Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities.  NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  For information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site at: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

CNHA is a national association of Native Hawaiian organizations. Operating an active Public Policy Center, Grants Training Institute, Community Development Consulting Services, and the Hawaiian Way Fund, we unify our members around solutions that embrace the strength of Native culture and knowledge in meeting community challenges. CNHA coordinates the Annual Native Hawaiian Convention in Honolulu every year to bring practitioners, community and policy makers together around issues important to Hawaiians.

 

 

 

 

 

June 7, 2006

 

 

June 7, 2006

 

New York Times

Editorial

 

A Chance for Justice in Hawaii

 

For Native Hawaiians, the last two centuries have been a struggle against extinction. Not long after Captain Cook sailed up in 1778, disease, poverty and political and economic exploitation began pushing their culture toward the vanishing point. One harsh milestone came in 1893, when American and European businessmen backed by United States marines overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom. Annexation by the United States quickly followed.

 

Hawaii has since thrived as a multiracial society, and its native language and arts have undergone a rebirth in the last generation or two. But if there is a common theme in this resurgent culture, it is an abiding sense of loss. The wrongs done to Native Hawaiians are a wound that never healed.

 

A tiny minority in the islands dreams, madly, of correcting this injustice by becoming an independent country. But Hawaii's broad mainstream — its Legislature, its current governor and her three living predecessors, its United States senators and two House members, and a solid majority of residents — has lined up behind something far more sensible.

 

It's a bill sponsored by Senator Daniel Akaka that would extend federal recognition to Native Hawaiians as indigenous people. It would create a governing body for the estimated 400,000 Native Hawaiians that would negotiate with the state and federal governments over land and other resources.

 

After languishing for years, the bill is heading for a Senate vote. This has prompted outraged editorials and op-ed articles warning that a Pacific paradise will become a balkanized banana republic.

 

Those worries are misplaced. The bill's central aim is protecting money and resources — inoculating programs for Native Hawaiians from race-based legal challenges. It is based on the entirely defensible conviction that Native Hawaiians — who make up 20 percent of the state's population but are disproportionately poor, sick, homeless and incarcerated — have a distinct identity and deserve the same rights as tribal governments on the mainland.

 

The Akaka bill does not supersede the Constitution or permit Zimbabwe-style land grabs. It explicitly forbids casinos, a touchy subject in Hawaii. Any changes a Hawaiian government seeks would have to be negotiated with state or federal authorities. As has always been the case on those eight little islands, everyone will have to find a way to get along.

 

 

 

 

June 7, 2006

 

Akaka Debates for Justice and Fairness in Hawaii

 

Senate set to vote on motion to proceed to S. 147

 

Washington, D.C. - Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) today was joined by his colleagues in debating for a procedural motion to proceed to the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, S. 147.  Supporting Senator Akaka were Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

 

This is the first time in six years the Senate has taken action on the “Akaka Bill,” which would provide a process for the reorganization of the Native Hawaiian governing entity.

 

Senator Akaka argued against opponents who mischaracterized the bill as “race-based” and “unconstitutional.”  He stated: 

 

“I believe my bill goes a long way to unite the people of Hawaii by providing a structured process to deal with unresolved issues and unhealed wounds that have plagued us since 1893.  This is why we gather here in this chamber to discuss matters of law and governing, and of fairness and of human and civil rights.  Because at the heart of it, this bill is about fairness and about creating a process to achieve it. 

 

“Native Hawaiians have been recognized as indigenous peoples by Congress through more than 160 statutes.  For more than 100 years, Congress has treated Native Hawaiians in a manner similar to American Indians and Alaska Natives.  But, when it comes to having a process and federal policy on self-governance and self-determination, Native Hawaiians have not been treated equally.”

 

Senator Murkowski compared this debate to one that Alaska Natives once faced: “I can state with confidence that this single step of reorganizing, recognizing the legitimate claims of Alaska’s native people has made our state a better place.  It strengthened our ties to the past.  It strengthened our sense of community.  It enables all of us, native and non-native alike, to take pride in Alaska.

 

“Some 112 years after the Native Hawaiian people came under the control of the United States, I am sad to note that their status among aboriginal peoples of the United States remains in controversy.”

 

During the debate Senator Obama, who was raised in Hawaii, said, “This gives us an opportunity to not to look backwards but to help all Hawaiians move forward and make sure that the Native Hawaiians in the great state are full members and not left behind as Hawaii continues to progress.

 

“When people all across the country didn’t know about this issue, Senator Akaka was the one who made sure we did.  He has been a champion for the people of Hawaii.  He is always working hard and thinking big to realize this ideal for the Native population of his state.”

 

After the debate, Senator Akaka remarked, “I am proud to have stood with my Senior Senator to talk about a bill that means so much to the people of Hawaii.  Now that my colleagues have begun to hear the arguments, it is my hope that they will join us in voting to move this bill to the floor for an up or down vote.  I remain optimistic that we have enough votes to make this happen.”

 

Senator Inouye commented, “I am pleased that the Senate has begun consideration of the Akaka bill.  I believe supporters of this important piece of legislation from both sides of the aisle and I made persuasive arguments in favor of the measure, and we corrected mischaracterizations of the bill and of Hawaii’s history, as well refuting unfounded concerns.

 

“Some of my colleagues have questioned Congress’ authority to deal with Native Hawaiians.  But after serving for nearly 30 years on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, with the majority of those years as either Chairman or Vice Chairman, I am well-informed of the law that governs the federal relations with the aboriginal, native people of the United States.  Based on my knowledge and experience, Congress has the authority to pass the Akaka bill.  Furthermore, the Supreme Court has consistently affirmed the authority of Congress over Indian matters.”

 

Debate on the cloture motion to proceed to the bill continues tomorrow followed by the cloture vote which is set for mid-day.  Sixty votes are required to get cloture on the motion to proceed.

 

For more information on S. 147, please visit http://akaka.senate.gov.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Saturday, June 3, 2006

 

UH to give three patents for taro to Hawaiians

 

Associated Press

 

The University of Hawai'i announced yesterday that it will give three patents for genetically enhanced, crossbred taro plants to Native Hawaiians.

 

Discussions were under way within the Hawaiian community to determine the appropriate entity to receive the patents, UH officials said.

 

Hawaiian activists, farmers and students have held protests demanding that the university give up the patents and stop genetically altering taro, which many Hawaiians consider a sacred plant.

 

"The University of Hawai'i has a strong desire to maintain appropriate respect and sensitivity to the indigenous Hawaiian host culture," said Gary K. Ostrander, UH-Manoa vice chancellor for research.

 

"Taro is unique to the Hawaiian people in that it represents the embodiment of their sacred ancestor. As such, it is appropriate to make an exception to our standard policy of holding all patents."

 

According to Hawaiian legend, the cosmic first couple gave birth to a stillborn, Haloa, from whose gnarled body sprang the broad-leafed plant whose bulb-like underground corms are cooked and pounded into one of Hawai'i's best-known foods, poi.

 

The Hawaiian people, it is believed, came from a second brother, making the plant part of their common ancestry.

 

The patents arose from work conducted by a UH faculty member in the 1990s to help Samoan taro growers whose crops were hard hit by a leaf blight.

 

Plants from Hawai'i and Palau were crossbred, producing three strains that were shown to have increased disease resistance. The patents were granted in 2002.

 

Farmers using the patented taro varieties are required to pay licensing fees to the university, if they are running a business, according to Cy Hu, associate dean of UH's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

 

About a dozen growers have signed an agreement to use the disease-resistant taro, but the university hasn't collected any money from it yet because the first three years of the contract are free.

