From dbain@interchange.ubc.ca Wed Jul 19 11:53:44 2000 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id LAA143102 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2000 11:53:42 -0700 Received: from priv-edtnes11-hme0.telusplanet.net (edtnes11.telus.net [199.185.220.111]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id LAA01428 for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2000 11:53:42 -0700 Received: from interchange.ubc.ca ([209.52.76.19]) by priv-edtnes11-hme0.telusplanet.net (InterMail vM.4.01.02.11 201-229-116-111) with ESMTP id <20000719185323.RZYC625.priv-edtnes11-hme0.telusplanet.net@interchange.ubc.ca>; Wed, 19 Jul 2000 12:53:23 -0600 Message-ID: <3975F8AB.2DC450A5@interchange.ubc.ca> Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 11:51:23 -0700 From: Don Bain X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.73 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [Fwd: Protecting Knowledge: Articles of Interest 071900] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Protecting Knowledge: Articles of Interest 071900 Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 11:38:48 -0700 From: "UBCIC Research (Don Bain)" Organization: UBCIC Research Hello All, In this email you will find the following articles of interest: * INFO: ENB Summary Of LULUCF Workshop 11-13 July 2000 * INFO: More On The GM Debate * INFO: Aboriginal Tent Embassy Set Up In Sydney * WEBSITE: G8 Summit Online * ARTICLE: How Science Ignores The Living World - An Interview With Vine Deloria * ARTICLE: Different Views - For The Goshutes, A Test Of Tradition * ARTICLE: Winnebagos Seeding Business On Web Feel free to browse our website at http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/protect.htm and also view the PROTECTING KNOWLEDGE email archives at http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/protect_archive.htm. If you have any questions or would like to submit an article, please email research@ubcic.bc.ca. Yours truly, Don Bain UBCIC Research (NOTE: your e-mail “Edit” menu on the toolbar may offer a “Find” option which will enable you to rapidly locate the subjects of interest to you by inserting the subject item.) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is an email distributed through the Protecting Knowledge conference email distribution list. If you would like to be added to this list, please send an email to with the words "Subscribe Protect" in the Subject line. If you would like to be taken off this list, please send an email to with the words "Unsubscribe Protect" in the Subject line. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: Bioplan: ENB summary of LULUCF Workshop 11-13 July 2000 Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 17:57:35 -0400 From: Gillian Chalmers Organization: Biodiversity Planning Support Programme, UNDP-GEF To: bioplan bioplan Gillian Chalmers UNDP-UNEP-GEF Biodiversity Planning Support Programme http://www.undp.org/bpsp For Bioplan queries please contact: Ms. Gillian Chalmers UNDP-GEF gillian.chalmers@undp.org (1) 212 906 6628 Please find below the ENB summary of the LULUCF Workshop from 11-13 July 2000 copied in full for the benefit of those without internet access. For access to coverage via the internet go to http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop6/tech_ws/lulucf/ Apologies for cross-postings. LULUCF Workshop Summary EARTH NEGOTIATIONS BULLETIN PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (IISD) WRITTEN AND EDITED BY: Emily Boyd Malena Sell Chris Spence Editor: Lynn Wagner, Ph.D. Managing Director: Langston James Goree VI "Kimo" Vol. 12 No. 141 SUMMARY OF THE WORKSHOP ON LAND USE, LAND-USE CHANGE AND FORESTRY: 10-13 JULY 2000 One hundred twenty-one representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), business and industry groups and academic institutions attended the workshop on land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), which met from 10-13 July 2000 at the International Fair Center in Poznań, Poland. This workshop was organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) in response to a request by the FCCC's Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) at its tenth session, held in June 1999. The SBSTA requested that a workshop be held between SBSTA-12 and the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) to analyze the Special Report on LULUCF prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Special Report provides Parties with scientific and technical information relating to LULUCF and relevant articles of the Kyoto Protocol. [For brevity, the remainder of this summary has been deleted. For complete coverage of the LULUCF point your browser to http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop6/tech_ws/lulucf/. Don] THINGS TO LOOK FOR BEFORE COP-6 FCCC CONSULTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS: A number of workshops and consultations were announced at SB-12 to assist the process leading to SB-13, including: consultations on compliance from 18-20 July 2000 in Reykjavik, Iceland; consultations on technology transfer from 2-4 August 2000, in Colorado, USA; an African regional workshop on non-Annex I communications from 14-18 August 2000 in South Africa; and, informal consultations on adverse effects from 23-25 August 2000, tentatively planned for Bonn, Germany. For more information, contact: the FCCC Secretariat; tel: +49- 228-815-1000; fax: +49-228-815-1999; e-mail: secretariat@unfccc.de; Internet: http://www.unfccc.int XXI IUFRO WORLD CONGRESS: The International Union of Forest Research Organizations' (IUFRO) World Congress will meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 7-12 August 2000. For more information, contact: Congress Secretariat IUFRO 2000, Putra World Trade Center, 41 Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; e-mail: iufroxxi@frim.gov.my; Internet: http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/congress/ CONGRESS OF THE 29TH INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL UNION COMMISSION ON CLIMATOLOGY: This conference will take place from 9-13 August 2000 in Seoul, South Korea. The theme of the conference is "Climate Change and its Impacts." For more information, contact: Hyoun-Young Lee, Department of Geography, Konkuk University, 93-1, Mojin-dong, Kwangjin- gu, Seoul, 143-701, South Korea; tel: +822-446-6756; fax: +822-446-8194; e-mail: leekwons@kkucc.konkuk.ac.kr FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GREENHOUSE GAS CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES (GHGT-5): This conference will take place from 13-16 August 2000, in Cairns, Australia. For more information, contact: Colin Paulson, CSIRO Energy Technology, PO Box 136, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia; tel: +61-2-9490-8790; fax: +61-2-9490-8909; e-mail: c.paulson@det.csiro.au; Internet: http://www.ieagreen.org.uk INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FOREST ECOSYSTEMS - ECOLOGY, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT: This conference will meet in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, from 15-21 August 2000. The conference will aim to share the knowledge and technologies needed for sustainable management of forest resources and biodiversity conservation and to promote multifunctional management and forest resources utilization. For more information, contact: Shi Zuomin and Dong Na, Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, tel: +86-10-6288- 8308 or 6288-9513; fax: +86-10-6288-4972; e- mail:Shizm@fee.forestry.ac.cn or Keyan.hb@fee.forestry.ac.cn; Internet: http://www.agnic.org/mtg/2000/icfeecsm.html 13TH SESSION OF THE FCCC SUBSIDIARY BODIES: SB-13 will convene from 11-15 September 2000 in Lyon, France, and will be preceded by one week of informal meetings, including workshops. For more information, contact: the FCCC Secretariat; tel: +49-228-815-1000; fax: +49-228-815-1999; e-mail: secretariat@unfccc.de; Internet: http://www.unfccc.int LULUCF CONSULTATIONS: Informal SBSTA consultations are tentatively scheduled to take place during the second week of October with the aim of making further progress on negotiations prior to COP-6. For more information, contact: the FCCC Secretariat; tel: +49-228-815-1000; fax: +49-228- 815-1999; e-mail: secretariat@unfccc.de; Internet: http://www.unfccc.int FAO EXPERT CONSULTATION ON FOREST CHANGE: This meeting will take place from 16-20 October 2000 in San Jose, Costa Rica. For more information, contact: Robert Davis, Senior Forestry Officer (Forest Resources Appraisal and Monitoring), Forestry Department, FAO; tel: +39-06-570- 53596; e-mail: Robert.davis@fao.org: Internet: http://www.fao.org/forestry/Forestry.htm 11TH INTERNATIONAL SOIL CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION CONFERENCE: ISCO 2000 will be held from 22-27 October 2000 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For more information, contact: Faculty of Agronomy - University of Buenos Aires, e-mail: isco2000@mail.uba.ar; Internet: http://www.isco2000.org.ar/ingles/index-ing.htm EARTH TECHNOLOGIES FORUM: This meeting, organized by the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy, will be held in Washington, DC, USA, from 30 October - 1 November 2000. For more information, contact: Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy: tel: +1-703-243-0344; e-mail: alliance98@aol.com; Internet: http://www.earthforum.com/ NATIONAL AND REGIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENTS IN THE FORESTRY SECTOR: This meeting will be held from 10-13 November 2000 in Potsdam, Germany, and will be hosted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and European Forest Institute. For more information, contact: Marcus Lindner, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Telegrafenberg, P.O. Box 601203, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany; tel: +49-331-288 2677; fax: +49-331-288-2695; e- mail: lindner@pik-potsdam.de; Internet: http://www.pik- potsdam.de/ SIXTH CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE: COP-6 will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands, from 13-24 November 2000. For more information contact: the FCCC Secretariat; tel: +49-228-815-1000; fax: +49-228-815-1999; e-mail: secretariat@unfccc.de; Internet: http://cop6.unfccc.int Funding and logistical support for this issue of ENB is provided by the UNFCCC Secretariat. The Sustaining Donors of the Bulletin are the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Canada (through CIDA and DFAIT), the United States (through USAID), the Swiss Agency for Environment, Forests and Landscape (SAEFL), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Commission (DG-ENV). General Support for the Bulletin during 2000 is provided by the German Federal Ministry of Environment (BMU) and the German Federal Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ), the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment of Austria, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Environment of