Issues & News From STSSA Friends & Family 02/09/2011

Issues & News From STSSA Friends & Family 02/09/2011

Note: Sorry it took so long to get these out. The Savannah Mounds Issue took up a lot of time and research.

Dave

NDN News Cody Blackbird ~ Alaskan Tour Native Youth Alliances Cancer Relief Fund

Please help as you are able and forward to your lists and contacts.

Thanks!

Tamra

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cody Blackbird, a 22 year old Best Debut Artist nominee at the 2010 Native American Music Awards, is taking the music industry by storm. Cody performs traditional Native music along with flute and hand drum. Cody has had the privilege to perform with some of Indian Country’s top music artists including, Joanne Shenandoah and Bill Miller.

Cody is currently on a 5 month music benefit tour to create awareness and raise donations for the Native Youth Alliances Cancer Relief Fund. Cody is donating his time and out of pocket expenses, however his funding has ran short and he currently needs your help to keep the tour going. Cody will be departing for Alaska on Thursday, February 24^th to continue his mission, spreading the organizations message to the Alaskan Native people.

The goal of his tour is to raise awareness for Native families with cancer, that they are not alone and help is available for their loved ones.

Due to unforeseen budget cuts, one of the major sponsors for the Alaskan tour was forced to back out of their $1500 commitment, leaving Cody without the needed funding to continue the tour.

If your organization, business or a private donor is able to sponsor Cody and their music tour, please contact him at:

cblackbird@gmail.com

540-206-0114

Or his Facebook page @ cody sunbear blackbird

The sponsorship appreciation and gratitude will be included on concert fliers and radio interviews on their tour. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

Mitakuye Oyasin! (We Are All Related!)

Cody Blackbird

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

rom the Eagle Watch #110
Wednesday February 23, 2011

We continue in solidarity with Ongwehonwe people at 6 Nations. Our report "Water Woes: Shame, Shame, Shame on Canada" will be released as soon as we get out from under this tenacious and morphing flu/cold that is going around.
Kittoh
<kittoh@storm.ca>

We welcome your feedback! Forward, post and consider printing for your cyberphobic friends and relatives.
The Eagle Watch Newsletter is sent to interested individuals, both Indigenous and nonNative, politicians especially the Canadian ones and an assortment of English language media.

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:51:51 -0500
Subject: Fwd: February 27 Bus to Kanonhstaton
From: IPSM Guelph <ipsm.guelph@gmail.com>
To: ipsmguelph@gmail.com
X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.2

actdinner@gmail.com

Please Forward Widely


At Noon on Sunday February 27, there is a rally at Lion’s Hall in Caledonia to mark the 5 year anniversary of Kanonhstaton, the reclamation at Six Nations near Caledonia. The celebration is aimed at recognizing the land claim of Six Nations to the Haldimand Tract in its entirety. Come to demonstrate your continued support. The event is expected to get started at Noon with speakers from Six Nations and from the First Nations Solidarity Working Group.

At 1:00 pm Garry Mchale and his followers will attempt to hold a "Truth and Reconciliation Rally" in which they are demanding an apology from Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Ontario government, and Six Nations peoples for what they call “native lawlessness,” “land claim terrorism,” and “race-based policing”. In a peaceful and positive manner we will confront and integrate with his demonstration to foster a dialogue and promote an end to land theft and a recognition of Indigenous Sovereignty.

A bus will be leaving from the Market Fresh Plaza at the corner of Paisley and Woolwich, downtown Guelph at 9:00 A.M. The Bus will arrive back at the Market Fresh Plaza between 5:30 and 6:00 P.M. If you are interested in attending this important event and would like to secure a spot on the bus, please contact actdinner@gmail.com. Please note the bus is not wheelchair accessible, there are unfinished roads at Kanonhstaton that could restrict mobility, and this rally will not be stationary. The bus will be stopping at a Tim Hortons. There is a suggested donation of $10 to pay for the bus cost. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

What: The 5 year anniversay of Kanohstaton
Where: Lions Hall, Caledonia. Buses from Guelph

When: Leaving Guelph at 9:00 A.M

Who: All are welcome



More information:


5 YEARS AGO:
On February 28, 2006, the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory mounted an action to reclaim and halt the development of the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision dismayed with the lack of success in negotiations and in the context of rapid development of land in the Caledonia area. The area was occupied with a great number of people and blockades were built on the surrounding roads, garnering national attention and the support of both aboriginal and non-aboriginal allies.

MORE HISTORY AND CONTEXT:
"Six Nations" refers to the six nations that are part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: Gayogoho:no (Cayuga), Kanien’keha:ka
(Mohawk), Onyota’a:ka (Oneida), Onoda’gega (Onondaga), Onodowahgah (Seneca), and Ska-ru-ren (Tuscarora). The traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy crosses the colonial US/Canada border, including parts of “Ontario”, “Quebec”, “Pennsylvania”, “Ohio”, “New York”, and “New Hampshire”.

Haldimand Tract
The Haldimand Tract is a strip of land that runs the length of the Grand River that is 10km deep on each side. It was granted to the Six
Nations Confederacy in 1784 in recognition of their loyalty to the British Crown during the American Revolution. The Haldimand Tract is
central to the ongoing land claims struggle of the Six Nations with the surrounding settler communities, provincial and federal
governments.

Land Claims
The current Six Nations reserve covers only 50,000 acres, or approximately 5% of the original grant. Since the original 1784
Proclamation, the vast majority of the land was sold or otherwise illegally transferred to white settlers by the Crown (and subsequently
the Canadian government) without the consent of the Six Nations confederacy. Since 1980, 29 claims have been filed with the federal
government for small portions of the Tract.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

5 years anniversary celebration at Kanonhstaton

Please Forward Widely


At Noon on Sunday February 27, there is a rally at Lion’s Hall in Caledonia to mark the 5 year anniversary of Kanonhstaton, the reclamation at Six Nations near Caledonia. The celebration is aimed at recognizing the land claim of Six Nations to the Haldimand Tract in its entirety. Come to demonstrate your continued support. The event is expected to get started at Noon with speakers from Six Nations and from the First Nations Solidarity Working Group.

At 1:00 pm Garry Mchale and his followers will attempt to hold a "Truth and Reconciliation Rally" in which they are demanding an apology from Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Ontario government, and Six Nations peoples for what they call “native lawlessness,” “land claim terrorism,” and “race-based policing”. In a peaceful and positive manner we will confront and integrate with his demonstration to foster a dialogue and promote an end to land theft and a recognition of Indigenous Sovereignty.

A bus will be leaving from the Market Fresh Plaza at the corner of Paisley and Woolwich, downtown Guelph at 9:00 A.M. The Bus will arrive back at the Market Fresh Plaza between 5:30 and 6:00 P.M. If you are interested in attending this important event and would like to secure a spot on the bus, please contact actdinner@gmail.com. Please note the bus is not wheelchair accessible, there are unfinished roads at Kanonhstaton that could restrict mobility, and this rally will not be stationary. The bus will be stopping at a Tim Hortons. There is a suggested donation of $10 to pay for the bus cost. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

What: The 5 year anniversay of Kanohstaton
Where: Lions Hall, Caledonia. Buses from Guelph

When: Leaving Guelph at 9:00 A.M

Who: All are welcome



More information:


5 YEARS AGO:
On February 28, 2006, the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory mounted an action to reclaim and halt the development of the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision dismayed with the lack of success in negotiations and in the context of rapid development of land in the Caledonia area. The area was occupied with a great number of people and blockades were built on the surrounding roads, garnering national attention and the support of both aboriginal and non-aboriginal allies.

MORE HISTORY AND CONTEXT:
"Six Nations" refers to the six nations that are part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: Gayogoho:no (Cayuga), Kanien’keha:ka
(Mohawk), Onyota’a:ka (Oneida), Onoda’gega (Onondaga), Onodowahgah (Seneca), and Ska-ru-ren (Tuscarora). The traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy crosses the colonial US/Canada border, including parts of “Ontario”, “Quebec”, “Pennsylvania”, “Ohio”, “New York”, and “New Hampshire”.

Haldimand Tract
The Haldimand Tract is a strip of land that runs the length of the Grand River that is 10km deep on each side. It was granted to the Six
Nations Confederacy in 1784 in recognition of their loyalty to the British Crown during the American Revolution. The Haldimand Tract is
central to the ongoing land claims struggle of the Six Nations with the surrounding settler communities, provincial and federal
governments.

