If a recent Ted Byfield article is correct that at least 25% of Canadians
are supporters of Aboriginal Rights, then about 1,000,000 of us in BC
could support Don Moses and his First Peoples Political Party if they
decide to FULLY exercise those rights and secede from BC/Canada. Then
there are prospective immigrants from the rest of Canada and USA. Let's
see... 25% of Canada-USA is ~ 70,000,000 people. That's a big support
base to draw from.
FWP

"Let My People Go"
(Great Political Slogan don't you think?)

On Thu, 24 Aug 2000, Don wrote:

>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church - UBCIC Letter of Support
> Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:55:27 -0700
> From: "UBCIC " <research@...>
> Organization: Union of BC Indian Chiefs
>
> The Right Honouable Jean Chrétien                     August 24, 2000
> House of Commons
> Parliament Buildings
> Ottawa, Ontario
> K1A-0A6
> Telephone: (613) 992-4211
> Fax:  (613) 941-6900
>
> By Fax: (613) 941-6900
>
> Dear Prime Minister:
>
> I have been watching the growing confrontation between the Mi’kmaq and
> the Department of Fisheries (DFO) and I believe it is time you and
> Minister Dhaliwahl accept the fact that our people have aboriginal
> rights.
>
> The Mi’kmaqs have an historic treaty which upholds their present-day
> relationship with the Crown.  That historic treaty never took away those
> rights, it recognized them.  We firmly believe that the Marshall
> decision not only recognizes this treaty right, it confirms it.
>
> As such, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) ardently
> support the Mi’kmaq of Burnt Church in their continuing fight to protect
> the recognized aboriginal right to fish.
>
> With the Marshall and Delgamuukw decisions, it is clear that the courts
> would rather have the federal and provincial governments negotiate than
> litigate.  We believe that the actions taken by yourself, Minister
> Dhaliwhal and the DFO are contrary to the spirit of those decisions.
>
> It is time for the Federal government to respect First Nations'
> aboriginal rights by incorporating those rights not only into
> operational plans but into federal legislation like the Fisheries Act.
> Without such action, we will need to take the appropriate measures to
> continue our assertion of our rights.
>
> The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs will maintain its unwavering
> support for those First Nations who protect their rights.  Rest assured,
> we will stand side by side to safeguard our historic rights today and in
> the future.
>
> Yours truly,
>
> Chief Stewart Phillip
> Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
>
>
> Cc: Chief Wilber Dedam, Mi’kmaq of Burnt Church, Fax: (506) 776-1215
>     Chiefs Council, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
>     Herb Dhaliwhal, Minister of Fisheries, Fax: (613) 995-2962
>
>
> ---------------------------
> To subscribe to this group, send a blank message to:
> protecting_knowledge-subscribe@egroups.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send a blank message to:
> protecting_knowledge-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
> For more information about the list go to:
http://www.egroups.com/group/protecting_knowledge
>
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Machine Psychology: http://www.atoma.f2s.com/atomareport.html (file #10)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Protecting Knowledge: Chief Kerry's Moose and other UBCIC
Publications
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 16:19:26 -0700
From: "UBCIC (Don Bain)" <research@...>
Reply-To: protecting_knowledge@egroups.com
Organization: Union of BC Indian Chiefs


Hadih!

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is pleased and
excited to announce a new joint publication of the UBCIC and Ecotrust
Canada, _Chief Kerry's Moose: A Guidebook to Land Use and Occupancy
Mapping, Research Design_ by Terry Tobias.

This full-colour guidebook examines the common pitfalls encountered
while designing and implementing cultural land use studies and offers
clear guidance on how these problems can be avoided.  The layout of the
publication is in a widely accessible format, with maps, pictures and
diagrams illustrating examples of what has worked in First Nations
research across Canada.  The guidebook is now available in PDF format in
its entirety or by specific chapters at http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/tus.htm

Other online publications and works are available on our website
(http://www.ubcic.bc.ca) for download.  These include the following:

    * Researching the Indian Land Question In B.C.: An Introduction
      to Research Strategies and Archival Research for Band
      Researchers
      http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/manual.htm

      This publication is available in PDF format by specific
      chapters.

    * Protecting Knowledge: Traditional Resource Rights in the New
      Millennium
      http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/protect.htm

    * McKenna-McBride Royal Commission, Minutes of Decision
      1913-1916
      (Still Under Construction!)
      http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/m_mindex.htm

      The McKenna-McBride Royal Commission had a significant impact
      on Indian peoples’ reserve land base by adding to, reducing
      and eliminating reserves throughout the province.  The
      McKenna-McBride Royal Commission authorized such action
      through Minutes of Decision.  We are working on finalizing the
      digital version of the Minutes of Decision and will be making
      them available online as they are completed.

We have received a number of requests from instructors for permission to
use our documents as part of course materials.  We encourage this and
all we ask is that you inform us of your use.  Please feel free to
download the material above and to pass on this notice to those who may
be interested!

If you have a question or comment drop us an email.

Yours truly,

Don Bain

--
E: research@...
P: (604) 684-0231
F: (604) 684-5726

Visit our Website: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca


---------------------------
To subscribe to this group, send a blank message to:
protecting_knowledge-subscribe@egroups.com

To unsubscribe from this group, send a blank message to:
protecting_knowledge-unsubscribe@egroups.com

For more information about the list go to:
http://www.egroups.com/group/protecting_knowledge

Hadih!

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is pleased and
excited to announce a new joint publication of the UBCIC and Ecotrust
Canada, _Chief Kerry's Moose: A Guidebook to Land Use and Occupancy
Mapping, Research Design_ by Terry Tobias.

This full-colour guidebook examines the common pitfalls encountered
while designing and implementing cultural land use studies and offers
clear guidance on how these problems can be avoided.  The layout of the
publication is in a widely accessible format, with maps, pictures and
diagrams illustrating examples of what has worked in First Nations
research across Canada.  The guidebook is now available in PDF format in
its entirety or by specific chapters at http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/tus.htm

Other online publications and works are available on our website
(http://www.ubcic.bc.ca) for download.  These include the following:

    * Researching the Indian Land Question In B.C.: An Introduction
      to Research Strategies and Archival Research for Band
      Researchers
      http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/manual.htm

      This publication is available in PDF format by specific
      chapters.

    * Protecting Knowledge: Traditional Resource Rights in the New
      Millennium
      http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/protect.htm

    * McKenna-McBride Royal Commission, Minutes of Decision
      1913-1916
      (Still Under Construction!)
      http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/m_mindex.htm

      The McKenna-McBride Royal Commission had a significant impact
      on Indian peoples’ reserve land base by adding to, reducing
      and eliminating reserves throughout the province.  The
      McKenna-McBride Royal Commission authorized such action
      through Minutes of Decision.  We are working on finalizing the
      digital version of the Minutes of Decision and will be making
      them available online as they are completed.

We have received a number of requests from instructors for permission to
use our documents as part of course materials.  We encourage this and
all we ask is that you inform us of your use.  Please feel free to
download the material above and to pass on this notice to those who may
be interested!

If you have a question or comment drop us an email.

Yours truly,

Don Bain

--
E: research@...
P: (604) 684-0231
F: (604) 684-5726

Visit our Website: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca

 
"How Mosquitoes Were Made"
is one of the many examples of Inuit traditional knowledge.

It is part of knowledge being drawn on for "Inuuqatigiit" the new K-12
curriculum being developed for our Nunavut schools... which can be found at
this URL..
http://siksik.learnnet.nt.ca/Inuuqatigiit/1/index.htm

Long before the earth was covered with water, there lived a fierce giant
that everyone was afraid of. The Inuit hoped that someone would come to
help them fight the giant.

One day a handsome man arrived, dressed in fine caribou skins. He looked
so strong and brave that everyone knew this man would surely help them.
The Inuit told him about the giant. At once, the young man took his bow
and arrows and went to the distant caves where the giant lived. Inside the
cave, he looked for a place to hide until the giant came home. Suddenly,
there were heavy foot steps on the rocks outside the cave. Quickly, he hid
under some caribou skins on the bed. The giant came into the house. His
head touched the ceiling, and the earth shook as he walked.

"I smell a man," shouted the giant. "I will get my club
to fight him." While the giant was outside the house looking for his
club, the giant's son came into the house. The young man jumped out from
under the caribou skin. The giant's son was the same size as any other boy
and, seeing the brave and strong man in from of him, he was very much
afraid.

The man pointed his bow and arrow at the boy and said, "Tell me
how to beat your father. If you don't tell me, I will shoot this arrow."

"Just shoot at his heel." said the frightened boy.

At that moment, the giant came into his house. Before the giant cold
raise his club, the man shot him in the heel. The giant fell onto his face,
and very slowly became smaller and smaller.

The young man dragged the giant out of the house, then hurried to the
village to tell the good news. Everyone in the village wanted to see the
giant who was not really a giant anymore. They all ran towards the distant
caves.

As they came near the giant's house, they could see smoke. When they
got nearer they could see the giant was on fire. His son stood ready to
run. "It was the sun. Look!"

They looked at the fire, then at the sun. There, flying from the fire
were thousands and thousands of mosquitoes. The giant, as he burned, was
being changed into mosquitoes. 

A very good and timely letter........

David

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don" <dbain@...>
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2000 2:13 PM
Subject: Protecting Knowledge: Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church - UBCIC Letter of
Support


>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church - UBCIC Letter of Support
> Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:55:27 -0700
> From: "UBCIC " <research@...>
> Organization: Union of BC Indian Chiefs
>
> The Right Honouable Jean Chrétien                     August 24, 2000
> House of Commons
> Parliament Buildings
> Ottawa, Ontario
> K1A-0A6
> Telephone: (613) 992-4211
> Fax:  (613) 941-6900
>
> By Fax: (613) 941-6900
>
> Dear Prime Minister:
>
> I have been watching the growing confrontation between the Mi'kmaq and
> the Department of Fisheries (DFO) and I believe it is time you and
> Minister Dhaliwahl accept the fact that our people have aboriginal
> rights.
>
> The Mi'kmaqs have an historic treaty which upholds their present-day
> relationship with the Crown.  That historic treaty never took away those
> rights, it recognized them.  We firmly believe that the Marshall
> decision not only recognizes this treaty right, it confirms it.
>
> As such, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) ardently
> support the Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church in their continuing fight to protect
> the recognized aboriginal right to fish.
>
> With the Marshall and Delgamuukw decisions, it is clear that the courts
> would rather have the federal and provincial governments negotiate than
> litigate.  We believe that the actions taken by yourself, Minister
> Dhaliwhal and the DFO are contrary to the spirit of those decisions.
>
> It is time for the Federal government to respect First Nations'
> aboriginal rights by incorporating those rights not only into
> operational plans but into federal legislation like the Fisheries Act.
> Without such action, we will need to take the appropriate measures to
> continue our assertion of our rights.
>
> The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs will maintain its unwavering
> support for those First Nations who protect their rights.  Rest assured,
> we will stand side by side to safeguard our historic rights today and in
> the future.
>
> Yours truly,
>
> Chief Stewart Phillip
> Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
>
>
> Cc: Chief Wilber Dedam, Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church, Fax: (506) 776-1215
>     Chiefs Council, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
>     Herb Dhaliwhal, Minister of Fisheries, Fax: (613) 995-2962
>
>
> ---------------------------
> To subscribe to this group, send a blank message to:
> protecting_knowledge-subscribe@egroups.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send a blank message to:
> protecting_knowledge-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
> For more information about the list go to:
http://www.egroups.com/group/protecting_knowledge
>
>

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church - UBCIC Letter of Support
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:55:27 -0700
From: "UBCIC " <research@...>
Organization: Union of BC Indian Chiefs

The Right Honouable Jean Chrétien                     August 24, 2000
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A-0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-4211
Fax:  (613) 941-6900

By Fax: (613) 941-6900

Dear Prime Minister:

I have been watching the growing confrontation between the Mi’kmaq and
the Department of Fisheries (DFO) and I believe it is time you and
Minister Dhaliwahl accept the fact that our people have aboriginal
rights.

The Mi’kmaqs have an historic treaty which upholds their present-day
relationship with the Crown.  That historic treaty never took away those
rights, it recognized them.  We firmly believe that the Marshall
decision not only recognizes this treaty right, it confirms it.

As such, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) ardently
support the Mi’kmaq of Burnt Church in their continuing fight to protect
the recognized aboriginal right to fish.

With the Marshall and Delgamuukw decisions, it is clear that the courts
would rather have the federal and provincial governments negotiate than
litigate.  We believe that the actions taken by yourself, Minister
Dhaliwhal and the DFO are contrary to the spirit of those decisions.

