Introducing:

(click the graphic above to go to the The Lovely Janet Web Store)

Note:  We're taking orders NOW until late February for heirloom tomato, pepper and herb plants to be delivered after frost date.  

Click here for 

Plant Descriptions and Order Form

At Owlstar Trading Post

• Selected American Indian Music CDs  

• Movies and Music Videos featuring favorite Native American performers

• Indian and Southwestern-theme Flags and Veteran/military service flags  

• Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi Jewelry

Questions or comments are welcome.

Mail Janet at owlstar@speakeasy.net

Click on the flag to visit the Owlstar Trading Post -- shop for music, videos, flags, jewelry -- great gift items!

WWW www.owlstar.com

Federal study backs up land claim by Tigua tribe - Indian Country Today
Posted: January 25, 2008 - AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A new federal study supports long-held claims by an American Indian tribe that the state of Texas stole 36 square miles of tribal territory in El Paso.

The 172-page report, completed last year, was obtained by the San Antonio Express-News under a Freedom of Information Act request. Now, members of the Ysleta Pueblo del Sur, known as the Tiguas, are trying to determine what to do with the information in the study. 

Tribes worry oil pipeline might cross culturally important sites - Indian Country Today
Posted: January 25, 2008 - PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The Keystone crude oil pipeline won't cross American Indian reservations in South Dakota, but it could be located on cultural sites important to Indians, says Russell Eagle Bear, a Rosebud Sioux Tribe representative.

''We want to make sure that all the cultural properties are protected along the route,'' Eagle Bear said. ''This is moving quite fast and I think they need to work closely with tribes in the area - all the tribes.''

Navajos plan suit on permit - Casper Star Tribune
Friday, January 25, 2008 2:05 AM MST - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been notified by one of the nation's largest American Indian tribes that it intends to sue over the agency's lack of action on an air permit application for a proposed coal-fired power plant.

The Navajo Nation's Dine Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global Power have partnered to build the $3 billion Desert Rock plant, which would be capable of producing electricity for more than 1 million homes in cities across the Southwest.

Johnson, Thune unite on Native health initiative - Rapid City Journal
By Kevin Woster, Journal staff Friday, January 25, 2008 - A U.S. Senate bill aimed at improving the Native American health-care system has the potential to save lives on South Dakota reservations, a tribal leader said Thursday.

Robert Moore, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council, said the Indian Health Care Improvement Act includes essential provisions -- including better medical screening and mental-health options -- to better Indian Health Service services that could help fight exploding diabetes rates and other debilitating health problems among Native Americans. It could also reduce bureaucratic red tape and individual costs that make it difficult for Native people to receive proper care from the IHS, Moore said.

January 24, 2008

San Carlos Apaches awarded housing units - Courier

Thursday, January 24, 2008 - On Jan. 9, 2008, the San Carlos Apache Tribe was awarded 10 unused manufactured housing units, available to tribal governments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through the Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

 In the summer of 2006, the state of Arizona declared that the tribe along the Gila River and the San Carlos River was in a state of emergency after floodwaters and high wind caused by summer monsoons destroyed homes and businesses. With this obstacle, the tribe continued its efforts to seek options of housing relief.

Artman invites tribal leaders to national meeting, January 30 - Charkoosta News
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman this week invited leaders from the 562 federally recognized tribes to attend a national meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, on the Indian Affairs Modernization Initiative. The one-day event will take place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Horizon Room, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST).

"Your expressions of frustration with the current delivery of Indian Affairs services illustrate the necessity for a review of the Indian Affairs structure and business processes," Artman said in his January 14 letter to tribal leaders. "As we have stated since the start of this dialogue, the modernization effort must be tribally driven to ensure that any revisions are directly responsive to tribal concerns." 

Plan would include Red Lake in initiative for paying child protection services - Bemidji Pioneer
Published Thursday, January 24, 2008 - BEMIDJI The Minnesota Legislature will be asked this session to include the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in a state initiative that deals directly with tribes in paying for child protection services.

The move would remove Beltrami County property taxpayers from the mix, says state Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook. And, Skoe said he will try to get relief to the county for monies it paid last year over and above what it should have paid. 

January 23, 2008

Cherokee Nation council adopts arts and crafts act - Muskogee Phoenix
Published January 23, 2008 11:30 pm - TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council has adopted an act requiring truth in advertising for Native American art.

The act requires anyone selling Native American art in the Cherokee Nation to be a citizen or a member of a federally recognized Native American tribe.

Gathered tribes hear some hopeful news on health care - Yakima Herald-Republic
Dana Miller, left, and Russell Jim with Yakama Nation's Environmental Restoration Waste Management talk with Carroll Palmer during the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians conference at the Yakima Convention Center on Tuesday.
Published on Wednesday, January 23, 2008  - Tribal leaders at the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians conference learned Tuesday that a bill seeking to give Indian health care a $166 million boost is making its way through the U.S. Senate.

It would be the largest infusion of funds the agency has seen under the Bush administration, and would be the most dramatic change to Indian health care in Washington state.

Last native speaker of Eeyak dies at 89
Published: Jan. 23, 2008 at 2:08 PM - ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded member of Alaska's Eeyak people and an activist for American Indian rights, has died at 89.

Smith Jones died in her sleep in her apartment Monday in Fairview near Anchorage, the Anchorage Daily News reported. She insisted on living on her own even after breaking a hip two years ago.

Elk herd keeps Stillaguamish Tribe fed - Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - ARLINGTON -- This winter, local American Indian tribal members are hunting the Nooksack elk herd for the first time in more than a decade. Stillaguamish Tribal Chairman Shawn Yannity remembers his experience hunting the herd for the first time in recent memory. These are his words: