National Native News Special Features

Today's feature on National Native news the Mexican election turns out as expected and now everyone waits for the next step. I'm Diane Hamilton. It appears that yesterday's election has not loosened the hold of the ruling party on the Mexican government. Returns won't be official for some time but neither the right wing PM nor the left wing PR D has pulled the PR I protests are already being heard. But nobody is sure at this point what the reaction will be in the remote Indigenous communities such as Chiapas where the Zapatista uprising occurred or in other Indigenous areas such as me to a con where radio producer Joseph Leon is serving as an observer travelling to the villages from the town of some Mora. Joseph what's the mood been like there. It's been tense climb instant very tense. They've been waiting for years for yesterday for the opportunity to vote for their candidate. During the voting yesterday all of the indigenous people were out in downtown. Quite so. And there are a lot of them were armed Actually it was they had the distillers and all

that and they were making their presence known an armed presence known that they won't tolerate any kind of fraudulent practices at their local polling precincts. We know that the results are not yet official but Ernesto Zedillo is ahead at this point. Yes yes he is. They were saying anywhere from 16 to 19 percent of the next. Canada which is a for none to survive with the pine and the content of the cardinals is trailing both candidates with only 17 or 18 percent of the vote. So far the national vote. So basically the choice of the indigenous people isn't showing well. No no it's not and it's not. They're upset about that but they weren't surprised by it. There has been an effort of the ruling party to come in and try to manipulate the people's opinion on which candidate to vote for so they're not surprised. The three would send in people into these indigenous communities and offering the biggest prizes of money you know 50000 pesos to people to not simply not vote.

And how how sure can you be of this that this is actually going on. We do have one documented instance where there has been riots that were accepted but it wasn't in the area they're required to do this. This area was about two hours to the south of us. It's another Indigenous community but one of the election monitors international observers whose name is Carlos Pena here with the North Americans for democracy in Mexico actually had photographed and recorded some exchanges of these monies. Now is there likely to be trouble over these episodes. Well. At the PR offices a lot of people are coming in out of the hills coming down there and they were waiting for the car from their candidate but then I'm a card in this is to mobilize protests in the streets because on the 14th of this month Cardenas had stated at a press conference that if there's any indication of fraud in the elections they need to have their people on the streets today.

Monday the 22nd. And that's what in fact is happening now word was received. So you know there's going to be people on the streets today. There's a frustration at least in the communities that we visited is very high. And just seeing the armed presence of border tension companeros at the polling places they're willing to defend their vote. Indicated to me that. That said the Times are desperate people and they were relying heavily on this relying heavily Well you know you were talking about about how people are waiting to hear what Cardenas has to say. What about what's going on with the Zapatistas and and Chiapas basically before they had said that if things did not go the way that they were wanting to see them happen as far as proceedings for the elections that that they may have an uprising What's the feeling so far there. And that's that's a tough one because I mean the separatist uprising they've really it's they're unpredictable in the ways of poaching is I mean true they

have said that they said things have been proven to been involved in these elections that they would uprise. But the timing of it is is unclear. If you recall when the 70s rose in January First the Mexican government was actually ready for their revolution back in 1992 during the Clinton family or they were actually expecting a separatist uprising there. But but they waited two years Joseph Leon is a California radio producer who is serving as an observer in the Mexican elections national native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Today's feature on National Native news uncovering a Columbia River community from the Lewis and Clark contact era. I'm Diane Hamilton. Researchers have landed on a rare find north of Vancouver Washington. A Chinook village left nearly undisturbed since it

was abandoned about 150 years ago. Up till now this DIG has been kept secret. But as we learn in this report from level action they've decided to take the wraps off the village that occupied the newly rediscovered site was along an important Columbia River a trade route that people might have settled the village as long as 2000 years ago. The village the researchers are excavating is also likely the same one called Castle postal noted in the Lewis and Clark expedition Journal March 29 18 0 6. The village consists of 14 large wooden houses. The people themselves received us very kindly and voluntarily spread before us swapping two and two of us but as soon as we'd finished enjoying this hospitality if it deserves that name they began to ask us for presents. That encounter was about 40 years before the next abandoned the village where as many as fourteen hundred people had lived. The site was hard to find when archaeological efforts started because signs of settlement were gone. It's been largely

