Free Republic

Wisconsin education officials have ordered a high school to change its sports nickname from the Indians. An alumnus of Berlin High School north of Milwaukee complained to the state Department of Public Instruction about the use of the nickname. That opened the door to the state ordering the school to change it.

Just a week ago this Monday, the Cherokee Nation’s Supreme Court ruled that the tribe may revoke the citizenship rights of black members. The case stemmed from a 2007 vote in which the Nation amended its constitution to allow the expulsion of the descendants of Cherokee-held slaves; this inspired a lawsuit by the “Freedmen,” as the black Cherokee are known. A district court found in favor of the Freedmen, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling, arguing that the Cherokee alone have a right to determine who is and is not a fellow tribesman. The result is that these erstwhile...

The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners. The Cherokee nation voted after the Civil War to admit the slave descendants to the tribe. But on Monday, the tribe's Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 tribal decision to kick the so-called 'Freedmen' out of the tribe could be upheld. The controversy stems from a footnote in the brutal history of U.S. treatment of Native Americans. When many Indians were forced to move to what later became Oklahoma from the...

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners.

Times are tough right now and good jobs are hard to come by for many Californians. Rather than considering bad legislation like Assembly Bill 742 that stifles private investment, business and employment, California State Legislators should be doing everything they can to enact policies that create jobs and encourage new, private investment in our economy. Several influential labor groups have joined business and local government to urge legislators to reject this special interest bill, was introduced at the last minute solely to kill an important new aggregate production project in Riverside County on behalf of the wealthy and politically influential...

The United States has apologised for controversial remarks made by a US diplomat who spoke of "dark and dirty" Indians, calling the comments "inappropriate". US Vice-Consul Maureen Chao told Indian students on Friday that her "skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians" after a long train journey, according to Indian media -- referring to people from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. During her speech in the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, Chao was quoted as saying: "I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to (the eastern Indian state of) Orissa. "But, after 72 hours,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The staff director for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is objecting to the U.S. military's use of the code name "Geronimo" for Osama Bin Laden during the raid that killed the al-Qaida leader. Geronimo was an Apache leader in the 19th century who spent many years fighting the Mexican and U.S. armies until his capture in 1886.

People are discovering antique fishing tackle all the time, in closets and at garage sales, but none of that compares to discoveries made recently by archaeologists at two of the Channel Islands off Southern California. Looking for signs of ancient human settlement, they unearthed meticulously-crafted spearheads and other tools (see photo at right) that date back 12,000 years and provide insight into the lives of a seafaring culture that obtained bounty from the ocean. The astonishing discoveries, at three sites on Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands west of Santa Barbara, strongly support the theory that during an era...

600-Year-Old American Indian Historical Account Has Old Norse WordsBy Larry Stroud, Guard Associate EditorPublished on Thursday March 15, 2007 Vikings and Algonquins. The first American multi-culturalists? BIG BAY, Mich. — Two experts on ancient America may have solved not only the mysterious disappearance of Norse from the Western Settlement of Greenland in the 1300s, but also are deciphering Delaware (Lenape) Indian history, which they’re finding is written in the Old Norse language. The history tells how some of the Delaware’s ancestors migrated west to America across a frozen sea and intermarried with the Delaware and other Algonquin Indians. Myron Paine,...

Boulder, CO, January 28, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Bauu Institute and Press, a leading research institute and publisher of books, news, and information on indigenous peoples around the world is pleased to announce the publication of Mormons, Indians, and the Ghost Dance Religion of 1890, Second Edition. On the occasion Director Peter N. Jones, Ph.D. explained the importance of the publication: “With this book, Dr. Barney has presented an informative historical analysis of both the Ghost Dance Religion and Mormonism, two phenomena that arose in the American West during the 19th century. Until now these two phenomena – which have played large...

PARKERSBURG - A Meigs County native has written a book about the Battle of Point Pleasant and whether it was the first fought in the Revolutionary War. Charles S. Badgley of the Badgley Publishing Co., Canal Winchester, Ohio, says he often heard while growing up along the river in Meigs County that the battle was the first in the war, the basis of his most recent novel, "A Point of Controversy." Conventional wisdom was the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 were the first in the war of independence. "The controversy has been around a long time, it actually...

President Obama is voicing support for a U.N. resolution that could accomplish something as radical as relinquishing some U.S. sovereignty and opening a path for the return of ancient tribal lands to American Indians, including even parts of Manhattan. The issue is causing alarm among legal experts. In recent remarks at the White House during a "tribal nations conference," Obama endorsed the "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People," which includes a sweeping declaration that "indigenous peoples have a right to lands and resources they traditionally occupied or otherwise used" but that later were acquired by occupying forces....

It turns out that John Wayne movies might be more accurate than American history textbooks. “In contrast, an alternative literature based on actual history concludes that the civil society of the American West in the nineteenth century was not very violent,” economist Thomas J. DiLorenzo writes in The Independent Review. DiLorenzo teaches at Loyola University in Maryland. He notes that, at least for the first half of the nineteenth century, “private protective agencies,” rather than government ones, maintained order. “What were these private protective agencies?” he writes. “They were not governments because they did not have a legal monopoly on...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Thursday that the United States will reverse course and support a United Nations declaration defending the rights of indigenous peoples. Obama told Native American leaders that the declaration affirms the importance and rich cultures of native peoples throughout the world.

A year after President Obama vowed more than “empty promises” to American Indians, tribal leaders are preparing to demand that he follow through.

American Indians and black farmers will be paid $4.6 billion to address claims of government mistreatment over many decades under landmark legislation President Barack Obama signed Wednesday. The legislation "closes a long and unfortunate chapter in our history," Obama said. "It's finally time to make things right."(continued)

Compound Interest, Manhattan & the Indians * Posted by Jeffrey Strain * January 15, 2006 I’ve always enjoyed a story that I have often told about the power of compound interest and the Indians who sold Manhattan. I even wrote an article about the power of compound interest a couple of years back using the example I had found in an old shoe manual: Inspiration is often found in the most unlikely places. I received my first lesson in the importance of compound interest and long term savings from a pair of training shoes I bought in high school. To...

WASHINGTON – The Senate has approved almost $4.6 billion to settle long-standing claims brought by American Indians and black farmers against the government. The money has been held up for months in the Senate as Democrats and Republicans squabbled over how to pay for it. The two class action lawsuits were filed over a decade ago. The settlements include almost $1.2 billion for black farmers who say they suffered discrimination at the hands of the Agriculture Department. Also, $3.4 billion would go to Indian landowners who claim they were swindled out of royalties by the Interior Department. The legislation was...

<p>Published: Monday, November 15, 2010 at 2:37 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, November 15, 2010 at 2:37 p.m.</p> <p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Duke without the Blue Devil? Notre Dame without the Fighting Irish? Most students and alumni at those proud universities wouldn't dream of dropping those enduring symbols of school pride.</p>

Boxer Resurrects Indian Tribe Deemed Defunct 40 Years Ago, Son Profits $8 Million Off It (p)It doesn't get more corrupt than this.... For the past 10 years Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has been playing a game that would make Jack Abramoff blush, a game that can best be described using the language of “Get Smart’s” Maxwell Smart as “the ole family-profiting-off-of-the-Indian-tribe-that-you-created trick.” Here’s the story. In 1998, Lynn Woolsey introduced legislation reinstating an Indian tribe in the wine country of Northern California that had been declared defunct by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1958. None of the Indians of...