FROM THE ARCHIVE

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In The Hoop
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2002

Welcome to In The Hoop, Indianz.Com's occasional column about assorted Indian issues.

Lights, Tribal Leaders, Guestlist!
There's trouble brewing over the upcoming trust reform retreat in the West Virginia countryside. Aside from the fact that tribal leaders wanted a five-day (!) working session but only got three or so.

So Secretary of Interior Gale Norton has invited 36 members of the task force to one of her department's conference centers in Sheperdstown for the weekend soiree. But since the location is so far away from Washington, D.C. (about two hours) and space is limited, National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall wants the event moved elsewhere so that more can attend.

(And perhaps so certain Native journalists can watch? Don't count on it, said one Interior official!)

But anyway, Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb is "insistent" on keeping the meeting in the backwoods, according to a recent NCAI communique. In The Hoop would like to see this issue resolved soon, so we have asked international mediators to help so it doesn't blow up into a situation reminiscent of President Ronald Reagan's first (and only) meeting with tribal leaders.

That 20-minute event took a whopping five months to arrange because the Reagan administration couldn't settle on the guest list. At least then-Bureau of Indian Affairs Chief Ross O. Swimmer was there.

The Stereotype's in the Mail
Remember those murals at the Environmental Protection Agency that stirred up all that trouble? The ones that show Indian men attacking, raping and pillaging the West? The ones that show naked white women?

Well one white woman (not naked) has become concerned about them. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. According to Lloyd Grove of The Washington Post, she has formed a working group to decide what to do with the murals.

"In October, Whitman asked the General Services Administration to 'create a process to allow all interests to be heard' in deciding what should happen to the wall paintings," Grove writes in his Reliable Sources column.

More friends for Norton
One more War Cabinet member has just been confirmed at the Interior. Steve Williams, who had been in limbo over a duck hunting dispute, cleared the Senate unanimously just before the State of the Union Address last night. He will direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, you know the one whose scientists seem to have their views on Arctic drilling and wetlands mysteriously suppressed.

Also, Jeffrey Jarrett has indeed been approved to run the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. It's just that someone forgot to read the Senate record which showed his confirmation. Good job!

In Your Hoop
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