Free Republic

June 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com/PRI) - The American abortion lobby claims to be an equal-opportunity abortion provider, looking out for the needs and wants of all women. Not so. Big Abortion devotes an inordinate amount of attention to Blacks, Hispanics, and Alaska Natives who, in proportion to their population, have the highest abortion rates in America. Now, eager to add another scalp to its collection, it is turning its sights on Native Americans. The story begins with the Hyde amendment, which restricts abortion coverage in federal health programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Indian Health Services, although leaving open the typical exceptions:...

The purification ceremony isn't an everyday ritual of U.S. presidential politics. The newly named Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish — better known as Barack Obama — faced east, the symbolic source of new life. His adopted Crow father, Hartford Black Eagle, prayed over him. Afterward, they walked arm-in-arm with Black Eagle's wife, Mary, to a podium, where Obama promised to live up to the meaning of his new name: "One Who Helps People Throughout the Land." "I want you to know that I will never forget you," Obama told the crowd, who had not seen a visitor of such political importance...

CROW AGENCY, Mont. -- Barack Obama is using the final primary contests to try to prove a Democrat can be competitive in stalwart Republican states. One approach: an aggressive outreach to boost American Indian turnout. With the race for the Democratic presidential primary winding down, Sen. Obama has ramped up efforts in Montana and South Dakota, which hold primaries on June 3 and have typically elected Republicans. Oregon and Kentucky hold primary elections Tuesday. As part of the Illinois senator's broader general-election strategy of bringing in new voters and independents in Republican strongholds, the Obama campaign has been recruiting its...

US Democratic presidential candidate and US Senator Barack Obama, (D-IL), talks to Carl Venne, chairman of the Crow tribe, at a campaign rally in Crow Agency, Montana May 19, 2008. Venne presented gifts to Obama for his children and wife. CAPTION CORRECTION - CORRECTING IDENTITY OF SENATOR OBAMA'S CROW "PARENTS" US Democratic presidential candidate and US Senator Barack Obama, (D-IL), arrives with Hartford and Mary Blackeagle, his new Crow "parents" who adopted him as a member of the Crow nation, for a campaign rally in Crow Agency, Montana May 19, 2008. REUTERS/Rick Wilking (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008...

May 20, 2008 - 10:04AM Democrat Barack Obama has become an honorary member of an American Indian tribe and promised a proactive policy to help tribal people if he wins the White House in November. The Illinois senator who is leading rival Hillary Clinton in their race for the party's presidential nomination, joined the Crow Nation, a tribe of some 12,100 members in Montana, taking on a native name and honorary parents in a traditional ceremony. Senator Obama, who would be the first black US president, was "adopted" by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle and given a name which means...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Traveling though Montana on Monday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made his first stop as a presidential candidate to an Indian reservation - and got a little more than expected. Obama was adopted as an honorary member into the family within the Crow tribe that inhabited the reservation - who gave the presidential candidate a new name and new parents. "Awe Kooda bilaxpak Kuuxshish" was the honorary name given to Obama meaning, "one who helps people throughout the land." Obama was escorted out to the stage in Crow Agency, Montana arm-in-arm between his adopted parents: Sunny...

By 1860, the Cherokees had 4,600 slaves; the Choctaws, 2,344; the Creeks, 1,532; the Chickasaws, 975; and the Seminoles, 500. Some Indian slave owners were as harsh and cruel as any white slave master. Indians were often hired to catch runaway slaves; in fact, slave-catching was a lucrative way of life for some Indians, especially the Chickasaws.Black slavery in America usually evokes images of the antebellum South, but few realize that members of the Five Civilized Tribes--the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles--in Indian Territory, today's Oklahoma, also had slaves. Like their counterparts in the South, Indian slaveholders feared slave...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - An American Indian who shot a bald eagle for use in a tribal religious ceremony must stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled. A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday reversed a 2006 lower court ruling that dismissed a criminal charge against Winslow Friday, a Northern Arapaho Indian who has acknowledged shooting a bald eagle in 2005 during the tribe's Sun Dance. In dismissing the charge, U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming said the federal government has shown "callous indifference" to American Indian religious beliefs. Eagle feathers are...

HORSETHIEF LAKE, Wash. -- Fidelia Andy was a 6-year-old happily running coffee to tribal fishermen at Celilo Falls when the federal government signed a deal with the tribes that flooded the falls and her family's home in the rising waters behind The Dalles Dam. On Friday, more than 50 years later, Andy and other leaders of four Northwest tribes finalized a new $900 million agreement with the federal government that they hope will begin to reverse the damage done by Columbia River system dams. "We Indians gave up so much in the past," Andy, a Yakama tribal leader and chairwoman...

