North Dakota Human Rights Coalition
Working to effect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights
|
North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Working to effect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights |
|
Click PayPal link for direct credit card contribution or PayPal payment options. (No PayPal account necessary!)
Interested in Receiving NDHRC Email Newsletter? |
~North Dakota Human Rights Coalition~ PAUR Report
Programs ~ Announcements ~ Updates ~ Resources
Visit our Website at www.ndhrc.org
June 3, 2004
Hello members and friends of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition!
In this week’s PAUR Report:
Announcements 1) NDHRC Participation in FM PRIDE Parade, Sunday, June 6 2) Native Vote 2004 3) Bismarck Human Relations Committee, April 6, 2004, Town Hall Forum Photos Available 4) North Dakota Progressive Coalition Job Announcement, Minot Community Organizer 5) Public Announcement: People Escaping Poverty Project, 3rd Annual PEPP Fest Dye Folk Festival, June 12, Moorhead 6) FM Pride First Parade/March and Rally on June 6
Newspaper Articles 7) Grand Forks Herald, UND Commencement: Honor song drummed at law school ceremony 8) The Forum, Presidents threaten Sakakawea dollar coin 9) Grand Forks Herald, Dorreen Yellow Bird Column: Pine Ridge woman beat the odds to earn degree 10) The Forum (Fargo), Moorhead back $112,000 loan for homeless shelter 11) Grand Forks Herald, Editorial: Retire the dollar coin 12) The Forum (Fargo), Gary Feist letter: Education salaries editorial on mark 13) Cox News Service, Apology to Indians advocated 14) The Forum (Fargo), Panel to look at Indian bias 15) Associated Press, Civil rights group to join regional project 16) The Forum (Fargo), F-M group’s approach to diversity high on list 17) Grand Forks Herald, Sudan’s ‘Lost Boys’ ready to graduate
Events 18) Families of People Who Have Been Incarcerated Meeting, June 9, Bismarck
Reminders 19) 3rd Annual PEPP Fest—Voices of Freedom, June 12, Moorhead 20) Welcome North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Summer Intern 21) Save the Date – Next Town Hall Meeting, July 21, Bismarck 22) Save the Date, North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Conference, November 5 & 6, 2004, Bismarck 23) Knowing & Understanding Your Rights is the First Step in Receiving Equal Rights
********************************************* Announcements *********************************************
1.) NDHRC Participation in FM PRIDE Parade, Sunday, June 6
The FM Pride parade/march will be held in downtown Fargo on Sunday, June 6th from 12:00 noon to approximately 12:30 PM, depending on the size of the parade. The parade will be followed by a half-hour rally at approx. 12:30-12:45 PM in Island Park at the gazebo. More information about FM Pride weekend is at http://www.pridecollective.com/fmpride2004.html.
The NDHRC would like to have a banner & marchers in the parade and at the rally, to show the NDHRC support for civil rights for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender residents of North Dakota (i.e., sexual orientation is not a protected class in the North Dakota Human Rights Act).
If you can participate, please let me know ASAP this week. We can offer a free NDHRC T-shirt for your participation (and for wearing in the parade!).
Thanks!
Cheryl Bergian
*********************************************
2.) Native Vote 2004
The Native Vote 2004 Campaign is an extensive national non-partisan effort to mobilize the American Indian and Alaska Native vote in collaboration with regional organizations, local tribal governments, centers serving the Indian populations of urban centers, and non-governmental organizations whose focus is on democracy initiatives.
For a more in-depth explanation of the purpose of the 2004 Native Vote Campaign, please read Optimizing Our Power at the Polls.
*********************************************
3.) Bismarck Human Relations Committee, April 6, 2004, Town Hall Forum Photos Availalble
Photos from the April 6th Town Hall Meeting may be viewed at: http://www.ndfhc.org/HRC.htm.
*********************************************
4.) North Dakota Progressive Coalition Job Announcement, Minot Community Organizer
The North Dakota Progressive Coalition is hiring a full-time community organizer in the Minot area. The position will organize low- and moderate-income people in the Minot area to advocate for themselves for economic and social justice; and organize the local progressive network and its campaign for economic and social justice. Qualifications include strong communication skills, ability to work independently and as part of a team with a diversity of people, and commitment to progressive social and economic justice. The NDPC is a statewide coalition of 34 member organizations working to build connections among diverse communities for progressive economic and social justice. The community organizer will report to the Executive Director. The NDPC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
For additional information contact Don Morrison, North Dakota Progressive Coalition, 410 E. Thayer Ave. Ste. 2, Bismarck, ND 58501. (Phone) 701-224-8090.
