Hoopa elder and veteran of the Korean War, Billy Carpenter, blesses the Bald Hill construction site with a traditional tribal prayer. Also pictured are Tribal Chairman Lyle Marshall and Brig. Gen. Kevin G. Ellsworth. Photo by Spc. Joe Samudio
McKINLEYVILLE, Calif. (Army News Service, Feb. 8, 2008) - National Guard troops joined members of the Hoopa Indian Reservation to work on an engineering project designed to stabilize a hill and remove dirt from a major landslide in northern California.
The project, "Operation Winter Eagle," began in October and produced major results before concluding in early December, officials said. Soldiers and Airmen from the California and Indiana National Guard worked on the project.
"We got done above and beyond what we planned on getting done this year," said Hoopa civil engineer Cody Smith. "Our estimate right now is that with your guys' help, we removed a total of 40,000 cubic yards off that slide face - 30,000 of it with these machines right here which your guys were running."
The numbers well exceeded the tribe's original goal for the year of about 18,000 cubic yards.
The project is one of many conducted by the California Civil-Military Innovative Readiness Training team. About 20 Soldiers and four individuals from the Hoopa Roads Department worked alongside one another to stabilize a hillside which had given way in August 2003, blocking residents and denying emergency personnel from traveling a critical passage way.
Although the Hoopa tribe conducted mitigation measures, the affected area increased 300 percent and magnified the tribe's need for assistance. Former Innovative Readiness Team commander, Maj. Ken Shedarowich, had built a strong relationship with the Hoopa community while his troops provided medical and dental services for tribal members. Upon learning of the Bald Hill Slide situation, he asked how the California National Guard could assist.
On Dec. 11, Brig. Gen. Kevin G. Ellsworth, director, Joint Staff, visited the Hoopa Indian Reservation to view the work of the IRT and Hoopa Roads Department. At the site of the slide, the visit began with a moving prayer offered in the native tongue by the tribe's resident elder and sergeant-at-arms, Billy Carpenter. Carpenter also happened to be a veteran of the Korean War and was glad to have the Army there with the tribe.
"We are all one. We're not different from one another," said Carpenter as he began. "Usually when we call on the creator ... the rest of the day is a good one."
As Brig. Gen. Ellsworth surveyed the slide, he spoke on behalf of the engineers. "It's been great training, and it's always a pleasure," he said. "Relationships are good, and it helps keep our folks tuned up. We've got great engineers. We know they're working hard when they're dirty. I'm an engineer officer so I can speak for you guys."
When the comment "check your boots, sir," came from a brave Soldier in the rear, the general laughed as he looked at his own clean ones and replied, "that was a few years ago."
Tribal Roads Department Director Jacque Hostler said several agencies and Rep. Mike Thompson of California have supported the project. The tribe continues to lobby for more federal money to fix the road permanently, which could require moving another 100,000 cubic yards of material. Although the project is not expected to be complete until 2010, Hostler praised the Guard for their help and said they could at least see a light at the end of the tunnel.
"Having you all here is a lifelong dream to see the art of accomplishing with us hand-in-hand the mitigation of Bald Hill Slide," she said. "It's not a small matter that the Guard came at the final
NIEA - National Indian Education Association <http://www.niea.org> February 5, 2008 Broadcast #08-011 Please Share this Information. President Bush’s 2009 Budget is released; Fight to Restore Funding by Attending our Legislative Summit!
President George W. Bush Releases the FY 09 Budget Request The President submitted his Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget request to Congress on February 4, 2008. The President’s budget request calls for funding in the amount of $64.9 billion for the Department of Education, $2.3 billion in funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (a decrease of $105 million from the enacted FY 2008 amount), and $737 billion in funding at the Department of Health and Human Services Budget (an increase of over $29 billion over the proposed FY 2008 amount) and a discretionary budget of $68.5 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (a decrease of $2.2 billion below the FY 2008 enacted level.)
Below is a brief overview of the Native education provisions in the President’s FY 2009 budget request.
Department of Education - Native Education For FY 2009, the President’s FY 2009 budget requests $59.2 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Education, the same as the 2008 level, and an increase of $17 billion, or 40%, in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Education since FY 2001. The President’s FY 2009 budget request, among other things, proposes:
* an increase of $406 million for Title I grants for local educational agencies for a total of $14.3 billion; * $491.3 million, the same as the FY 2008 level, for Title I school improvement grants; * an increase of $607 million for a total of $1 billion for Reading First State Grants; * $800 million for a reauthorized 21st Century Learning Opportunities Program that would replace 21st Century Community Learning Centers; * $300 million for Pell Grants for Kids (a new K-12 scholarship program that would allow low-income students attending schools in restr! ucturing or that have high drop out rates to transfer to local private schools or out-of-district public schools); * an increase of $102.7 million for a total of $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund; * an increase of $131.5 million for a total of $175 million for programs aimed at improving math and science instruction in K-12 schools; * an increase of $337 million for a total of $11.3 billion for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B Grants for States; * an increase of $2.6 billion for a total of $16.9 billion for Pell Grants; * $828.178 million for TRIO (same as the FY 2008 level); * $57 million for Upward Bound (same as the FY 2008 level); * $303.423 million for GEAR UP (same as the FY 2008 level).
The President’s FY 2009 budget also proposes significant mandatory and discretionary funding cuts that the Department claims are essential to meeting the President’s goal of eliminating the deficit by 2012. Consistent with the President’s goal, the FY 2009 budget proposes eliminating funding for 47 programs, including Alaska Native Education Equity in Title VII of NCLB, Education for Native Hawaiians in Title VII of NCLB, Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners, Even Start, Tech Prep Education State Grants, Teacher Quality Enhancement, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Strengthening Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Institutions.
The rationale for the elimination of Alaska Native Education Equity is that it is duplicative of Title I, Special Education State Grants, and Indian ! Education programs and that it provides for earmarks not subject to competitive process or other normal accountability requirements.
