In The Hoop
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2002

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

Campbell 101
We all know Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) is a teacher. We just didn't know his subject de rigeur was anthropology.

Last year, he got some press out of his comment about a group seeking legislative recognition that he said didn't have a language, traditions and songs but had a "corporation." At yesterday's Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the Supreme Court, he didn't bring that subject up but instead talked about the lack of knowledge Americans have about tribal governments.

"Native Americans' ability to govern themselves didn't start with the movie Dances With Wolves," he said.

Referring to the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings near his reservation home in Colorado, he said: "People lived there about the time that Christ walked the earth and they had a form of government."

Adding in the so-called Cahokia culture and the Aztec empire, he said all had forms of government that no one seems to remember. "I'm guess I'm just continually amazed that so much transpires in America that deals with federal-tribal relationships," he said, "when all those years and all those centuries -- eons and eons of time -- are just sort of discarded like they weren't important in the scheme of things."

Campbell 102
Lest you think a certain movement in New England is being taken seriously by key members of Congress, Campbell also set the record straight yesterday.

Praising former President Richard Nixon for his federal Indian policy that began the era of self-determination was also important because it ended a destructive policy. "I tell you of all the misguided, dumb things that Congress could have done, I guess that was classic worst," he said.

"The equivalent would be for the federal government to tell the African-Americans that we passed a law saying you're all no longer black," he said. "I mean, how stupid can you get?"

Yard Sale!
In The Hoop isn't worried about Deputy Commissioner Sharon Blackwell leaving her job. We know she'll rise to even greater heights once she retires.

But what we are concerned about is the $260,000 home that real estate records show she recently purchased. Located in a rather nice Alexandria, Virginia, neighborhood, the purchase price was among the top sales in the area last fall.

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