overlooked since then. This is extraordinary. Most slice of the sky either. Dug into and vandalized almost to the point of this crux destruction there are fragments of sites there are a few around in bits and pieces but it's unusual to get one this big. It is this intact yes. Portland State University anthropology professor Kenneth Ames who's leading the excavation says much work lies ahead figuring out over say 10 or 12 years that you're going to get some kind of picture of what their life was like over a 15 year period. It's actually kind of a great new number of names and about 30 students work and part of a seven acre wooded area on the Columbia River. Layer by layer the students sweep sift map and dig a little further and as students pull bone fragments and bits of charcoal and nuts from their screens that filter the refuse those remnants surface from what were probably garbage piles which says now help researchers understand the village's economy.

I think they clean the house up and threw it up here. I think this is backed up at the back and elsewhere pieces of tools tools for making tools and artifacts surface the clues that are buried in the ground make dirt and sand and throwing. Ha ha right. Researchers are proved right. I'm thinking village structures occupied the low ridges and less sunken areas called swells but the earthen markings are not precise and says they don't know exactly how the buildings were laid out. Yes to mates they could excavate just 2 percent of the entire village. They have to be careful about what they conclude from their findings. We want to know what was going on in your house and we put a 2 by 2 meter square in the middle of your living room. We would maybe learn that you had a rod going to learn a little bit about how well you vacuum but that would be it. And so we need to open a big area so we can get to the scale at which people in the deepest excavation unit is about 11 feet down. That's the outline of a shallow pit thought to have been used for washing the tannic acid out of nuts. Student Jesse Burdine points about midway up the wall where a post once

stood. You can see how it cut through you know cause some charcoal and get into culture and fire cracked rock right here. You know I did and here is a lot more on this. This is an intense culture. There was just hundreds and hundreds of pieces of animal bone fragments. The researchers have been working with the tribal council member Gary Johnson says he's looking forward to learning more about his tribes history. Johnson says it's unlikely the excavation will hit sites the Chinooks consider sacred. That's a problem. When I talk to X. And just because I work in West Africa for our press the villages on what's now a federal wildlife refuge. Fish and Wildlife Service archaeologist Anan Raymond says the findings can help advance understanding of the area's history. We believe that council total will be able to provide us with baseline information and the kinds of things that we may find anywhere along the river.

Now that the site has been made public looters and collectors could jeopardize the historical picture the researchers want to uncover. However Professor Ames says the word was going to get out in any case. He says they're gambling that publicity will work in their favor and they're hoping people will act as watchdogs against intruders. This is Neville Ashton reporting. National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. International. Today's feature on National Native news the restoration of a quoit cook river graveyard. I'm Diane Hamilton the quiet river flows out of the Arctic to the Yukon River north of Galina the local Athabaskan Tribal Council and the village corporation. You Ltd are involved in a project to preserve and protect local cemeteries using traditional methods. Producer Teresa Bacher went out to

have a look. Yeah. Given that there. Is a whole month in front of. The road we're gonna do that middling old Loudon cemetery is located about 10 miles upriver from Galina. The only way to reach the site in the summertime is by boat. Today Brenda small co and us why EPA workers Mars Tomasky and L.A. Comac are taking pictures of individual grave sites for display at the logging village office. During their visit to the cemetery the three along with boat captain Patty Aska take part in the traditional Athabaskan custom of sharing a meal with their ancestors. As Malcolm prepares a special sandwich wraps it in paper towel and places it in the fire which has been started on the beach with available driftwood as she's leaving the fire to begin the climb up the hillside to the grave sites. A small car suddenly remembers a special personal ritual. She pulls a cigarette out of her pocket and feeds it to the flames. Apologizing over her

shoulder to her cousin spirit for almost forgetting the Yukon Athabaskan customs and culture include many specifics about visiting graveyards and maintaining grave sites. As a small explains We can't remove any that like the fences or the crosses or the houses we have to sleep medicine they need. Can I just leave him there. We can put maybe like if Geoffrey know where someone is buried who will make our cross and put their names in the mosque Ian Todd Malamute another SYP worker busy themselves. Earlier this summer with a renovation project at the old Galena cemetery located in the oldest part of town they were careful to let local customs guide their work. With the bank and the credit for and in doing so and it stuck. We put up a lot of current British ground and put the pole and we dismantled the logs Cross was on it and said if you don't like a fancy