The rationale for the elimination of Education for Native Hawaiians is that it is duplicative of Title I, Special Education State Grants, and TRIO programs and that it provides for earmarks of noncompetitive grants for specific entities.
The rationale for the elimination of $11.579 million for Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions under HEA III-A, section 317, is based on the assertion that these programs may be carried out under the HEA Title III Strengthening Institutions Program and the College Cost Reduction and Access Program. The President’s budget proposes $15 million for “additional funds for strengthening Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian-serving Institutions under HEA-IV-J.”
The Administration did not provide a rationale for the elimination of $23.158 million for Strengthenin! g Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities under HEA III-A, secti on 316, in its Budget in Brief for FY 2009. The President’s budget does propose $30 million for “additional funds for strengthening tribally controlled colleges and universities under HEA-IV-J.” The President’s budget also proposes $5 million for “Strengthening Native American-serving non-tribal institutions under HEA-IV-J.”
The rationale for the elimination of $7.546 million for Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Institutions is based on the assertion that program recipients are eligible for competitive grants under other Federal programs, including mandatory funding provided for the Strengthening Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities program under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.
Department of the Interior The President’s FY 2009 budget request for the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Elementary and Secondary programs, including education management, proposes a total of $563.2 million, a decrease of approximately $14.66 million. Included in this funding is $25.5 million (a $1.4 million increase) for the Improving Indian Education Initiative which was introduced in the FY 2008 Budget Request. The Improving Indian Education Initiative was developed in response to the low performance of BIE schools under No Child Left Behind. Only 30% of BIE schools are achieving their annual progress goals and student performance in reading and mathematics in BIE schools is lower than that of students in public schools according to the 2007 National Assessment on Educational Progress. The Department of Interior is dedicating $5.2 million of education program funding to enhance education programs at lower performing schools to “assist schools required to! restructure under NCLB and for reading, tutoring, mentoring, and intensive math and science initiatives at schools that are required to take corrective action to promote student achievement.” Education Management received an increase of $2.9 million for a total of $26.2 million.
Funding for post-secondary education is proposed to be cut by $10.97 million to a level of $100.8 million. Post- secondary decreases for BIE funding include scholarships (-$5.9 million) and Tribal Technical Colleges (-$5.9 million) “to allow BIE to focus on its core responsibility of running the BIE school system.”
The education construction account request is $115.4 million which is a $27.6 million decrease. There is a $24.3 million decrease for Replacement School Construction, $10.5 million decrease in Facilities Improvement and Repair, and an increase of $7.3 million for Replacement Facilities Construction.
Other decreases include Student Transportation (-$984 thous! and), Education Program Enhancements (-$6.89 million), Early Childhood Development (-$2.953 million) and total elimination of the Johnson O’Malley program. The budget proposes totally eliminating Johnson O’Malley (JOM) grants at $21.4 million. The $21.4 million includes JOM programs within Tribal Government Operations and Education Operations. The Department of Interior used the repeated rationale from 2006, 2007, and 2008 that the JOM programs are duplicative of grants available from the Department of Education, under Title VII and Impact Aid. The Budget justification states, “The Johnson O’Malley grants do not address a focused goal for academic achievement and lack a means to measure and report on program impacts on student performance.”
Department of Health and Human Services The FY 2009 budget request for the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) is $45.6 billion, a decrease of $1.8 billion from FY 2008. The ACF budget includes a request for the Head Start Bureau to be funded at $7 billion, an increase of $149 million. The FY 2009 budget request proposes funding the Administration for Native Americans (ANA), the agency that administers Native language grants including the programs provided for under the Esther Martinez Act, at $46 million. Prior to FY 2008, ANA was flat funded over the last 5 years at $44 million; but, last year Congress added $2 million for Esther Martinez grants. The FY 2009 budget request continues the commitment to revitalizing and preserving our Native languages under Esther Martinez. The FY 2009 budget justification for ANA states, “The Budget includes $2 million for the second year of funding for the preservation of Native American languages as authorized b! y the Esther Martinez Native American Language Preservation Act.” To be included in the President’s budget is a tremendous accomplishment and NIEA membership should congratulate itself for its hard work in educating the Administration and Capitol Hill on our needs to preserve our Native languages. Let’s keep the momentum building on this vital effort!
NIEA will provide a detailed budget analysis and NIEA’s appropriations recommendations and priorities during the Legislative Summit scheduled for February 11-13th, 2008. Additionally, we will provide the related documents on our website when they become available. Please feel free to contact NIEA at (202)544-7290 if you have any questions.
THIS IS AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TIME TO BE INVOLVED IN THE NATIONAL INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. YOUR PARTICIPATING IS CRITICAL TO THE CONTINUANCE OF OUR PROGRAMS. PLEASE ATTEND OUR LEGISLATIVE SUMMIT.
Remember, you can still to register for our 11th Annual Legislative Summit at the on-site rate. There is a lot to learn at the Legislative Summit and this is the best time to visit with your Congressperson and talk to them about your education issues.
The Ho-Chunk Nation is making efforts to trim startling national statistics about the health of Native Americans.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that American Indians are 2.6 percent more likely to develop diabetes than the non-Hispanic white population. And, a recent study of several state tribes found that 27 percent of Wisconsin Native American children aged five to eight are overweight and another 19 percent are at risk.
Armed with those alarming figures, the Ho-Chunk Nation has taken steps to educate its youth about the importance of fitness, nutrition and wellness.
"The Ho-Chunk Youth Fitness Program (HYFP) focuses on laying a solid foundation for a happy, healthy and long life," says Linda Lowery, Ho-Chunk diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk reduction coordinator. "The program focuses on fitness, healthy-eating and the power of positive thinking to improve self-esteem."
