wfn.org | Congress deals setbacks to Native Americans, lobbyist says

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Congress deals setbacks to Native Americans, lobbyist says

Sept. 29, 1998  Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Alvin Deer is available with
this story.

 
By Ray Buckley*

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (UMNS) - Native Americans have suffered setbacks at the
hands of Congress during the past two years, a lobbyist told a United
Methodist caucus on Indian concerns.

"The 105th Congress has been an exercise in damage control by tribes,"
said Aura Kanegis, legislative associate for Native American affairs
with the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C. 

"Every piece of legislation that comes through has become a potential
vehicle for riders which can be damaging to Indian people," she said.
"We see certain lawmakers with hidden agendas toward Native people
repeatedly placing covert legislation as riders onto existing
legislation. You literally have to read every line in pending
legislation to discover damaging riders. Often, in the end, the riders
carry because the legislation itself is too significant to veto."

Kanegis spoke about the 104th and 105th sessions of Congress at the
annual meeting of  the Native American International Caucus (NAIC),
which serves the United Methodist Church as an advocate for Native
people. At the Sept. 10-12 gathering, caucus representatives also heard
a report from the organization's director, reaffirmed the value of
Native American Awareness Sunday, offered input to a team studying a
possible churchwide restructuring, and began preparing for the 2000
General Conference.

Kanegis outlined several examples of how legislation that could be
damaging to Native Americans has been placed in the form of riders on
other bills. One such rider would put jurisdiction over tribal liability
suits into federal district courts, bypassing the tribal courts. That
rider, attached to an appropriations bills for the Department of the
Interior, would erode the authority of the tribes in handling their own
legal cases.

Each year in the appropriations process, Native people are asked to make
compromises to avoid getting something worse, Kanegis continued. The
result is continual compromise resulting in an avalanche of decaying
rights.  

"While a small minority of tribes are becoming wealthy, the dollars
spent on individual Native people is significantly less than on
non-Indians," she said.

Native Americans also must deal in Congress with perceptions about
tribal involvement in gaming. Lawmakers often confuse the issue of
gambling with Native American issues, and as a result, opposition is
directed toward Indians instead of gambling, Kanegis said. 

"The Indian Tribal Gaming Law does not allow Indian gaming in states
that don't allow gambling in other venues," she said. "If you are
opposed to gambling on issues of principle, work to oppose gambling on
the state level."

Inez Talamantez, a Mescalero-Apache and professor of Native American
Religious Studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara,
addressed the roles of Christian and traditional Native people.

"It's very painful for young Indians to live in a household where
parents are afraid to teach culture because it might conflict with
Christianity," she said. "While Western tradition compartmentalizes
knowledge, Native people practice integrated knowledge.  To us, there is
a link between culture, religion, and economy. Human systems and natural
systems are integrated. That is living 'in a sacred manner.' We have to
get back to living in a sacred manner."

Talamantez emphasized the importance of language in Native culture.  

"Where language has been lost," she said, cultures have been interpreted
by non-Indians.  "Our language is sacred and speaks from the heart. Our
oral tradition speaks to our inter-relatedness. The ancients left no
personal history, only tribal and communal understanding."

In his report, the Rev. Alvin Deer, executive director of the NAIC,
listed the caucus' accomplishments for 1997-98.

*	A new World Wide Web site for the NAIC was launched. It allows
browsers access not only to the caucus but to links to Congress, key
Native American Web sites, and the official and unofficial United
Methodist sites.

*	The 1998 United Methodist Native American Family Camp was one of
the most successful ever. The Eagle Project, led by Stuart Tonemah,
brought a series of workshops with a strong Native emphasis, designed to
open lines of communication and strengthen the family unit. Additional
workshops dealt with Bible studies, youth and adult writing, United
Methodist resourcing, lay speaking and Native culture events.

*	The United Methodist Native American Family Camp Endowment was
developed.

*	The National Endowment for the Advocacy of Native American
Children, Youth and Families was established.  

*	Echo of the Four Winds, a publication for the advocacy of Native
American issues, was produced on a bimonthly basis.

Discussion also centered on proposed changes to the United Methodist
Church's Special Sundays. The denomination is considering combining
Native American Awareness Sunday with other observances into a Peace and
Inter-Group Relations Sunday.

"Combining three Special Sundays into one results not in an increase of
dollars but a decrease, and forces other ethnic groups to compete with
each other for U.M. dollars," Deer said.

The caucus voted to support the continuation of Native American
Awareness Sunday.

In other business, the caucus voted to:

*	increase awareness and support of the NAIC, the National United
Methodist Native American Center and the Native American Comprehensive
Plan;

*	support of all Native American candidates for election to the
office of bishop; and 
	
*	develop legislation for the 2000 General Conference through the
NAIC Legislation Committee.

The caucus also met with the Rev. Ernest Swiggett, a member of the
Connectional Process Team (CPT). The team was mandated by the 1996
General Conference to develop a "transformational direction" for the
United Methodist Church beyond the year 2000, a direction that could
include restructuring the denomination. Swiggett gave the caucus members
an update on the CPT's work and sought input from the Native American
community.

The caucus also proposed holding the United Methodist Native American
Family Camp 1999 at Redwood Christian Center in Boulevard Creek, Calif.,
Aug. 8-12.

# # # 

*Buckley is director of the Native American Communications Office at
United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/