Land Claims
The current Six Nations reserve covers only 50,000 acres, or approximately 5% of the original grant. Since the original 1784
Proclamation, the vast majority of the land was sold or otherwise illegally transferred to white settlers by the Crown (and subsequently
the Canadian government) without the consent of the Six Nations confederacy. Since 1980, 29 claims have been filed with the federal
government for small portions of the Tract.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Please forward to engineers out there.... to comment on this super cheap, safe, sustainable, electricity...Firefly ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^The TESLA centralized A.C. electric power system we have today was forced into existence on a colossal scale by utility magnates of that era, the most prominent being Samuel Insull, who became infamous for his massive bilking of the investing public and famous in others for hammering together the electric power complex now in place. This complex has developed into afederally protected monopoly with greater capital wealth than any other industry in the US. In the order of energy sources used, Tesla's hydropower has been left well behind the burning of fossil fuels, a process that dumps 24 million tons of pollutants into the nation's air supply each year.Hydropower even runs way behind the nukes in kilowatt-hours produced. So went another Tesla dream. Tesla was a celebrity in his poly phase heyday, but today his celebrity is as an underground cult figure known for his radically progressive energy-magnifying, free-energy, and wireless power inventions, which, of course, have no place in the established system. The Lost Inventions of Nikola Tesla

TESLA, Nikola (1856-1943), electrical inventor. Tesla was famous at the turn of the century for inventing the alternating current system still in use today. But his later inventions, documented in some 30 U.S. patents between 1890 and 1921, have never been utilized as Tesla intended despite their obvious potential for advancing in fundamental ways the technology of modern civilization. Among these lost inventions: the disk-turbine rotary engine, the Tesla coil, electric energy magnifier, high-frequency lighting systems, the magnifying transmitter, wireless power, and the free-energy receiver. Born Yugoslavia, 1856. Educated at the polytechnic school at Graz and at University of Prague. Worked as telephone engineer in Prague and Paris. Conceived new type of electric motor having no commutator, as direct current. motors have, but works on principle of rotating magnetic field produced by poly phase alternating currents. Constructed prototype. Found nobody interested in Europe. Emigrated to U.S. (1884). Worked briefly and unhappily with Thomas Edison.

Established own lab and obtained patents on poly phase motors, dynamos, transformers for a complete alternating current power system. Formed alliance with George Westinghouse, who bought poly phase patents for $1 million plus royalty. With Westinghouse, engaged in struggle against Edison to convince public of efficiency and safety of AC over DC, and succeeded in getting Alternating Current accepted as the electric power system worldwide.

Also with Westinghouse, lit the Chicago World's Fair, built Niagara Falls hydropower plant, and installed AC - Alternating Current - systems at Colorado silver mines, and other industries. By turn of the century was lifted to celebrity status comparable to Edison's as media promoted him along with the expanding electric power industry. Experimenting independently in Manhattan lab, developed and patented electric devices based on superior capabilities of high-potential, high-frequency currents: Tesla coil, radio, high-frequency lighting, x-rays, electrotherapy. Suffered lab fire. Rebuilt, and continued. Moved lab to Colorado Springs for about one year (1899). Built huge magnifying transmitter. Experimented with wireless power, radio, and earth resonance. Studied lightning. Created lightning. Returned to New York. With encouragement of financier J.P. Morgan, promoted a World System of radio broadcasting utilizing magnifying transmitters. Built huge tower for magnifying transmitter at Wardenclyffe, Long Island as first station in World System. Received enough from JPMorgan to bring station within sight of completion, then funds cut off, project collapsed.

Continued to invent into the 1920's, but flow of patents meager compared to earlier torrent, which amounted to some 700 patents worldwide. High-frequency inventions ignored by established technology, as were disk turbine, free energy receiver, and other inventions. Shut out by media except for birthday press conferences. At these conferences, predicted microwaves, TV, beam technologies, cosmic-ray motor, interplanetary communications, and wave-interference devices that since have been named the Tesla howitzer and the Tesla shield. In the 1930's, he was involved in wireless power projects in Quebec. Last birthday media appearance in 1940.

Died privately and peacefully at 87 in [cheap] New York hotel room from no apparent cause in particular. Personal papers, including copious lab notes, impounded by U.S. Government, surfaced many years later at the "Tesla Museum", in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Of these notes, only a fragment, "Colorado Springs Notes", has been published by the Museum.

the

inventions:

1. Disk-Turbine Rotary Engine

Tesla called it a powerhouse in a hat. One version developed 110 h.p. at 5000 RPM and was less than ten inches in diameter. Tesla believed larger turbines could achieve 1000 HP. The disk-turbine rotary engine runs vibration free. It is cheap to manufacture because nothing but the rotor bearings needs to be fitted to close tolerances. It requires little maintenance. If necessary, the rotor can be replaced with ease. The turbine can run on steam,compressed air, gasoline, or oil.

How it works

Unlike conventional turbines that use blades or buckets to catch the flow, Tesla's uses a set of rigid metal disks that, instead of battling the propelling stream at steep angles, runs with smooth efficiency in parallel with the flow. What drives the disks is a peculiar adhesion that exists between the surface of a body and any moving fluid. This adhesion, is, in Tesla's words, caused by the shock of the fluid against the asperities of the solid substance (simple resistance) and from internal forces opposing molecular separation (a sticking phenomenon).

The propellant enters the intake and is directed through a nozzle onto the disks at their perimeter. It travels over the spinning disks in a spiral fashion, exiting at the disks' central openings and is exhausted from the casing. Tesla notes in his patent that, in an engine driven by a fluid, changes in the velocity and direction of movement of the fluid should be as gradual as possible. This, he observes, is not the case, though, in existing engines where sudden changes, shocks, and vibrations are unavoidable. The use of pistons, paddles, vanes and blades, notes Tesla, necessarily introduces numerous defects and limitations and adds to the complication, cost of production, and maintenance of the machines.

We who are stuck with the piston engine know this all too well. The Tesla turbine is vibration-free because the propelling fluid moves in natural paths or stream lines of least resistance, free from constraint and disturbance. Conducting the propellant through the intake valve on the other side easily reverses the turbine.

Internal combustion

A hollow casting is bolted to the top of the turbine for the internal combustion mode. A glow plug or spark plug screws into the top of this chamber. Sticking out of the sides are the intake valves. Interesting thing about these valves, there are no moving parts. They work on a fluidic principle. The Tesla turbines' only moving part is its rotor. Imagine, a powerful internal combustion engine with only one moving part.

Fluidics

The fluidic valve, which Tesla calls a valvular conduit, allows easy flow in one direction but in the other the flow gets hung up in dead-end chambers (buckets) where it gets spun around 360 degrees, thus forming eddies, or countercurrents that stop the flow as surely as if a mechanical valve were moved into the shut position. The spinning rotor creates plenty of suction to pull fuel and air into the combustion chamber. Tesla notes that after a short lapse of time the chamber becomes heated to such a degree that the ignition device may be shut off without disturbing the established regime. In other words; it diesels. The disk-turbine motor principle in reverse becomes a very efficient pump. (Tesla's Patent No. 1,061,142)

Fluid drive

The disk turbine principle is employed in the speedometer, which presents the problem of having to turn the rotary motion of a vehicles wheels to angular motion in order to push a spring-loaded indicator needle over a short arc. Tesla's solution: the speedometer cable connects to a disk which spins in interface with a second disk, imparting spin to the fluid in between and, hence, to the second disk which moves the needle. Interface two disks of different sizes in a fluid medium and any desired ratio between speeds of rotation may be obtained by proper selection of the diameters of the disks, observes Tesla in his patent, thus anticipating in 1911 the fluid-drive automatic transmission.

Tesla First worked on his turbine early in his career, believing it would be a good prime mover for his alternating-current dynamos, far superior to the reciprocal steam engines that were the workhorses of that era. But he did not get down to perfecting and patenting it until after the collapse of his global broadcasting scheme (1909). By this time the internal-combustion piston engine was firmly rooted in Western power mechanics. Tesla referred to organized opposition to his attempts to introduce the superior engine, and so have others who have made the attempt since. But Tesla still saw a glorious future for his turbine. To his friend, Yale engineering professor Charles Scott, Tesla predicted, "My turbine will scrap all the heat engines in the world." Replied Scott, "That would make quite a pile of scrap."

2. Spark-Gap Oscillator:

Tesla was central in establishing the 60 cycle alternating current power system still in use today. Yet he suspected that the more striking phenomena resided in the higher frequencies of electric vibration. To reach these heights, he first tried dynamos spun at higher speeds and having a greater number of poles than any that had existed before. One having as an armature a flat, radially grooved copper disk achieved 30,000 cycles, but Tesla wanted to go into the millions of cycles.