*********************************************
5.) Public Announcement: People Escaping Poverty Project, 3rd Annual PEPP Fest Dye Folk Festival, June 12, Moorhead
People Escaping Poverty
Project
This Fundraiser represents
this cooperation between people, culture and organizations.
*********************************************
6.) FM Pride First Parade/March and Rally on June 6
Message from the FM Pride Organizers:
By now many of you will
have heard of the North Dakota Family Alliance's plans to gather signatures to
put a constitutional amendment initiative on the fall ballot. The proposed
amendment would permanently prohibit same-sex marriage, civil unions and similar
arrangements in North Dakota. This is a dangerous assault on civil rights and
would be a major setback for the GLBT community of North Dakota should it get on
the ballot and be approved by the voters.
********************************************* Newspaper Articles *********************************************
7.) Grand Forks Herald, UND Commencement: Honor song drummed at law school ceremony
UND COMMENCEMENT: Honor song drummed at law school ceremony
Grand Forks
Herald – 5/16/2004
"When a member of the tribe accomplishes an important deed, a song should be sung in honor of it," said David Flute of Sisseton, S.D., the leader of the four-man Grey Fox drum group that sang the Dakota honor song.
His sister, Debra Flute-White, was one of four American Indians among the 55 graduates of UND's law school Saturday. A record 50 Indian students from 15 tribes were eligible to graduate this spring, UND officials said.
The song translated meant: "People around the world have said this education is a difficult task. You have accomplished it, and you have made an achievement. Now, take this new knowledge and do good things for society."
The initial request by Indian students for the song to be included was rejected by UND officials, then allowed after some protest.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
8.) The Forum (Fargo), Presidents threaten Sakakawea dollar coin
Presidents threaten Sakakawea dollar coin
Now in its fifth year of circulation, the Sakakawea dollar is "probably a failure," declared a recent column from the coin collecting world.
Production dropped from 558 million coins in 2000 to 6.2 million in 2003. The trouble, wrote David Harper in his May 4 column for Numismatic News, follows a long history of unsuccessful dollar coins in the United States.
"Our ancestors couldn't make it work and neither can we," Harper wrote. "But, like our ancestors, we keep trying. Oh, do we keep trying."
A congressman from Delaware thinks he has the answer: Drop the likeness of Sakakawea, the American Indian girl from Dakota country who helped guide Lewis and Clark, and replace it with U.S. presidents.
The series, proposed in legislation by Rep. Mike Castle, would feature four presidents a year, attended by commemorative coins honoring their spouses. The coins would revert to the Sakakawea design when each president had been honored.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
9.) Grand Forks Herald, Dorreen Yellow Bird Column: Pine Ridge woman beat the odds to earn degree
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Pine Ridge woman beat the odds to earn degree Grand Forks Herald – 5/18/2004
It wasn't an easy path for her.
When I was told about this extraordinary woman, I was expecting someone strong and bold. What I found was an unassuming, pretty and petite woman who wore her waist-length, coal-black hair tied back with a simple tie.
As we sat in her small apartment in student housing to talk about her journey, I walked with her on that long road from the South Dakota reservation to Grand Forks. From our conversation, I don't think she realizes how special her achievements are. I could see she is grounded in her culture and family, and that family especially is one of her strengths. Home still is Pine Ridge, and she plans to return.
As a teen, she had problems with alcohol and drugs. One hundred percent of her family has been affected by alcohol, and 95 percent of the deaths in the family have been alcohol-related - accidents, cirrhosis or suicide, Rae Ann told me.
But she remembers exactly when she knew she would go to college. When she was in the fifth grade, she overslept and missed the bus. She woke up her grandfather, Kenneth Red Owl, who was a paraplegic, to drive her to school. She could tell he was disappointed with her by his serious tone. Education is the most important thing in life, her grandfather told her. That statement stayed with her ever since. <snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
10). The Forum (Fargo), Moorhead back $112,000 loan for homeless shelter
Moorhead backs $112,000 loan for homeless shelter
The city of Moorhead, which previously declined to give $150,000 to help establish a new homeless shelter, instead will guarantee a $112,000 bank loan for the project.