 

 

 

 

June 6, 2006

 

Lab work on taro opposed

 

By Alexandre Da Silva
adasilva@starbulletin.com

 

Farmers say the University of Hawaii got the wrong message from protests when it decided last week to start transferring three of its taro patents to Hawaiians.

 

Walter Ritte, a Molokai farmer and staunch opponent of UH's involvement in taro research, said yesterday that Hawaiians do not want the disease-resistant strains of taro bred by the school.

 

"Hawaiians are saying that the taro cannot be owned, so why would the Hawaiians want to own it?" Ritte said.

 

UH announced in a news release Friday that it would "assign" the patents on its crossbred taro varieties to Hawaiians. It said discussions were under way within the Hawaiian community to determine the appropriate entity to receive the patents.

 

Gary Ostrander, UH-Manoa vice chancellor for research and graduate education, declined to elaborate on the negotiations.

 

Ritte said some groups had been concerned about rescinding the patents, fearing others outside the university could claim them. But he said lawyers have assured him that it would be "almost impossible" for that to happen.

 

For months, activists, farmers and students have been demanding that the university give up the patents and stop altering taro, a plant many Hawaiians consider sacred. Last month, protesters chained the entrances to the university's medical school in Kakaako.

 

Chris Kobayashi, whose family has been commercially farming taro on Kauai for 60 years, said patents of the plant, which is used to make poi, should be rescinded because of its cultural significance.

 

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to patent any life form," said Kobayashi, who farms taro on 10 acres. "Specially taro, it's such a sacred and spiritual plant for Hawaiians."

 

The patents arose from work conducted by a university faculty member in the 1990s to help Samoan taro growers whose crops were hard hit by a leaf blight.

 

Plants from Hawaii and Palau were crossbred, producing three strains with increased disease resistance.

 

 

 

 

May 15, 2006

 

Na Mamo Presents June Workshop

 

Long Beach, CA – Na Mamo Inc., the nonprofit Hawaiian organization will offer a cultural enriching and informative community workshop Saturday, June 10th, 2006 at the beautiful Westin Hotel in Long Beach from 9a.m. - 12:30p.m. 

 

Over fifteen years, Na Mamo, Inc. has created opportunities for the Hawaiian community to share its Hawaiian heritage with the community by offering workshops to educate others on the exquisite arts of Hawaii and share the knowledge of Hawaii’s resources.  They are also the host of the annual E Hula Mau, Southern California’s only Hula & Chant Competition held Labor Day weekend, September 1st -3rd, 2006.

 

The first workshop will feature Mike and Carol Wong of Makani Designs who will teach traditional arts and crafts that will include Ipu Hokiokio (nose flute), Oeoe (bull roarer),  and Lei Hula (feather flower and miniature kahili).  Makani Designs has been sharing their knowledge of Hawaiian crafts for decades in the Southern California region.  They participate in the largest community events that include E Hula Mau, na Ho’olaulea (Alondra Park, Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada) and the Long Beach Sea Festival.

 

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) will conduct the second workshop which will highlight the abundance of information that CNHA provides to the Hawaiian community and will share the vast resources available to the nonprofits.  CNHA will also update the community on the current challenges and concerns that are relative to the Hawaiian community. 

 

Na Mamo President, Nalani Wong added, “We are excited to host this educational event to encourage the Hawaiian community to learn of their traditional art and crafts as well as inspire the community at large to appreciate the beauty of our indigenous culture.  Learning more about CNHA and its resources to our nonprofits will help our community to continue to serve our people and those that enjoy our culture.”

 

CNHA is a national, member-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting community development for Native Hawaiians.  For more information about CNHA, contact CNHA via telephone at 808.521.5011 or toll free at 800.709.2642, via email at info@hawaiiancouncil.org or visit the website at www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

Na Mamo, Inc. is a nonprofit Hawaiian organization whose goals are to perpetuate the Hawaiian culture through education.  Contact us for more information at www.namamo.org/ehm or via telephone at 909.930.3994.

 

 

 

 

June 4, 2006

 

Kawaiahao Church mystery

 

Dozens gather in the hopes of locating relatives buried more than 100 years ago

 

By Alexandre Da Silva
adasilva@starbulletin.com

 

Faded maps, yellow index cards and certificates of birth and death hold the clues to Joe and Linda Oba's biggest family mystery.

 

The old records were strewn in front of the Kailua couple yesterday as they tried to discover where, in some 3 acres of cemetery at Kawaiahao Church, lies the body of Joe Oba's grandmother.

 

"All I know is that she is close by Punchbowl Street," said the 78-year-old, whose maternal grandmother was just 27 when she died in 1908. "Hers is a real mystery."

 

A total of 80 people visited two open houses at the historic church in downtown Honolulu in the past week, hoping to find the graves of their relatives or learn about a family member they weren't aware of. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Star Bulletin: Cindy Ellen Russell

 

The Kawaiahao graveyard, surrounded by a waist-high metal fence on the corner of Punchbowl and Queen streets, is one of the most ancient Western-style cemeteries in Hawaii, said Nanette Napoleon, who is compiling a computer database for the cemetery.

 

Most who rest here died in the early 1900s or late 1800s, she said. The cemetery's oldest burial on record is dated 1834 for someone who didn't have a last name.

 

It is estimated that there are 200 unmarked burial sites in the cemetery, where 600 bodies have been identified so far, Napoleon said. The graveyard has 296 tombstones, but some sites house more than one person.

 

"Hawaiians buried all over the place, in their backyards, but not in clusters like the Westerners," Napoleon said when explaining the unidentified graves. "It was when the missionaries arrived in the 1820 that they introduced the concept of a graveyard associated with the church, boundaries and tombstones."

 

Because of the unmarked plots, several people who come to pay respect to a lost family member each year can't kneel down or place flowers and pictures near graves, said Tin Hu Young, church archivist.

 

Young said many Hawaiian families who started burying relatives at cemeteries couldn't afford the tombstones or plate names.

 

"And that's why we are here -- a lot of unknowns," he said.

 

Kauai resident Karen Silva, who knows of six relatives buried at Kawaiahao, flew to Oahu for the day because she remains curious about her family's connection to the cemetery.

 

The surprise came in the name "J. Thompson," who, according to cemetery records, is buried in the same family plot where Silva's great-great-grandparents, their three children and one grandchild were placed.

 

"This is a record that we were not familiar with, but they found it," Silva said. "It's exciting -- I'd like to find out who that is. But it looks like it's going to take some research."

 

Joe and Linda Oba are being helped by a daughter-in-law who is searching online for any records of Mary Iao, Joe Oba's grandmother. Her death certificate only lists Kawaiahao Church as the burial site, without any section number or plot.

 

Meanwhile, the couple will fly to Kona on the Big Island next week to meet with a 90-year-old relative who they hope can offer valuable details on where Saichiro Oba, Joe Oba's paternal grandfather, is buried.

 

"It's getting real intricate," said Linda Oba, 64. "But now we are weeping because the people who could tell us have died. Hawaii is already losing so much, and now we are losing our history."

 

 

 

 

June 1, 2006

 

Conference-goers brainstorm Native health-care solutions

By ROBINSON DUFFY
Staff Writer

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

 

Thursday, June 01, 2006 - Dr. Allison Kelliher told, in Inupiaq, the more than 200 scientists gathered in Fairbanks for a neuroscience conference that she honors the deep connection all humans have to the Earth.

 

Kelliher, who grew up living a subsistence lifestyle in Nome and now works for the Norton Sound Health Corp., said she appreciated her father teaching her the medicinal value of salmonberries. Now she's working to bring more advanced medical technology and health care to Alaska Natives.

