Folks, this is really bad news for women in California

Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger just LINE ITEM VETOED the states funding for domestic violence programs. ALL of it. If you live in CA you can do something about this by calling your representatives. The rest of us just have to sit back in horror and watch this travesty unfold.

Here's the press release from the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

July 28, 2009—Governor Schwarzenegger line item vetoed the Department of Public Health’s Domestic Violence Program, which provides $20.4 million for 94 domestic violence shelters and centers.

Domestic violence shelters are often the only thing standing between victims and grave physical danger, and California’s communities cannot sustain their loss.

Services provided by these agencies include emergency shelter, transitional housing, legal advocacy, assistance with restraining orders, counseling and other vital support services.

“We are appalled to see the Governor eliminate funding to vital programs that save lives,” said Tara Shabazz, Executive Director of The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV). “State funding to domestic violence programs has been proven to save lives, and also millions of dollars in health care, law enforcement and other social costs. It is fiscally irresponsible to propose such cuts; the Governor is balancing the budget on the backs of our state’s most vulnerable citizens.”

“If the Governor’s budget cuts are allowed to stand, victims will not have a place to turn for help and lives will inevitably be lost.”

If you live in California, you can sign a petition HERE.

Big News Out of the Episcopal Church

The top article on Indian Country Today, entitled "Episcopal Church Repudiates Doctrine of Discovery," is great news. This action is history-making. I hope other churches follow suit. In fact, it would be really great if you'd print this article from Indian Country Today's website and show it to your own pastor, if you are the church- or synagogue-going type.

Read below for an excerpt, but go to the whole article as well.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – In a first-of-its-kind action in the Christian world, the national Episcopal Church has passed a landmark resolution repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and urging the U.S. government to endorse the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Organizers of the bill hope it will lead to the overturning of a 19th century U.S. Supreme Court ruling and Congress’ assumption of plenary power over Indian nations they say are illegitimate and immoral, and continue to strip American Indian nations of their inherent sovereignty.

The resolution, called “Repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery,” was passed unanimously by the Episcopal House of Bishops and by an overwhelming majority of the House of Delegates during the church’s 76th General Convention July 8 – 17 in Anaheim.

“It’s a historic event,” said Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape. Newcomb is the indigenous law research coordinator for the Sycuan Education Department, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and a columnist for Indian Country Today.

Camp Sheila Wellstone in Indian Country is coming to N.Dakota!

Camp Sheila Wellstone in Indian Country is coming to Minot & Bismarck, North Dakota!
Scholarships Available for Mileage and Hotel
“Forgotten Victims: Victims of Trafficking and Historical Trauma”

The Legacy of Sheila Wellstone
Sheila Wellstone was a national advocate, organizer, and champion in the effort to end domestic and sexual violence in the U.S. She was a fierce advocate for assault victims and their families, and played an instrumental role in the passage of major national legislation, including the Violence Against Women Act and federal funding for transitional housing and supervised visitation centers.

Day One Topics
Wellstone Triangle-Public Policy, electoral politics, grassroots organizing
Historical Trauma and Policies of the US-Why we don’t get involved in politics? What is public policy?
Tribal, federal, state laws and Safety for Native women and girls-Trafficking, Sex offender registration
Building Grassroots Relationships
Leadership and Building Power as Native Women
Developing our Stories for messaging to Lawmakers, Tribal leaders
Developing Our Testimony -Federal, Tribal, State
Community Organizing and Awareness in Your Communities: Getting survivors and youth involved

Day two Topics
Influencing Decision-makers-Grassroots citizen advocacy
Voter engagement: why should we vote?-Organizing a candidate forum for tribal, state elected officials
Next steps for North Dakota-Native women and a State Capitol Lobby Day
End day two at 130pm

Click the link to register online for Minot:
https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/114/mtglistproc.asp?formid=MTGC3&caleventid=6750

Click the link to register online for Bismarck:
https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/114/mtglistproc.asp?formid=MTGC3&caleventid=6748

Don’t miss out! Register today: Deadline for registration is July 27, 2009

“Forgotten Victims: Victims of Trafficking and Historical Trauma”


Where/When: Minot- August 3-4, 2009
Monday-8:30am-4:30pm, Tuesday- 8:30am-2pm
Bismarck- August 6-7, 2009
Monday-8:30am-4:30pm, Tuesday- 8:30am-2pm

For more information contact: April Clairmont, E-mail: April@wellstone.org, Phone: (651) 414-6010, fax: (651) 645-5858

Lonna Hunter, Director
Sheila Wellstone Institute
2446 University Avenue, Suite 170
Saint Paul, MN 55114
(651) 414-6034 direct
(651) 414-6032 fax
www.wellstone.org

Kresge New Relief Fund

Press Release

The Kresge Foundation Announces New Relief Loan Fund for Human Service Agencies Responding to the Effects of the Economic Crisis

In response to the economic crisis and the impact it is having on front-line human service organizations, the Kresge Foundation has established a 24- to 36-month, interest-free program-related investment fund offering bridge loans of $250,000 to $500,000 each to high-performance human service organizations so that they may be better able to meet ever-increasing demand for food, shelter, and other emergency services.