Much still to be learned about Cahokia Mounds By ELIZABETH DONALD, AP COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (Map, News) - It's so much a part of the landscape that metro-east residents often don't even notice it, except when a visiting relative notices: "Look, there's the mound." Rising from what once was an endless grass sea parted by the Mississippi River, Monks Mound isn't even named after the Native American Indians who built it centuries ago, but the Trappist monks who lived there for only five years in the 19th century. No one knows what the long-vanished people who built the mounds called themselves,...

The Gamma Phi Beta sorority at University of North Dakota has been put on temporary social probation while the university investigates complaints stemming from a November party during which sorority members and their guests donned mock Indian garb and red face and body paint. The temporary probation was issued by both the UND Dean of Student’s Office, which will investigate the complaints, and by the Gamma Phi Beta International office in Centennial, Colo. The probation means Gamma Phi won’t be allowed to host or participate in social activities with other sororities and fraternities or other student groups, either on...

In the aftermath, he had been wounded at least five different times by fragmentation and concussion grenades in the chest, arms, right calf, knee, right and left thighs.  Eighty-three fragments were later removed.  He never complained and refused medical evacuation until his men were settled into their night defensive positions.  Born on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Indian reservation in 1917, Woodrow Wilson Keeble joined the North Dakota National Guard in 1942 while the Chicago White Sox were trying to recruit the big athlete.  He served with Company I, 164th Infantry Regiment, Americal Division, the first US Army unit on Guadalcanal. They...

WASHINGTON - During the final allied offensive of the Korean War, Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble risked his life to save his fellow Soldiers. Almost six decades after his gallant actions and 26 years after his death, Keeble will be the first full-blooded Sioux Indian to receive the Medal of Honor. The White House announced this morning that Keeble will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously in a ceremony scheduled for 2:30 p.m. March 3. Keeble is one of the most decorated Soldiers in North Dakota history. A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, he was born...

Captain Thomas B. Weir was the commander of company B, in Captain Benteen’s battalion (one of the three columns that Custer sent against the Indians at Little Bighorn). On June 25, 1876, Weir followed Benteen in his scout on the South of the valley, looking for “satellite villages” (other Indian villages around the main one). __ “WE OUGHT TO BE OVER THERE!” When Benteen understood that the scout didn’t give any results, he came back on Custer’s trail. He had specific orders to follow Custer’s steps and to send him a note about the results of his scouts. Benteen didn’t...

Southern California gamblers can try their luck this weekend on shiny new slot machines just days after voters approved four Indian gambling expansion plans. Workers have been busy installing some of the 17,000 slot machines allowed in new deals approved by voters Tuesday for four tribes. The new deals, known as amended compacts, allow the tribes to expand in exchange for sharing their slot-machine revenue with the state. The first payments, expected to be more than $40 million, are due to the state at the end of the fiscal year June 30, according to the governor's office's lowest estimates. That...

A $100 million campaign has four Indian gambling measures riding a wave of voter support, but a separate proposal to alter legislative term limits desperately needs a life jacket, according to a Field Poll released Sunday. With election day looming on Tuesday, the poll shows that support for the Indian gambling measures has risen consistently in recent weeks, while the term limits measure has fallen dramatically. Propositions 94 through 97, which would allow four wealthy Southern California Indian tribes to add up to 17,000 casino slot machines, is leading by 47 percent to 34 percent, with 19 percent of likely...

BISMARCK, N.D. - Members of the Spirit Lake Nation likely will vote on whether to support the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname, the tribe's leader says. Chairwoman Myra Pearson said Saturday that the tribe has grown tired of the issue. "It's been something that's not as important as our health care or housing or everything we're faced with out here, but it's been popping up all the time, and I think we need to put it to rest here pretty quick," she said. Under a settlement with the NCAA reached last October, UND has three years to win...

Last week, Chief Marie Smith Jones, the only remaining native speaker of the Eyak language, died in her home in Anchorage, Alaska. Chief Jones' death makes Eyak—part of the Athabascan family of languages—the first known native Alaskan tongue to go extinct. Linguists fear that 19 more will soon follow the same fate. Fortunately, starting in 1961, Chief Jones and five other native-speaking Eyaks worked with Michael Krauss, a linguist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, to document Eyak in case future generations want to revive it. How would you go about learning a language that nobody speaks? It depends....

