Victory For Tribal Balloting

Decision strikes down photo ID requirements

Bottom Line: In one of the most contentious election years in history, North Dakota Natives will find it easier to vote.

A federal judge last week struck down a North Dakota law that required voters to provide photo identification in order to cast their ballots. The decision effectively states that the law constituted an undue burden on the Native Americans who make up 25 percent of the state’s electorate.

In his decision in the case of Brakebill v. Jaeger, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland on August 1 rejected the state’s argument that the law was “necessary” to prevent voter fraud. “The undisputed evidence before the Court,” he wrote, “reveals that voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent.”

The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) filed the suit in January on behalf of seven tribal plaintiffs. At issue were North Dakota House Bills 1332 and 1333, which allowed only four types of IDs to verify identity. The restrictive law disallowed even passports and military IDs.

But during the 2014 election season, lead plaintiff and U.S. military veteran Richard Brakebill argued that he and other tribal members were disenfranchised because his address was not listed on his ID.

“I felt bad about being turned away from the polls at the last election,” said co-plaintiff and fellow veteran Elvis Norquay. “It is my right to vote for whomever I want. I shouldn’t be turned away just because I didn’t have my address listed.”

In their suit, the plaintiffs argued that the new laws imposed a substantial burden on tribal members because no Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) facilities exist on any of North Dakota’s five Indian reservations—facilities where drivers’ licenses, which provide addresses, might be obtained for identification purposes.

Moreover, the plaintiffs argued, some DMV sites are hours away from Native homes, creating a travel challenge for tribal members, many of whom live below the poverty line, who wished to obtain the necessary IDs.

North Dakota was the only state in the country without a “fail-safe” clause, such as provisional balloting, that would allow voters to sign an affidavit of identity to prevent such inconveniences.

“The public interest in protecting the most cherished right to vote for thousands of Native Americans who currently lack a qualifying ID and cannot obtain one, outweighs the purported interest and arguments of the State,” Judge Hovland wrote. “No eligible voter, regardless of their station in life, should be denied the opportunity to vote.”

The Brakebill decision is the latest in a series of recent federal circuit court rulings that have curbed restrictive new voter ID and “proof-of-citizenship” laws brought under Section Two of the Voting Rights Act.

These laws arose after the landmark Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder (2013) struck down key provisions of the Act that required state and local governments with historically poor voting rights records to seek federal “preclearance” before implementing any election-law changes.

North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger, whose office issues voting guidelines, was the defendant in the case.AP Images/Dale Wetzel, File

Under the controversial 5-4 Shelby ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that preclearance was no longer necessary because it was based on “outdated” information. Since then, litigation has emerged in over 16 states where tribal nations and/or individual tribal citizens have filed suit to ensure their right to vote.

On July 29, for example, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected voter ID laws in North Carolina. The panel ruled that the legislature had passed new legislation not only intended to discriminate but which had “targeted African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”

That same day, U.S. District Court Judge James Peterson struck down Wisconsin’s new voter ID and restrictive election laws. “The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement,” Peterson wrote, “which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities.”

In Kansas, home to the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians and the Prairie Band of the Potawatomi Nation, Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks overturned a rule issued by the secretary of state that forced voters to show “proof of citizenship” that was imposed without a public hearing.

And in Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the state’s voter ID laws “discriminatory” and ordered the state to fix its voter ID law before the November general elections.

Against this background, Brakebill v. Jaeger represents a second NARF victory in protecting voting rights for Indian people in the last year. In 2015, the organization agreed with Alaska that the state would provide voting materials and ballots in the Gwich’in and Yup’ik dialects.

“What we asked for is that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast a ballot, particularly Native Americans,” said NARF attorney Matthew Campbell. “This ruling is an incredible victory for North Dakota voters, as it will ensure that fail-safe mechanisms will be in place in November to protect them.” http://bit.ly/2ayadTO

The Beauty Of The Slot Canyons

Quiet, arresting displays of light and a unique ambience

Bottom Line: Staggering geological formations in Arizona make for a memorable tourist experience and a Native business success.

It is difficult to convey the breathtaking awe that grips a visitor to the Slot Canyons near Page, Arizona. The bright colors of the sandstone and the swirling patterns of the rock caused by centuries of water and wind are magnificent. It is a world like no other.