pants it's used to log you know you're not fancy grapes. A major part of got to use preservation project is discovering exactly what customs have been practised in the four villages playing an unused resource manager says the Corporation plans to identify tribal customs with the help of area elders having the young kids with this way and maybe with the school kids. Interview elders and learn about the local traditions and customs. The way they were in the past the way they are now. So in the future people can look back and say oh wow. Yeah that's why we do it this way. Some research on local customs has been conducted. However Kling says there are problems with the published information available. The descriptions of the cemeteries and spirit houses and the customs dealing with death and burial. Have been done by an anthropologist an archaeologist coming into the area translating their words to the local people and trying to understand the meaning of the words coming

back. This project in itself would be allowing just the local people to to. Describe what's going on in write down what's going on so that when have this translation problem and they won't have the problem of preconceived notions. Another result of the project will be to identify the residents of unmarked or damaged graves using information solicited locally. The Loudon village council has been able to I.D. ten of the almost 35 grave sites at the Galena cemetery. A small case says this particular graveyard has been through many changes since it was established in 1920. He liked that house right there it doesn't belong there in the blood and that forty eight forty nine I think it moved the houses around there you know the one permanently nailed down you know to the bottom. And so the water and I just moved everything around. The result of going to use graveyard preservation project will be the first written plan to be shared with future generations of community members and land managers. For now

the newly erected fish wind socks swaying in the breeze is a sign to all who see it that they have approached the old Galena cemetery where Athabaskan ancestors rest in their spirit houses in Galena. I'm tree soccer National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. Radio International. Today's feature on National Native news the why and I diet. I'm Diane Hamilton. There was a high incidence of diet related health problems among native Hawaiians. In fact the average lifespan of a native Hawaiian is the shortest of any American ethnic group. Education about diet is part of the answer to this problem. But one doctor in Hawaii has found another part of the answer in a return to tradition as we learned in this report last year from a matic. The wide eyed coast is considered the Wild West of the island of Oahu. It is a 90 minute

drive from Honolulu and its miles of empty beaches lie undeveloped. Other than small wooden homes which has the highest concentration of Native Hawaiians in the state. But this is no island paradise. Across the road from the beach standing clusters of neon signs golden arches and drive through windows. Why nice suffers Hawaii's poorest economic conditions and Native Hawaiians have the state's poorest health and their high fat fast food diet is being blamed. 70 percent of Hawaiians die of diet related diseases and 65 percent are obese. Who wines are twice as likely to die of cancer three times more likely to die of heart disease and six times more likely to die of diabetes than average Americans. Dr. Terry Tani came to whine I hoping to change those numbers with a plan he developed while studying nutrition at Harvard. If those cultures that still adopt the traditional ways don't have heart disease then why don't we just imitate those those diets and then we'll see the reversal of these diseases.

At this local farm kitchen staff stir ploy for tonight's meal in 1989 Dr. Tony put 20 native Hawaiians on the diet their ancestors and called it the wine diet for three weeks dieters eat all meals at this farm and are allowed nothing their 18th century forebears wouldn't have had fish carrot soup potato. And. Chicken. If you see this traditional diet consists of all the high carbohydrate low fat ingredients now credited with lowering the risk of illness and controlling weight during the three week trials dieters lose an average of 17 pounds lower cholesterol by an average of 14 percent and minimize health risks. The diet is especially dramatic effects on diabetes. Mary veal lost her mother to diabetes and was told her weight put her in similar danger. She turned to the diet as a last hope. And I was detected that I had to go on insulin I was taking 40 units in the morning and 40 48 at night. I when I went on the diet I got kind of scared because the doctor cut me down to 10 once a day but I didn't know what was going to happen so I