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Marie Smith Jones, who worked to preserve her heritage as the last full-blooded member of Alaska's Eyak Indians and the last fluent speaker of their native language, has died. She was 89. Jones died in her sleep Monday at her home in Anchorage. She was found by a friend, said daughter Bernice Galloway, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M. "To the best of our knowledge she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive," Galloway said Tuesday. "She was a woman who faced incredible adversity in her life and overcame it," Galloway said. "She was about as tenacious as...

Ancient bones found at UCSDBy Tanya Sierra UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERJanuary 27, 2008 Locked away in a museum safe near Escondido are perhaps the oldest skeletal remains found in the Western Hemisphere. More than 30 years after the relics were unearthed during a classroom archaeological dig at UC San Diego, the county's Kumeyaay tribes are fighting to reclaim the bones that anthropologists estimate are nearly 10,000 years old. OVERVIEWBackground: What may be the oldest skeletal remains found in the Western Hemisphere were discovered during a classroom archaeological dig on UCSD property in 1976. Kumeyaay Indians are trying to have the relics...

Here is the kind of story that really proves how little the MSM bothers to research things, how they often simply print glorified press releases without doing any real "journalism," and how the defective end product gets picked up and regurgitated like it is suddenly a "fact." In this one we have the story of "the Lakota Sioux Indians" announcing that "they" have withdrawn from agreed upon treaties with the US government and that they are now a sovereign nation, no longer to be called citizens of the USA. Problem is "the Lakota Sioux Indians" that have made this announcement...

Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago Thursday , December 20, 2007 WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States. "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said. A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the...

THE Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the US. "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," Indian rights activist Russell Means said. A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the US... The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would...

WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States. "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said. A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the U.S., some of them more than 150 years old. The group...

LOS ANGELES - Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota musician, actor, and activist, passed away at 5 a.m. PST at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after an extended illness. He was 72. Westerman began his career in music in the 1960s. He went on to appear in dozens of movies, television productions, and documentaries, and participated in grass-roots education and organizing across the nation, becoming one of the most recognizable American Indians of the 20th century. He was born on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota, but was orphaned and sent to boarding school at the age...

Scientists protest efforts to give Indian tribes control over ancient man's remains The Associated PressPublished: November 30, 2007 WASHINGTON: Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting efforts on two fronts that they say could block them from examining one of the oldest and most complete set of bones ever found in North America. For a third time in four years, the scientists are opposing a bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow federally recognized American Indian tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe. They...

Sandia researcher Ted Borek used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyze vapors produced by mild heating of pot samples. (Photo by Randy Montoya) The belief among some archeologists that Europeans introduced alcohol to the Indians of the American Southwest may be faulty. Ancient and modern pot sherds collected by New Mexico state archeologist Glenna Dean, in conjunction with analyses by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Ted Borek, open the possibility that food or beverages made from fermenting corn were consumed by native inhabitants centuries before the Spanish arrived. Dean, researching through her small business Archeobotanical Services, says, “There’s been...

Expert on American Indian culture teaches class at Ramstein High RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — A blond German isn’t exactly who you would expect to be the guest speaker for Ramstein High School’s Native American Heritage Month. But on Wednesday, Peter “Forest Wolf” Heiser, a German who owns a moving company in Idar-Oberstein, spoke to three history classes on American Indian heritage and culture.Bryan Sanchez, who describes himself as belonging to the Zuni tribe in New Mexico, had asked Heiser to speak to the classes. Sanchez, coordinator of the school’s internship program, says he believed Heiser had a better feel...

Seattle school officials are telling teachers that Thanksgiving actually is a time of "mourning" since it represents "500 years of betrayal." The message to all "staff" in the Seattle Public Schools comes from Caprice D. Hollins, the director of "Equity, Race & Learning Support," and other officials including Willard Bill Jr. of the "Office of Native American Education." "With so many holidays approaching we want to again remind you that Thanksgiving can be a particularly difficult time for many of our Native students," the letter said. The school letter refers educators to a website, Oyate, run by an outside organization...

SEATTLE – A letter from the Seattle School District is raising some eyebrows about Thanksgiving and how it should be handled in the classroom. The letter tells school district staff that the holiday is seen by many Native Americans as a "time of mourning." It all started three years ago when some Native American parents voiced concerns about how Thanksgiving was being observed in Seattle Schools. "In terms of what they were seeing in some of the use of the feathers and those things because those are of spiritual and ceremonial significance to us," said Willard Bill, Seattle Public Schools....

