Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities.  NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  Don’t miss the biggest event in Native Hawaiian community development!  Register now for the 4th Annual Native Hawaiian Conference from August 30 – September 2 2005 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.  Special scholarships are available.  For conference registration, scholarship forms, and for information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site at: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

 

July 6, 2005

 

 

 

July 6, 2005

 

Native America Calling to Feature Native Hawaiians’ Struggle for Recognition

 

Set your alarms for 7:00 am Hawaii time on Thursday, July 7, 2005, and find an on-line radio link at www.nativeamericacalling.com/nac_listen.shtml to listen to Jade Danner and Kekuni Blaisdell discuss S. 147, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005, and hear comments from callers from throughout Native America.  The show will address questions such as:  1) what does this bill mean for Native Hawaiians; 2) how will it differ from the federal recognition status enjoyed by Native American tribes on the mainland; and 3) how will Native Hawaiian enrollment criteria be established?

 

The answers to these and other questions are very important for all of Native America to understand as the U.S. Senate will soon take a roll call vote on S. 147 which is also known as the “Akaka Bill” for its sponsor, Senator Daniel Akaka (HI).

 

Jade Danner is the Information and Government Affairs Manager at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement has been conducting educational workshops and informational briefings on the Akaka Bill throughout Hawaii and at several venues in the continental U.S.  Kekuni Blaisdell is from the Kanaka Maoli Tribunal Komike and Ka Pakaukau, advocates Hawaiian independence on an international level, and is a supporter of a declaration condemning the Akaka Bill.

 

Native America Calling (the National Electronic Talking Circle) airs live Monday through Friday, 1:00 to 2:00 pm EST (7:00 to 8:00 am Hawaii).  To participate, call 1-800-99NATIV (1-800-996-2848).

 

For more information about the Akaka Bill, please contact the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement at info@hawaiiancouncil.org or 808.521.5011.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, July 1, 2005

 

Leases issued to 320 Maui families

 

Associated Press

The state has issued homestead leases on Maui to 320 Native Hawaiian families, some of whom have been on the waiting list for more than 25 years.

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands said it planned to build the project in Waiohuli in Upcountry Maui in four 80-home phases, with the last set to begin in 2008.

"By providing time, our beneficiaries will be able to get their finances in order, which has been one of the major roadblocks for accepting a lease award," department director Micah Kane said. "We have initiated this program to help those who need to get financially qualified for a home mortgage."

The project is being developed under a department program that allows a beneficiary to accept a lease without first having to financially qualify for a mortgage.

As the project is being developed, the department said it will provide financial guidance under another program to help correct credit problems, to create savings accounts and to begin reducing debt.

The department said it was looking to provide opportunities for 6,000 homestead beneficiaries over the next five years.

 

 

 

 

July 6, 2005

 

Lingle pushing Akaka Bill

 

The governor might make a lobbying trip to Washington

 

By B.J. Reyes
bjreyes@starbulletin.com

Gov. Linda Lingle said she is continuing to lobby for the Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill in Congress, but she has not decided whether to fly to Capitol Hill to address federal lawmakers in person when they begin debating the measure.

Senate Republicans have agreed to allow a floor vote on the Akaka Bill by early August. Floor debate could begin as early as next week.

Lingle said she spoke with 10 Republican senators by phone on Thursday and Friday, about a week after GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona criticized the bill in comments submitted to the Congressional Record and reprinted by the Republican Policy Committee.

"I got good responses," Lingle said. She did not identify the 10 senators she spoke with.

"I was calling them on the one hand to make certain that those who were co-sponsors didn't have any new questions that had come since Sen. Kyl's papers and they were all very firm in their support so that was good," Lingle said. "Then I talked with a few other Republican senators that I hadn't been able to talk with previously and all of them were open minded about it and that was a plus as well."

The Akaka Bill -- named after its key sponsor, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii -- defines a process in which the federal government, through the Department of the Interior, would recognize a native Hawaiian governing body.

Kyl called it "the creation of race-based government for native Hawaiians" and warned that it could lead to Hawaii leaving the union.

He previously blocked a Senate vote on the measure, but agreed to permit a vote this summer after meeting earlier this year with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

Lingle called Kyl's characterization of the bill "wrong" and said she would consider another trip to Washington to lobby support for the measure. Lingle has made similar efforts on past trips to the nation's capital.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Thursday, June 30, 2005

 

Campus exudes old-school aloha

 

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Education Writer

Ni'ihau's tiny public school is like no other in Hawai'i, and serves a unique community with true old-school aloha, say officials who oversee it.

The privately owned island west of Kaua'i has about 200 residents, and the student body at Ni'ihau High and Elementary School usually numbers less than 50.

Classes are taught in three rustic wooden buildings, and under a nearby shade tree on especially hot days. A larger building serves as a meeting hall and cafeteria.

Six students graduated from the school this year: Chelsea Kanahele, Kawaihoola Kanahele, Stacy Kelley, Stephanie Pahulehua, Thomas Niau and Racine Shintani.

The Ni'ihau dialect is the primary language of all students, and differs somewhat from the Hawaiian spoken on other islands. Students also speak English, and classes are taught in both languages, said school principal Bill Arakaki.

The students have often been characterized as among the state's best-behaved. Disciplinary problems that other schools constantly grapple with are virtually unheard of on Ni'ihau, and Arakaki said there has not been a single serious disruption in the six years he has served as principal.

"It's a culture that's very supportive, and the kids are quite different," he said.

The school, and all of Ni'ihau, are strictly off-limits to outsiders unless they have special permission from the island's owners, the Robinson family, whose forebears purchased Ni'ihau from King Kamehameha IV in 1864.

The Robinsons have been very helpful and cooperative regarding the needs of the school and those responsible for it, said Arakaki, who administers the school from Kaua'i, where he is also principal of Waimea High School.

"It's a unique situation because we have a public school on a private island," Arakaki said. "It's also a remote island, so there are many challenges for the students and the community there. There's no running water or (constant) electrical power. We don't have the luxuries of what we have here on Kaua'i or on O'ahu."

The school's water comes from catchment basins, and roof-mounted solar panels create electricity to operate three computers.

"We're trying to meet the challenges for the school, as far as the basic needs that most schools take for granted," Arakaki said.

Arakaki visits Ni'ihau's school an average of twice a year, and communicates regularly with its two on-site teachers, Jennifer Kaohelaulii and Lulubelle Kelley, who are from Ni'ihau and speak the local dialect. The school also has three educational assistants and a cafeteria helper, also from Ni'ihau.

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto has visited Ni'ihau's school three times since she was appointed in 2001, most recently for the 2005 graduation ceremony, a major event for the island.