 

The conference--the Conference of Specialized Neuroscience Research Programs--brings together some of the nation's leading experts on brain disorders. It is in its sixth year and continues today and Friday at the Wedgewood Resort. This is the first year the conference has been held in Alaska.

 

The doctors and scientists spent Wednesday, the first day of the conference, discussing disparities in health care among Alaska Natives.

 

For example, Alaska Natives as a population have 50 percent more strokes than whites. Alaska Native mothers are more than twice as likely as non-Natives to have offspring who experience sudden infant death syndrome. Kidney, gallbladder and stomach cancers are more common among Alaska Natives.

 

"Alaska provides a unique setting where we can work to understand these problems," Kelliher said.

 

These problems aren't easy ones to solve, Dr. James Berner said. Berner, who is the senior director for community health at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, said while the disparities may be easy to see, the underlying causes are often hard to uncover.

 

"These differences may be environmental, they may be genetic, they may be something else entirely," he said.

 

The truth is, the experts just don't know.

 

That's one of the conference's goals--to highlight those differences and to bring together the medical specialists who can work on these problems.

 

There are a number of issues to look at.

 

Geographically, Alaska Natives are one of the most isolated minority groups. Cities like Nome and even some of the smaller communities have medical facilities, Berner said, but the level of care available is another question entirely.

 

"You still don't have the Mayo Clinic in each village," he said. The medical facilities in rural Alaska often don't have the latest technology or the advanced equipment to deal with serious problems such as strokes.

 

Even procedures that should be simple, Kelliher said, take on a new dimension of difficulty in rural Alaska. She remembers a woman with a broken pelvis who had to wait, in excruciating pain, at her village clinic for several hours before another doctor from Nome could teleconference with her doctor. Then the woman wasn't able to get on a plane to Nome for the operation she needed until the next day. In Fairbanks, Kelliher said, the entire problem could have been solved in a few hours.

 

The difficulty with travel also stops people from getting the follow-up care they need after a serious problem develops.

 

"You can't follow up with appointments with your regular physician if they aren't in the same city," Kelliher said.

 

There is also a shortage of medical specialists in rural Alaska.

 

"In Nome our radiologist only works part time," she said. "If he's not around, we can't have our X-rays read."

 

Alaska also needs more Alaska Native doctors and nurses, Kelliher said. Doctors need to understand the culture they are serving in order to develop relationships with their patients. There is still a lack of local talent, despite the many programs that aim to recruit local doctors and nurses.

 

The picture isn't entirely bleak, however. Technology is improving. Telemedicine programs allow doctors from larger hospitals to work in real time with village doctors. New medicines and treatments are being developed all the time.

 

But despite the improvements, Kelliher said, those struggling with these problems are faced with a lack of information. There hasn't been a lot of hard data collected about the problems facing Alaska Natives, leaving researchers only with anecdotal information.

 

Dr. Brian Trimble is leading an initiative to change that.

 

Trimble, who works at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, is part of a team that has put together the Alaska Stroke Registry. The Web-based registry collects detailed information on Alaska Native stroke victims--demographic information, possible risk factors, information about the type of stroke and the type of medical care the patient received.

 

"We're setting up a surveillance tool to see how the burden of stroke affects Alaska Natives and come up with a way to reduce that burden," Trimble said.

 

With the information, which his group has been collecting since October, Trimble said the team hopes to reveal patterns and come up with innovative and culturally appropriate solutions to the problem of stroke, which he said is the fifth-leading cause of death among Alaska Natives.

 

Berner, of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, said the work being done by the scientists gathered in Fairbanks this week will have global health implications.

 

"Alaska Natives have some things that the rest of the world can learn from."

 

The neuroscience conference, which is put together annually by the National Institutes of Health, is being hosted this year by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

 

Staff writer Robinson Duffy can be reached at 459-7523 or rduffy@newsminer.com .

 

 

 

 

June 5, 2006

 

Grant to help monitor Indians' pregnancies

 

Argusleader.com

Staff Reports

 

The Yankton Sioux Tribe last week received a federal grant to assess and monitor pregnancy risks in Native American women in South Dakota.

 

The grant, worth $375,000, will fund the South Dakota Tribal Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.

 

The goal of the program is to better understand the experiences of mothers of Native American infants before, during and after pregnancy in order to link their experiences with birth outcomes. The project will include mothers of all Indian infants born in South Dakota.

 

Women who have recently given birth will be given the opportunity to fill out a survey. Eligible women will begin to receive surveys in the spring of 2007.

 

The project will involve a partnership of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairman's Health Board, the South Dakota Department of Health and all nine tribes in South Dakota.

 

"It provides an opportunity for South Dakota tribes and communities to work together to gather information that will help reduce infant mortality and generate new resources," project coordinator Christine Rinki said.

 

The grant comes at a crucial time, Rinki said.

 

In January, the South Dakota Department of Health announced that infant mortality increased to 8.2 per 1,000 live births in 2004 - its highest rate since 1999. The mortality rate for Native American infants is 13.3 per 1,000, compared with 6.9 per 1,000 for white infants.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, June 2, 2006

 

Hawaiian cultural programs get boost

 

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority plans to spend nearly $2 million on Hawaiian cultural programs in the coming year, a third more than the previous year.

 

The money is part of a record $70.7 million budget for the tourism authority, the agency responsible for marketing Hawai'i to the world. The budget, approved yesterday, is about $1.5 million more than last year as higher visitor arrivals and room rates drove up revenue from the transient accommodations tax.

 

The state adds 7.25 percent to hotel guests' bills and about one-third of that goes to the tourism authority to promote the Islands.

 

Most of the budget is for traditional marketing — advertising and appeals to tour operators — but an increasing portion is devoted to promoting Hawaiian culture.

 

"That's tremendous," said T. Lulani Arquette, executive director of the nonprofit Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association, when told that $1.98 million would be going to Hawaiian culture programs. "Hawai'i wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for Hawaiians and Hawaiian culture."

 

Promoting Hawaiian culture isn't a purely philanthropic endeavor for the tourism industry. Tourism executives have long acknowledged that Hawai'i needs its culture to distinguish it from other popular beach destinations.

 

"In the tourism industry, the No. 1 industry, we have to put our money where our mouth is," Arquette said. "There are some dollars being allocated, but there needs to still be more."

 

The tourism authority spent $1.5 million this past year to support Hawaiian festivals, the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association and many smaller programs, including:

 

 

The new budget, which covers the year starting July 1, allocated $1 million for smaller cultural programs, up from $350,000 this year, and $980,000 for Hawaiian festivals, the Keep It Hawaii Program and the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association

 

"Our unique host culture, history and our way of life ... are the attributes that set Hawai'i apart from all other places," said Rex Johnson, the tourism authority president, in a statement last month.

 

The cultural programs to benefit from the new $1 million allocation haven't been selected yet.

 

Other highlights of the budget, which covers the year beginning July 1, include:

 

 

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

Posted: June 05, 2006

 

Immersion schools may help students

 

by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today

 

WASHINGTON - A Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing on education May 25 raised the idea that Native-language immersion schools deserve emphasis alongside the national No Child Left Behind program.

 

Educators throughout the nation are required to cope with the quantitative Adequate Yearly Progress scores in reading and math that assess a school's competence under No Child Left Behind. As a result, said Ryan Wilson, president of the National Indian Education Association, ''There's a huge push to advance only scientific education.''

 

In the meantime, Wilson and other witnesses said, evidence mounts that Native-language immersion programs are associated with stronger student interest in learning and higher academic achievement. Kevin Skenandore, acting director of the Interior Department's Office of Indian Education Programs, said a survey of Interior's five best-performing Indian schools, its five worst-performing schools and all Hopi schools (they have all passed the AYP benchmarks) yielded support for that position.