It is time for the Federal government to respect First Nations'
aboriginal rights by incorporating those rights not only into
operational plans but into federal legislation like the Fisheries Act.
Without such action, we will need to take the appropriate measures to
continue our assertion of our rights.

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs will maintain its unwavering
support for those First Nations who protect their rights.  Rest assured,
we will stand side by side to safeguard our historic rights today and in
the future.

Yours truly,

Chief Stewart Phillip
Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs


Cc: Chief Wilber Dedam, Mi’kmaq of Burnt Church, Fax: (506) 776-1215
     Chiefs Council, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
     Herb Dhaliwhal, Minister of Fisheries, Fax: (613) 995-2962

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] Waters frigid in Miramichi Bay,  / Court has to
finish what it started,
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 08:01:54 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com


From: "jjbear" <jjbear@...>
JJ Bear
Communications Officer
Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs
http://www.apcfnc.ca

Waters frigid in Miramichi Bay
The chances of a fishing deal more remote

CHRIS MORRIS  The Canadian Press
BURNT CHURCH  - A quiet, cooling-off period in the lobster war on New
Brunswick's Miramichi Bay has boiled over into more turmoil, threats and
tension.

The scene was sadly familiar in the early morning hours of Tuesday as
officers with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans seized lobster
traps on the bay while angry native fishermen buzzed and whirled in
their small boats, trying to stop the enforcement.

But this confrontation was different from previous ones in the battle
over native fishing rights as several aboriginal fishermen hurled rocks
during the skirmish and one fisheries officer was hit in the face with a
stone.

Fisheries spokesman Andre Marc Lanteigne said the officer is in a
Bathurst hospital where doctors are waiting for the swelling on his face
to subside before attempting reconstructive surgery.

Lanteigne said bones on the man's cheek, nose and possibly his jaw, have
been broken.

Fisheries officers, assisted by members of the RCMP, took 553 native
traps, seized one boat and arrested two natives.

``Everybody has to respect the law,'' Prime Minister Jean Chretien said
in Ottawa, defending the Fisheries Department.

``And I think the law enforcers are following what is their duty to do
and I hope that everybody will respect the law. It's the way that a
country functions.''

Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault said he will head to Burnt Church and
other native communities in the region on Monday in an effort to expand
discussions beyond the lobster fishing dispute to deal with how native
groups can earn a ``moderate livelihood'' from resources.

Nault said ``we want to get to the negotiating table. People (from the
federal government) are ready to talk.''

Tuesday's clash ended any immediate hopes for a peaceful solution to the
confrontations that have erupted over the question of who controls the
native fishery.

The Mi'kmaq people of the Burnt Church First Nation are demanding the
right to regulate their own lobster fishery, in accordance with last
year's Supreme Court of Canada decision in the case of Donald Marshall.
The court ruled that the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet people of the Atlantic
region have a treaty right to earn a moderate living from fishing,
hunting and gathering.

However, a subsequent clarification by the court said that right is
subject to federal regulation.

James Ward, the architect of the reserve's own fisheries management
plan, was out on the water Tuesday and said his boat was bumped by a
Fisheries Department zodiac.

Ward said the federal government is dancing to the tune of the powerful,
non-native commercial fishing industry. He said natives have to fight
for their rights, or they will lose everything.

``We've always known DFO has done nothing but protect the non-native
fishing industry,'' Ward said bitterly.

``DFO has done everything it can to limit and marginalize our treaty
rights to satisfy the non-native fishermen.''

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Court has to finish what it started
Native fishermen, DFO acting with confines of Marshall judgment

BRENT TAYLOR
   ``Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the
law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.'' -- Robert F. Kennedy

Once again, this time on Miramichi Bay, we have found ourselves
embroiled in another native resource crisis. The stakes are high and so
are the tempers. Burnt Church natives and the federal government have
marked their territory and the rest of us have been forced to endure
seemingly endless news reports, blockades and frustration.

Certainly it is not as frustrating to be a bystander as it is to be a
participant, but it still grates. Who is right? Well, there is no
cut-and-dried right side. Both sides in the dispute are operating on
assumptions that are fairly reasonable, although their actions are
sometimes puzzling. Both sides are citing history and a Supreme Court
judgment as the justification for their position.

The root of the entire problem is not in Burnt Church. It is in Ottawa.

The Canada that we have created since the 1980s has given our court
system so much power that natives, DFO officials, the media and the
public will ultimately have to hurry up and wait until the Supreme Court
graces us with more of its opinions.

Elected politicians used to set Canada's policy on all issues. Now it is
a group of nine appointed people -- all brilliant for sure -- that have
become the tightest concentration of power in the country. While in the
past the Supreme Court used to only interpret the laws written by the
elected MPs, now the court has taken the next step: overturning laws,
writing law on its own and greatly increasing its influence in Canada.

The embarrassing soap opera that has played itself out at Burnt Church
is entirely the result of a Supreme Court decision which was so
ambiguous that it permitted a wide range of interpretation. It is called
the Marshall decision. The court said that natives could earn a
``moderate livelihood'' from their resources. The court also said that
the federal government could regulate resource harvesting in the
interests of conservation and fair access.

Now what we will ultimately need from the court is a further
clarification of the exact boundary of the right of the federal
government to set season and catch limits for the native fishery. To be
clear enough this time, will it have to actually state a percentage
harvest? Or will it state a specific quantity of catch based on a
reserve census? Seven lobsters per resident? Twenty? We will probably
never be able to agree so the court might as well wade into the hard
numbers here.

According to the Marshall decision, natives have every right to be out
there right now, placing as many traps as they feel they need to in
order to make a ``moderate living.'' And, according to the Marshall
decision, the DFO officers have every right to be out there removing the
traps in the interest of conservation.

When Parliament writes bad law and words need to be interpreted, the
court system steps in and provides that service. That is not what
happened here.

The Parliament of Canada never decided in law where the boundary is
between a ``moderate living'' and ``conservation.'' In this case the
Supreme Court is not interpreting a law written in Parliament at all.
The court is really writing its own law, based on documents hundreds of
years old.

When the courts themselves begin to effectively author their own laws
who steps in as the referee? Well, nobody. The Marshall decision will
likely be sent back to the same Supreme Court again and again until the
wording finally gets clear enough so that there is no room for
misinterpretation.

It's a great industry to be in, these courts. You force your customers
(the public) to deal only with you. You make your product (the
decisions) and you do the service work if the product breaks down (more
decisions).

The Supreme Court gets to work on its own mistakes and it gets to try
and try again until it finally succeeds. If your plastic surgeon botched
your nose job would you go back to him to fix it three or four times? I
think not.

If it were a doctor or a car dealership the free market would eventually
intervene when a cheaper or better qualified alternative opened its
doors down the road. But nobody is going to ever be permitted to build
an alternative to the Supreme Court. It has a lock on its market for all
time. When Pierre Trudeau brought the Constitution home almost 20 years
ago, entrenching the court's power, our future was sealed.

So now we have endured this posturing from both sides of the dispute. We
have seen grown men playing boat tag in the Bay, burning cars on the
highway, wearing masks, and wielding weapons and pepper spray.

Irrespective of any brokered interim agreement, this can only truly end
one way, with another court decision. So let's get on with it before
someone really gets hurt.

What should have happened at the outset is that a limited number of
traps is placed by a native vessel, they get removed by DFO and formal
charges are laid which are then referred, as fast as possible, through
the court system. While the courts are seeking a clearer interpretation
of the Marshall decision an agreement could have been reached that would
have seen both sides temporarily accept a new catch and season limit.

Anything short of this is a waste of time, people and money. The
players, on both sides, are like mice running on that little wheel in
the cage. The wheel is turning, there's lots of noise and squeaking and
it might even be mildly entertaining to watch for a time, but after all
that running the mice have not really gone anywhere, and nobody is any
better off. * * * (Brent Taylor is a former member of the legislative
assembly. He writes each Wednesday from Doaktown.)


Reprinted under the Fair Use
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international
copyright law.
                   <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
            Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
                    http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/
                   <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>

Native News:
http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/natnews.htm
Archived Daily at:
http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/natnews2.htm
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!  Demand Clemency! (202)456-1111

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] Fwd: Kiowa Tribe Fights for Language
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 14:50:55 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com

  From WlksonRvr..thanks!

From: AOLNews@...
Full-name: AOL News
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:04:31 EDT
Subject: Kiowa Tribe Fights for Language

Kiowa Tribe Fights for Language

.c The Associated Press

   By THOMAS MULLEN

CARNEGIE, Okla. (AP) - In a long conference room surrounded by darkened
halls, six members of the Kiowa Tribe gathered at their tribal center
with the goal of saving the tribe's very future.

Ages 15 to 67, they came here one night to study their native language,
which just decades after being put into writing is mostly spoken only by
a shrinking number of tribal elders.

One of them is Dorothy Kodaseet, who sits at a conference table with the
assembled group. Her eyes - behind glasses as big around as coasters -
rarely move from a prepared worksheet as she slowly reads a list of
Kiowa words.

``Etal,'' she says, stubbornly repeating the Kiowa word for corn several
times until the group echoes her exact pronunciation: ay-tal.

The session, often sidetracked by storytelling and good-natured ribbing,
resembles a pretest study session for which all members are prepared.
But at stake in this test is the loss of the Kiowa language, and none
among the group is prepared for that.

``This is our last chance,'' says Ernest Toppah, 63, of his tribe's
efforts to sustain a language that has been slowly dying for most of the
past century.

Across the table, Bobby Guoladdle, 67, recalls having his mouth washed
out with soap as a child at a government-run boarding school in Anadarko
for uttering Kiowa words.

``I got so used to it I started brushing my teeth with soap after a
while,'' he says with a chuckle.

Native languages like Kiowa, purged for decades through governmental
assimilation programs and bombarded by a cacophonous English-speaking
culture, have dwindled drastically - dozens to the point of extinction.

While it was once believed that there were more than 300 native
languages spoken in North America, only about 155 remain. More than 40
of the extant languages claim less than 10 living speakers, according to
numbers from the Census Bureau.

``It's awfully bleak for most of the languages,'' said Greg Bigler, a
Yucchi who helped found the Oklahoma Native Language Association in 1997
to promote the usage of tribal languages.

No tribe is immune. The Navajo Tribe in the American Southwest claims
150,000 speakers - more than four times the number listed in any other
tribe. But between 1980 and 1990, the tribe saw a 30 percent jump in
Navajo children who spoke only English.

``If that can happen to a tribe like the Navajo, the rest of us are in
serious trouble,'' Bigler said.

While Oklahoma claims a nation-high 25 native languages, less than 7
percent of the state's American Indians say they speak one of them. Only
a fraction of that 7 percent is fluent.

There are no fluent speakers in the Miami Tribe, said Julie Olds, the
tribe's cultural preservation officer.

Relying on a network of elders who are ``conversational'' in Miami, Olds
said the tribe holds language classes and two summer immersion camps in
which participants spend a week secluded with Miami-speaking elders.

Camp visitors range in age from 5 all the way to tribal elders, which
Olds said is an important dynamic of the program.

``The children need the support of those elders and to see them there,
and it's a great thing for the elders to see the language is not going
to be gone,'' Olds said.

The Comanche Tribe also has undertaken a language immersion program in
which a non-speaker is teamed with a fluent elder, spending as much time
as possible speaking in the native tongue.

Lillie Roberts teaches the Choctaw language at classes in Durant, which
are broadcast on the Internet and prominently advertised on the tribe's
Web page. A network of Choctaw speakers teach the language in more than
a dozen other Oklahoma communities.

But Roberts knows that even Choctaw, with roughly 18,000 tribal members
claiming to be speakers, has an uncertain future.

``I don't think it can ever come back in the force it was in the old
days, but to preserve the language is our goal now,'' Roberts said.

Classes are taught within the Chickasaw, Cherokee and other tribes. Help
comes as well from the University of Oklahoma, which teaches four native
languages - Cherokee, Choctaw, Kiowa and Creek-Seminole.

The classes attract about 330 students each semester, Indian and
non-Indian alike, said Pat Gilman, chair of the anthropology department
that offers the classes.

``One of the university's stated goals is to focus on Native American
studies and the fact that we get such high interest in it suggests that
people out there in the state find it interesting,'' Gilman said.

But if tribes have any hope of sustaining their languages going forward,
they must reach that all-important demographic: youth.

It will not be easy, predicted Isiah Redbird, a 15-year-old Kiowa. He
and his 17-year-old brother, Sunny, were the only teen-agers at a recent
Kiowa language class.

``The Kiowa people my age only use the (Kiowa) words in slang, but it's
not meant to be that way,'' said Redbird, who is dedicated to learning
the Kiowa language. ``The language doesn't sound cool to them. It just
sounds weird.''

