U.S. Indian, Ainu lawmaker discuss peoples' plight
Story-Date: 01:31 a.m. PST Thursday , July 31, 1997

U.S. Indian, Ainu lawmaker discuss peoples' plight

TOKYO, July 31 (Kyodo) -- A spiritual leader of a native American tribe and
an Ainu lawmaker shared views Thursday on how their people suffer the
exploitation of their native land and the threat of losing their distinct
cultures.

Corbin Harney, the spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone, a native
people indigenous to Idaho, Nevada, Utah and California, told Shigeru
Kayano that many people of his tribe have died of cancer, suspected of
being triggered by nuclear testing on their land.

Harney, who is in Japan to attend a world conference held by the Japan
Council Against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo), explained nuclear testing in
Nevada has contaminated their land, water and air.

Kayano, a member of the House of Councilors and Japan's first Ainu
lawmaker, said although his people did not face the danger of nuclear
experiments, they faced different threats such as discrimination and the
loss of their cultural heritage.

In May, the Diet passed a law recognizing the Ainu as an ethnic minority
within Japan.

The law guarantees the human rights of the Ainu and commits the state to
helping the Ainu preserve their distinct culture.

The law is the first on the books acknowledging the existence of an ethnic
minority in Japan, but it stops short of saying the Ainu are the indigenous
residents of Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido.

There are 24,000 people who register themselves as being Ainu, but Ainu
rights groups say the actual number is around 50,000, less than 1% of
Japan's 124 million population.

The Ainu lived for thousands of years as hunters and fishermen on Hokkaido
and nearby territories until Japan launched its aggressive Hokkaido
settlement campaign at the start of the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Kayano also said the Japanese government did not have any agreement with
the Ainu when Japan launched its settlement campaign in the northernmost
main island, adding that no agreement has been reached to this day.

Harney said although the rights of the Western Shoshone are nominally
recognized by a treaty between the U.S. government and his people,
exploitation of his people continue through the use of their land as a
nuclear waste dump and test site.



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