The federal grant-funded HYFP involves native kids from the Tomah and Black River Falls areas that are aged six through 18. Typically, the kids are lead through physical activities, learn lessons about nutrition and importance of positive thinking twice a week at the Ho-Chunk Youth and Learning Center.
"The kids have a Healthier Youth Challenge every month. Once they were asked to try a different fruit, like kiwi," said Marty Ybarra, Ho-Chunk Youth Center director. "Another time, we challenged them to only drink sugarless soda for three months. That led to us to only offer sugar-free or caffeine-free soda here at the youth center permanently."
Success of the program is measured by comparing the participants' body composition measurements at the beginning and end of the program each school year. Self-esteem in all aspects of life including self, community, family, school and peers is also measured.
"Parents also play an important role in the success of the program," says Lowery. "The lessons the kids learn in the HYFP are reinforced by the parents at home. The parents sign a form saying they will support their child to make behavior changes. We've had parents tell us they've started watching food labels and others have turned off the TV to do something active instead with their kids."
"One family with four children in the program only allows sugarless soda at their house," says Marty. "The support the kids get at home will help them make healthy choices in the future."
Studies show by preventing kids from becoming overweight there is a better likelihood of preventing serious diseases like diabetes and heart problems.
"We're doing everything we can to help the kids," said Linda. "We know when kids feel good about themselves and are given direction and encouragement for healthy living through regular exercise and good nutrition, they will grow up to be healthy, happy adults."
In Step With American Indians Feb. 05, 2008 Sam McCracken grew up on an American Indian reservation in northeastern Montana watching his people suffer from diabetes.
The disease even hit his mother. She suffered for years, and after her liver stopped working, the disease killed her in 2001. She was 69.
McCracken didn't stand still. He saw that other Indians were more prone to diabetes than others, partly because of genetics and partly because of lack of exercise, leading to weight gain. He wanted to promote physical activity among his people.
So, as head of Nike's (NYSE:NKE) Native American Business (OOTC:ARBU) Program, he helped create a shoe that fits the distinctive shapes of Indians' feet.
McCracken and his team came up with Air Native N7 last September. The shoe has a large toe box, plus thick cushions and air bags. The toe box's height helps avoid ingrown toenails, blisters and irritation.
McCracken distributes the shoes to Indian communities at half the price of regular shoes and gives the profit back to tribal communities. Since November, his outfit has spread 10,000 pairs of shoes across the country.
The National Indian Gaming Association is so impressed that it gave McCracken its Leadership Award last year for promoting health and disease prevention among tribes.
In Indian communities, diabetes can mean the same as cancer, says Dr. Rodney Stapp, who at the Urban Inter-Tribal Center in Dallas treats people from over 100 tribes. He says that among some tribes in recent years, half the adults were diagnosed with diabetes. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that Indians are 2.6 times more likely to have Type 2 diabetes -- contracted partly because of obesity -- than whites.
Loosen 'Em Up
While he studied medicine, Stapp, who is an Indian, heard people give up with such remarks as "there's nothing you can do about it" and "eventually have somebody cut my feet off so I can die."
In poor rural reservations, people often share shoes with family members. That can be dangerous for diabetics. When their shoes are too tight, the ill can suffer ulcers and even amputation. "Sam is the first one who recognized the need for the shoes," said Stapp, a member of the Comanche tribe whose mother also died of diabetes.
He met McCracken a few years ago, just when the doctor was modifying shoes for his patients. Teaming up, they developed a mission: Don't let Indian kids go through the same pain of losing their moms.
McCracken followed up by hitting the pavement. He visited Indian communities in Oregon, Montana and Florida and scanned 200 people's feet at 70 tribes. The data showed that Indians' average toe size is bigger than other Americans', especially with women, who require a toe box four sizes wider than for traditional Nike women's shoes.
After two years of research and lab work, Air Native landed. McCracken is so sure of the sneaker's solidity, he said, "If my mom would have had access to this shoe, or have been encouraged to do physical activities, she might still be here."
McCracken pulled off the product launch by connecting poor American Indian reservations with a multibillion-dollar shoemaker. As he puts it, his Nike job is the only one in a Fortune 500 company that "serves native communities full time."
"I was determined not to fail," McCracken told IBD. "Because if I fail, I would let down my community."
His original community was in Montana, where he grew up on a wheat and cattle ranch amid Assiniboine and Sioux tribes on the Fort Peck Reservation.
McCracken saw his single mother work hard as a surgical nurse while providing for him. When he graduated from high school in 1978 without knowing what to do, his mother told him to work at a ranch with his uncle, and to coach a local youth basketball team.
She had a reason for her advice: The moves would give him a character boost. His uncle, Joe Day -- McCracken calls him grandfather -- taught him traditional Indian values and discipline through hard work.
"Uncle Joe made sure that I don't forget where I came from, our family and our roots," McCracken said. "In our tradition, we always think the creator will take care of you, and that's kind of stayed with me."
The 19-year-old had never coached basketball, but his mother insisted her son needed to give something back to the community -- and could use the leadership skills. Coaching quickly became his passion. Even when he moved to California, where he worked as a forklift operator at warehouses, he coached at night.
He's still at it three decades later.
Mark Loureiro, the athletic director at Escalon High School in Northern California, remembers the day he met McCracken. "It was like a blind date," he told IBD. "Sam walked in my office with a resume and said, 'I am interested in coaching basketball.'"
Loureiro said fine -- and was soon rewarded. He recalls how McCracken turned a "lower-level freshman team into a winner."
Don Francis, a coach in Sherwood, Ore., whose daughter was on McCracken's team, told IBD: "Sam likes to take kids to play the toughest team they can find." Whereas other coaches might seek easy opponents, McCracken wanted his players to aim high.
Tony Dorado, who coached with McCracken at a high school in Hayward, Calif., and is now Nike's national high school manager for basketball, said: "What's unusual is how quickly he became an accomplished coach. He makes players want to do well for him."