MICCOSUKEE TRIBE INDIAN RESERVATION, Fla. (AP) -- A man who jumped into a lake to flee police was killed by an alligator more than 9-feet long, officials said Tuesday. The man, whose name has not been released, was allegedly burglarizing a vehicle in the parking lot of the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center on Thursday. He ran when police arrived at the scene, said Dexter Lehtinen, one of the tribe's police legal advisors. Tribal police divers searched for the man that night, then again Friday morning and afternoon. During the third dive, the body was recovered. It bore alligator teeth...

A $104 million dollar hockey arena may be forced to remove hundreds of images of "The Fighting Sioux," the logo and nickname of the University of North Dakota for more than 70 years, if officials can't reach an agreement with tribal councils. The university, according to a settlement last month of a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, has three years to negotiate an agreement with two North Dakota Sioux tribes — Spirit Lake and Standing Rock — to receive approval for the continued use of the "Sioux" name and logo. If an agreement is not reached by 2011,...

US officials return ancient remains to indigenous Tlingit tribes after scientific testing The Associated PressPublished: October 19, 2007 ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Human remains estimated to be more than 10,000 years old will be returned to southeast Alaska Tlingit tribes 11 years after they were found in a cave in the Tongass National Forest. It is the first time a federal agency has conveyed custody of such ancient remains to indigenous groups under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, U.S. Forest Service officials said Friday. "It's a pretty substantial find," said Tongass spokesman Phil Sammon. Vertebrae, ribs, teeth, a...

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Nike on Tuesday unveiled what it said is the first shoe designed specifically for American Indians, an effort aiming at promoting physical fitness in a population with high obesity rates. The Beaverton-based company says the Air Native N7 is designed with a larger fit for the distinct foot shape of American Indians, and has a culturally specific look. It will be distributed solely to American Indians; tribal wellness programs and tribal schools nationwide will be able to purchase the shoe at wholesale price and then pass it along to individuals, often at no cost. "Nike is aware...

MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT INDIAN RESERVATION, Connecticut: With hundreds of millions of dollars in annual profit flowing in from their gambling business, the Mashantucket Pequots first floated the idea of building a large amusement park. But those plans were shot down by neighbors already unhappy with the huge Foxwoods casino in their midst. The tribe then bought into a ferry-building business in hopes of diversifying its holdings, but that only provided a costly lesson, said Michael Thomas, the tribe's chairman. So maybe it should not be surprising that Pequot tribal leaders would choose to stick with what they know best. In doing...

Archaeologists aren't sure why Mississippian Indians engraved small sandstone tablets with birdman images and crosshatching 1,000 years ago. Maybe the tablets were used as visual aids for spiritual storytelling. Maybe they were dipped in dye and stamped on deerskin to create patterns. "Maybe (a tablet) was displayed when you were traveling from one place to another," said Bill Iseminger, assistant site manager at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville. "It was a passport to show your rank or status or authority." Whatever their purpose, the tablets are considered archaeologically significant because they provide rare pictures from an ancient culture....

Many fear effort to legalize new hunt may be derailed NEAH BAY -- One day after a group of frustrated Makah tribal members asserted treaty and historic rights by harpooning and killing a protected gray whale, tribal leaders condemned the hunt and vowed to prosecute the men. "Their action was a blatant violation of our law, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Debbie Wachendorf, the Makah Tribal Council vice chairwoman. "The Makah Tribal Council denounces the actions of those who took it on themselves to hunt a whale without the authority of the...

NEAH BAY, Wash. — A California gray whale that was harpooned and shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state has died, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said the whale disappeared beneath the surface in the evening, dragging buoys that had been attached to the harpoon, and did not resurface. A biologist working for the Makah Indian tribe declared it dead, Eggert said. Tribe members were being held by the Coast...

Makah tribesman "feeling kind of proud" he shot whale  01:20 PM PDT on Monday, September 10, 2007  KING5.com Staff and Associated Press Makah tribe members shoot, harpoon gray whale NEAH BAY, Wash. - The Coast Guard and National Marine Fisheries Service says the California gray whale killed by rogue whalers off Neah Bay could refloat as it decays. If it is found, the carcass would likely be evidence in a case against Makah tribal members. Coast Guard spokesman Shawn Eggert says buoys were cut from the whale when it sank Saturday, but it still carries a harpoon. National Marine...

WICHITA, Kan. --A man who called himself "Chief Thunderbird IV" was charged in federal court here Friday with devising a fraudulent scheme to obtain U.S. citizenship papers for illegal aliens by having them claim to be members of a so-called Indian tribe. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal and local agencies are investigating this case. Malcolm L. Webber, 69, Wichita, Kan., was scheduled to appear in federal district court in Wichita Friday on one count of attempting to defraud the federal government, one count of harboring aliens who were illegally in the United States, and one count...

