ThreeHoops.com

Alexie Sherman Calls For New NA Author Submissions, see March AIC Newsletters below

The workshop, April 13-15, 2004, at Crazy Horse Memorial, near Custer, S.D. introduces American Indian high school and tribal college students to the possibilities of a journalism career.

Washington, DC - On May 4, 2004 NCUIH will be celebrating five years of advocacy for American Indians and Alaska Natives living in Urban Communities. During NCUIH's Gala Dinner & Entertainment at 6-9pm on May 4 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia 22202 NCUIH Board of Directors Conference Committee is proud to present:
Master of Ceremonies / Entertainment: DREW LACAPA, Comedian
Musical Entertainment: ULALI, a First Nations Women A Cappella Trio
Comedic Entertainment: CHARLIE HILL, Comedian

For more info contact: Priya Helweg, Director of Communications & Development at 202 544 0344 or email: NCUIHnews@NCUIH.org

ThreeHoops note: Significant information on grants related to NA Health issues can be found at NCUIH's website.

"It's not only right for Virginia Indians, it's right for Virginia and it's right for the United States," said Chief Ken Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Tribe. Political opponents to the federal recognition argue that it would allow Virginia tribes to utilize the National Indian Gaming Act. However, the bills include amendments that would prevent the tribes from using that act...

Bush Budget Shears $79 mil. from Indian Education
WASHINGTON DC, Jennifer Tedlock, Native Times, OK
"At a time when schools in Indian Country and elsewhere are struggling to raise the academic bar for all students, the Bush administration should be committing greater resources to education, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said in an e-mailed statement to the Native American Times.Instead, the administration wants to woefully underfund key education programs. Congress cannot allow that to happen. We should work to commit resources schools desperately need to ensure that students everywhere can achieve academic success...
According to a recent published report, BIA trust reform will see a major increase in 2005, but education and school-related programs are getting slashed to the tune of nearly $79 million. The cuts, for the most part, are small and spread-out, but the hardest area hit has been replacement school construction and facilities improvement and repair which were gutted an astounding $69 million...

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Haskell Indian Nations University again has access to the Internet after being off-line for more than a week. A federal judge pulled the plug on U.S. Department of the Interior computers on March 15 in an effort to protect American Indian trust fund records from hackers. Because the department's Bureau of Indian Affairs governs the university, Internet access at Haskell and 184 other bureau schools was also cut off...

In an effort to foster reconciliation between American Indian and white cultures, representatives from the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village and Four Bands Community Fund announced their plans Thursday evening for a series of cooperative events. The two groups received a $100,000 grant from state government that will bring tribal culture in the form of artwork, classes on pottery and quilt making, and lessons on American Indian culture to the Indian Village. In return, the events will offer members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe a stage to showcase their talents to a wider audience...

PALA - Three years ago, Hewlett-Packard and 18 tribes in San Diego County started building a wireless Internet network. Their goal wasn't just to connect the tribes or to diversify their gaming-dependent economies. The goal was to develop skills among the tribe members so they could sustain a high-tech business. On Wednesday, the tribes took a big step toward that goal when Hewlett-Packard completed its role in developing the project, called the Tribal Digital Village of Southern California.

Now its up to the 18 tribes, operating as the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association, to run the business, which will sell Internet connections, train its staff, teach members how to use the system and market the Web business to the public. "A major goal is to live in a world where communication is a priority and have the ability to communicate at a level that everyone else does," said Denis Turner, executive director of the tribal association. Hewlett-Packard donated $4 million of equipment and $1 million in cash. The tribal association matched the donations...

Ignacio, CO- Fifteen non-profit and service organizations from La Plata and San Juan Counties will each receive their share of the $20,000 donated by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in the Fifth Annual $20,000 Non-Profit Money Booth.

A reception will be held on Thursday, May 6 at 6:00 p.m. to honor the selected organizations and present them with a $500 check. Then the action gets underway at 7:00 p.m. when a representative from each organization will enter the Money Booth for 45 seconds to grab as much cash as they can for their cause. Non-profit and service organizations wishing to participate in the Fifth Annual $20,000 Money Booth must complete an application and return it to Sky Ute Casino no later than Noon on FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2004. Applications can be picked up at Sky Ute Casino or can be emailed or faxed upon request.

