This bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices for the Positive Universe: Earth Protection Team website. Some of the authors featured on this page include Northian, Christian Erni, Bruce E. Johansen, Boulder Native American Rights Fund, Steve Nickeson, Education Journal of the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, Benjamin Sendor, Cheyenne. Wyoming State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, American Indian Journal, and Washington National Advisory Council on Indian Education.
(1978). The Emergence of Civil Rights in Wyoming. Local, state, and federal government representatives and private citizens participated in a two-day consultation on civil rights in Wyoming. Panel discussions focused on the difficulties of civil rights enforcement in the areas of housing and economic opportunity, medical care, education, the handicapped, employment discrimination, and women's rights. The conference found civil rights enforcement in Wyoming to be fragmented and uneven; among the problems discussed were the lack of a state fair housing law, overly restrictive eligibility guidelines for medicaid services, and confusion about the implementation of affirmative action to end sex discrimination in education. Based on the findings of the conference, the Advisory Committee recommended the following actions: (1) creation by statute of a state human rights commission with powers to rectify discrimination in housing, public accommodations, and employment; (2) appropriation of funds to increase staffing of the Wyoming Fair Employment Practices Commission; (3) creation of public health centers in each county of the state; (4) expansion of medicaid services to include marginal income persons; (5) development by the University of Wyoming of an effective affirmative action plan; and (6) effective monitoring of laws protecting the rights of the handicapped. Descriptors: American Indians, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Disabilities
(1992). Promising Initiatives: Drawing the Line, World Watch. Canada and Brazil have set a precedent for aboriginal lands rights cases in recent decisions to set aside homelands for indigenous peoples. Discusses these decisions, land claims settlements, ramifications, and outstanding issues in need of resolve. Descriptors: American Indians, Canada Natives, Environmental Education, Indigenous Populations
(1983). Native American Rights Fund: 1982 Annual Report. The 1982 annual report of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), a non-profit organization specializing in the protection of Indian rights, explains the organization, its structure, its priorities, its activities, and its financial status. Opening statements by the chairman, Roger Jim, and the executive director, John Echohawk, note that despite $270,000 less in federal funds in fiscal 1982, NARF achieved significant decisions in major legal cases involving Indian treaty fishing rights in the Great Lakes and prevention of flooding of the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Reservation. The report continues with a description of the founding and development of NARF and an explanation of its priorities: preservation of tribal existence, protection of tribal natural resources, promotion of human rights, accountability of governments, and development of Indian law. Following descriptions of NARF's organization, administration, financial accountability, and national support committee, the report presents a detailed account of the organization's activities in 1982 in the areas of tribal status clarification, tribal governmental authority, protection of Indian lands, Eastern Indian land claims, tribal water rights, Indian hunting and fishing rights, Indian education, the Indian law support center, and the National Indian Law Library. A 9-page treasurer's report and financial statement complete the illustrated report. Descriptors: Accountability, American Indian Culture, American Indian Education, American Indian Reservations
(1975). Through Education: Self Determination–A Bicentennial Goal for American Indians. The Second Annual Report to the Congress of the United States from the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. The second annual report of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) presents NACIE's major 1974 activities and recommendations; the council's letter to Albert H. Quie, House of Representatives (a summary of the council's progress-to-date in which Chairman Will Antell explains in great detail the complexities and problems of implementing Title IV of the Indian Education Act of 1972); a discussion of Title IV program progress including grassroots feedback, summary statements from the council members' field evaluations, and the responses of school officials; and discussion of education in terms of business, housing, health, and culture. Among the activities reported are: reading and recommending of 548 Title IV proposals and grants under the Indian Education Act of 1972; efforts to alter the budget gap from an authorized $224,000 to the requested $692,548; continuous communication of the national policy of self-determination and its achievement via education; numerous field visits to Title IV grantee locations for purposes of evaluation and assistance; monitoring of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare civil rights requirements relative to Indian education; and program development for regional conferences/workshops to disseminate detailed Title IV program information to local Indian communities. [More] Descriptors: Advisory Committees, American Indians, Annual Reports, Budgeting
(1973). Indian Legal Service Field Spans Wide Scope of Action. The Native American Legal Defense and Education Fund, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is directed toward cases which involve education, civil rights, equal employment opportunities, Indian land problems, health services, and tribal sovereignty. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Civil Rights, Community Control, Court Litigation
(1978). Seminole Land Rights. Establishing that the Seminoles have present, treaty-guaranteed rights to the lands where they live and other Florida lands, this article details the Seminole claims prosecuted in the Indian Claims Commission, maintaining it was unauthorized by the traditional Seminole, unlawful, and in some respects fraudulent. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Federal Government, Federal Legislation, Hearings