It occurred to him that this vibratory capability was to be found in the capacitor. With a capacitor circuit, the spark-gap oscillator, he did indeed achieve the higher frequencies, and he did so by non mechanical means. The circuit was promising enough for him to patent it as A Method of and Apparatus for Electrical Conversion and Distribution, for Tesla saw in it the possibility of a whole new system of electric lighting by means of high frequencies. Though it was quickly succeeded by the Tesla coil and is not numbered among the more famous of the lost inventions, the spark-gap oscillator is pivotal for Tesla as the invention that launched him into his career in high frequencies.

How it works

The capacitor. There are only a few basic building blocks of electrical circuitry. The capacitor is one of them. Tesla didn't invent it, it had been around for some time, arguably for millennia, but he did improve upon it in three of his patents. Also called condenser, the common capacitor is just a sandwich of conductive and nonconductive layers that serves the purpose of storing electrical charge. The simplest capacitor has just two conductive sheets separated by a single sheet of insulation. In the capacitor shown, the conductive elements are two metal plates.

The insulation between them is oil. In the official vocabulary, the plates are indeed called plates and the insulative layer (oil, glass, mica, or whatever) is called the dielectric. Connect the two terminals of a capacitor into a circuit where there is plus-minus electrical potential, and charge builds on the plates, positive on one, negative on the other. Let this charge build for a while, and then connect the two plates through some resistance, a coil, say, and the capacitor discharges very suddenly. Tesla said, The explosion of dynamite is only the breath of a consumptive compared with its discharge. He went on to say that the capacitor is the means of producing the strongest current, the highest electrical pressure, the greatest commotion in the medium.

The capacitor's discharge is not necessarily a single event. If it discharges into a suitable resistance, there is a rush of current outward, then back again, as if it were bouncing off the resistance, then out, and back and so forth until it peters out. The discharge is oscillatory, a vibration. The vibration can be sustained by recharging the capacitor at appropriate intervals. When Tesla talks of the capacitor's discharge causing commotion in the medium, he means a vibration or mix of vibrations. The character of this vibration is determined in part by the capacity of the capacitor, that is, how much charge it will hold. This is a function of it size, the distance between plates, and the composition of the dielectric. Upon discharge there would be, typically, a fundamental vibration, some harmonics, and perhaps other commotion, maybe musical, maybe not. Additional circuitry can tame the vibration to a pure tone.

The medium

When Tesla speaks of commotion in the medium, what is the medium? In Tesla's time it was an article of faith that there existed a unified field that permeated all being called the ether. The ether as the electric medium still is an article of faith in some circles, but in official science its existence is presumed to have been disproved in the laboratory. Nevertheless, this conviction about an ether ran very deep, not only among scientists but among all thinkers, until only about forty-some years ago when particle theory, E=MC2, and, finally Hiroshima firmly established the new faith. Tesla said the electron did not exist.

The materialistic concept of these little particles running through conductors is alien to Tesla electric theory. Here is the Quaker writer Rufus Jones on the ether in 1920: An intangible substance which we call ether - luminiferous (light-bearing) aether - fills all space, even the space occupied by visible objects, and this ether which is capable of amazing vibrations, billions of times a second, is set vibrating at different velocities by different objects. These vibrations bombard the minute rods of the retina... It is responsible also for all the immensely varied phenomena of electricity, probably, too of cohesion and gravitation...

The dynamo and the other electrical mechanisms, which we have invented do not make or create electricity. They merely let it come through, showing itself now as light, now as heat, now again as motive power. But always it was there before, unnoted, merely potential, and yet a vast surrounding ocean of energy there behind, ready to break into active operation when the medium was at hand for it. Jones, who was not a scientist but a religious thinker and communicator, was making a point about the nearness of God's power and could do so by invoking the physics of his time. This would be difficult using the Einsteinian physics in fashion today, which W. Gordon Allen has called atheistic science.

Although the ether is intangible, it is assumed to have elastic properties, so that Tesla can say a circuit with a large capacity behaves as a slack spring, whereas one with a small capacity acts as a stiff spring vibrating more vigorously. This elastic character of the ether, which you experience palpably when you play with a pair of magnets, is due to the medium's lust for equilibrium. Distorted by electrical charge (or by magnetism or by the gravity of a material body), the ether seeks to restore a perfect balance between the polarities of positive-negative, plus/minus, yang/yin.

Voltage is the measure of ether strain or imbalance, called potential difference, or just potential. Balance is not restored from this strained condition in one swing-back. As we have seen with the capacitor, the disturbed electric medium, like a plucked guitar string, over-swings the centerline of equilibrium to one side, then to the other, again and again, and this we know as vibration. In this way of looking at nature, vibration is energy; energy is vibration. So you could say that the commotion in the medium caused by the capacitors discharge is energy itself.

Thus, you can speak of the capacitor as an energy magnifier. Even though a feeble potential may charge it, the sudden blast of the capacitor's release plucks the medium mightily. The capacitor is common in modern circuitry, but Tesla used it with much greater emphasis on its capability as an energy magnifier and on a scale almost unheard of today. It's difficult to find commercial capacitors that meet Tesla specifications. Builders of tesla coils and other high-voltage devices usually must construct their own capacitors. Fortunately, this can be done using readily available materials.

How it works

The spark gap: A simple way to discharge a capacitor is through a spark gap. The spark-gap oscillator is just a capacitor firing into a circuit load (lamps or whatever) through the spark gap. The opening between the spark-gap electrodes determines when the capacitor will fire. This setting is one determinant of the frequency of the circuit.

The others are capacity and the reactance, or bounce characteristics, of the load. The potential needed to bridge the gap is in the tens of thousands of volts. It takes a potential of about 20,000 volts to break down the resistance of just a quarter of an inch of air. The gap doesn't necessarily have to be air. Tesla has referred to a gap consisting of a film of insulation. A spark gap is a switching device, a semiconductor in fact. But the spark gap is problematic, particularly the common two-electrode air-gap version. Heating and ionizing of the air cause irregularities in conduction and premature firing.

This arcing must be quenched. It can be to a great degree by using a series of small gaps instead of one larger one, or by using a rotary gap. Tesla also immersed the gap in flowing oil, used an air blowout, and even found that a magnetic field helps to quench. For the gap Tesla substituted high-speed rotary switches, which he called circuit controllers. One has a rotor that dips into a pool of mercury, and another uses mercury jets to make contact. You can operate a spark gap without a capacitor by connecting it directly to a source of sufficient voltage.

This is, of course, how our automotive spark plugs work, directly off the coil. (The capacitor in that circuit is used to juice the ignition coil primary.) The auto distributor, incidentally, is a rotary gap, pure Tesla. Early radio amateurs used spark-gap oscillators as transmitters. The capacitor was, more often than not, left out of the circuit, but with it the transmitter could create a greater commotion in the medium.

3. Tesla Coil

Tesla's best-known invention takes the spark-gap oscillator and uses it to vibrate vigorously a coil consisting of few turns of heavy conductor. Inside of this primary coil sits another secondary coil with hundreds of turns of slender wire. In the Tesla coil there is no iron core as in the conventional step-up transformer, and this air-core transformer differs radically in other ways. Recounting the birth of this invention, Tesla wrote, Each time the condenser was discharged the current would quiver in the primary wire and induce corresponding oscillations in the secondary. Thus, a transformer or induction coil on new principles was evolved Electrical effects of any desired character and of intensities undreamed of before are now easily producible by perfected apparatus of this kind. Elsewhere Tesla wrote, There is practically no limit to the power of an oscillator.

The conventional step-up transformer (short primary winding, long secondary on an iron core) boosts voltage at the expense of amperage. This is not true of Tesla's transformer. There is a real gain in power. Writing of the powerful coils he experimented with at his Colorado Springs lab, coils with outputs in excess of 12 million volts, Tesla wrote, It was a revelation to myself to find out that ... a single powerful streamer breaking out from a well insulated terminal may easily convey a current of several hundred amperes! The general impression is that the current in such a streamer is small.

How it works

A Tesla coil secondary has its own particular electrical character determined in part by the length of that slender coiled wire. Like a guitar string of a particular length, it wants to vibrate at a particular frequency. The secondary is inductively plucked by the primary coil. The primary circuit consists of a pulsating high-voltage source (a generator or conventional step-up transformer), a capacitor, a spark gap, and the primary coil itself. This circuit must be designed so that it vibrates at a frequency compatible with the frequency at which the secondary wants to vibrate.

The primary circuit's frequency is determined by the frequency and voltage of the source, the capacity of the capacitor, the setting of the spark gap, and the character of the primary coil, determined in part by the length of its winding. Now when all these primary-circuit components are tuned to work in harmony with each other, and the circuit's resulting frequency is right for plucking the secondary in a compatible rhythmic manner, the secondary becomes at its terminal end maximally excited and develops huge electrical potentials, which if not put to work, boil off as a corona of bluish light or as sparks and streamers that jump to nearby conductors with crackling reports.