Norway, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Environment of Finland, the Government of Australia, and BP Amoco. The Bulletin can be contacted by e-mail at and at tel: +1-212-644-0204; fax: +1-212-644-0206. IISD can be contacted by e-mail at and at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada. The opinions expressed in the Earth Negotiations Bulletin are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD and other funders. Excerpts from the Earth Negotiations Bulletin may be used in non-commercial publications only and only with appropriate academic citation. For permission to use this material in commercial publications, contact the Managing Director. Electronic versions of the Bulletin are sent to e-mail distribution lists and can be found on the Linkages WWW server at http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/. The satellite image was taken above Bonn ©2000 The Living Earth, Inc. http://livingearth.com. For information on the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, send e-mail to the Managing Director at . BIOPLAN is an electronic list server established by the UNDP-UNEP implemented Biodiversity Planning Support Programmme and maintained by UNDP-GEF to serve the global community involved in planning for national implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. To unsubscribe (remove yourself) from this list send a message to: majordomo@undp.org with the subject line BLANK and the following text in the body of the message: UNSUBSCRIBE BIOPLAN followed by your e-mail address, or go to http://stone/undpweb/bpsp/bioplan.cfm ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: More on the GM debate Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 20:36:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Ashwani Vasishth To: bioplan@rock.undp.org bioplan Ashwani Vasishth On Thu, 13 Jul 2000 David.Duthie@unep.org wrote: This is a summary of strong position statment made by a group of scientific academies on the potential positive role of GM crops. The complete statement is about 40 pages long. The position paper can be bought or read online at: http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic More information related to the white paper mentioned here can be found at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/webextra/crops/ The paper itself is available, for free download as a PDF document, at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/webextra/crops/ In addition, there is a Washinton Post news story, titled "Profit Motive Keeps Biotech Food Out of Famine Areas, Report Says," which can be found at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/07/11/BU5033.DTL ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: [sovernspeakout] Fwd: ABORIGINAL TENT EMBASSY SET UP IN SYDNEY] Date: Tue, 18 Jul 00 16:24:20 -0000 From: "karaka.j@clear.net.nz" Reply-To: sovernspeakout@egroups.com To: "[sovernspeakout]" comrades Just thought I'd let you all know what is going on over here in the lead up to the "games of shame". We have been busy promoting S11 but now the Aboriginal Tent Embassy that has been set up out the front of old Parliament House permanantly since 1972, protesting in the spirit of true reconciliation for Australia's Indigenous Peoples - has moved some of it's tents to be re established in Sydney in Victoria Park which is right in the middle of the city. So far they have been welcomed by the council but who knows as the games draw near. If you guys could publise this as much as possible we would really appreciate it. Any messages of solidarity can be sent through me and I will pass them on... below is a general blah blah blah of all the usual facts I have sent out to campuses over here for publication. Let's make people see the power of an INTERNATIONAL broadleft movement Solidarity, Corrie ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS RELEASE.....PRESS RELEASE.....PRESS RELEASE....PRESS RELEASE..... Tent Embassy Established in Sydney on National Aboriginal Day - Friday 14th July 2000 VICTORIA PARK OPPOSITE SYDNEY UNI - CITY ROAD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- As of twelve O’clock 14th July organisers of the official Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra began it's historic (re)-establishment in Sydney. Local Kooris and supporter’s marched from “The Block” at Eveleigh st, Redfern to Victoria Park where a base camp was set up. The re-establishment coincided with the annual ‘Mascon’ event held by South Sydeny Council who officially welcomed the party. Supporters grew as the fire of Justice was ignited. This fire has burned continually at the original embassy and ashes have been brought from Canberra via Lake Eyre, Marree and Morree. Aboriginal activist Isabelle Coe veteran of the “Block” and Canberra tent embassy informed growing crowds this was part of “The oldest ceremony in the world’, carried out to consolidate the intentions of those present to focus on the real reconciliation business of sovereignty. She went on to tell of the “great healing’ that must be done to embrace a just and true future for all Australians. The Howard governments regressive, draconian and mean spirited attitude to Aboriginal peoples in the lead up to the Olympics has set the scene for a major showdown as the world is watching. The Embassy will stay in Victoria park near Broadway in Sydney to remind the government and big business the debt owed to our Indigenous people in the lead up to the Games. The protesters will join a myriad of dissatisfied groups protesting the "games of shame". Any support in the form of food, tents, firewood, a helping hand or a yarn is welcome at this serene but high profile inner city park. . There are regular sound systems, discussions and conferences planned around the fire at the space and Sydneysiders are encouraged to come down and sign the visitors book, and find out more about the issues surrounding real reconcilliation. COME ON DOWN>>>> For further information, interview or photo oppurtunity contact the Indigenous Students Network - Corrie on 041 627 0876 or Joel on 040 314 8877 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- messages of solidarity can be sent to Corrie Hodson on corrie76@hotmail.com. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: [sovernspeakout] Fwd: G8 Summit Online Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 12:00:09 -0700 From: David Lewis Reply-To: sovernspeakout@egroups.com To: kanakamaoliallies-l@hawaii.edu, sovernspeakout@egroups.com Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 09:47:13 -0600 From: info@g8online.org Subject: G8 Summit Online To: info@g8online.org eCollege.com, the G8 Research Group-University of Toronto, and Nortel Networks present the 2000 G8 Summit Online (http://www.g8online.org). The 2000 Okinawa G8 Summit Online is a global education seminar, available entirely on the Internet. Originating in both multimedia and text segments directly from Okinawa, Japan, this event will provide in-depth access to interviews and analysis from world leaders and top scholars. You may enroll in this online seminar without charge by going to www.g8online.org. Beginning today and continuing through August 4th, this special Internet event is open to all participants including, professors, students, and any interested citizen of the world community. Participants will have direct access to quality analysis of Summit history and current proceedings provided by top scholars from the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto. Attendees will interact on the Internet with others around the world, discussing issues such as the monetary and financial architecture of the global economy, economic and social policies of an evolving world, crisis prevention through debt relief and sustainable development, and educational needs in a new millennium. Additionally, this Project will deliver pertinent news and information from the Summit, as well as a conceptual and analytical framework to help understand better the newly emerging global economic and political order. World leaders will address participants around the World, helping them learn and understand world politics, economics and the Summit. Participants will have the opportunity to comment on the proceedings and share their arguments and suggestions in a global discussion, all on the Internet, through the eCollege.com Delivery System. Learn more about the 2000 G8 Summit Online and about online education. Technology requirements are very low to access the course material ­ details may be found at http://www.g8online.org. Registration for this project is open and FREE of charge. After registering, you will be emailed your login ID and password to access all content for the seminar. Point your browser to http://g8online.org and join us as we prepare to meet the needs of the 21st Century. We look forward to seeing you in the 2000 G8 Summit Online. One Classroom...One World Project Sponsors: eCollege.com (www.ecollege.com) The G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto (www.g7.toronto.edu) Nortel Networks (www.nortelnetworks.com) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: HOW SCIENCE IGNORES THE LIVING WORLD: An Interview With Vine Deloria Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 14:18:43 -0400 From: KOLA Reply-To: Public Policy and First Nations Relations To: FNR_PUBPOL@YORKU.CA <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [source: NativeNews; Tue, 18 Jul 2000 12:07:14 -0400] HOW SCIENCE IGNORES THE LIVING WORLD An Interview With Vine Deloria http://www.thesunmagazine.org/buffalo.html DERRICK JENSEN EXCERPT Jensen: What would you say is the fundamental difference between the Western and indigenous ways of life? Deloria: I think the primary difference is that Indians experience and relate to a living universe, whereas Western people - especially scientists - reduce all things, living or not, to objects. The implications of this are immense. If you see the world around you as a collection of objects for you to manipulate and exploit, you will inevitably destroy the world while attempting to control it. Not only that, but by perceiving the world as lifeless, you rob yourself of the richness, beauty, and wisdom to be found by participating in its larger design. In order to maintain the fiction that the world is dead - and that those who believe it to be alive have succumbed to primitive superstition - science must reject any interpretation of the natural world that implies sentience or an ability to communicate on the part of nonhumans. Science insists, at a great price in understanding, that the observer be as detached as possible from the event he or she is observing. Contrast that with the attitude of indigenous people, who recognize that humans must participate in events, not isolate themselves. Ironically, although science prides itself on being a search for knowledge, Indians can obtain knowledge from birds, animals, rivers, and mountains that is inaccessible to modern science. And Indians can use this knowledge to achieve better results. Take