Tanka Bars becoming mainstream
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The buffalo-meat-and-cranberry Tanka Bar is becoming a mainstream product.
Tanka Bars are made by Native American Natural Foods. It's an American Indian-owned company on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The bars are a modern version of the traditional Lakota food called wasna (WAS'-nah).
The company recently added Whole Foods stores to its growing list of retail outlets. The company hopes that will make Tanka Bars a national brand.
The bars are now sold in about 3,500 retail locations and online. They cost $28 for a box of 12. They've become popular among athletes, diabetics and people looking for a quick, low-carbohydrate snack.
Bison meat is high in protein and low in cholesterol, while the cranberries add antioxidants and flavor.
DOI award Montana tribal water supply improvements
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal officials say almost $13 million will be spent on water supply improvements for two northern Montana American Indian reservations. The Department of Interior announced the awards Wednesday as part of $50 million in government spending on water projects across the West. The money is intended to advance projects that intended to deliver clean drinking water to remote rural areas.
Interior officials say the Assiniboine Sioux Tribe will benefit from $9 million for the Fort Peck Reservation's Dry Prairie rural water system. The money will go toward completion of two sections of water pipeline between Brockton and Culbertson.
Another pipeline on the Chippewa Cree Tribe's Rocky Boy's Reservation would be completed with $3.9 million. That money also would pay for an interim water system for three rural areas.
Hualapais vote to take over Skywalk management
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A northwestern Arizona tribe has voted to take over management of the Grand Canyon Skywalk from the Las Vegas developer who built it.
David Jin partnered with the Hualapai Tribe to build the horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out from the Grand Canyon on the reservation. But the two sides have been locked in a contract dispute for the past year over revenue shares and an incomplete visitor center.
The Tribal Council voted Tuesday to declare eminent domain over the management contract and provide $11 million in compensation to Jin. The amount is about one-tenth of what Jin has said is fair market value for the $30 million investment.
“The Tribe did not ask for this dispute,'' Councilman Charles Vaughn said in a statement. “But we have made a sincere effort through private negotiations with Mr. Jin, and he still refuses to make the most basic concessions and complete the work he promised. His participation has been unproductive and created countless delays. At this point, there are simply no other options.''
The Tribal Council passed an eminent domain ordinance last year that Jin had suspected was aimed at him. He went to federal court to try to keep the tribe from severing the Skywalk contract under the ordinance, but the judge said the tribe had not sought to enforce it and told Jin he must first exhaust tribal court remedies.
A separate case that Jin filed in tribal court to force arbitration also was dismissed, giving Jin the option of returning to federal court.
Jin's attorney, Mark Tratos, said the tribe's action is a desperate attempt to avoid the embarrassment of explaining how ticket revenues evaporated under its watch and to keep from paying Jin millions of dollars in management fees owed to him.
Under an agreement with the tribe, Jin is supposed to split revenues with the tribe for 25 years in exchange for his investment.
“They want all decisions to be made by tribal judges that they hire, fire and pay, and have resisted all efforts to have an independent judge or arbiter fairly review the facts,'' Tratos said. "Mr. Jin has been their partner for more than 20 years, and his counsel asserts the tribe has awarded themselves this draconian power to strip Mr. Jin's company of its constitutional rights.''
The tribe denied that the action is a way to avoid explaining the Skywalk's finances and reiterated its stance Wednesday that Jin hasn't fulfilled contractual obligations to complete a visitor center that tourists must pass through to access the Skywalk and failed to account for funding.
The American Arbitration Association ultimately agreed to hear the dispute. The tribe was facing a Friday deadline to produce financial documents and identify relevant witnesses but instead decided to walk out on arbitration, Tratos said.
Jin approached the Hualapai Tribe in 1996 with a plan to build the Skywalk. The attraction just west of Grand Canyon National Park has about 300,000 visitors a year and is a major tourist draw for the tribe. The bridge extends 70 feet from the canyon rim and 4,000 feet above the Colorado River, is designed to withstand 100 mph winds and has shock absorbers to keep the walkway from wobbling as people pass over.