"I find Ni'ihau School to be a school that's the center of a community that cares about and supports education, and wants children to be literate and to be able to access choices, should they choose to leave Ni'ihau," Hamamoto said. "The desire to learn is strong, and education is greatly valued on Ni'ihau."

Like many schools, Ni'ihau High and Elementary faces challenges with new teacher qualification requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Hamamoto said the state strongly supports efforts of Ni'ihau's teachers to meet those requirements, and that she regards the teachers highly.

"They care about the students and ensure they get their work done," Hamamoto said. "They push them when they need to, and they don't accept excuses."

The larger Ni'ihau community also deserves credit for students' successes, she said.

"It's a very supportive environment," Hamamoto said. "For all its remoteness, we're proud of the work that they do, by making education a priority for their children and their community. It speaks well for their community."

In many ways, visiting the school is like experiencing Hawai'i's past, Arakaki said.

"It's a gem," he said. "It's a beautiful setting, and the kids are wonderful. It just takes you back in time. ... When you come to civilization, as they call it, you've got all these problems and things. When you go to Ni'ihau, it's like you're in a different world. You wish you could stay in that era, and it's something that refreshes you and makes you say, 'This is nice.' "

What are you most proud of? "They preserve the history and culture of an island community that should be respected," said Arakaki.

Best-kept secret: The school itself; visits to the privately owned island are rare.

Everybody at our school knows: Teachers Jennifer Kaohelaulii and Lulubelle Kelley.

Our biggest challenge: Things other schools take for granted, such as electricity and telecommunications.

What we need: Various resources to help students in their studies.

Special events: Winter assembly and graduation. The whole community comes out for these great celebrations that include music, dancing and oration in English and the Ni'ihau dialect.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.

 

At a glance

School address: Near the village of Pu'uwai, on Ni'ihau. Mail and other communications are received through Waimea High School on Kaua'i.

Phone number: No telephone service available.

Principal: Bill Arakaki, who is also principal of Waimea High School on Kaua'i.

School nickname: None

School colors: Colors for the Class of 2006 are maroon and white. Colors may change from year to year.

Testing: Here's how Ni'ihau High and Elementary School students fared on the most recent standardized tests. (Scores for third, fifth and 10th grade were withheld due to small number of students tested.)

• Stanford Achievement Test: Listed is the combined percentage of students scoring average and above average, compared with the national combined average of 77 percent. Eighth-grade reading, 67 percent; math, 67 percent.

• Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards tests: Listed is the combined percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards, compared with the state average. Eighth-grade math, 0 percent; state average, 20 percent. (No reading scores available.)

History: Protestant missionaries based on Kaua'i established several small schools on Ni'ihau in 1829, and Catholic missionaries established others in 1841. The first public school was built in 1900, and most early classes were for elementary-age students. Additional classrooms and grade levels were added later. The first high-school class, of two students, graduated in 1990. Six students graduated this year.

Computers: Three computers, but no Internet access due to lack of telephones.

Total enrollment: 36 students in 2005.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Monday, July 4, 2005

 

Hawai'i voyagers set sights on O'ahu

 

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

HANALEI, Kaua'i — The Hawaiian voyaging canoes Hokule'a and Hokualaka'i are expected to sail from Kaua'i to O'ahu next weekend after a joint voyage last month to Nihoa and Mokumanamana Islands in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The canoes sailed in tandem June 17 from Hanalei Bay, stopping overnight in the western lee of Nihoa Island, and again at Mokumanamana. A team of Hawaiian cultural experts, led by Big Island cultural educator Pua Kanahele, participated in the voyage. Members of the group, Kupu'eu Pae Moku, conducted ceremonies on both islands.

Hawaiian noninstrument navigator Chad Baybayan served as captain on the Hokualaka'i, which is just a year old, and Russell Amimoto skippered Hokule'a in his first major voyage in command. Hokule'a is 30 years old this year. The canoes stayed close to each other, and Baybayan navigated for both.

"It was a very rewarding trip for me, in terms of all the different layers that were involved: sailing with my crew, seeing the crew growth, having Russell take command of Hokule'a and to navigate Hokualaka'i (without instruments) for the first time and hit those targets," Baybayan said.

He said the canoes left Hanalei about 10 a.m., sailed through the day and night, and spotted Nihoa at 11:30 a.m. the next day. They left Nihoa at dawn and spotted Mokumanamana at dawn the next day.

The next night, the crews had a full moon during the summer solstice, and those on the boats could hear the cultural group chanting on the island, said Kaimana Barcarse, a video and still photographer with 'Aha Punana Leo, the Hawaiian-language school program that owns Hokualaka'i.

"An awesome experience," Barcarse said.

Hawaiian cultural practitioner Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole said that the opportunity to visit and conduct ceremonies among the archaeological structures on Mokumanamana was a moving experience.

"We achieved time travel. How do you explain such an intense spiritual connection?" he said. "In a lot of our chants, that is the edge of our universe."

Baybayan said the upright stones placed by early Polynesians on the spine of the island were clearly visible from the canoes.

"It was like you were in some kind of sacred presence," Baybayan said. "Seeing those islands, for the first time I understood the reason for creating a reserve up there."

The canoes traveled the entire distance to Mokumanamana under sail, escorted by the powered vessels Double Barrel and Kamahele. They were towed part of the way back to Hanalei due to contrary winds. They sailed back into the bay June 24 and tied up alongside the Hanalei Pier.

The canoe crews have been giving tours to school groups and others while in the bay. Yesterday, Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson, who did not participate in the Mokumanamana sail, took Hokule'a sailing with several dozen Girl Scouts, their leaders and a few others.

The canoes were to sail from Hanalei to Nawiliwili this weekend in preparation for next weekend's passage to Ke'ehi Lagoon on O'ahu.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.

 

 

 

 

Posted: June 24, 2005

 

Challenge for trust reform measures met

 

by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today

 

WASHINGTON - When Congress asked Indian country leaders to unite and develop a plan for trust reform, Indian country met the challenge. Now the ball is back in Congress' court.

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Vice Chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. and House Resource Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., threw down the gauntlet - and the result is a set of 50 principles adopted by a national tribal task force that gives Congress guidelines for developing legislation to change how the Department of Interior does business with Indian country.

Congress received the list of principles for consideration.

''Now they [Congress] have to deliver, and if they deviate from what we asked for we will not accept that,'' said Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff for Cobell v. Norton.

A settlement amount of $27.5 billion is one of the principles extended to the government. According to some accounting experts, the actual figure the U.S. government owes to tribal members is close to $175 billion: a highly debated amount.

''That is what I would like to see, but how many people will die before we get that?'' Cobell asked.

''My main concern is to try to get people paid who are older, who have been victimized by this horrible management. I will never go less than $27 billion,'' Cobell said.