 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, drew from the educational experience of her own sons to note that dual-language schooling can be a concern to parents in the early school years. But later in the educational process, she said, it becomes clear that immersion learning of a second language early on pays off in better academic performance across the board. As Wilson expressed it in his written testimony, ''National studies on language learning and educational experience indicate the more language learning, the higher the academic achievement. Solid data from the immersion school experience indicates that language immersion students experience greater success in school measured by consistent improvement on local and national measures of achievement.''

 

Some of the May 25 testimony, as well as several examples Murkowski marshaled from Alaska, suggested that tribal students in the usually rural, often isolated environs of Indian country have a hard time finding relevance in the conventional, Western-inflected pedagogy. Though data on Native language immersion schools is still being compiled, the theme of several witnesses was that learning a Native language along with English may resolve the problem of educational relevance for many students.

 

But Wilson added that while Native cultures and communities are losing immersion-program resources, including many speakers, ''at lightning speed,'' they are recovering their languages ''at horse-and-buggy speed.'' He offered NIEA's support for several bills before Congress that would encourage Native language immersion programs. Senate Bill 2674, the Native American Languages Act Amendments of 2006, has been sponsored by Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel K. Inouye, of Hawaii; Sen. Max Baucus, of Montana; and Sen. Tim Johnson, of South Dakota, all Democrats. In the House, Republican Reps. Heather Wilson, of New Mexico, and Rick Renzi, of Arizona, have offered House Bill 4766, the Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006. Also in the House, Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, has introduced H.R. 5222, the Native American Languages Amendments Act of 2006.

 

S. 2674 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and Ryan Wilson urged quick action. He added that it can bring about ''a new day'' in Indian education.

 

But much remains of the old days, including Indian test scores that trail national averages and faltering marks on the AYP standard of the No Child Left Behind initiative of President George W. Bush.

 

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., vice chairman of the committee, pronounced himself ''a little perplexed'' at Interior's response: a ''reorganization'' to increase the ratio of senior executives to staff personnel. The reorganization is the target of a tribal lawsuit announced one day before the hearing.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Sunday, June 4, 2006

 

At least 8 leaving Legislature, but power shift doubtful

 

By Tara Godvin
Associated Press

 

At least eight lawmakers and possibly more will not be returning to their seats in the Hawai'i Legislature next session, leaving open several key leadership positions.

 

Those are the known departures, with the latest announcement from Maui's Republican Rep. Chris Halford yesterday. More changes will likely be in the offing as House members and some senators face challenges to their re-election and one could win a seat in Congress.

 

But, even at this early stage, the prospects of a major shift of political power are nonexistent. The departures are expected to have little impact on the 80-20 breakdown of Democrats and Republicans in both houses, although some seats could shift.

 

Of the eight who have announced their departures, two are in the 25-member Senate and six will give up seats in the 51-member House.

 

After 14 years in the Senate, Sen. Brian Kanno announced on the final day of the session this year that he would be finishing up his master's degree in social work and seeking a job in the field instead of returning to his seat.

 

That could mean a political shift in leadership for the district and the loss of a strong pro-labor leader as head of the Senate Labor Committee, said Dan Boylan, a political analyst and history professor at the University of Hawai'i.

 

Among those already signed up to compete for Kanno's West O'ahu seat is former Honolulu City Councilman Mike Gabbard, who as a member of the Republican minority would not be eligible to head the Labor Committee.

 

"You couldn't get much more liberal than Brian. So likely a more conservative person will take that position," Boylan said.

 

The Senate will also be losing Sen. Bob Hogue, R-24th (Kailua, Kane'ohe), who is among several politicians running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Ed Case.

 

But while the district has on occasion gone Democrat, it is more likely that the Republicans will hold the seat, Boylan said.

 

Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), who heads the Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, is also among those leaders in the Senate who are seeking Case's spot in Congress.

 

A win would mean Hanabusa, who wields considerable power in the Senate, would need to give up her state seat. Unlike some legislators in the race, however, her term doesn't end this year and she doesn't have to give up her seat to run for Congress.

 

Her departure would be among the biggest leadership losses to the Legislature if it happens, Boylan said.

 

Rep. Brian Schatz will be leaving his spot to be a candidate for Congress. He'll be vacating the vice chairmanship of the House Water, Land and Ocean Resources Committee, which is also losing its chairman with the retirement of Rep. Ezra Kanoho.

 

Kanoho is one of three veteran leaders to be retiring from the House, including Rep. Dennis Arakaki, who heads the Health Committee, and Rep. Helene Hale, who leads the International Affairs Committee.

 

"That creates a major vacuum. I think it's about, if you add it all up, close to about 50 years of public service that we'll be missing," said House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo, Wilhelmina Rise).

 

And with the arrival of the new as yet to be elected legislators will begin the new cycle of educating members so that they feel comfortable with the issues, said Say, who has been a member of the House for about 30 years and has seen the full cycle many times.

 

Among the biggest issues that the Legislature could face next year is how the state will form a new Native Hawaiian government should a bill granting them a degree of self-government get federal approval this fall, he said.

 

Legislators will also need to contend with filling the financial gaps left behind by federal cuts in funding, including in education, human services and veterans services, he said.

 

Say, however, wouldn't discuss who he feels will likely rise to fill the departing legislators' shoes.

 

"At this point, first and foremost, like I've shared with the members of the majority caucus: Please get re-elected first," he said.

 

 

 

 

June 6, 2006

 

Tribes stress preserving culture at 3-day town hall

 

Angelique Soenarie
The Arizona Republic

PARADISE VALLEY - American Indian representatives from across Arizona began a three-day session Monday to map out how to prevent their culture from slipping through the sands of time.

 

The theme of the 26th-annual Arizona Indian Town Hall is "Preserving Arizona's Tribal Cultural Resources, Sites and Languages."

 

Alicia Nosie 18, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe hopes to carry on her tribe's cultural traditions.

 

Nosie, who spoke during a panel discussion at the Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort, said the University of Arizona's Mount Graham International Observatory is one example of development on a sacred site.

 

"It is sacred for Apaches and other tribes," said Nosie, a freshman at Arizona State University. "It's kind of like they're putting a telescope on a church. That's where we go pray and get herbs and stuff. We don't want them to destroy our ground."

 

Her father, Wendsler Nosie Sr., was acquitted of criminal trespass at the Mount Graham observatory for praying in preparation for his daughter's passage to womanhood, called the Sunrise ceremony.

 

"I just don't want the youth to lose their culture, because in the next 10 years, there probably won't be anymore Apaches or culture," said Nosie, who participates in sacred runs. "We don't want to compromise who we are and someday become who we are not."

 

This week, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community will hold a film festival by the American Indian Film Institute. Admission is free and begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the Salt River High School Lecture Hall.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

 

Asserting Hawaiian ancestry

Huntington Beach woman speaks for preferential school admission policy for those of native descent.

 

By LAURIE KAWAKAMI
www.ocregister.com

Special to the Register

 

Noelani Jai is on a mission to educate one person at a time.

 

When she's not planning prayer vigils or staging demonstrations, the Huntington Beach woman speaks to small gatherings at hula classes and Hawaiian glee clubs around Orange County.

 

The message is always the same: Help preserve her alma mater, the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii.

 

The private school's admission policy has been the subject of controversy because it gives preference to children of native Hawaiian ancestry. Of its 6,550 students, only two are not of Hawaiian descent.

 

A federal court in San Francisco found last year that the policy constitutes "unlawful race discrimination." That decision transformed Jai into an activist.

 

"I was sickened," said Jai, the salutatorian of the Class of 1983 at Kamehameha Schools.

 

A larger panel of judges with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear the case next month.