Oglala Sioux Tribe sues beer companies because of alcohol-related problems on Pine Ridge Reservation
LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) — A Native American tribe sued some of the world's largest beer makers Thursday, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the state of South Dakota. The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota said it is demanding $500 million in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation, which encompasses some of the most impoverished counties in the United States.
One in four children born on the reservation suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and the average life expectancy is estimated between 45 and 52 years — the shortest in North America except for Haiti, according to the lawsuit. The average American life expectancy is 77.5 years.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Nebraska also targets four beer stores in Whiteclay, a Nebraska town near the reservation's border that, despite having only about a dozen residents, sold nearly 5 million cans of beer in 2010.
Tribal leaders and activists blame the Nebraska businesses for chronic alcohol abuse and bootlegging on the Pine Ridge reservation, where all alcohol is banned. They say most of the stores' customers come from the reservation, which spans southwest South Dakota and dips into Nebraska.
“You cannot sell 4.9 million 12-ounce cans of beer and wash your hands like Pontius Pilate, and say we've got nothing to do with it being smuggled,'' said Tom White, the tribe's Omaha-based attorney. Owners of the four beer stores in Whiteclay were unavailable or declined comment Thursday when contacted by The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for Anheuser-Busch InBev Worldwide said she was not yet aware of the lawsuit, and the other four companies being sued — SAB Miller, Molson Coors Brewing Company, MillerCoors LLC and Pabst Brewing Company — did not immediately return messages.
The lawsuit alleges that the beer makers and stores sold to Pine Ridge residents knowing they would smuggle the alcohol into the reservation to drink or resell. The beer makers supplied the stores with “volumes of beer far in excess of an amount that could be sold in compliance with the laws of the state of Nebraska'' and the tribe, tribal officials allege in the lawsuit.
The vast majority of Whiteclay's beer store customers have no legal place to consume alcohol since it's banned on Pine Ridge, which is just north, state law prohibits drinking outside the stores and the nearest town that allows alcohol is more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) south, said Mark Vasina, president of the group Nebraskans for Peace.
The Connecticut-sized reservation has struggled with alcoholism and poverty for generations, despite an alcohol ban in place since 1832. Pine Ridge legalized alcohol in 1970 but restored the ban two months later, and an attempt to allow it in 2004 died after a public outcry.
The reservation spans impoverished areas, including Shannon County, South Dakota, which U.S. census statistics place as the third-poorest in the U.S. It has a median household income of $27,300 and nearly half of the population falls below federal poverty standards.
Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele said the tribe council authorized the lawsuit in an effort to protect the reservation's youth.
“Like American parents everywhere, we will do everything lawful we can to protect the health, welfare and future of our children,'' he said.
The tribe views the lawsuit as a last resort after numerous failed attempts to curb the abuse through protests and public pressure on lawmakers, White added. He said the tribal council voted unanimously about four months ago to hire his law firm.
“The illegal sale and trade in alcohol in Whiteclay is open, notorious and well documented by news reports, legislative hearings, movies, public protests and law enforcement activities,'' the lawsuit states. “All of the above have resulted in the publication of the facts of the illegal trade in alcohol and its devastating effects on the Lakota people, especially its children, both born and unborn.'' Nebraska lawmakers have struggled for years to curb the problem, and are considering legislation this year that would allow the state to limit the types of alcohol sold in areas like Whiteclay. The measure would require local authorities to ask the state to designate the area an “alcohol impact zone.''
The state liquor commission could then limit the hours alcohol sellers are open, ban the sale of certain products or impose other restrictions.
Nebraska state Sen. LeRoy Louden, whose district includes Whiteclay, said he introduced the measure with support from county officials who have seen their health care and jail incarceration costs rise.
| 2/17/12 |
| Across the homelands |