Redbird, who plans to attend Yale University like his 19-year-old
sister, Melody, said he would like to return one day to Carnegie and
lead the Kiowa Tribe. Whether the tribe still has a language by the time
that might happen, he said, is up to him and his peers.

``The language is dying out and it's terrible, it's sad,'' said Redbird.
``Classes will slow down the process of losing Kiowa (language), but
that's all we can do unless we get the youth to learn the language.''

On the Net:

www.choctawnation.com

Information on native languages:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/(tilde)jar/TIL.html

AP-NY-08-23-00 1203EDT

   Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.  The information  contained in
the AP news report may not be published,  broadcast, rewritten or
otherwise distributed without  prior written authority of The Associated
Press.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] GEO/GMO's: Genetic Labeling
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 17:21:58 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com
CC: dipity@onelist.com

From Lynda...thanks!

The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (HR 3377 and S 2080)
are currently before Congress.  More information on these can be found
at http://www.thecampaign.org/newsupdates/index.htm or you can sign up
for the e-lists at http://www.thecampaign.org/elists.htm

I've included a suggested letter to send to your Senators and
Congressmen.

Lynda

If Ignorance Is Bliss Why Aren't More People Happy?

Dear Representative/Senator:

I am very concerned that I am eating genetically engineered foods
without being told that fact.  I am writing to request that you
co-sponsor (H.R. 3377 or S. 2080), the Genetically Engineered Food Right
to Know Act.  This legislation will ensure the right of Americans to
know whether the foods we purchase have been genetically altered in any
way.

Public opinion polls show the vast majority of Americans want these
foods labeled.  (81% in a January 11, 1999, Time magazine poll)  Yet the
FDA is allowing genetically engineered foods to come to market unlabeled
arguing these foods are no different than those produced by typical
hybridization.  But studies show crops modified by genetic engineering
may contain increased levels of natural toxins and lower levels of
valuable nutrients.

The FDA states that if a genetically engineered food contains a known
allergen it must be labeled.  But what about the unknown allergens that
may be created in these experimental foods?  Genetically engineered
crops often contain proteins that have never before been consumed by
humans as food.  Further, there are serious questions about the
environmental safety of these crops.  And many people have moral and
religious concerns.

Food manufacturers are selling potatoes and corn that have been
genetically engineered to contain the Bt toxin (Bacillus
thuringiensis).  The Bt toxin stays in the cell structure of the plants
and is deadly enough to kill insects.  We are being told that these
foods are safe for human consumption, but we have heard that before
about DDT, EDB and many other pesticides later shown to be
cancer-causing.

I do not want to eat genetically engineered foods that contain the Bt
toxin.  Nor do I want to eat "Roundup Ready" soybeans or other future
products such as tomatoes that contain the gene from a fish!  But
without labeling, I cannot avoid it.  So I am asking you to become a
co-sponsor of (H.R. 3377 or S. 2080), the Genetically Engineered Food
Right to Know Act, which will require the labeling of all genetically
engineered foods.  Similar labeling legislation has already been passed
in Europe, Australia and Japan.

Please write back to me and let me know if you intend to support this
important legislation.  Your decision in this matter is likely to
influence my vote in the November 2000 election.

Sincerely,

(signature)

(print name)

(address)

(city, state, zip)

{note: do not write to Native news..Write to your congress
persons...thanks}

-----Original Message-----
From: John D Berry/grad/res/Okstate [mailto:berryj@...]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 8:15 AM
To: NATIVELIT-L@...
Subject: RE: Native Writers Digital Text Project URL Correction




Please circulate wherever you think appropriate.   Best, John B

American Native Press Archives at:  www.anpa.ualr.edu


The American Native Press Archives began in 1983 as a clearinghouse for
information on American Indian and Alaska Native newspapers and periodicals.
In the ensuing years, it has evolved as a joint effort of the Department of
English and the Ottenheimer Library, and its mission has changed to
collecting and archiving the products of the Native press and materials
related to Native press history, collecting and documenting the works of
Native writers, and constructing bibliographic guides to Native writing and
publishing. It stands today as one of the world's largest repositories of
Native thought.

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the protecting_knowledge
group.

   File        : /IBIN12.pdf
   Uploaded by : dbain@...
   Description : The Monthly Bulletin of the Canadian Indigenous Caucus on the
Convention on Biological Diversity July 2000

You can access this file at the URL

http://www.egroups.com/files/protecting_knowledge/IBIN12%2Epdf

To learn more about eGroups file sharing, please visit

http://www.egroups.com/help/files.html


Regards,

dbain@...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] Canada vs. natives, round 500
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 18:10:58 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com

From: John Shafer <wy430@...>

Canada vs. natives, round 500
ANTHONY J. HALL
Saturday, August 19, 2000 GLobe and Mail Book section

CITIZENS PLUS: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian
State
By Alan C. Cairns
UBC Press, 280 pages
FIRST NATIONS?: Second Thoughts
By Tom Flanagan
McGill-Queens University Press,
245 pages
JUSTICE IN PARADISE
By Bruce Clark
McGill-Queens University Press,
382 pages

In Citizens Plus, Alan C. Cairns notes that Pierre Trudeau spent more
time on Indian policy during his first year as Prime Minister than on
any other issue, and that Jean Chrétien, the PM's Quebec lieutenant,
began his long stint in Ottawa as Trudeau's minister of Indian affairs.
The outcome of their first collaboration was a white paper on Indian
policy, a document that introduced many key aspects of our legal
identity crisis, establishing the basis of our national politics up to
this day.

Cairns's most recent work, the product of four decades of deep reading
and reflection, advances the thesis that he and his colleagues hit the
mark more than 30 years ago, when they worked on The Hawthorne Report.
Issued in 1966, it came out only six years after Indians were finally
allowed to vote in federal elections, and it introduced the term
"citizens plus." Not only should registered Indians be recognized as
full citizens in Canada, but there could be many different kinds of
program innovations aimed at recognizing the special place of First
Nations.

In Citizens Plus,Cairns seeks a vision of Canadian citizenship that
reflects both our pluralism and our need for common symbols of shared
identity.

Having once demonstrated the colonial nature of Canada's assimilationist
Indian policy between 1857 and 1969, Cairns now looks at subsequent
developments as the local expression of a worldwide rejection of the
white man's self-declared burden. Citizens Plus presents a Canadian
variant on the global movement for decolonization. The
liberal-conservative centre in Canada has largely rejected
assimilationist aboriginal policy, equating it with wrongful
extinguishment of the basic right to express cultural pluralism. The
residue of support for assimilation is on the far right, whose adherents
speak with a tone Cairns identifies as "harsher, more defensive and more
strident" than that of former proponents of the so-called civilizing
mission.

In First Nations? Second Thoughts, Calgary political science professor
Tom Flanagan illustrates the stridency of the new assimilationists,
unabashedly celebrating Indian policy before 1969 as a valid effort to
elevate primitive savages toward civilization. For Flanagan, the answer
to the socio-economic disaster on many reserves is not self-government,
but less government and more assimilation into the homogenized,
competitive individualism of the globalized marketplace. He brings to
Canada's oldest and most complex human-rights issues the neo-liberal
arguments popularized in the United States by Allan Bloom and Francis
Fukuyama. History is seen primarily as a chronicle of triumph, a
"demonstrable increase in power over nature and over uncivilized
societies." The vanquished have little choice but to accept the
inferiority of their heritage and the necessity to remake themselves in
the image of their conquerors.

This kind of clichéd apologetics goes back at least to 1492, but there
is some hard truth-telling in parts of Flanagan's book. I especially
appreciated his chapter on the scandals about some Indian bands being
administered for the benefit of a privileged few. But do these episodes
justify the assimilationists' zeal to discredit the whole project of
self-government? I also agree with Flanagan that the culture of welfare
dependency on most reserves is "the greatest policy disaster in Canadian
history."

Then there's Bruce Clark, the disbarred, criminalized expert on imperial
aboriginal law whose memoirs form the basis of Justice in Paradise. The
culmination of the book's lively narrative, and of Clark's own
tumultuous legal career, took place in the B.C. Interior in 1995. At the
centre of the controversy was the Battle of Gustafsen Lake. That
confrontation over the legal status of a sacred ceremonial site
mushroomed to become by far the largest police and military action in
the history of the province: about 20 armed native and non-native
sundancers surrounded by 400 RCMP officers and soldiers including, it
seems, a secret anti-terrorist unit.

In his unorthodox representation of his clients in the native
encampment, Clark attempted to raise the provocative legal thesis that
the international genocide convention has been violated through failure
to develop British Columbia in conformity with Canada's existing law of
aboriginal rights. Government officials evaded engaging Clark's
arguments, and the media replicated the campaign of ridicule and
demonization orchestrated by the B.C. attorney-general and the RCMP,
deflecting serious consideration of Clark's thesis: that the issue of
unceded Indian title to B.C. lands has implications in international
law.

The RCMP produced a training tape of their behind-the-scenes operations
during the Battle of Gustafsen Lake, portions of which were released as
evidence at the trial of the militant sundancers. The surprising
contents included a police media liason officer seeking journalistic
assistance for what he described as the RCMP's "disinformation and smear
campaign." Mountie Dennis Ryan calmly announced that his superiors had
decided "to kill this Clark and smear the prick and everyone with him."

These and many other chilling snippets have been repeatedly aired on the
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in a full-length documentary,
Above the Law, Part 2, which corroborates some of the seemingly
incredible episodes in Clark's memoir. Readers can judge for themselves
whether Clark is a lunatic or a courageous messenger bearing sad news
about the Canadian judiciary.

In fact, officialdom's ruthless handling of Clark and his clients shows
that the Indian wars in North America persist. The propagandistic ruses
employed by the Crown at Gustafsen Lake in 1995 followed the same basic
tactics used at Oka in 1990 and at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973.

The five-centuries-old conflict with First Nations for control of lands
and resources continues. The repressiveness of the covert tactics
employed to marginalize the militant wing of the First Nations
sovereignty movement belies the academic character of the debate between
Cairns and Flanagan. Both fail to set their sights firmly on the need
for institutional innovations at the international level. As Clark
insists, that is where we need a new regime of global protection for the
rights of indigenous people on all continents. Domestic initiatives
alone are not enough.

Anthony J. Hall is a professor in the Department of Native American
Studies at the University of Lethbridge. His forthcoming book is The
Peoples' Bowl: The American Empire and the Fourth World.

>From: "Brigitte Thimiakis" <thimiakischool@...>
>To: "Katiuska" <katiuska_one@...>
>Subject: Fw:       Urgent plea from Mi'kmaq in New Brunswick
>Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 09:36:06 +0300
>
>
>
>
> >From: <mtn@...>
> >
> >Dear friends,
> >
> >We are asking for your support in getting this to the international
> >press.
> >Currently, our warriors are in the process of defending what few traps
> >and boats that we have left.
> >
> >All My Relations,
> >James Ward
> >Burnt Church, New Brunswick
> >(506) 776-5629
> >ablib@...
> >
> >
> >For Immediate Release
> >
> >August 19. 2000 -Burnt Church, New Brunswick
> >
> >Canadian Government Backs Out of Agreement with Burnt Church Natives
> >
> >Department of Fisheries and Oceans New Brunswick and the Mi'kmaq of Burnt
>Church had reached a tentative agreement that would allow the Natives to
>fish in a certain perimeter. However, the federal Department of Fisheries
>and Oceans (DFO) had broken protocol by restricting further the fishing
>grounds allocated to the Mi'kmaq as well the number of traps has been
>reduced further.
> >
> >As the talks degenerated further, DFO stated that they would use "force"
>to
>achieve their objective of shutting down the lobster fishery at Burnt
>Church. Many of the Mi'kmaq depend on the lobster fishery as their only
>means of support, as the unemployment rate is near 90%. Burnt Church First
>Nation is not in a position to lose any more traps as over 3000 have
>already
>been confiscated by DFO or destroyed by non- native fishermen.
> >
> >We are urgently requesting any assistance you can offer as this is a
>desperate situation. We cannot give up this fight and must continue to
>ensure that our Treaty Rights are honored by the Canadian Government, and
>we
>must protect our Inherent Right for the next 7 generations, we are
>obligated
>by honor and duty to do so.
> >
> >It is critical for us at this time to plead for the presence of witnesses
>to the continued assault of the DFO, RCMP and Canadian military on our
>fishermen. Unarmed
> >
> >members of our community members have suffered repeated violent attacks
>by
>government officials; these have not been reported by mainstream media,
>further compromising our safety and well-being. We have tried our best to
>trust in the peaceful process of discussion and negotiation, and are left
>to
>defend ourselves against the bad faith of the government officials. We
>thank
>you for your consideration.
> >
> >-30-
> >
> >For More Information, please contact:
> >
> >James Ward: (506) 776-5629
> >
> >Danny Ward: (506) 776-8589
> >
> >ablib@...
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

      KATIUSKA HANOHANO.
    katiuska_one@...