meteorology. Scientists know that seeding clouds with certain chemicals will bring rain, but this method of dealing with nature is wholly mechanical and forces nature to do our bidding. Indians achieved the same results more peacefully by conducting ceremonies and asking the spirits for rain. The two methods are diametrically opposed. It's the difference between commanding a slave to do something and asking a friend for help. Being attuned to their environment, Indians could find food, locate trails, protect themselves from inclement weather, and anticipate coming events thanks to their understanding of how all things are related. This knowledge isn't unique to American Indians. It's available to anyone who lives primarily in the natural world, is reasonably intelligent, and respects other life-forms for their intelligence. Respect for other life-forms filters into our every action, as does its opposite: perceiving the world as lifeless. If you objectify other living things, then you are committing yourself to a totally materialistic universe - which is not even consistent with the findings of modern physics. The central idea of science, as it has been developed and applied, is to get machines or nature to do the work human beings don't want to do. This is immensely practical, but in a shortsighted way. Jensen: How so? Deloria: Developing the automobile, for example, allowed people to get quickly from place to place, but at what cost, both in terms of accidents and of damage to the natural world? And what effect have automobiles had on our spiritual life? In a capitalist system, whoever supplies the money de-termines the technology. This means that science, as it's applied, is never really for the good of humankind, but instead for the good of the financial elite or the military. It also means that science will be dominated by the authorities who have found institutional favor, whether they have the best evidence for their beliefs or not. When beliefs and knowledge harden and become institutionalized, we turn to institutions to solve all our problems: people purchase food grown by others, settle their conflicts in courts and legislatures rather than by informal, mutually agreed-upon solutions, and wage extended and terrible wars over abstract principles instead of minor battles over the right to occupy land for hunting and fishing. Similarly, beliefs about the world are processed into philosophical and rational principles rather than anecdotal experiences, and religion is reduced to creeds, dogmas, and doctrines. Now, every society needs educated people, but the primary responsibility of educated people must be to bring wisdom back into the community and make it available to others. Because of hierarchies, European thinkers have not performed their proper social function. Instead, science and philosophy have taken the path already taken by Western religion and mystified themselves. The people who occupy the top positions in science, religion, and politics have one thing in common: they are responsible for creating a technical language incomprehensible to the rest of us, so that we will cede to them our right and responsibility to think. They, in turn, formulate a set of beautiful lies that lull us to sleep and distract us from our troubles, eventually depriving us of all rights - including, increasingly, the right to a livable world. Respect for other life-forms filters into our every action, as does its opposite: perceiving the world as lifeless. If you objectify other living things, then you are committing yourself to a totally materialistic universe - which is not even consistent with the findings of modern physics. I like the Pacific Northwest tribes' idea that, in the distant past, the physical world was not dominant, and you could change your shape and experience life as an animal, plant, or bird. Then that world changed, and some people were caught in different shapes and became animals, plants, and so on. Why do Western people - and the Near Eastern peoples from whom their religions are derived - need a messiah? Why is their appraisal of the physical world a negative one? . . . Why do they insist on believing that ultimate reality is contained in another, unimaginable realm? END OF EXCERPT <+>=<+> KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm KOLA Petitions: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net KOLA Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm <+>=<+> if you want to be removed from the KOLA Email Newslist, just send us a message with "unsub" in the subject or text body <+>=<+> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIFFERENT VIEWS: For the Goshutes, a Test of Tradition BY BOB MIMS SALT LAKE TRIBUNE http://www.sltrib.com/07172000/utah/utah.htm To outsiders, Skull Valley is an aptly named inferno, a sagebrush wasteland populated mostly by rattlesnakes, rodents and the occasional hawk. But to Sammy Blackbear, it is a holy place. As sunrise chases away the stars and pre-dawn stillness of Utah's western desert, he communes with his ancestral past and seeks strength for his ongoing battle against a massive high-level nuclear waste repository proposed for the land of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. Blackbear's view of the land as sacred, a dwelling place of ancestral spirits and deities, is one traditionally held by American Indians. It also is a belief increasingly compromised by economic necessities -- and the Skull Valley Goshutes are a prime example. "You pray to the sun and give