The largest class action suit ever filed against the federal government lists 500,000 tribal members who are leased-land payment (Individual Indian Money accounts, or IIMs) recipients who either have not received any, or just a portion, of what they are owed. IIMs - money that individual Indian land owners should have received for grazing, agriculture and mineral leases on their family lands - are not part of a federal funding program.

''We won the trust reform. It was one of the first victories and it has to be done,'' Cobell said.

The plaintiffs have won every judgment in Cobell v. Norton and the result is that Interior has engaged in reform measures that have been neither adequate nor acceptable to the court, nor to Congress.

Dan DuBray, Department of Interior spokesman, accused the plaintiffs of changing the goals midstream.

''They sued to achieve an accounting and the department has spent $100 million on an historical accounting. Now they're saying that's not the goal. It's an odd turn of events,'' DuBray told The Associated Press.

Former Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb said there would have to be an agreed settlement because of a problem in finding all source documents to obtain historic accountability. McCaleb admitted the government could not do an accounting.

''I don't know how long Interior can continue to lie to the court. They say the security system is in place and we find out they have nothing; their own inspector general said nothing was fixed,'' said Cobell.

''In the private sector you wouldn't get away with that: you would be in jail.''

She said that until there are severe sanctions imposed against Interior, and as long as Congress continues to let the department get by with inaction, nothing will change.

The first principle addresses the historical accounting of individual Indian trust accounts. Congress needs to appropriate the funding necessary to repay the individuals. The task force stated that to take money out of Interior or the BIA's budget to repay the recipients would be unjust.

The principle requests a permanent and indefinite appropriation. Since an accurate accounting is impossible, the principles suggest a lump-sum amount that reflects the aggregate correction of accounts be adopted as the settlement figure.

Further, legislation should affirm and spell out specific standards for the administration of trust funds and transactions with clarity of the fiduciary duties that must be administered in accordance with law.

The task force report suggested the creation of an independent executive branch entity to provide oversight and enforcement for federal trust administration, a branch that could not diminish tribal governments' inherent sovereign authority. This entity would theoretically be separate from Interior and prohibited from engaging in trust management functions.

The principles requested that the Deputy Secretary of Indian Affairs manage and administer IIMs. The position would ideally have oversight of the Office of Special Trustee, and consultation with the tribes would take place before appointing anyone to the position.

One of the most contentious parts of trust reform and

management of trust assets is the fractionation of land. The principles request that consolidation of such land take place. A buyback program for highly fractionated lands would give the secretary the authority to purchase such land from individuals at a rate higher than the market value.

Another principal suggested that tribal governments be allowed to repurchase fractionated lands allowing flexibility for cultural needs and priorities.

A recommendation for any such legislation would be to affirm that land consolidation payments would not diminish eligibility for federal benefits such as TANF, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and Veterans Affairs benefits; and that such payment should not be taxable.

Finally, the principles recommended that Congress provide a fair offer to the trust recipients which would fairly reimburse the individuals for decades of mismanagement, and that mismanagement should be treated much the same as the savings and loan was handled.

One very important point made by the principles calls for Congress to ensure that individuals who wish to seek redress for federal mismanagement of their trust resources will not have their rights involuntarily terminated.

''The federal government's mismanagement of the Indian trust system for the past 125 years has brought tremendous damage and loss to Native American tribes and individuals across the Unites States,'' said Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians and one of the leaders who participated in the task force.

''This national injustice has today resulted in a historic union of Indian nations across the country and individual Indian allottee organizations who are rallying together behind these principles which stand for fairness, accountability, restitution and honesty,'' Hall said.

For a complete list of the principles, visit www.indiantrust.com.

 

 

 

 

Posted: June 28, 2005

 

Researcher reveals new face of Indian country

 

by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - With the publication of the new, second edition, ''Tiller's Guide to Indian Country,'' Jicarilla Apache businessman Veronica Velarde Tiller said there is a demand for research and literature revealing the complex issues facing modern-day American Indian tribes.

''Historians seem to be stuck on Indian wars of the 19th century or Indian chiefs. Popular culture seems to be stuck on arts and crafts and Indian spirituality,'' Tiller told Indian Country Today.

''We have modern governments; we have issues of law and issues of legislation. Yet the misconceptions continue,'' said Tiller, CEO and owner of Tiller Research Inc. in Albuquerque.

'''Tiller's Guide' comes from my passion to let the public know that Indian tribes still exist today. We have viable communities and functioning governments; our economies do contribute to the nation's well-being. In some areas, tribes are the main economic employers.''

Tiller said many people believe today that all Indians are casino rich. In reality, the 562 federally recognized Indian tribes run the gamut, from very poor to very rich.

''The rich ones have budgets to hire public relations agents, own newspapers and make their issues known. Whoever can get to the media is in the media. But the poor people don't have access to the media.''

Popular media take their clues from the Indian media and the misconceptions continue.

''There is a need to inform the public of the reality of the existence of Indian country today. People don't know that Indian tribes exist in their

own neighborhoods.''

While the first edition was 700 pages, the new edition is 1,136 pages and includes information on media and tribal Web sites. The book, The book, published by Tiller's BowArrow Publishing Company and distributed

by the University of New Mexico Press, includes Indian honors presented by Harvard University's Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Featuring 562 Indian tribes in 33 states, ''Tiller's Guide to Indian Country'' includes information on Indian lands, including treaty status, executive orders, allotted lands and tribally owned lands. It gives readers an idea of the complexity of land ownership in Indian country, she said.

Further, some Indian nations, such as those in Minnesota, have jurisdiction over hunting and fishing rights extending beyond their physical boundaries.

Although the first edition did not include pronunciation of the names of Indian tribes, the second edition does, particularly helpful to visitors to Alaskan tribes. Tiller said her own tribe, Jicarilla Apache in northwestern New Mexico, is often mispronounced as ''Gik-a-rilla'' instead of ''Hek-a-REH-ya.''

Tiller sent Indian tribes draft copies of their information before publication. Of those, 75 percent responded with additions, corrections and deletions. The last-minute updates delayed the publication of ''Tiller's Guide'' by four months.

The final results are worth it.

Featuring a new CD version of ''Tiller's Guide to Indian Country,'' the new edition is on its way to bookstores.

Reflecting on her life, Tiller said, ''I was born and raised on the reservation.'' After receiving her bachelor's degree in Political Science at the University of New Mexico, she received her master's degree and doctoral degree in American History there.

Her dissertation, ''The History of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe,'' was published as a book. It is now published by Tiller Research's BowArrow Publishing Co.

Tiller taught at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where she served on the faculty and taught American Indian history between 1976 and 1980 with responsibilities that included teaching, public service and writing for publication.

