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Show Q CENA Seeks Recognition For Eastern Tribes However, CENA has not even been WASHINGTON. D.C. The majority of the Indiana living in the 24 states east of the Mississippi River are hidden from official view by a gossamer curtain woven of historical neglect and present-da- y ignorance, which the yearold Coalition of Eastern Native Americans (CENA) hopes to penetrate. CENA was fanned in December of to provide assistance to these but not gone Indians who are the remnants of the Mice powerful Indian nations who ruled the Eastern United States. Says CENAs WJ. Strickland, a Lumbee Indian from North Carolina: Our moot critical job at this point is to find those people and bring them to the attention of the federal funding agencies." Q JohnD. Bandars BIA Official Returns To "Vidoas Circle" Accept New Post A former BIA Conservation Officer at the U & O Agency returned recently after a absence to become Land Operations Officer. John D. Saunders replaces Black Cole who is now superintendent of the Owyhee Agency in Nevada. Saunders previously served as a soil conservationist for the Colorado River Agency in 15-ye- ar Parker, Arizona. He and his wife, LaVonne, have two sons attending college at the University of Arizona and San Mateo (Calif.) State College and a daughter working in Arizona. ' . ' i' ' Alphabet Assures Preservation of Miccosukee language e HOLLYWOOD, FUl -I- AIPA)- The Miccousukee Tribe of Florida, a highly traditional tribe living deep in the Everglades, now has a written language for the first time fa its history. The new alphabet, which uses the 26 English characters plus one additional letter, was developed by Cy Maus, a white educator from Miami. Maus had been hired by the tribe and said the tribe made the decision to approve an alphabet only after consiThe medicine derable men felt that, if written, the language would lose some of its powerful properties." But Miccosukee Chairman Buffalo Tiger said most of the tribal members concluded that their language would be more likely to survive if it were written down. Nearly all of the 500 tribal members speak their own tribal tongue as their first language. soul-searehin- g. Strickland described a vicious circle" which CENA will have to break before it can lift the curtain mi the problems of these people. To get fends from federal agencies for these people, said Strickland, CENA has to establish its ereadibil-it- y and that of its cause. To do that, it has to identify these groups and the nature of their social problems. But to accomplish that, CENA has to have the fends to find them. There is no denying that the Indiana are out there. The 1970 U.S. Census reports approximately 180,000 Indiana fa CENAs service area, with only a small minority being members of federally recognized tribes. CENA also believes that the Census Bureau has "undercounted" this group by about 70,000 . people. One of the major resolutions passed during this January's CENA session bringing together about 200 Eastern Indians was one asking a petition be drafted to the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct an accurate enumeration of Eastern Indian populations supervised by the Eastern tribes themselves. The lower official census figures result fa lower fending levels for any Eastern Indian efforts. Most of the data gathered by CENA already mi these people, who live either in poor rural areas or urban neighborhoods, appears to indicate that their level of social advancement is comparable to only one other group fa the United States -- - their Western counterparts, the federally recognized tribal Indians. Program Aisiocacod tin Listen to Ufa Nows program each Tuesday at 9:15 o.m. on KVIL Rsdh. The program is sponsored by the I) to Tribe and b presented by the Public Relations Department. I.D. Cards Available at Tribal Office Tribal identification cards with a photograph of the bearer are now available at the Tribal Accounting Office, according to Albert LaRose. A new Polaroid camera and tripod have been purchased and are set up fa a Tribal separate room of the department. members may have their pictures taken and identification cards made during office hours from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. AccountMonday through Friday in the offices. Tribal the at ing Department is fa Santio Veronica clerk Vital charge of the project. In addition to a picture the cards include the social security number, date Uttto Fonnal Organization i This leads to a second problem CENA faces in trying to assist these people. Unlike Western tribes, many of these groups have no formal organisation. Or if they are organized, they do not have paid tribal leaders or organizational officers. Thus, according to Strickland,' tribal matters are the last things that get done." Despite these impediments and the problems of getting a new organization established, CENA can look back on some solid accomplishments fa its first year of exsistence. In Federal Region I, which includes all the New England states except New York and New Jersey, CENA was instrumental in getting the Federal Regional Council to hire an Indian coordinator, James J. Sappier, a Penobscot, who will introduce the tribes fa that area to federal agencies and of birth, description of the bearer and certification that he or she is a Tribal member. cards are a precaution an increasingly large number of against Tribal dividend checks that have been cashed by members, Mr. The wallet-size- d non-Trib- al LaRose said. Sometime fa the near future Mr. LaRose plans to spend a few days fa Salt-La- ke City preparing identification cards for tribal members fa that area. Though possession of a Tribal card is not mandatory, Mr. LaRose encourages members, particularly those without a drivers' license or other valid identification, to have one made. ri Court Cost Punting CENA is banking heavily on the pending Supreme Court decision fa Ruiz v. Morton and Senate Joint Resolution 133 introduced by Sen. James Abourezk, on the federal services issue. The Ruiz case may settle whether or not the. BIA and IHS must provide services to all' Indians fa the U.S. The Senate resolution sets up an Indian Policy Study Commission composed of members of Congress and Indian tribes which will investigate every aspect of Indian affairs, including the status and problems of recognized tribes and urban Indians. The Commission-- if created-cou- ld very well wind up recommending D-S.