The Court Appointed Special Advocate program of Douglas County is recruiting new volunteers for a 40-hour training program to begin in late April...

...Nationally, CASA has a program to help American Indian children through the tribal court system. "There is not a formal tribal CASA program (locally), but I have offered to help them establish one," Cuddy said. "National CASA is encouraging tribal programs but we do not have one here. There is even grant money to establish one."
The Tribal Court CASA Project was started in 1994 to assist in the development and enhancement of tribal court programs that provide volunteer advocacy for abused or neglected American Indian children.
The goal of CASA nationally is to increase the number of American Indian children represented in court in a manner that is sensitive to their culture.
The project is advised by the Tribal Court Advisory Committee.
Historically, American Indian child welfare policy has been negative. Beginning in the 1800s, government policy was to forcibly take American Indian children from their homes and send them to boarding schools, such as the Stewart Indian School in Carson City, where they were severely punished for speaking their native languages and practicing native customs and religious practices, according to the CASA Web site.

PNC Financial Services Corp. made a pledge last fall to invest a jaw-dropping $100 million in early childhood education over the next 10 years. Today, the bank will kick off its initiative, known as "PNC Grow Up Great," by announcing a half-million dollars in grants, a big boost for employees volunteering in preschool programs and a media campaign.

In the first phase of the project, a dozen early childhood education programs in five states, including two Head Start programs in Pittsburgh, will share $503,000 in grants this year for programs that help children enter school ready to learn. The grants are about $40,000 each and may be renewable for up to three years.

The two grants in Pittsburgh are $44,000 to the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Centers, which runs Head Start centers in Overbrook and Knoxville, and $40,000 for the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development's Family Foundation Early Head Start, serving 170 children in nine communities...

Students and teachers in Alamo have been logged off after a recent legal decision forced the Bureau of Indian Affairs to disconnect from the Internet. Alamo Navajo Schools have been forced to shut down all its Internet connections, because of their link to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, due to the order by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth last week.

On March 15 Lamberth ordered the cease of all connections to the Internet by nine federal offices under the span of the U.S. Interior Department because of security concerns regarding Indian Trust Data. That includes the BIA, which oversees schooling on many Indian Reservations including Alamo. James Apachito, the executive director of the Alamo Navajo School Board, said that his district has been without Internet service since March 16.

He said that besides depriving students of educational opportunities online, the decision "could have long-term effects on the school as a whole." "There is so much that we do out here with the Internet," he said. "We do most of our reporting for our programs online."

Apachito said the school receives much of its funding through government programs and grants. They all require that the school, in turn, report on the results of the programs and the uses for the funding. "It ends up turning out that we are no longer in compliance with the program requirements (because of the disconnection)," he said...

The Recording Academy(R) announced today that more than $650,000 will be presented to 21 projects in the form of Recording Academy grants. This represents a 20 percent increase in funding as compared to the previous year. Now in its 17th year, the Academy grant program funds projects that advance archiving and preservation of America's recorded sound/music heritage and research efforts related to music and its effect on the medical and occupational well-being of the music professional, as well as on early childhood and human development...

2004 GRANT RECIPIENTS for Archiving & Preservation included a grant to the Archive of Contemporary Music (New York, N.Y.) "To evaluate the condition and selectively catalog and provide electronic access to the Archive's collection of approximately 32,000 ethnic American, Native American, Central American, South American, Caribbean, and African Diaspora music recordings. ($34,825)" ...

The Academy's National Professional Education Committee determines grant recipients based on criteria such as merit, uniqueness of project and the ability to accomplish intended goals. The deadline each year for submitting grant applications is October 1. Applications for 2005 will be available at www.grammy.com/grant.pdf after May 1, 2004.

When Jerry C. Elliott watched the movie "Apollo 13," the Tom Hanks film about the 1970 aborted journey to the moon, his palms started to sweat. "It was so real," Elliott said.

Elliott, a physicist with NASA, was in a position to know just how true to life the movie was. Elliott is in Billings for the four-day American Indian Higher Education Consortium Conference at the Holiday Inn Grand Montana and the Billings Hotel...

