Tag Archives: Native Americans

Obama Denounces Iran Attack / The Carbon Capture Challenge / Native American Art

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President Obama denounces a terrorist attack on a mosque in Iran. Reducing greenhouse gases is going to take more than cap-and-trade. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosts a town hall meeting to discuss the release of the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Read our handbook on U.S. media law. The U.S. gives Jordan vehicles to help in its fight to protect intellectual property. Global citizens speak up about climate change. And finally, explore a photo gallery of Native American art.

Obama Denounces Iran Attack
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President Obama denounces a bombing attack targeting Iranian civilians in Chabahar as “disgraceful and cowardly” and says those who carried out the attack must be held accountable. “The murder of innocent civilians in their place of worship during Ashura is a despicable offense,” Obama says.

The Challenge of Carbon Capture
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Cap-and-trade and renewable energy alone likely won’t be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This reality has prompted governments and companies to increasingly look for new and unconventional solutions to the climate problem.

A Diplomacy, Development Review
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A newly released internal study of the U.S. State Department lays out a plan for better coordinating U.S. responses to crises, conflicts and natural disasters around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, unveiled the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which suggests changes in organization, coordination with other U.S. government agencies, and implementation of overseas programs.

Media Law Handbook
What are the privileges and responsibilities of a free press? In Media Law Handbook, Professor Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, explores how free societies answer this question.

Protecting Intellectual Property in Jordan
The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement donates ten vehicles to the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organization headquarters to contribute to Jordan’s robust intellectual property rights enforcement regime.

Global Messages: Climate Change
America.gov asked people around the world to write a message to world leaders about climate change. We received responses from all corners of the globe. Read their messages.

Photo Gallery: Native American Art
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The artistic traditions of American Indians convey the resilience of the United States’ indigenous peoples. Thanks to the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program, which installs art in U.S. diplomatic posts, global audiences can enjoy the talents of many American artists — tribal and otherwise. Explore the work in this photo gallery. At right, a portrait of the legendary Sioux chief Jack Red Cloud.

Core Issues in the Middle East / Obamas Light Christmas Tree / Iran’s “Students Day”

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Middle East peace process needs to focus on the conflict’s core issues. President Obama and the First Family light the National Christmas Tree. The 1975 Biological Weapons Convention is being used to prevent bioterrorism and to expand information-sharing. The United States is building a strong U.S.-Africa partnership. The third annual Bali Democracy Forum presents an opportunity to learn from other countries. A bright future is in store for the U.S. solar market. And finally, a former Iranian student activist talks about his time in prison.

Focusing on Core Issues in Middle East
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The United States believes it is time for the Middle East peace process to focus on the core issues of the conflict: borders and security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says. “It is no secret that the parties have a long way to go and that they have not yet made the difficult decisions that peace requires,” Clinton, right, says.

The Obamas Light America’s Christmas Tree
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President Obama and the First Family lit the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House last night. Addressing the crowd at the tree-lighting ceremony Obama said: “On behalf of Malia, Sasha, Michelle, Marian — who’s our grandmother-in-chief — and Bo — don’t forget Bo — I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a blessed holiday season.”

Bio-Weapons Convention at 35
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The 1975 Biological Weapons Convention is being used today to prevent bioterrorism and to expand information-sharing and communication that can be used to combat any pandemic, spread deliberately or otherwise. It originally was designed to ban the development, production, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons by nation states.

U.S.-Africa Priorities
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The United States government is very much focused and engaged on a wide array of issues across the African continent with an overall goal of building a strong U.S.-Africa partnership, says Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson. Carson says top priorities in Africa remain the same: strengthening democracy, good governance and adherence to the rule of law.

The Bali Democracy Forum
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Praising the opportunity to “listen and learn from the experiences of other countries,” Under Secretary of State Judith McHale expressed U.S. support for the third annual Bali Democracy Forum.

A Bright Future For Solar
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The U.S. solar market could grow eightfold to $8 billion by 2015, says a recent study by GTM Research, a market analysis company focusing on renewable energy industries. Driving growth are state policies that require power companies to generate a certain portion of their electricity from renewable sources, the report says.

Iran’s Students Day
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Abolfazl Jahandar, a former Iranian student activist and political prisoner, spoke at Virginia’s George Mason University on what Iran marks as Students Day, the anniversary of the slaying of three student demonstrators by Iranian police in 1953. Jahandar, left, spent three years in prison, including 400 days in solitary confinement, for his activism.

We Carry In Our Hearts the True Country

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(I’m listening to “The Dead Heart” by Midnight Oil)

If you are one of the nearly five million American Indians living in the United States, you have a new place to call home in Washington as of November 3. Coinciding with the White House Tribal Nations Conference, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) announced the opening of an embassy designed to give tribal sovereign nations a permanent base in the nation’s capital from which to monitor and lobby U.S. government activities that collectively affect them.

Most are familiar with the fact that the United States is governed through a federal system, with different powers allotted to the national government in Washington and to the various state governments. But tribal sovereignty is increasingly recognized as a third component of U.S. federalism because each nationally recognized tribe has a certain amount of autonomy from both Washington and the state. There’s a relatively new term out there for this, “tri-federalism,” which appears to be an evolving, if not a de facto description of how things are. (Political science fans might want to also check out this article.)

As a couple of my colleagues described it, American Indians are essentially dual citizens of the United States and their respective Tribal Nation.

NCAI describes the new embassy as “a home away from home for tribal leaders and representatives conducting business in Washington, D.C.,” which will “strengthen our coordination and multiply the positive aspects of advocacy work on critical issues facing Indian Country.”

That’s very important, as people like Alma Ransom of the Mohawk Bear Clan would argue, because there have been “budget cuts from past administrations and damaging inserts to bills on Capitol Hill, placed during ‘midnight meetings,’ that have harmed Native people.”

Want to learn more about Native Americans in the United States? America.gov is offering a special page this month to mark National American Indian Heritage Month.