Unlike the conventional iron-core step-up transformer, whose core has the effect of damping vibrations, the secondary of the Tesla transformer is relatively free to swing unchecked. The pulsing from the primary coil has the effect of pushing a child in a swing. If it's done in a rhythmic manner at just the right moment at the end of a cycle, the swing will oscillate up to great heights. Similarly, with the right timing, the electrical vibration of the secondary can be made to swing up to tremendous amplitudes, voltages in the millions. This is the power of resonance.

Manmade earthquake

Tesla was fascinated with the power of resonance and experimented with it not only electrically but on the mechanical plane as well. In his Manhattan lab he built mechanical vibrators and tested their powers. One experiment got out of hand.

Tesla attached a powerful little vibrator driven by compressed air to a steel pillar. Leaving it there, he went about his business. Meanwhile, down the street, a violent quaking built up, shaking down plaster, bursting plumbing, cracking widows, and breaking heavy machinery off its anchorage. Tesla's vibrator had found the resonant frequency of a deep sandy layer of subsoil beneath his building, setting up an earthquake.

Soon Tesla's own building began to quake, and, just at the moment the police burst into the lab, Tesla was seen smashing the device with a sledgehammer, the only way he could promptly stop it. In a similar experiment, on an evening walk through the city, Tesla attached a battery-powered vibrator, described as being the size of an alarm clock, to the steel framework of a building under construction and, adjusting it to a suitable frequency, set the structure into resonant vibration. The structure shook, and so did the earth under his feet.

Later Tesla boasted that he could shake down the Empire State Building with such a device, and, as if this claim were not extravagant enough, he went on to state that a large-scale resonant vibration was capable of splitting the Earth in half. No details of Tesla's vibrators are available, but they probably resembled one of Tesla's reciprocating engines (such as Patent No. 511,916). These exploited the elasticity of gases, just as his electrical vibrators, like the Tesla coil, exploit the elasticity of the electric medium.

A new power system

Tesla invented his resonant transformer, as the Tesla coil is sometimes called, to power a new type of high-frequency lighting system, as his 1891 patent drawing shows. This was the first Tesla coil patent. There followed a series of other patents developing the device. All of these are for bipolar coils: both ends of the secondary are connected to the working circuit (usually lamps), as opposed to the mono polar format favored by today's basement builders in which the top is connected to a ball or other terminal capacitor, the bottom to ground. The mono polar format emerges later in patents for radio and wireless power, including Tesla's magnifying transmitter.

The 1896 patent drawing shows an evolved bipolar coil using tandem chokes to store energy for sudden release into the capacitor, enabling the device to be powered by relatively modest inputs. Chokes are coils wound on iron cores. They store energy as magnetism. When the charging current is interrupted, the magnetic field collapses inducing current in the coils, which rushes in to charge the capacitors.

Superconductivity

Alternating currents can be sent over long distances with relatively low losses. This is why Tesla's early 60-cycle system triumphed over Edison's direct current. The high frequency, high-potential output of a Tesla coil can travel over relatively light conductors for vastly greater distances than conventional 60-cycle AC Losses occur to some degree from corona discharge but hardly at all from ohmic resistance. This type of current also renders conductive materials that are normally nonconductive, rarefied gases, for example. You might say these currents make a medium superconductive.

Although super-magnetism is not in the picture because high-frequency vibrations would be severely damped by an electromagnet's iron core, it is revealing to reflect upon the unexploited superconductivity of Tesla energy these days when science is congratulating itself on new advances in the field. Prior to recent breakthroughs, superconductivity and super magnetism were low-temperature (cryogenic) phenomena, occurring when circuits were cooled down to near absolute zero. The new superconductivity at less drastically reduced temperatures developed out of the cryogenic work of the last twenty years, and this may be in debt to Tesla, who patented a similar idea way back in 1901.

Tesla's patent shows that the deep cooling of conductors with agents like liquid air results in an extraordinary magnification of the oscillation in the resonating circuit. Imagine the performance of a super cooled Tesla coil. No electrocution. Since we tend to associate high voltage with possibly fatal electric shock it may be puzzling to learn that the output of a well-tuned Tesla coil, though in the millions of volts, is harmless. This is customarily thought to be because the amperage is low (it's not) or it's explained in terms of something called the skin effect, which means that the current travels over you instead of through. But the real reason is a matter of human frequency response. Just as your ears cannot respond to vibrations over about 30,000 cycles, or the eyes to light vibrations at or above ultra violet, your nervous system cannot be shocked by frequencies over about 2,000 cycles.

Electrotherapy

Now that you know it's harmless, would you believe these currents are even good for you? Fact is that a whole branch of medicine was founded on the healing effects of certain Tesla coil frequencies. Tesla understood the therapeutic value of high-frequency vibrations. He never patented in the area but did announce his findings to the medical community, and a number of devices were patented and marketed by others.

Patients, by focusing certain frequencies on afflicted areas, or, in some cases, just sitting in the vicinity of vibrations from a device like the Lakhovsky Multi wave Oscillator, which produced a blend of specific frequencies, were said to have experienced relief from rheumatism and other painful conditions. It was even considered a cure for certain types of paralysis. Such radiation's increase the supply of blood to the area with a warming effect (diathermy). They enhance the oxygenation and nutritive value of the blood, increase various secretions, and accelerate the elimination of waste products in the blood. All this promotes healing. Electrotherapists even spoke of broadcasting vitamins to the body. Reversals of cancer tumor growths have been documented. Lakhovsky predicated science will discover, some day, not only the nature of microbes by the radiation they produce, but also a method of killing disease within the body by radiation.

Electrotherapy devices were sold directly to the public via ads in popular magazines and in the Sears catalogs. Self-treatment was widespread. This easy access to treatment of all sorts of conditions led to the eventual suppression of the technology by the medical establishment. Electrotherapy, however, is making a big comeback. In chiropractic and sports medicine, low-frequency AC and DC pulses are being used to kill pain and exercise muscles. High-frequency electrotherapy is coming back in alternative healing practices. There is an increasing appreciation of the electrical nature of biological functioning and that some electric vibrations in the environment are harmful while others are healing. Reprints of Lakhovsky's works are widely read. There is a growing conviction that cancer can be effectively treated with high-frequency therapies.

In his experimenting over an eight-year period, Tesla made no fewer than 50 types of oscillating coils. He experimented with lighting and other vacuum effects, including x-rays. He also experimented with novel shapes for the normally cylindrical coils, getting satisfying results from cone shapes and flat spirals. At Colorado Springs Tesla achieved phenomenally increased outputs by using a third coil resonantly tuned to the secondary. Observing the tremendous magnification this achieved, he gave much of his attention to integrating this extra coil, as he called it, into an evolved outsize tesla coil called the magnifying transmitter.

4. Magnifying Transmitters; Wireless Power

In 1893 Tesla told a meeting of the National Electric Light Association that he believed it practical to disturb, by means of powerful machines, the electrostatic conditions of the earth, and thus transmit intelligible signals, and, perhaps, power. He said, It could not require a great amount of energy to produce a disturbance perceptible at a great distance, or even all over the surface of the earth. The ultimate powerful machine for these tasks is Tesla's magnifying transmitter.

How it works

An extra coil gives the resonant boost of a Tesla coil secondary but has the advantage of being more independent in its movement. A secondary, being closely slaved to the primary, is inhibited somewhat by it, its oscillations slightly damped. The extra coil is able to swing more freely. Extra coils, writes Tesla, enable the obtainment of practically any EMF, the limits being so far remote that I would not hesitate to produce sparks of thousands of feet in this manner.

The engineering challenge of the magnifying transmitter, then, becomes one of containing and properly radiating its immense electrical activities, measured in the tens and even hundreds of thousands of horsepower, as Tesla put it. Containment and effective radiation of this power is the whole point of the design shown, for which Tesla applied for patent in 1902. The heavy primary is wound on top of the secondary at the base of the tower. The extra coil extends upward through a hooded connection to a conductive cylinder.

The antenna is a toroid, a donut-shaped geometry that allows for a maximum of surface area with a comparative minimum of electrical capacity. Since this is a high-frequency device, a relatively low capacity is desirable. To increase the area of the radiating surface, the outside of the toroid is covered with half-spherical metal plates. A subtlety of the design is that the conductive cylinder is of larger radius than the radius of curvature of these plates, since a tighter curve would allow escape of energy. The cylinder is polished to minimize losses through irregularities in the surface. At the center of the top surface sits a pointy plate that serves as a safety valve for overloads so the powerful discharge may dart out there and lose itself harmlessly in the air.

Tesla advises bringing the power up slowly and carefully so pressure does not build at some point below the antenna, in which case a ball of fire might break out and destroy the support or anything else in the way, an event that may take place with inconceivable violence. Current in the antenna could build to an incredible 4000 amperes.

