NARF Executive Director appointed to Obama transition team

 BOULDER, CO- John Echohawk, Executive Director for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has been appointed to serve on President-elect Obama's agency transition team for the Department of Interior. Mr. Echohawk, who also served on the Clinton-Gore transition team in 1992, will serve as a member of the Energy and Natural Resources work group.
 
The Agency Review Teams for the Obama-Biden Transition will complete a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The Teams will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in. 

John Echohawk is a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and has served as NARF's Executive Director since 1977. Mr. Echohawk will be on personal leave from NARF during his period of service to the transition team as required by the President-elect's transition ethics requirements. For more information, please contact Dan Pfeiffer with the Obama-Biden Transition Team at dpfeiffer@barackobama.com or at dan.pfeiffer@ptt.gov. 

Obama appoints Native officials to transition team - Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008
By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian  

As President-elect Barack Obama appoints a new team of cabinet members and fills other key federal work posts, he's named six Native people to his transition team - half of them assigned to assist in Interior Department policy, budget and personnel changes.

"We're lucky to have such stellar representatives with people with whom Indian Country has really good relationships," said Jacqueline Johnson-Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, a nonprofit organization that represents more than 250 tribes.

So far, Mary Smith, Mary McNeil and Yvette Robideaux have been assigned to work on justice, agriculture and health issues, while three current and former attorneys with the Native American Rights Fund - John Echohawk, Keith Harper and Robert Anderson - will advise Obama ..s proposed within the Interior Department.

As advisers to the Interior transition team, the Indian law experts could inspire a significant transformation within the department's Indian trust fund system, an organizational debacle that has been subject to 12 years of litigation during the Cobell vs. Kempthorne suit.

"This is our last big chance to get a lot of things done," said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff from Montana's Blackfeet Nation in the class action lawsuit. "It's like a broken record every time we have a hearing. Nothing really happens. Maybe if we get the right people in these positions, we can all work together: the tribes, Congress and the administration."

The Native American Rights Fund, a tribal justice and legal rights organization based in Boulder, Colo., has helped represent a half-million Native landowners in the Cobell suit. Landowners claim Interior Department agency officials - including the Office of Special Trustee, Bureau of Land Management, Minerals Management Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs - have mismanaged billions of dollars of their income earned from sales of timber, oil and gas, and grazing leases.

Echohawk, NARF's executive director of more than 30 years, also served as a transition adviser for former President Bill Clinton.

Harper was the lead NARF attorney in the Cobell case. He remains the only Native representative assigned to the highest ranks of the Obama transition, where he has been named a "team lead" for the Interior Department. Harper also served as the Native policy adviser during the Obama campaign.

He currently heads up Native affairs for the Washington, D.C., law firm Kilpatrick Stockton. He was named as one of the 50 "Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America" by the 2008 National Law Journal. And he is a lead attorney in the Cobell suit.

Rounding out the Interior advisers to the Obama transition team, Anderson worked 12 years as a senior staff attorney for NARF, where he litigated state, tribal and federal jurisdiction cases, including water, hunting and fishing rights cases.

Transition team updates are being made at www.change.gov.

"President-elect Obama has set a high bar for the transition team to execute the most efficient, organized and transparent transfer of power in American history," said John Podesta, co-chairman of the presidential transition team, in a news release.

"First, we adopted the strictest ethics guidelines ever applied to any transition team. President-elect Obama pledged to change the way Washington works, and that begins with shifting influence away from special interests and restoring it to the everyday Americans who are passionate about fixing the problems facing our country."

Job seekers are being encouraged to submit their resumes, and many Native people have already done so.

"The team expands constantly as they look for gaps and bring in other people, said Johnson-Pata. "Every time I look at the list, I see new names on it. We're lucky. We have several Native Americans in a variety of different places."

November is National Native American Month. In honor of this month, NARF is spearheading a national campaign to raise awareness about issues pertaining to Native rights. As part of this effortm NARF recently released a short documentary film that covers the history of the Native American rights movement. As part of NARF's campaign, we are encouraging people nationwide to participate in Native American month activities and to organize or attend a screening of NARF's film in an effort to raise awareness about the issues impacting the rights of Native peoples.

During the month of November, there will be a number of events that NARF will be participating in as well as screenings of the NARF documentary "Modern Day Warriors." Please check the NARF Calendar to see any if any of these events will take place in your local area that will include Washington DC on November 10th and the Idaho Environmental Summit on November 18th. Please also visit NARF's Native American Month campaign website to sign our Native rights pledge, to send Native American month e-cards, and to order a copy of NARF's film and new community action kit.

CELEBRATE NATIVE AMERICAN MONTH IN NOVEMBER

Be a Modern Day Warrior for Native American Rights!

November is National Native American Heritage Month. The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) would like to ask you to please help make Native American Month a time to raise awareness and support in your community about the issues impacting Native Americans today.

Simple Actions Make a Big Difference!

