Julia "Sister" Strickland PEMBROKE - Julia "Sister" Strickland. 87 died lndav (I eh 2* >a; Bcvei lv Health Care in Lumbenon Ms Strickland was a liomein.ikcii.-uid .1 long time member of the Pembroke Church of God Ihe funeral was Mondav (Feb 28) at Pembroke Church of God with the Rev ('(' MlenJi otliciating Burial followed in St Annah Freewill Baptist Church Cemeterv t Surviving are two sons. James Kenneth Strickland and Leon Strickland ^ both of Pembroke. Katheleen Orr of North Charleston. S C . Lucille Roberts of Pembroke, three sisters. Lula Pere/and Addic Sandeison. boiliol Lumberton and Ada Bell Sanderson of Pembroke, and 22 grandchildren s Mitchell Wayne Cummings MAXTON - Mitchell Wayne Cummings. >9. of Preston Road died I tidav s (Feb 25) at Southeastern Regional Medical Center I he funeral was \ Tuesday(Feb 29) at SmithtownChurchofGod. the Revs Numer I ocklear. 1 Jimmy F Locklear. Robert Hunt and Marshall I.ocklear officiating Burial followed in the Cummings Family Cemetery Survivng are his wife. Wendy Moore Cummings of Maston. a son. ( Karryl Jamison Cummings of Maxton. two daughters. Sola \shley Cummings of Maxton and Natasha Lynn Jacobs of Fairmont, his parents, Frank W Cummings Sr and Dorothy Cummings of Maxton;'5 brothers. Jeffery Cummings. Frank W Cummings. Jr-. Marcus Cummings and Michael A Cummings. all of Maxton. and Thomas McCoy of Pittsboro. and a sister. Jacqueline Cummings of Maxton I Funeral services were conducted by Thompson Funeral Home. Pern- ; broke ( Audia H. Chav is FAIRMONT- Mrs. Audia Mae Hunt C'havis. 76. of 91 Robeson Pines 1 Road died Sunday (Feb 27) in Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton Ms Chavis was a member of Reedy Branch Baptist Church The funeral was conducted Wednesday (March 1) by the Revs Chester Chavis. James E Jones and Charles Maynor Burial followed in the church cemetery Mrs Chavis is survived by three sons. Wilson Chavis and Jerry W Chavis. both of Fairmont, and Willard Chavis of Shannon, 5 daughters, Marvie Sampson of Trinity, Lou Anner Chavis of Archdale. Deloris Mangum of Lumberton, and Sharma Carter and Regina F Chavis, both of Fairmont, 5 brothers, EdeseL'Jack" Hunt and James'A V " Hunt, both of Fairmont, James C. Hunt of Shalotteand James W Hunt and James M Hunt, both of Cleveland, a sister. Wilier Mae Hammonds offairmont. 12 grandchildren, aand 7 great-grandchldren. James C. Lowery MAXTON - James Clarence Lowery, 75, of966 Jacobs Road died Sunday (Feb 27) in Southeastern Regional Medical Center The funeral will be held today (Thurs, March 2) in White Hill Freewill Baptist Church by the Revs Jerry Locklear, Floyd Hunt and Chris Locklear Burial followed in the Lowery Church Cemetery Mr. Lowery is survived by his wife. Louise Lowery of the home, four sons, James C. Lowery Jr., Gene A Lowery and Dan K. Lowery, all of Maxton, and Bobbie Lowery of Fayetteville, two daughters, Frances L Potts and Tammy L. Brooks, both of Maxton; three brothers, Willie F Lowery of Bolton, Johnnie Lowery of Raleigh and Therman Lowery of Pembroke; 24 grandchildren, and a great-grandchild Funeral services were conducted by Locklear & Son Funeral Home. Pembroke Annie J. Hunt LUMBERTON - Mrs Annie Jones Hunt, 77, of Walter Mobile Hope Park, Lot 25, Pine Log Road, died Sunday (Feb.27) in Southeastern Regional Medical Center The funeral will be conducted today (Mar 2) at 2 p.m. in Pembroke Church of God. Burial will follow in the Jones Family Cemetery. Mrs. Hunt is survivied by four sons, Pauls Hunt Jr., Cleveland Hunt and Rondale Hunt, all of Lumberton and J. R Hunt of Pembroke; two daughters, Mary R. Hunt of Shannon and Bessie M. Hunt of the home, two brothers, Ander Jones and Albert Jones, both of Lumberton; five sisters, Mary B Locklear, Gladys Jones and Clara M Jones, all of Lumberton, Lee Anna Morton of Jacksonville and Georgianna Locklear of Maxton, 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren Literary Voices 'Lumbee writing deadline nears Pembroke, N.C.?Dead line for entries in the fifth Native American Literary Voices Writing Contest for Lumbee Indian youth is April 28. according to Dr. Bob Reising, who coordinates the event. There will be poetry and fiction categories for three age groups?grades 79, grades 10-12 and a college division. Winners receive $100 and a copy of the re-released "Only Land I Know" by Alolph Dial and David Eliades. Winndrs will also have the opportunity to read their work at the Fifth Annual Native American Voices Reading during Lumbee Homecoming 2000. Prizes are furnished by the Lumberton Tourism Development Authority, the UNCP Foundation/Endowment and the UNCP Department of American Indian Studies. Questions should be forwarded to Dr. Reising at 521-6485. Complete contest rules will be forwarded to contestants. Students may enter one or both categories and the categories and the these is patriotism. Poems must be more than three lines and less than 30. Fiction should be no longer than 2.500 words and all entries must be typewritten. Committee members this year arc Patsy Baker. Yvonne Dial. Barbara Braveboy-Locklear and Wendy Moore-Cummings. Mclntyre Unveils New Congressional Web Site Washington, D.C.--U.S. Representative Mike Mclntyre announced today that his new congressional web site is on line. The address for the web site is: http://www.house.gov/mcintyre. Congressman Mclntyre stated. "Staying in touch with the citizens of southeastern North Carolina is one of my highest priorities. Through this new web site, I am pleased that constituents can have access to the latest information affecting their lives here in Washington. In addition, this web site offers information on various other services including: grants, tours, breaking news, a survey of the month, a special section for students, and legislative information." Congressman Mclntyre encourages citizens to access this site and give their input and suggestions. Send comments to: web.mcintyre(6)mail.house.gov. Oak Valley Furniture Clayton McDuffio Owr.-vi (910) 422-9010 102 Mcin St. 6. tIC 2TJ33 Tfie r\SSciy O private mission schools and naking them into an integrated single s stent. Other tribes would has e some ariations on the current systems, but he approach would be near the same. Is there precedent? Yes. there is. I he Zuni Public School System was tarsed out of the Gallup- Mckinley i'ounts Schools some 20 sears ago. It s one of two school districts that are toterminous (has ing the same boundtries) as an Indian reservation. The sther such district is on the Red Lake ndian Reservation in Minnesota. The Barona Tribal Council in San Diego County. CA. created its own school four years ago. For years. 90% jf the Barona students have dropped out. or been pushed out of. the Lakeside Union School District just over the mountain from the reservation, l.akeside is a fairly horrible little racist place. The Indian kids hated the way they were treated and reacted in the only sensible way they could? they dropped out. Now. under a strong Principal, Donna Myers, the Barona Indian School had its first graduation last year. Six seniors proudly received their diploma in the ceremony Has the groundwork been laid for tribes to take over schools? The answer is "Not much." Ms. Pat Locke laid the groundwork for tribal control, as she has for so many other things, with her pioneering project 20 years ago to create tribal departments of education (TDOE's). This project, which Pat conducted under the auspices of the National Tribal Chairmen's's Association, pointed the way for tribes to start to assume control of their schools. A few tribes have followed through. Pat helped the Red Lake Band of Chippewas to develop a complete tribal education code. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe under Ms. Sherry Red Osvl has developed its own tribal education code. The Colorado River Indian Tribes have developed its own tribal education code. The Colorado River Indian Tribes have developed their own education code under Mr. Dennis Patch. For the most part, however, the tribal education codes do not assume the tribes will take over and operate their own school s)stems My ques- a tion is \V hy should they not do this1 It schools are going to continue to treat Indian students as second class I citi/ens. to push them out instead ol f making sure they are graduated, why a should a tribe not assume responsibility for its members? 1 Would they have the funds to I operate these schools'.' If the school ' district is on a reservation, but has a 5 publicly-elected school board, the state t is obligated to pay its share, as is the < federal government. There is some I provision in both BIA regulations and in the highly important Impact : Aid regulations to allow a tribe to take ; over and run a school if the school board does not assume the responsi- i bility. ; How would tribes go about tak- i ing over schools that are on or near reservations, but that are most often governed by non-Indian school < boards? This is a really good question. and the heart of the matter. It would possibly require some new laws by the state legislature, some negotiation with current school boards, some redrawing of school district boundary lines, and some hard -nosed deal making. But the casino tribes have found that they can hold their own in negotiations with governors and state legislatures. They have even found in California that they can go to the ballot and get strong support from the electorate in the face of a governor and legislature that will not allow them to make progress. The most important question to me is: Who is going to stand up and demand the right thing for Indian children? Are tribes going to continue to allow 80% of their young members to be discriminated against, ignored, put down, called racist names, labelled as slow learners, and in general treated as second class citizens forever? I hope not. Is tribal control of schools the only answer? It certainly is not. There are a handful of schools now that are improving dramatically. Many of them are working closely witVi tribes (such as Navajo Prep School). What would be the advantages of tribal control. The main advantage is the most obvious--the schools could be made an instrument of tribal policy, working in conjunction with tribal governments. Now they are instruments trying to destroy tribal life. Few of them teach tribal languages; they are too busy trying to destroy tribal languages to adhere to the new law of the land. Sen. Inouye's bill, the "Native American Languages Act," N MM calls tor the preservation of satise languages, their protection, md promotion of their use Schools till do not knovs that this lass passed ilmost a decade ago. Few of them teach tribal history I he histors of the I S. still started in 4U2--ssith the exception of the tsso >aragraphs in the L ,S. histors books ibout Indians. Fess of them hase a positive attiude about Indian students. The jresailing view of Indian students by eachers is that thes are going to fail, .o whs push them? Thes won't do heir homework, so whs give them ins? The parents won't help, so whs Irs to work w ith them? It does not help to demonstrate to school people that these assumptions are demonstrably svrong. They are so ingrained in the culture ofthe schools that it will take 50 Caterpillar tractors and 50 tons of dynamite to root them out. Most teachers in Indian schools never see the parents of their students. That is a shame. If they made the effort to reach out to parents, they would find that Indian parents are vers concerned about their children getting a good education. Seven generations of the schools denying any opportunity for parent participation has left Indian convinced, however, that they are not welcome in the schools. So they don't try to become involved, no matter how much they care about the education of their children. What do Indian parents want from the schools for their children? I started asking this question with parents in Kayenta, AZ, 12 years ago. Since then I have asked it in a formal way in Farmington, NM, Dulce, NM, Albuquerque, NM Montezuma Creek. UT, Chinle, AZ, and Ganado, AZ. Almost withoutexception, Indian parents want their children to finish high school. I have only had one parent tell me in the past 13 years that she did not want her child to finish high school. They want their children to attend college. They want the children to finish college. This is a huge change from the situation 30 sears ago. Then, many Indian parents did not want their children to get a "white man's education." In those times, it meant thechild would leave the home and get a job in the cits somewhere, was away from their parents. Thes would be lost to their families foreser. That is no longer true. Indian students can get a college education, then get an MD or a DVM degree, and find more work that they can do at home on reservations. They do not have to become alienated form their families and lost to them foreser. Not only can they return home to the reservations, but there are tons of jobs waiting for them. The Native American Scholarship Fund for whom I work has graduated 214 students in * the past 13 years. Their unemployment rate? Zero. Most of them have jobs before they get their sheepskin handed to them. So what we have here is an immovable object. Some people have made inroads in trying to change outcomes ; for Indian students. Included here > have to be such things as the native language immersion school of the Washo Tribe of NV and CA, chaired ' by Brian Wallace. Also included is the Blackfeet language immersion school run by Darrell Kipp, Dorothy I Still Smoking, and others at Brown- ? ing, MT. The grand old man of language immersion schools, how- , ever, is the Akwesasne Freedom * School on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in NY, which has been ^ going for over 20 years now. So, yes, Mr. Chairman, I believe that if the schools on your reservation T are not doing the right things by your ; children, you should assume control , of the systems. I hope you do the right things?make sure Native languages are taught, insist on the highest stan- dards forall concerned, hold everyone 2 accountable, and make sure the ^ schools are operated the right way. It is time to start doing the right thing for Indian children. Our patrimony demands nothing 'hess. * Senator Edwards Commends The President's Council On : The Future Of Princeville Washington?Senator John Edwards on Tuesday commended Rep. Eva Clayton and President Clinton for the creation of the President's Council on the Future of Princeville, North Carolina. "The Council represents an important step in the rebuilding process," said Senator Edwards. 1 am grateful for the President's continued support as we work together to help Princeville's residents recover from the devastation of Hurricane Floyd. 1 applaud Congresswoman Clayton and her efforts to focus much needed attention on this important historic town." The President's Council will bring together representatives from twelve federal agencies and several Cabinet members. The Council will work together with elected officials, the private sector, community and non-profit groups to help rebuild Princeville and protect the town from future floods. I (LRDA/UUMBEE HOUSING DEPARTMENT I I DOWN-PAYMENT PROGRAM) I Local modular home dealers have begun to run advertisements soliciting Lumhee j)eople to purchase a home. Those advertisements are misleading! The LRDA/Lumbee Housing Department does administer a down-payment assistance program; however, the following rules apply: 1. Enrolled Lumbees must submit an application for assistance, and be approved for assistance by the LRDA/Lumbee Housing 2. When approved, the LRDA/Lumbee Housing Department will schedule a hoincbuycr education session with the approved I'pon completion of the homcbuyer education seminar, the I.RDA/Lunibee Housing Department will issue the prospective homcbuyer a U tter of Introduction/Tentative Chant Commitment \. The LRDA/Lumbee Housing Department maintains a list of approved modular dealers and a portfolio of the specific homes approved homebuyers may purchase; and, .). An LRDA/Lumbee Housing Department representative will provide assistance/guidance to the homcbuyer with respect to the Should you need additional information, contact The LRDA/Lumbee Housing Department at (910) ,>22-1101.