-=> Quoting Jim Casto to Sondra Ball <=-
Hi, Jim,
 
 JC> Nobody talks about proposed modifications to the ICWA. Nobody talks
 JC> about the ramifications of Ben Nighthorse Campbell switching parties
 JC> and becoming a Committee Chair in Congress. Nobody talks about the
 JC> great loss in the NA Community due to the death of Michael Dorris.
 JC> Nobody talks about efforts in  their communities to improve
 JC> intertribal relations particularly between the NA community and the
 JC> mainstream culture. Nobody talks about efforts to improve the
 JC> knowledge of their people particularly in the areas of language.
 JC> Nobody talks about neat websites on the net that they have found. 
 JC> (Don't anybody get excited. I am using "nobody" in the figurative
 JC> sense, not literal. _Some_ people do discuss _some_ of those subjects
 JC> _some_of the time in _some_ places.)
I frankly don't know enough about many of these issues to discuss them.
I can't prove it, but I sometimes suspect a lot of people are just
waiting for somebody else to post something on these topics so they can
learn something about them.  I will toss out something I heard from one
of my coworkers yesterday:  one of her daughters is a special ed.
teacher.  She has a lot of Spanish-speaking kids in the class, kids who
don't speak English.  I would suspect that most of them are also
Indians (many people don't seem to realize that there are Indians south
of the border).  It seems that a lot of these children have been tested
in English and labelled retarded simply because they cannot answer
questions in a language they don't know.  I am definitely not amused by
this, especially when one considers the push in various quarters for
English as the official language.
 JC> Several months ago I mentioned Sherman Alexie's newest book, "Indian
 JC> Killer". I think _one_ person indicated they had read it.
 
I got it as a Christmas present, but didn't jump in on the discussion--I
tend to run way behind on reading mail that isn't addressed to me and I
feel at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to discussing literature
even though I do a lot of reading.  You are definitely more scholarly
than I!
 
 JC> BTW, we went to the restaurant here in Portland called "Fiddleheads".
 JC> Does anyone know (or did I already tell everyone the answer?) what
 JC> fiddleheads are?
A bit late in the season for them here .
Take care,
Robin
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20
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