Under-utilized

Some weekends, and weeknights, I go by the Tribal gymnasium to work out. Most people aren't aware there are multiple gyms and workout rooms at the Tribal offices, one in the Governance Center, one by the gymnasium, and yet another over at Natural Resources. Usually I call our security officers to let me in, since I prefer to work out in the evening when nobody else is around. Honestly, I don't work out nearly as much as I should.
The stage in the gymnasium was set up for some sort of performance. Speakers were out, a man and woman were rehearsing, and chairs were set up to accommodate and audience. A Christian concert will be taking place there tonight, a fundraiser for the Lighthouse Church up Grand Ronde rd., a place I understand where a number of Tribal members go, maybe even a Council member or two. Last summer I attended a heavy metal concert at the same venue. In addition, we've had funerals, General Council and community meetings, a conference on meth, and for that matter, a number of other conferences.
A lot of money has been poured into Tribal buildings over the last ten years. Most of them are quite modern, and compared to what was out here prior to Spirit Mountain Casino and the influx of money it brought, they are state-of-the-art. The main community centers were the local elementary school and St. Michael's Parish. I know, because that is where the Tribe had many functions prior. In the mid-1990's, I can remember the school gym is where we celebrated our Restoration.
The Tribal facilities are getting more use, that is true. But I can't help but wonder if they are getting enough. It would seem that with the influx of a few hundred new residents in 2003 and 2006 because of Tribal housing there would be a greater demand on the gym for recreational facilities, or other buildings for social gatherings. Maybe there is and I just don't know it. But most weekends I find a reason to drive by the Tribal offices and see buildings dormant on weekends. Perhaps people like their homes. It might be rural thing. I know this, having a free gymnasium to use is almost a luxury, what with what how much gyms charge these days. Admittedly, we are not Gold's Gym. But last week, Roy Jones, Jr. the former boxing champion who was in town to promote Spirit Mountain's first ever boxing match saw fit to use it. Safe to say it came in pretty handy then.

Taking Ideas from the Blogosphere

You know, when I started this blog nearly two years ago, aside from just offering Tribal members another "news" channel, so to speak, it was also a chance for me to keep my writing skills from getting rusty. Writing is the focal point of what I studied in college, and as we've slowly almost eliminated the "Tilixam Wawa" as a regular publication, I worry if communication skills even matter anymore. They probably still do, but some days I don't know.
Thanks to my discovery of feeds, it has dawned on me that blogs can't always be what my hopes were for this one: an outlet for editorials and columns. The ones I've started following on the assorted feeds, like "US News & World", or "The Oregonian" email alerts are good examples of what blogs were originally intended to be, web-logs. In other words, logs...like journals, diaries, etc. Funny how the word "blog" has become accepted and integrated into our language so easily, because at first it seemed kind of like a silly word, but now even I don't think twice about it.
Anyway, one of the main reasons that my postings have decreased so much since I started this is due to the fact that my goal was always to have something refined and polished most of the time, like the editorials you see in daily newspapers. Problem is, that wears you down quick, especially when your doing it after hours, or during lunch. Doing it apart from work, instead of as work is a luxury that syndicated columnists enjoy. When it cuts into your spare time, sustaining the whole thing gets increasingly difficult.
So basically, I am going to try and follow the model of other bloggers. Meaning more frequently, a little informal, and not always the polished product I want, but hopefully what it is supposed to be, informative.

Prior Restraint

If you read the comments following this article, one of the readers makes an interesting point:  realistically, there is no freedom of the press in Indian Country.  In my experience, that is mostly true.  What is interesting about this particular story is that the injunction comes from a Tribal Court, which if my understanding isn't way off means we're getting into some major jurisdictional issues.  Or maybe not.  I suppose we'll see.  Check it out:

http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=9984

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Facebook "Real-name Culture" Runs up Against Native Culture

Being newly introduced to Facebook, I found this article kind of funny:

Robin Kills The Enemy is getting back in touch with her friends since her Facebook account was reinstated on Friday. For awhile she was banned from the social networking Web site – a communications lifeline for young adults – because it wrongly flagged her for registering under a false name. 

When news of Kills The Enemy’s ban got out, other people with Native American surnames emerged to share similar stories. Many just gave up on the idea of using Facebook because it would not accept their names. A Facebook group called “Facebook don’t discriminate Native surnames!!!” has more than 1,000 members.

Facebook spokesman Simon Axten, said this in an e-mail to The Argus Leader “Facebook is based on a real name culture . … ” Sometimes mistakes are made he said, and, as in the case of Kills The Enemy, people need to contact Facebook to be reinstated. Read the story here.