During these years in Utah, she taught American Indian history at the undergraduate and graduate levels. At that time across the nation, American Indian history classes taught by American Indians outside of a Native Studies curriculum were extremely rare.

Tiller realized there was a void in American history: a lack of modern-day history of American Indian tribes. ''After the 1930s, there was little or no information. I realized the need for updated information on Indian tribes.''

Currently, federal agencies are the number one purchaser of ''Tiller's Guide,'' first published in 1996. Colleges and universities are the second most frequent purchaser of the guide, followed by the business sector - including lawyers, architects and others doing business with Indian nations - and finally national Indian organizations and the general public.

While research and publication is Tiller's primary focus, she has also testified as an expert witness in the area of Indian history, in trials ranging from Indian water rights to historical racism from non-Indians in Indian country.

Tiller's dream now is to begin a series of books on American Indian women, including the unsung heroes of the Indian fishing struggle in the Northwest, and recent Indian leaders.

''We need to create our own histories, our own literature. We need to define the issues we want to talk about.''

For more information, visit http://www.tillerresearch.com.

 

 

 

 

June 29, 2005

 

Wi-Fi Installation Covers Entire Native American Reservation

 

One demonstration convinced the Coeur d'Alene tribe to install broadband Internet access throughout its reservation in Idaho.

 

By TechWeb News

All it took was a wireless demonstration utilizing a base station configuration that provided Wi-Fi coverage over 13 miles to prompt the Coeur d'Alene tribe to install Broadband Internet access to cover the tribe's entire reservation in Idaho.

The installation of 16 high-powered Vivato base stations will provide Internet access in and around the reservation. "Having access to broadband technology will change our lives as dramatically as having horses changed our ancestors' lives," said Valerie Fast Horse in a statement. Ms. Fast Horse, who is information systems director for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, said tribal members who don't have computers can use the tribe's Community Technology Center, which has 40 computers.

The Vivato system, which delivers 802.11g wireless to users, features phased array antennas that transmit long distances " 12 times as far as competing Wi-Fi systems, according to the firm.

The reservation covers some 345,000 acres of farm country along the western edge of the Rocky Mountains in northern Idaho.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 9:47 AM CDT

 

Tribe offers workshop on raising grandkids

 

By Teddye Snell, Press Staff Writer

Darlene Morton clutched her 10-month-old grandson, Ethan, on her lap while her granddaughter, Alivia, 7, fidgeted in her chair.

"I want a balloon, too, grandma," said Alivia.

Morton smiled, and told her granddaughter to volunteer.

Morton is no stranger to raising children. She has joined the more than 2.4 million grandparents identified by the 2000 U.S. Census as primary caregivers to a grandchild.

Recognizing the need for camaraderie and instruction, Cherokee Nation Human Services provided a fun-filled workshop Monday at the tribal complex for grandparents raising their grandchildren.

Norma Merriman, executive director for Cherokee Nation Human Services, paid homage to the grandparents attending.

"Alex Haley once said something about grandparents that I would like to repeat to you today," said Merriman. "Haley said, 'Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.' I'm so glad you are here today."

Lisa James, program coordinator, said Cherokee Nation Elder Services had recently received a $49,000 family caregivers grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging, to provide services to caregivers of elderly tribal citizens or those who are raising their grandchildren.

"We decided our grandparents would benefit so much from this," said James. "This is our first event, but we hope to make an annual occurrence."

James said the event was held to help grandparents form support groups and obtain information about services available from the Cherokee Nation.

"We've encouraged all the grandparents to bring their grandchildren with them," said James. "We'll have a booth for face painting and lots of prizes and games for the children to play while their grandparents visit with our other vendors.

Vendors participating in the day-long event included Help-In-Crisis, Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation, the Cherokee Nation Anti-Meth Coalition, Cherokee Nation WIC, Cherokee Nation Indian Child Welfare and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, to name only a few. Each vendor had information for grandparents and trinkets and toys for the kids.

Merriman said many tribal citizens may be unaware of benefits available through the Cherokee Nation.

"Please visit with Cherokee Nation Elder Services personnel today," said Merriman. "We have stipends available for baby-sitting so you can take a rest every once in a while. Being older, it's not as easy raising children and we recognize and understand. Everyone needs a short break now and then."

The 2000 Census was the first to track such grandparent living arrangements. The closest it had come in the past was to estimate the percentage of children under 18 living in a grandparent-headed home. That was 6.3 percent in 2000, compared with 5.5. percent in 1990, 3.6 percent in 1980, and 3.2 percent in 1970.

The data, however, did not cover how many of those grandparents were the main caregivers for their grandchildren. The Census long form asked if a grandparent was responsible for most of the basic needs of a grandchild in the home. "Yes" was the answer from 42 percent of nearly 5.8 million grandparents living with a grandchild. Of all 50 states participating in the census, Wyoming and Oklahoma had the highest numbers of grandparents serving in parental roles to grandchildren, at 59 percent.

According to Amy Goyer of the Grandparents Information Center with AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans, grandparents often step in after a child's parents lose contact or end up in jail. Others assume responsibility when a child's parents die or divorce. These situations can leave many grandmothers and grandfathers with unforeseen financial burdens.

Paralegal Judy Marzullo and attorney Laci Klinger manned the Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma booth during the seminar.

"We just want grandparents to know we have services available to them, too," said Marzullo. "We offer advice and referrals if we can't help them."

Klinger agreed.

"Sometimes, grandparents have no idea what recourse they have under the law," said Klinger. "It's my job to help them find some sense of peace."

Ella Mae Collins, grandmother of Christopher, 8, and Krystal, 6, has managed to find happiness amid trying times.

"I've had both of them [grandchildren] living with me since they were babies," said Collins. "I couldn't be more proud of them. They're precious to me."

Grandparents aren't the only tribal citizens who may need assistance. Ellen Guttillo, Cherokee Nation Child Welfare specialist, said they are constantly searching for foster parents for Cherokee children.

"We're hoping we can spark some interest in raising foster children," said Guttillo. "Grandparents make really wonderful foster parents. We try to place Native American children who are in the foster care system with Native American foster families, in order to keep their heritage in place, and who better to teach them than tribal elders?"

Get involved

The Cherokee Nation Child Care Resource Center has a new pilot program, "Sparking Connections." The program is a home- and community-based project with enhanced services and incentives that will help providers meet the needs of children in their care. Focus areas include school readiness skills, improved health and safety and Cherokee language and culture. For more information, contact Arlene Greenawalt at (888) 458-7613, ext. 234, or Marilyn Ballard at (888) 458-7613, ext. 253.