While coaching on the side, McCracken shot up the corporate ladder. He began his Nike career at its Wilsonville, Ore., distribution center as a receiving clerk in 1997. Soon the firm asked him to help its Indian employee network as a volunteer.
Once in that post, he heard from his hometown tribe. Its disease prevention coordinator asked Nike to give Fort Peck Indians products to promote physical activity.
"If my tribe wanted to have access (to products), why wouldn't all tribes?" McCracken asked himself.
So he sat down and wrote a business plan to distribute sneakers, outfits and other athletic gear among Indian communities nationwide. He took the plan to Nike's sales director and made a convincing point that such a move would be a win-win -- for Indians and the company.
"They came to us and told us what they needed, instead of us going to them and telling them what we were going to do," McCracken said.
Nike figured that the more physically active Indians became, the more the company could benefit from a growing consumer fitness market. With that, Nike in 2000 made the warehouse worker head of its Native American Business Program -- his full-time job.
To The Rescue
McCracken's vision and action don't surprise Loureiro. The athletic director remembers his old coach's urgency to help people, especially Indian children who feel trapped in poverty.
"He never forgets the reservation, he never forgets how tough it was," Loureiro said. "Sam taught kids: Don't be afraid to step out and take a chance."
Francis lauds him for having internal doors that he moves through fast. When McCracken coaches, he displays his passion; off the court, he is humble and shy.
McCracken's wife, Jodi, who assists him in coaching an eighth-grade girls' basketball team in Sherwood, Ore., says he succeeds in sports and business by treating people right.
Dorado agrees. "Whether he is coach Sam, friend Sam, he is always the same and puts other people first regardless whoever he is dealing with," he said.
McCracken, 47, says he receives many e-mails from Indian college students across the country. "How can I become like you?" they ask.
The man who wears size 11 N7 sneakers and loves Jimmy Buffett's music intones this answer: "Have a vision and never give up. Never forget where you are from."
For Immediate Press Release
CONTACT: Melissa L. Sanchez P.O. Box 93095 Albuquerque, NM 87199 Phone: 505 620 8539 Fax: 505 212 0074 melissa@emergenceproductions.info June 1, 2007 TOP NATIVE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL PLAYER SELECTED TO PLAY IN THE ALL-AMERICAN BASEBALL GAME
Joey Garcia earns Full Ride Scholarship, Diploma, State championship and High School Baseball's Highest Honor
Joey Garcia (Santa Ana Pueblo, NM) has already had a big year. A lifelong dedicated athlete, Joey Garcia was offered and accepted a full-ride scholarship to play for El Paso Community College, was selected to play in the All-American Baseball Game, on May 19th, 2007 graduated from Rio Rancho High School and that evening RRHS won the 5A New Mexico HS Baseball Championship.
As a kid, Joseph Garcia (Santa Ana Pueblo) grew up going to the cattle ranch with his Grandpa, hunting, fishing, Pueblo dancing and playing baseball. From the age of 5 as a "Tee-baller", Joey was the only player to hit the ball over the fence almost every game, memorably three times in a single game. If he wasn't watching baseball, Joe was playing baseball. Summertime, he would play for reservation and city leagues and was often recruited for All-Star teams. Being raised in Santa Ana Pueblo, family and culture are a priority for Joey. Joey participates in traditional dances and makes time to attend ceremonial and family events. In his Grandparents' home proudly hung is a photo of Joey at the age of 5 in his traditional dance regalia for the annual July Santa Ana Pueblo Feast Day. When asked about his influences, Garcia, whose favorite major league player is Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, replied "father-son bonding" as he was growing up, his father was and is his biggest influence.
Most recently SportsLink, producers of the esteemed U.S. Army All-American Bowl, selected Joey Garcia to play in the All-American Baseball Game which features the nation's top 40 prep baseball players across the nation in a classic East versus West showdown. The game will be broadcast live to a national audience on Monday, June 4, 2007 on the Fox Sports Network. The 2007 All-American Baseball Game presented by PlayStation® is high school baseball's most prestigious and respected all-star game. To be selected as an All-American is the highest honor a high school baseball player can receive. High Resolution Photos and Interviews Available
Related Links: http://www.allamericanbaseballgame.com/ http://www.myspace.com/emergenceproductionslive (video clips of Joey Garcia within Videos)
Game Information: The game will be broadcast live to a national audience on the Fox Sports Network. Monday, June 4, 2007 at the Isotopes Park, Albuquerque, NM. First pitch 7:00 PM and Admission: $5.00
Trivia: 1st State Championship Title for Rio Rancho High School 1st Native American to selected to All-American Baseball Team
NATIVE AMERICAN PROSPECTS HOLD KEY BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT
Written by Diane M. Grassi
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
The dawn of the 2007 Major League Baseball (MLB) season is perhaps the best time to reflect upon baseball’s past and its hopes for the future. At no other time of the season will fans’ aspirations be as high without need for qualification.
As teams gear up for Opening Day on April 1st, major league camps in both the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues have had the enviable positions to not only evaluate the 2007 starting line-ups but to get a look at what the future holds for 2008 and 2009. And in that regard, Spring Training has routinely become important not only to evaluate present-day players but for the prognostication of what teams can expect down the road.
Baseball is arguably the sport most intertwined with its history and legacy along with its impact on society. Its past demands that it be revisited, especially when speaking about its future, as we explore here two notable and historically unique minor league prospects.
It was in 1887 when the first American Indian is believed to have competed in the major leagues. James Madison Toy, of partial Indian ancestry played in the American Association League in that year as well as in 1890. Toy preceded Louis Sockalexis, the first officially acknowledged American Indian who competed for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League in 1897 until 1899.
