Wednesday, May 18, 2016

The Cupeno Removal - Part 4

Part 4 on the Cupeno Removal by Jeff Smith at the San Diego Reader is out.

Here is a link to the article:

At a certain point, the Cupeño stopped looking back. 10 This land is mine: The Cupeño removal of 1903, part four of four by Jeff Smith

Here is an excerpt:

During the meal, Inspector Jenkins’s head count totaled 97. Manuella Sibimoat was missing. When a Union reporter asked why the old woman would flee, Isabella Owlinguish said that when she and Manuella were young, they were held prisoners at Pala. “It was a revolting story,” wrote the reporter, “like a tale out of the middle ages.”

After she spoke, Isabella “threw off her shawl and shouted ‘see!’ and showed great calloused marks on her thin shoulders. ‘These we had to keep fresh our memories of Pala mission! What we suffered there how many years ago I cannot say, fifty, sixty, maybe more. Bearfoot could not forget. She would not look again upon that place… Does the white man think it strange that we did not want to come?’”

Full Article:

At a certain point, the Cupeño stopped looking back. 10 This land is mine: The Cupeño removal of 1903, part four of four by Jeff Smith

Thursday, May 12, 2016

The Cupeno Removal - Part 3

Part 3 of a 4 part series by Jeff Smith at the San Diego Reader is out.  It is titled:

Against the Inevitable - This land is mine: The Cupeño removal of 1903, part three of four

Here is an excerpt:

#
On April 19, Cecilio Blacktooth and three other tribesmen rode to San Bernardino to buy horses. “We will never give in,” he told the Los Angeles Herald, “but will perish gladly if the last sight we see is our Agua Caliente.

“Some will scatter to other tribes, but the old men and women would not leave and have begged to be taken above Warner’s Ranch in the mountains…to look down upon the graves of their ancestors.” Pala is “so barren,” he added, “not even rabbits will live there.”

Blacktooth didn’t mention that at least 15 Luiseño Indian families already did. They lived on allotments assigned by the government ten years prior. The relocation would force them to share a reservation with another tribe.
#

Read the full article at this link:

Against the Inevitable - This land is mine: The Cupeño removal of 1903, part three of four

Friday, May 6, 2016

Native American Genetic Testing Extremely Problematic

Genetic Testing is effective at determining paternity but is unreliable when it comes to establishing one's "Nativeness", blood quantum, or tribal affiliation.  Depending on what anthropological theory you want to believe many Natives apparently crossed the land bridge from Asia/Siberia.  Some believe Polynesians migrated to South America.  While others contend there were Native Americans here before the apparent Mongolian/Siberian invasion.  Most Anthropologists believe in the "Out of Africa" theory meaning all homo sapiens originated first in Africa and then migrated throughout the rest to the world.

And, if you happen to submit your DNA to 23 and Me for testing you are likely to find out you are not only part African but are also 3% to 5% Neanderthal.

Here is a good article on Native American Genetic testing.  I will post an excerpt but encourage everyone to read the full article.

GENETIC MARKERS NOT A VALID TEST OF NATIVE IDENTITY

by Brett Lee Shelton, J.D. and Jonathan Marks, Ph.D.

Excerpt:

Tribes Do Not Differ From One Another In Ways That Geneticists Can Detect

Another issue is the widespread belief that genetics can help determine specific tribal affinities of either living or ancient people. This is quite simply false. Neighboring tribes have long-standing, complex relationships involving intermarriage, raiding, adoption, splitting, and joining. These social-historical forces insure that there cannot be any clear-cut genetic variants differentiating all the members of one tribe from those of nearby tribes. At most, slight differences in the proportions of certain genetic variations are identifiable in each group, but those do not permit specific individuals to be assigned to particular groups.

CONCLUSION

The concept of using genetic tests to prove Native American ancestry is of relatively recent origin, but there are many problems with it. Perhaps foremost of these problems is that to make a genetic test the arbiter of whether someone is Native American is to give up a tribe’s sovereign ability to determine its own membership and relations. But, even taken on their own scientific terms, these tests cannot do much to identify who is and who is not Native American, because they yield many false negatives and false positives. Therefore, they readily misidentify non-Native people as Native, and misidentifying Native people as non-Native, and the positive results they do yield are at best only probabilities. If these were medical diagnostic tests, they would never be approved or adopted.

But the most important argument against this type of testing to establish tribal affiliations is that biology (and genetics) track just part of our tribal inheritance. These DNA tests treat “Native American biology” as though all Indians were essentially the same. But in reality, it is our traditions that make us who we are, not just our biology.

Read Full Article Here-> GENETIC MARKERS NOT A VALID TEST OF NATIVE IDENTITY

Also:

Bitter Fight to Determine Who Is an American Indian Turns to DNA

By Kevin Taylor

Excerpt:

A thornier question for Cory, and for Laura Wass of the American Indian Movement, is finding due process for people facing expulsion from several central California tribes that are in casino-induced turmoil. This is a challenge when tribes, citing sovereignty, make arbitrary rulings and provide limited options for appeal. The federal government, despite lawsuits grinding through U.S. District courts, refuses to step in.

So the nice person in the lab coat just used a giant Q-tip to swab some saliva from inside your cheek. Does it go through some shiny, space-age machine that eventually spits out the answer: “Yup. Dude’s Indian” or “Nope. Dude’s lying”?

In a word: No. In a few more words: “Anybody who claims that they can find out if you are an Indian through DNA testing, that’s a fairy tale,” says Mills.

While there are different ways to use DNA to determine ancestry—even as far back as prehistoric times—tribes use a far–more specific, and less-anthropological, type of test. “The only way it’s really used is determining whether or not you are the child of the parent that you claim,” Mills explains.

Read Full Article Here->Bitter Fight to Determine Who Is an American Indian Turns to DNA

See Also:

Tribal Enrollment and Genetic Testing



Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Pala Interactive - Still No Poker?

Online Poker Report - GAN Annual Report Expects Real Money Gaming Deal With The Borgata To Begin In Summer 2016

Excerpt:

The existence of the relationship with GAN does not absolutely show that the Borgata wants to end the partnership with partypoker now that GVC has taken over. There is no reason why the Borgata can’t add extra brands to its gaming offer.

The industry rumor mill has Pala Interactive listed as a potential online poker provider if partypoker were to exit the market. PalaCasino is live in New Jersey, but despite developing proprietary software, Pala has not yet launched a poker product.

CEO Jim Ryan said that he would like to see the impact of PokerStars before making that decision.
Unless there is a dramatic change in the New Jersey market, such as partypoker exiting, Pala online poker looks unlikely to make an independent entry – the return on investment probably isn’t there.

Read Full Article -->Online Poker Report - GAN Annual Report Expects Real Money Gaming Deal With The Borgata To Begin In Summer 2016