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kXNVV\V\.\.VN.VVV\V\.\VV\ INDIAN TIME .-, i I i * i ?,. * «y» 'U '4 .!.*' .' ' sC ^v / M :-s^ • ^*. : ::«, • ; ^T-I^' ~m '•ft •Wj^ 1 \* ' ** \ &m i ^•-^ .»•? LACROSSE NEWS \ * •••.-:;' CAN—AM CHAMPS Akwesasne Warrfdrs i ^Celebrating Season with Banquet at Shaft's Place Next Weekend Wi IN THIS ISSUE: Legal Rights Central Foundry Health Services Lacrosse Veteran Life On The Farm Julius Cook Resigns :*'*-•:•• Etching of St. kegis Church during construction at the turn of the century. OBER 7, VOL. 1, NO. 8 Price; $ .50 PRESENT POTENTIAL, \It is possible for communities to begin to take into their own hands the tools and skills which will provide not only survival, but to a considerable degree, comfort...\ The I'nitcd States is in the grip of the worst economic times since the end of the (.real Depression. Unemployment. on some Indian reservations is far above the national averages, and on \some of the Indian lands in. the-west is reportedly greater than 9<>%. There are already/reports of hunger in some places, and increasing health problems. For mans people the tacts of inflation and unemployment (or underemployment) combine to make a difficult life situation increasingly unbearable. Despite these realities., the idea that people should look at making a living by raising'their own, tood, building energy-efficient which use wood and/or solar- heat, and developing economies in which peoples' needs are.: produced in their own communities has not been widely ac- cepted, especially in tribal government circles. Those ideas,.. however, are looking better and better to more and more people these days ' •'. '•'; • The only fair way to judge the viability of those ideas is to. ask yourself some questions. How much is your weekly guAtiy I > i; i. voLii annual iieat bill, your annuarpayment;iHr> rent' Would you be better off, economically, in your present situation, or would your conditions be improved if. you owned an energy-efficient house, however rustic, and you • raised all (or nearly all) your own food, and if you did hot have an electric bill? How much do you have left from your . paycheck after you have paid for your, car (which you bought so you could get to work) and gas for your car and your insurance and so forth and so on. The amount you have left over after you have paid all your expenses *- that's how much income you really have. The next question is --what.' happens during times like these if you lose your K>b? How long can you afford to eat, to buy gas for your car, to-buy all. the things which in your new lifestyle are necessities and > which were, to your grandparents, luxuries? • . ..'••' On many Indian reservations, land exists which couldbe used to grow food for the people, materials exist which-, could be used for housing, and there are idle people, many ',' with skills, whose families will experience cold and hunger./. this coming winter. Over the past twenty years, many Natiye : communities have been lured into a dependency situation and the current economic conditions has left them stranded : on islands of economic despair. Federal dollars poured onto . Indian lands during the era of the Great Society, the War on Poverty, the War on HungeivNative people following ,tL$. • government guidelines created really huge bureaucracies. which were intended to provide a wide range of services: ranging from keeping the grass cut in the graveyards to hous- ing programs, which emphasized the use of electric heat. The whole idea was an effort to acculturate the Native peo- ple into roles in the market economy. It is true that many in-, dividuals approached this work as a way to relieve\ the chronic poverty and health problems in the Native com- munities, and that those individuals possessed good motives,! ; . But few Native people understood the plans of the people in, power (the ruling class) and the nature of the dependency ; which was being created. Now the Great Society days appear. to be over, the days of the giant CETA programs and the welfare state which supported a bloated Indian bureaucracy all but ended. • : .' / ; . .';'•... During that period, attention of Indian people was effec- tively removed from any focus on the reality of their lives. Indian country is a resource colony of the United States economy. It is in many ways a Third World econorrjy; in which natural resources are exploited and the benefits of those natural resources exported to distant areas of the country. In some places this reality provides stark contrasts, expecially when Indian tribal members areseen paying 180 a ton for coal while their tribe is selling the same coal for f J7••'. a ton. . ' . ' .'•, • ,,'-. Economic development does not have to take that course; Native people really can take the power to control their .own lives, but to do so they must reassess their values. It is possi- ble for Native people to raise their own food and bui^tj I'their '. own homes. It is probably possible for people to d o ai lot . more than develop subsistence economies in the classic sense of the term. / . • • > The first thing that people need to do is to stop looking at dollar revenues as real income. Real income is the amount of goods and services which a people benefit from. It, fe.not directly tied to the dollar income. Dollar revenue is. a 'relative . 'If we keep on with the arms race, after a while •'.\•'.[•\• '. ••• \.-\.'. the Russian economy will collapse.' value, Consider for a- moment the following very -hypothetical equation. Suppose that in 1970 your tribe sold ^COal on: a contract for $18 a ton: (Remember this is hypothetical!) Let us say that during that»year a certain trac- tor sold for $18,000! It took one thousand tons of coal to Jjuy the.tracfor. But in 1982, while the tribe continues to get > J18 a ton, the tractor now costs $4(),()()() or more than twenty-two thousand tons of coal. And in 1992, that tractor could easjly cost $60,000, while the tribe is still getting $18 a .ton. The point is that dollars ace not a good indicator (if real income. Tons of coal and numbers of tractors are real in- come. .. • . ' •''.••• . •:• '\••• • . .\ .. '.\ •' ,i. • • .