The Indian Arts and Crafts Association (IACA) will kick off its 30th spring market this Friday with a buffalo feast at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. General Services Administration is expected to announce the debut of its Native American Business Center next week. The Native American Business Center will focus primarily on providing American Indian/Alaskan Native small business owners with resources and information for meeting key contracting experts and learning how to tap into the government contracting market. GSA is a federal procurement, property management and policy agency with 11 regional offices, including one in Fort Worth that serves Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. GSA, under its Multiple Award Schedules Program, establishes long-term government-wide contracts to commercial firms to provide ordering offices with access to over four million commercial services and products that can be ordered directly from GSA Schedule contractors or through the GSA Advantage!(TM) Online shopping and ordering system...

The court-ordered shutdown of many of the Interior Department's Internet connections is depriving American Indian children of educational opportunities and
preventing public input on land management decisions, a leading senator and environmentalists say. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the department to pull the plug on many of its Internet connections because of security holes that could have jeopardized hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties from Indian lands managed by the Interior Department.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the shutdown has left students at schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs unable to connect to the Internet, depriving them of "solid computer skills" that are "imperative for American students." "BIA students should be given all the resources available to help them succeed," Daschle wrote in a letter Friday to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. "This disruption, which, as I understand it, could last for an extended period of time, puts these students at a distinct disadvantage compared to their counterparts in other schools."

He urged Norton to seek a speedy remedy to the shutdown and the lawsuit over the department's mismanagement of the Indian money...

Illinois - American Indian tribe Prairie Band Potawotomi still plans to bring a casino to Shabbona, tribe spokesman Jim McCarthy said. The tribe is trying to re-establish what it thinks is its land near the small town in southern DeKalb County. "They are having dialogue with the [Illinois] governor's office to move that process forward," McCarthy said...

The tribe first lost its Illinois reservation in the 1840s. While the band was in Kansas, being forced out of its land there, people claimed the tribe abandoned its land in Illinois. The former Office of Indian Affairs didn't conduct an investigation, and the land then was sold at a public auction.

When the tribe returned to Illinois, it discovered its land was sold illegally and was forced out of the reservation...

Shabbona Mayor Claudia Hicks said the tribe is not required to go to the village board to bring the casino to the town. "We haven't had any communication with the tribe," she said.

She also said no community members have gotten too upset about the possibility of having a casino nearby. McCarthy said he has heard a variety of reaction from the community, most being very encouraging...

Grants opportunities to benefit Tribal Nations are few and far between, and two were due to be posted to the shut-down Fish & Wildlife Service this week. The US Fish & Wildlife Service website is non-operational as a result of a recent court order against the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A fast-thinking ThreeHoops' site participant has taken the initiative to get the information out via other internet means. We're sharing the following federal Fish & Wildlife grant information to Tribal Nations for direct download:

These grants represent only 1% or less of the total funding available under the same initiatives to nonNative neighbors. It is vitally important that online application information is made available to all those who can use it. Thanks and credit for taking action goes to:

Ronnie Emery, Tribal Liaison Specialist, American Indian Liaison Office, National Park Service

PHOENIX - In the year since U.S. troops pushed through the Iraq desert half a world away, more than a dozen people from Arizona have died there.

Yet, one soldier - a single mother captured in photos with a wide smile and dark eyes - seems to have captivated people's attention, their curiosity.

Army Spc. Lori Piestewa died after her convoy took a wrong turn and was ambushed near Nasiriyah last March. Some of the members of 507th Maintenance Company, including her best friend Jessica Lynch, were taken prisoner; others died.

Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe who lived in a small town on the Navajo Reservation, was the first woman killed in the Iraq war and is believed to be the first American Indian woman killed in combat while fighting for the U.S. military...

ThreeHoops note: The following charitable funds are accepting donations in memory of Lori Piestewa:

For more information on Tribal and Native American charitable funds see: Honoring Our Own Philanthropy (HOOPhilanthropy)

The Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission announced its grant awards for 2004. The six grants total about $47,000 and will fund a variety of programs including a marine archaeological survey... A grant of $4,000 to Warwick will fund the Public Archaeology Lab's reconnaissance survey of submerged Native American archeological sites off Cedar Tree Beach, Greenwich Bay.

