Letters: IRMP is tribes’ defense against refugees

An article appearing under Real News Right Now addressing Obama administration to relocate 250,000 Syrian refugees on the Standing Rock Sioux and Navajo Nations has set those having access to the Internet a-buzzing with so many interesting sets of questions.

The part ” The tribal leadership of the Navajo and Standing Rock territories respectively will hold sole responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of the refugees” brought more laughter and severe criticism of the Standing Rock Tribal Council’s pattern of political practice.

The comment made by a non-enrolled member was “This tribe has forever discriminated against non-enrollees but who have children enrolled into this tribe to go back to their reservations, as well as denying us tribal federally-funded programs can now tell the 150,000 Syrians to go back to their countries. Let’s see what happens here. This concern will relieve us non-members some peace of mind. What an irony or wacusa.”

The tribal administration, in an effort to downplay the sudden concern of its people, are informing their membership that this bit of information is a hoax that comes from an unreliable source.

The Oyate Advisory Council, on the other hand, is taking a different stand for its tribal membership. At their September monthly meeting, Chairman Everett Jamerson and Vice Chair Veronica Iron Thunder requested the OAC Working Group to view this article as though it were true and address the impact such a placement of half of the 250,000 refugees “would have on our people, because it could happen as our tribal council still does not have our IRMP in place and anything can happen here on our land.”
It is a fact that Standing Rock Sioux does not have either its Integrated Resources Management Plan nor its [American Indian] Resources Management Plan in place — i.e., it did not reach the Federal Register. These two enhancement programs offered by President Clinton’s administration through Congressional action in 1994 were offered to all the federally recognized tribes throughout the United States providing tribes 10 years to complete their plans. The tribes were also offered 18 departmental assistance that would defray cost preparing their plans.

Under Jesse Taken Alive’s administration, Mark Whitebull, Allen White Lightning, Steve Defender, and Steve Emery, then in-house tribal attorney, met with then Vice President Al Gore and USDA Secretary Espe to initiate Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s IRMP/ARMP.

Mark White Bull passed away leaving Allen White Lightning, Steve Defender and attorney Steve Emery to carry on until Allen passed away as well leaving Defender and Emery to continue to complete the 10-year plans. Steve Emery and Steve Defender were terminated when Charles Murphy was elected leaving these plans on the shelf during his entire administration.

When Ron His Horse Is Thunder was elected, he rehired Steve Defender to continue working on the IRMP as the IRMP was not completed at all under Mike Claymore. Defender continued to work on this IRMP until his funding was depleted near the end of Ron’s chairmanship. Ron requested funding for Defender.

Then Agency Superintendent Earl Silk approved $48,000 for Defender’s continued work. Charles Murphy was elected as chairman. The funding of $48,000 approved for Defender was misdirected to another program by Charles Murphy resulting in termination for Steve Defender.

Jessi Shanley and Cindi Antelope were assigned to complete the tribe’s IRMP, however, did not even meet the minimal standard to reach the Federal Register. OAC invited Steve Defender to explain IRMP’s importance due to the predicted financial/economic chaos that surrounds us. It was after Defender’s presentation that the OAC kept demanding council action. This issue was addressed at the Oyate Advisory Council’s March 2013 monthly meeting and the minutes published in the Teton Times, however, to no avail; thus Standing Rock Sioux Tribe does not have its IRMP and its 2.3 million acres vulnerable for the U.S. government’s taking.

The Oyate Advisory Council were concerned that these lands would be inundated by either thousands of windmills or solar panels, not once giving thought to housing refugees. For this reason the OAC is taking this recent article very seriously as this entity is the voice of the people. It is a “wake up call.”
Hoax or not, the placement of refugees on our sovereign lands is of utmost importance as the revival of this tribe’s IRMP is over. Steve Defender and attorney Steve Emery did submit the tribe’s Letter of Intent that might divert possible refugee relocation on the Standing Rock Reservation; however, it’s perhaps too late.

Mary Louise Defender introduced the HEARTH Act to the Oyate Advisory Council through the Program on Aging last year and I believe sent in their comments to the Federal Register opposing to some parts of this Act while the tribal council remained silent.

Local towns and cities would have been enhanced under the IRMP/ARMP and Standing Rock tribal members would be better prepared for the predicted financial/economic collapse if it does take place as the tribe in its current state if not prepared for what is predicted to happen beginning this month following Pope Francis’ address to the United Nations and the Four Blood Moons. We’ll see.

Adelina Defender
Lakota/Dakota Advocates for Human & Civil Rights, Inc.
McLaughlin, S.D.