 

The case is being closely watched by legal scholars because of its implications for other organizations and institutions.

 

Many native Hawaiians see Kamehameha Schools as their last institutional hope for overcoming centuries of social and economic hardship.

 

But others question the need for a segregated school in the 21st century and say the school fosters discrimination.

 

Through it all, Jai, 41, has emerged as a one-woman force, talking to anyone who will listen about the importance of her alma mater in her native Hawaii. Southern California is home to about 60,000 native Hawaiians - including about 5,000 in Orange County.

 

The case got its start three years ago when a teenager filed a lawsuit against Kamehameha Schools after being denied admission under the schools' preference policy.

 

"I believe throughout the entire case, we have the law and facts on our side," said Eric Grant, who represents the plaintiff.

 

"People understand that kids shouldn't be denied the ability to go to school based on skin color."

 

To native Hawaiians, it is about a sacred private trust and a 119-year-old admissions policy they see as necessary to protect their culture and language.

 

After the ruling last year, Jai led a protest of the court decision in San Francisco; organizers estimate 2,500 people marched to the steps of the Federal Courthouse where the case was decided.

 

People flew in from all the Western states and some from the islands, Jai said.

 

"Noelani has just been tireless as a worker and leader among stakeholders on the West Coast," said Kekoa Paulsen, spokesman for Kamehameha Schools.

 

"She's doing it out of her own volition and she's taken her own initiative, and we appreciate the dedication and commitment she's shown to the mission of Kamehameha Schools."

 

Miki Kim, a 1976 graduate who organized a similar march in Pasadena last October, said that although she clashes with Jai over the direction of the school, both realize the lawsuit has become a unifying touchstone for Hawaiians.

 

"We totally disagree on certain issues, but I still applaud her," Kim said.

 

"She's got an enormous amount of energy and the way she gets her message across is positive. I have absolute respect for that."

 

Jai grew up on the Windward side of Oahu, the eldest daughter of a Hawaiian-Chinese father who worked as a pizza delivery man, and a Caucasian mother from Michigan who worked as a parochial school teacher. Her family could never afford to send her to Kamehameha without financial help. The schools' private trust subsidizes up to 80 percent of the tuition for its students.

 

After graduating at the top of her class, Jai attended Pomona College. She received a law degree from UC Berkeley.

 

Jai went on to run a free legal clinic for women and children with AIDS in San Francisco.

 

After a brief stint in Hawaii as an attorney for the family court, she moved to Oregon in 2001 to attend seminary school.

 

The mother of two is studying to be a Kahu (pastor) in the native Hawaiian community.

 

She plans to combine her skills as a lawyer to help people understand the legal and spiritual implications of the case.

 

Jai spends about 20 hours a week writing e-mails, attending outreach events and organizing prayer vigils for the case.

 

She hopes to one day send her own children to Kamehameha Schools.

 

Were it not for Kamehameha Schools, she said, "I know I would not be where I am today."

 

 

 

 

June 7, 2006

 

Tribe told to balance old lifestyles with new

 

By Mike Hoeft
mhoeft@greenbaypressgazette.com

 

ASHWAUBENON — Native Americans struggling with health or substance-abuse issues should be encouraged to use traditional healing methods while living in the modern world, conferees were told Tuesday.

 

Carol Locust, who works with tribal groups to improve services to those with disabilities, said Native Americans must learn to walk with one foot in the native world and one foot in the non-native world.

 

"We were raised in the old ways but have new lifestyles," said Locust, an Eastern Band Cherokee who works in Tucson, Ariz. "Use what you can from both worlds to maintain what you have."

 

Locust shared cultural concepts in her keynote speech at the midyear conference of the Consortia of Administrators for Native American Rehabilitation.

 

About 300 participants nationwide are in Ashwaubenon at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center. The four-day conference concludes today.

 

Tribal people have had problems with alcohol, refined sugar and milk products, Locust said.

 

"Why? We never had them until they were brought to us," she said. Keeping one's spirit strong depends on keeping the body strong. Find what ancestors ate and return to those traditional foods, she said.

 

"Be careful in the amount of alcohol or sugar you use," Locust said.

 

The mission of the group is to help Native Americans with disabilities secure employment so they can continue to contribute to the community, said Stephen West, director of the Oneida tribal rehabilitation program.

 

Topics of breakout sessions included cultural ethics, diabetes aspects, effects of methamphetamine use, cross addiction of substance abuse and gambling, and drug-trafficking trends.

 

The consortia collaborates with state and federal agencies on coordinating tribal health and social service projects. There are 72 ongoing projects, West said.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, June 2, 2006

 

Maui earmarks $7M in water-rights battle

 

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

The fight over water rights — an issue reverberating across the state as burgeoning populations make a precious resource even more precious — heated up on Maui yesterday after the county appropriated money to pursue possible condemnation procedures against a former plantation company. Photo courtesy of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs: Sterling Kini Wong

 

Mayor Alan Arakawa signed a budget early yesterday that appropriates $7.2 million toward appraising and acquiring — through purchase or condemnation — up to 13,000 acres of stream-fed land owned by Wailuku Water Co., previously known as Wailuku Agribusiness Co.

 

"This is a very significant step, in terms of preserving the environment for future generations and in terms of protecting Native Hawaiian culture," Arakawa said.

 

The acquisition of the surface water on the land, which feeds Maui's aquifer, could also more than double the amount of drinking water now available to residents, he said, a key concern as housing developments spread across Central Maui.

 

Wailuku Water Co. president Avery Chumbley, citing ongoing disputes over the water, now before the state Commission on Water Resource Management, declined to comment on the county's move.

 

Wailuku Agribusiness, once known as Wailuku Sugar Co., has controlled the water in the area, called Na Wai 'Eha, or "four great waters" for the 'Iao, Waihe'e, Waikapu and Waiehu streams that flow through it, for at least a century. The company phased out its farming activities in recent years and became Wailuku Water Co. It continues to divert the streams for water to sell to a golf course and agricultural interests, including Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. and Maui Pineapple Co.

 

On previous occasions, Chumbley has questioned whether Arakawa was trying to put an end to agriculture on Maui by insisting the streams be allowed to return to their normal mauka-to-makai flow.

 

Environmental and cultural groups question whether Wailuku Water Co. is "banking" water, and contest the right of the company to control and sell water, which they say the law defines as a public trust resource.

 

Arakawa said he hoped Maui County's actions would inspire other government entities across the state to take steps to preserve ground water and surface water.

 

"With the state moving away from an agricultural base, I think it is a good time in history to start looking at where the priorities should be for these water systems," he said.

 

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Earthjustice, representing community groups including Hui o Na Wai 'Eha, have been working with the county on the water rights issue since December, when Earthjustice agreed to drop a case against the county that had been pending before the state Commission on Water Resource Management in exchange for Arakawa's promise to pursue restoration of stream flows in the area.

 

A series of other cases involving the area are ongoing before the commission, said Earthjustice attorney Kapua Sproat.

 

Sproat praised Arakawa and the Maui County Council for moving forward to acquire the land.

 

"This is historic," she said. "They are taking the initiative to protect water resources."

 

She said Wailuku Water Co. has diverted the streams from their normal courses, blocking their flow between the mountains and the sea.

 

In addition to decreasing the amount of water that percolates through the ground to the aquifer, the diversions disrupt the normal cycles of native stream life, including 'opae, 'o'opu, and hihiwai, whose larvae float downstream to the ocean and offspring swim toward the mountains.

 

Before the plantations took over Na Wai 'Eha, the area was blanketed by taro patches, and Jonathan Likeke Scheuer, OHA policy analyst for native rights, land and cultural issues, said many who live along streambeds would like to return to that more traditional way of life.

