It's always interesting to see how Indigenous issues intersect and play out in different locales.

Attached to this post are letters that arrived via Vicki Grieves regarding a repatriation case an Aboriginal community near Sydney raised with Prince William on his recent visit to Australia.

This just in from the Obama Administration...
(http://www.letsmove.gov/blog/obesity_in_indian_country_1.html)

Posted March 09, 2010
By Kimberly Teehee, Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs, White House Domestic Policy Council

In his address on the State of the Union, President Obama announced that First Lady Michelle Obama would be taking the lead in the Administration’s efforts “to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity.” Two weeks later, on February 9, the First Lady unveiled a nationwide campaign – Let’s Move! – to fight the epidemic and improve the health of children. An integral part of the First Lady’s campaign will be to work with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities, where childhood obesity rates are particularly high.

University of Arizona Law professor James Anaya, in his role as Special Rapporteur for the UN, has issued a report on the status of Indigenous Australians and Torres Straits Islanders. Here's the link: http://www.un.org.au/Special-Rapporteur-on-Indigenous--Australia-Report-...

Sad news from the Cherokee Phoenix:

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Former Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller, one of the few women ever to lead a major American Indian tribe, has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, her husband said March 2.

http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/24645/Article.aspx

I got the message below this morning as a member of AAUP:

This is a time of and for action. A time for faculty, students, and professionals in the academy to form common cause and to take the lead in reversing current patterns of policy and practice. A time to rebalance the academy and to refocus on the broad public purposes of higher education.

In March, 1970, over 200 people attended the First Convocation of American Indian Scholars in Princeton, New Jersey in the US, so this is the fortieth anniversary. I am working on a way to recognize those who attended this historic meeting during our NAISA meeting in Tucson, but could use some help figuring out who from the participant list might still be around these days.

NAISA member Steven Salaita has a new post at Pulse asking if isn't time to start profiling white Christians for the sake of safety.

Read it here:

http://pulsemedia.org/2010/02/22/time-to-start-profiling-white-christian...

NAISA has five newly elected officers, including Kate Shanley, who will become president-elect of the association at the conclusion of the upcoming annual meeting in Tucson May 20-22. Also, Kim TallBear and Vince Diaz were elected to the NAISA Council, and Joanne Barker and Bronwyn Fredericks were elected to the Nominations Committee. Congratulations to all!

For a short report on the numbers, click read more...

After signing up and paying membership, there are 2 steps to logging into the site for those seeking to vote before the election closes Wednesday at noon Central Time (North America):

1.  Create a website account at http://www.naisa.org/user/register Use the same email as you used when paying your membership, so the membership records can be associated with the website user account.

2.  Login with the new web account with the one time login in the email you receive.

3.  If you want to vote, you may need to logout (http://www.naisa.org/logout  then log in a second time.