A.C. / D.C.

Wireless power transmission via the magnifying transmitter was the ultimate development of the inventor who had earlier brought alternating-current power to the world with his poly phase system. The predecessor of A.C. was a direct-current system developed, manufactured, and marketed chiefly by Thomas Edison. Direct current was adequate for serving small areas but was unworkable for long distance transmission. By contrast, A.C. could be transmitted for long distances over lighter wires and its voltage could be stepped up for transmission and down for consumption by means of transformers. Tesla invented from scratch a new kind of motor (poly phase) that could utilize A.C., and he greatly evolved earlier concepts of dynamos to generate A.C. as well as transformers to step voltage up and down. Whereas Edison's D.C. would have been suitable for a society of small, autonomous communities, the evolving system of industrial rule wanted centralized power and needed A.C.'s long distance capability to serve huge sprawling populations.

George Westinghouse, an inventor (the air brake) who, like Edison, turned industrialist (having found that to profit from an invention one must undertake manufacturing and marketing as well) saw the promise in Tesla's poly phase inventions and formed an alliance with the young prodigy. Westinghouse paid Tesla one million dollars and contracted to pay a royalty of one dollar per horsepower for the poly phase inventions. Later Westinghouse was forced to renege on the royalty.

Together, Westinghouse and Tesla triumphed over Edison's D.C. system and installed the first A.C. power facilities, the most notable being the hydra plant at Niagara Falls. Tesla believed in hydropower. His ultimate energy-magnifying, wireless power system would have been hydro-based. The centralized A.C. electric power system we have today was forced into existence on a colossal scale by utility magnates of that era, the most prominent being Samuel Insull, who became infamous in some circles for his massive bilking of the investing public and famous in others for hammering together the electric power complex now in place. This complex has developed into a federally protected monopoly with greater capital wealth than any other industry in the U. S. In the order of energy sources used, Tesla's hydropower has been left well behind the burning of fossil fuels, a process that dumps 24 million tons of pollutants into the nation's air supply each year.

Hydropower even runs way behind the nukes in kilowatt-hours produced. So went another Tesla dream. Tesla was a celebrity in his poly phase heyday, but today his celebrity is as an underground cult figure known for his radically progressive energy-magnifying, free-energy, and wireless power inventions, which, of course, have no place in the established system.

Power by wire

Prior to his wireless power inventions, Tesla patented in 1897 a high frequency system that transmitted power by wire. The system used previously unheard of levels of electric potential. He notes that at these voltages, conventional power would destroy the equipment, but that his system not only contains this energy but is harmless to handle while in use. This system is not a circuit in the usual sense but a single wire without return. It employs the familiar Tesla coil configurations at both sending and receiving ends. The primary circuit (power source, capacitor, spark gap) is represented in the drawing by the generator symbol. The secondary coil is a flat spiral. An advantage in this coil design is that the voltage adjacent to the primary, where arcing across could occur, is at zero and soars to high values as the coil spirals inward. The same patent also shows a cone-shaped secondary in which the primary is at the base of the cone, which is at zero potential.

Wireless power

The drawing for Tesla's wireless power patent looks like the earlier power-by-wire patent except now spherical antennas replace the transmission lines, which are dropped out of the picture almost as if they were redundant. The ball antenna is peculiarly Tesla, as is the toroid, and you wonder why nothing like them have appeared since. In this 1900 patent, wireless power is not represented as an earth-resonant system. Here Tesla talks about transmission through elevated strata. The patent contains much discussion of how rarefied gases in the upper atmosphere became quite conductive when there is applied many hundred thousand or millions of volts. Balloons are suggested to send the antennas aloft. Appreciate that Tesla in this patent has invented nothing less than the principles of radio.

Tesla recognizes only a quantitative difference between sending radio signals and broadcasting electric power. Both involve sending and receiving stations tuned to one another by means of tesla coil circuits. Tesla's wireless power would be the ultimate centralized electric system, a capitalist dream, but for the fact that the technology is too simple. Just raising an antenna, planting a ground, and connecting simple Tesla coil circuitry in between could achieve reception of power.

Although Tesla himself patented a couple of electric meters for high frequencies, it would be all too easy for consumers to tune in for free, just as many today bootleg pay TV signals using illicit equipment far more sophisticated. It is no wonder, then, that the electric power establishment didn't welcome this invention. This was one problem. Another was that the established electric power system would have to be relegated to another great pile of scrap, and maybe the established system of political power as well.

Tesla's announced dream was to use hydra sources where available and through wireless power broadcast that energy around the planet, thus liberating the world from poverty. Such a scheme would not be readily embraced by powers that sustain their rule by keeping populations poor and weak. Centralized control of energy, as well as other resources, is, of course, believed to be essential to civilized rule, at least as far as thinking on that subject has progressed in this era. Moreover, no multinational political system was in existence, or is now for that matter, that could implement a technology of such global implications. Tesla was blind to such considerations.

His commitment, his overriding priority as a technological purist, was to take machine possibilities to their logical conclusions. Today, if wireless power were seriously proposed, there would no doubt be at least one political problem that would not have arisen in Tesla's time: resistance from environmentalists. What would an environmental impact report have to say about biologic hazards? A Navy submarine communication system that uses extremely low frequency (ELF) waves, down to below 10 cycles, has been challenged by environmentalists, as have microwave and 60 cycle high-voltage transmission lines.

Engineering details

Patents normally don't give many quantitative specifics, but Tesla's wireless power patent does give some about the big prototype power-transmission Tesla coil (which was, incidentally, used to conduct a demonstration before skeptical patent examiners). A 50,000-volt transformer charged a capacitor of .004 mfd., which discharged through a rotary gap that gave 5,000 breaks per second. The eight-foot diameter primary had just one turn of stout stranded cable. The secondary was 50 turns of heavily insulated No. 8 wire wound as a flat spiral. It vibrated at 230-250,000 cycles and produced 2 to 4 million volts. This coil evolved into the huge experimental magnifying transmitter

Tesla describes in his Colorado Springs notes. Housed in a specially built lab 110 feet square, the device used a 50,000 volt Westinghouse transformer to charge a capacitor that consisted of a galvanized tub full of salt water as an electrolyte, into which he placed large glass bottles, themselves containing salt water. The salt water in the tub was one plate of this capacitor, the salt water inside the bottles the other plate, and the bottle glass the dielectric. Various capacities were tried, incremental changes being made by connecting more or fewer bottles. A variable tuning coil of 20 turns was connected to the primary, which consisted of two turns of heavy insulated cable that ran around the base of the huge fence like wooden secondary framework. The secondary had 24 turns of No. 8 wire on a diameter of 51 feet Various extra coils were tried, the final version being 12 feet high, 8 feet in diameter, and having 100 turns of No. 8. wire.

The antenna was a 30-inch conductive ball adjustable for height on a 142-foot mast. The huge transmitter could vibrate from 45 to 150 kilocycles. Even with the big transformer, this bill of materials does not seem inaccessible to enterprising people, and the technology does not seem so abstruse, so it is no wonder that people have gotten together to build magnifying transmitters and experiment with wireless power without support from corporations or government.

One such group was the People's Power Project in central Minnesota in the late 70's. This group, largely farmers, objected to high voltage power lines trespassing on their land and set out to build an alternative. Limited by the sketchy information then available, the project was not successful. Another attempt, called Project Tesla, is being set up in Colorado. Endowed with more precise calculations and more experienced personnel, Project Tesla will try to repeat Tesla's wireless-power experiment and verify his theory by taking measurements at various remote locations.

Earth resonance

Among the appealing features of Colorado Springs for Tesla was the region's frequent and sensational electrical storms. For Tesla, lightning was a joyous phenomenon. Biographers report that, during storms back East, Tesla would throw open the windows of his New York lab and recline on a couch for the duration, muttering to himself ecstatically. In Colorado Springs he tuned in and tracked lightning storms using rudimentary radio receiving equipment. He thereby determined that lightning was a vibratory phenomenon, which set up standing waves bouncing within the earth at a frequency resonantly compatible with the earth's electrical capacity. This earth-resonant frequency, he reasoned, was the ideal frequency for wireless power transmission, and he tuned his ultimate magnifying transmitter accordingly.

The literature contains various reports on exactly what this frequency is. Some say 150 kilocycles, which would be at the upper range of the Colorado Springs transmitter. Others give frequencies considerably lower, 11.78 cycles, 6.8 cycles, frequencies Tesla's transmitter may have achieved harmonically. With reinforcement from the earth resonance, the power would actually increase in the process of transmission.