Homeless and domestic-violence shelters, safety-net providers, affordable housing and supportive services, legal aid services, emergency assistance providers, and multi-service health and human service organizations are encouraged to apply.

The fund is designed for applicant organizations that provide comprehensive front-line services, have been in operation for three years, have a solid base of net assets or net worth (or long-term history of recurring revenue), can provide evidence of stable operating performance (net operating surplus over the past three to five years), and possess audited financial statements for the past two years.

Applicants must be 501(c)(3) organizations based in the United States that are not classified as private foundations or government entities. Individuals and elementary and secondary schools are not eligible for this program.

The Kresge Foundation has purposely designed the application process to facilitate speedy review and decision-making. Visit the foundation's Web site for complete program information.

Link:
http://www.kresge. org/index. php/what/ community_ relief_fund/

Low Income Students Can Go to Harvard for Free

Got this in an email

Harvard University Announcement

Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers said, "When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution."

If you know of a family earning less than $60,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition. The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free... no tuition and no student loans!

To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard's financial aid website at: http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/ or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581

Eagle Feathers!

You know you'd think the Federal Government would have had enough years working with these issues to stop this heavy-handed b.s.

The Native American Rights Fund established a working group of Indian organizations and tribal leaders to address government intervention in the lives of Native people who work with or use eagle feathers in traditional ways. Since time-immemorial, the eagle and other raptor birds have been an integral part and intrinsic to the traditions, culture and religion of many tribes, pre-dating U.S. colonization. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) and other federal law enforcement agencies have been conducting raids, confiscations and interrogations on many Indian reservations and Pow-wow events, in at least 14 states of the western United States under what purportedly is referred to as an “Eagle Feather Sting Operation.”

More on this story at the Native American Rights Fund website

Cheyenne River Reservation to Get New Health Center with Stimulus Funds

Today, the New York Times published a huge article on a new hospital that is set to be built on the Cheyenne River Reservation, called "A Rising but Doubted Dream on a Reservation,". Cheyenne River abuts Standing Rock, and it may be the poorest county in the country. The funds for the center only came together because of Obama's economic stimulus plan.

The new health center would replace an old one built by the Army Corps of Engineers, which, according to the article, was in sorry state. For example:

The Corps of Engineers built a health center to serve this grassy sprawl of distant towns and often-rutted roads, but as the only one of any size on the reservation, the center could not keep up with the growing population. The tribe began working on a plan for a better, larger operation that would also make it eligible for more money to improve services.

It clearly had the need, with higher rates of births and deaths, including infant deaths, than the region’s non-Indian population. The birthing unit had been closed because of quality-of-care concerns, the bathrooms could not accommodate wheelchairs, and recruiting efforts often died as soon as, say, a nurse from out of town saw the drab efficiency apartments set aside for the staff.

And there was the familiar matter of location, location. When tribal members require anything more than modest medical attention, they must be taken by ambulance or plane to hospitals far from the reservation — in Rapid City, S.D., or maybe Bismarck, N.D., both about 180 miles away.
...snip...
Some people gradually developed a distrust of the health center, and not only because its brick facade recalled the time of forced relocation. It was understaffed, it had become a patchwork of renovations and additions, and there was nothing native about the place beyond the staff. “It has no flow,” Mr. Hunt said.

The Tribal Council has been lobbying Washington for a new health center for years. The new center is supposed to also include better housing for health care personnel, and be designed with Native American spirituality in mind. Some residents are skeptical of the whole thing, having endured years of disappointments. But here's what is planned:

This $111 million health center will have an American Indian feel; it will be theirs, and not someone else’s. It will have a larger emergency room, two beds set aside for births, new medical equipment, and such basic, almost-forgotten amenities as a staff break room. It will also have that healing room, specially ventilated; no longer will mourners have to clog the bottoms of doors with towels when they burn sage.

But again, this is Indian Country. There are some basic health services the center will not provide; a CT scanner, for example.