Although Native Americans entered the world of professional baseball 50 years prior to African Americans, who competed in the Negro Leagues, until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by signing his minor league contract with Dodgers in 1945, there have been less than 50 Native Americans of full Indian ancestry to compete in the Major Leagues since 1897.
Charles Albert “Chief” Bender is the sole Native American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although Jim Thorpe was perhaps the best-known Native American player of the 20th century as he excelled in multiple sports.
There are, however, many well-known Hall of Famers who are of part Native American ancestry such as Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell and Early Wynn.
At long last, the drought of notable Native American future hopefuls in MLB may be over. One of them can be found in the New York Yankees organization and the other in the organization of its rival, the Boston Red Sox. Right handed starting pitcher, Joba Chamberlain, was landed by the Yankees in the 2006 draft, signed as a supplemental first-round pick and 41st overall. Chamberlain is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. After competing for two years for the University of Nebraska, having only started to play baseball as a senior in high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, Chamberlain led his team to the 2005 College World Series going 10-2 for the season with a 2.81 ERA.
Now 21, Chamberlain has been clocked with a 98-mph fastball and has been favorably compared by physique, delivery and his portfolio of pitches to Cleveland Indians pitcher, C.C. Sabathia. Most important for the Yankees, is not to rush Chamberlain to the Big Show too early, as he has a history of weight and triceps tendonitis problems. He spent the winter in the Hawaiian Winter League where his progress continued, followed by an invite to Spring Training. Yet, it is his strong mental makeup which is central to his battling any problems which may arise along the way, according to the Yankees. Slated to start in A-ball at the beginning of 2007, Chamberlain could end the season as high as AAA, with a possible shot at making the Yankees rotation in 2008.
Another Native American star in the making spent Spring Training in Red Sox Nation. Jacoby Ellsbury, whose mother is of full Navajo descent and a member of the Colorado River Tribe, has taken his partial Native American heritage quite seriously. Ellsbury, signed by Boston in the first round of the draft in 2005 as the 23rd overall pick, is a left-handed outfielder who competed for Oregon State University where he was the 2005 Pac-10 Conference Co-Player of the year and an All Academic Honorable Mention. Ellsbury was ranked as the fastest base runner and 3rd best defensive outfielder of eligible college players in Baseball America’s Best Tools Survey for 2005.
Ellsbury’s speed coupled with power to all fields, according to the Red Sox, most closely resembles Johnny Damon’s playing style and the hope is that he will at least spend part of the 2008 season at the major league level while becoming a regular starter in 2009.
And a recent former major leaguer, Bobby Madritsch, pitched for the Seattle Mariners in 2004 and 2005 and was traded to the Kansas City Royals for the 2006 season. Madritsch is of Lakota Sioux heritage. He recovered at age 28 from reconstructive shoulder surgery when the Mariners signed him. Unfortunately, he re-injured his shoulder and tore his labrum in 2005 and the Royals eventually released him. Now 31, Madritsch has not elected another surgery but is still attempting a comeback in some organization with a minor league contract for 2007. Thus far, only the Philadelphia Phillies have shown any interest.
All three of these players have one commonality in addition to their Native American roots, however, and that is that they grew up off of the Indian reservation, regardless of their heritage. Ellsbury had limited time living at the Warms Springs reservation early in his childhood, where his mother is a special education teacher, but he grew up in Madras, Oregon. Chamberlain grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and Madritsch, while born on an Indian reservation, was taken away when he was but 2 months old and raised amongst the rough neighborhoods of Chicago.
Key to their success, however, is that all three men assimilated into American life, unlike other Native American boys living on Indian reservations and thereby increased their odds for success later in life. Still, unbeknownst to most Americans, the reservations remain rife with poverty with a lack of general services. There exists a high school dropout rate of over 40%, an unemployment rate of over 60% and the poverty rate exceeds 25%. Healthcare and education are under-funded while diabetes, obesity, alcohol and drug abuse are pervasive problems. And all of this remaining depravity is present in spite of the fact that the Indian Gaming Association touts that there are now Indian gaming casinos in 28 states which have proliferated over the past decade.
And the lack of participation in sports on either the collegiate or professional levels by Native Americans prevails. The overriding concept ingrained in Native American culture is that standing out for individual accomplishment is in direct conflict with the importance of functioning as a group. Enjoying success apart from the tribe is not rewarded but rather scorned. As such, athletes who leave and go on to have a modicum of success only return to the reservation to face criticism and rejection by family and friends. This is often too much to reconcile in the mind of an adolescent.
Many Native American athletes additionally suffer from a bad rap by college coaches or professional scouts as well. Few coaches avail themselves to the talent on the reservations. Most are told, by the scant few who have actually approached Native American communities, that they will be let down by the Native American’s inability to successfully assimilate on the college or professional level. Moreover, coaches worry about academic eligibility of these prospective students.
Making the transition from a sheltered life on a reservation to a college campus requires basic life skills which are lacking without the proper guidance. And feelings of guilt about achieving success have led Native American athletes to deliberately sabotage his or her chances to thrive. They would rather go back to a depraved life that is familiar to them and be around family rather than vying for a better stake in life.
Not dissimilar to the lack of effort exhibited by MLB in its investment of players from the African American community, it as well as the universities routinely seek out players overseas rather than even approach potential which exists on Indian reservations. The idea is dismissed out of hand. But unlike the youth of the African American community, who generally long to escape a life of poverty and crime-ridden neighborhoods, the Native American needs to be exposed to options in a way which can work in concert with their culture and customs, yet improve their lot in life.
Both Chamberlain and Ellsbury find themselves in unique positions, given the level of expectations for them on the big league level. And since they remain members of their respective tribes, they have the opportunity to foster a new dialog between MLB and the Native American community as well as to implore scouts and college coaches to not give up on their people. Therefore, it is ever more important that these two players by virtue of their climb to success at the major league level and beyond play a key role in introducing a whole new source of untapped talent of American boys, who just happen to live on a reservation.