In one memorable experiment with the Colorado Springs transmitter, Tesla shot from the antenna ball veritable lightning bolts of 135 feet, producing thunder heard 15 miles distant, and, in the process, pulled so many amperes that he burned out the municipal generator. In another experiment he lit up wirelessly, at a distance of 26 miles from the lab, a bank of 10,000 watts worth of incandescent bulbs. Two years after Colorado Springs, Tesla applied for patent for the far more refined magnifying transmitter shown at the opening of this chapter, a patent that was not granted until a dozen years later.

In this patent he no longer speaks of energy broadcast through the upper strata of the atmosphere but of a grounded resonant circuit. Tesla predicted that his magnifying transmitter would prove most important and valuable to future generations, that it would bring about an industrial revolution and make possible great humanitarian achievements. Instead, as we shall see, the magnifying transmitter became Tesla's Waterloo.

5. Magnifying Transmitter II ; Grounded Radio:

With the backing of J. P. Morgan, Tesla began, soon after returning from Colorado Springs, the construction of a magnifying transmitter tower at Wardenclyffe, near Shoreham, Long Island. Though closely related to a wireless power propagator and intended for further experimentation in that area, the tower was built specifically as the first station in Tesla's proposed World System of broadcasting. The system was to carry programming for the general public as well as private communications.

Tesla was the first to suggest the broadcasting of news and entertainment to the public; only point-to-point signaling had been experimented with up to then. The fully realized World System was to serve as a multi-frequency wireless interconnects for all existing telephone, telegraph, and stock ticker services around the planet. Exclusivity and noninterference of priority private communications was to be assured by multiplex techniques. The giant transmitter was also to carry a universal time register, navigation beacons, and facsimile transmissions. This was in 1902. As we shall see, Tesla's massive contribution to radio is still largely unrecognized.

The Wardenclyffe tower's rugged wooden structure, designed by Stanford White, stood at 187 feet. It was topped by a mushroom-like terminal 68 feet in diameter. A separate brick building at the foot housed generating and other equipment. The entire project was to cover 200 acres and include housing for 2,000 employees of the facility. Tesla estimated that the tower would emit a wave complex of a total maximum activity of 10 million horsepower. The top of the tower was outfitted with a platform that may have been intended to accommodate powerful ultraviolet lamps, which Tesla could have used for an experimental beam system of electric power transmission that was on his mind. The tower structure and building beneath were built and partially equipped, but they never saw operation.

From: A MUSEUM AT WARDENCLYFFE - THE CREATION OF A MONUMENT TO NIKOLA TESLA

The year was 1900 and following 9 productive months of wireless propagation research in Colorado, Nikola Tesla was anxious to put a mass of new found knowledge to work. His vision focused on the development of a prototype wireless communications station and research facility and he needed a site on which to build. In 1901 he cast his eyes some 60 miles eastward to the north shore village of Woodville Landing. Only six years before the north branch of the Long Island Railroad had opened, reducing travel time to the locality from a horse drawn five hours to less than two. Seeing an opportunity in land development a western lawyer and banker by the name of James S. Warden had purchased 1400 acres in the area and started building an exclusive summer resort community known as Wardenclyffe-On-Sound. With an opportunity for further development in mind, Warden offered Tesla a 200 acre section of this parcel lying directly to the south of the newly laid track. It was anticipated that implementation of Tesla's system would eventually lead to the establishment of a "Radio City" to house the thousands of employees needed for operation of the facility. The proximity to Manhattan and the fairly short travel time between the two, along with the site's closeness to a railway line must surely have been attractive features and Tesla accepted the offer.

The Wardenclyffe World Wireless facility as envisioned by Tesla was to have been quite different from present day radio broadcasting stations. While there was to be a great similarity in the apparatus employed, the method in which it was to be utilized would have been radically different. Conventional transmitters are designed so as to maximize the amount of power radiated from the antenna structure. Such equipment must process tremendous amounts of power in order to counteract the loss in field strength encountered as the signal radiates out from its point of origin. The transmitter at Wardenclyffe was being configured so as to minimize the radiated power. The energy of Tesla's steam driven Westinghouse 200 kW alternator was to be channeled instead into an extensive underground radial structure of iron pipe installed 120 feet beneath the tower's base. This was to be accomplished by superposing a low frequency baseband signal on the higher frequency signal coursing through the transmitter's helical resonator. The low frequency current in the presence of an enveloping corona-induced plasma of free charge carriers would have pumped the earth's charge. It is believed the resulting ground current and its associated wave complex would have allowed the propagation of wireless transmissions to any distance on the earth's surface with as little as 5% loss due to radiation. The terrestrial transmission line modes so excited would have supported a system with the following technical capabilities:

Establishment of a multi-channel global broadcasting system with programming including news, music, etc;
Interconnection of the world's telephone and telegraph exchanges, and stock tickers;
Transmission of written and printed matter, and data;
World wide reproduction of photographic images;
Establishment of a universal marine navigation and location system, including a means for the synchronization of precision timepieces;
Establishment of secure wireless communications services.
The plan was to build the first of many installations to be located near major population centers around the world. If the program had moved forward without interruption, the Long Island prototype would have been followed by additional units the first of which being built somewhere along the coast of England. By the Summer of 1902 Tesla had shifted his laboratory operations from the Houston Street Laboratory to the rural Long Island setting and work began in earnest on development of the station and furthering of the propagation research. Construction had been made possible largely through the backing of financier J. Pierpont Morgan who had offered Tesla $150,000 towards the end of 1900. By July 1904, however, this support had run out and with a subsequent major down turn in the financial markets Tesla was compelled to pursue alternative methods of financing. With funds raised through an unrecorded mortgage against the property, additional venture capital, and the sale of X-ray tube power supplies to the medical profession he was able to make ends meet for another couple of years. In spite of valiant efforts to maintain the operation, income dwindled and his employees were eventually dropped from the payroll. Still, Tesla was certain that his wireless system would yield handsome rewards if it could only be set into operation and so the work continued as he was able. A second mortgage in 1908 acquired again from the Waldorf-Astoria proprietor George C. Boldt allowed some additional bills to be paid, but debt continued to mount and between 1912 and 1915 Tesla's financial condition disintegrated. The loss of ability to make additional payments was accompanied by the collapse of his plan for high capacity trans-Atlantic wireless communications. The property was foreclosed, Nikola Tesla honored the agreement with his debtor and title on the property was signed over to Mr. Boldt. The plant's abandonment sometime around 1911-1912 followed by demolition and salvaging of the tower in 1917 essentially brought an end to this era. Tesla's April 20, 1922 loss on appeal of the judgment completely closed the door to any further chance of his developing the site.

Tesla; the Father of Radio?

As we have seen, Tesla's earliest oscillators were dynamos, but, having determined that he could not reach the higher frequencies by this means, he went on to develop the spark gap oscillator, the Tesla coil, and the magnifying transmitter. But did any of these devices become the first to be used for overseas radio transmission? No, ironically, the first commercial overseas transmitter was a 21.8 kilocycle GE Alexanderson alternator operated by RCA, a design evolved straight out of Tesla's early dynamos. Such was Tesla's luck in radio.

Official histories often credit Tesla with the poly phase system and either ignore his later inventions altogether or dismiss them as the work of. a crackpot. But among those who have published honest research on the subject, there is one hundred percent consensus that Tesla was cheated out of his rightful place in history, particularly his status as the leading inventor of radio technology.

Radio simplified

Early radio devices are fascinating and worthy of study if only because they remind us that powerful radio technologies can be so simple and accessible to anyone, the present-day micro complexity notwithstanding. As we have seen, the earliest transmitters in wide use by amateurs were not alternators but spark-gap oscillators. To get on the air all you needed was a battery, a telegraph key, an induction coil, a spark gap, a length of wire as an antenna, and a ground. Of course, the addition of a capacitor juiced it up considerably.

The very earliest experiments in radio receiving used spark gaps as receivers. When you saw an arc across the gap, this was the detection of a disturbance in the medium. This evolved into a detector called a coherer. This is just a horizontal glass tube loosely filled with metal chips (iron, nickel). It is placed in series with a battery and a telegraph sounder, and one side of the coherer goes to the antenna, the other to ground.

The coherer is a switch (a semiconductor, really) that conducts when there is a disturbance of the medium. The more easily conducted radio-frequency energy triggers conduction of this almost conductive material. To get the coherer back to a non conducting state requires a tap that can be accomplished manually or by mechanical linkage to the telegraph sounder. Tesla comes into the technology about here. He improves the coherer by putting it into continual rotation (rotating coherer) so it didn't need a tap to reset.

Tuned radio

The spark gap transmitter was indiscriminate as to the frequency of the disturbance. It put out a dirty complex of frequencies consisting of a rough fundamental determined by width of gap, together with parasitic oscillations, harmonics splatter what-have-you. The coherer was set off by any disturbance. In Colorado Springs, Tesla used a rotating coherer to track electrical storms. The celebrated Marconi units employed nothing more evolved than this crash method of signaling.