thanks," says Blackbear, one of only two dozen Goshutes still living on his tribe's 18,000-acre reservation. "We have such traditions. We dance, we hunt, we use the same medicines, plants and herbs we did hundreds of years ago. "You don't disturb things, dig things up except for something like agriculture, or bother the animals," he says. "You respect Mother Earth; that is how we have been taught." Other tribes have struggled with the modern dichotomy of tradition vs. practicality, erecting dams to tame wild rivers or allowing casinos to sprout on reservation lands in hopes of attracting white gamblers. Now, it is the Skull Valley Goshutes' turn to test tradition. The tribe's 125 members, most forced by economic necessity to live off the reservation, are bitterly divided over plans to store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on the reservation 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Blackbear and his supporters, about a third of the tribe, have fought the project as a toxic assault on sacred lands. Goshutes Chairman Leon Bear, who signed a 1997 lease with a consortium of eight out-of-state utilities for the $3 billion facility, defends the deal as the best hope for jobs and revenue. "We're simply looking at this as economic development," Bear says. "We did an extensive study of the project, we talked with tribal members about it. In all, this has been going on almost 10 years. We didn't rush into it." As for traditions, Bear has said, he prefers another: survival. That, he says, is a trait Goshutes perfected in scouring subsistence from the desert for centuries before they were herded onto their barren reservations in 1863, having lost a war with encroaching Mormon settlers. At the opening of the 21st century, Bear argues, the struggle is for economic survival, and salvation comes in hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue promised by Wisconsin-based repository developer Private Fuel Storage (PFS). "I consider myself to be a traditionalist, too, to some extent. I have reverence for the animals, plant life and the Earth," he says. "But I also have reverence for the people; we're trying to balance things with this venture." Bear bristles when it is suggested the repository betrays traditional American Indian reverence for Earth. "In our circumstances, that is hypocritical. People talk about environmental justice, but in Skull Valley we talk about environmental injustice," he says. "The impact on us [from the nuclear repository] will be a lot less than all the hazardous sites we already have around us." Bear refers to nearby Dugway Proving Ground and its chemical and biological warfare laboratories; three hazardous waste dumps, including one handling low-level radioactive materials; MagCorp, which emits millions of pounds of chlorine from its Great Salt Lake plant; and outside Tooele, the Deseret Chemical Depot, which stores 43 percent of the nation's aging chemical weapons stockpile and the Army incinerator that is burning it. "Those things are fearful to us because they are gasses that go wherever the wind goes," Bear says. "This [nuclear] material won't be gases or liquids, but solid material. "You know, the Army didn't ask us if it was OK to store all that nerve agent in our back yard, and the Army also didn't ask us if they could bring anthrax out here to their labs to study it." Growing opposition has not withered Bear's stance. Besides the Blackbear contingent, the proposed dump site 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City has drawn fire from environmentalists, 71 Indian tribes -- including the Skull Valley Band's cousins some 200 miles to the west near the Deep Creek Mountains, the 410-member Goshute Tribe -- and Gov. Mike Leavitt. Last year, Leavitt declared the PFS dump would become reality "over my dead body." Bear fired back, denouncing the governor's opposition as a "blatantly racist" undermining of tribal sovereignty. "It's a matter of survival for us now. But we've survived all these years and will continue to do so," Bear says. We're not going anywhere. This is our home. We will always be here." Two prominent historians well-versed in American Indian and Mormon settlement in Utah say their sympathies are with the Goshutes, perhaps the most mistreated tribes in the annals of the Great Basin. "When the Mormon settlers moved in, the hills were covered with wheat grass, one of the main sources of food for the [Goshute] Indians. The women could gather the seeds in their winnowing baskets, make mush out of it, grind it into flour," says Brigham D. Madsen, University of Utah history professor emeritus and author of numerous books on area tribes. "When the pioneers moved in, they brought their cattle herds and destroyed these grasslands. Now you have Skull Valley and it looks like a desert." Still, Madsen does not think the answer is to add one more hazardous waste operation to the west desert area. "My sympathies are with the traditionalists. I think [a nuclear waste dump] is a mistake. "Why can't the federal and state governments help them out in other ways? After all, we took their homeland from them," he says. D. Michael Quinn, a leading scholar on Mormon history now living in Los Angeles, says the record of Goshute relations with whites was typical of American Indian contacts with European settlers in America. "You have traditionalists who resist European inroads in their lives, and you have . . . assimilationists [who] take what they can, and sometimes that pertains to [compromising] religious