“I think coaches might find out that the reservations contain some extraordinary athletes….It takes a special coach to bring them along, give them the security they need,” according to South Dakota State Representative, Ron Volesky, a member of the Lakota Sioux and a Harvard graduate. He too grew up primarily away from the reservation.
But let us hope that the Native American population can give to those of their own heritage, who have been successful, the necessary access to its most important asset, its children, in that they have a chance for a better life, whether it be in sports or some other discipline.
Sweat lodge ceremonies reconnect Native American inmates with their culture, people and land
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN / AP May 29, 2007
Through sweat lodge ceremonies, American Indian inmates reconnect with their culture, their people and their land
ESTANCIA — So much anger and frustration.
The volatile cocktail of emotions that was mixing in Melvin Martin had reached a boiling point. He felt like he was about to go crazy.
Far from his home on the Navajo reservation and far from his people’s ancient healing traditions, he could do nothing but fester inside a Sandoval County lockup as he waited for the justice system to run its course.
Today, the soft-spoken Navajo from Crownpoint says he’s a different person. He seems more relaxed, respectful and reconnected to his culture.
All that, he says, thanks to the chance he gets each week to take part in a traditional sweat lodge at the Torrance County Detention Center, where he’s now serving his federal sentence for assault.
“We look beyond these wires,” he says, pointing to the pair of fences and rolls of razor wire that separate the prison from the endless prairie.
“Me and the brothers here, we look beyond all that even though we know we’re within. Once we start this and we get the ceremony going, our minds go back home. They go back to the places of our people, our land,” he says. “We can get away from this place.”
The privately run Torrance County prison is one of many lockups across the nation — including state and federal prisons — that offer the traditional ceremony for American Indian prisoners.
The goal, says Chaplain John Moffitt, is the same as the other religious services the Torrance County prison provides for its inmates of various faiths.
He says prison wardens have come to recognize the constitutional rights of inmates to practice their religions and the benefits that can have for the inmates and for keeping order on the inside.
“The spiritual programming, that’s what’s going to change lives,” the chaplain says.
It’s been three decades since the first sweat lodge was built in a Nebraska prison, but American Indian prisoners in some states only recently won access to such religious ceremonies, and others are still fighting for it. Security is usually the top argument against Native ceremonies.
In Maine, a group of prisoners is suing over claims that their constitutional rights were violated because they have no access to sweat lodges or ceremonial music and food. In New Jersey, lawyers representing a handful of Indian prisoners are close to settling an eight-year-old lawsuit involving religious rights.
“We have had to pursue litigation, legislation and more recently negotiating with prison officials to implement these programs,” said Lenny Foster, a Navajo spiritual adviser who works with hundreds of prisoners across the country and has testified before Congress and the United Nations on Native rights.
“I think for the longest time we’ve been denied, as Indian people, that right to practice our tradition, our culture,” he said. “We were told not to speak our language; we cut our hair; we were told to convert to Christianity. Our sweat lodges, our medicine bundles, our pipes were burned.”
Foster, head of the tribally funded Navajo Nation Corrections Project, built his first sweat lodge for inmates at Arizona State Prison in 1980, and in the time since, he has seen the positive effects.
“The intense heat or the steam, what we call grandfather’s breath, opens up not only the pores, the physical aspect, but it opens up the mind and the spirit, and there’s a real purification and a cleansing of the soul that takes place,” he said.
He noted that a lot of the inmates he works with are locked up because of alcohol problems, drugs and anger issues.
“They need to detox and purify themselves so they have a clarity of mind and realize the mistake that they made that led them into prison,” he said, adding that sweat lodges are one of the most powerful forms of counseling for American Indians.
To prison officials in Torrance County, the sweat lodge is both a right and a privilege for prisoners. As long as they behave, prisoners can look forward to sweating on the weekend.
“Having an inmate spiritually look within themselves and leave their (religious) services a different person, even for a while, that’s helpful to us securitywise,” said prison spokeswoman Ivonne Riley. “Security is the No. 1 thing, but anything to help anybody to make it a little better, we look forward to that.”
Riley acknowledged that a few inmates take advantage of the sweat lodge as a way to spend time outside and smoke tobacco, which in all other circumstances it a forbidden item inside the prison walls. But, she says, most Indian prisoners take the lodge seriously and won’t do anything to jeopardize their participation.
On a recent Thursday, Foster paid a visit to Torrance County for a special ceremony.
In a quiet area on the east side of the prison, some inmates tended a fire surrounded with lava rocks while others draped blankets and canvas tarps over a frame of willow branches to form the lodge.
Foster gathered the group and talked quietly as they rolled their tobacco into cigarettes. They took turns puffing, using their free hand to catch the smoke and let it wash over themselves as they prayed.
By now the rocks were hot. One by one, the men crouched down and disappeared into the canvas dome, not to be seen again for about an hour. The guards waited in the hot sun.
The silence was eventually broken by a drum beat, and voices resonated from inside the sweat lodge. The chanting erased the tension in the prison yard.
By the time the ceremony was over and the men crawled out of the lodge for the last time, they were less like prisoners and more like longtime friends, smiling and laughing and jumping in puddles left from the rain the night before.
“We tell them that they’re free when they’re out here,” Foster says. “They join the sunlight, the fresh air, the wind.”
Martin, who was immersed in his culture growing up on the reservation, hasn’t seen his family in two years. But he says the sweat lodge helps him maintain a connection to his heritage. “It really helps out a lot,” he says. “It keeps me with a sound mind.”
For some Indians, it has taken a prison sentence to learn about their culture. Foster calls it a “sad fact” that these Indians never had an opportunity to learn the songs, prayers and ceremonies before being locked up.
But Foster is hopeful that a movement across Indian Country to rekindle interested in Native traditions and languages will help young Indians regain their pride and dignity so they don’t end up like the men and women he works with.