•. ^ Most of iis have been getting poorer and poorer over the past two decades, and the future promises to get a lot worse. The number of minutes of work which used to buy a pound of beans now buys many fewer beans, and rhe sarne is true for almost all of the consumer items. •'.The future doesn't need to be absolutely bleak. There are now rnany fairly new technologies which can enable people tq: raise the food they need without the use of expensive v machinery. There exist technologies which enable people tp ;\haye a warm house without enormous oil or natural gas or electricity bills. It is possible for communities to begin to \take into their owh hands the tools and. the skills which will provide not only survival but, to a considerable degree, .- comfort. -•••••''••.\ • •• -..,'\ ., . '•• ';•-, •• ' •'• V-Imagine, for a. moment, an Indian community which /operated on a basis of enlightened self-interest. It would not . be a community which operated on socialist models, in /which all the farmland is \nationalized\ or cprnmunalized, but ratherone in which the \small is -beautiful- ideology... .resulted in small land holdings adequate to peoples' needs! Titere would: be a strong effort to control fhesi/.e and power c|f the local bureaucracies, and an emphasis on the growth and strength of cooperatn es ; Thjs would be a community which mad*, even effort to r f»e productive of its own needs through tht effective use «^ all of the usable small stale, people oriented technologies available to them. It would h.i\c production units which /grow vegetables using organic methods Jnd French bto- fnteasive growing techniques, solar greenhouses, ,\per- rnaculture,\ and grey water reevchng techniques K\cry ef- fort would be made to produce energy Jocaliy, from jvind- ^iils.VsMicon solar panels, ekuru..illy-produce4 y bjkjjgas, and so forth. F\er> cftou would be tVude serve energy, including heavily uvsuUted houses^ Su«U»ne^\ yield management of woodlot resources, iiot w»«e| boilers \' viired by wooq\:scraps ami garbage . t ,,</ Rights to yi Indians Born in Canada .(This article was originally printed in a brochure entitled \United States Legal Rights of Native Americans born in Canada. '' ft was prepared by the Indian Task Force. Federal Regulatory Council oj New England with the assistance of the Boston Indian Council, Inc. It was published by theCom- 'munijy Services Administration. The State Advisor)' Committees of the , United States Civil i Rights'Commission assisted in its originaldistribution.) Introduction^- • Throughout history, Native American tribes and nations ;have, asserted, .tbje^^aboriginal rights as individuals and in gfoups, id pass.freely across what is now the northern boun- dary of the United States. : International treaties and current U.S. federal law recognize the legal rights of Indians born on the Canadian side of the border to live and work in the United States. Still, Native Americans encounter problems obtaining jobs, government benefits and services because their rights under the 1794 Jay Treaty, and existing U.S. laws are misunderstood. . If you are a Native American within the boundaries of Canada, you have the right to: * Cross the U.S. Canada border freely; V Visit the United States; * Live and work in the United States; ; * Obtain public benefits such as unemployment and food stamps; . • .* Obtain social services. ^ You do not have to: * Have an alfen card (a \green card\); * Register at the Post Office as a alien; * Obtain a work permit. The government cannot: * Deport you.; ' '. * Exclude you from entry; * Deny you services ; * Impound or search sacred objects you have in your possession haying religious significance to you as a Native American. ^ . continued on page 2 CENTRAL FOUNDRY FINED $ 507,000 IN EPAIAWSUIT The EPA has levied the highest fine ever for PCB violations under the Toxic Substances Act. Central Foundry may try to ^appeal, and stated.that they can not comment until they review the EPA charges in the lawsuit. It also means they may not pay the full amount if they f ee ] they can appeal. But court costs and all the publicity of Central Foundry's waste dumpsite being on the list of most hazardous sites in the country may mean it will be lew expensive to'pa? the fin*-. The half-miilion.dollar figure is only one fine, stemming from 10 counts of unlawful disposal of PCB's and 11 counts of unlawfully using PCB-laden oil in the plants hydraulic system. The Foundry also has stored^ 14,000 gallons of PCB oil in a pump house without a warning sign, EPA's lawsuit alleges. ', ' This fine is only for these counts. It affects no other peo- ple in the local areas who may have contaminated water, and does not effect the listing of Central Foundry's dump site as dangerous. They are still eligible for \Superfund\ money to dean up the site, but this is a complicated process that will take some time as negotiations between Central Foundry, the State., lpcat areas, including Akwesasne, have been un- sucessful. Mew York State Department of Environmental Control has been working with plant officials since 1981 to try and find ways to cleanup the site. The Superfurid listing should speed things along, but there is still much local con- cern, over the ground water contamination from the site.- It was such concerns from Akwesasne residents and Tribal Councils that the DEC was asked to review conditions of the dump site for health reasons of our residents. '— • • (condensedfrom article by Karen St. Hilaire) •:/• •K CHIEF JtJLIUS COOK RESIGNS FOR HEALTH REASONS Chief Julius Cook has notified the Tribe that he has handed in his resignation, citing health reasons for being unable to continue his 1 office..Julius says the stress of the position has' deteriorated his health to the point where he feels it is in the; best interest of his family and the tribe that he resign. i Julius was elected in 1981 by the largest voter turnout in memory.. In office he sought to bring together the opposing parties of Akwesasne, and the united stand by both Tribal Council and Longhouse Council over the larjd claims issue i$ evidence of his efforts. Land claims was viewed as the mosf important concern of the community, as a proper disposfr tion and settlement of land claims could only help othet community concerns such as housing and health. Julius said that the job was very stressful^ and w-hile t people at the ComrnunUy Building were pleasant to wo with and co-operative, the leadership was very difficult. H stated that while the elections seemed to prove t democratic process on the reservation, the reality of \t situation was power over the community in the hands oi few and consequently many aspects of the administratk seemed undemocratic, controversial and full of conflict. Sub-Chief Allen Terrance has taken over Julius' duties Chief after returning from Rochester, ::,j;:\;'i,-$,~