just did that. It took me about a week to get off insulin. My blood sugars had dropped. Every day I found the differences my body changed my weight. I was two hundred and six pounds. I'm down to one hundred and fifty. Like most participant she's found the diet isn't just about her physical health. Mary says it's changed the way she looks at her race. We were told that we were lazy people who are always so for weight we weren't strong people. But for me when I went on the diet and my crew. We worked hard. We worked really really hard. And I don't believe in that anymore. I used to believe it you know and I used to feel shame about it. But now right don't. They tell me that I said no we're not doctors. Tani uses early photographs to show dieters the athletic physique of Hawaiians before chain food restaurants and as that entire lifestyle began the stereotype of the fat Hawaiian. Throughout our program we emphasize that. People

should take pride in their culture because frankly the diet that the culture produced was far better than the diet they have today. About 30 percent of the dieters have maintained their weight loss six months after finishing their program. That's far better than the average diet success rate but some say the cost of the food makes it hard to continue. Little Wright says she's torn on one hand she'd like to ban the high fat food which makes her people ill. But she knows that many Hawaiians including herself rely on it. You can feed your whole family with a can of pork and beans or something. Compared to going out and buying fish and wildlife Dr. Tony says he hopes to influence the school lunch program in one eye and spread the diet throughout the neighbor islands. He says the diet has relevance beyond the Hawaiian community particularly for Native Americans who suffer similar health problems. You'll present the wine I died this may at the conference on diabetes and native peoples health here in Honolulu for National Native news in Honolulu.

I'm really a matic National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. International. Today's feature on National Native news one tribe's attempt to educate the public about American history from a Native American perspective. I'm Deon Hamilton the Lacs Band of a Jewboy has just completed a video called The Woodlands the story of the job way. The band has already received orders from schools and libraries for hundreds of copies of the video they hope to also get it on to television. Minnesota Public Radio's Jacqueline estus has more. The laksa jewboy want to make it clear that they have been treated badly but there are survivors alive in the world today with their own heroes and their own story to tell. Filmmaker Tom Jensen says there are tragic elements in the history of the

tribe he hopes the video will stir feelings of empathy not pity. Man they were victimized there's no question about that. If you don't act like a victim. You want one. You know you'll find a way out of it. Definitely comes across in the video the woodlands tribal elders tell the story of the original name for the elders describe how the Malacca in the sixteen hundreds moved from the region around the eastern Great Lakes to the land now called Minnesota. Sam says the spent the severe winters are insulated with cat tails and spring time they gathered sap of maple sugar and then in the summer time they. Make fibers. Then in the fall again write in stone as part of the statue and by the rice leaks so the nail and

official are right. The Woodlands describes how non-natives over time took most of the rich lands of the honest through treaties and laws. Leaders resisted encroachments as best they could but they lost still more land when timber companies hired Civil War veterans as squatters to establish a legal claim to the land other on a watch their homes burn after being removed at gunpoint. Canadian Oneida actor Graham Green known for his roles in the films Dances with Wolves and thunder Hart narrates the woodlands. He tells how an agent for the American for a company justified the use of trickery to achieve an eight thousand eighty seven treaty one of the treaty negotiators Henry Rice said in the House of Representatives document he will not only have your farming lands and your hate lands but your hardwood lands and sugar bush. But he was not to be trusted. Why did Henry Rice lie. He later explained in dealing with the Indians it was extremely

necessary to deceive them for their own good. The video shows the pressure put on the ANA to give up their cultural heritage. Missionaries banned tribal celebrations and children were taken from their parents and placed in boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their native tongue. The Anishinaabe a kept many elements of their culture such as those dealing with family food land and spirituality. But they also changed it to survive. Today the lax band of a Jewboy is using revenues from two gambling casinos to build schools roads water and sewer lines and to buy land in the woodlands elder David Sam says education is one way young people can continue the battle to preserve a land and culture. At one time we carried. The rifle. And bow and arrow. You know weapon as the briefcase. That's your weapon.

And I swam to education. Only high school education. But to go on past. Mission. Contact. I'm drunk when asked in St. Paul Minnesota. National Native news features are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. This is National Native news. Our features producer is Steve Haim a production assistance from Nellie Moore engineering by Kevin Smith and Chris Bell like music by Mickey Hart for the Alaska Public Radio Network. I'm Deon Hamilton. International.