 

He said the issues surrounding Na Wai 'Eha have been pending before the "underfunded and understaffed" state Commission on Water Resource Management for years, and he was pleased that the county had decided to take the initiative in the matter.

 

"Finally," he said, "the mayor and the council are saying: This is way too critical. We can't wait around any longer."

 

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

June 1, 2006

 

Letter backs award

By Blake Nicholson
Associated Press

 

BISMARCK – The secretary of the Army is recommending the nation’s highest military honor for the late Woodrow Wilson Keeble, a man known as Chief who is credited with saving his fellow soldiers’ lives during the Korean War.

 

Keeble would be the first Sioux Indian to receive the Medal of Honor if it is approved.

 

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey said in a letter to Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., on Wednesday that he will recommend the medal be awarded to Keeble, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe who died in 1982.

 

Keeble was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, with more than 30 citations, including four Purple Hearts and the Army’s second-highest commendation, the Distinguished Service Cross.

 

Fellow soldiers, family members and others have been urging Congress for years to award Keeble the Medal of Honor. They say he deserves the nation’s highest military honor for his actions in Korea in 1951, when he saved his fellow soldiers’ lives by taking out more than a dozen of their enemies on a steep hill, even though he was wounded.

 

“After giving this request my careful and personal consideration, it is my recommendation that the award of the Medal of Honor is the appropriate award to recognize Master Sgt. Woodrow W. Keeble’s gallant acts,” Harvey said in the letter Wednesday.

 

“This brave soldier clearly distinguished himself through his courageous actions.”

 

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and President Bush still must approve the medal.

 

“What we’ve seen in the past is when the secretary (of the Army) makes a recommendation, that it then flows quite smoothly,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

 

Harvey’s letter came the same day military officials held a ceremony in Wahpeton to present Keeble’s widow, Blossom Hawkins-Keeble, with a set of medals to replace those that had been lost or had deteriorated through the years.

 

Johnson said men in Keeble’s company in Korea in 1951 twice submitted recommendations that he receive the Medal of Honor, but both recommendations were lost. In a statement, Johnson called Harvey’s recommendation “a major step” and promised to see it through.

 

The Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe asked Johnson in 2002 to help obtain the medal for Keeble.

 

The National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution in 2005 supporting the medal for Keeble, as did the South Dakota Legislature earlier this year.

 

“I’m delighted that this recommendation has come today,” said Conrad, who was on hand for Wednesday’s ceremony in Wahpeton. “This is the right ending.”

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, June 7, 2006

 

Old ways giving moi new life in fishpond

 

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

 

KANE'OHE — Traditional Hawaiian and cutting-edge aquaculture specialists are working together to step up and sustain production at He'eia Fishpond.

 

With grant money from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the National Marine Fisheries Service, Oceanic Institute and Paepae O He'eia, which conducts ecocultural education activities at He'eia Fishpond, are angling to revitalize moi fish cultivation using an old Hawaiian method.

 

"I see it as a marriage between ancient ways and modern aquaculture," said Oceanic Institute's Charles Laidley.

 

Oceanic Institute will provide training and 1,000 moi fingerlings over a yearlong period. The fish will be tagged and monitored by Paepae O He'eia staff and thousands of students visiting the pond during the study period.

 

Laidley said the hands-on study likely will appeal to students. "The key thing is to get them excited about something and once they get rolling, life gets a whole lot more interesting and they're willing to see why you should go to school and what they're getting from it," he said.

 

Some 2,500 students visit the site annually from public, private and charter schools. The organization also provides educational tours for businesses, kupuna groups and hula halau.

 

A century ago, Hawaiians would create fishponds to capture and raise fish, developing an environment where animals flourished. Under the traditional methods, fishpond gates would be opened to allow young fish into the pond where they would be captured and raised.

 

The problem today is there is no large supply of young fish due to the depletion of fish supply over the decades, Laidley said.

 

Mahinapoepoe Paishon, Paepae O He'eia's executive director, said in the early 1900s, 297 fishponds were counted throughout the Islands. About 25 remain.

 

Established in 2001, Paepae O He'eia hopes the study will lead to a viable business opportunity that would help sustain the group and its programs at the fishpond, she said.

 

"Oceanic Institute will directly assist our organization in the recovery of traditional knowledge and acquisition of contemporary knowledge and skills related to raising fish," Paishon said, pointing out that her organization is still learning about the ancient process.

 

Laidley, who said he'll help develop a business plan for the fishpond, said the Oceanic Institute — a world leader in conducting applied research in aquaculture production and marine resource conservation — also intends to use the results of the He'eia Fishpond study to assist other fishpond efforts.

 

The He'eia Fishpond study was made possible by a $130,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service and a $50,000 grant from OHA. Oceanic Institute officials sought the OHA grant to provide training for Paepae O He'eia's staff.

 

Noting that the fishpond has attracted poachers over the years, Paishon said she hopes there will be no such interference with the He'eia Fishpond Revitalization Project. Unauthorized taking could diminish the research, educational and cultural value of the study, she said. Eventually, the moi raised in this study will be released.

 

In addition to educational efforts, Paepae O He'eia is clearing and restoring the fishpond, which belongs to Kamehameha Schools.

 

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, May 31, 2006

 

Kamehameha Schools' band heading for China

 

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

 

The itinerary reads like a vacation of a lifetime, but there will be lots of work when the 144 students of the Kamehameha Schools Marching and Concert Band tour China.

 

The band entourage boards airplanes today for the China visit, in which they will participate in seven performances including one at the Great Wall.

 

"No band from Hawai'i has ever gone to China before," said John Riggle, band director.

 

The students and their parents spent the past two years raising money, practicing and learning how to be culturally sensitive.

 

"We've been practicing during the week, on Saturdays and even after school," said Brittney Peters, a Kamehameha junior who plays the flute.

 

"We not only represent ourselves, but our state, all of America, too, and the Hawaiian community.

 

"It's going to be awesome."

 

The students will parade their talents, performing their trademark "Aloha 'Oe" and "Kamehameha Marches" and award-winning "Phantom of the Opera" field show.

 

They'll also do plenty of sightseeing — Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace on the shore of Kunming Lake, the Longxing Monastery and the 2,200-year-old Terra Cotta Warriors created to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife.

 

The students each had to raise $2,600 for travel costs for their 12-day trip to four cities — Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Xian and Shanghai. They sold cookbooks and T-shirts and held jog-a-thons to raise the money.

 

Besides the Great Wall entrance plaza, they will perform at the Shijiazhuang No. 1 High School and at the Hebei Provincial Art Center with the Chinese Liberation Army Band.

 

Matt Ono, who plays trumpet in the marching band, said band has been a major part of his life for the past eight years. But nothing is as exciting as his trip to China. Not even when the band went on a Mainland tour in 2004 to New York; Orlando, Fla.; and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

 

"It's really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and my last opportunity as a band student," said Ono, who graduated Sunday from Kamehameha Schools. "It's the furthest I've ever traveled."

 

Lokela Minami, a trombone player since fifth grade, said every ounce of sweat, the hours of practice and the fundraisers have been worth it.

 

"I've invested so much of my high school career in band," Minami said. "This trip is an opportunity to be with friends and to travel to places. Now it's China. Band is a venue to experience the world."

 

Parent Susan Lee will accompany daughter Carissa, who plays the bass drum. Neither Lee nor her daughter have been to China.

 

Since the band was invited, they've worked with specialists in Chinese customs and culture, Lee said.

 

"Throughout the year we have had a lot of speakers on the Chinese customs, Chinese phrases and teacher of tai chi to help us perform tai chi to Hawaiian music," said Lee, who is the trip chairwoman.