beliefs like veneration of the land and its spiritual meaning," he said. "It's always been a question of whose ox is gored, or whose cattle feed on green pastures," Quinn adds. "When it suited the white majority of Utah to invite hazardous waste in, they did so . . . now they want to deny both the benefits and the risks to the Goshutes." Bear and his supporters have insisted the reservation has no viable economic alternatives to the nuclear waste project. "We can't do anything here that's green or environmental," Bear said in May's edition of Outside Magazine. "Would you buy a tomato from us if you knew what was out here? Of course not. In order to attract any kind of development, we have to be consistent with what surrounds us." Even tomatoes might be a stretch for the water-starved reservation, which has only an estimated 160 irrigable acres along with some meager grasslands to graze some cattle. Blackbear knows the argument well, but remains unconvinced. Better to go without the new jobs than accept potentially dangerous radioactive wastes, he insists. "We don't have a large reservation, it's a small one. But this is what our ancestors left us, and what we will leave our children," he said. "Do we leave them toxic wastes, or do we try to leave the land to them as it was left for us?" It is a question unlikely to be answered anytime soon. In addition to weathering ongoing litigation, the lease Bear signed three years ago has yet to clear regulatory hurdles. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has not granted final approval, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of drafting its final environmental impact statement. In all, the permit review alone is expected to take two more years. If approved, rail and truck shipments of nuclear waste could begin as early as 2003. The Skull Valley's 40-acre, above-ground concrete storage facility is supposed to be temporary; the Department of Energy is building a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, expected to be operational by 2010. The battle has left Utah's other tribes with mixed feelings. None would want radioactive waste on their land, but in varying degrees they defend the Goshutes' sovereign right to make a different choice. The Deep Creek Goshutes have formally condemned the repository, but there remains much sympathy for their Skull Valley cousins. "We're opposed to it, but there are a lot of conflicting issues involved," said Rupert Steele, the Ibapah, Utah-based, tribal vice-chairman. "We all know that land has been a dumping area for a long time, a wasteland." Ray Baldwin, spokesman for the Navajo Nation, also sympathizes with the Skull Valley Goshutes' plight. However, the Navajo reservation spanning parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico would never allow the repository on its lands "We have respect for the land. It is sacred and we wouldn't want to do anything to put it out of harmony in any way," Baldwin said, noting that a movement to make Navajo holdings a nuclear-free zone, off-limits to any radioactive shipments, is gaining momentum. Northern Utes Chairman Roland McCook declined to comment, saying the Skull Valley issue does not concern his eastern Utah tribe. However, Bruce Parry, executive director of the Northwestern Band of Shoshoni, said that while it is important for the tribes to be good neighbors to the state, the repository decision is for the Goshutes alone to make. "It seems whenever Indians come up with something that works in the desolate areas where they are put, whether it is gaming [outlawed in Utah] or something like this repository, everyone comes out against it," he said. "What do people want them to do? Remain destitute like they have been for the past 150 years? I guess they think another 100 years won't hurt." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: SUCCESS CORNER: Winnebagos Seeding Business on Web Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 14:28:33 -0400 From: KOLA Reply-To: Public Policy and First Nations Relations To: FNR_PUBPOL@YORKU.CA <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> [source: NativeNews; Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:38:46 -0400] http://www.indianz.com/myredir.asp?url=http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/StoryViewer/1,3153,361328,00.html Published Monday July 17, 2000 Winnebagos Seeding Business on Web BY CHRIS OLSON WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER Winnebago, Neb. - The Internet may seem light years away from the homes of impoverished American Indian families, which may not have a telephone, let alone a computer. Brandon Stout photographs a piece of pottery to be put up for sale on the AllNative.com Web site. But that hasn't stopped the Winnebago Tribe in northeast Nebraska from creating AllNative.Com, the leading World Wide Web site for selling American Indian-made products, ranging from one-of-kind paintings to T-shirts to cigarettes. he site debuted a little more than a year ago with $25,000 in venture capital from Ho-Chunk Inc., a holding company formed in December 1994 with $1.5 million of the tribe's WinneVegas Casino profits. Ho-Chunk, named for the term Winnebagos use for themselves, has accumulated several hundred products from local and national vendors that it sells through AllNative.Com. The site will expand to several thousand items within the next six months, said Lance Morgan, the Harvard University graduate and Winnebago who is Ho-Chunk's chief executive. Encouraging American Indians