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Monday, August 12, 2002 |
In the Yukon, an innovative program is bringing together circle sentencing, a traditional form of Aboriginal justice, and the Canadian justice system. Sentencing circles don't focus on punishment. Instead, they bring together the perpetrator of a crime, his or her victims, and peers and family in an effort to bring healing to the community. Brothers Harold and Phil Gatensby, who have both done their share of jail time, now participate in circles as a way to allow offenders to break the cycle of crime, court, prison, and allow them to reconnect with their spiritual traditions. Circles works so well that Aboriginals from the Yukon have helped set up similar programs elsewhere in Canada and in the US. With its potential to bring community members together, the circle is a powerful alternative to prison terms imposed by courts - not only for Aboriginal people but, potentially, for all communities.
"Circles" is part of the "First Peoples' TV" series made possible by DreamCatchers, a non-profit organization working to bring Native films to a wider audience.
THIS WEEKS SCREENING TIMES
Thu, Aug 15, 10:00 PM ET (Thu, Aug 15, 7:00 PM PT)
Fri, Aug 16, 4:00 AM ET (Fri, Aug 16, 1:00 AM PT)
Fri, Aug 16, 10:00 AM ET (Fri, Aug 16, 7:00 AM PT)
Fri, Aug 16, 4:00 PM ET (Fri, Aug 16, 1:00 PM PT)
TO PURCHASE A CASSETTE OF THIS PROGRAM, GO TO:
http://www.nfb.ca/e/
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON FIRST PEOPLES' TV & WORLDLINK TV:
For program descriptions visit http://www.dreamcatchers.org/fptv
or for program schedules visit http://www.worldlinktv.org
FIRST PEOPLES TV WorldLink TV (http://www.worldlinktv.org), the first nationwide television network providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture, is broadcasting a new weekly series by and about the tribal peoples of the world. "First Peoples' TV" features 26 award-winning documentaries and dramas focusing on the lives of contemporary Native and Aboriginal people and the issues they face.
WorldLink's programming consists of first run documentaries, foreign feature films, global news reports and eight hours of world music each day. Launched in December 1999, the channel is available in over 17 million U.S. homes via basic service on the direct-to-home satellite services DIRECTV® (Channel 375) and EchoStar's DISH Network® (Channel 9410). "First Peoples TV" is the first time a regularly scheduled TV series concerning tribal peoples will be accessible to all urban areas, including the territories of every Indigenous nation in the United States.
10:32:18 AM 
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it."
- - Max Frisch
RHINO HERE: The struggle to protect Native American sacred sites is close to my heart and in the cross hairs of my work. I've been writing a screenplay entitled "Sacred Places", designed to be a dramatic fictional journey of a Native woman attorney backdropped by the true story of the Vatican and several universities building telescopes on a mountain summit considered sacred to many Apache Indian people. I'm also on the home stretch of a feature documentary entitled, "America's Shadow Struggle; Native American Religious Freedom" containing several segments on Indian sacred sites.
The article below tells how Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) are trying to stop Shrub & Company's Interior Department from allowing a mining company to destroy the Indian burial grounds of a California Tribe.
For more information on Indian Scared sites, visit:
http://www.sacredland.org/
This site is home of the recently completed documentary entitled, "In The Light Of Reverence" as well as many resource as well as many resource links.
Tell a friend about this weblog, or if you know someone who'd like to join the Rhino's News Blog mailing list, drop a line to rhino@kifaru.com.
9:59:05 AM
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By ROBERT GEHRKE, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7/18/02
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -- The Bush administration is allowing mining companies to exploit sites sacred to American Indians, Indian leaders said Wednesday. "The very idea of placing a cell phone tower at the Wailing Wall, making a parking lot out of Notre Dame, or putting an oil rig in the Blue Mosque or Westminster Abbey is preposterous," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., "And yet, there are numerous Native American sacred sites . . . that are currently being ravaged and destroyed in these very ways."
Boxer is helping California's Quechan Tribe fight the effort by Glamis Gold Ltd. to develop a 1,600-acre open-pit gold mine on the banks of the Colorado River in Imperial County, Calif. For generations, the tribe's ancestors gathered at the site to perform funeral rites and cremate their dead. "This mine would rip the heart out of the tribe's religious center," Boxer said. Before leaving office in January 2001, the Clinton administration rejected the mine request because of cultural considerations. But in October, Interior Secretary Gale Norton rescinded the denial and is reconsidering the company's application.
"We thought we won a victory and it was taken away from us before we had a chance to celebrate," Quechan President Mike Jackson said. Norton has yet to meet with the tribe about the decision, Jackson said. Interior Department official Christopher Kearney said there are policies in place requiring the department to consider the cultural or religious significance of a location when approving land use and other rules are in the development stage. But when pressed by Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, Kearney could not give examples of cases where religious considerations affected the outcome of a mining petitions. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., challenged Kearney and the administration to do more than follow procedures, but to really do what is right. "We get too bogged down in doing things by the book and by the rules that we don't do enough by the heart," said Campbell, the only Indian in the Senate. Campbell said he and Inouye plan to add language to an upcoming Interior Department spending bill that would prohibit any action on the Glamis mine for at least a year while he works on a permanent solution.
The Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico is opposing plans for an 18,000 acre coal strip mine 10 miles from Zuni Salt Lake. The tribe says the mining could affect the hydrology and damage the lake, which the tribe says is home to Salt Woman, the tribe's central deity. Historically, it has been a sacred gathering place for the Zunis and other Southwestern tribes. The Interior Department approved the mining plan May 31. The Zunis have vowed to resist the project. "This area would probably harbor thousands of human remains," said Malcolm Bowekaty, governor of the Zuni Pueblo. "That is an abomination to our tribe."
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright
law ( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ).
All copyrights belong to original publisher.
"RHINO'S NEWS BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine.
Feedback is encouraged and can be emailed to him at:
rhino@kifaru.com
RHINO'S WEB SITES:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0103207 (RHINO'S NEWS WEBLOG - PRESENT & PAST)
http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG)
http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES)
8:08:02 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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