Sign our Modern Day Warrior Pledge

Sign our Native American Month Pledge & pledge your support for Native rights.

Send a Native American Month E-Card 

Send one of NARF's beautiful Native American Month E-Cards and tell your friends about NARF and our Native American Month campaign.

> Order a NARF Community Action Kit

The Kit includes a copy of NARF's new short documentary "Modern Day Warriors" that covers the development of the Native American rights movement from the 1960's to present day. Community Action Kits can be purchased on NARF's online at www.narf.org

Download a FREE Activist Toolkit

The tool kit has a number of suggested activities  and resources for Native American Month

Become a Member of NARF or Donate

The easiest way to support our work is to become a member or make a donation. Your contribution will be put to use where the need is greatest.

Thanks for your support for Native American Rights!

ART & JUSTICE UNITE TO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE FOR NATIVE RIGHTS

Preserving Native Lifeways Campaign Exceeds Its Goal for Native Rights

BOULDER, CO - In July, in an unprecedented move, the Tulalip Tribes of Washington contributed $50,000 to NARF as a powerful way to show how tribes and Native and non-Native peoples can come together in unity.

And we have seen just that! Using this contribution, NARF and the Tulalip Tribes of Washington launched the Preserving Native Lifeways Matching Gift Challenge to raise a total of $100,000.

NARF was pleased to announce at our Santa Fe Benefit Art Auction that the Preserving Native Lifeways Campaign has raised $127,560 in support of defending the rights of Native Americans, their cultural and spiritual lifeways and the environment.

Chariman Melvin R. Sheldon of The Tulalip Tribes of Washington commented on the campaign by saying, "from the Tulalip Tribes and our Board of Directors, our hands go up to each and every contributor in this campaign. Every day our inherent right as the first people of the United States to govern ourselves, provide for our communities, and retain our cultural identity is under attack. Our collective efforts during this fundraising campaign guarantee the Native American Rights Fund's continued leadership in this battle."

We couldn't have done this without the support of our dedicated friends and supporters. Special thanks to the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin who contributed $50,000 as well as to the Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma and the Citizen Potawotami Nation who contributed $10,000.

Thank you to each and every one of our Preserving Native Lifeways contributors for all that you have done to defend Native rights!

WASHINGTON D.C.-The Supreme Court will officially convene its October 2008 Term on the first Monday in October (October 6, 2008).  In large measure, the Court remains fairly hostile to the interests of Indian tribes and individual Indians.  During the October 2007 Term, the Court granted review in two Indian law cases—cases which had resulted in favorable decisions in the lower courts.  Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land & Cattle Co, which placed non-Indian corporate commercial interests against tribal sovereign interests, was argued and decided by the Court which held that Tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over non-Indian banks which discriminate against Indians in the sale of non-Indian owned fee land on the reservation to non-Indians. 

Carcieri v. Kempthorne, which places state sovereign interests directly against federal executive authority to take land in trust for the benefit of Indian tribes, has been fully briefed and is scheduled for oral argument on November 3, 2008.  In addition, the Court decided two Indian law-related cases, Exxon Shipping Company v. Baker (punitive damages for class plaintiffs which included Alaska Native fishers and hunters stemming from Exxon Valdez oil spill) and Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (voter-election photo ID requirements which exclude tribal government IDs).  In both cases, the Court held against tribal interests.

As we look ahead, on September 29, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court will conduct its opening conference for the October 2008 Term.  At present, there are ten (10) petitions for writ of certiorari involving questions of Indian law pending, eight (8) of which will be considered by the Court during this conference.  Unfortunately, at least two of the petitions—both of which involve favorable decisions in the lower courts—have a reasonable chance of being granted review:  United States v. Navajo Nation, a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholding the federal trust responsibility to the Navajo Nation; and State of Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a decision by the Supreme Court of Hawaii which held that the State of Hawaii should be enjoined from selling or transferring "ceded lands" held in trust until the claims of the native Hawaiians to the such lands have been resolved.  In addition, two other petitions which may generate some interest on the Court are being closely monitored by the Project:  Kemp (Oklahoma Tax Commission) v. Osage Nation, a decision by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit which held that individual state officials seeking to enforce state income tax laws on tribal members within the original Osage Reservation are not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit; and Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas v. State of Texas, a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit which held that the Secretarial Procedure Regulations—the regulations adopted following the Supreme Court's decision in Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida which held that Congress has no authority to abrogate a state's Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit under the Indian Commerce Clause of Article I of the U.S. Constitution—are invalid. 

NARF and NCAI remain busy through the Tribal Supreme Court Project coordinating resources and developing strategy for two probable petitions for cert involving the free exercise of Native religions under   the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act:  Navajo Nation .v United States Forest Services (permit for ski resort to use recycled sewage waste-water to manufacture snow on the San Francisco Peaks – a sacred-site for many American Indian Tribes); and U.S. v. Friday (prosecution of tribal member for taking of bald eagle for use in Sun Dance ceremony).