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Rumor Has It

I only recently discovered the semi-hoopla about Barack Obama and his birth certificate.  My first encounters with it were on message boards related to a number of stories on Fox News' website.  From what I've learned, quite a few people took the whole thing very seriously, enough at least to move on with legal action.  Here is a basic overview of the story, from a source I have come to look at often, Snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp


Funny thing is, the story got revived inadvertantly, or who knows, maybe even deliberately recently following some comments by a Republican Senator.  Here is a good starting point:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/22/richard-shelby-alabama-se_n_168913.html


If anybody is wondering why I'm bringing up this particular issue on my blog, it is really to illustrate that rumors, and the act of creating and subsequently propagating them, is one of those political tactics that transcends almost everything--race, culture, you name it.  Last during that silent period of the Constitutional election on our membership requirements, a number of people who favored the changes were irritated with Council because they did not feel there was any effort put forth to dispell rumors that the amendments would lead to some enormous ballooning in the Tribal population.  Personally, I think the complaints had merit.  Although we had a good if not entirely accurate estimate of population growth, 298 more members give or take, I do think the rumors that there would be more than a thousand new enrollees scared some voters.  More to the point, I think my peers who wanted the amendments to fail were okay letting that rumor run rampant.  It came to a minor head during the community meeting in Portland, when one Tribal member actually got a couple of Council members to admit that the exaggerated numbers were not realistic.  Of course, only those present would have heard...
Rumors played a bigger role in the efforts to smear the ABC/PPP Council members following their elections.  As I recall, there were a number of letters in 2005 that were written entirely to discredit us, the worst of course being the anonymous flyer mailed out following Wink Soderberg and Kathy Tom's elections in September about how we were going to scale back per capita to $4000 among other things.  That might have been the most people to ever show up for a Wednesday night meeting at that time.
You never really know when a rumor is going to take, or how.  I do believe half the time they are started deliberately, though.  When I think back to that September 2005 anonymous flyer, one thing stands out.  I was warned by somebody who up until then never at all seemed a fan of mine.  But this person had some clear problems with what was going to happen.  So a week before he came and warned me, and even told me who was responsible.  For all I know this person did it themselves, but in this case that doesn't seem likely.  What matters is he was right.  One week later that anonymous letter hit a bunch of mailboxes, and we were flooded with phone calls, emails, verbal comments, and a three-hour Wednesday night meeting.  If creating the perception that this new Council was going to be trouble was the goal, then they might have scored some points with the stunt.
Rumors are effective when there is an environment of distrust around.  It doesn't help when people don't like the source of the truth either.  I don't expect rumors, in Grand Ronde or elsewhere, to ever really stop.  Ultimately, it is upon the readers, viewers, and listeners to mine for the truth.  Problem is, who wants to research everything?  Outside of those in academia, hard core politics, or journalism, not many people have the time.  They simply put faith in those who distribute the information and hope for the best.  Sadly, that is where it all starts.   

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Changes of Pace

Fountain Hills, Arizona is one of those places that, according to my server at lunch, has really been designed to be a retirement community. I kind of figured that, having walked around last night after getting into the Comfort Inn. What I first noticed was the shortage of sidewalks--this is a driving community. Second was that by 10:00 everything seemed shut down. My hunger had reached an alerting enough level that I ate at McDonald's. Anybody who knows me could testify to how unusual that is. I was told that the mild, sunny weather here is winter. For summers I wouldn't want to be here. For as much as I love Oregon, there is something alluring about the desert. I can't explain it. Well, I can, but that is not the point of this blog...
The Comfort Inn at Fountain Hills was the only hotel I could get near the Ft. McDowell Casino, the main purpose of my journey. This is to be a very quick trip, not even spanning 48 hours between touching down in my plane and lifting off to go home. I met this afternoon with a number of Tribal leaders following a conference of Arizona tribes. We spoke about trends in Indian gaming and how those were growing to be the same everywhere, especially reservation-shopping. Elsewhere, as in Oregon, such practices are putting tribes at odds with one another. The biggest point of interest is how the Obama administration, with appointments and policies, will deal with a quietly emerging pattern in Indian gaming. We all had our opinions, but they are just guesses.
What comes of today's meeting will ultimately depend on follow-up, networking, and other tribes nationally coming to the same realization that we have. Indian gaming as a means of revitalizing tribal economies is getting a little stretched in terms of its original purpose. To sound like a broken record, I could be wrong, but time as usual gets the final say.
The Ft. McDowell Yavapai Nation are like many tribes, at least in regards to their gaming operation. Tons of slot machines, themed food outlets, and a convention center that would make architect students and interior decorators smile. Like us, they are 30 miles from a small city (Scottsdale), and less than an hour from a major metropolitan area (Phoenix). Unlike us, there are a handful of other tribes close by. Phoenix, as Portland, is where a tribe would set their sights for a new casino.
Arizona has more tribes than Oregon, and infinitely more natives. I am not sure how that affects their intertribal politics, especially considering the Navajos number in the hundreds of thousands and their Reservation, which in turn encompasses other Reservations, would outsize a number of east coast states. How they deal with traditional territories must be very interesting. It goes to show that gaming is different for all tribes, and even then, for all states.

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Photogeneity

Pow wows have a way of being visual smorgasbords. These photos are from the Oregon Western Tribes Gathering that was celebrated a couple of weeks past in honor of the state sesquicentennial, or 150th Anniversary. I had showed up for the second grand entry, and many informed me the mid-day one was epic, although it would appear more than half the attendees had left shortly thereafter, no doubt to prepare for the ultimate cross-cultural event, Superbowl Sunday.