 

"Our performance will be a blend of two cultures."

 

Riggle, with more than 30 years as band director, has taken his charges to The Royal Tournament in London and the changing-of-the-guard ceremony at the Palace of Monaco, as well as the 2000 Millennium Tour of France, Switzerland and Italy. Under Riggle's baton, the band has gone to the Rose Bowl three times.

 

"We've been all over the world," Riggle said. "We're seasoned travelers. But we've never gone to the East. The students realize they have a real opportunity."

 

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

Posted: June 05, 2006

 

Intercultural education model on the rise in Latin America

 

by: Lisa Garrigues / Today correspondent

 

CUSCO, Peru - From Mexico to Chile, Indian movements are shifting the Latin American educational system from a ''Eurocentric'' colonial model to an intercultural model that revitalizes indigenous knowledge, language and identity.

 

''Today the central theme is decolonization,'' said Bolivia's new education director, Felix Patzi, in an interview recently published in Pulso magazine.

 

For Patzi, decolonization means taking the reins of the Bolivian educational system away from non-governmental organizations, which he accuses of having a ''colonial'' attitude, and giving them back to the people who are directly involved in Bolivia's educational process: teachers, parents and students.

 

It also means hiring teachers who speak Spanish, English and at least one Native language, and have a good knowledge of both ''universal'' and ''indigenous'' knowledge.

 

Bolivia, a country with an indigenous majority that recently elected its first Indian president, Evo Morales, will host the 7th Latin American Congress for Intercultural and Bilingual Education in October. Eighteen countries are expected to participate.

 

The impetus for bilingual and intercultural education began in the 1990s as Indian groups pushed for educational and political reform, and learning spawned projects like PROEIB, the Program for Bilingual Intercultural Education Formation for the Andean Countries, the intercultural ''pilot schools'' in Mapuche territories in Chile, the Zapatista academies of indigenous languages in Mexico and the Mayan schools of Guatemala, where spiritual authorities have passed on their knowledge to new generations.

 

The goal has shifted since then from developing programs directed towards Native communities to more comprehensive programs that prepare all Latin Americans to live in an intercultural society.

 

Interculturality, wrote Oscar Azmitia in ''La Educacion Bilingue Intercultural en Guatemala'', implies ''dynamic relationships within a political project'' and is a step forward from ''multiculturalism,'' which simply expresses ''the coexistence of peoples and cultures.''

 

Indigenous organizations like Ecuador's Movimiento Quechua y Campesino de los Rios have pushed not just to develop curriculum and publish textbooks in Native languages but to rewrite the textbooks to tell the stories of Latin American Native leaders like Atahualpa and Ruminahui, and include Native science and cosmovision in the curriculum.

 

Shaped by a political vision that organizers of the Bolivian conference said ''wants to refound and decolonize the state and view it as multi or plurinational,'' the early ''timid'' efforts at bilingual and intercultural education have taken on greater force. The result is a more critical and participatory indigenous identity that is reflected in government agencies like Mexico's Department of Bilingual Intercultural Education and laws like Chile's Law of Educational Curriculum, which mandates a curriculum that is 40 percent based on ''common ground'' and 60 percent based on ''local reality,'' including local indigenous knowledge.

 

Despite these successes, there is still a shortage of qualified bilingual Spanish/Native language teachers in most countries, and many rural and urban indigenous communities throughout Latin America are struggling to pass their language and traditions on to the next generation in an increasingly globalized world.

 

One hopeful program at the university level, still in the formation stage, is the Itinerant Indigenous University, the first international Latin American university to be run by Native people for Native people. Twelve universities throughout Latin America will participate, hiring international professionals and local community authorities who will travel throughout indigenous communities in Latin America and use the Internet to share their knowledge. Chile will host a center for indigenous rights, Bolivia will coordinate a bilingual/intercultural education program, Nicaragua will direct an intercultural health program and Mexico will sponsor a program in language revitalization.

 

The project is organized by the Indigenous Fund and partially funded by a European organization, the German Technical Cooperative.

 

Linguist Luis Enrique Lopez, a consultant for the project, said the goal of the program is to eventually become an internationally recognized ''Native university'' and to ''Indianize'' existing Latin American universities, bringing more indigenous knowledge into their curricula and bringing the universities into conversation with local Native communities.

 

Currently, he said, universities in Native territories ''follow the European model and are disconnected from indigenous reality and knowledge.''

 

While 18 percent of Latin America's population is currently enrolled in institutions of higher education, only 1 percent is Native, according to UNESCO data.

 

Lopez hopes that the itinerant university, which should be fully functional in five to six years, can eventually connect with Native people in the United States and Canada. He believes that programs in Native studies and bilingual education that he visited at the universities of Saskatchewan and Northern Arizona can be used as models for asserting Native identity and recuperating indigenous languages.

 

''There are many situations that are very similar in the north and south,'' he said.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Monday, June 5, 2006

 

Hawaiian monk seals in crisis

 

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

 

EAST ISLAND, French Frigate Shoals — A newborn seal pup lay still on the sand as its mother patrolled back and forth in the water, vocalizing in the hoarse bark mother seals use to call their pups. Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries Service

 

On the blindingly white coral sand, her pup, its black pelt still glossy in the midmorning sun, was dead — another defeat in the continuing war against extinction for these majestic marine mammals.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries monk seal team conducted a necropsy that afternoon, checking the 22-pound pup for obvious physical problems and preserving critical organs and tissue samples for later examination by veterinarians and laboratories.

 

The animal appeared to be stillborn, its umbilical cord and placenta lying next to the body. The preliminary report was that it may have been premature, that its skull was not fully developed and that it was smaller than normal for a seal at birth.

 

It has been a rough year for monk seal researchers. This was the 14th death at French Frigate Shoals, where the number of monk seals continues to plummet.

 

"Monk seals are now in a crisis situation," said Bud Antonelis, chief of the protected species division at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

 

There may have been as many as 3,000 Hawaiian monk seals across the Hawaiian archipelago in the 1950s. In the mid-1980s, half the population was at French Frigate Shoals. Today, the population is between 1,200 and 1,300, and only a third or so are at French Frigate, where the decline has been most disturbing. Photo courtesy NOAA Fisheries Service

 

"The numbers are now at the lowest point in recorded history," Antonelis said. "And we could have less than 1,000 in five years."

 

"It's dire right now, and we know it's going to get worse," said Suzanne Canja, who heads NOAA's monk seal team at French Frigate Shoals.

 

The seal pup survival rate was so low during most of the 1990s that there are few new females ready to take the place of females getting too old to reproduce. As a result, NOAA Fisheries has taken such extraordinary steps to protect twin female seal pups from Midway Atoll that were weaned too small. They've been brought to Honolulu to fatten up, in hopes that they can be released big and healthy to re-enter the wild population there.

 

BREEDING GROUNDS LOST

 

With Hawaiian monk seals, it's not that researchers don't have a clue what's going on with them. It may be that they have too many clues.

 

Here's one: Half a century ago, there were more than 110 acres of sandy island area in French Frigate Shoals, a 22-mile crescent of reefs with a dozen named islets. Today there are fewer than 40 acres, and five of the 12 islets are less than a tenth of an acre. Several of them occasionally disappear entirely.

 

One of the disappearing islands is aptly named Disappearing Island. But the one that concerns Antonelis the most is Whale-Skate.

 

In the past, it has sometimes been two separate islands, Whale and Skate, and sometimes the sandbars connect the two to form one. Photos taken during the 1960s show it vegetated with a large seabird nesting population.

 

"Whale-Skate was the prime pupping site on French Frigate. In the early 1990s most of the females breeding at French Frigate Shoals were there. In the mid-'90s it started eroding and in 1998, it washed entirely away," Antonelis said.

