News Media: Indians Welcome Canoe, Challenges
October 16, 2003
By Nick Perry, Seattle Times
Heavy rain seemed to add vigor to the dancing and cheering that welcomed a canoe at Kirkland's Marina Park yesterday as part of a weeklong gathering of the United Native Nations.
"It has never sunshined when we have a canoe ceremony," announced Gax Flein, of the Tlingit Tribe from southeast Alaska, amid laughter. "It is always wet."
The ceremony marked the midpoint of a weeklong conference at Lake Washington Technical College in Kirkland. About 80 Native Americans from as far afield as Alaska and New York are attending. Native people from Puerto Rico and Guatemala also came.
United Native Nations, formed four years ago, models its structure on the United Nations and advocates a complete separation from the federal government for tribes in the United States.
"The theme is sovereignty," said Rudy Al James, the group's secretary general. "We want to choose our own form of government, our own judiciary and our own police force. We want to be absolutely independent. To try our own people."
The nation's jails are bulging with a disproportionate number of Native Americans, James said, and it is time to turn back control of their fate to tribal leaders. "The future is literally to be found in the past," he said.
James, also of the Tlingit Tribe, lives in Kirkland. He said representatives from about 40 tribes are at the conference.
United Native Nations' breakaway philosophy does not reflect the views of most tribes, said W. Ron Allen, the former president of the National Congress of American Indians.
"The majority of us just don't buy into it," Allen said. "The majority of tribes feel they are very much a part of the U.S. and have a unique relationship with the U.S. government."
Although there are many specific complaints about the way tribes and individuals are treated, most tribes consider themselves part of the nation's political system, Allen said.
Many people at this week's conference were bringing other messages.
James Big Boy Stronghold Oyate, from the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said he is traveling the country seeking support for a fight against the National Park Service. He has been participating in a 15-month protest against its plans to dig for fossils on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
King Downing, a Cherokee who traveled from New York to represent the American Civil Liberties Union, said, "We want to raise awareness of the issue of racial profiling." All groups of color, especially Indians, are disproportionately represented in arrest, prosecution and incarceration statistics, he said.
Tribal representatives called out symbolic challenges to the canoe as it arrived yesterday, before welcoming the boaters ashore. Then came songs and dances celebrating peace, wisdom and the importance of ancestors.
Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com
United Native Nations
PO Box 8302
Ketchikan, AK 99901
425-803-6828 ph/fax
