Free Republic

When the prospect of prison hangs over one’s head many people start talking… According to the latest reports, Devon Archer, a former Hunter Biden business associate, who was convicted for a financial scheme which defrauded a native American tribe of roughly $60 million is now seeking a plea deal. Archer has managed to avoid sentencing for years now, but now that the gavel is about to come down Devon Archer is reportedly looking to plead for no prison time or some sort of reduced sentence. Now this is merely speculation, but stay with me here… I am willing to bet...

The Nez Perce Indians of northern Idaho received the state’s first large-scale battery from Tesla in November.About the size of a standard shipping container, the Tesla Megapack will store power from solar panels, enabling the tribe to reduce its dependence on local dams. For decades, the Nez Perce have demanded the destruction of four hydropower plants along the Lower Snake River with claims the concrete barriers hamper a near-extinct salmon population.The Tesla Megapack, installation company RevoluSun CEO Josh Powell told Public News Service, “allows people like the Nez Perce to control their energy where it’s being produced where they have...

Just a few decades ago, there were no living speakers of Wampanoag, the native tongue of the Cape Cod–based Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. (Their ancestors famously shared a meal with the Pilgrims, 400 years ago.) Then, in 1993, Jessie Little Doe Baird, who was then in her 20s, had a series of dreams about her ancestors, she told Yankee magazine. They were speaking to her, but she couldn’t understand them. A prophecy known to the tribe said that their lost language would come back when they were ready for it, revived by the children of those who had broken the language...

The Navajo Nation is poised receive $554 million from the federal government over mismanagement of tribal resources in the largest settlement of its kind for a single American Indian tribe. Much of the land on the 27,000-square-mile reservation has been leased for things like farming, grazing, oil and gas development, mining and housing. The leases once were largely overseen by the government, which mismanaged the revenue and failed to properly invest and account for it, according to the tribe. …

The scene is the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut . The year 2000. The congressman has $100 chips stacked high, having a grand time at the crap table. He likes to gamble and isn't afraid to show some temper when he loses. Along for the ride are his campaign manager and one of the two biggest lobbyist handing out campaign money from various Indian tribes who was also a 20 year friend of the legislator. By now we've all heard about the money J.D. Hayworth received from an Indian tribe by way of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was one...

Eat your heart out Jack Abramoff. President Obama looks forward to a guaranteed supply of Democrat campaign money which will make the imprisoned Republican fundraiser look like the small time operator he was. And better yet, Obama's multi-billion dollar nationwide scheme to circumvent campaign spending laws comes neatly disguised as a Hawaii-only deal for "reconciliation" and "justice". "Campaign finance" isn't even in the bill's description. It is called the Akaka Bill. Reintroduced February 4 for the 2009 Congressional session as S381 and HR862, the Akaka Bill creates a process to establish a Native Hawaiian Tribal Government. If it reaches his...

For decades, Vivian Milligan complained that the government ignored the Ramapough Mountain community when Ford Motor Co. dumped a sea of waste in their Upper Ringwood community.   Longtime environmental activist Vivian Milligan says her heart was "pounding" when former state DEP chief invited her to Washington D.C. for her senate confirmation hearing as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.  On Wednesday, Milligan, who rarely ventures out of the area, plans to make her first trip to Washington D.C. – at age 57 — as a guest of former DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson.  The U.S. Senate is expected to confirm...

It's 10-feet wide and extends 70-feet from where it's anchored to the rock. It has a deck made of tempered glass. That's a description of a new $30 million structure being built in the Grand Canyon that's expected to draw thousands... The Hualapai Indian Tribe's "Glass Walkway," a structure that will be suspended over the edge of the canyon some 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. It will be higher than any of the world's tallest free-standing skyscrapers. The walk way is horseshoe shaped, and its glass bottom will allow you to look straight down between to the canyon floor....

Tribe snubs prof Cherokee band says Churchill's claim of membership a fraud By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News May 18, 2005 Ward Churchill's claim of membership in the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians is fraudulent, according to a scathing statement released by the tribal office. The statement, issued May 9 in the name of the tribal leader, Chief George Wickliffe, and posted on its Web site Tuesday, does not mince words: "The United Keetoowah Band would like to make it clear that Mr. Churchill IS NOT a member of the Keetoowah Band and was only given an honorary 'associate...

PORTLAND - A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit by Indian tribes and environmentalists who said the Bonneville Power Administration mismanaged fish and wildlife conservation programs by favoring energy development in the Northwest. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Bonneville had followed proper procedure for drafting and managing conservation programs to balance energy needs with efforts to protect and restore salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin. A three-judge panel in San Francisco also said the Northwest Power Act ``does not require every BPA decision to treat fish and wildlife equitably'' as long as the federal...