Website//Home Page: www.katiuska.net

INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER
        FREELANCE

         "CANARY ISLANDS"

   "SOVERNSPEAKOUT LIST"(Co-Moderator)

   P.O.BOX 480783
   Denver,COLORADO 80248,USA.
   PH:(303)671-0387



________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

>From: GRAIN Los Banos <grain@...>
>To: bio-ipr@...
>Subject: [BIO-IPR] Resource pointer
>Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 17:26:34 +0800
>BIO-IPR resource pointer
>________________________________________________________
>
>
>EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
>
>EPO, "Basic proposal for revision of the European Patent Convention",
>Munich, 17 August 2000. Also in French and German.
>http://www.european-patent-office.org/news/headlns/2000_08_17.htm
>
>A background note on the Diplomatic Conference for the Revision of the EPC,
>scheduled to take place in Munich from 20 to 19 November 2000, is available
>at:
>http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/president/e/240300_e.htm
>
>
>EUROPEAN COMMISSION
>
>"Legal protection of biotechnical inventions: Frequently asked questions on
>scope and objectives of the EU Directive (98/44)", Brussels, 3 July 2000.
>http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/intprop/indprop/2k-39.htm
>
>
>WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION
>
>WIPO, "Draft Report on Fact-finding Missions on Intellectual Property and
>Traditional Knowledge (1998-1999)", Draft for Comment, Geneva, 3 July 2000.
>http://www.wipo.int/traditionalknowledge/report/contents.html
>To read their press release about it, see
>http://www.wipo.int/eng/pressrel/2000/p236.htm
>
>Also, WIPO has introduced two new sections on its website, one on
>"traditional knowledge" and another on "biotechnology". They have also
>added
>an Arabic version of the site.
>http://www.wipo.int/traditionalknowledge/
>http://www.wipo.int/biotech/
>
>
>UN CONFERENCE ON TRADE & DEVELOPMENT
>
>Discussion papers for the "First Regional Workshop on Strengthening
>Research
>and Policy-Making Capacity on Trade and Environment in Developing
>Countries", organized by UNCTAD in Los Baños, Philippines, 11-13 November
>1999. The set includes national reports from Cuba, Brazil, Philippines,
>South Africa and Tanzania on sui generis rights, biodiversity and
>benefit-sharing. Other documents discuss the relationship between CBD and
>TRIPS (by FIELD) and biotechnology (by UNCTAD).
>http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/index.htm (--> Publications)
>
>UNCTAD is organising, in cooperation with WIPO and WTO, an "Expert Meeting
>on Systems and National Experiences for Protecting Traditional Knowledge,
>Innovations and Practices" in Geneva on 30 October - 1 November 2000. The
>meeting will address the objectives of TK protection systems and possible
>means of achieving those ends, including prior informed consent, access and
>benefit sharing mechanisms, strengthening customary/traditional law, using
>intellectual property instruments, developing sui generis systems,
>documenting traditional knowledge, as well as measures to encourage
>TK-based
>innovations and the development and export of TK-derived products (where
>appropriate). See UNCTAD's website for further information or contact
>Sophia
>Twarog at mailto:Sophia.Twarog@...
>http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/index.htm (--> Events)
>
>
>Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, "Nuffield Report on GM Crops: The
>Intellectual Property Issues", Comments by CIPA Biotechnology Committee,
>April 2000.
>http://www.cipa.org.uk/notices/nufrep.htm
>
>
>As previously announced, "Seeding Solutions, Volume 1: Policy Options for
>Genetic Resources", by The Crucible Group II, is now available full-text
>online, courtesy of IDRC, Ottawa.
>http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=548&CATID=15.
>
>
>Gary W. Smith, "Intellectual Property Rights, Developing Countries, and
>TRIPs
>An Overview of Issues for Consideration during the Millennium Round of
>Multilateral Trade Negotiations",  Journal of World Intellectual Property,
>Vol. 2 No. 6, November 1999.
>http://www.burnslevinson.com/publications/articles/int_prop_rights.html
>
>
>Final report, "International Conference on Medicinal Plants, Traditional
>Medicine & Local Communities in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of the
>New Millennium", held 16-19 May 2000 at the International Centre for
>Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi. The conference report includes one
>section on “Intellectual Property Rights, Development of Medicinal Plants,
>Genetic Resources and Drug Discovery".
>http://users.ox.ac.uk/~gree0179/
>
>
>Martin A Girsberger, "Biodiversity and the Concept of Farmers' Rights in
>International Law: Factual Background and Legal Analysis", Studies in
>Global
>Economic Law, Vol 1, Peter Lang AGBerne, 1999, 415 pp. ISBN 3-906763-80-3.
>http://www.geist.de/langbern/verlag-D.html
>
>
>Darrell A. Posey y/et Graham Dutfield
>-- "Más allá de la propiedad intelectual: Los derechos de las comunidades
>indígenas y locales a los recursos tradicionales", CIID/WWF/Editorial
>Nordan, 1999.
>-- "Le marché mondial de la propriété intellectuelle: Droits des
>communautés
>traditionnelles et indigènes", CRDI, 1997.
>http://www.idrc.ca/booktique
>
>
>_________________________________________________________
>ABOUT THIS LISTSERVER -- BIO-IPR is an irregular listserver put out by
>Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN). Its purpose is to circulate
>information about recent developments in the field of intellectual property
>rights related to biodiversity & associated knowledge. BIO-IPR is a
>strictly
>non-commercial and educational service for nonprofit organisations and
>individuals active in the struggle against IPRs on life.
>HOW TO PARTICIPATE -- To get on the mailing list, send the word "subscribe"
>(no quotes) as the subject of an email message to
>mailto:bio-ipr-request@.... To get off the list, send the word
>"unsubscribe" instead. To submit material to the list, address your message
>to mailto:bio-ipr@.... A note with further details about BIO-IPR is
>sent to all subscribers.
>ABOUT GRAIN -- For general information about GRAIN, kindly visit our
>wwwsite
>http://www.grain.org or write us at mailto:grain@....
>
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

      KATIUSKA HANOHANO.
    katiuska_one@...

Website//Home Page: www.katiuska.net

INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER
        FREELANCE

         "CANARY ISLANDS"

   "SOVERNSPEAKOUT LIST"(Co-Moderator)

   P.O.BOX 480783
   Denver,COLORADO 80248,USA.
   PH:(303)671-0387



________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [BIO-IPR] Resource pointer
Resent-Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 16:45:19 -0700
Resent-From: bio-ipr@...
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 17:26:34 +0800
From: GRAIN Los Banos <grain@...>
To: bio-ipr@...

--


BIO-IPR resource pointer
________________________________________________________


EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE

EPO, "Basic proposal for revision of the European Patent Convention",
Munich, 17 August 2000. Also in French and German.
http://www.european-patent-office.org/news/headlns/2000_08_17.htm

A background note on the Diplomatic Conference for the Revision of the
EPC, scheduled to take place in Munich from 20 to 19 November 2000, is
available at:
http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/president/e/240300_e.htm


EUROPEAN COMMISSION

"Legal protection of biotechnical inventions: Frequently asked questions
on scope and objectives of the EU Directive (98/44)", Brussels, 3 July
2000.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/intprop/indprop/2k-39.htm


WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION

WIPO, "Draft Report on Fact-finding Missions on Intellectual Property
and Traditional Knowledge (1998-1999)", Draft for Comment, Geneva, 3
July 2000.
http://www.wipo.int/traditionalknowledge/report/contents.html
To read their press release about it, see
http://www.wipo.int/eng/pressrel/2000/p236.htm

Also, WIPO has introduced two new sections on its website, one on
"traditional knowledge" and another on "biotechnology". They have also
added
an Arabic version of the site.
http://www.wipo.int/traditionalknowledge/
http://www.wipo.int/biotech/


UN CONFERENCE ON TRADE & DEVELOPMENT

Discussion papers for the "First Regional Workshop on Strengthening
Research and Policy-Making Capacity on Trade and Environment in
Developing Countries", organized by UNCTAD in Los Baños, Philippines,
11-13 November 1999. The set includes national reports from Cuba,
Brazil, Philippines, South Africa and Tanzania on sui generis rights,
biodiversity and benefit-sharing. Other documents discuss the
relationship between CBD and TRIPS (by FIELD) and biotechnology (by
UNCTAD).
http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/index.htm (--> Publications)

UNCTAD is organising, in cooperation with WIPO and WTO, an "Expert
Meeting on Systems and National Experiences for Protecting Traditional
Knowledge, Innovations and Practices" in Geneva on 30 October - 1
November 2000. The meeting will address the objectives of TK protection
systems and possible means of achieving those ends, including prior
informed consent, access and benefit sharing mechanisms, strengthening
customary/traditional law, using intellectual property instruments,
developing sui generis systems, documenting traditional knowledge, as
well as measures to encourage TK-based innovations and the development
and export of TK-derived products (where appropriate). See UNCTAD's
website for further information or contact Sophia Twarog at
mailto:Sophia.Twarog@...
http://www.unctad.org/trade_env/index.htm (--> Events)


Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, "Nuffield Report on GM Crops: The
Intellectual Property Issues", Comments by CIPA Biotechnology Committee,
April 2000.
http://www.cipa.org.uk/notices/nufrep.htm


As previously announced, "Seeding Solutions, Volume 1: Policy Options
for Genetic Resources", by The Crucible Group II, is now available
full-text online, courtesy of IDRC, Ottawa.
http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=548&CATID=15.


Gary W. Smith, "Intellectual Property Rights, Developing Countries, and
TRIPs An Overview of Issues for Consideration during the Millennium
Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations",  Journal of World
Intellectual Property, Vol. 2 No. 6, November 1999.
http://www.burnslevinson.com/publications/articles/int_prop_rights.html


Final report, "International Conference on Medicinal Plants, Traditional
Medicine & Local Communities in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of
the New Millennium", held 16-19 May 2000 at the International Centre for
Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi. The conference report includes one
section on “Intellectual Property Rights, Development of Medicinal
Plants, Genetic Resources and Drug Discovery".
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~gree0179/


Martin A Girsberger, "Biodiversity and the Concept of Farmers' Rights in
International Law: Factual Background and Legal Analysis", Studies in
Global Economic Law, Vol 1, Peter Lang AGBerne, 1999, 415 pp. ISBN
3-906763-80-3.
http://www.geist.de/langbern/verlag-D.html


Darrell A. Posey y/et Graham Dutfield
-- "Más allá de la propiedad intelectual: Los derechos de las
comunidades indígenas y locales a los recursos tradicionales",
CIID/WWF/Editorial Nordan, 1999.
-- "Le marché mondial de la propriété intellectuelle: Droits des
communautés traditionnelles et indigènes", CRDI, 1997.
http://www.idrc.ca/booktique


_________________________________________________________
ABOUT THIS LISTSERVER -- BIO-IPR is an irregular listserver put out by
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN). Its purpose is to
circulate information about recent developments in the field of
intellectual property rights related to biodiversity & associated
knowledge. BIO-IPR is a strictly non-commercial and educational service
for nonprofit organisations and individuals active in the struggle
against IPRs on life.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE -- To get on the mailing list, send the word
"subscribe" (no quotes) as the subject of an email message to
mailto:bio-ipr-request@.... To get off the list, send the word
"unsubscribe" instead. To submit material to the list, address your
message to mailto:bio-ipr@.... A note with further details about
BIO-IPR is sent to all subscribers.
ABOUT GRAIN -- For general information about GRAIN, kindly visit our
wwwsite
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GUIDELINES FOR RESPECTING CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE
From
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/standards/culturaldoc.html

(this document has been reformatted for transmission via e-mail)

Sponsored by:
ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES
ALASKA RURAL SYSTEMIC INITIATIVE
ALASKA RURAL CHALLENGE
CENTER FOR CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES
ALASKA NATIVE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
CUILISTET RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION OF INTERIOR NATIVE EDUCATORS
SOUTHEAST NATIVE EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION
NORTH SLOPE IÑUPIAQ EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION OF NATIVE EDUCATORS OF THE LOWER KUSKOKWIM
ASSOCIATION OF NORTHWEST NATIVE EDUCATORS
NATIVE EDUCATORS OF THE ALUTIIQ REGION
ASSOCIATION OF UNANGAN EDUCATORS
ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION STUDENT ASSOCIATION
ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION COUNCIL
ALASKA FIRST NATIONS RESEARCH NETWORK
CONSORTIUM FOR ALASKA NATIVE HIGHER EDUCATION

Adopted February 1, 2000

by

Assembly of Alaska Native Educators Anchorage, Alaska

The following guidelines address issues of concern in the documentation,
representation and utilization of traditional cultural knowledge as they
relate to the role of various participants, including Elders, authors,
curriculum developers, classroom teachers, publishers and researchers.
Special attention is given to the educational implications for the
integration of indigenous knowledge and practices in schools throughout
Alaska. The guidance offered in the following pages is intended to encourage
the incorporation of traditional knowledge and teaching practices in schools
by minimizing the potential for misuse and misunderstanding in the process.
It is hoped that these guidelines will facilitate the coming together of the
many cultural traditions that coexist in Alaska in constructive, respectful
and mutually beneficial ways.

