Chief Jaret Cardinal – Sucker Creek First Nation 150 A: I am Cree and I have been elected to the position of Chief of the Sucker Creek First Nation which is signatory to Treaty No. 8. The Sucker Creek First Nation is the original location upon which Treaty relations were concluded between our forefathers and the Queen’s Representatives (Treaty No.8). Over the past ten years, I have had the opportunity to work with the leadership from the First Nations in Alberta, Canada, and gain extensive knowledge and experience in dealing with Treaty Rights, Aboriginal Rights, Case Law, and governance issues In this time, I have had the opportunity to play a critical role in the development of our Treaty Bilateral process, to ensure that our interests are being addressed through the implementation of Supreme Court of Canada decisions; I played a lead role in the development of policies related to Specific Land Claims and governance. Prior to my election as Chief of the Sucker Creek First Nation, I have worked as the Chief of Staff for the AFN Alberta Regional office. During this time, I have gained valuable experience in working in preparation for the first meeting on Aboriginal issues with the First Ministers since the Constitutional conferences of the 1980’s. As a professional, I have dedicated my time towards improving the conditions facing First Nations communities, and the advancement of First Nations Treaty and Aboriginal Right’s issues. Finally, I operate my own independent consulting company, J. Cardinal Consulting, and this has provided with the opportunity to work closer with my own community and develop governance related tools such as a Code of Ethical Conduct for the Chief and Council of the Sucker Creek First Nation. I have been married for close to ten years to my wife Becki, and we have two children, Adam 5 years old, and Mya 2 years old.

Jewell James (Lummi),

Steve Newcomb, Indigenous Law research coordinator at D-Q University at Sycuan and Indian Country Today columnist, has eloquently documented in these pages, plenty of shenanigans accompany the intense pressure of the past two years to quiet Western Shoshone land claims forever. To view the U.S. treatment of the Western Shoshones at this time is to witness how harshly and unfairly the loss of Indian assets has been throughout history. It stands as a living textbook example of the theft of billions upon billions of dollars of American Indian assets, complete with all the necessary plot conventions any swindle of this magnitude requires. The United States can be a hospitable and fair sovereign but it can also be blind when ruthless behavior and greed results in the dispossession of tribes. This is neither fair nor honorable. Too often, documents Newcomb, the well heeled and the corporations end up with land and resources worth billions, while the Indians end up “with a pittance.” Newcomb points out how the powerful forces that most ardently advocate for a final settlement over Western Shoshone lands are precisely in the company of those who would profit most from the quieting of Indian title. Writes Newcomb, “The traditional Western Shoshones contend that Senator Reid is attempting to remove any Indian title-cloud from their homelands so that he can privatize those lands for wealthy real estate developers and mining companies, and so vast Shoshone water resources can also be privatized.”

Professor Rice earned his B.A. from Phillips University in 1973, and his J.D. at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1978. Prior to joining the faculty in 1995, he spent 18 years in private practice representing Indian Tribes and entities. He has served as the Attorney General for the Sac and Fox Nation, Chief Justice for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Assistant Chief and Chief Judge for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee in Oklahoma, and in other capacities with various Indian tribal governments. He successfully argued on behalf of the Sac and Fox Nation in the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Sac and Fox Nation, 508 U.S. 114 (1993), where the Court decided 9-0 that the State of Oklahoma had no jurisdiction to tax the income of tribal members earned within the Indian Country or to require those tribal members to pay state taxes on their automobiles in the form of car tags. He also taught at Antioch School of Law’s Indian Paralegal program, visited at the University of Oklahoma and Cornell Law School, and served as the Director of the Northern Plains Tribal Judicial Training Institute at the University of North Dakota School of Law. He has served as the official representative of the United Keetoowah Band and the Sac and Fox Nation to the United Nations’ ECOSOC Working Group on Indigenous Populations. He is a contributor to the latest revision of Felix Cohen’s classic Indian law treatise, the “Handbook Of Federal Indian Law,” and has written extensively in the Indian law area. He is currently working on chapters of this treatise for the forthcoming revision of the Handbook in addition to his regular writing interests. Regularly called upon to speak at scholarly and governmental meetings, his speaking engagements have included presentations to the United Nations’ Workshop on Indigenous Children and Youth, the University of Paris VII - Denis Diderot, The Federal Bar Association’s Indian Law Conference, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s Sovereignty Symposium, and numerous appearances at functions sponsored by major University Law Schools and Indian Tribes. Teaching and writing interests include Indian law with an emphasis on the revitalization of the legal and political systems of Indian Tribes; Jurisprudence with an emphasis on the comparison of western and American Indian concepts of law; and Constitutional law. His regularly taught courses include a course on the law of Tribal Government, Native American and Indigenous Rights, Jurisprudence, and American Constitutional law. He was the founding Director of the LL.M. Degree in American Indian and Indigenous Law, and currently serves as Co-Director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Tulsa College of Law. Professor Rice is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma with tribal headquarters located southeast of Tulsa, and lives with his family on the Sac and Fox reservation southwest of Tulsa.