So why is Marconi so famous? It is because, like Edison and Westinghouse, he built up an industry around the invention and made himself famous in the course of promoting his enterprise. Marconi's company was ultimately incorporated into RCA (now incorporated into General Electric). It owed much of its technological development to ideas lifted from the likes of Tesla. Tesla's contribution was nothing less than selective tuning. He set forth the principle of resonantly tuned circuits in his Tesla coil patent of 1896, and the principles of transmitter-receiver tuned circuits a year later in his wireless power patent.

The Tesla coil is a powerful and simple radio transmitter. If the primary circuit is smoothly vibrating well above the audio range, its signal can even be modulated for voice transmission by varying some circuit element.

Tesla's few published notes on modulation describe crude ways of varying spark gaps, but, conceivably, an inductance core mechanically linked to a loudspeaker transducer might modulate the signal with some fidelity. Tesla and his supporters waged a fight for recognition of Tesla as the founder of radio. The struggle was finally won in the Supreme Court, but this did not happen until shortly after Tesla's death.

Tesla vs. Hertz

Tesla was not a theoretician by calling, but he made plenty of observations on the electrical nature of the universe that put him at odds with of official theory. In fashion then (and even now) was the theory of Heinrich Hertz, an interpreter of the physics of James Maxwell. Hertz explained radio propagation as transverse waves akin to light. Tesla was convinced that radio disturbances were standing waves in the ether akin to sound. When you drop a pebble into water, the disturbances you see in the form of concentric circles are standing waves.

Both Tesla and Hertz assumed the existence of an aetheric medium, but differed as to its energy transmitting properties. Tesla believed that the ether was a gas like medium, that electric propagation was very much like that of sounds in air, alternate compression's and rarefaction's of the medium, and that Hertzian waves could only take place in a solid medium. Tesla once said that Hertz waves are radiation and that no energy could be economically transmitted to a distance by any such agency. He said, In my system, the process is one of true conduction which can be effected at the greatest distance without appreciable loss.

When quantum physics and particle theory came into vogue, the aetheric medium was dropped out of electric theory altogether, but Hertz's theory was more compatible with the new concepts of propagation and therefore survived. By way of rubbing this in, the unit of frequency, formerly cycles per second (cps), was renamed in honor of Hertz (Hz), while only an obscure unit of magnetic flux density remembers Tesla. It is in respect to Tesla that I have reverted to the old unit in this book. Hertzian radio is straight-line, light-like radiation's that bounce off hills and mountains. Long distance Hertzian transmissions are explained in terms of radiation's bouncing off a radio reflective upper layer called the ionosphere. Tesla thought this was all nonsense and declared in 1919 that Hertzian thinking has stifled creative effort in the wireless art and retarded it for 25 years. Hertzian radio is aerial.

Most of us are conditioned to thinking in terms of aerial radio; the air waves, on the air. Tesla's radio is grounded; the lower end of the energized coil is rooted in the earth. Pure Hertzian radio has no such natural load. Tesla doesn't speak of antennas as such; the element he places aloft is an elevated capacity. Tesla said radio devices should be designed with due regard to the physical properties of this planet and the electrical conditions obtaining in same. Grounded radio is indeed more powerful than the Hertzian aerial. But this is true particularly for the frequencies Tesla was using. The higher frequencies do behave in a Hertzian manner. Yet grounding is all but a lost concept in consumer electronics. Up through the 1940's, AM radio receivers customarily had a terminal one was encouraged to connect to a cold water pipe or other deep earth connection. Ground the chassis of any of today's receivers, and, unless there is some kind of interference coming up through the ground (from fluorescent circuits, light dimmers, which are oscillators, or from the local Tesla coil), you will usually improve signal strength and range.

Among Tesla's contributions to radio was remote control. Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat before crowds at Madison Square Gardens and sent another robot craft 25 miles up the Hudson River. Grounded radio works particularly well through water. Tesla's basic radio tuning tank circuit for receiving (coil plus capacitor between antenna and ground) was, and is, all by itself, a powerful signal amplifier, and a beautifully simple one, at that. But as radio developed over the years, the tank circuit shrank in size and the result was a loss in gain. This was compensated for by the addition of stage upon stage of complex amplification circuitry.

Tesla watched this development with bewilderment. Tesla knew that the most efficient long-distance radio took place in the lower frequencies, especially those close to the earth-resonant frequency. Frequencies well below the AM broadcast band were the favored ham frequencies in the early days prior to World War I. In fact, waves of 600 meters (500 kc) were considered short while considered fairly long were the waves of 1200 meters (25 kc). Like a lot of good real estate, many of these more radio-effective frequencies below the AM broadcast band have been appropriated for military use, but also for navigation beacons, weather stations, and time registers.

Underground radio

The mind conditioned by Hertzian aerial radio concepts has trouble grasping the idea that signaling can take place without any above-surface antenna, totally through the ground. James Harris Rogers, taking a cue from Tesla, circa World War I, built a radio system in which both sending and receiving antennas were sunk completely into the ground or submerged in bodies of water. He found this system far more effective and far less vulnerable to interference than any aerial radio Signal strength has been said to be 5,000 times stronger

The military is on to this, as evidenced in the Navy's ELF and by a U. S. Air Force project underway called Ground Wave Emergency Network. GWEN is a low-frequency communications system designed for used during a nuclear war. The network will have a cross-continent series of 600-foot diameter underground copper screens connected to 300-foot towers reminiscent of Tesla's Wardenclyffe.

Among the advantages of the system is its invulnerability to the effects of the electric pulse sent out by nuclear blasts. Such a pulse fries at one stroke any and all solid-state electronics within its extensive range. (Strong electric vibrations from a Tesla coil or magnifying transmitter have a similar effect on solid state and will scramble or disable such circuitry temporarily or even dud it permanently.) It's revealing that for last-ditch doomsday communications, the government reverts to Tesla's grounded radio.

J. P. Morgan sinks Tesla

Tesla's ambitious World System came to an end when its principal financier, J. P. Morgan pulled the plug on funding. Morgan, the financial giant behind the formation of many monopolies in railroads, shipping, steel, banking, etc., was a major conduit of European capital into U. S. industrial development in the Robber Baron era. He looms large in Tesla's life. Morgan money was in the Niagara Falls project. He backed Edison, too. It was Morgan's pressure on Westinghouse, whom he also financed, that caused the cancellation of Tesla's dollar-a-horsepower contract and the loss of millions in royalties to Tesla for his poly phase.

When Tesla's lab burned down (arson was suspected), one of Morgan's men promptly arrived with aid, as well as with the offer of a partnership with Morgan interests. Acceptance would have put Tesla firmly under Morgan's control. Tesla refused. And Tesla succeeded in preserving his autonomy until he became possessed with overwhelming ardor to fulfill the dream of his World system. Tesla was ready to sell his soul to finance Wardenclyffe, and J. P. Morgan was right there to buy it.

In 1901, Tesla signed over to Morgan controlling interest in the patents he still owned, as well as all future ones, in lighting and radio. Morgan then put about $150,000 startup funding into Wardenclyffe. Later he invested more, just enough to bring the project within sight of completion. Morgan then became elusive. Tesla tried desperately to communicate with the investor, but to no avail. When word was out on Wall Street that Morgan had withdrawn support, no one would touch the project. This finished Tesla as a functioning inventor. Work on the Wardenclyffe tower came to a halt. Left to dereliction, the tower remained only as a curiosity to passersby. During World War I, the tower was unceremoniously dynamited to the ground.

6. Lighting

In 1891 Tesla said that existing methods of lighting were very wasteful, that some better methods must be invented, some more perfect apparatus devised. Tesla went and did just that. Yet, here we are today, in a world lit predominantly by the same Edison bulb! Edison's bulb burns with six percent efficiency, the rest going off as heat, while the high resistance filament cooks at 4,000 degrees and eventually breaks without warning. Today's fluorescent tube, though inspired by Tesla, is no model of efficiency either.

Its inner surfaces are stimulated to phosphorescence by energy-consuming filament-like cathodes that also burn out, and the lit-up tube would present a dead short to the current if it were not for the so-called ballast transformer, an inductance placed in the circuit to oppose and thus eat up yet more current. What sent Tesla into an exploration of high frequency phenomena was his conviction that these rapid vibrations held the key to a superior mode of lighting. The explorations were not Tesla's first venture into lighting. His very first U. S. patent (1885) is for an improvement in the arc lamp. He used an electromagnet to feed carbons to the arc at a uniform rate to produce a steadier light (No. 335,785).

