American Indian Movement of Colorado Criticizes Clinton's Race Board Story-Date: 12:11 p.m. PST Sunday , March 29, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ American Indian Movement of Colorado Criticizes Clinton's Race Board By Paul Richardson, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News DENVER--Mar. 30--The American Indian Movement of Colorado plans a protest and picket against what they say is a "Dog and Pony" show of the President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race Board. In 1997, President Clinton established the board to study the history and conditions of race relations in the United States. The board travels America, gathering information on race conditions and what needs to be done to help alleviate the problems. But the AIMC calls it a "dog and pony show" because it doesn't include any American Indians on the board and doesn't look at the views of the problems facing American Indians in today's society. "The board has engaged in surface discussions on pressing questions of race, the foundation of the crushing racism that continues to exist in the U.S. remain," a press release from AIMC said. The AIMC has posed several questions they feel should be addressed before proper representation can be established. "How can a presidential advisory board engage in a national dialogue on race without even on indigenous person/American Indian on the board?" they asked. How can this board pretend to have dialogue on race without addressing the foundational racist legal doctrines of discovery and conquest that continue to be bedrock of U.S. indigenous policy? "How can a board such as this engage in national dialogue on race without specifically addressing the racism of U.S. immigration policy? One guest speaker who was supposed to address the board was Founder and Publisher of Indian Country Today, Tim Giago, who declined the invitation. "They called me three weeks ago about serving on the panel. Information was supposed to be faxed to me that first week. After two weeks passed, nothing," Mr. Giago said. After three weeks of dealing with this mini-bureaucracy that doesn't include any Indians on its staff board, the frustration became overwhelming and I just told them to take a hike," Mr. Giago said. "The discussion on stereotypes scheduled for Denver only needs to look at it's own panel and board; all of the stereotypes are sitting on them," Mr. Giago said. The AIMC is making five specific demands of Bill Clinton: The immediate coordination and impaneling of a joint Executive/Legislative Red-Ribbon Commission to engage in an examination of relations between the U.S. and Indigenous nations including Alaska, Hawaii and Guam. At least one half of the commissioners should be indigenous people and include a vision toward a restoration of the international character of the relations between the U.S. and indigenous nations. Immediately grant the Presidential clemency of Leonard Peltier. Immediately order all members of Clinton's cabinet to endorse, support and to advance the United Nations Declaration of Rights to Indigenous Peoples as it existed in 1993. Through executive order repudiate, both retroactively and prospectively, the Doctrines of Discovery, Conquest and Terra Nullius that have been used, in U.S. indigenous nations, and that deny indigenous peoples the exercise of their right of self-determination as the term is used in international law. Immediately cease all military assistance to the government of Mexico. "Personally, I think the panel is a waste of time. The questions should be addressed to Clinton himself. He seems to think he has answers, let's hear them," Director of The Indian Law Institute in Kyle, SD, Steven Newcomb said. "It is not just the AIMC that is upset. There are 14 members of the Coalition that feel the panel is a farce. There are no Indians on it, so how can they say we are represented?" Mr. Newcomb said. "When Director of the board, John Hope Franklin vetoed Vine DeLoria's position on the panel, we knew it was a worthless panel," Mr. Newcomb said Comment from any official representing the board was unavailable. o ----- Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1998, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------