 

 

 

 

IN DEPTH: HEALTH

From the July 1, 2005 print edition

 

Law ends government oversight of Native Hawaiian healing practices

 

Clynton Namuo

Pacific Business News

A new state law bars government oversight of Native Hawaiian healers, leaving it up to so-called "kupuna councils" comprising experts in the field.

While kupuna councils had been used to oversee Native Hawaiian healers in the past, they were regulated as state agencies because they were commissioned through Papa Ola Lokahi, a Native Hawaiian health agency. Papa Ola Lokahi institutes Native Hawaiian health programs with federal funding from the Native Hawaiian Healthcare Act of 1988.

The new law, Act 153, removes anyone on a kupuna council from liability and gives the councils total independence from state government oversight.

"This finally cut the last tie to state regulation," said Terry Shintani, a physician and lawyer who helped draft the legislation. "It makes the kupuna councils as independent as possible."

Previous attempts to regulate Native Hawaiian healing, such as licensing, failed, Shintani said.

Native Hawaiian healing is a closely guarded practice, handed down through families. Because of that, regulation traditionally has come from elders, not government. The law codifies that practice.

Kupuna councils can consist of any number of members, as long as at least three are proficient in Native Hawaiian healing methods. The councils will continue to be chosen by Papa Ola Lokahi and will regulate practices such as lomi lomi (massage), laau lapaau (herbal healing), laau kahea (spiritual healing), hooponopono (conflict resolution) and pule (prayer healing).

The councils also were created to keep inexperienced "New Age" people from claiming they were Native Hawaiian healers, Shintani said.

As kupuna council members grow older, some have promised to teach their practices to people other than family members. One kupuna council, created at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, has seen three of its eight members die since 2000, said Helen O'Connor assistant to the director of the Traditional Native Hawaiian Healing Center.

The Waianae health center is constructing a building solely for Native Hawaiian healing, which will be completed in one year, O'Connor said. The center's kupuna council goes beyond simply choosing who can practice Native Hawaiian healing as it also regulates the protocols there, she said.

cnamuo@bizjournals.com | 955-8001

 

 

 

 

Jul. 3, 2005 12:00 AM

 

In Arizona, 3 programs point to hope

 

Judy Nichols
The Arizona Republic

The sun had set when Melvin Harrison walked up to a grocery store on the Navajo Reservation.

Word was getting around that Harrison was trying to get help for sick people.

A young man, very thin, touched him on the arm and asked for a hug.

He wouldn't let go.

"I have AIDS," he said.

"OK," Harrison said. "That's OK."

Harrison shivered.

"I hadn't seen one of my own people like this. I hadn't been so close to someone. It was shocking to me."

It was 1988.

Arizona, with the largest Indian reservations in the country, is home to more than 250,000 Native Americans.

It ranks third in the number of cases of Native Americans with AIDS: 289 by the end of 2003.

And it has some of the oldest and most innovative AIDS programs for Native Americans.

Harrison started one of the first grass-roots organizations.

The Navajo Nation had one of the first tribal programs.

And today, that fight continues with an HIV Center of Excellence at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, the largest program serving Native Americans with AIDS in the country.

Still, the feared explosion of cases could overwhelm them.

Harrison is neither gay nor HIV positive. He served in the military and thought about becoming a lawyer until alcohol and drugs took hold of him.

He first heard about HIV and AIDS in rehab in 1987.

"It scared the heck out of me," he said. "I asked who was doing the work out here on the reservation.

"They told me, 'It will never get here. It's a White man's disease.'

"But there were already four cases of HIV on the reservation."

Harrison took his son to the edge of Canyon de Chelly, a place sacred to Native Americans.

"I asked the Creator to give me something to do. I hurt lots of people when I was on drugs. I wanted to give something back."

He helped found the Navajo AIDS Network.

In the beginning, no one wanted to hear about AIDS.

"Elders here were telling me not to talk about it. They said, 'You're wishing it on us.'

"I was chased out of buildings. But I kept at it."

Today, the organization has a budget of $250,000, less than it used to have, and a staff of five.

It provides case management to about 60 clients across miles of open reservation with no phone or mass transportation.

Concerns about AIDS increased in 2003, when Dr. Jonathan Iralu, infectious-disease consultant for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service in Gallup, N.M., found the first cases of transmission on the reservation.

He sounded the alarm again when he saw an epidemic of syphilis cases, indicating unprotected sex that could spread HIV.

In 1999, there were two syphilis cases; in 2003, a staggering 93.

That year also saw 24 new HIV/AIDS cases.

The Navajo Nation declared a public health emergency.

After a brief foray into treatment programs in the 1980s, the Navajo Nation now concentrates on prevention, with five health educators.

"If you look at it as a war, we're not winning or losing," said Darrell Joe, acting coordinator of the HIV Prevention Program. "We're strategizing, planning, figuring out ways for effective combat as opposed to just running out there and shooting randomly."

The program now spends about $200,000 a year.

They are working with a meth task force in the Fort Defiance area, targeting at-risk groups, planning screening programs for hospital and jail populations and doing general education.

The HIV Center of Excellence in Phoenix serves 117 patients, more than twice the 53 it had when it opened in 1996.

But the challenge is not just more patients but more long-term, complex care, said Dr. Charlton Wilson, who worked as a physician for the Indian Health Service for years before helping found the center.

"Before 1996, the typical AIDS case came in at a very late stage," Wilson said. "It didn't require much in the way of resources because people didn't live very long."

Now, with new drugs, people are living much longer.

"We're providing ongoing chronic care to patients with multiple medical needs, multiple social and behavioral needs," he said.

The center, which has a budget of about $1.75 million a year, provides outpatient care, drugs and case management.

It also consults with clinics across the Southwest.

"This is about ongoing chronic need," Wilson said. "And if it continues to grow as it has been, doubling in a four- to five-year period, we're way under-resourced to provide that care."

The man who first walked up to Melvin Harrison at the grocery store lived only 10 more months.

Harrison drove him to doctor's appointments and sat by his bedside.

One night, the man held Harrison's hand. "Melvin, it's time for me to check out," he said.

Tears were running down his face.

"I'll get a medicine man," Harrison told him. "We'll go to church."

"No," he said, gripping his hand.

"Keep doing what you're doing. Navajo people need you"

Harrison didn't believe the man would die.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Harrison said. "You're not going to check out." He pointed at him and left.

The man died that night.

He never told his family he had AIDS; his death certificate said cancer.

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 2, 2005

 

Patients' diversity often discounted in psychiatric diagnosis, treatment

 

By Shankar Vedantam / The Washington Post

 

WASHINGTON -- When UCLA researchers reviewed the best available studies of psychiatric drugs for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder, they found that the trials had involved 9,327 patients over the years. When the team looked to see how many patients were Native Americans, the answer was ...

 

Zero.

