The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma received $850,357; the Orutsararmiut Native Council in Alaska received $286,387; and the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma received $236,668.

The funding is to be used for getting people back to work, particularly in areas disproportionately impacted by the recession. Specifically, they will fund on-the-job training projects, ones that offer participants the chance to develop new occupational skills while earning a paycheck and provide participating employers partial reimbursement to offset the cost of training workers.

In a press release announcing the awards, the DOL said the projects will help workers become proficient in needed skills more quickly, which will encourage employers to hire workers sooner than planned. They will spur private sector hiring of well-qualified individuals and, ultimately, economic recovery.

Kim Carroll, Cherokee Nation Career Services’ director of Grants & Compliance, could not say to what degree exactly Cherokee Nation citizens have been impacted by the recession, but she knows that counties with larger Indian populations usually have higher unemployment rates.

Cherokee Nation jurisdiction spans 14 counties in rural northeastern Oklahoma. “We do know that these counties have seen as much as a five point increase in their unemployment rates since 2008, compared to the state of Oklahoma, which has had a 2.5 point increase,” she said.

The Cherokee Nation’s on-the-job training project will allow more Cherokee citizens to go back to work. Carroll said it will reimburse employers of an on-the-job trainee during the worker’s training period, that period when the employee learns the company’s policies and procedures and specific duties.

“During this time, productivity is low, mistakes are made, and it’s a gamble on the employer’s part,” Carroll said.

By reimbursing employees for a percentage of the trainee’s wages during the training period, Carroll believes employers will be more willing to take a chance.

“We will be working with both employers and employees to match individuals with these opportunities. It will allow employers to expand their businesses and allow potential workers to learn new job skills,” she said.

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The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 371, had filed a petition for the election that covers about 375 bartenders, beverage servers, lounge hosts and bar porters; however, the tribe argued that the NLRB did not have jurisdiction on tribal land and it wanted the election conducted through its own labor relations agency, created three years ago in response to an earlier union petition.

In issuing his decision, Regional Director Jonathan B. Kreisberg relied on previous decisions by the NLRB: The Board would take jurisdiction on tribal lands except in matters of “self-government in purely intramural matters,” in cases where it would abrogate treaty rights or where there is “proof” in statutory language that Congress did not intend for the law to apply to tribes. He found that none of those conditions applied.

He also found that the tribe’s labor relations law is not comparable to the National Labor Relations Act in that it bans strikes, exempts employee safety and other subjects from collective bargaining and requires tribal licensing of any union business agent.

The NLRB has ordered two previous elections at Foxwoods, one involving the United Auto Workers.

Three union elections have been held at Foxwoods, all for different unions and sets of employees and all under the tribe’s labor relations law.

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It authorizes the Obama administration to settle a class-action lawsuit with between 300,000 and 500,000 American Indians who claims the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust by the government. The House originally authorized the settlement in May, but it was tucked into the Democrats’ jobs legislation that stalled in a Senate filibuster late last month. The plaintiffs hope including the settlement in the war-funding and disaster-relief bill will mean the Senate will approve it.

“We expect that the Senate must give prompt and serious consideration to the bill because, without enactment, there are no funds for our war efforts and no funds for FEMA,” plaintiffs attorney Dennis Gingold said Friday. “The bill is too important to this country. Partisan politics must not obstruct passage.” Gingold credited House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer with moving the settlement authorization forward, calling him a “true champion for individual Indian trust beneficiaries.” Hoyer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sen. John Barrasso, the vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, has said the settlement should be a stand-alone bill with several changes, such as capping lawyer fees at $50 million. Barrasso spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said the Wyoming Republican was at a funeral at the time and could not immediately comment on the House’s action.

Under the proposed settlement, $1.4 billion would go to individual Indian account holders. Some $2 billion would be used by the government to buy broken-up Indian lands from individual owners willing to sell, and then turn those lands over to tribes. Another $60 million would be used for a scholarship fund for young Indians. Lawsuit participants would receive at least $1,500, and many would receive considerably more. Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet woman from Browning, Mont., who filed the lawsuit in 1996, has urged passage of the settlement, saying it’s long overdue.

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Smith explores the issue using a hypothetical scenario that involves female tribal workers being victims of sexual harassment. He looks at how, because the tribe has not enacted laws pertaining to sexual harassment and, thus, the victims can not get justice through the tribal court, the door opens wide for union organization.

With the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino v. NLRB, tribal gaming operations are already open to National Labor Relations Board jurisdiction, as Smith noted. Smith said tribes have two options: do nothing or enact their own laws.

“The threat of federal authority over labor relations in Indian country is a threat of assimilation,” Smith wrote. “In the case of the NLRB, outside federal agents would impose labor unions upon tribes, upholding the power of such unions to bargain for externally defined ‘rights’ of employees and to strike against tribes’ economic enterprises – even to thwart tribal employment preferences.

Click here to read Smith’s column.

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Warmer still, scientists say, lies ahead.

Through 10 years of global boom and bust, of breakneck change around the planet, of terrorism, war and division, all people everywhere under that warming sun faced one threat together: the buildup of greenhouse gases, the rise in temperatures, the danger of a shifting climate, of drought, weather extremes and encroaching seas, of untold damage to the world humanity has created for itself over millennia.

As the decade neared its close, the United Nations gathered presidents and premiers of almost 100 nations for a “climate summit” to take united action, to cut back sharply on the burning of coal and other fossil fuels.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told them they had “a powerful opportunity to get on the right side of history” at a year-ending climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Again, however, disunity might keep the world’s nations on this side of making historic decisions.

“Deep down, we know that you are not really listening,” the Maldives’ Mohamed Nasheed told fellow presidents at September’s summit.

Nasheed’s tiny homeland, a sprinkling of low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean, will be one of the earliest victims of seas rising from heat expansion and melting glaciers. On remote islets of Papua New Guinea, on Pacific atolls, on bleak Arctic shores, other coastal peoples in the 2000s were already making plans, packing up, seeking shelter.

The warming seas were growing more acid, too, from absorbing carbon dioxide, the biggest greenhouse gas in an overloaded atmosphere. Together, warmer waters and acidity will kill coral reefs and imperil other marine life – from plankton at the bottom of the food chain, to starfish and crabs, mussels and sea urchins.

Over the decade’s first nine years, global temperatures averaged 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 1951-1980 average, NASA reported. Temperatures rose faster in the far north than anyplace else on Earth.

The decade’s final three summers melted Arctic sea ice more than ever before in modern times. Greenland’s gargantuan ice cap was pouring 3 percent more meltwater into the sea each year. Every summer’s thaw reached deeper into the Arctic permafrost, threatening to unlock vast amounts of methane, a global-warming gas.

Less ice meant less sunlight reflected, more heat absorbed by the Earth. More methane escaping the tundra meant more warming, more thawing, more methane released.

At the bottom of the world, late in the decade, International Polar Year research found that Antarctica, too, was warming. Floating ice shelves fringing its coast weakened, some breaking away, allowing the glaciers behind them to push ice faster into the rising oceans.

On six continents the glaciers retreated through the 2000s, shrinking future water sources for countless millions of Indians, Chinese, South Americans. The Great Lakes of Africa were shrinking, too, from higher temperatures, evaporation and drought. Across the temperate zones, flowers bloomed earlier, lakes froze later, bark beetles bored their destructive way northward through warmer forests. In the Arctic, surprised Eskimos spotted the red breasts of southern robins.

In the 2000s, all this was happening faster than anticipated, scientists said. So were other things: By late in the decade, global emissions of carbon dioxide matched the worst case among seven scenarios laid down in 2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N. scientific network formed to peer into climate’s future. Almost 29 billion tons of the gas poured skyward annually, 23 percent more than at the decade’s start.

By year-end 2008, the 2000s already included eight of the 10 warmest years on record. By 2060, that trajectory could push temperatures a dangerous 4 degrees C (7 degrees F) or more higher than preindustrial levels, British scientists said.

Early in the decade, the president of the United States, the biggest emitter of the foul gases, blamed “incomplete” science for the U.S. stand against rolling back emissions, as other industrial nations were trying to do. As the decade wore on and emissions grew, American reasoning leaned more toward the economic.

By 2009, with a new president and Congress, Washington seemed ready to talk. But in the front ranks of climate research – where they scale the glaciers, drill into ocean sediments, monitor a changing Earth through a web of satellite eyes – scientists feared they were running out of time.

Before the turn of the last century, with slide rule, pencil and months of tedious calculation, Svante Arrhenius was the first to show that carbon dioxide would warm the planet – in 3,000 years. The brilliant Swede had not foreseen the 20th-century explosion in use of fossil fuels.

Today their supercomputers tell his scientific heirs a much more urgent story: To halt and reverse that explosion of emissions, to head off a planetary climate crisis, the 10 years that dawn this Jan. 1 will be the fateful years, the final chance, the last decade.

–––

EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles J. Hanley has covered climate issues for The Associated Press since the Kyoto conference of 1997.

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“The successful completion of this vital project reflects the concerns we all share – nationally, regionally and locally – about the critical energy challenges facing communities across the United States,” Salazar said at the dedication ceremony near Heber, Arizona.  “The partnership that built Arizona’s first commercial-scale wind energy project demonstrates a common desire to reduce our dangerous dependence on  foreign oil by using our domestic renewable resources to meet a larger share of our energy needs.  This strategy will also help us  reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change, while creating clean energy jobs around the nation.”

The Dry Lake Wind Power Project is located on a combination of the public lands managed by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, Arizona State Trust Lands, and private lands on the Rocking Chair Ranch in Navajo County.  Phase I will generate 64 megawatts of wind energy with 30 wind turbines.  When fully constructed, the project could provide up to 378 megawatts of wind energy from 100 to 200 turbines.

In addition to Interior agencies, the project partners included the Arizona State Land Department, Rocking Chair Ranch, Navajo County, Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation, Iberdrola Renewables — and the Salt River Project, which has agreed to buy the power produced here. Their efforts were recognized at the dedication by the Department of Energy’s presentation of its Carpe Ventem (Seize the Wind) Award.

“We stand here today, united in our belief that wind energy will play a role in both Arizona’s and our Nation’s green energy future,” said Salazar, who noted that Arizona has set statewide renewable energy goals.  The Arizona Corporation Commission’s Environmental Portfolio Standard requires utilities to procure 15 percent of the state’s electricity from renewables by 2025.

Salazar noted that President Obama has encouraged the expanded use of renewable energy and launched initiatives to spur the development of these resources on U.S. public lands, most of which Interior manages. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the President and Congress made $41 million available to facilitate a  rapid and responsible move to large-scale production of renewables on public lands.

“At Interior we have made the production, development, and delivery of renewable energy one of our highest priorities,” Salazar said.  “I have directed our agencies to work collaboratively with other federal agencies, States, local communities and private landowners to encourage the timely and responsible development of renewable energy and associated transmission, while protecting and enhancing the Nation’s water, wildlife, cultural, and other natural resources.”

Interior has set aside 1,000 square miles of public lands in 24 Solar Energy Study Areas, for example, that it is evaluating for solar energy development across the West.   If developed, these tracts could generate nearly 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity. We have established renewable energy coordinating offices and teams in 10 western states to expedite development.

Salazar offered a special note of thanks to private landowner Bill Elkins, of the Rocking Chair Ranch, who has been very supportive and actually was the person who proposed the area for this Project.

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Family members have spent a quarter-century trying to persuade the eastern Pennsylvania borough to return the remains of the Sac and Fox Indian for reburial near Shawnee, Okla., where his father and other relatives are buried.

“According to Sac and Fox tradition, Dad’s soul will never be at peace until his body is laid to rest, after an appropriate ceremony, back here in his home,” said Jack Thorpe, the youngest son. “Until then, his soul is doomed to wander. We must have him back.”

Attorney Sean W. Pickett, of Kansas City, Mo., said the suit to be filed this month will argue that the borough must hand over the remains under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act that requires federal agencies and institutions that get federal funding to return American Indian cultural items and human remains to their peoples.

“We are going to argue that because Jim Thorpe Borough receives federal funding for housing, community development, and education, they are subject to the requirements” of the act, Pickett said.

Jim Thorpe Mayor Ronald Confer calls the idea “incredible.”

“It’s been more than 50 years,” he said. “It’s too late. No one in this town is going to be for that.”

Thorpe, born in 1887, attended the federal Indian Institute at Carlisle, Pa., where he led the school’s football team to victories in 1911 and 1912 over established college teams. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, he became the only athlete ever to win gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon. He played for baseball’s New York Giants and then for several teams in what would become the National Football League, which named its Most Valuable Player award after him.

After his death, his third wife, Patricia, said she did not have enough money to give him the burial she thought he deserved. After Oklahoma’s governor declined to spend money for a monument, she sought another place to honor her late husband.

In the Poconos community 70 miles north of Philadelphia, civic leaders promised to build a monument and also pledged to merge the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk under the name Jim Thorpe, which they did in 1954. Leaders hoped the plan would make the town a tourist attraction and even attract a football hall of fame, which ended up in Ohio.

Although the promised economic benefits never materialized, the former dying coal town today attracts visitors for other reasons, such as riding a scenic railroad. And Don Hugos, president of the Jim Thorpe Chamber of Commerce, says the name change started the restoration of the town.

“The grave site is a contemplative place,” said Hugos, a photographer with a local gallery. “It’s not what attracts people here, but we’re not going to give up Jim Thorpe’s remains. We have honored his name, and every year on May 28 we still have a celebration of his birthday.

Jack Thorpe said the family believed the town had acted in good faith in honoring his father and relatives still want to work with them on the issue.

“The town is already a great success, and they don’t need the bones of my father,” he said. “I don’t think the people of Jim Thorpe understand Indian culture and how important it is that our father be properly laid to rest.”

John McGuire, president of the borough council, said he understands the family’s point of view and doesn’t want a legal battle.

“But Jim Thorpe is the heart and soul of this town,” he said. “He’s such a part of us that we could never consider losing him.”

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“The Department of Energy is committed to partnering with tribal communities to help them meet their energy needs through clean energy and energy efficiency technologies,” said Secretary Chu. “Clean energy projects will create jobs and economic opportunities on tribal lands, while reducing energy use and increasing energy security for Indian Country.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act greatly expanded opportunities for cooperation between the Department of Energy and Indian Country with the goal of working together to promote energy development and energy efficiency.  Under the Recovery Act, the Department has made more than $35 million in direct grants for energy efficiency projects available to all 562 federally-recognized Indian tribes and 12 Alaska Regional Corporations, and provides funding that empowers tribes to make strategic clean energy investments in their communities.  With these funds, tribal governments will conduct a wide variety of projects, including: weatherization, energy efficiency audits and retrofits, transportation programs, financial incentive programs for efficiency improvements, installing renewable energy technologies on municipal buildings, developing an energy efficiency and conservation strategy, and educating tribal residents on ways to save energy in their own homes.  The Department expects to award another $29 million in Recovery Act funding over the next few months.

For example, the Resighini Rancheria will use  Energy Efficiency and Community Block grant funding from the Recovery Act to provide financial incentives to tribal homeowners to change out old, inefficient household appliances with energy efficient appliances, while the Cherokee Nation is planning to use Recovery Act funds to establish a Home Energy Audit program that will provide tribal citizens with the information needed to make their homes more energy efficient, creating local tribal jobs and yielding substantial energy savings.

In addition to the Recovery Act funding, the Department has also awarded more than $13 million for new clean energy projects on tribal lands this year.  This funding will be matched with other additional public and private investments to support more than $40 million in total projects. Under the Tribal Energy Program, 36 Native American tribes and Alaska villages received competitive awards to help develop and deploy a range of clean energy projects that will advance renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Indian Country.  For example, the funding will support projects to expand tribal wind and hydroelectric power generation, improve building and lighting efficiency, and implement new training programs for weatherization workers.

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The tribe was among more than 120 recipients in dozens of states that were awarded $338 million in grants by the U.S. Department of Energy at the end of October to jump-start the domestic geothermal energy industry. Maps developed by agency show potential across much of the West, including a large portion of New Mexico.

Steve Blodgett, director of Jemez Pueblo’s resource protection office, said Monday he was hoping to get the funding earlier so work could start in January. Now, he said, it looks like the formal award could take several months to get to the tribe.

“They haven’t given us any time frame. They’re basically saying we’ll get around to it when we get around to it,” Blodgett said.

Stephanie Mueller, a DOE spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said Monday that the agency expects to award the money for the geothermal projects soon. But before any funds are given, Mueller said the agency confirms all aspects of the project and negotiates a contract to ensure that the project can be completed.

The process ensures “the highest degree of accountability” for taxpayer funds, she said.

The energy department awarded the grants in different categories, from exploratory efforts such as the one at Jemez Pueblo to a nearly $25 million demonstration project in Oregon that will test technology that has the potential to expand geothermal energy production beyond traditional hot spots. The grants are aimed at identifying and developing new geothermal resources and reducing the risks associated with geothermal development.

Blodgett said the agency has prioritized the grants based on their categories, and the pueblo’s $5 million grant is not among the top priorities.

The Jemez project will test new seismic imaging techniques, as well as a new chemical tracing method developed by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Utah. It is expected to generate six or seven temporary jobs.

The DOE has said the projects represent a dramatic expansion of the U.S. geothermal industry and will create or save thousands of jobs in drilling, exploration and operation of geothermal power facilities.

The tribe plans to drill at least two 3,000-foot-deep wells to see how much hot water is available beneath the reservation. The tribe hopes the resource is significant enough to develop a power plant. If not, it’s considering aquaculture, a physical therapy center or a spa.

The tribe had wanted to get the necessary geologic mapping and seismic studies done before farmers began preparing their fields for the growing season. Much of the surveys would take place along the Jemez River, which courses through the pueblo and along its agricultural fields.

Jemez is known for its chile and corn crops, which are important sources of income for the tribe.

“The reality is if we have to wait, the irrigation season here starts mid-March and it ends around the first of November and during that time farmers are out in the fields working. But we’ll just have to work through it whenever we get the formal award in place,” Blodgett said.

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The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which runs Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand at Foxwoods, reported Tuesday that slot revenue for November totaled $53.7 million. That was down 1.4 percent from November 2008 and down 2 percent from October of this year.

The Mohegan tribe, which operates Mohegan Sun, said it netted $59.6 million from its slot machines last month. That’s down nearly 11 percent from November 2008 and down about 5 percent from October of this year.

The casinos give the state 25 percent of their slot machine revenues every month, under their gaming compacts. The Mashantucket Pequots gave the state $13.7 million and the Mohegans gave $14.9 million for November.

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