The City Council agreed Monday night to guarantee the loan to Churches United for the Homeless.
The organization currently operates a homeless shelter at 203 6th St. S, but is renovating a larger site in the former Plunkett's Furniture building, 1901 1st Ave. N. Churches United bought the building in 2002 after abandoning plans to fix up its current site.
The organization previously asked the city for $150,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for the new site.
The city turned down the request, in part because of cuts in state funding. But city officials decided they wanted to help the project in some way – and earlier this spring decided on the possibility of a loan guarantee.
Under terms of the agreement, the city will guarantee a loan of $112,000 from Wells Fargo to Churches United, based on the estimated value of the land at the current site. <snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
11.) Grand Forks Herald, Editorial: Retire the dollar coinEDITORIAL:
Retire the dollar coin Grand Forks Herald – 5/21/2004
As the result of a controversy, the Sakakawea dollar appeared in the headlines Thursday - marking the first time most Americans have thought about the coin in months.
In that unfortunate truth lies the controversy's resolution.
"Congress is considering legislation that would replace the Indian guide's image with a rotating design honoring U.S. presidents," the Associated Press story read.
But that move "would be an insult to American Indian tribes and the state of North Dakota, Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall says." Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., agrees and wants to block the law in the Senate.
The two sides in this quarrel hold strong views. But they're holding them so tightly that they're missing the core truth: The American people have rejected the dollar coin. Statistics confirm this, as does the fact that you probably can't remember the last time you handled a dollar coin. Payments of dollar coins surged to $558 million in 2000, when the Sakakawea coin first was introduced, said Jeffrey Marquardt, associate director of the Federal Reserve System's board of governors, in Congressional testimony in April. But they'd dropped to $69 million by 2003 - and that was the level of Susan B. Anthony dollar-coin usage in the five years before the Sakakawea coin was introduced.
This is neither Sakakawea nor Susan B. Anthony's fault. Habits are hard to change, as metric system supporters know. And the fact is people prefer paper dollars. So, as long as dollar bills continue to circulate, consumers will choose them over dollar coins.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
12.) The Forum (Fargo), Gary Feist letter: Education salaries editorial on mark
Gary Feist letter: Education salaries editorial on markThe Forum – 5/21/2004
The Forum's editorial on higher education salaries was right on the mark. And yes, it is true; we are depending on the higher education system to pull us up and be the solution to growing North Dakota. It just can't happen though, when faculty and staff are some of the lowest paid workers in this country.
The faculty and staff on all our campuses do a terrific job educating students of all ages. We are relying on them to grow North Dakota.
It is important that the State Board of Higher Education follow the recommendations of their own compensation committee. It is important to build a budget that meets the needs of both the students and the staff and faculty.
Additionally, it is time to pay all state workers what they are worth. Their wages have not kept pace as well. It is essential that the state recognize the need to recruit and retain quality employees if we are going to move this state forward and part of that recognition is to pay public employees competitive wages and benefits.
So, let's pay them what they are worth. North Dakota works because public employees do.
Gary Feist
President
North Dakota Public Employees Association AFT Local 4600 AFL-CIO Bismarck
View online article here
*********************************************
13.) Cox News Service, Apology to Indians advocated
Apology to Indians advocated By Andrew Mollison Cox News Service Published: Arizona Daily Star – 5/25/2004
WASHINGTON - An official apology for the way the United States and its citizens have mistreated American Indians and the country's other indigenous people is starting to move through Congress.
"I know there's potential for this being controversial," said the apology's author, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. He recalled the barrage of vitriolic phone calls a few years ago that blocked a similar attempt by former Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, to obtain an official apology to the descendants of former slaves.
"But the circumstances are different," he said. "With the maturity of the sovereign tribes being acknowledged, the opening this fall (on Washington's Mall) of the museum recognizing the contribution of Native Americans, this is a moment that could be used, not to heal all old wounds, but to start building a new relationship."
The Senate this month passed, 92-0, a resolution saying it "joins with the president in expressing apology for the humiliation suffered by the prisoners in Iraq and their families."
But with that exception, Congress hasn't approved an official apology since 1993. That year, the House voted overwhelmingly and the Senate voted 65-34 to apologize to native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii 100 years previously.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is expected to advance Brownback's bill to the Senate calendar in June. The co-sponsors include the panel's chairman, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe who is the only American Indian in Congress, and its vice chairman, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.