Oren Lyons, (Onondaga Nation) North America: The issue of nuclear and toxic waste dumps on our precious lands; the policy of finding a place for the waste with the poorest and most defenseless of peoples today. This brings the issue of the degradation of our environment by these waste dumps, over-fishing, over-cutting of timber, and toxic chemicals from mining processes throughout our lands. Treaty violations: We have with the United States and Canada 371 ratified Treaties and Agreements. The Ruby Valley Treaty of the Western Shoshone is a prime example of what the violation of treaties brings: human rights violations, forced removals, disenfranchisements of traditional people with confiscations of their property and livestock. The refusal to recognize and support religious freedoms of our people and the decisions by the (U.S.) Supreme Court which incorporates this attitude into Federal Law. This translates into the violation of Sacred Sites. Mt. Graham in the Apache Country is now a project site for an observatory, causing great stress to the Apache People who have depended upon the spiritual forces of this mountain for survival. Ironically, a partner in this project is the Vatican, and even further, it has proposed to name this project ‘Columbus.’ The appropriation of our intellectual properties is continuous and devastating. Land is the issue. Land has always been the issue with Indigenous Peoples. Original title is a problem for all of you. We must try to reach an agreement on a more level playing field that allows us to, at least, a chance for survival. Indeed, we became resources of labor for goldmines and canefields. Life for us was unspeakable and cruel. Our black and dark-skinned brothers and sisters were brought here from distant lands to share our misery and suffering and death. Yet, we survived. I stand before you as a manifestation of the spirit of our people, and our will to survive. The Wolf, our Spiritual Brother, stands beside us and we are alike in the Western mind -- hated, admired, and still a mystery to you, and still undefeated. So then, what is the message I bring to you today? Is it our common future? It seems to me that we are living in a time of prophecy, a time of definitions and decisions. We are the generation with the responsibilities and the option to choose the The Path of Life for the future of our children, or, the life and path which defies the Laws of Regeneration. Even though you and I are in different boats, you in your boat and we in our canoe, we share the same River of Life -- what befalls me, befalls you. And downstream, downstream in this River of Life, our children will pay for our selfishness, for our greed, and for our lack of vision. 500 years ago, you came to our pristine lands of great forests, rolling plains, crystal clear lakes and streams and rivers. And we have suffered in your quest for God, Glory, and Gold. But, we have survived. Can we survive another 500 years of “sustainable development?” I don’t think so. Not in the definitions that put ‘sustainable’ in today. I don’t think so. So, reality and the Natural Law will prevail: The Law of the Seed and Regeneration. We can still alter our course. It is NOT too late. We still have options. We need the courage to change our values to the regeneration of our families, the life that surrounds us. Given this opportunity, we can raise ourselves. We must join hands with the rest of Creation and speak of Common Sense, Responsibility, Brotherhood, and PEACE. We must understand that The Law *is* the Seed and only as True Partners can we survive.

Frank Ettawageshik,During the celebration, Odawa Tribal chairman Frank Ettawageshik paid homage to the site in a song that honored Mother Earth and God. His ancestors had used the big rock on the nearby Lake Michigan shore as a navigational aid and meeting place for hundreds of years. He said the plant, built in 1960, had completed its circle of life. “The big rock was a landmark for our people,” he said. “Although this is an ending, this is also a beginning. This was a place of service for jobs and energy. “Today is a transition. This is a time when this land will remain in service as a group of us is working to retain this land in a way that will be useful for future generations.”

Working Group Documents - Indigenous Nation Relations

NCAI Letter to Maori Leaders

Meeting to discuss NCAI proposal for Treaty of Indigenous Nations Dear Chairman Mead and Honorable Tribal Delegates and Scholars.

Water, Treaty Rights, and Native Traditions in a Multi –Sovereign Environment

Presented by Chairman Frank Ettawageshik, November 17, 2006 Cornell Law School, Ithaca, NY

UN Draft Resolution

Expressing support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and urging the United States Ambassador to the United Nations General Assembly to adopt without amendment the Declaration as approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 29, 2006.

St. Mary’s River Treaty

Regarding the preservation, protection and enhancement of the waters of the St. Mary’s River Ecosystem.