- officials. This important first step is necessary to overcome the problem of letting officials know who and where Eastern Indians are, and getting Indians to know where and how to apply for federal fends. Federal Region HI, which includes Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, recently held a forum on civil rights which CENA officials attended, contacts were made which led to the meeting between scheduling of a two-da- y CENA and officials from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare non-federal- ly that these Indians legislatively be brought into the federal fold. CENA membership is open to any Indian Tribe or organization with a constituted tribal council or board of directors east of the Mississippi, including Louisiana. The organization has no formal definition of "Indian, but it does informally check out a group before admitting it to membership to determine whether or not the applicants can truly be said to be Indians. (HEW). Strickland said he was told by one these people, but how do you find the Indian communities? You are the first contact Ive had who could provide me with entree to these Indian communities. official: "We want to help Hoopa Claims Case (Continued from Page 4) National Tribal Chairmens Association (NTCA), plus a number of individual tribes may well file "friend of the court testimony on behalf of the Hoopas if the Supreme Court does decide to take the appeal. What is at stake for other Indian tribes is spelled out fa the Hoopa petition to the Funds AvnHnbb CENA also has a commitment from the Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) fa HEW to provide funds to the Eastern tribes if it "doesn't jeopardize the level of fending to its present grantees. This agency has said it could be an advocate for Eastern tribes to other federal agencies such as the Labor Department, the federal Office of Revenue Sharing and the like, according to Strickland. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the Office of Indian Education (OIE) fa HEW have already recognized the credibility of CENA as spokesman for Eastern Indians, EDA has granted them $39,720 for economic development planning fa eight Indian communities. OIE, which handled monies non-feder- Nm Another difficult problem facing CENA as it attempts to assist those Eastern tribes who desire to gain federal recognition and the services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Indian Health Service (IH8) is the fear engendered fa federally recognized tribes that to include these tribes in services would cut an already small pie, the federal budget, into even smaller pieces for each tribe. Strickland is aware of these feelings among leaders of those federally recognized tribes. He observed: "I am not sure they do understand our problems, nor do I personally accept that we will cut into their funding." find them. en or th Strickland, We know from census reports that there are Indians in Ohio and West Virginia, but we dont know where they are or who to contact, and we don't have the funds to send someone out to 1972 long-forgott- authorized under the 1972 Indian Education Act, has granted CENA adult basic $50,000 for a education course in eight communities. able to find all these poeple, let alone document their social ills. According to al fire Hits IikBoi Historical Society SAN FRANCISCO, Cdf. sad disaster befell the American Indian Historical Society, 1451 Masonic Ave., San Francisco, CA. 94117, on Oct. 20 when a warehouse fa which its book supplies were stored was ripped by an explosion. -- The. Society is planning to reprint its lost volumes and publications, but is fa such need of funds that it is issuing an appeal for public assistance for the first time. . Donations are Make checks to Society and mail as above. Supreme Court: What is uniquely important is that the (U.S. Court of Claims) decision will have the effect of . - divesting a major federally recognized American Indian tribe of control over its reservation and destroy its modern, vigorous tribal government, something which, to our knowledge, has never yet been done by an American court. In other words, the claims courts decision may well take from the present-daHoopas not only money but the right of all the tribes, fa concert with the Secretary of the Interior, to decide who will be members of their tribes. No one involved fa the litigation wants to predict what might happen if the Hoopas lose , mi their Supreme Court appeal. According to some reports, there is a great deal of "bad blood" between the two tribes, and violence has already flared. How many Yuroks would be admitted tothe rolls of the Hoopa Tribe will be decided at later hearings, barring an adverse decision by the Supreme Court. It is believed by the Hoopas and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officials that as many as' 4,000 Yuroks, Ranks and Hoopas may have to be admitted to the tribal rob to satisfy whatever qualifications the Court of Claims sets for membership. y ed |