 

When The Advertiser visited last week, it was a little mound of sand, and seals and turtles ringed it flipper to flipper.

 

There is no consensus on whether a rise in sea levels, new current patterns or something else has caused the drop in French Frigate Shoals' acreage, but NOAA's Jason Baker has issued a report suggesting that anticipated rises in sea levels during the next century will make issues worse.

 

The team at French Frigate says the biggest problem for the seals is surviving to adulthood. During the 1990s, pups were dying because they were too thin. This might have been because their mothers weren't feeding well enough. That in turn might have resulted from a variety of factors: a decline in atoll productivity, more aggressive competition from other predators such as sharks and ulua, or even perhaps a collapse of the lobster population.

 

Antonelis calls it an "inability to forage successfully," for whatever reason.

 

NEW PREDATOR ARRIVES

 

As Whale-Skate was washing away, a new problem arose. A group of Galapagos sharks developed a pattern that seal researchers said was new. They started aggressively patrolling the shallow water around Trig Island, where many of the Whale-Skate moms had moved, and started killing baby seals.

 

"The biggest population right now is on Trig, and we could lose 25 pups there to sharks," said seal team member Dan Luers.

 

That's how many were taken in 1998. The numbers taken have dropped since then, partly because dozens of sharks known to have been preying on pups were removed, and because the seal team is moving newly weaned pups from Trig to Tern Island, where there's less of a shark problem.

 

There are other problems for the seals, but if pupping habitat continues to decline, there will be little hope, Antonelis said. He is proposing a study of ways to restore some of the habitat at French Frigate Shoals — perhaps using the same kind of sand replenishment proposed for Waikiki Beach to rebuild Whale-Skate Island.

 

"Habitat loss is certainly a serious concern, and we need to learn more about it," Antonelis said. "We really don't have too many options."

 

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

2006 Elections Present 101 Seats for Voters to Decide

 

WHAT:  Activating Voter Registration in 2006 to weigh in on 101 seats at the federal, state and county levels is on the minds of many in Hawaii today.  The seats that will come before the electorate in the fall of 2006 include the following:

 

 

 

 

For more information and a complete list of 2006 Contests and Incumbents, visit the Hawaii State Office of Elections Website at:  http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/

 

To register to vote:  http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/voters/registration.htm

 

 

 

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. 06-1-0140 (3) IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SECOND CIRCUIT STATE OF HAWAII AMENDED SUMMONS TO: HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KEKINO (w); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF KANIKAU (w) aka KANIKAU KAPU (w); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF KAPU (k); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF PALA (k) aka LUI PALA (k); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF KILIKA (w) aka KILIKA PALA (w) aka VICTORIA PALA; HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF WILLIAM AKI; HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF KAKOLU (k); LUCY AKI; KEKOANA AKI; KIALALUHI AKI; HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF KAHAULEPA (k); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF POHAKU (k); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF WAWAE (k); UNKNOWN OWNERS and/or INTERESTED PARTIES OF ROADWAY crossing over the southerly portion of Apana 1 of Land Commission Award Number 2554; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF IWINUI (w), aka KUKAI (w) and KUKAE (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF LAI (w), aka LAIE (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KALE (k); VIOLET KAIMIKAUA MORI, aka VIOLET K. MORI; SALLY KAIMIKAUA BLAKA, aka SALLY KAIMIKAUA BLAHA and SALLY K. BLAKA; ESTATE OF JAMES KAIMIKAUA, JR., DECEASED; VIOLET JOSEPHINE KAIMIKAUA, now known as VIOLET BLAHA; CHARLOTTE RAPOSAS; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAIWIKAHIKO (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF PEPEE (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAUANUI; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAPOHAKU (k), aka KAPOHAKU KAHAULEPA and POHAKU; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAAEA; UNKNOWN OWNERS and/or INTERESTED PARTIES OF WAIHEE DITCH; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAHALE (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF PALAUALELO (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF HELELA (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KELIINUI (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAPULE (k); KALIKA KAPU; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF ABRAHAM K. MCAULTON; ROSE E. MCAULTON; BARBARA MAMO AQUINO; ARTHUR SANFORD MCAULTON; VERONICA PUANANI REZENTES; SANDRA MAENANI CHONG; ROSEMARIE LANI YEE; MELVIN KAUINAOKALANI MCAULTON; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAPAKU (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF MAHOE (w); CARL G. K. KAIMIKAUA; HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF PALA (k) aka LUI PALA (k); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF MAUUMAE (w) aka MAUUMAE KAWAILANA (w) and MAUIMAE KAWAILANA (w); HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF HARRY MAIO; HEIRS AND ASSIGNS OF KEKAHUNA (w) aka KEKAHUNA ABISAI (w) and KEKAHUNA APIKAI (w); and persons named above who are deceased, or persons holding under said Heirs, and spouses, assigns, successors, personal representatives, executors, administrators, and trustees of persons named above who are deceased; Does 1 through 100; and all other persons unknown claiming any right, title estate, lien or interest in the real property described and TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiff WAHI HO OMALU claims fee simple ownership to all of the following real property: LCA 2461:2 to Kanehailua, 0.45 acre, more or less; LCA 2468:1 & :2 to Keau; LCA 2554:1, 2 & :3 to Wawae, 0.500 acre, more or less; LCA 3275-D Kaholomoana; LCA 3275-I to Kaia, 1-10/100 acres, more or less; LCA 3275-W to Kaaea, 0.490 acre, more or less; LCA 3451 to Kapahi or Napahi, 1-53/100 acres, more or less; LCA 3456:4 to Keliinui, 75/100 acre, more or less; and LCA 11222 to Kapaku, 1-58/100 acres, more or less; all located to Waiehu, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, portion of Tax Key (2) 3-3-002-001. YOU ARE HEREBY FURTHER NOTIFIED that Plaintiff WAHI HO OMALU, filed a Complaint to Quiet Title in the Second Circuit Court, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, requesting that title to the above-described real property be determined quieted as to any and all adverse claims not presented and/or adjudicated in this action. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear in the courtroom of the Honorable Joseph E. Cardoza, Judge of the above entitled Court, Hoapili Hale, 2145 Main Street, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, on July 7, 2006, at 8:30 a.m., or to file an answer or other pleading and serve it before said day upon Plaintiffs' counsel TOM C. LEUTENEKER, Carlsmith Ball LLP, 2200 Main Street, Suite 400, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii 96793, to show cause, if any you have, why the prayer of said Complaint should not be granted. Unless you file an answer before the time aforesaid or appear at the Second Circuit Court, Wailuku, County of Maui, State of Hawaii, at the time and place aforesaid, your default will be recorded, and said Complaint will be taken as confessed and a judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint. DATED: Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, May 23, 2006. C. CASIL CLERK OF THE ABOVE ENTITLED COURT CARLSMITH BALL LLP TOM C. LEUTENEKER 721-0 2200 Main Street, Suite 400 Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii 96793 Telephone No. 808.242.4535 Fax No. 808-244-4974 Attorney for Plaintiff (Hon. Adv.: May 26; June 2, 9, 16, 2006) (A-422728) Posted on 5/26/2006

 

 

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Please visit the CNHA family of organizations

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ANA Grant Training Pan Pacific

http://anapacific.org

 

Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP)

http://dhhlhoap.org

 

Full Service Document Digitization

http://hhtech.net

 

Supporting 2,000 Years of Good Ideas!

http://hawaiianwayfund.org

 

Annual Native Hawaiian Conference

http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/Conference

 

Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement

33 South King Street, Suite 513

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Phone: 808.521.5011 Fax: 808.521.4111

 

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