Looking for great-grandmother

I am trying to track down my “heritage” and I have been told that my grandfather’s mother was a Navajo Indian. In fact, I have been told that her father was one of the Navajo chiefs. Her name is Louise Fredrick Huber. She was born in 1889 and she married Henry (Red) Handing who was born in 1876. They were married in 1906 and had seven children: Earl, Hap, Elfie, Myrtle, Edward, Bertram, and Elmer (my grandfather).

Louise died in 1965. I do not know the place of her birth or the place where she died. She married Red Handing, but again, I do not know where.

I know this is not a lot of information, but I do know that my grandmother, Emma M. Handing, married Elmer and gathered semi-truckloads of clothes that she would send to the Navajo Reservation twice a year or every other year. She also gave me some turquoise jewelry back when I was in my teens (1960s) that she received from someone on the reservation back then.

My grandmother Emma and my grandfather, Elmer Handing, had five daughters: Margaret, Johanna, Shirley, Dorothy, and Geraldine. My mother is Johanna (Ruth). She was born in 1934 and was their second child. My mother, Johanna Handing, married my father, Edward Ruebensam, on Jan. 1, 1955, and I was born Aug. 27, 1955.

If someone could let me know if there is a record of Louise Fredrick Huber as being a member of the Navajo Nation, I really would appreciate it.

Thank you for your time and patience with this issue.

Emma M. Wainwright
Tucson, Ariz.

Navy suffered from Agent Orange too

The Vietnam War was the most shameful war in all of American history, a war lost by politics, not by those who fought it. It is a war that will never be forgotten and will live on into infamy. Why? It is because of the deadly herbicides used in that war, herbicides so deadly it is second only to radiation poisoning. In science it is known as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD). Better known by its code name Agent Orange. It has almost the same ingredients as the herbicide Round-Up minus the Dioxin, but can be just as harmful, especially to children and animals.

The Vietnam War will never be forgotten for generations to come. Dioxin in the human body of Vietnam veterans who came in contact with that herbicide it resides in the human fatty tissue and can and has been passed on to many of their children. Half-life in the human body is approximately 9 to 12 years, therefore tens of generations can continue to be infected (half-life has yet to be scientifically determined). With this known fact, the Vietnam War in the minds of those who fought and the minds of their survivors for generations to come, the war will never end.

How did Agent Orange infect Navy at sea? The herbicide was mixed with diesel fuel to stick to plant life. Rain would wash it into streams and rivers that coursed into the South China Sea where our ships were. Rough seas and storms would churn up the sea’s surface and the dioxin would settle to the bottom. The South China Sea is a shallow sea. Our combat ships traveling at high speed would stir up the bottom bringing dioxin to the surface. Anchorage areas dropping anchor also stir the bottom. Navy ships distill seawater into fresh water by evaporation, contaminated dioxin water would be sucked into the intake of the ships evaporation system. The heating and pressurizing process intensified the dioxin by tenfold as proven by the Institute of Medicine. This is how Navy sailors at sea never having boots on ground Vietnam became sick with their fresh drinking water.

The VA and Congress criticize this scientific fact, which has denied benefits to Navy at sea. Legislative bills are introduced, but seem to fail with the next seating of Congress. Presently there are two bills, House Bill HR-969 and Senate Bill S.861. If passed, they will afford benefits to those Navy who served at sea. Tell members of Congress and Senate to pass these bills.

John Bury
Media, Penn.

Facebook, Twitter forms of free speech

Last week Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie wrote a letter critical of negative characterization of public officials on social media and suggested we should ban these activities.

Fundamentally I disagree, but I think his point should be acknowledged.

The type of activity we witness on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be overly negative or mean-spirited.

But the Internet and forms of social media are powerful new forms of communication and ones that have ramifications on the politics everywhere, including the Navajo Nation.

We see social movements across the planet ebb and flow through these technologies, from the Arab Spring, to Occupy, to Idle No More, to Black Lives Matter. This doesn’t mean it’s an ideal form of communication. But it is one of consequence.

For the Navajo Nation, it has become an important place for political discourse, linking people in and outside of the reservation to happenings in Window Rock.

It is wrong to call for prosecution of slanderers on Facebook and elsewhere. We are protected by a tradition of free speech that includes satire and making fun of public officials, even where these characterizations are untrue or skewed.

It may seem overly negative and at times unreasonable — and often these characterizations are Ðbut it’s necessary in order to have robust political discourse.

It’s the choice of the people to determine between what is true and what is just rumor or misinformation. We need to maintain a high standard of evidence before we believe everything we hear or are told.

You don’t need Facebook to spread misinformation. You just need a press release officer. And almost every well-staffed Window Rock office has one.

Andrew Curley
Sanders, Ariz.

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