Native educators from throughout the state contributed to the development of
these guidelines through a series of workshops and meetings associated with
the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative. Representatives of the Native educator
organizations listed on the cover participated in the meetings and ratified
the final document. The purpose of these guidelines is to offer assistance
to educational personnel and others who are seeking to incorporate the
Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools in their work. Using
these guidelines will help expand the base of knowledge and expertise that
culturally responsive teachers (including Elders, aides, bilingual
instructors, etc.) are able to draw upon to enliven their work as educators.


Throughout this document, Elders are accorded a central role as the primary
source of cultural knowledge. It should be understood that the
identification of "Elders" as culture-bearers is not simply a matter of
chronological age, but a function of the respect accorded to individuals in
each community who exemplify the values and lifeways of the local culture
and who possess the wisdom and willingness to pass their knowledge on to
future generations. Respected Elders serve as the philosophers, professors
and visionaries of a cultural community. In addition, many aspects of
cultural knowledge can be learned from other members of a community who have
not yet been recognized as Elders, but seek to practice and teach local
lifeways in culturally appropriate ways

Along with these "guidelines" are a set of "general recommendations" aimed
at stipulating the kind of steps that need to be taken to achieve the goals
for which they are intended. State and federal agencies, universities,
school districts, textbook publishers and Native communities are all
encouraged to review their policies, programs and practices and to adopt
these guidelines and recommendations wherever appropriate. In so doing, the
educational experiences of students throughout Alaska will be enriched and
the future well-being of the communities being served will be enhanced.

Further information on issues related to the implementation of these
guidelines, as well as additional copies may be obtained from the Alaska
Native Knowledge Network, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
99775 (http://www.ankn.uaf.edu).

Guidelines for Native Elders

As one of the primary sources of traditional cultural knowledge, Native
Elders bear the responsibility to share and pass on that knowledge in ways
that are compatible with traditional teachings and practices.

Native Elders may increase their cultural responsiveness through the
following actions:

Participate in local and regional Elders Councils as a way to help
formulate, document and pass on traditional cultural knowledge for future
generations.

Help make explicit and incorporate locally appropriate cultural values in
all aspects of life in the community, while recognizing the diversity of
opinion that may exist.

Make a point to utilize traditional ways of knowing, teaching, listening and
learning in passing on cultural knowledge to others in the community.

Seek out information on ways to protect intellectual property rights and
retain copyright authority over all local knowledge that is being shared
with others for documentation purposes.

Carefully review contracts and release forms to determine who controls the
distribution of any publications and associated royalties.

Review all transcripts of cultural information that has been written down to
insure accuracy.

Follow appropriate traditional protocols as much as possible in the
interpretation and utilization of cultural knowledge.

Assist willing members of the community to acquire the knowledge and skills
needed to assume the role of Elder for future generations. Guidelines for
Authors and Illustrators

Authors and illustrators should take all steps necessary to insure that any
representation of cultural content is accurate, contextually appropriate and
explicitly acknowledged.

Authors and illustrators may increase their cultural responsiveness through
the following actions:

Make it a practice to insure that all cultural content has been acquired
under informed consent and has been reviewed for accuracy and
appropriateness by knowledgeable local people representative of the culture
in question.

Arrange for copyright authority and royalties to be retained or shared by
the person or community from which the cultural information originated, and
follow local protocols for its approval and distribution.

Insure controlled access for sensitive cultural information that has not
been explicitly authorized for general distribution.

Be explicit in describing how all cultural knowledge and material has been
acquired, authenticated and utilized, and present any significant differing
points of view that may exist.

Make explicit the audience(s) for which a cultural document is intended, as
well as the point of view of the person(s) preparing the document.

Make every effort to utilize traditional names for people, places, items,
etc., adhering to local conventions for spelling and pronunciation.

Identify all primary contributors and secondary sources for a particular
document, and share the authorship whenever possible.

Acquire extensive first-hand experience in a new cultural context before
writing about it.

Carefully explain the intent and use when obtaining permission to take
photographs or videos, and make it clear in publication whether they have
been staged as a re-enactment or represent actual events.

When documenting oral history, recognize and consider the power of the
written word and the implications of putting oral tradition with all its
non-verbal connotations down on paper, always striving to convey the
original meaning and context as much as possible.  Guidelines for
Curriculum Developers and Administrators

Curriculum developers and administrators should provide multiple avenues for
the incorporation of locally recognized expertise in all actions related to
the use and interpretation of local cultural knowledge and practices.

Curriculum developers and administrators may increase their cultural
responsiveness through the following actions:

Establish an easily accessible repository of culturally appropriate resource
materials and knowledgeable expertise from the community.

Include the voices of representatives from the local culture in the
curriculum materials used in the school.

Utilize the natural environment of the community to move educational
activities beyond the classroom as a way of fostering place-based education
and deepening the learning experiences of students.

Support the implementation of an Elders-in-Residence program in each school
and classroom.

Provide an in-depth cultural orientation program for all new teachers and
administrators.

Promote the incorporation of the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive
Schools in all aspects of the school curriculum, while demonstrating their
applicability in providing multiple avenues to meet the State Content
Standards.

Utilize Elders and Native teachers from the local community to acquire a
comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the local, regional and
statewide context in which the students live, particularly as it relates to
the well-being and survival of the local culture.

Make use of locally produced resource materials (reports, videos, maps,
books, tribal documents, etc.) in all subject areas and work in close
collaboration with local agencies to enrich the curriculum beyond the scope
of commercially produced texts.

Establish a review committee of locally knowledgeable people to review all
textbooks and other curriculum materials for accuracy and appropriateness in
relation to the local cultural context, as well as to examine the overall
cultural responsiveness of the educational system. 

Guidelines for Educators

Classroom teachers are responsible for drawing upon Elders and other
cultural experts in the surrounding community to make sure all resource
materials and learning activities are culturally accurate and appropriate

Teachers may increase their cultural responsiveness through the following
actions:

Learn how to use local ways of knowing and teaching to link the knowledge
base of the school to that of the community.

Make effective use of local expertise, especially Elders, as co-teachers
whenever local cultural knowledge is being addressed in the curriculum.

Take steps to recognize and validate all aspects of the knowledge students
bring with them, and assist them in their on-going quest for personal and
cultural affirmation.

Develop the observation and listening skills necessary to acquire an
in-depth understanding of the knowledge system indigenous to the local
community and apply that understanding in teaching practice.

Carefully review all curriculum resource materials to insure cultural
accuracy and appropriateness.

Make every effort to utilize locally relevant curriculum materials with
which students can readily identify, including materials prepared by Native
authors.

Provide sufficient flexibility in scheduling Elder participation so they are
able to fully share what they know with minimal interference by the clock,
and provide enough advance notice for them to make the necessary
preparations.

Align all subject matter with the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive
Schools and develop curriculum models that are based on the local cultural
and environmental experiences of the students.

Recognize the importance of cultural and intellectual property rights in
teaching practice and honor such rights in all aspects of the selection and
utilization of curriculum resources (see attached bibliography for details).
 Guidelines for Editors and Publishers

Editors and publishers should utilize culturally knowledgeable authors and
establish multiple levels of review to insure that all publications are
culturally accurate and appropriate.

Editors and publishers may increase their cultural responsiveness through
the following actions:

Encourage and support Native-authors and provide appropriate biographical
information and photographs of the author(s) of culturally oriented
material.

Return a significant proportion of publication proceeds and royalties to the
person or community from which it originated.

Submit all manuscripts with cultural content to locally knowledgeable
personnel for review, making effective use of local and regional entities
set up for this purpose.

Insure appropriate review, approval and access for all digital and
Internet-based materials.

Resolve all disagreements on cultural content or distribution before final
publication.

Always return to the original source for re-authorization of subsequent
printings.

All content of textbooks for general curricular use should be examined to
make sure it is widely accepted and recognized, and not just an individual
author's opinion.

Honor all local conventions for recognizing cultural and intellectual
property rights.  Guidelines for Document Reviewers

Reviewers should give informed consideration to the cultural perspectives of
all groups represented in documents subjected to review.

Document reviewers may increase their cultural responsiveness through the
following actions:

Always be as explicit as possible in identifying the background experience
and personal reference points on which the interpretation of cultural
meaning is based.

Whenever possible and appropriate, reviews of cultural materials should be
provided from multiple perspectives and interpretations.

When critical decisions about a publication are to be made, a panel of
reviewers should be established in such a way as to provide a cross-check
from several cultural perspectives.

Publications that misrepresent or omit cultural content should be identified
as such, regardless of their remaining literary merit.

Reviews of movies involving cultural themes should utilize the same
guidelines as those outlined for published documents.  Guidelines for
Researchers

Researchers are ethically responsible for obtaining informed consent,
accurately representing the cultural perspective and protecting the cultural
integrity and rights of all participants in a research endeavor.

Researchers may increase their cultural responsiveness through the following
actions:

Effectively identify and utilize the expertise in participating communities
to enhance the quality of data gathering as well as the data itself, and use
caution in applying external frames of reference in its analysis and
interpretation.

Insure controlled access for sensitive cultural information that has not
been explicitly authorized for general distribution, as determined by
members of the local community.

Submit research plans as well as results for review by a locally
knowledgeable group and abide by its recommendations to the maximum extent
possible.

Provide full disclosure of funding sources, sponsors, institutional
affiliations and reviewers.

Include explicit recognition of all research contributors in the final
report.

Abide by the research principles and guidelines established by the Alaska
Federation of Natives and other state, national and international
organizations representing indigenous peoples.  Guidelines for Native
Language Specialists

Native language specialists are responsible for taking all steps possible to
accurately convey the meaning associated with cultural knowledge that has
been shared in a traditional language.

Native language specialists may increase their cultural responsiveness
through the following actions:

Whenever possible, utilize a panel of local experts rather than a single
source to corroborate translation and interpretation of language materials,
as well as to construct words for new terms.

Encourage the use and teaching of the local language in ways that provide
appropriate context for conveying accurate meaning and interpretation,
including an appreciation for the subtleties of story construction, use of
metaphor and oratorical skills.

Provide Elders with opportunities and support to share what they know in the
local language.

Whenever possible, utilize simultaneous translation equipment at meetings to
facilitate the use of the local language.

Prepare curriculum resource materials that utilize the local language, so as
to make it as easy as possible for teachers to draw upon the local language
in their teaching.  Guidelines for Native Community Organizations

Native community organizations should establish a process for review and
authorization of activities involving the gathering, documentation and use
of local cultural knowledge. Native community organizations may increase
their cultural responsiveness through the following actions:

The Native educator associations should establish regional clearinghouses to
provide an on-going process for the review and certification of cultural
resource materials, including utilizing the available expertise of retired
Native educators.

Native educators should engage in critical self-assessment and participatory
research to ascertain the extent to which their teaching practices are
effectively grounded in the traditional ways of transmitting the culture of
the surrounding community.

Native communities should provide a support mechanism to assist Elders in
understanding the processes of giving informed consent and filing for
copyright protections, and publicize the availability of such assistance
through public service announcements on the radio so all Elders are aware of
their rights.

Each community and region should establish a process for reviewing and
approving research proposals that may impact their area.

Each community should establish a process for determining what is considered
public knowledge vs. private knowledge, as well as how and with whom such
knowledge should be shared.

Native communities should receive copies and maintain a repository of all
documents that relate to the local area.

Native communities/tribes should foster the incorporation of traditional
knowledge, language and protocols in all aspects of community life and
organizational practices.

As regional Tribal Colleges are established, they should provide a support
structure for the implementation of these guidelines in each of their
respective regions.  Guidelines for the General Public

As the users and audience for cultural knowledge, the general public has a
responsibility to exercise informed critical judgement about the cultural
authenticity and appropriateness of the materials they utilize.

