Fwd: Sovereign Awareness

[John Howe]

>Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 14:37:58 -0800 (PST)
>From: "Verne L. Chinampas" <moistearth at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Fwd: Sovereign Awareness
>
>Awareness of individual rights and the technologies which can protect
>or
>restrict them is rapidly increasing.
>
>Recent articles below yield insight through example of transforming
>global societies. Indigenous (or even pre-industrial)cultures of
>diverse bioregions can offer beneficial social and ecological
>practices, primarily because they evolved without the mass consumption
>of natural resources we have today.
>
>On Turtle Island, be aware of who/what is being taxed, who/what is
>being subsidized, and who is considered as legitimate authority in
>representing the interests of gentle and honorable people.
>
>What we experience every day regarding food, health, and spiritual
>freedoms is in the balance.
>
>Strength to the Just, and to sovereign communities everywhere.
>
>Full texts:
>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000114/ts/tribe_land_1.html
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000115/t000004718.html
>http://www.latimes.com/wires/20000115/tCB00V0483.html
>http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000113/bsf.html
>
>
>Portions from each article:
>
>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000114/ts/tribe_land_1.htm
>Friday January 14 1:46 PM ET
>
>U.S. Gives Back Land to Ute Indian Tribe in Utah
>
>By Patrick Connole
>
>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government will return to an Indian
>tribe more than 80,000 acres of potentially oil-rich Utah land taken to
>help fuel Navy ships during World War I, marking the biggest voluntary
>return of public lands in a century, the Energy Department said on
>Friday.
>
>The deal with the Ute tribe also includes a provision to clean up a
>controversial low-level radioactive waste site on the Colorado River in
>another part of Utah, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said.
>
>``Today, we're doing the right thing, the right thing for the
>environment, the right thing for the Utes, the right thing for the
>state of Utah and the right thing for the American people,'' Richardson
>said in a statement.
>
>The land to be returned to the tribe sits next to the 4.5 million acre
>Uintah and Ouray Reservation. A stretch of remote, unpopulated land, it
>was taken from the tribe in 1916 when the U.S. Navy needed potential
>oil reserves to fuel ships during World War I.
>
>The DOE said it ruled out selling the oil reserve because of its
>cultural importance to the tribe.
>
>Two years ago, in the government's biggest privatization deal, the DOE
>sold its Elk Hills naval oil reserve in California for $3.65 billion to
>Occidental Petroleum. Unlike the Elk Hills property, the federal
>government never drilled for oil or developed the Utah land, known as
>Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 2.
>
>The Utah land has shown geologic potential for oil and gas production
>but the acreage is still considered exploratory.
>
>Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt called the land transfer a great first
>step, but said many issues still have to be worked out for restoring
>the lands to the Ute people. ``It is a gateway to two national parks,
>Arches and Canyonlands. It deserves our best restoration efforts,''
>Babbitt said.
>
>Babbitt was referring to government promise to take over the clean-up
>of a controversial uranium mill tailing site on the banks of the
>Colorado River, about 80 miles from the reservation.
>
>Environmental groups have long criticized the government's slowness to
>address the low-level radioactive wastes from the defunct Atlas Corp.
>uranium mine, near Moab, Utah.
>
>The Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group, said
>over its lifetime the mine generated 10.5 million tons of toxic waste
>which have polluted the river. The uranium tailings contain ammonia,
>arsenic, lead, vanadium, selenium, mercury and other toxic metals left
>by the leaching process used to separate uranium from ore.
>
>  An estimated 28,800 gallons of toxic waste from the site leaks into
>the Colorado River daily, according to the activist group. The river is
>used for drinking water by millions of people in southern California,
>Arizona and southern Nevada, and by farmers to irrigate land.
>
>As part of the complicated agreement, the Utes will also turn over a
>75-mile stretch of the Green River to be designated as a ``heritage
>river'' and protected from development.
>
>Ute Tribal Business Committee Chairman, O. Roland McCook, said the move
>by the government partially restores one of many broken promises made
>to the tribe, and could signal the beginning of a move to make Indian
>lands in the region whole again.
>
>``In 1882, the United States identified lands in eastern Utah that were
>to remain tribal property for all time. Regrettably, this promise, like
>so many given to the tribe over the years, proved to be false,'' McCook
>said.
>
>``As a result of the leadership of Secretary Richardson, however, a
>portion of the promise is now to be fulfilled.''
>
>****
>http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000113/bsf.html
>
>Thursday January 13, 9:35 pm Eastern Time
>
>Scientists "use nature" to clone monkey
>
>By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
>
>WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Scientists said on Thursday they had
>cloned a monkey -- the first non-human primate to be cloned -- in an
>experiment they hope will result in squads of genetically
>identical lab animals perfect for use in testing.
>
>``Tetra'', a bright-eyed rhesus macaque, was not made by the same
>method that made the world agog over Dolly the sheep.
>
>While Dolly was cloned using nuclear transfer -- taking the nucleus out
>of an adult cell and using it to reprogram an unfertilized egg
>-- Tetra was made by splitting a very early embryo into four pieces.
>
>``The birth of Tetra, a healthy female cloned from a quarter of an
>embryo, proves that this approach can result in live offspring,''
>the researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in
>Beaverton wrote in the journal Science.
>
>The method is commonly used in animals such as cattle but had never
>before been used to create a monkey.
>
>Gerald Schatten, who led the research, said the technique copied what
>nature does. ``This is just artificial twinning,'' he said in a
>telephone interview.
>
>****
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000115/t000004718.html
>
>Jan 15, LA Times
>Sale to Public of Satellite Photos Debated
>
>By BOB DROGIN, Times Staff Writer
>
>
>WASHINGTON--Ever since the John F. Kennedy administration launched the
>world's first spy satellite, only senior U.S. military officials and
>policymakers have been allowed to view high-altitude, high-resolution
>images of everything from Soviet bombers to Serb tanks.
>
>Now the public is getting its chance, and some policy analysts say
>that's cause for concern. Space Imaging, a private company based in
>Denver, made history this month by distributing the first
>high-resolution satellite images of a North Korean ballistic missile
>site. The company soon will offer similar snapshots of China, Iran,
>Iraq and almost anywhere else on Earth to nearly anyone with a credit
>card.
>
>The company says that its Ikonos satellite can provide distinct
>photographic images of objects as small as 32 inches across, a clarity
>far sharper than anything publicly available before. They say that such
>detail will change the way Americans plant crops, write insurance and
>zone shopping malls, as well as monitor disasters, track pollution and
>watch foreign armies.
>
>But critics warn that dictators, rogue regimes and terrorists also may
>benefit. No law prevents commercial satellites from photographing U.S.
>military bases and other sensitive facilities, for example. And while
>the federal government has the right to shutter private U.S. satellites
>in event of war or other national crises, the policy remains untested.
>****
>
>http://www.latimes.com/wires/20000115/tCB00V0483.html
>
>The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs said cigarettes purchased on
>reservations are tax-free. Day said cigarettes shipped off reservations
>are taxable, but said California and other states are having difficulty
>persuading all Indian tribes to comply with the reporting law.
>
>Because the tribes are considered sovereign nations, California can't
>force them to comply with the reporting requirement, he said.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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John Howe

<http://www.arashi.com/>
John Howe <johnhowe at arashi.com>