The formations are narrow—mere slots in the hills, thus earning them their name. Some areas are barely wide enough for one person to pass at a time. Visitors come to view and take photos, guided by five Navajo agencies.

“We could have pretty close to 3,000 people visiting each week now,” said Vernon Tso, a guide for 11 years. “And this is still pretty slow, just the beginning of the season.”

The entrance to Upper Antelope Canyon is an unobtrusive slit in the rocks.Jack McNeel

The area wasn’t always so popular. Before 1997, relatively few people stopped by, and no guides were required. Then, in 1997, a flash flood roared through one of the canyons, killing 11. Those who were lost were from all over the world, and word of the disaster made international headlines. Navajo Parks and Recreation completely closed the canyons, not allowing anyone to enter without a guide.

But 19 years later, Slot Canyons is back in business, and all guides are trained for a variety of situations, including first aid, CPR, airborne pathogens, hazardous materials and fire safety. To work as guides, personnel need the proper certifications. (The guides not only provide safety and photographic assistance; they are conversant in the geological, plant and animal communities within the canyons as they relate to the Navajo world.)

The canyons themselves twist and turn. They are sometimes very narrow and then open to small rooms. Often they are very dark, then lighten as sunshine finds its way through openings above. The effect creates an intimate experience where one can almost feel the walls, which are quite close.

Upper Antelope Canyon receives the largest number of tourists and requires commensurate cooperation. Each of the five tour companies is permitted up to 20 guides a day, and up to 70 visitors per tour. That adds up to many visitations per day. Without coordination, the results would be quite chaotic. Even so, some of the tours are crowded. Happily, the sheer number of tours and tourists generates many jobs and considerable income. (The price per tour ranges from $25 to $95.)

When light filters in, the effect is often eerily beautiful.Jackie McNeel

Photo tours, which provide time for taking pictures, are also offered for experienced shooters. Guides know the best times of day to catch the rays of light that filter through openings many feet above, at just the right angle. Summer solstice provides more beams streaming down and even better photo opportunities. “The position of the sun is very important in Antelope Canyon,” Tso said. “We keep track of the solstices to remember the sun schedule.”

Among the other Slot Canyons, Cathedral is less widely known and less advertised. But it provides much of the same beauty and fascination as Antelope, and with fewer people. In a couple of places, boulders have dropped from the rims far above and have lodged near the canyon floor, requiring visitors to crawl beneath them. The striations in the rock and the beautiful colors make for incredible photographic opportunities. The quiet, stillness and unique beauty combine for an amazing experience.

As for the visitors, they arrive frequently by busload. Curiously, they come mainly from outside the United States. Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and French are the most numerous, along with a good number of Canadians.

“We’re often fortunate,” Tso said, “to get an American on a tour.” http://bit.ly/2arKSIO

Boosts For A Native Syllabus

In Washington State, a new round of funding

Bottom Line:With additional grants, Washington can enhance its classroom teaching of Native history.

Beginning in 2005, Washington State “encouraged” its schools to teach the history of its 29 federally recognized Indigenous Nations. Ten years later, in 2015, Olympia made that encouragement mandatory.

Now, additional measures will bolster efforts to ensure that Washington students are sufficiently versed in their state’s Native American culture.

Those measures take the form of two grants, totaling $600,000, awarded to Western Washington University (WWU)’s Woodring College of Education. The grants will support the training of teachers to better enable them to impart the Native-themed curriculum, “Since Time Immemorial” and its stated goal of teaching “with tribes, rather than about them.”

“These two grants not only advance our professional development work in schools but, most significantly, forge important new efforts with Native American communities in our region,” said Woodring College of Education Dean Francisco Rios.

Of the total, two-thirds—or $400,000—is being invested in “Implementation of Since Time Immemorial: Higher Education and K-12 School Partnership Pilot Project.” It is a collaboration of Woodring College, the University of Washington, WWU and the state Office of Native Education.

The project will assist schools and districts with a high number of Native American students. These include Chief Kitsap Academy, which is owned and operated by the Suquamish; Lummi Nation School; Marysville School District (which serves students from the Tulalip Tribes); Muckleshoot Tribal School; Shelton School District (which serves the Skokomish and Squaxin); Taholah School District, which serves students from the Quinault Nation; and Wellpinit School District (serving Spokane Tribe students).