Members of the general public may increase their cultural responsiveness
through the following actions:

Refrain from purchasing or using publications that do not represent
traditional cultures in accurate and appropriate ways.

Encourage and support Native peoples' efforts to apply their own criteria to
the review and approval of documents representing their cultural traditions.


Contribute to and participate respectfully in local cultural events to gain
a better understanding of the range of cultural traditions that strive to
coexist in Alaska.

Make room in all community events for multiple cultural traditions to be
represented. 

General Recommendations

The following recommendation are offered to support the effective
implementation of the guidelines for documenting and representing cultural
knowledge outlined above.

The Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools should be used as a
general guide for any educational activity involving cultural documentation,
representation or review.

A statewide "Alaska Indigenous Literary Review Board" should be established
with representation from each of the regional Native educator associations
to oversee the implementation of the recommendations that follow.

A statewide "Alaska Indigenous Knowledge Multimedia Working Group" should be
established to examine the applicability of the above guidelines to the
production of electronic media and the publication and utilization of
cultural knowledge via the Internet.

Criteria for "product certification" of materials with cultural content
should be established and implemented by regional Literary Review Committees
formed through the regional Native educator associations. The "Raven" images
from the ANKN logo could be used as a "stamp of approval" for each cultural
region.

Each regional Literary Review Committee should develop a list of authorized
reviewers for publications reflecting cultural content related to the
respective region.

An annotated bibliography of the best materials representing local cultures
should be compiled by each regional Literary Review Committee and published
on the Alaska Native Knowledge Network web site for use by teachers and
curriculum developers throughout the state.

The Alaska Indigenous Literary Review Board should establish prestigious
awards to honor Native Elders, authors, illustrators and others who make a
significant contribution to the documentation and representation of cultural
knowledge.

Incentives, resources and opportunities should be provided to encourage and
support Native authors, illustrators, story-tellers, etc. who can bring a
strong Native voice to the documentation and representation of Native
cultural knowledge and traditions.

The guidelines outlined above should be incorporated in university courses
and made an integral part of all teacher preparation and cultural
orientation programs.

An annotated bibliography of resource materials that address issues
associated with documenting, representing and utilizing cultural knowledge
should be maintained on the Alaska Native Knowledge Network web site.

Haida remains sent back to B.C. for second burial
A century after being collected for study, natives' bones turned over by
museum

MARK MacKINNON
Parliamentary Bureau
Friday, August 18, 2000
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20000818/UMUSEN.html

Ottawa -- After spending the entire 20th century in the basement of a
museum in Ottawa being probed and prodded by scientists, the remains of
two Haida men and one Haida woman are finally on the way to British
Columbia, where they will be buried for a second time near the ocean
where the three spent their days.

The three skulls and jawbones were among 148 sets of skeletal remains
returned to the Haida people by the Canadian Museum of Civilization
yesterday. Little was known about them other than that they were
collected by anthropologist Charles Frederick Newcombe in 1898 from what
are now known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Nonetheless, to Lucille Bell, one of the co-ordinators of the delegation
that repatriated the remains, yesterday marked a reunion.

"It's been a really emotional time. We consider these people our
grandmothers and grandfathers. We don't know who these people are. We do
know that we come from them."

She and more than 20 others held a private ceremonial feast in honour of
their long-dead ancestors on Wednesday night. They will now be flown to
Haida Gwaii (their name for the archipelago where they live) for a
traditional burial.

None of the names of the 148 are known. Most of them were excavated in
1967 and 1968 by George MacDonald, a former director of the museum.

Hundreds of artifacts found during the excavations were also returned
yesterday.

The Museum of Civilization, which since 1991 has had a policy of
repatriating remains upon request, still has more than 1,000 skeletal
remains in its collection,  though none are on display. The museum's
head of archeology, Dr. David Morrison, said most of the remains are
native, primarily Inuit from the Nunavut region.

Dr. Morrison said those remains, like the Haida ones, were excavated at
a time when it was considered acceptable for museums to disturb graves
without permission.

"We no longer consider it appropriate to excavate people's remains
without their active consent or involvement," he said yesterday. There
has been "a real change in society" since the last remains were
excavated in 1968, he said.

Hello all,

the correct link address is:

http://www.ipcb.org/pub/index.html

don


>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: We've moved
> Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 18:41:03 -0700
> From: Debra Harry <dharry@...>
> Reply-To: <ipcb-net@...>
> To: ipcb-net@...
>
> Dear Friends
>
> We're please to let you know that a newly revised and expanded version
> of "Indigenous Peoples, Genes and Genetics: What Indigenous Peoples
> Should Know About Biocolonialism" is now available on-line in both
> HTML and PDF versions.  The HTML is for on-line viewing, and the PDF
> version allows you to print a formatted copy for duplication.  A
> printed version will be available (for mailing) from our office in
> mid-September.
>
> They can be located at the following address:
>
> http://www.ipcb.org/pubs
>
>
> Please share this with anyone you think may be interested.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Debra Harry
> Executive Director
> Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
> ________________________________________
> Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
> Tel:  (775) 835-6932  Fax:  (775) 835-6934
> Email: ipcb@... Website:  www.ipcb.org
> _________________________________________

To subscribe send a blank email message to:
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To unsubscribe send a blank email message to:
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For more information about the list go to:
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In a message dated 8/20/00 9:32:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
dbain@... writes:

<< They can be located at the following address:

  http://www.ipcb.org/pubs


   >>
the link doesn't work

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: We've moved
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 18:41:03 -0700
From: Debra Harry <dharry@...>
Reply-To: <ipcb-net@...>
To: ipcb-net@...

Dear Friends

We're please to let you know that a newly revised and expanded version
of
"Indigenous Peoples, Genes and Genetics: What Indigenous Peoples Should
Know About Biocolonialism"
is now available on-line in both HTML and PDF versions.  The HTML is for
on-line viewing, and the PDF version allows you to print a formatted
copy
for duplication.  A printed version will be available (for mailing) from
our office in mid-September.

They can be located at the following address:

http://www.ipcb.org/pubs


Please share this with anyone you think may be interested.

Best regards,

Debra Harry
Executive Director
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism




________________________________________
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
Tel:  (775) 835-6932  Fax:  (775) 835-6934
Email: ipcb@... Website:  www.ipcb.org
_________________________________________

>From: "frosty" <frosty@...>
>Subject: Natural Resources Canada Press Release
>Government of Canada
>2000/67
>August 14, 2000

>CANADIAN COUNCIL OF FOREST MINISTERS (CCFM): SHAPING CANADIAN FORESTRY'S
>FUTURE
>
>IQALUIT - At the annual meeting of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers
>which was chaired by Alberta Minister of Environment Halvar Jonson,
>Ministers dealt with a wide range of key issues affecting the future of the
>sustainable management of forests and the competitiveness of the forest
>sector.
>
>
>Forest 2020: sustaining forest stewardship and economic development
>
>The CCFM discussed an innovative Canada-wide approach to increase the
>conservation value of forests while ensuring the continued growth of the
>forest industry. Produced by a special Task Force, Forest 2020 will bring
>together environmental leadership, community stability, economic
>development and recent advances in science and technology to enhance and
>sustain the high contribution of forests to the quality of life of all
>Canadians.
>
>The Honourable Halvar Jonson, Minister of Environment for Alberta and
>current Chair of the CCFM said "Forest 2020 will not only benefit Canadians
>but also show the world how Canada is leading the way towards Sustainable
>Forest Management through decisive commitments and actions."
>
>Federal, provincial and territorial governments have worked together on a
>common basis to articulate this new approach. The next step, to which
>Ministers have also committed, is to initiate a dialogue to involve
>Canadians in this process of change.
>
>Ministers will build on their respective responsibilities and jurisdictions
>to make Forest 2020 a reality and an example. Ralph Goodale, Federal
>minister for Natural Resources Canada welcomed the opportunity to play a
>role in attracting investment into potential new forestry initiatives, such
>as high yield, fast growing plantations. "I believe we can create a climate
>that will generate greater investment in Canada's forest resources, using a
>variety of potential new instruments."
>
>Sustainable Forest Management
>
>The CCFM released today its "Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest
>Management - National Status 2000" report. Based on the best available
>scientific and technical information, the report indicates that Canada's
>forests are healthy and that Canadians are improving their knowledge of
>forest ecosystems and their approaches to forest management.
>
>"Canada's domestic Criteria and Indicators framework reflects an approach
>to forest management which is based on the recognition that forests are
>ecosystems that provide a wide range of environmental, economic and social
>benefits" said the Honourable Halvar Jonson, Minister of Environment for
>Alberta and current Chair of the CCFM.
>
>This report, the latest in a series, clearly illustrates Canada's
>commitment to its forests and to their long-term health, conservation and
>sustainability.
>
>National Forest Information System
>
>In order to facilitate communication and encourage effective implementation
>of sustainable forest management practices, improving access to timely and
>accurate forest information was formally recognized as a priority by the
>Council.
>
>"I am very pleased that the provincial/territorial and federal governments
>agreed to initiate the first phase of a multi-phased project to develop a
>National Forest Information System that will support analysis and reporting
>on forestry issues," said Alberta Environment Minister Halvar Jonson.
>
>Ontario Natural Resources Minister, John Snobelen, championed the
>development of the National Forest Information System and was supported by
>federal Natural Resources Minister, Ralph Goodale.
>
>Therefore, the CCFM agreed to develop phase one of the National Forest
>Information System which is intended to acquire, integrate, process and
>disseminate data and information from autonomous, distributed databases to
>support analysis of and reporting on forestry issues. As such, it mandated
>a Steering Committee to develop an infrastructure and a governance model
>addressing policy issues that relate to transparency, access, harmonization
>and linkages among the existing and new databases. The Steering Committee
>will look at opportunities for cooperation and coordination with other
>government departments and agencies and, ultimately non-government
>organizations.
>
>Certification
>
>Ministers considered the state of development of forest certification
>systems in Canada. While recognizing the good accomplishments made to date,
>Ministers would like to see the pace of development of standards and their
>implementation accelerated in light of the growing market demand.
>
>The CCFM Ministers asked officials, therefore, to consult with interested
>parties, including industry, environmental non-government organizations,
>aboriginals and labour, on options for the development of appropriate and
>effective standards and an equivalency framework for Canadian certification
>systems in order to advance the implementation of certification, while
>respecting the regional diversity of Canadian forestry circumstances and
>the various certification systems currently under development.
>
>International Forest Policy
>
>Federal Minister of Natural Resources Ralph Goodale, provided an overview
>of Canada's efforts in the international Forest Policy arena most of which
>continue to focus on the pursuit of an international forest convention.
>"It's an objective Canada has worked toward since the 1992 Rio Earth
>Summit" said Minister Goodale. "I am proud to say that Ministers of CCFM
>reconfirmed their commitment to this objective and also agreed to work
>together to better address international forest issues and prepare for the
>year 2002, when progress in implementing commitments made at the Earth
>Summit will be reviewed".
>
>Ministers noted the difficulties faced by the United States in fighting the
>heavy forest fires over the summer and that the equipment and personnel
>provided by Canadians are of assistance.
>
>Ontario, Next Year's Chair
>
>Ontario Natural Resources Minister John Snobelen, who is responsible for
>forest and land management in his province, assumed the chair of the CCFM
>for the coming year. In accepting the chair, Minister Snobelen noted that
>"The initiatives of the CCFM are important. They are based on sound science
>and support sustainable forest management policies and practices across
>Canada. The coming year will be very important in terms of continuing
>improvements in forest stewardship and information management. I look
>forward to building on the achievements of Ontario's Living Legacy and
>Forest Accord to support improvements in forest conservation and economic
>development across Canada. I am pleased and honored to assume the chair of
>the CCFM."
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
-
>
>For further information, contact:
>
>       André H. Rousseau
>       Canadian Forest Service
>       Natural Resources Canada
>       Tel.: (613) 947-9087
>       Fax: (613) 947-9038  Glenn Guenther
>       Communications
>       Alberta Environment
>       Tel.: (780) 427-8636
>       Fax: (780) 427-1874
>///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
      KATIUSKA HANOHANO.
    katiuska_one@...

WEBSITE: http://www.katiuska.net

INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER
        FREELANCE

"SOVERNSPEAKOUT LIST"(Co-Moderator)

         "CANARY ISLANDS"


   P.O.BOX 480783
   Denver,COLORADO 80248,USA.