In 2004, within four months of each other, two three-judge panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided cases involving the Constitution's Establishment Clause and its requirement of government neutrality regarding religion. In May, a panel held that a Latin cross on federal lands in honor of American servicemen killed in World War I violated the Establishment Clause and must be removed. That the memorial commemorated American "history and culture" was irrelevant to the panel; after all, the cross symbolizes Christianity. In September, another panel held that Arizona's designation of private property as sacred to American...

CAMP MABRY, Texas (Sept. 6, 2007) – The Texas Military Forces will honor the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I during events here at the Brig. Gen. John C.L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum Sept. 16 beginning at 2 p.m. Less well known than the Navajo Code Talkers in the Pacific theater of operations in World War II, the Choctaws pioneered the U.S. military’s use of a Native American language to baffle enemy code-breakers.Lt. Gen. Charles G. Rodriguez, Adjutant General of Texas, will present 18 Lone Star Medals of Valor to the families of the Choctaw Code Talkers. In...

Some illegal immigrants think they have found a way to stay in the US: pay to become a member of an Indian tribe. Illegal immigrants are buying memberships for as little as $50, sometimes much more. The tribes say it protects people from being deported. Ken Boehm is chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center. Boy, if I'm an illegal immigrant that sounds like a pretty good deal. Fifty bucks and I can stay in the US. Does it work? KEN BOEHM, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY CENTER: No, it's fraud. JANSING: In a word, 'no.' BOEHM: Yeah, in...

OMAHA, Neb. - For prices starting at $50, two nonfederally recognized Indian tribes are offering membership to thousands of illegal immigrants, claiming they can achieve legal status by joining the groups. But immigration authorities insist becoming a tribe member gives no protection against being deported. And immigration advocates condemn the practice, saying it defrauds immigrants of money and gives them false hope. "You can't just decide to become a member of a tribe and all of a sudden legalize your status," said Marilu Cabrera, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In Nebraska, some people reported paying up to...

     The FReeper Canteen Presents National Navajo Code Talkers Day     Welcome to the FReeper Canteen! It's great to have you with all of us!! Thank you to all of our Troops, Veterans, and their families for allowing us to entertain you!        The Navajo Code Talkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968. In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14 "National Code Talkers Day."During World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. Marines trained Navajo soldiers as code talkers....

OMAHA, Neb. — A non-federally recognized American Indian tribe on Friday defended its recruiting of Hispanic illegal immigrants to the tribe under the promise that joining would keep the immigrants from being deported. But advocates and federal officials condemned the practice as a scam, saying the group was defrauding people desperate to stay in the country of hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars while giving them false hope. The complaints are reaching federal officials through community groups in several states. In Texas, the attorney general's office has received five complaints from people who say they were recruited to join the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today met here with a group of Marine veterans who used their native Navajo language to baffle the Japanese during World War II. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left, meets with five Navajo Code Talkers and their family members at the Pentagon, Aug. 10, 2007. The Navajos served as U.S. Marines in World War II and helped develop a communications code based on their language. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) -- Now that Arkansas State University Chancellor Robert Potts has accepted a recommendation to change the school's Indian nickname, the school is preparing to pick a new mascot. Potts announced yesterday that ASU would shed its Indian name and mascot. The NCAA has a ban on ethnically or racially hostile or abusive nicknames, mascots and imagery at championship events. Arkansas State was one of the schools found in violation of the policy.

ROSEVILLE An amazing discovery has been unearthed in Placer County. Amazing because of its history significance....and amazing because of how it was found. Archaeologist did not carefully unearth the 8,000 to 10,000 year old artifact, but it appears some curious squirrels dug it up. And now, folks at the Maidu Indian Interpretive Center are trying to preserve what the squirrels unearthed. The center allows people to learn how Native Americans lived thousands of years ago. And it was here that the squirrels made their find in what could be called an ancient compost pile. "You can see where little tiny...

7-11-05 Did the Founding Fathers Really Get Many of Their Ideas of Liberty from the Iroquois? By Jack Rakove Mr. Rakove is Coe Professor of History and American Studies, Professor of Political Science, at Stanford University. Editor's Note: On Monday July 4th the New York Times published an op ed by journalist James Mann that made broad claims about the influence of the Iroquois on American constitutional history. Specifically, he argued that the Founding Fathers were deeply influenced by Indian ideas of liberty and that our very form of government was shaped in decisive ways by Indian influences at the...