1980-08-15 Char-Koosta News

              PABLO, MONTANA 59855 ISSN: 0528-8592
VOLUME 10 NUMBER 8 FULL MOON OF THE HUCKLEBERRY AUGUST 15,1980
Controversial Indian Definition Study Turns Up Six Choices
What is an Indian? For the past two years, the U.S. Education Department (formerly known as the Office of Education) has been trying to figure out just that. The Indian Definition Study, mandated by Congress in 1978 to determine "Indianness" for Title IV education money distribution, was completed in June but had no clear-cut solution to report.
Shirley Hufstedler, Education Secretary, will submit to Congress six "summary definitional options" gleaned from the various definitions already in use by governmental and tribal agencies and from citizens' testimony recor-
Standing Arrow Pow-Wow
Elmo's second annual Standing Arrow Pow-wow took place over four sunny days last month, July 24th through the 27th. A small but enthusiastic crowd gathered to enjoy the traditional feasting and drumming, and the dance and stickgame contests.
Dancers competed in fourteen categories for close to $4,000 in prize money. The biggest prize money was offered under the stickgame pavilion, though: Naida Left-hand and her fellow teammates were the skillful winners of the $500 first prize for the two-day stickgame tournament.
Other winners and (most of) their pictures will be in the next issue of the paper.
Master of ceremonies for the dancing was Octave Finley. Margaret Friedlander handled the sometimes confusing chore of identifying the winners and seeing to it that they got the proper prize money. Virginia Brazill was the main tally man (tally person?), ably adding up the many judges' (whose names we don't have) scores.
The second Standing Arrow Pow-wow thus goes on the
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ded at 14 regional public hearings conducted by study director, Dr. Abdul Khan.
Briefly, the definitions are: 1) one-fourth Indian blood quantum; 2) tribal membership and reservation residency; 3) membership in a state- or federally-recognized tribe; 4) option three plus first and second degree descendents (the current Title IV definition); 5) determination by the community; and 6) self determination.
Each of the six choices has more opponents than proponents. Recognized tribes would like the definition to be restrictive and candidly say they've been organizing their own tribal membership rolls for hundreds of years and they don't appreciate anyone telling them who's an Indian and who isn't.
Others (non-recognized tribes and urban Indians) prefer the current definition because it doesn't discriminate against people "deliberately driven off their reservations" or those who can't provide a "paper trail" to prove ancestry.
In any case, the hundred-plus-page study has been forwarded to the House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for their further deliberation.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Northern Tier, In Brief.......................Page 2
CERT: A Bond for the Future................Page 4
Letters to the Editor........................Page 6
"Around the Campfire".....................Page 10
Court Dispositions.........................Page 15
Council Minutes...........................Page 16