   PH:(303)(671-0387)

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Panel backs human cloning research
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 10:00:07 -0700
From: Debra Harry <dharry@...>
Reply-To: <ipcb-net@...>
To: ipcb-net@...


http://www.msnbc.com/news/447005.asp?bt=nm&btu=http://www.msnbc.com/tools/newsto\
ols/d/news_menu.asp&cp1=1#BODY





________________________________________
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
Tel:  (775) 574-0248  Fax:  (775) 574-0259
Email: ipcb@... Website:  www.ipcb.org
_________________________________________

The attached is in PDF and unfortunately you must be a subscriber to the
Economist in order to view the article online.

don

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] Construction threatens historic site
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 12:44:16 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com

From: KOLA <kolahq@...>
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: Construction threatens historic site
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 16:20:05

<+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+>
[from Lona. Thanks!]

http://www.knoxnews.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=LONGHOUSE-08-18-00&cat=AN

By LYNETTE MEACHUM
Scripps Howard News Service
August 18, 2000

BREMERTON, Wash. - A home is being built next to the Suquamish site of
the
largest longhouse in the Northwest.

When Pat Osler started to build a home on his waterfront property in
Suquamish, he didn't know what he was digging into.

Neither did the Suquamish Tribe.

But a tribal fisherman going through Agate Pass noticed the construction
next to Old Man State Park and alerted the tribe, which soon discovered
Osler's crews had unwittingly dug into a shell midden.

Osler's property is next to the site of the largest longhouse in the
Northwest, home to Chief Seattle, Chief Kitsap and generations of
Suquamish.

The Old Man House was razed in the late 1800s by order of the Army.

"It's a very hallowed, sacred place for the Suquamish," said Jon Sloan,
a
biologist with the Suquamish Tribe.

Scientists have studied the park in the past, but the archaeological
borders
of the Old Man House have never been determined, Sloan said. Clearly,
they
extend onto Osler's property.

Archaeologists who are investigating have already found tools and other
artifacts, Sloan said. The site may also hold human remains, since
Indian
burials sites are often found in conjunction with middens, he said.

The county issued a stop-work order as soon as it heard of the
property's
significance, said Rick Kimball, environmental coordinator with the
Department of Community Development.

The hitch in the project is costing Osler about $2,000 a day while his
crews
wait for the review to be completed, Osler said.

He had no idea the site was significant to the tribe.

"They say people aren't sensitive enough to the past, and that's
probably
true," he said. "I guess it's all in what you value. All I know is that
the
state people came in and just shut everything down. They bypassed the
permit
I had and allowed people to come on my property and call the shots. It's
a
little alarming when your property rights are taken away from you."

The sensitivity of the site wasn't taken into consideration when the
county
issued Osler's building permit, Kimball said.

The site went through a shoreline review process, but single-family
residences are exempt from the State Environmental Protection Act
(SEPA),
planner Dave Greetham said.

The tribe normally finds out about building projects during the SEPA
process, Sloan said, so they weren't aware of the construction until it
started.

After the archaeologists finish their review, Osler might not be able to
continue building, Sloan said. Osler said he anticipates he'll probably
have
to change the building plans, incurring still more expense.

What makes the situation more unfortunate is the timing, Sloan said.

"The disturbance of the Old Man House midden comes on the eve of Chief
Seattle Days, a time when Suquamish history and culture are celebrated
by
Indians and non-Indians alike," Sloan said.

----
Contact Lynette Meachum of The Sun in Bremerton, Wash., at
<http://www.thesunlink.com>


[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment  to those who have expressed a
prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.]
<+>=<+>
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
<+>=<+>

>From: John Shafer <wy430@...>
>Reply-To: warriornet@...
>To: warriornet@...
>Subject: More Mi'qmaq arrests: "Call off your troops!"
>Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 11:26:47 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>    Fisheries officers arrest more native fishers
>    WebPosted Fri Aug 18 13:28:51 2000  CBC News
>
>    NEW EDINBURGH, N.S. - The federal fisheries crackdown on illegal
>lobster fishing on the east coast expanded Friday when
>    fisheries officers arrested four aboriginals after boarding a native
>fishing boat soon after dawn.
>    The officers also seized 85 lobster traps set by the Indian Brook band
>in Nova Scotia.
>    The arrests follow a similar operation at Burnt Church, N.B. last
>Sunday when officers seized nearly 800 Mi'kmaq lobster
>    traps and arrested four aboriginals for obstructing justice.
>    The captain of the Indian Brook boat, Donnie Jeans, says fisheries
>officers approached in a zodiac vessel, boarded his
>    boat, arrested four members of his crew and took them away in
>handcuffs.
>    The Mi'kmaq of Burnt Church, N.B., say they may bring down a road
>blockade but not at the behest of the RCMP – they
>    say they're letting their supporters in for a weekend gathering.
>    Talks are expected to get underway this weekend between fisheries
>officials and band leaders. The department insists any
>    fishing should be strictly for food and ceremonial purposes.
>
>    On Thursday, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations had a blunt
>message for Ottawa –"Call off your troops."
>    Newly elected Matthew Coon Come said aboriginal people must have a fair
>share of the resources in Canada. "Our people are
>    the poorest of the poor," he told a news conference in Burnt Church,
>N.B.
>    He said lobster fishing is a half-billion-dollar industry, and that
>native bands aren't getting their share.
>    The Mi'kmaq have proposed a "cooling off" period, which includes a plan
>to continue fishing under their own rules. The
>    community's leaders have advised the DFO to stop monitoring native
>lobster traps to help ease tensions.
>
>    "Strong-arm tactics never work, so let's negotiate," said Chief Allison
>Metallic of the Listuguj reserve. "The first thing
>    we have to do is get the two sides talking."
>    Thousands of people are expected to be in the community for a meeting
>this weekend. Band leaders say they don't want any
>    distractions from the water.
>    Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal has repeatedly said he has the right
>and responsibility to regulate Atlantic Canada's
>    valuable lobster fishery.
>
>
>References
>
>    0.
>http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/08/18/lobster000818
>    1. http://cbc.ca/
>   40. http://cbc.ca/clips/ram-lo/macintyre_burntchurchB000818.ram
>   41. http://cbc.ca/clips/mov/macintyre_burntchurch000818.mov
>   43.
>http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/email.cgi?/news/2000/08/18/lobster000818
>   44.
>http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/print.cgi?/news/2000/08/18/lobster000818
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
-----------------------------------------------------
>TELL CANADA TO BACK OFF THE MI'KMAQ FISHERS!
>
>PRIME MINISTER JEAN CHRETIEN: pm@...
>

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

>From: Michael Posluns <MPosluns@...>
>Reply-To: sovernspeakout@egroups.com
>To: First Nations Relations and Public Policy <fnr_pubpol@...>, Four
>Arrows <Four_Arrows@...>, LISN <lisn2000@...>,
>"sovernspeakout@egroups.com" <sovernspeakout@egroups.com>
>Subject: [sovernspeakout] Indian Country Today Newspaper - Native American
>Indian News
>Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 22:28:10 -0400
>
>
>http://indiancountry.com/articles/headline-2000-08-16-11.shtml
>--
>"How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality toward the
>wicked?  Do justice to the poor and fatherless, deal righteously with
>the afflicted and destitute.  Rescue the poor and needy; save them from
>the hand of the wicked."  (A Psalm of Asaph, The Psalm for the Third
>Day.)
>
>
>Michael W. Posluns,
>The Still Waters Group,
>First Nations Relations & Public Policy
>
>Please note new address:  mposluns@...
>
>Phone:  416 656-8613
>Fax:    416 656-2715
>
>36 Lauder Avenue,
>Toronto, Ontario,
>M6H 3E3
>
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

      KATIUSKA HANOHANO.
    katiuska_one@...

WEBSITE: http://www.katiuska.net

INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER
        FREELANCE

   P.O.BOX 480783
   Denver,COLORADO 80248,USA.

   PH:(303)(671-0387)

    "CANARY ISLANDS"

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] Canada: Supreme Court to examine who governs
native heritage sites, objects
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 16:36:21 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com

sent by Frosty..thanks!

Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 10:29 PM
Subject: Canadian Press Report

August 17, 2000
Supreme Court to examine who governs native heritage sites, objects

OTTAWA (CP) -- The Supreme Court of Canada will examine who governs
native heritage sites and objects when it hears a case involving a
British Columbia band's fight against logging.

   At issue is whether sections of B.C.'s Heritage Conservation Act
dealing with native artifacts and historical sites exceed provincial
jurisdiction.

   Specifically, the Kitkatla First Nation near Prince Rupert is
appealing the province's right to authorize destruction of what the band
calls aboriginal heritage.

   The Kitkatla claim aboriginal rights to a tract of land on the central
coast called the Kumealon, an area logged by International Forest
Product Ltd. (Interfor) since 1982.

   Interfor hired an archeological firm in 1998 to assess concerns that
native heritage sites or objects, including culturally modified trees,
are located there.

   The trees are considered a vital cultural and spiritual link with
Kitkatla ancestors. They're known by patches of missing bark, which the
Kitkatla say were peeled off hundreds of years ago to make aboriginal
clothes.

   The archeological report indicated several of the trees were found in
seven of Interfor's proposed cutblocks.

   A provincial permit was given to the company under B.C.'s Heritage
Conservation Act in March 1998 allowing it to cut down some of the
trees.

   Band lawyers said the province didn't properly consult the First
Nation, and argued the provincial statute is unconstitutional.

   Protection of such aboriginal objects falls within federal
jurisdiction exclusively, they said.

   A judgment in November 1998 directed the provincial minister of small
business, tourism and culture to consult the band and reconsider that
part of the decision affecting the trees.

   The minister responded to the Kitkatla's claims of aboriginal rights
by saying it wasn't his role to determine their validity.

   He awarded a logging permit to Interfor after the company agreed that
any historical trees already cut down, and 76 of 116 still standing
would be preserved.

   The Kitkatla launched a second judicial review, saying the province
must consider aboriginal rights to stay within its jurisdiction under
the heritage act.

   That bid was dismissed on Dec. 15, 1998 by the Supreme Court of
British Columbia and by the British Columbia Court of Appeal last
January.

   The appeal court ruled 2-1 that the province has the power to make
decisions affecting native artifacts.

   The dissenting judge, Jo-Ann Prowse, said B.C.'s Heritage Conservation
Act infringes on Ottawa's "primary federal jurisdiction over Indians"
and therefore cannot stand.

   Kitkatla lawyers are expected to use her arguments as the case heads
to the Supreme Court of Canada.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Bioprospecting in Alaska
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 11:12:47 -0700
From: Debra Harry <dharry@...>
Reply-To: <ipcb-net@...>
To: ipcb-net@...

Dear Friends -

Very Important!  Please make sure your contacts in Alaska receive a copy
of this article.
<DH>


Subject: Fwd: Diversa Corporation Signs Biodiversity Access Agreement...
Date: Thursday, August 10, 2000 5:51 PM

  ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------

Diversa Corporation Signs Biodiversity Access Agreement Gaining
Discovery Rights in Alaskan Wilderness

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Diversa Corporation (Nasdaq: DVSA)
today announced the signing of an agreement with Arctos Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. giving Diversa rights to discover genes and commercialize products
from samples extracted from habitats in Alaska and neighboring
territories.  This region contains a variety of unique Arctic and boreal
ecosystems including dense rainforests, permafrost and alpine tundra,
mountains, estuaries, lakes, geothermal springs, and extensive
coastline, as well as significant volcanic and hydrothermal activity in
locations throughout the state.  Diversa will support sample collection
efforts and pay royalties on Diversa's revenues from any products
developed from samples provided.  Through this agreement, Diversa gains
access to environments covered by agreements Arctos has signed over the
last five years with Alaskan landholding Native corporations,
individuals, and other entities.  Arctos shares Diversa's commitment to
supporting the conservation of biological diversity and equitable
sharing of benefits.

"Diversa pioneered direct DNA access from the environment for the
identification of novel genes.  Its unparalleled legal access to
biodiversity and proprietary ultra-high throughput discovery and
evolution technologies have the potential to displace traditional
culturing methods for gene discovery," stated Jay M. Short, Ph.D.,
President and CEO of Diversa.  "The speed and efficiency of Diversa's
gene-based discovery is yielding a valuable product pipeline and Diversa
recognizes that the countries of origin should benefit from the value
contained in their ecosystems."

The Alaskan environments offer excellent opportunities to expand
Diversa's discovery of unique, high-performance compounds with potential
product applications ranging from pharmaceutical to consumer products.
The microorganisms that live in these unique environments produce novel
bioactive compounds that have potential value as new pharmaceutical drug
candidates or high-performance enzymes.  The agreement with Arctos is
part of Diversa's global biodiversity access network, which is based on
agreements with Costa Rica, Bermuda, Indonesia, Yellowstone National
Park, Mexico and the Meadowlands.  Within this network, Diversa is
fostering capacity-building by providing research support and training.

