NASA Educational Material: NASA’s Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE) is a worldwide distribution center for NASA's educational multimedia materials.  There are some great free educator resources at this website with guides and descriptions.  You can get publications, posters, videos, downlinks and lots more:

See AIHEC Documents for flyer, entitled "TCD flyer" on a workshop taking place August 15-18, 2005.

 The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD), representing an alliance of Midwestern universities and AIHEC are pleased to announce the Community Development Online Master's Degree Program with an emphasis in Native American communities.  The Working with Native Communities specialization track is designed for students working within or in partnership with Native communities.  This track helps students understand the unique characteristics of Native communities, culture and governance, which affect community development.  This track incorporates a variety of methods for understanding and working in Native communities, including historical analysis, case studies, asset-based approaches, talking circles, narratives, GIS and other mapping techniques, and Appreciative Inquiry.  Students will use team learning and cross-cultural comparisons throughout the track.  Topics covered in one or more courses include partnerships within Native communities, effective community development strategies within Native communities, and wellness approaches to community economic development.  Special topics may include youth, natural resources, and health.  The core courses include the principles and strategies of community change, community organizing, community analysis, natural resource management, and economic policy and analysis.  Applications for enrollment are now being accepted for the Fall 2005 semester.  For more information, see the attached brochure and contact John Phillips, USDA/AIHEC, 202-720-4366, .

BISMARCK (UTN) – When it comes to protecting tribal cultural resources against the encroachments of mainstream society, the idea for tribes should be to stick together. But it’s not easy when they’re located hundreds of miles apart and threats are coming from all over.

That’s why cultural resource protectors from tribes in the region plan to come together and find strength in numbers.

“We’re taking a huge step here,” said Tim Mentz, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “We’re going to organize. It’s just a matter of putting it together.”

Mentz and representatives of other tribes in the Great Plains BIA Region plan to meet October 24-26 at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck and form an organization of tribal historic preservation offices.

At a visioning session in September, Mentz identified a multitude of laws, regulations, and layers of government that influence how effective tribes can be in protecting graves, sacred sites, and other cultural resources. Like the states, tribes have enforcement powers when treaty rights, land claims and takings, and legislation affect a tribe’s cultural and historic resources.

Protections exist in laws like the National Historic Preservation Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act but tribes are left to sort out how use them. Frequently it means dealing with a tangle of government agencies ranging from some of the largest bureaucracies in Federal Government, to the states on down to cities and counties.

“We should require county governments to submit reports because they tend to sneak things through, especially on roads projects,” said Faith Spotted Eagle, cultural adviser with the Yankton Sioux Tribe. “There’s an erosion of authority when they don’t obey tribal regulations. Often they just assume jurisdiction within reservation boundaries and we don’t know about it.”

Until now, it’s mostly been a strategy of reaction. Of the 16 tribes in the Great Plains BIA Region only five have tribal historic preservation offices: Standing Rock, Sisseton Wahpeton, Turtle Mountain, Cheyenne River and Rosebud. Some of the other 11 have appointed a tribal member to shoulder the responsibilities; others have yet to address the need.

 “As tribes we’re not the same now as when we treatied with the Federal government,” said Dennis Gill Sr., a cultural adviser with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate. “They’re very effective at separating us and taking us on individually. We need to come together.”

Federal budget reductions and frequent proposals for changes in regulatory law have sent the distressing signal that jurisdiction for many cultural preservation issues may become a responsibility of the states.

“It would mean control over archaeological sites and the elimination of tribal historic preservation officers,” said Mentz. “Our interests won’t be maintained by the states. Tribes are in for some major hits if they’re not prepared to respond.”

The main purpose of the meeting in Bismarck will be to organize the regional group, which is using the temporary name: Great Plains Tribal Historic/Cultural Resources Commission. All tribes in the region are asked to send representatives.

The meeting will also consider how tribes should respond to several pending cultural resource issues, including a policy by the national Advisory Council on Historic Preservation about the treatment of human remains, requests for locating cell-phone towers, a Federal Environmental Impact Statement regarding water in the Missouri River, a uniform cultural resource code, and the need for archaeological services at the tribal level.

At present there is a national association of THPOs but no such regional organization. Four of the five certified THPOs in the region were present at the visioning meeting, and seven tribes were represented.

“We’re going to prove we can do this,” said Mentz. “We’ll show how our land, water and cultural resources are important to us as a people.”For more information contact Mentz, Standing Rock Tribal Historic Preservation Office, 701-854-7201, or .