ThreeHoops note: Following the money trail - Federal Funding from National Parks Service to State intermediary to Nonnative entity to study Native American archeological sites. No funding direct to a Tribal Nation, nor to a Native American nonprofit, nor to a Native American small business in this example.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Students at Haskell Indian Nations University and tens of thousands of other students at American Indian schools have found themselves scrambling after a court ruling shut down their Internet access.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the Interior Department to pull the plug on most of its Internet connections, finding that the department still hasn't fixed computer security problems that could jeopardize millions of dollars in royalties for American Indians.

Lamberth's order cut off access for about 900 Haskell students, as well as students at Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque Also losing access were most of the 50,000 students who attend elementary, secondary and boarding schools either directly operated by the BIA or funded by the BIA and tribally operated. Those 184 schools are located on 63 reservations in 23 states, said Dan DuBray, an Interior Department spokesman.

Affected schools get their Internet services through the Educational Native American Network, which is directed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Department of Education is inviting Indian tribes, state and local agencies serving Indian children and young adults, and schools to apply for grants to improve education opportunities for Indian students. Information is available on the web at: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/om/fs_po/ous/indian.html/.
ThreeHoops note: More funding opportunities are updated daily and listed at the bottom of this page.

"It took on a life of its own," Annette Arkeketa told the Native American Times of her play "Ghost Dance." It will open for its first full stage production on April 30 at the James Lowe Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other showings will be on May 1 and 2. "Ghost Dance" follows the heroine
"Hokti," who is an attorney, as she learns about repatriation to help her family. The play is directed by Terri Gomez and put on by the American Indian Art Institute. "Indians are the only people who have to worry about the problem of repatriation," Arkeketa told the Times. That is one of the major themes of the play. She discusses what she terms "legal grave-robbing" and the
archaeologists who perpetrate it in the name of science. "It's really confronting that profession and how they dehumanize us and continue to do so," she said. The play puts a new spin on what has been considered "continued, acceptable racism," Arkeketa told the Native American Times.

DENVER, March 17, 2004 - Eight outstanding tribal college students have been selected to receive $20,000 scholarships under The David and Lucile Packard Foundation's Tribal Scholars Program, the American Indian College Fund announced today. The American Indian students will receive funding for the 2004-06 academic years as part of the highly selective program that is administered by the American Indian College Fund. Each scholarship is disbursed over two years. The recipients may use the award to work toward an undergraduate degree in science, mathematics, computer science, engineering or resource management at any U.S. college or university. The Tribal Scholars along with their tribal affiliations, place of permanent residence, tribal college, the college they plan to attend or are attending and majors are:
* Gepetta Billie (Navajo) of Gallup, N.M.; Southwestern
Indian Polytechnic Institute; University of New Mexico; civil engineering.
* Lilda Christian (Fort Peck Sioux) of Poplar, Mont.; Fort
Peck Community College; Montana State University-Northern; biology.
* Kristie Crazy (Gros Ventre) of Harlem, Mont.; Fort
Belknap College; Montana State University-Northern; nursing.
* Adrian Livingston (Navajo) of Rio Rancho, N.M.;
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute; University of New Mexico; civil engineering.
* Troy Salyers (Cherokee) of Pablo, Mont.; Salish Kootenai
College; Northern Arizona University; civil engineering.
* Ann Vallie (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) of Belcourt, N.D.;
Turtle Mountain Community College; North Dakota State University; electrical engineering.
* Maureen Velez (Blackfeet) of Browning, Mont.; Blackfeet
Community College; Montana State University-Great Falls; respiratory therapist.
* Robert Wauneka (Navajo) of Fort Defiance, Ariz.;
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute; University of New Mexico; computer engineering.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation created the Tribal Scholars Program in 1996 in recognition of the fact that many graduates of two-year tribally controlled colleges and universities wanted to continue their undergraduate studies at four-year institutions. In partnership with the American Indian College Fund, the Foundation hopes to increase the number of graduates prepared to enter careers in science and engineering by providing American Indian students with the ongoing support they need to complete four-year degrees and become leaders in the technical and economic development of their tribes. The scholarship funds may be used to cover costs of tuition and fees, room and board, books, necessary equipment and supplies, and travel to and from home. Established in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has spent more than a decade helping increase educational opportunities for Native students. With its credo "educating the mind and spirit," the Fund distributes scholarships and support to 34 tribal colleges across the country. This aid supports more than 6,000 scholarships each year. The Fund also supports endowments, developmental needs and public awareness, as well as college programs in Native cultural preservation and teacher training.