 

"I don't know of a single trial in the last 10 to 15 years that has been published regarding the efficacy of a pharmacological agent in treating a serious mental disorder in American Indians," said Spero Manson, a psychiatrist who heads the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Aurora. "It is stunning."

 

Native Americans are not the only group for whom psychiatrists write prescriptions with fingers crossed, the researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles found as they reviewed the data for a U.S. surgeon general's report: Of 3,980 patients in antidepressant studies, only two were Hispanic. Of 2,865 schizophrenia patients, three were Asian. Among 825 patients in bipolar disorder or manic depression studies, there were no Hispanics or Asians. Blacks were better represented, but even their numbers in any one study were too small to tell doctors anything meaningful.

 

In all, just 8 percent of the patients studied were minorities.

 

It's but one example of a larger pattern: Scientists have broadly played down the role of cultural factors in the diagnosis, treatment and outcome of mental disorders. In part, this is because modern psychiatry is based on the idea that mental illnesses are primarily organic disorders of the brain. This medicalized approach suggests that the symptoms, course and treatment of disorders ought to be the same whether patients are from the Caribbean, Canada or Cambodia.

 

This model has produced striking successes. Neuroscientists have uncovered key details about how the brain functions and malfunctions, and drug companies have found many effective medications. More patients than ever before have received treatments that have been proven to work.

 

As the population of the United States grows ever more diverse, however, this approach is facing challenges from the profession's own ranks. A growing number of advocates for "cultural competence," many of whom are minorities themselves, warn that doctors are harming patients by ignoring evidence about the effects of ethnicity, sex, religious beliefs, social class and national origin on mental health and mental illness.

 

"The (drug) companies are thinking about the average Caucasian, male patient," said psychiatrist Michael Smith, at UCLA's Research Center on the Psychobiology of Ethnicity, who bemoaned the vacuum of information about drug metabolism and side effects among various groups. Some minorities' distrust of drug trials further compounds the problem, he and other researchers said.

 

"This thing called psychiatry -- it is a European-American invention, and it largely has no respect for nonwhite philosophies of mental health and how people function," agreed Carl Bell, a psychiatrist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

 

"A lot of minority groups perceive psychiatric interventions as an ideological approach that discounts their own cultures," added Marcello Maviglia, a psychiatrist who has worked extensively with Native American patients in New Mexico. "A lot of people wouldn't be able to verbalize this, but patients know when you are discounting them, their traditions."

 

Leaders of mainstream psychiatry vehemently reject this critique. Darrel Regier, director of the division of research for the American Psychiatric Association, said biomedical treatments for mental disorders had been objectively shown to be superior to any other system.

 

"To say you want to go back to nature and have all the benefits of close-knit families take the place of psychotropic medications -- that is wishful thinking and likely dangerous," he said.

 

Historically, the problem is that psychiatry has been muddled by conflicting theories about the nature of mental illnesses, Regier said. While cultural variations among groups are useful to know about, he added, it is more important for psychiatrists to home in on genetic markers and the brain mechanisms that could be universal to all patients.

 

"Doctors in general are reductionist," he said. "A patient walks in and you have 10 minutes to find out what in their whole life story is significant. There is a tremendous screening process to cut out irrelevant material."

 

Columbia University psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, who played a key role in popularizing the medical model of psychiatry, said the cultural advocates are letting politics trump science: "They don't by and large do controlled studies. They mainly complain about the biomedical model."

 

Spitzer and Regier reflect the eagerness among mainstream psychiatrists to move away from the mushy complexities of culture and the myriad ways in which emotional problems are expressed by different groups, and toward a straightforward system that links groups of symptoms to particular disorders. Ultimately, they hope to find neurological evidence, genetic markers and laboratory tests to differentiate mental problems.

 

If malfunctioning genes and neurotransmitters can be shown to cause depression, for example, these experts say doctors will be able to treat such problems at their root, making diagnosis and treatment more effective, in the same way that the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS led to highly targeted treatments.

 

Advocates for cultural competence counter that no matter how much science learns about the brain, culture and the environment will continue to play a huge role in why people develop emotional problems, what treatments they respond to and whether they recover. Doctors, they say, cannot afford to ignore the numerous effects of culture on diagnosis and treatment that have been documented through various streams of evidence and multiple studies in peer-reviewed publications. Among them:

 

-- Patients with schizophrenia, a disease characterized by hallucinations and disorganized thinking, recover sooner and function better in poor countries with strong extended family ties than in the United States, two long-running studies by the World Health Organization have shown.

 

-- People of Mexican descent born in the United States have twice the risk of disorders such as depression and anxiety, and four times the risk of drug abuse, compared with recent immigrants from Mexico. This finding is part of a growing body of literature that indicates that the newly arrived are more resilient to mental disorders, and that assimilation is associated with higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses.

 

-- Black and Hispanic patients are more than three times as likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia as white patients -- even though studies indicate that the rate of the disorder is the same in all groups.

 

-- White women in the United States are three times as likely to commit suicide as black and Hispanic women -- a difference that experts attribute in part to the relative strengths of different social networks.

 

-- A host of small studies suggests that the effects of psychiatric drugs vary widely across different ethnic groups. There are even differences in the effect with dummy pills.

 

Keh-Ming Lin, a psychiatrist who formerly headed the UCLA center, said that because psychiatric drugs affect behavior and change how people feel, their effects are powerfully modified by patients' beliefs.

 

The effects of such drugs "are not solely determined by their pharmacological properties," wrote Lin and colleagues in a book, "Psychopharmacology and Psychobiology of Ethnicity." "The prescription and use of medication is enmeshed in a process replete with social and symbolic meanings and implications."

 

Prodded by advocates, professional organizations have added discussions of the role of culture to their meetings, and accrediting groups mandate that young doctors study how ethnicity and culture affect illness and treatment.

 

Insurance companies have also shown interest, said Arthur Kleinman, a psychiatrist and anthropologist at Harvard. Some HMOs, for example, have encouraged immigrants to seek out doctors who speak their native tongue. Kleinman and others welcome such moves but also worry they sometimes amount to lip service: HMO demands for efficiency, for example, have limited interactions between doctors and patients. Discussing cultural issues with a patient might add five minutes, Kleinman said, and "that's five minutes beyond an interview that usually lasts five minutes."

 

 

 

 

July 5, 2005

 

$600,000 grant will fund native Hawaiian law center

 

Star-Bulletin staff

The University of Hawaii at Manoa's law school will received a $600,000 grant to establish a native Hawaiian law center.

The Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law will focus on education, research and the preservation of historical, legal, traditional and customary materials, the university said in a written press release.

The center will also conduct community outreach work and also offer new courses and encourage and support native Hawaiian law students as they pursue legal careers and leadership roles.