(1979). NCAI to GAO: Legislative Quanitification of Indian Water Rights Is Not the Answer. Responding to GAO's report to Congress entitled "Water Rights Reserved for Federal and Indian Reservations: A Growing Controversy in Need of Resolution", this article asserts GAO's discussion is incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, while placing the burden of compromise on the Indian. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Federal Government, Federal Indian Relationship, Natural Resources
(1980). 'Otherness' Expressed Indian Music in Mexico Today, Wassaja, The Indian Historian. Discusses history of various Central American musical instruments, how the instruments were used then, and how they are used now. Much Indian music today serves to bolster Indian rights, express community pride, and serves as a badge of otherness. Descriptors: American Indians, Cultural Activities, Dance, Latin American History
(1997). The BIA As Banker: "Trust" Is Hard When Billions Disappear, Native Americas. The federal government's trust responsibility toward Native Americans involves protection of their lands, resources, and right to self-government and provision of services (including education). However, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has misplaced billions of dollars owed Native American individuals and tribes and now faces class-action litigation. Proposed Congressional "reforms" may mask new efforts to terminate treaty rights. Descriptors: American Indians, Federal Government, Federal Indian Relationship, Money Management
(1979). U.N. Withholds Action on a Report of Human Rights Violations in the United States. A panel of seven international jurists and lawyers has found a pattern of human and legal rights violations against Native Americans and other minorities in the United States. Their three-week investigation focused on political prisoners and discovered abuses of both the activists and the criminal process. [More] Descriptors: Activism, American Indians, Civil Liberties, Court Litigation
(1998). The Indigenous World, 1997-98 = El Mundo Indigena, 1997-98. This annual publication (published separately in English and Spanish) examines political, legal, social, environmental, and educational issues concerning indigenous peoples around the world during 1997-98. Part I highlights news events and ongoing situations in specific countries in nine world regions. In the Arctic and North America, these include a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that "Indian Country" does not exist in Alaska; funding cuts for education, health, and social services in the Northwest Territories; planning for the creation of the new Canadian territory of Nunavut; a Canadian Supreme Court decision affirming aboriginal land rights in the absence of treaties; threats by developers, mining, and drilling to Indian sacred sites and lands used for subsistence activities; cultural and environmental education for Western Shoshone youth; and the Leonard Peltier case. Other sections cover Mexico and Central America, South America, the Pacific and Australia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa. Indigenous issues in these regions include violations of human rights, proposed reforms to education and language policy, environmental threats and indigenous opposition, legal and political reforms, intellectual property rights, land rights, preservation of traditional knowledge, a historical report on Australian Aboriginal children removed from their families, indigenous self-determination, and global indigenous networking and cooperation. Part II examines indigenous women's issues covered by the First African Indigenous Women's Conference, the Second Asian Indigenous Women's Conference, the Conference of Indian Tribal/Indigenous Women, and the Pacific Families' Network. Part III describes international work on behalf of indigenous rights and includes three articles: "UN Declaration Enters Third Year at the UN Commission on Human Rights" (Andrew Gray, Jens Dahl); "The 54th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights" (Jens Dahl, Lola Garcia-Alix); and "Towards a European Policy on Indigenous Peoples and Development Cooperation" (Birgitte Feiring). Includes maps and photographs. Descriptors: Activism, American Indians, Civil Liberties, Conservation (Environment)
(1974). The Indian Water Wars, Education Journal of the Institute for the Development of Indian Law. Government failure to protect Indian water rights has grown so serious in the arid regions of the West that the very existence of Indians as Indians is now in peril. Descriptors: Agency Role, American Indian Reservations, American Indians, Conflict
(1976). The Dene Speak for Themselves. The Dene Declaration of Rights affirms the Native unity and Native separateness from the rest of Canadian society while making Native land settlement claims that refute the colonial position of the Canadian government. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Canada Natives, Colonialism, Cultural Differences
(1997). A Setback for Religious Freedom, American School Board Journal. In "City of Boerne v. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio," the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. RFRA was not intended to overrule a 1990 Supreme Court decision forbidding use of peyote in Native American religious ceremonies, but to "enforce" 14th-Amendment free-exercise rights. The "Boerne" decision gives schools little guidance with "hybrid rights." Descriptors: American Indians, Court Litigation, Elementary Secondary Education, Federal Legislation
(1979). Resource Management: The Key to Success. Gary Kimble, past staff attorney of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, cites resource management as one of the most important current issues in Indian affairs. Discusses water rights, coordination of energy efforts between tribes, and the need for Indians to know all the ramifications of reservation energy development. [More] Descriptors: American Indian Reservations, American Indians, Coordination, Energy Conservation