The apology bill says the United States "acknowledges years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of covenants by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes."
It also "apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by citizens of the United States."
To show that the measure isn't a back-door attempt to settle ongoing legal disputes, it also says, "Nothing in this Joint Resolution authorizes any claim against the United States or serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States."
And the president is urged to join Congress in its apology.
"Canada has done it, but the United States has never formally apologized for all the atrocities and double-dealing," said Tex Hall, president of the 250-tribe National Congress of American Indians.
Hall, who is also chairman of the Mendan, Hidasa and Arikara Nation in Fort Berthold, N.D., said, "It's only one small step, but without an apology you can't do the healing, and without the healing, we can't come together as one country."
Others endorsing the resolution's broad thrust include leaders and tribal councils from more than three dozen Indian tribes and Alaskan Native communities, as well as the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
The apology "will not right the wrongs of the past but may correct misdirected policies of the present," wrote Anthony D. Johnson of Lapwai, Idaho, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe.
Floyd Leonard, chief of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, said the resolution could help "tribal citizens as they struggle with overcoming the more than 500 years of mistreatment and disrespect that has resulted from the European invasion."
The official apology was described as "long overdue" by John Yellow Bird Steele, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D.
Ron Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist who has tracked efforts to obtain reparations for descendants of slaves, said some blacks were bound to ask why they didn't get an apology as well.
"When President (Bill) Clinton went over to Africa and came close to an apology, Republicans took to the floor the next day and excoriated him," Walters recalled.
However, President Bush and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, who both oppose reparations, might offer election-year support for apologies, Walters said.
No longer available online.
*********************************************
14.) The Forum (Fargo), Panel to look at Indian bias
Panel to look at Indian bias
Frank White watched his daughter leave their home on the Fort Berthold Reservation to attend junior high school in Fargo, only to see her drop out in frustration less than a year later.
"If something happened, she was more or less kind of blamed for it," he said.
"She got expelled twice within three months, so she quit."
White, 47, said he tried to reason with his daughter's counselor, but it was always her word against his.
Soon, American Indians such as White will have the opportunity to put their stories of discrimination in North Dakota on the record.
During a meeting Tuesday in Fargo, the North Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted unanimously to join a regional project studying discrimination against American Indians in towns bordering reservations.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
15.) Associated Press, Civil rights group to join regional project
Civil rights group to join regional project By the Associated Press - Bismarck Tribune, May 26, 2004
FARGO -- The North Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted on Tuesday to join a regional project studying discrimination against American Indians in towns bordering reservations.
Five of the seven states in the commission's Rocky Mountain Region already are participating in the project: Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming. Utah has yet to join.
Despite a large Indian presence in border cities, non-Indians often control their governments, schools and economies, creating a situation of "tremendous inequity," said John Dulles, the commission's regional director in Denver.
The federally funded project, expected to last more than three years, will involve taking testimony at public hearings in border cities. Locations in North Dakota could include Devils Lake, Dunseith, Bismarck-Mandan and Minot, said Carole Barrett, chairwoman of the advisory committee and a professor of American Indian studies at the University of Mary in Bismarck.
Committee member Refugio Padilla said he thinks the project is long overdue.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
16.) The Forum (Fargo), F-M group’s approach to diversity high on list
F-M group's approach to diversity high on list
A civic research organization has named the approach to cultural diversity in Fargo-Moorhead one of the 23 smartest in the country.
Pew Partnership for Civic Change said Cultural Diversity Resources, a Fargo-based nonprofit providing training and interpretive services, demonstrates seven key elements to building lasting change in a community.
Those elements are: investing right the first time, working together, building on existing assets, exercising democratic virtues, preserving the past, growing new leaders and inventing the future.
"The Fargo-Moorhead partnership is a top-flight example of how communities across this country can, and should, approach the cultural and racial changes in our country," Suzanne Morse, executive director of the Virginia-based organization, said in a news release.
Cultural Diversity Resources was founded in 1993.
The agency's efforts have taught about 5,000 people about cultural differences, helped schools develop inclusive curriculums and has lead new people to participate in community affairs, Morse said.
