NDN News – Daily Headlines in Indian Country

(Albuquerque, New Mexico) – AMERIND Risk continues its five year trend at number three on the Albuquerque Business First Book of Lists – top 25 American Indian-owned Businesses. AMERIND Risk is proud to be recognized as one of the largest revenue generating Native-owned businesses based in the Albuquerque, New Mexico market.

The listing, like AMERIND Risk, is unique.

“Yes, Albuquerque is the only market with specific lists for American Indian-owned businesses. The majority of the other markets have a single minority-owned business list only,” said Jessica R. Pomerantz, Researcher, at Albuquerque Business First.

AMERIND Risk has been in the top five spots in seven of the last eight years according to Pomerantz.

On May 4, 2012, the Department of State received a new application from TransCanada Corp. for a proposed pipeline that would run from the Canadian border to connect to an existing pipeline in Steele City, Nebraska. The new application includes proposed new routes through the state of Nebraska.

The Department’s responsibility, under Executive Order 13337, is to determine if granting a permit for the proposed pipeline is in the national interest. We will consider this new application on its merits. Consistent with the Executive Order, this involves consideration of many factors, including energy security, health, environmental, cultural, economic, and foreign policy concerns.

In accordance with its interim guidance, the Department of State selected Environmental Resources Management (known as “ERM”) to serve as an independent third-party contractor for its environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project. ERM is assisting the Department in conducting a thorough analysis of both the new route in Nebraska (in cooperation with the State of Nebraska) and any other relevant information that has become available.

On September 7, 2012, the Department of State received an environmental report from the applicant, TransCanada Corp. It is a normal part of the federal environmental review process for the private company applying for a permit to submit its own initial analysis of the environmental issues relevant to its proposal.

On January 22, 2013, the Department of State received notice from Governor Heineman of the State of Nebraska that he had accepted the route recommended by the Nebraska state route review process.

We are conducting our review in a rigorous, transparent, and efficient manner. We will continue to coordinate with relevant State and Federal agencies in the review of TransCanada’s new application for a Presidential Permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

UPDATE

• On March 1, 2013, the Department of State posted a copy of the Environmental Resources Management (ERM) contract and organizational conflicts of interest disclosures.
  • The documents are available at http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/admindocs/index.htm
• On March 1, 2013, the Department of State published a Media Note announcing the release of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/03/205548.htm
• On March 1, 2013, the Department of State published a Fact Sheet regarding the release of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/draftseis/205549.htm
• On March 1, 2013, the Department of State released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the new Presidential Permit application for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
  • The Draft SEIS is available at: http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/draftseis/index.htm.

The Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement has been prepared consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The document is a draft technical review of potential environmental impacts. The Draft SEIS includes a comprehensive review of the new route in Nebraska as well as any significant new circumstances or information that is now available on the largely unchanged route in Montana and South Dakota. It also expands and updates information that had been included in the 2011 Final Environmental Impact Statement that was prepared for the previous Keystone XL application. It does not make any recommendations on whether the pipeline should be approved or denied.

Once the Draft SEIS has been published by the EPA, the public will have 45 days to comment on the document. Those comments can be addressed to the following mailbox: keystonecomments@state.gov.

Survivors Association meets to discuss land sale

By Brandon Ecoffey

Native Sun News Managing Editor

RAPID CITY— As the May 1 deadline for tribes to acquire the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre approaches both seller and tribal members are beginning to get restless.

During the past week there has been movement by both concerned community members who held a traditional Lakota style meeting on the issue, and by Jim Czywczynski owner of the two parcels of land where the Wounded Knee massacre took place in 1890.

On Tuesday March 26, members of the Wounded Knee Survivors Association met with concerned community members about the Wounded Knee issue and emerged with a solid position that as descendants they do not want the land developed.

The change would open doors for non-Natives claim authenticity

By Brandon Ecoffey

Native Sun News Staff writer

WASHINGTON—An amendment proposed to the Native American Arts and Craft act  by Rep Nick Rahall (D-WV) if passed would potentially remove protections from Native American artisans across the country and allow for non-Tribal members to label work they create as “Native American produced”.

The Indian Arts and Craft Act which was originally established in 1990 prohibits the marketing of American Indian and Alaskan Native arts and crafts as authentic unless it is produced by a federally or state recognized tribal member.

The changes proposed by Rep Rahall would insert in to the law language that would allow for members of a non-profit Indian organizations and individuals who are not enrolled members of a recognized tribe to claim authenticity.

World Water Day serves as jumping off point
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor

VICAM, Sonora, Mexico – While conservationists have been busy as beavers building micro dams to restore the boundary watershed that feeds the Yaqui River, officials just south of the U.S.-Mexico border have been busy trying to siphon off the flow for the purpose of industry and urban uses. But now representatives of the Yaqui Tribe, heir to the water rights here in the Great Sonora Desert, are stepping up to protect the binational basin.

On World Water Day March 22, Yaqui traditional authorities launched an international petition drive to catch the eyes of Mexican Supreme Court justices who face a decision on the tribe’s standing to intervene in an aqueduct construction dispute now two years old.

“World Water Day is a very opportune date to recall that access to drinking water is a human right recognized by the Constitution, which should be guaranteed by the Mexican state. In this context, we call upon the justices of the court to make a decision that assures our access to water, as well as respect for the right of indigenous peoples and other communities to information and consultation,” the authorities of Vicam said in a written declaration.

Trail of Death Caravan Sept. 23-28, 2013

Trail of Death Commemorative Caravan from Indiana to Kansas will take place Sept. 23-28, 2013. See www.potawatomi-tda.org for tentative schedule and motels. Print out the registration form to sign up to go.

The caravan is formed every 5 years to retrace the Potawatomi forced removal of 1838, the Trail of Death. The caravan traveled in 1988, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2008. All 26 counties in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas are invited to participate. There are now 80 trail of Death historical markers, making it most likely the best marked historical trail in the US and the world. Historic highway signs have been erected on the Indiana and Kansas portion of the Trail of Death and parts of Illinois and Missouri.

Caravan members will dedicate several new historical markers: Spring Hill, Kansas, and Trading Post, Kansas. Interested persons are welcome to join the caravan at any time and travel half a day or all the way.

The caravan is sponsored by the Potawatomi Trail of Death Assn, a branch of Fulton County Historical Society, Rochester, Indiana, and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Shawnee, Oklahoma. For more information call Shirley Willard, 574-223-2352 or email wwillard@rtcol.com.

For more information and action alert about HB143 and other Bills threatening the wild buffalo, please visit Buffalo Field Campaigns website