"We have a unique opportunity to examine the laws that affect native Hawaiians critically and to educate our students and the larger community about those laws. The center will preserve aspects of law that respect the Hawaiian culture and spirit as part of our responsibility to the native Hawaiian community and to future generations," said Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, the center's director.

Law school Dean Aviam Soifer credited U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and the rest of the Hawaii congressional delegation for the grant.

In a commencement address last year, Inouye discussed plans for the center, saying, "It is my hope that this center will serve as an important educational resource as native Hawaiians and the broader community move forward together to achieve a measure of reconciliation for the loss of native Hawaiian sovereignty, resulting from the unlawful overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893."

Members of the center's advisory board include Beadie Dawson ('81 law degree), counsel at Dwyer, Schraff, Meyer, Jossem & Bushnell; Moses Haia III ('94 law degree), staff attorney at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.; Summer Kupau ('04 law degree), law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Simeon Acoba; Dee Jay Mailer, chief executive officer of Kamehameha Schools; Jon Osorio, acting director of the UH-Manoa Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies; and former Chief Justice William Richardson, namesake of the School of Law.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Monday, July 4, 2005

 

Inouye endowment finds funding quickly

 

Associated Press

After only a month of fundraising, the University of Hawai'i Foundation is nearing its goal of funding a $2 million endowment named for U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and his wife.

The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals will be held by a politician, journalist or professor who will spend a year at the university's Manoa campus.

It is the first time Inouye has allowed his name to be attached to a permanent tribute.

"I've had suggestions of this nature in the past, and I've turned them down," Inouye said. "But I felt that Maggie and I are graduates of the University of Hawai'i so it would seem, in a way, appropriate. ... I must tell you that it was heartwarming to see so many respond."

Along with being a graduate of the school, Maggie Inouye also spent more than a decade as a speech and linguistics instructor at the university.

Retired banker and longtime Democratic Party supporter Walter Dods was asked in May to lead the fundraising effort. He raised $1.6 million in just a month — including $50,000 of his own money.

The idea for the project was first developed in 1995, but it took a decade to finish the details, said Donna Vuchinich, president and chief executive officer of the foundation.

Donors to the endowment include former UH President Kenneth Mortimer and Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. Both Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank donated $200,000.

Inouye has long resisted allowing anything to be named in his honor. Last year a fleet of Pearl Harbor tugs was named after each member of Hawai'i's congressional delegation. However, Inouye asked that his boat instead be given the name "Kaimana Hila," the unofficial song of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

"Maybe I'm old and sensitive," Inouye said, "but I hate to have people suggest that I work hard for a certain project because I wanted my name emblazoned on a wall. In this case, you won't see my name put on some plaque. It will be administered by the university."

The seat, which is one of 20 endowed chair faculty positions at the university, could be filled as early as spring 2006.

Law School Dean Aviam Soifer said he hopes to fill the spot with major public figures.

"They could be retired Supreme Court justices, retired journalists, people who just have things to share throughout the university and throughout Hawai'i," he said.

Soifer said while he had some people in mind for the seat, it is still too early to reveal who they might be.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, July 1, 2005

 

Koa coaxed into its own Hawaiian renaissance

 

By Jeannette J. Lee
Associated Press

HAKALAU FOREST NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Hawai'i — Yellowed grasses cover the lower southern slopes of Mauna Kea, where impenetrable koa forests once stood on the Big Island.

But Hawai'i's largest endemic tree, with its sickle-shaped leaves, has reclaimed some of its former territory over the last two decades.

Conservationists and small timber harvesters have replanted koa on thousands of acres on the Big Island and Maui, increasingly fencing out the cattle, pigs and goats that forage on koa bark and seedlings.

They hope replanting the slow-growing trees can help restore the feeding and nesting grounds of endangered native forest birds and quench demand for valuable koa timber, with a scarcity and a lustrous grain that rank it among the world's most expensive woods. A tree can take 40 years to mature.

"Koa is a key species in the ecology of the Hawaiian forests," said Craig Elevitch, co-author of the book "Growing Koa." "It's also one of the most important trees to human culture and economy in Hawai'i."

Koa trees are slowly recovering on the slopes of Mauna Kea at the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, which was set aside specifically for forest birds.

Since the refuge opened in 1985, volunteers and refuge officials have planted more than 271,000 koa trees on about 5,000 acres, with survival rates averaging 70 percent, said Baron Horiuchi. a horticulturist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

More than half of Hawai'i's 31 birds on the federal endangered species list are small forest varieties, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the refuge. Twenty-eight percent of Hawai'i's 93 native bird species are already extinct, according to federal figures.

The birds need koa to shelter the smaller plants they feed on, such as the red splayed blossoms of the ohia lehua, giant Hawaiian raspberries and marble-sized red 'ohelo berries. A spreading koa canopy protects seedlings and smaller plants from cold upland temperatures, which can dip into the 20s during winter on Mauna Kea.

"Koa is a pioneering tree," Horiuchi said. "It leads the way for the rest of the forest."

In many parts of the refuge, koa trees are the only native plants growing among the introduced species of weeds and grass. The branches on many of the larger trees at Hakalau grow in a serpentine network, an illustration of the name for this area, which means "many perches" in Hawaiian.

"The point is not to grow them straight for timber or canoe logs. They are to grow as a canopy and a bird habitat," Horiuchi said. "I always joke with people that this place is 'for the birds,' but it's true."

Private koa farmers prefer the tall, straight-growing trees. They hope to harvest the semi-hard wood, which ranges in color from blond to red or dark brown, for furniture, bowls, musical instruments and traditional Hawaiian seafaring canoes.

Umikoa Ranch on the Big Island, in partnership with state land officials, reforested 800 acres with koa trees between 1980 and 2004.

David Matsuura, managing steward at the 2,000-acre ranch, said some of the trees planted about 15 years ago have already reached large diameters, although he isn't sure about the quality of the wood.

"That's the problem with koa. It's a very long-term crop," Matsuura said. "I'm gonna be pretty old and gray before most of our koa is actually harvested."

Ranch managers said the trees have already helped re-establish native plants and animals, including eight endangered Hawaiian ducks. The return of koa has also increased water sources at Umikoa, where the sickle-shaped koa stems draw fog and moisture into the watershed.

"Our main goal is the integration of conservation and agriculture," Matsuura said. "It's not the same as clear-cutting."

But profit is also a goal for koa farmers, who are gambling over the long term on a product that commands premium prices. At Hawaiian Koa Furniture in Honolulu, a 54-inch round koa table sells for $8,000.

The bulk of the koa market is driven by Hawai'i residents, who are the world's biggest consumers of richly varnished koa products.

"Koa is king in Hawai'i," Matsuura said. "Only here in Hawai'i will people literally pay 10 times the value of anything because it's koa."