Bank of America Arizona 2003 Donations in Arizona Total $1.1 Million
PHOENIX, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Arizona today announced that it gave more than $1.1 million in 2003 to support nonprofit community groups in Arizona. The grants and sponsorship assistance went to statewide agencies providing support in the areas of education, housing, economic development, health and human services, cultural outreach and community development. Native American grant or sponsorship recipients included: Native American Connections and Navajo Way.

The Bank of America Foundation directs charitable giving on behalf of Bank of America. Its primary focus is on education and funding early childhood development, financial literacy and professional development for teachers. It also supports nonprofit organizations that meet the basic needs for affordable housing and workforce development. The foundation operates with the largest philanthropic budget of any financial institution in the United States and is ranked as one of the nation's top five largest corporate contributors. In 2003, the Bank of America Foundation contributed more than $85 million to more than 4,200 nonprofit organizations across the country.

BROWNING - A hard, cold wind hummed unchecked through the big empty, hammering across a rolling ocean of midwinter brown and nagging at the hem of Justin Little Dog's jacket.
The 6-year-old gave his dad a hug, and turned out of the early morning frost to board the school bus. His bus stop, located along a lonely strip of pavement on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is just this side of the middle of nowhere, a rural outpost marked by big horizons and stark drifts of month-old snow. "Be good," his dad called into the wind...

Sparkplug Foundation has made small grants primarily in New York state, however, the foundation's grantmaking is not limited by citizenship or geography. See Sparkplug Foundation and other Foundations with an interest in learning about Native American needs or continuing to fund projects in Indian Country at: HOOPower

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski has urged leaders of the new National Museum of the American Indian to remember the contributions of Elizabeth Peratrovich to the to the struggle of Alaska Natives in their fight to attain full civil rights. In her remarks, Murkowski said that "Elizabeth Peratrovich is to Alaska what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is to America.

Elizabeth Peratrovich, a Tlingit woman, born in Petersburg, inspired the passage of the 1945 Alaska territorial law that prohibited discrimination in public accommodations. The law is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the nation. The campaign to enact the law started with a letter from Peratrovich to territorial governor Ernest Gruening, in which she called his attention to signs on the Douglas Inn, saying "No Natives Allowed." Peratrovich reminded the governor that Natives paid taxes to the territory - including school taxes, despite the fact that Native children were excluded from public schools...

Carnegie Mellon University will open up a pair of minority-only programs to students of all races as a result of last summer's Supreme Court affirmative action ruling in the University of Michigan cases. School officials confirmed the decision yesterday. It applies to a six-week summer academy for high school students and a scholarship program, both of which previously limited participation to black, Hispanic and American Indian students...

A sculpture from Haskell Indian Nations University is being sent to Washington, D.C., as part of opening events for the Smithsonian Institution's new National Museum of the American Indian...

Haskell Alumni Assn. in 1947 commissioned Houser, a Chiricahua Apache, to do a sculpture in honor of Haskell students killed during World War II...The statute depicts an American Indian man standing erect, his eyes focused straight ahead. A plain shawl covers all but his neck and face. An upside-down feathered headdress lies at his feet...Houser attended Santa Fe Indian School in the late 1930s, becoming well-known for his paintings and murals. He died in 1994.

"'Comrade in Mourning' was his first large-scale public sculpture," Lowe said. "It truly established him as a sculptor of national prominence; prior to that he was primarily a painter."

Houser's parents were among the Chiricahua Apache held as prisoners of war for 27 years on reservations in Florida and Oklahoma. While captive, his father was an interpreter for Geronimo.

Houser, who did not attend Haskell, was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush...

Don't miss this fun Quiz sharing information on Tribal Nations in Minnesota!

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late yesterday ordered the Interior Department to sever Internet connections at nine agencies, again finding fault with the department's systems security.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth included this latest disconnection mandate in a preliminary injunction order in the case of Cobell v. Norton. The decision followed a determination in a linked opinion Lamberth issued yesterday that concluded Interior's system security upgrades, procedures and plans fail to protect American Indian trust data.