Diversa Corporation is a global leader in developing and applying
proprietary technologies to discover and evolve novel genes and gene
pathways from diverse environmental sources.  Diversa is utilizing its
fully integrated approach to develop novel enzymes and other
biologically active compounds, such as small molecule drugs.  Diversa's
proprietary evolution technologies facilitate the optimization of genes
found in nature to enable product solutions for the pharmaceutical,
agricultural, chemical processing, and industrial markets.  Within these
broad markets, Diversa is targeting key multi-billion dollar market
segments where the company believes its technologies and products will
create high value and competitive advantages for strategic partners and
customers.  Diversa's strategic partners are market leaders and include
The Dow Chemical Company, Novartis Seeds AG, Novartis Agribusiness
Biotechnology Research, Inc., Aventis Animal Nutrition S.A., Invitrogen
Corporation and Danisco Cultor.

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are
"forward-looking" and involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty.
These include statements related to the scope of Arctos Pharmaceutical
Inc.'s access agreements, the potential displacement of traditional
culturing methods, the development of the company's product pipeline,
and the characteristics of any compounds that may result from the
company's use of the samples, all of which are prospective.  Such
statements are only predictions, and the actual events or results may
differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking
statements.  Factors that could cause or contribute to differences
include, but are not limited to, risks involved with the company's new
and uncertain technologies, risks associated with the company's
dependence on patents and proprietary rights, risks associated with the
company's protection and enforcement of its patents and proprietary
rights and the company's dependence on existing strategic alliances and
access to rights and technologies of third parties and the development
or availability of competitive products or technologies.  These factors
and others are more fully described in the company's Registration
Statement on Form S-1, filed as of December 16, 1999, as amended.  These
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof.  The
company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these
forward-looking statements.

SOURCE  Diversa Corporation

CO:  Diversa Corporation; Arctos Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

ST:  California, Alaska

IN:  MTC BIO

SU:

08/10/2000 09:01 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com

________________________________________
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
Tel:  (775) 835-6932  Fax:  (775) 835-6934
Email: ipcb@... Website:  www.ipcb.org
_________________________________________

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: needs response -> [NYTimes] Study Finds Mixing Rice Varieties
Produces Larger Harvest
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:33:52 -0600
From: "Isidor F. Ruderfer" <ruderfer@...>
Reply-To: "Isidor F. Ruderfer" <ruderfer@...>
To: Indigenous Knowledge Listserve <indknow@...>

Hello IndKnow-L -

The article below (from the NYTimes website) is both encouraging
and frustrating. It is wonderful to see yet more solid research on
the benefits of (variety) intercropping, published in _Nature_ no
less. But it is sad to see intercropping presented as the latest
invention of academia or as nothing more than a case of "fool[ing]
with Mother Nature as little as possible."

I don't know if the article below actually appeared in the print
edition of the NYTimes. If it did, though, this might be a good
time for someone on the IndKnow-L to write a letter to the editor
commenting on the need to recognize that:

(a)  when modern science confirms the benefits of intercropping,
   it is actually validating what has been known for centuries by
   the vast majority of the world's indigenous (and otherwise)
   farmers, and

(b)  much of academia's interest in intercropping has been
   inspired by the study of its use in indigenous ag/natural
   resource management systems. (At least it seems this way to
   me; I could be wrong. Please correct me if so.)

Perhaps such a letter would be better directed to _Nature_, home
of the original article and commentary referred to by the NYTimes
article. I do not have access to _Nature_ at the moment, so I don't
know if the commentary mentioned in the article below presents
intercropping in a similarly narrow perspective.

Either way, the letter should probably come from someone with
name-recognition/social capital/etc.. The grumblings and
ramblings of yet another disgruntled graduate student are unlikely
to get very far ;).

Regards,

Isidor


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Study Finds Mixing Rice Varieties Produces Larger Harvest

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/081700sci-gm-
rice.html

August 17, 2000

Chinese farmers who abandoned the modern practice of planting a
single type of rice in their paddies and adopted the more natural
course of mixing varieties were rewarded with bigger harvests,
and they no longer had to spray expensive fungicides.

While the benefits of genetic diversity were known to Darwin, the
study serves as an important reminder at a time when agriculture
is increasingly looking to high-tech solutions, said Martin S.
Wolfe of Wakelyns Agroforestry in Pressingfield, England.

"This deceptively simple experiment deserves wide attention,
partly because of the principle that it illustrates, and partly
because it may never be repeated on such a scale," Wolfe wrote in
a commentary on the study, published in Thursday's issue of the
journal Nature.

Oregon State University plant pathologist Christ Mundt and
colleagues organized farmers in five townships in China's Yunnan
Province in 1998 to switch from planting a single variety of
sticky rice -- a practice known as monoculture -- to alternating
rows of sticky rice with hybrid varieties.

Seeing their neighbors getting bigger harvests and saving money
on fungicide, farmers in 10 townships joined the experiment in
1999, bringing the total area of farms switching to diverse
planting to 8,255 acres.

Though the sticky rice brings a higher price, it is susceptible
to a fungus known as rice blast, which reduces yields and is
generally controlled by spraying with expensive chemicals.

Planting different varieties of rice in the same field cut the
incidence of rice blast in the sticky rice by 94 percent and
increased yields by 89 percent.

Though more research is needed to pinpoint why, it appears that
the alternating rows of different varieties thwarted the spread
of rice blast, Mundt said.

"One way of thinking about this monoculture would be kind of like
a field of dry grass: Drop a match in it. There is nothing to
stop the fire from moving through it," Mundt said.

"A mixed population is like a field of dry grass and wet grass.
Drop a match one there and it is going to be slowed down. It will
burn up a dry grass patch, then hit a wet one."

Oregon wheat farmers already plant a mix of varieties in their
fields, but rice farmers tend toward monoculture, because
planting, harvesting and selling the crop are easier with one
variety.

"I think our goal should be to fool with Mother Nature as little
as possible," Mundt said. "Sometimes there is a simple
fundamental fix that makes a whole lot more sense than going for
a real high-tech system."


=================================================================
Isidor F. Ruderfer / Consrvtn.Ecology & Sustnbl.Devlpmnt.Prgrm
Inst. of Ecol.; U.of Georgia / ***currently:Las Cruces Biological
Station;Sn Vito;Coto Brus;COSTA RICA / phone:506.773.4004
fax:506.773.3665 / **Personal Fax --> email#: 815.377.3028 (USA)
**Please reply to: ruderfer@...
=================================================================
"Igneous rocks + acid volatiles = sedimentary rocks + salty oceans"
Siever 74 in Schlesinger 97

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NativeNews] UN: Subcomm2000: Press release 17.08.00
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 16:59:08 -0400
From: ishgooda@...
Reply-To: NatNews-owner@egroups.com
To: NatNews@egroups.com

From: "Elsbeth Vocat" <evocat@...>

UN Press Release

17.08.00

SUBCOMMISSION ADOPTS MEASURES ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS,
SLAVERY, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, MINORITIES, JUSTICE,
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

The Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
approved this afternoon a series of resolutions and decisions on the
human rights of women, contemporary forms of slavery, the human rights
of indigenous peoples, prevention of discrimination and protection of
minorities, administration of justice, and freedom of movement.

The Subcommission asked the Commission on Human Rights to consider the
appointment of a Special Rapporteur on indigenous issues. In the same
resolution it sought from one of its members a working paper on
indigenous peoples and racial discrimination for consideration at the
second Preparatory Committee for the World Conference against Racism,
and a working paper from a second member on possible principles and
guidelines for private sector energy and mining concerns that might
affect indigenous lands, to be presented to the Subcommission's working
group on indigenous populations. It noted the view expressed by many
indigenous participants that the establishment of a permanent forum for
indigenous peoples within the United Nations system should not
necessarily be construed as grounds for abolition of the working group
on indigenous populations.

Action on draft measures and resolutions In a measure
(E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/L.19) on draft principles and guidelines for the
protection of the heritage of indigenous peoples, the Subcommission
decided to transmit the revised draft principles and guidelines to the
Commission on Human Rights for action.

In a resolution (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/L.37) on the Working Group on
Indigenous Populations, the Subcommission recommended that the Working
Group, upon request, cooperate as a body of experts in any conceptual
clarification or analysis which might assist the open-ended
inter-sessional working group established by the Commission on Human
Rights to elaborate further the draft United Nations declaration on the
rights of indigenous peoples; requested the Commission on Human Rights
to invite Governments, intergovernmental organizations and indigenous
and non-governmental organizations to provide information and data to
the Working Group at its nineteenth session; requested the High
Commissioner to make efforts to organize meetings on indigenous issues
in different parts of the world to provide greater opportunity for
participation of peoples from these regions and to raise public
awareness about indigenous peoples; and requested that the High
Commissioner encouraged studies with respect to the right to food and
adequate nutrition of indigenous peoples stressing the linkage between
their present general situation and their land rights.

The Subcommission also recommended that Erica-Irene Daes, member of the
Working Group, prepare a second working paper on indigenous peoples and
racism and racial discrimination for consideration at the second
Preparatory Committee for the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and related Intolerance and that the working
papers which may be prepared by any member of the Working Group to be
discussed at the World Conference should be incorporated in the relevant
list of Conference documentation; requested Miguel Alfonso-Martinez to
submit to the Working Group at its nineteenth session a working paper on
possible principles and guidelines for private sector energy and mining
concerns that may affect indigenous lands; and recommended that the
Chairperson-Rapporteur or any other member of the Working Group be
invited to take part in the preparatory meetings and in the World
Conference.

The Subcommission requested the Commission on Human Rights to consider
the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on indigenous issues to request
and receive information from Governments, indigenous peoples and
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations relating to the
recognition, promotion and protection of the human rights of indigenous
peoples; appealed to all Governments, organizations, including
non-governmental organizations and indigenous groups, and individuals in
a position to do so, to consider contributing to the United Nations
Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations in order to assist
representatives of indigenous communities and organizations to
participate in the deliberations of the Working Group on Indigenous
Populations and recommended a draft decision for adoption by the
Commission of Human Rights reflecting the content of this resolution.

In a resolution (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/L.38) on the International Decade of
the World's Indigenous People, the Subcommission welcomed the decision
to appoint the High Commissioner for Human Rights as Coordinator for the
International Decade; recommended that the Coordinator hold a special
fund-raising meeting to encourage financial contributions to the
Voluntary Fund for the Decade, as well as the appointment of qualified
staff, including indigenous persons, from within the regular budget of
the United Nations, to assist with the work of the Office of the High
Commissioner relating to the indigenous programme, and to submit a
report on the results of those initiatives to the Subcommission at its
fifty-third session; urged Governments and intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations and individuals to contribute to the
Fund; and recommended that attention be given to improving the extent of
the participation of indigenous peoples in planning and implementing the
activities of the Decade.

The Subcommission strongly recommended that the draft declaration on the
rights of indigenous peoples be adopted as early as possible and not
later than the end of the Decade in 2003 and appealed to all
participants in the inter-sessional working group of the Commission on
Human Rights and all others concerned to use new, more dynamic ways and
means of consultation and consensus-building to accelerate the
preparation of the draft declaration; and noted the view expressed by
many indigenous participants that the establishment of a permanent forum
for indigenous peoples in the United Nations system should not
necessarily be construed as grounds for abolition of the Subcommission's
working group on indigenous populations, which should continue to carry
out the ample, flexible mandate conferred upon it in 1982.

The Subcommission recommended that the High Commissioner organize
meetings and other activities in all regions of the world within the
framework of the Decade; recommended that she organize a seminar on
treaties, agreements and other legal instruments between States and
indigenous peoples; recommended that she organize before the end of 2002
a workshop on indigenous peoples, private sector natural resource,
energy and mining companies and human rights in order to contribute to
the ongoing work of the sessional working group on transnational
corporations; recommended that she promoted the establishment, within
the Office of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat, a database on matters of
relevance to indigenous peoples, and that she establish a global public
awareness programme with respect to indigenous issues; and invited the
Commission on Human Rights to recommend that the Economic and Social
Council authorize the convening of an international conference on
indigenous issues during the last year of the International Decade.

In a resolution (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/L.43) on indigenous peoples and their
relationship to land, an update to a final working paper on indigenous
peoples and the relationship to land was requested from the Special
Rapporteur, on the basis of the comments made in the Subcommission
during this session and the replies received from Governments and other
reliable sources subsequent to the submission of the final working
paper. The Special Rapporteur was asked to submit her updated final
working paper to the Subcommission at its fifty-third session.