 

 

 

 

June 20, 2005

 

“Emme’s Island Moments”

 

Set to Air on July 28 on KHON2

 

HONOLULU (June 20, 2005) –Emme Tomimbang’s 11th season of TV specials continues with "Emme’s Island Moments” Singing & Swinging - Hawaii’s Homegrown Stars." The program will air on Thursday, July 28, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on KHON2 (rebroadcast on July 31, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.). Tomimbang’s special guests for the show include performersYvonne Elliman and Jasmine Trias, actor Jason Scott Lee and PGA golfer Dean Wilson, among others.

 

LOCAL BOY ON THE PGA TOUR

Emme begins the show by chatting with PGA golfer Dean Wilson about his life as a PGA touring professional for 12 years. Dean, a Castle High School graduate, shares what it was like to be paired with Annika Sorenstam during the 2003 Colonial PGA event. Emme even gets in on the fun with tips from Dean’s first golf instructor, his mom Grace Wilson.

 

HAWAII STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL AND JASCOT SCOTT LEE’S THEATRE PRODUCTION

Next up, the Hawaii Student Film Festival is putting young Hawaii filmmakers on the map. Viewers will see the winning clip from this year’s competition, hear from the lead actress and find out why this festival is becoming such a hit for film aficionados in Hawaii. Plus, actor Jason Scott Lee turns his Big Island home into a theatre and haven for young up-and-coming actors. He also talks to Emme about his first production slated to debut in August.

 

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL W/ YVONNE ELLIMAN

And, Emme continues the show with a familiar face and voice to Hawaii, Yvonne Elliman. Yvonne’s vocal and acting career spans three decades and several continents. She left Hawaii after high school for London, worked with Eric Clapton, played Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar and reprised the role in the theatrical movie. Emme gets an in-depth look at Yvonne’s life, including her rise and downfall with drugs and alcohol and why she’s home again in Hawaii.

 

HAWAII’S AMERICAN IDOL-JASMINE TRIAS

To close the show, Jasmine Trias reveals her life after American Idol and details about her upcoming CD and pending movie project. Emme also follows Jasmine to the Hawaii Music Expo as she gives advice to young hopefuls about musical careers and what it takes to succeed.

 

“Emme’s Island Moments –Hawaii’s Homegrown Stars” is proudly presented by Island Air and brought to you in part by, AIG Hawaii, City Mill, Macy’s, Territorial Savings Bank and Toyota. With support from Castle and Cooke Homes Hawaii, Closed-captioning of Emme’s Island Moments is brought to you by The Captioning Company with support from Kaiser Permanente.

 

Hawaii-based TV personality and entrepreneur Emme Tomimbang founded EMME, Inc. in 1994. The multi-faceted company provides video and production services for broadcast, non-broadcast and documentary projects. For more information, visit www.emmeinc.com.

 

 

 

 

In an effort to increase the usefulness of this service to our subscribers, CNHA is now including a section for Quiet Title Notices at the end of each NewsClips.

 

CIVIL NO. 05-1-090K THIRD CIRCUIT COURT STATE OF HAWAI`I NOTICE OF ACTION TO QUIET TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY STATE OF HAWAI`I TO: KAHEINA (k), KEKUKAHIKO (k); JULIA KALUNA; MELEANA KAPUNAWAI; MOSES APELA; RAYMOND APELA, MARY K. APELA, AMY C. WAIAU, THE HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN MAKUAKANE (deceased) and THE HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS OF THE ESTATE OF DANIEL H. NAHINU (deceased); and the SPOUSES, HEIRS, ASSIGNS, SUCCESSORS, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES, EXECUTORS, ADMINISTRATORS, AND/OR TRUSTEES OF ALL THE ABOVE, and all other persons or entities claiming any right, title and interest in the real property described in Plaintiffs' Complaint, adverse to Plaintiffs' ownership, and TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiffs, HARVY M. SACAROB and MELINDA SACAROB, claim ownership in fee simple to the following described property. All of that certain parcel of land being Royal Patent 7080, Land Commission Award 7594, Apana 2 to Kaheina, situate at Hookena, District of South Kona, Island, County and State of Hawaii identified with Tax Map Key parcel number (3) 8-6-002-007, and containing 2.895 acres, more or less. You are further notified that Plaintiffs have filed their Complaint in the Third Circuit Court, Kealakekua, Island, County and State of Hawai`i, praying that title to the above-described real property to be determined to be in said Plaintiffs in fee simple, free and clear of all encumbrances and that their title to said real property be determined quieted regarding any adverse claims thereto. You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon VAN PERNIS - VANCIL, attorneys for Plaintiffs, whose address is 75-167F Hualalai Road, Suite B, Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i, 96740 and to file in the above-entitled Court, an Answer to said Complaint To Quiet Title before 8:00 o'clock a.m. on the 15th day of August, 2005, and if you fail to answer, you are hereby cited to appear before the Presiding Judge in said Court in Kealakekua, Hawai`i, at 8:00 o'clock a.m., on the 15th day of August, 2005, to show cause, if any you have, why the prayer of the Complaint should not be granted. And unless you file an Answer before the time aforesaid or appear at said Court at the time and place aforesaid, your default will be recorded, and the Complaint will be taken as confessed and a Judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint and you will be forever barred from contesting said Complaint or Decree entered thereon. DATED: Kealakekua, Hawai`i, June 20, 2005. C. GANDALIRA CLERK OF THE ABOVE-ENTITLED COURT VAN PERNIS - VANCIL Attorneys for Plaintiffs (Hon. Adv.: June 28; July 5, 12, 19, 2005) (A-121083) Posted on 6/28/2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Native Hawaiian Conference

http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/Conference

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Please visit the CNHA family of organizations

-----------------------------------------------------------

ANA Grant Training Pan Pacific

http://anapacific.org

 

Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP)

http://dhhlhoap.org

 

Full Service Document Digitization

http://hhtech.net

 

Supporting 1,000 Years of Good Ideas!

http://hawaiianwayfund.org

 

 

Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement

33 South King Street, Suite 513

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Phone: 808.521.5011 Fax: 808.521.4111

 

To Unsubscribe

Please click this link:  http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/unsubscribe_eresources062305.htm

 

 

To Subscribe

Please click this link: http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/signupdatabasehj030104.htm

 

Please do not respond to this email as responses will go into an unmonitored mailbox.

In recognizing that ka olelo makuahine o Hawaii nei was an oral language and that there were varying dialects among the islands, CNHA has adopted a policy of excluding diacritical markings in our publications.

This project is an initiative under the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education. Education through Cultural & Historical Organizations, also known as ECHO, provides educational enrichment to Native and non-Native children and lifelong learners.