The curriculum includes such topics as “Exploring Washington State—Tribal Homelands,” “Washington Territory and Treaty Making,” “Being Citizens in Washington: The Boldt Decision” and “Encounter, Colonization and Devastation.” The project will provide training workshops, professional development and coaching to teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals.

“Our entire team,” said Kristen French, associate professor of elementary education at WWU, “is dedicated to providing professional development that teaches regional tribal government, culture and history through the STI curriculum.”

The second grant, of $200,000, will be used to train teachers and administrators in the La Conner and Concrete school districts, which attend to Swinomish students. The partnership will “personalize the STI curriculum and develop hands-on science lessons focused on the restoration and care of the environment essential to maintaining the traditional Swinomish way of living,” said Tim Bruce, an instructor at Woodring College.

Teachers and principals will receive training in the basics of the curriculum and then will dig deeper into the aspects that relate to science, focusing on such locally relevant and culturally significant topics as salmon recovery, tideland impacts and water use.

It is expected that teachers and principals will have a strong working knowledge of the curriculum by spring 2017 and have multiple lesson plans ready for submission to a digital library, to share with a wider audience.

In addition to the above projects, regional training will be hosted in October by the Toppenish School District, on the Yakama Nation reservation; Education Service District 113, in Olympia; the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, whose students attend schools in the North Kitsap School District; and the Lummi Nation, whose students attend Lummi schools or schools in the Ferndale School District.

Thirty percent of school districts in Washington are using “Since Time Immemorial,” which was developed by the state in consultation with Indigenous Nations in Washington.

http://bit.ly/2auAToq

The Maori Director Of ‘Thor’

An Indigenous filmmaker tackles a superhero

Editor’s Note: The New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi (Maori) is skyrocketing as the director of the upcoming Thor Ragnarok, based on the legendary Marvel comic book superhero Thor. As a director, Waititi was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2004 short film Two Cars, One Night; his features Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople are two of the top-grossing films in New Zealand. He is also well known for his acting in, and direction of, the vampire spoof What We Do in the Shadows.

In an interview with ICTMN, Waititi discusses his latest project and his experiences with films in general.

***

How does it feel to be the first Indigenous director of a Marvel feature film?

It feels amazing. This is a big deal for me, this is a big deal for our community and for any Indigenous community. We don’t have that kind of representation. I feel as though it is about time, but being Maori you carry a lot of weight and expectation when you’re doing a film like this.

It’s also a way to show younger people that such a thing is possible—that our voice is valid and we can make comic book movies as well. We can do anything we want to if we try. When I was growing up, filmmaking was never an option as a career, nor was it on anyone’s list of potential jobs. But now it is. This is a huge step forward.

There are small things in this film that I feel are Indigenous gestures. There is a responsibility, I think, to do this when you’re bringing a big Hollywood film to Australia or anywhere. You have to look for ways to give back to the Indigenous communities.

We are working with different agencies to bring young aboriginal people into the group. Different departments will have aboriginal representation there, working closely with every department. We also had an opening ceremony by the local aboriginal community for this film.

Have you always been a comic book fan?

I’ve always been a huge comic book fan. I used to collect comics, put them in those plastic covers with cardboard backings. I loved Detective comics and Batman, X-Men. I used to also collect obscure ones by Dark Horse and Vertigo comics.

I think the movie industry should start moving more into graphic novels like “The Killing Joke” or small things with two or three characters, such as Wolverine and Havoc. That is kind of like what we’re doing with Thor.

Chris Hemsworth, complete with hammer, stars as Thor. Marvel/Disney

What is your advice for a budding Native filmmaker?

The main thing is to try and tell stories and not to think about how far it can go. I never thought about this and for me it was never a dream. I just imagined all I would do was independent films and I would just tell stories my way.

But I got noticed for doing things my way, which was a unique way. If you want to work with Marvel, or one of these big studios, my advice would be to not study the superhero films. Study other films. Study art films, old cinema and worry about the storytelling, because that’s why they wanted me. It was because of my ability to tell stories.

Did you ever conceive that you would be able to obtain this sort of achievement as a young indigenous kid from New Zealand?

No way. It was never a job that I could ever have.  And it’s hard as Indigenous youth not to put yourself down, if you f**k up you put yourself down. This was never part of my plan. I didn’t have this type of expectation.