Walter Echo-Hawk Jr., a staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, helped litigate the case of the first sweat lodge in Nebraska’s prison system in the 1970s. He said there has been a long history of religious discrimination against indigenous religions in the United States.
But like Foster, he sees education as the key to acceptance.
“We have found that the American people are fundamentally fair-minded people, and once educated about the bona fide nature of native religious practices and the need for native people to have equal access to their religious opportunities, most policymakers have been very quick to act to do the right thing,” he said.
How Meth Took Hold on Indian Reservation
By ANGIE WAGNER
WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, Wyo. - Just off the deserted highways, the silver pickup truck eases down quiet streets, its driver offering a numbing tour of a remote reservation framed by the beauty of snowcapped mountains.
There, Leon Tillman says, over there _ the house on the right, a white, two-story building set off by itself. It used to be a big drug house. Now it's shuttered, its owners in prison.
A man dressed in an army green shirt and pants appears on the side of the road, his thumb up, looking for a ride. "That's a meth head," Tillman says. "He's bumming right now."
A few more drug houses and Tillman's tour of the despair of methamphetamine ends.
Not long ago, most people here had never even heard of meth. But today, most know someone on meth or in prison because of it. Tillman, 39, knows too many to count.
"It's everywhere," he said.
Indeed, American Indians have been especially hard hit by meth. Drug cartels have targeted Indian Country because the people are vulnerable, and law enforcement struggles to keep up.
But the story of how meth came to this remote reservation is really quite remarkable.
Like a cancer, a Mexican drug gang permeated the reservation and its families. It left behind a landscape strewn with broken lives.
Some 12,000 Indians _ members of the Northern Arapaho and the Eastern Shoshone tribes _ live on 2.2 million acres, an area so vast many homes are separated by miles of barren land.
Poverty and unemployment are high, alcoholism is rampant and the police department is so understaffed _ patrolling such a large area _ that the average response time is 15 to 20 minutes.
Jesus Martin Sagaste-Cruz knew that. And he knew the reservation's isolation would be perfect for his business.
Authorities learned of the Sagaste-Cruz drug ring back in 1997. Sagaste-Cruz and his Mexican gang had already been selling around Indian reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska.
But it was an article in The Denver Post that changed the way they did business. The story talked about how a Nebraska liquor store near the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota did millions of dollars in business. Sales were especially high immediately after Indians received their per capita checks _ their share of their tribe's income.
Sagaste-Cruz figured if there were already so many Indians addicted to alcohol, it would be easy enough to addict them to methamphetamine.
So around 2000, the Mexicans moved in and near Wind River Reservation.
"They came to a place where people don't have anything," said Frances Monroe, who works in the Northern Arapaho Child Protection Services office.
They started with free meth samples. The men pursued Indian women, providing them with meth even as they romanced them and fathered their children. Eventually, the women needed to support their habit, so they became dealers, too _ and they used free samples to recruit new customers.
It was all part of the plan.
For the next four years, the gang sold pounds and pounds of meth, much of it 98 percent pure. The drugs came from Mexico, then on to Los Angeles; Ogden, Utah (where Sagaste-Cruz lived); and finally Wyoming, where gang members had a handful of local distributors, each with their own customer base.
Customers became dealers and recruiters, and their customers did the same.
Before, meth was barely mentioned on the reservation. Police reported only sporadic arrests.
But now the reservation was saturated with it. Crime soared. From 2003 to 2006, cases of child neglect increased 131 percent. Drug possession was up 163 percent; spousal abuse rose 218 percent.
The Wind River reservation is not alone. The Bureau of Indian Affairs found that methamphetamine was listed as the greatest threat to Indian communities by police departments.
Mexican drug cartels take advantage of the often complicated law enforcement jurisdictions in Indian Country. Isolated communities are hit the hardest, and sometimes even tribal leaders are not immune, said Heather Dawn Thompson, director of government affairs for the National Congress of American Indians.
Here on the Wind River, a tribal judge, Lynda Munnell-Noah, was arrested in a 2005 drug ring bust and accused of trying to assault and murder a Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officer.
Resources are few, and most reservations don't have treatment centers. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of methamphetamine contacts in Indian Health Services facilities increased by almost 250 percent.
"Even if we arrest people for use or sale, there's almost nothing to do with them in order to help them recover," Thompson said. "Where do you go and how do you pay for it?"
In his 2008 budget, President Bush proposed a $16 million increase in law enforcement funding in Indian Country to help combat methamphetamine, a godsend to police departments like Wind River's, which has only 10 police officers.
"The heartbreaking part of it is, it's had this absolutely devastating effect on our community," Thompson said. "I have tribal leaders coming to my office all the time just crying. I mean, how do you fight this? How do you function as a government when 30 percent of your tribal employees are now using meth?"
Inside a tribal office, a bulletin board displays meth's effects: In a series of mug shots, a woman deteriorates _ her teeth rotting, her skin collecting scabs. A nearby poster warns that making, selling or using meth around a child will mean prison time.
This is a place where people mostly keep to themselves. They know meth is a huge problem, but they don't want to talk much about it. They fear retaliation.
A jury found that the Sagaste-Cruz ring had distributed more than 99 pounds of meth _ an amount that had a street value of between $4.5 to $6.8 million, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The gang also sold meth on the Rosebud, Pine Ridge and Yankton reservations in South Dakota and Santee Sioux reservation in Nebraska, authorities found.
Sagaste-Cruz and 22 other people were given prison time _ a life sentence, in Sagaste-Cruz' case. His brother, Julio Caesar Sagaste-Cruz, remains a fugitive.
Ask people on the reservation about the Sagaste-Cruz case and most don't know much about it. They seem surprised to learn how sophisticated the operation was.