Interior spokesman Dan Dubray said late yesterday that department officials still must review the court's latest order and have no comment yet. Meanwhile, senior Interior officials were at a hearing yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit attempting to get Lamberth removed from the case, arguing he is biased, Dubray said...The lawsuits underlying the disconnection order concern multibillion-dollar claims by trust beneficiaries that Interior has mismanaged and lost funds held in trust for American Indians. The eight-year-old litigation led to a late 2001 finding by court consultants that anyone could easily hack into the trust accounts via the Internet...

On Monday, March 15, 2004, United States District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered the Department of the Interior to disconnect its computer systems from the Internet, finding that “the continued connection to the Internet of any IT system that houses or accesses individual Indian trust data constitutes further and continuing irreparable injury…” putting the entire Indian trust and its assets in jeopardy. The Department of the Interior has admitted on many occasions themselves that their IT systems are insecure.

There have been rumors circulating that such action will delay or even halt the issuance of Individual Indian Trust checks. This is not true: there is absolutely no reason why the court’s decision—which explained that “Interior brought this... upon themselves”—should affect payments. Department of the Interior IT systems are still running, it is only the connection of certain IT systems to the Internet that has been shut down. Here are the facts:

• Interior’s Internet has been shut down two times before. Each time, Interior has delayed trust checks. Each time it has been shown, that retribution, not operational difficulties, were the cause of such delays. The truth is that the U.S. Department of the Interior has been able to issue trust checks without connection to the Internet before, and they must do it again.

• Department of the Interior employees will still get their paychecks. From Secretary Gale Norton on down, no Department of the Interior employee will go without a paycheck. Why should Indian Trust beneficiaries—many of whom are living at near or below the poverty line—be treated differently?

• The judge has specifically prohibited any retribution or other interference with the delivery of trust fund checks. Judge Lamberth, in his decision shutting down Interior’s Internet connection in July 2003, stated that “under no circumstances… shall the Interior defendants exploit or otherwise manipulate these circumstances and conditions to delay unduly the prompt distribution to plaintiffs of their desperately-needed trust funds. This Court will view any such delay as a willful breach of the fiduciary duty that the United States government owes to individual Indian trust beneficiaries.” To view the latest information concerning this case, go to www.indiantrust.com

WASHINGTON, Mar. 16 – For the third time since December 2001, a federal district court ordered the Department of the Interior to disconnect its computer systems from the Internet due to pervasive security weaknesses. The United States District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued the preliminary injunction as part of the litigation stemming from the eight-year-old Individual Indian Trust case.

Judge Lamberth found that “the continued connection to the Internet of any IT system that houses or accesses individual Indian trust data constitutes further and continuing irreparable injury to Plaintiffs. … Their continued connection to the Internet provides an opportunity for undetectable, unauthorized persons to access, alter, or destroy individual Indian trust data via an Internet connection.” Hundreds of millions of dollars in oil, gas, timber, and grazing trust revenues held on behalf of the individual Indian trust beneficiaries are in jeopardy of loss or theft as a result of Interior’s inability to implement effective security measures.

“This opinion is a vindication of the need to appoint a Receiver over the Individual Indian Trust,” said Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that has demanded the government live up to its obligations to the trust account beneficiaries. “We have long maintained that Interior cannot be trusted to oversee the security of its computer systems, much less fulfill their fiduciary obligations. Only through court-appointed oversight can we ensure protection and preservation of the trust funds and assets.”

The more than 500,000 class action plaintiffs in Cobell v. Norton seek reform of the trust fund system and a full accounting of money held in the Individual Indian Trust, which was established in 1887 when the federal government took legal title to land owned by American Indians. Judge Lamberth has repeatedly called Interior to task for the department’s mismanagement of the trust and its IT systems. In his latest order, he referred to Interior’s “shoddy track record” and stressed that “Interior brought this injunction upon themselves.” Interior’s proposal that it self-monitor and self-report its progress was rejected by the court, as were its certifications that its IT systems were secure...

VERMILLION, S.D. - The deadline is March 29 for nominations and applications to the fourth annual American Indian Journalism Institute at the University of South Dakota.

About 25 American Indian students are trained each year through AIJI, a college course sanctioned by USD and funded by the Freedom Forum's Al Neuharth Media Center. It teaches the fundamentals of print journalism.

Those who successfully complete the program, earn four hours of college credit and receive a $5,000 stipend when they re-enroll in a college for the fall semester.

About a dozen participants will go from AIJI to paid summer internships at daily newspaper...