View online article here
*********************************************
17.) Grand Forks Herald, Sudan’s ‘Lost Boys’ ready to graduate
North Dakota Roundup Fargo
(snip) Sudan's 'Lost Boys' ready to graduate Grand Forks Herald – 5/24/2004 Five members of the graduating class at Fargo's Oak Grove Lutheran high school are completing a journey that many of their peers could not imagine.
The young men are among the "Lost Boys" of Sudan, refugees escaped the war-torn African country to make a new life in the United States.
Hundreds of people across the Red River Valley have supported and followed the young men as they have worked to achieve their dreams.
"Everybody did a good job to us - the kids here, the donors who gave money, the teachers who helped us when we had difficulties," said Abraham Madhier, one of the refugees. "When we came here, everybody is friendly."
Madhier, John Lueth, Samuel Goi Majak, Elijah Maluk and Jacob Maluk came to the United States three years ago.
They are among the Sudanese orphans who fled thousands of miles on foot during the civil war that has ravaged their country for more than 20 years.
<snip>
View full article here
********************************************* Events *********************************************
A calendar of events is available on the NDHRC web site at http://ndhrc.org/Events/Calendar/April.htm.
*********************************************
18.) Families of People Who Have Been Incarcerated Meeting, June 9, Bismarck
Come Join Families of People Who Have Been Incarcerated Wednesday, June 9, 2004 1:00 pm Veterans Memorial Library 515 North 5th Street Room C – Downstairs Bismarck Contact: DJ - 866-223-9601
********************************************* *********************************************
19.) 3rd Annual PEPP Fest—Voices of Freedom, June 12, Moorhead
Attending
the event! Selling tickets! Asking people to attend! Sponsoring a child!
Volunteering at the event! Post Fliers!
*********************************************
20.) Welcome North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Summer Intern
The North Dakota Human Rights Coalition is pleased to welcome Michael W. Brown, Jr., our summer intern. He’s working in an office we're renting from the Mental Association in North Dakota in Fargo; his contact information is:
Michael Brown North Dakota Human Rights Coalition P.O. Box 1961 Fargo, ND 58107-1961 (701) 232-2554
Michael will be working with us full-time until about the end of July. He'll be doing interviews of people who have experienced discrimination with the goal of gathering more information on the need for a North Dakota Commission on Human Rights, for adding sexual orientation/gender identity to the ND Human Rights Act, and/or for the need for hate crimes legislation in North Dakota.
If you have experienced discrimination in North Dakota please contact Michael. If you know of someone who has experienced discrimination, please encourage him/her to contact Michael.
Please join us in welcoming Michael to the NDHRC!
*********************************************
21.) Save the Date – Next Town Hall Meeting, July 21, Bismarck
From the Bismarck Mayor’s Committee on Human Relations:
The next Mayor's Town Hall Meeting (being sponsored by the Mayor's Human Relations Committee and the North Dakota Fair Housing Council) will held the evening of July 21st at the Best Western Doublewood Inn. Start time to be determined. Based upon the evaluations received previously, the meeting will again focus on race/national origin discrimination in the Bismarck community but will be a follow-up to the previous meeting. Initial plans include a limited number of panels and more audience interaction through discussion and small group break-outs to draft an Action Plan for eliminating discrimination in Bismarck and advancing diversity.
We will need strong community presence (again) and want attendees to be an active piece of the process. It is our community and we need to work together to effect change.
An agenda and registration flyer will be distributed in June...we will also be looking again for endorsers for the event as well.
We are also tentatively considering a Town Hall on disability issues this fall/winter (depending on funding) based upon evaluations received.
*********************************************
22.) SAVE THE DATE, North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Conference, November 5 & 6, 2004, Bismarck
!!! SAVE THE DATE !!! Friday, November 5 & Saturday, November 6, 2004 North Dakota Human Rights Coalition 2nd Annual Conference“Human Rights: The Economic Impact of Discrimination”
Location: Best Western Ramkota Hotel 800 South Third Street Bismarck, ND 58504
*********************************************
23.) Knowing & Understanding Your Rights is the First Step in Receiving Equal Rights
Learn how to attain your rights
1st Thursday of Each month 1:00
p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
|
North Dakota Human Rights Coalition P.O. Box 1961 Fargo, North Dakota 58107-1961 Phone: (701) 239-9323 Fax: (701) 478-4452 Email: humanrights@ndhrc.org
|