At the first of this year, Chris Hemsworth [the star of Thor Ragnarok] and his wife threw a cowboys and Indians party and posted the photo to Instagram. Do you find it interesting that he now is working with an Indigenous director?

Chris is very caring and he was very supportive and mindful to the indigenous community here in Australia. We all have some learning to do. None of us are exempt. We are all learning as we go, and we are all trying to be good people.

Is there ever a point where you say, “Holy crap, I’m making a superhero movie?”

Every day. Every single day I look around and I see the scale of this movie and how many people are involved and I think “Oh my God, how the f**k am I going to do this?” It is totally crazy. We are now four weeks into the shoot and even after one week I was starting to feel sad that it was going to be over someday. I haven’t even thought about what’s to come.
http://bit.ly/2aAyeY1

How Did I Miss That?

The algorithms of crime, UFOs in St. Louis
and the terorist threat to Paris Hilton

The answer to the burning question “Whatever happened to Paris Hilton?” is that she has been working in Ibiza—where tourism is the principal occupation—as a disc jockey. Recently she announced that she would make a great target for ISIS and so she is “watching her back.”

“Last we heard of her,” my cousin Ray Sixkiller snarked, “everybody was watching her back. Her backside, that is.”

* * *

Foreign Policy reported that Swedish police officer Mikaela Kellner was sunbathing when a man tried to steal a phone from a woman nearby. Not thinking of her clothes, or lack of same, Kellner gave chase. The arrest was captured on video.

A civilian video of a police encounter in the U.S. often involves somebody getting shot, whereas the Swedish video showed a man being subdued by a half-naked policewoman.

“That’s Sweden,” Cousin Ray laughed. “There’s no guns in Sweden.”

Well, not exactly. The U.S. ranks number one in civilian gun ownership, while Sweden is a respectable ten.

* * *

Hyperallergic.com reported that a street mural originally commissioned by Jersey City has been painted over without notice in spite of the artist’s efforts to deal with complaints that just kept coming.

Gary Wynans is the real name of the artist, who goes by Mr. AbiLLity, and his mural was in the form of a giant Monopoly board. It was unclear which complaints actually came from the public and which came from city bureaucrats. But Mr. AbiLLity made many changes. The city objected to “Gentrification Tax” and so it became a “Hipster Tax.” A policeman who was depicted as a pig was changed to a “Simpsons-like character.”

Another piece of public art in the neighborhood was depicted with the label “Cool Statute,” but it was changed to its real name because it was a memorial dedicated to victims of the Katyn Massacre. The jail square was claimed to aggravate racist stereotypes, a criticism that drew some chuckles because the dark-skinned man in jail was a self-portrait of the artist.

Apparently weary of the complaints in spite of the artist’s cooperation, the city painted the Monopoly board over with green paint without warning. The next day, the green patch in the street acquired comments in white chalk, including “CENSORED.” The city power washed the chalk away the same day, censoring the censorship complaint.

* * *

ProPublica conducted a study showing that predictions that algorithms made of future crimes were wrong 40 percent of the time, erring on the side of predicting crimes that didn’t happen. More disturbing, the false positives were twice as high for blacks as for whites.

Cousin Ray wanted to know if this proves that numbers have race. I suppose they have as much race as human beings do.

* * *

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that UFOs appear to be lurking above the city’s Gateway Arch. The moving lights appeared on both handheld videos and various surveillance videos with fixed views around St. Louis. Neither Scott Air Force Base nor the FAA could suggest any source for the lights.

“Easy,” Cousin Ray chortled, “E.T. mistook the Gateway Arch for very big golden arches and he was having a Big Mac attack.”

* * *

According to the Pryor Creek Daily Times, authorities are investigating whether Brian Mossier, former police chief of Big Cabin, Oklahoma, was still using a city credit card to buy gasoline almost two years since leaving office. After surveillance video appeared to confirm the theft, a judge issued a search warrant for the ex-chief’s home.

Evidence was seized. But the big catch was not one but two meth labs. The ex-chief and his wife were jailed for manufacturing methamphetamine, credit card fraud, and possession of marijuana. Child welfare placed two small children who were living at the meth labs with relatives.

Cousin Ray could not resist pointing out Big Cabin’s reputation some years ago as the best known speed trap in the Cherokee Nation: “As Big Cabin used to say in those days, ‘Speed kills.’” http://bit.ly/2aVdA5u