The Environment Protection Agency plans a pollution study of Coeur d’Alene lands.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) announces that it will investigate the extent of the pollution of northern Idaho caused by silver mining. The area to be studied includes the reservation of the Coeur d’Alene Indians, who are attempting to sue several mining companies for $1 billion to fund an extensive cleanup (see entry for 1996).
The EPA project will assess the damage done to the people and wildlife of the region and
Determine whether it will need Superfund monies beyond the $150 million allocation already made to clean up a small area near Kellogg, Idaho (see entry for 1992). The investigation will cover an area of 1,500 square miles, extending across Idaho’s borders into Washington State and Montana. The project’s scope is unprecedented and could cost as much as $1 billion.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is investigated in Indian casino scandal.
Attorney General Janet Reno announces that she will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt perjured himself before Congress in testimony about the department’s rejection of an Indian casino project in Hudson, Wisconsin. In 1994, three Wisconsin Chippewa tribes proposed establishing an off-reservation gambling casino on the site of a dog track. The project was opposed by a group of Indians in Minnesota, who feared it would compete with their own casino. After the department decided to reject the Chippewa application, Babbitt allegedly told a pro-casino lobbyist that the Minnesota Indians were favored in the dispute because they were large contributors to the Democratic Party. After a lengthy investigation, independent counsel Carol Elder Bruce will announce in October 1999 that there is insufficient evidence to indict Babbitt on any charge.
Coyote Tales premieres.
Coyote Tales has its world premiere in Kansas City, Missouri. An original work commissioned by the city’s Lyric Opera, the opera recounts five traditional Indian stories featuring the character of Coyote, a trickster whose foibles comment on human behavior. With noted Acoma poet Simon Ortiz serving as an adviser, the work is produced in collaboration with the Haskell Indian Nations University (see entry for SEPTEMBER 1, 1884). Ortiz calls the opera “a wonderful way for people who do not know enough about our Indian heritage to learn about a rich and vibrant culture.”
Archaeologists discover a Native skeleton in Alaska.
Archaeologists from the Forestry Service and Smithsonian Institution excavate a cave on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska and come upon a 9,800-year-old skeleton. With the Kennewick Man controversy in mind (see entry for JULY 19, 1996), the scientists stop digging when they determine the bones are human and consult with the Klawock and Craig, two Native groups in the area. After meeting with scientists, the councils of the two groups reach an agreement with the Forestry Service to allow the bones to be carbon dated and analyzed, on the condition that further excavations at the discovery site be monitored to protect its sanctity.
California tribes speak out against state regulation on gambling.
In meetings with Congress and Attorney General Janet Reno, Indian leaders from California seek support for their right to operate casinos without interference of the state’s governor, Pete Wilson. By the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (see entry for OCTOBER 17, 1988), tribes are required to negotiate an agreement, or compact, with a state before opening a gambling operation within its borders. The compacts offered by Wilson, however, are so restrictive that many California tribes have opened gaming houses without state approval. Wilson has further infuriated these tribes by enlisting the aid of federal prosecutors to shut down illegal gambling operations by confiscating valuable slot machines.
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum opens.
Using profits from the Foxwoods casino and resort (see entry for FEBRUARY 12, 1992), the Mashan-tucket Pequot open a $193 million museum and research center on their reservation in Connecticut. The museum features state-of-the-art interactive films and videos, a re-creation of a complete Pequot village, and permanent exhibits on the history of the Pequot, who were nearly decimated in a brutal conflict with British colonists (see entry for 1637). At 308,000 square feet, the lavish museum complex is 20 percent larger than the proposed National Museum of the American Indian, which will open in Washington, D. C., in 2004 (see entry for SEP TEMBER 21, 2004).
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar coaches Apache basketball players.
Retired professional basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar comes to Whiteriver, Arizona, on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, to help coach the Alchesay High School basketball team. Abdul-Jabbar was invited to teach at the school by the Whiteriver school superintendent after the athlete, a Native American—history enthusiast, attended the dedication of Alchesay’s new activities center and participated in Apache ceremonies on the nearby San Carlos Reservation.
Kennewick Man is moved to a Seattle museum.
The bones of Kennewick Man—the nearly 10,000-year-old skeleton found on the banks of the Columbia River (see entry for JULY 19, 1996)—are transported from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to the Burke Museum of the University of Washington, where they can be examined by scientists under the supervision of the Department of the Interior.
The move is ordered by Judge John Jelderks, who is presiding over the legal battle involving the skeleton. His ruling is a disappointment to the five Northwest tribes who have been fighting for the right to bury the remains of Kennewick Man, whom they consider to be their ancestor. Before the bones are removed from the laboratory, representatives of these tribes and of the Asatru, a group committed to reviving ancient Norse religion that also claims the skeleton, are permitted to perform farewell rituals. (See also entry for FEBRUARY 4, 2004.)
P
“Native remains are not objects for scientific curiosity.
They are relatives____They are
Grandmothers and grandfathers. When these relatives are put away. . . they're not to be disturbed by anyone. . . and the place that they rest is sacred ground.”
—Debra Harry of the Indigenous Peoples Coalition against Biopiracy on the Kennewick Man controversy
U. S. government joins the Oneida land claims suit.
In 1970, the Oneida Indians of New York initiated a lawsuit claiming that local and state governments had illegally seized 270,000 acres of their land in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although the Supreme Court found in the Oneida’s favor 15 years later (see entry for MARCH 4, 1985), the tribe and New York have been unable to negotiate a settlement. To spur on the state to reach an agreement, the U. S. government files an amended complaint that names the 20,000 landowners living in the disputed area as defendants. The suit outrages many non-Indians in the area, some of whom already resent the Oneida’s growing nontaxable income from their recently opened Turning Stone Casino. (See also entry for MARCH 29, 2005.)
World History