Thomas Sweeney, an Indian Health Service spokesman, said the decision not to include this equipment was based on a formula that takes into account several factors: staffing, workload and population size. The agency receives slightly more than half the financing it needs, he said, which means “there’s always tough decisions.”

One step at a time, said Mr. Hunt: the building first, and then more visits to Washington to fight for more improvements — a CT scanner among them.

Until then, it remains a three-hour ambulance ride to Rapid City.

Suicide Crisis on Standing Rock

At a meeting of Tribal Chairs last week, Ron His Horse is Thunder, the Tribal Chair of Standing Rock, told of a re-emerging crisis on the reservation: suicide. There have been 9 since January of this year. Wow, they really need more resources.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Rapid City Journal

His Horse Is Thunder told Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Wednesday during a meeting in Fort Yates, N.D., that the cluster of suicides and additional 50 unsuccessful attempts were signs of hopelessness and fear, reflecting cross-governmental failures in public safety.

"Some may think it inappropriate to discuss suicide in the context of public safety," His Horse Is Thunder said in a prepared statement to a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs field hearing. "But for me, suicide is not only a tragedy robbing us of our future, it is the miner's canary foretelling what lies ahead for us as a community and a nation if we do not act to address our public safety needs in Indian Country."

Committee chairman Dorgan convened the field hearing, which Thune attended as part of his work on public-safety issues on reservations in South Dakota and other states. Thune said during an interview later that the suicide statistics presented by His Horse Is Thunder's were tragic realities that cannot be ignored by Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"It's just absolutely breathtaking to think about these young people, with that many suicide attempts and that many completions, and what it means in terms of the hopelessness that many must feel," Thune said. "It's tragic, just tragic."

...snip...cut to the end...

His Horse Is Thunder said the needs are broad based. They include more police officers, investigators, dispatch and correctional officers, prosecutors and operations and maintenance funds for public-safety facilities. Equally important are counselors and programs, including boys and girls clubs, that give youth support and activities, and alternatives to self-destructive behavior, he said.

Thune said sustaining those youth clubs is crucial.

"They need funding to keep those clubs going, to give those kids something to do," he said. "It's essential. And we've got to keep the pressure on to get funding and manpower for public safety out there, so we don't lose all the ground that's been gained."

This is really a tragedy and speaks to the lack of funding for social programs and criminial justice problems on the reservation.

Obama to address breakdown of reservation justice

An excerpt from the Denver Post story:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is vowing to address rising crime and the breakdown of justice on Indian reservations across the West, planning to roll out a series of initiatives this year to address what officials concede is a mounting crisis.

The package will be designed in consultation with tribal leaders in the coming months and presented at a final "listening session" in the fall attended by representatives from hundreds of tribes and led by Attorney General Eric Holder.

It's an effort to address spiraling rates of viol ent reservation crime, including rape, child sexual assault, domestic assault and beatings — as well as a net of underlying causes, from insufficient prison space to neglect by federal investigators and prosecutors.

"We envision this tribal nations listening conference to be really about bringing a true action agenda," said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, the Justice Department's third in command.

Comparing it to a similar initiative under the Clinton administration, Perrelli said the agenda might include "a very significant request for additional resources. We're not at that point yet, but we hope soon to know what it is we're going to ask for."

But in addressing Indian Country crime, an administration that already plans to tackle some of the country's most vexing policy problems has taken on another — a breakdown in public safety complicated by jurisdictional oddities, insufficient resources and thorny politics.

Obama's going to have to be careful to make sure that something is actually done this time. If you read the rest of the article, there is cynicism about this initiative. People need to be shown that this isn't more of the same ol' same ol'...

Still Not Enough Police on Standing Rock

From KQCD-TV, here's the whole thing:

The Standing Rock Reservation doesn`t have enough police officers.

That`s what Senator Byron Dorgan says, and he wants to find ways to fix it.

Dorgan held an official hearing at Fort Yates today to look at law enforcement in American Indian communities.

Ron His Horse Is Thunder, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, says he`s encouraged by Dorgan`s support.

He says a recent surge that increased the number of officers on the reservation from eight to 37 helped.

He says with those additional officers, people felt safe.

"Now that those numbers are reduced down to 12 law enforcement officers, you start to see the difference," says His Horse Is Thunder. "As we were talking about with Senator Dorgan, suicides have a direct correlation to the lack of law enforcement officers. Our children just don`t feel safe."

The reservation suffers from a violent crime rate more than eight-and-a-half times higher than the national average.

His Horse Is Thunder hopes that a proposal to create a new training facility for would-be officers will help improve that.