But mention the Goodman case, and everyone knows. The Goodmans were an entire family, grandparents down to grandchildren, who were dealing meth and prescription drugs here.
Nineteen people, including the tribal judge, were arrested in 2005.
The two cases weren't directly related, but with many Indians already hooked on meth compliments of the Sagaste-Cruz gang, the Goodmans didn't have any trouble finding customers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Rankin said the Goodmans often had 20 to 50 customers a day come to their house.
Darrell LoneBear Sr., whose sister, Donna Goodman, and her husband, John Goodman, were the ring's leaders, said his relatives fell victim to easy money on a reservation where jobs are hard to find.
He rattles off his family's prison sentences: "John Goodman, 21 years. My sister Donna, 24 years. My nephew James got 19 years. My nephew Darrell got 8.
"It was all of my family," he said.
Thirteen children were sent to live with other relatives. One sister took in six children, another took in three.
"It is a tremendous, added responsibility emotionally and financially," said LoneBear, crime prevention and safety supervisor for the Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing. "All of us have been traumatized by this matter. We all still stay here."
Police Chief Doug Noseep has a police force that can't possibly keep up with every call. He is grateful for the help from outside law enforcement agencies in the raids over the past few years, and believes it has reduced the amount of meth here.
Noseep knows who is trying to get help, who is still using. Once, his officers encountered a 12-year-old girl who was addicted.
"It's sad as hell," he said. "It's here and it's not going to go anywhere. It's never going to go away."
Seven years after the Sagaste-Cruz gang arrived, meth rolls on: Last summer, another bust at Wind River resulted in 43 arrests, the largest drug bust in the history of Wyoming.
On a recent night, Partners Against Meth met at a local school. The group struggles to attract volunteers and to keep committees on track. But here families that have been struck hard by the meth epidemic, and those that want to learn more about it, can come together to talk.
Leon Tillman brought his wife, son and daughter. He told the group he has six relatives in prison for meth or alcohol charges. "That's one of my worst fears, is to have one of my kids on drugs. I want to at least say I tried," he said.
A few years ago, John Washakie noticed his daughter, now 27, was losing weight and locking herself in her bedroom at her house. Then, one night, she dropped off her three young children at his house and disappeared into the darkness.
He cared for the kids for three years. It wasn't easy. "They lose all their energy about life. You spend a lot of time dealing with their emotions," he said.
Today, his daughter is clean, and cares for her children, now numbering five, herself.
"I think there are a lot of people that are scared to tell you the truth," the grandfather said. "You don't walk away from this."
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
Byron Crawford Derby winner a proud part of Osage history
Among the mystical stories that set the Kentucky Derby apart from all other great races, few compare with that of Black Gold, the Osage Indian horse that won the Derby in 1924.
Charles H. Red Corn, an Osage historical novelist from Norman, Okla., visited Churchill Downs and Keeneland Race Course last week, researching the Black Gold story for a forthcoming book.
Black Gold has inspired at least one children's book, many articles and a 1947 movie starring Anthony Quinn. During the movie's Tulsa premiere, many Osage Indians familiar with the story walked out of the theater before the film ended, in disgust over what they believed were inaccurate portrayals.
"Neither my grandfather's life, nor my grandmother's life, nor Black Gold's life needs to be embellished," said Richard Freeman of Garland, Texas, a grandson of Black Gold's owner, Rosa Hoots. "The story is exciting enough as it was."
A more compelling plot could not have been scripted in Hollywood. On his deathbed, Al Hoots, the Indian-Irish owner of a mare named U-see-it, exacted a promise from his Osage wife, Rosa, that she would find a way to breed U-see-it to Col. E.R. Bradley's Black Toney at Idle Hour Farm in Lexington.
The foal, he told Rosa, would be a colt that would win the Kentucky Derby.
Al Hoots had been barred from racing after pulling a gun on another horseman during a claiming race in Mexico, and he would not live to see his dream for U-see-it come true. But fortune would smile on his beloved little mare and her Kentucky-bred progeny, Black Gold.
The colt's name derived from the big oil strike that suddenly turned much of the Osage reservation in Oklahoma into a "Millionaire's Row" during the early 1920s.
The oil money that helped Rosa Hoots send U-see-it to Kentucky would later send Charles H. Red Corn to Penn State University, and would open the doors of education and possibility for thousands of other Osage. Charles Red Corn's brother, C.R. Redcorn, lives in Louisville and is CEO of the hospital consulting firm First Management Services Inc.
The horse Black Gold would become a touchstone of the era when Osage culture was transformed dramatically and forever by the black gold from the tribe's oil fields.
The colt won half his starts as a 2-year-old and went off the favorite in the 50th Kentucky Derby -- the first year it was called "The Run for the Roses."
Black Gold pulled away from three others in the stretch to win by half a length.
Rosa Hoots became the first Indian and only the second woman to own a Derby winner.
"I knew I had to come here," Charles Red Corn said.
Black Gold was later reported to have been mismanaged and often raced when lame. He proved sterile at stud and was returned to racing in 1928. At the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, he broke a leg and was destroyed and buried in the infield, where he still rests.
"He tried to win the race on three legs," Richard Freeman said. "They came piling out of the grandstand and the clubhouse and ran out onto the track, trying to get hair out of his mane and tail for souvenirs.
"The next day at his burial they let schoolchildren out of both private and public schools to attend his burial. …They dropped the flags to half-mast, and children dropped flowers and ribbons on his grave."
Several years later, Black Gold's Kentucky Derby trophy was stolen from the Hoots family in Oklahoma and has never been recovered.
In 2004 a replica of the trophy was presented by Richard Freeman and his family to the Kentucky Derby Museum in memory of his grandparents and Black Gold.
The dawn of the 2007 Major League Baseball (MLB) season is perhaps the best time to reflect upon baseball’s past and its hopes for the future. At no other time of the season will fans’ aspirations be as high without need for qualification.