to understand and trust Internet businesses has been a challenge that AllNative.Com gradually is overcoming, said Morgan, who grew up in north Omaha. "At first, it was difficult to get native Americans to put their products on the Web site," Morgan said. "Many didn't realize the benefit of being on the Internet." Within the next year, however, Morgan expects vendors to begin seeking out AllNative.Com, which charges no fee for putting items on its Web site. Vendors sell their wares at wholesale, and they are resold on AllNative.Com at slightly higher end prices. Consumers can purchase items online or by telephone, fax or mail orders. AllNative.Com may have started slowly, but it has quickly taken off, showing profits after only four months in operation and projecting revenue of $3 million this year, Morgan said. "Two years ago, I never would have believed the whole concept of selling exclusively Indian products on the Internet would have been successful. But today it is working and growing," he said. Viewership of AllNative.Com has doubled in the past two months, now averaging 30,000 page views a week. Viewers are from as far away as Australia, Switzerland and Asia. The numbers are expected to continue accelerating on the heels of AllNative.Com's April merger with Indianz.Com, another Web business on the Winnebago Indian Reservation. Indianz.Com provides news and entertainment for American Indians. The two Web sites were merged as All Native L.L.C., which is owned by Ho-Chunk. "We want to be the Amazon.com for Native American products, the Indian Yahoo," said Omaha tribe member Mia Merrick, who started Indianz.Com last August together with Acee Agoyo. Merrick and Agoyo still run Indianz.Com under its new ownership. Agoyo, an American Indian and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, works out of Cambridge, Mass. Operating with 15 employees out of a 7,000-square-foot office and warehouse building along Highway 77 in Winnebago, AllNative.Com and Indianz.Com expect to be outgrowing their facility within the next year. The company ships its own products and those of other Web sites. "We hope we will run out of space by next year," said Erin Morgan, Lance's wife and director of operations for both Web sites. "We have room to expand in back, but the real challenge will be finding qualified employees." Ho-Chunk hopes to drive information seekers on the Indianz.Com site to AllNative.Com, the merchandise site. But Internet analyst Ekaterina Walsh of Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. said she believes AllNative.Com would fare better without Indianz.Com. She said a Web site that focuses on American Indian products is "a sound business idea," but it's overly simplistic to expect users of the information site to also be interested in the retailing site. The Winnebago sites are not alone, Walsh added, in making that mistake. "Ethnic groups are not niches," she said. "These sites all look like they have used the same template with everything on one site. What is great about the Internet is you don't have to use one site. Everything is just a click away to another portal." Walsh said, too, that the name AllNative.Com "is horrible because it isn't clear enough what it offers." In order to succeed, she said, the site needs a new name and a better- established partner. Another potential challenge is the fact that many American Indians who live in poverty and in rural areas cannot access 21st century technology. Said Lance Morgan: "Most non-native Americans who are interested in (American Indian products and information) are educated and Internet-savvy. But most Indians on reservations don't have a computer in their home." However, he added, most American Indians on reservations find access to the Internet in schools or on the job. Andrew Baker, land operations officer in Winnebago with the federal government's Bureau of Indian Affairs, said access to technology is no more of a problem in reservation homes than in any community with a lot of poverty. "The spread of technology within reservations has been strong in the past few years," he said. Morgan hopes to accelerate that spread. He recently started All Native Systems, a company that packages computer systems and gives its older computers to residents of the reservation. "Our goal is to bring technology into the homes of Native Americans so they can cross what is known as the digital divide," Morgan said. Morgan wants to see Ho-Chunk and its Web sites help the Winnebago Tribe's economy evolve from a reliance on gambling to more diverse free enterprise. Ho-Chunk, which employs 150 people, has seen rapid revenue growth over the past five years, to a projected $50 million in 2000. While the company used profits from the tribe's Sloan, Iowa, casino to get started, today, the Winnebago make more money from Ho-Chunk than from gambling. "Gaming dollars created Ho-Chunk Inc., but we're on to something bigger now," Morgan said. "We have a budding entrepreneurial spirit that will become a contributing factor to Nebraska if free enterprise is allowed to take hold." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is an email distributed through the Protecting Knowledge conference email distribution list. If you would like to be added to this list, please send an email to with the words "Subscribe Protect" in the Subject line. If you would like to be taken off this list, please send an email to with the words "Unsubscribe Protect" in the Subject line. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ .