it would be terrible if like the Indians for example we were pushed to a diminished sphere based on these are the lands you hold. I said this is Hawaii. This is the homeland I'm talking about. A whole new model the idea of sovereignty has many middle class home wind energy. They're concerned about losing their existing federal services like Medicaid and Social Security. Many support the idea of better access to services and resources but shy away from radicals like Hayden Burgess of the Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian affairs. He wants complete independence from the United States. The easiest way to make that comparison is by comparing Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Both of them talking about the same thing the integrity of

human beings. King talking about that integrity being treated as a quality of all people within that same society and the right of all people to be treated equally. Gandhi was talking about the integrity of people to be treated and to be given their independence to get out of the colonial system and in essence that's the question that Hawaii has to face Burgess's model would require all of our wise residents to support independence. Even he admits that's not likely to happen soon for National Native News I'm Johanna York National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. International. Today's feature on National Native news can significant federal budget savings

come from changing the way the Bureau of Indian Affairs does business. I'm Diane Hamilton. Today Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt testified before a House appropriations panel about where his department can cut costs to help curb the federal budget deficit. With the Republican controlled Congress looking at every way it can to cut costs and make government more efficient there's new scrutiny of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The B has one of the worst reputations for fiscal bungling in all of the federal government. Frustration with the be-I A is bipartisan. Babbitt got this question from Washington state Democratic Congressman Norm Dicks. There's an agency that really quite is out for reinvention or maybe elimination and having somebody else do this job. It's the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I mean I mean I mean you've been there now for a couple years. Give me your assessment I mean is it can we salvage the BRT or should it. Should it be redone or should somebody else take over this responsible for his part Babbitt says he's not ready to do away with the way the alternatives to the be are all

worse and very unwisely the product of some very unhappy history. It goes all the way back to the founding of the department in 1949. The Indians. Have a love hate relationship with this organization and as soon as you fall on a Native American leader testifying in favor of abolishing you will find one right behind that leader saying no way. For all its faults the VII has been the one place that we can come in Washington and it is the one place that stands as a surrogate for the secretary of the interior. Between that tribe and the outside world Babbitt also says complaints that the bureau spends too much money on administration are overblown despite claims to the contrary he says more than 85 percent of congressional appropriations go to reservations. But Babbitt acknowledges that paternalism and

turf battling are big problems within the BRACA. Some in Congress believe the way to cut overhead costs and use federal program dollars more efficiently is through tribal self-governance. For about 20 years tribes have been able to administer Interior Department and Indian Health Service programs for themselves through contracting. Even so the contracting process has been hindered by federal bureaucrats reluctant to give up control. With the Cobb Babbitt says he's open to looking at more self-governance to use B i.e. funding more efficiently. I think it merits some discussion I think it can be accelerated. I would say a word of caution. There are some concerns tribes are in different stages of evolution of their capacity. But Governor but the concept is is undeniably correct and I believe that's a fruitful area for inquiry and guidance from this committee Babbitt says one of the things congressional appropriators can do is state how much money they want to save in the

budget through self governance in the early days of this program people said self-governance money went out. But you didn't see any offsets in the drawdown of the bill because nobody had mandated that and it's hard work to do. I think those are things we can discussion that the committee can very appropriately set goals they really help us. They really do. But what Congress would like to see result from savings and what tribal leaders want could be two different things. Babbitt says while Congress is looking to cut government costs tribal leaders are looking to increase their share of the budget. The pion on streamlining took place across Indian country which is premised on the notion that the savings from the downsizing of the CIA would in fact go out in the form of block grants destruction. And we ought to have an upfront discussion about that then make the rules. Clear and let everybody hear them and understand them and have some consolation acknowledging the tight fiscal condition of the federal government.

Babbitt says he wants to fend off as many funding cuts as possible for tribes but he admits it will be difficult if not impossible to avoid any cuts. Nevertheless Babbitt says there is at least one native priority in his department that should be spared from cuts. The single most dramatic need I believe if I look across the entire department I would say would be repair some of the school facilities. And on a larger scale employee housing at the national parks the Clinton administration and Congress will begin putting out their fiscal 1996 budget proposals in a few weeks. They will also be looking at ways to curb expenditures in the current fiscal year with Joel Southern and Washington D.C.. I'm Diane Hamilton National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Today's feature on National Native news a production of Black Elk speaks gets under way

in Los Angeles. I'm Deon Hamilton. It's been over 60 years since Oglala Lakota Holy Man Black Elk spoke with poet and songwriter John Hart. His legendary book Black Elk speaks has inspired the traditionalist Indian Movement and helped to enlighten European Americans about the pain caused by events like the infamous massacre at Wounded Knee in the late 1800s. A stage adaptation by the Denver Center Theater of Colorado has made its way to Los Angeles this week where it will play through February and then continue a tour around the country. In this one thousand ninety three reports Scotch label profiles the Denver production of Black Elk speaks when Black Elk was nine years old he had a vision one day while camping with his family near the Little Big Horn River. From where I stood. I saw more than I could tell and I understood why. For I was this bad.

I saw that the nation was one of many that made one circle. And this. Was wholly in his vision Black Elk was also shown a sacred tree a voice told him that by leading his people to the tree he would make it blossom restoring the Lakota Way of Life. By the time nigh heart met him in one thousand thirty one Black Elk thought he'd failed to fulfill the voices request until he realized that by telling his life story tonight heart he could help mend the sacred hoop which some say was broken at Wounded Knee. I saw him never. Come to a head. December 18 19 at high rates South Dakota along the ravine by a stream. I did not know. How much with.

What I've got back now from this high. You know why I will be. I can still see and I can see. That's something else. You know like you said no one was listening. The two act adaptation of black life story is a series of scenes depicting important events in native history told from a native perspective by a 24 member all native cast. Even black descendants were paid as production consultants. My mom is each going to be 70 years old and she can sit there and tell you the phrase by phrase when my grampa said it's in the book. And that that shook us when she done. And from her memory errand to serve as black Alex great grandson although some scholars question the authenticity of black Elk's words disservices says they don't

have the experience to understand Black Elk and there is many people out there that think they understand what my grandfather had said in that book about his vision. But to understand it you have to live the life all your life and do it in the end. So that's why. That book is. Special and here he's a spiritual man even though he's directed some three hundred productions Black Elk speaks director Donovan Marley didn't feel qualified to explore the private history of a look at a family. The universality of black Aleks message he says changed his mind. It deals with the family history. It deals with the Lakota tradition and then it keeps rising and it expands and expand and expands and Bracco said that his reason for speaking was to teach the truth

of the tradition and the value of the tradition and to bring peace between people between people and other living things. And within people and unlike very many other written works I think this attempts to do that and and it will exist forever and that's the major thing we're National Native news. I'm Scottish like oh oh oh oh oh oh oh National Native new speech years are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Public radio. International.