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In The Hoop
MAY 1, 2001

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

High-priced interviews
Is it just us or are former Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover and former Deputy Assistant Secretary Michael Anderson spending a lot of time talking to the press about their reign at the Bureau of Indian Affairs?

Media flak for the ex-political appointees have been pushing interviews for the pair ever since The Boston Globe and The Oregonian began running stories criticizing decisions they made before leaving office. The Associated Press, Indian Country Today and even Indianz.Com have run pieces on their response.

Since Gover and Anderson are back in private practice and need client$, the media attention certainly has given them the kind of publicity money can't buy. Along with ICT's latest article, the coverage is much wider than the fliers the pair left for tribal leaders on a crowded table at NCAI this past February.

Besides, the solicitation letters Gover's firm sent out to tribes don't exactly have tribal leaders jumping at the chance to spend their hard-earned funds on Gover and/or former BIA Deputy Commissioner Hilda Manuel, sources told In The Hoop.

On the Radar
Speaking of The Boston Globe, expect a forthcoming article from nationally-recognized Indian policy expert and journalist Sean Murphy about the Shakopee Mdewakanton of Minnesota and the financially successful tribe's recently re-submitted (and long ago rejected) land-into-trust application, says In The Hoop.

We're not music experts, but...
In The Hoop didn't go to a fancy-schmancy school like Julliard or Berklee College of Music but we know the difference between most musical genres.

So we were a bit puzzled to find out Lumbee club hopper Jana is slated to headline the First Annual Native American Blues Festival, put on by the good folks over at The Native American Music Association. At last year's NAMMYs, we seem to recall Jana telling Indianz.Com she wanted to break down pop barriers.

Questions aside, the Blues Fest will be held in conjunction with the Tribeca Blues Club in New York City on May 4, so mark your calendars. Alas, Indigenous is not on the bill as the Yankton Sioux family will play the Tulsa Blues Festival in Oklahoma that day instead.

Miss Indian Muzzled
Quite simply, this year's 24 contestants in the Miss Indian World pageant were beautiful. The winner, Ke Aloha Alo, was stunning and a fitting representative for Indian Country and the Gwich'in, Navajo, Wampanoag, Apache, and other women would have been worthy of the title as well.

But even though the Gathering of Nations judged the contestants on speaking ability, there were lots of questions they weren't allowed to answer this past Saturday. Political questions? Nope. Caribou questions? Nope. How much money the contestants spent preparing for the pageant? Nope.

There's Still Time!
In The Hoop got some great responses yesterday for out whatchutalkinbout Bruce Babbitt photo caption contest. We nearly fell to the floor reading some of them.

So any of you contenders who want to challenge the ones we've received should do so soon! We plan on closing the contest before Chinese hackers return for one more attack.

In Your Hoop
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