Early arc lamps produced a brilliant blue-white light, good for street lighting but not for the home, and they emitted noxious fumes. Home lighting was by gas. Street arc lighting used series circuits. Edison introduced the parallel circuit, and designed his lamp for such a circuit. Edison introduced the big scale production and sale of electric power itself on the model of gas lighting, a major industry at the time. He wanted to be first in the business and announced to the press that he had an operable bulb before he actually had a bulb that worked. When Tesla's a.c. system was established, it was grafted on to Edison's, greatly extending its range and efficiency. But, essentially, it was still Edison's parallel circuit, high consumption, incandescent lighting system, and this is what we have to live with today.

A better way

Tesla patented both his spark-gap oscillator and his Tesla coil specifically as power sources for a new lighting system that used currents of high frequency and high potential. Lest you get the impression that a lone genius named Tesla invented this new form of lighting out of the blue, you should know that others before him had used high frequencies to stimulate light, and others, like Sir William Crookes, had done the same with high potentials, but Tesla was the first on record to put the two together.

In Jules Verne's 1872 novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth, the narrator tells of a brilliant portable battery lamp used by the underground explorers. The device was powered by a Ruhmkorf coil; a high voltage buzzer-type induction coil (step-up transformer) popular among early electrical experimenters. The Ruhmkorf coil stimulated a lamp (type unspecified but probably a gas tube), which produced the light of an artificial day. The lamp had such a low current draw that the battery lasted throughout the subterranean adventure. Verne evidently was drawing, at least in part, on experimental knowledge of his day for what he calls this ingenious application of electricity to practical purposes.

Perhaps somebody should reinvent such a high potential lamp to replace today's flashlight, which seems to exist for the purpose of enriching the Eveready division of Union Carbide. Modern neon lighting is high potential at 2,000 to 15,000 volts. (Neon sign transformers are good for powering tesla coils, but a low-frequency, high voltage device: caution.) Neon, as well as its cousin, 7,500-volt cold cathode (filament's) fluorescent, which is used in some industrial lighting, is as close as we get to Tesla lighting today.

Circa 1900, Tesla experimented with luminous tubes bent into alphabetic characters and other shapes. Although today's neon is simplistic Tesla, being driven by 60-cycle high-voltage transformer power alone without the benefits of high-frequency excitation, it should suggest to us the amazing efficiency of high-potential lighting, since a single 15,000-volt neon transformer drawing only 230 watts can light up a tube extending up to 120 feet. How superior is the economy of Tesla high potential, high frequency lighting over Edison incandescent? Tesla says certainly 20 times, if not more light is obtained for the same expenditure of energy.

"Pure" light

Tesla invented a variety of lamps, not all of which show up in his patents. He lit up solid bodies like carbon rods in vacuum bulbs, or in bulbs containing various inert gases at low pressure (rarefied). He noted that tubes devoid of any electrodes may be used, and there is no difficulty in producing by their means light to read by. But he noted that the effect is considerably increased by the use of phosphorescent bodies, such as yttrium, uranium glass, etc. Here Tesla lays the foundation for fluorescent lighting. Applied to such lamps were currents at potentials ranging from a lower limit of 20,000 volts up to voltages in the millions and vibrations of 15,000 cycles per second and up.

Tesla dreamed of creating what he called pure light or cold light by generating electric vibrations at frequencies that equaled those of visible light itself. Light produced by this direct and efficient means would require vibrations of 350 to 750 billion cycles, but Tesla believed such oscillations, far above those attainable by his coils, would someday be achieved. Even so, his rarefied gas-tube lamps produced a light that more closely approximated natural daylight than any other artificial source Tesla's light is like the full-spectrum light that is coming to be recognized as far more healthful than Edison incandescent and particularly more healthful than conventional fluorescent. Full-spectrum lighting is believed by some health practitioners actually to have healing properties.

No sudden burnout

Tesla's gas tube lamps burn indefinitely, as do today's neon tubes, for there is nothing within to be consumed. Tesla's lamps that contain electrodes like carbon rods, however, do undergo some deterioration. In Tesla's words, a very slow destruction and gradual diminution in size always occurs, as in incandescent filaments; but there is no possibility of sudden and premature disabling which occurs in the latter by the breaking of the filament, especially when incandescent bodies are in the shape of blocks. In vacuum lamps, the life of the bulb depends upon the degree of exhaustion, which can never be made perfect. Also, the higher the frequency applied to such a lamp the slower the deterioration. Electrodes glow at high temperatures, and this raises the problem of how to conduct energy to them since wires or other metallic elements will melt. The problem must be addressed in lamp design. For example, in the incandescent lamp shown at the opening of this chapter, the lead-in wires connect to the hot electrodes via bronze powder contained in a refractory cup. Tesla may have designed his capacitor-base bulbs to help address this same problem.

High heat

Tesla's search for the ideal electrode is reminiscent of Edison's search for the long lasting filament: The production of a small electrode capable of withstanding enormous temperatures, said Tesla, ìI regard as the greatest importance in the manufacture of light. One of the electrodes he tried was a small button of carbon, which he placed in a near vacuum. Tesla regarded the high incandescence of the button to be a necessary evil. For lighting purposes, it was the incandescence of the gas remaining in the mostly evacuated chamber that was important. But the carbon-button lamp proved to have some remarkable properties beyond its use for illumination. When the voltage was turned up, the lamp produced such tremendous heat that the carbon button rapidly vaporized. Tesla experimented extensively with this fascinating phenomenon. For the button of carbon he substituted zirconium, the most refractory substance available at the time. It fused instantly. Even rubies vaporized. Diamonds, and, to a greater degree, carborundum, endured the best, but these could also be vaporized at high potentials.

Tesla worked on the problem of heating. I have read that he contributed to the development of a high-frequency induction heating. Did Tesla work on the problem of space heating? Certainly the huge current draw of conventional electric heaters, which use resistive elements, argues for some inventiveness in this area. Tesla did observe that the discharges from a tesla coil resembled flames escaping under pressure and were indeed hot. He reflected that a similar process must take place in the ordinary flame, that this might be an electric phenomenon. He said that electric discharges might be a possible way of producing by other than chemical means a veritable flame which would give light and heat without material consumed. The behavior of the carbon-button lamp suggests that a new heating mode might be found in the effects of high-frequency currents in a vacuum.

Lighting up the sky

Hold a fluorescent tube near a Tesla coil and it will light up in your hand. This is true of any tube or bulb with vacuum or rarefied gas. A more efficient way is to ground one end of the tube and put a length of wire as a sort of antenna on the other. Better yet, put a coil of wire that resonates with the secondary in series with the tube and ground and you have the optimal wireless power arrangement.

Tesla conducted many experiments with different arrangements like this, using on some occasions the widely available Edison filament incandescent, which lighted up more brilliantly than usual because of the effects of high frequencies on the bulbs rarefied interior. Inside his New York lab Tesla strung a wire connected to a tesla coil around the perimeter of the room. Wherever he needed light he hung a gas tube in the vicinity of this high frequency conductor.

Tesla had a bold fantasy whereby he would use the principle of rarefied gas luminescence to light up the sky at night. High frequency electric energy would be transmitted, perhaps by an ionizing beam of ultraviolet radiation, into the upper atmosphere, where gases are at relatively low pressure, so that this layer would behave like a luminous tube. Sky lighting, he said, would reduce the need for street lighting, and facilitate the movement of ocean going vessels. The aurora borealis is an electrical phenomenon that works on this principle, the effects of cosmic eruptions such as those from the sun being the source of electric stimulation. I, for one, am grateful that this particular Tesla fantasy never materialized since it is difficult enough to see the stars with existing light pollution, and there might be undesirable biological impacts as well.

Rotating brush

Tesla took an evacuated incandescent type lamp globe, suspended within it at dead center a conductive element, stimulated that element with high voltage currents from an induction coil, and thus created a beam-like emanation, a brush discharge that was so eerily sensitive to disturbances in its environs that it seemed to be endowed with an intelligent life of its own. The device works best if there is no lead-in wire. In the bulb shown, every measure has been taken to construct it so it is free from its own electrical influence. The bulb could be stimulated inductively by applying energy to metal foil wrapped around its neck. Thus excited, an intense phosphorescence then spreads at first over the globe, but soon gives place to a white misty light, observes Tesla. The glow then resolves into a directional brush or beam that will spin around the central element. So responsive is it to any electrostatic or magnetic changes in its vicinity that the approach of an observer at a few paces from the bulb will cause the brush to fly to the opposite side. A small, inch-wide permanent magnet will affect it visibly at a distance of two meters, slowing down or accelerating the rotation according to how it is held relatively to the brush.

Tesla never patented the rotating brush or used it in any practical application, but he believed it could have practical applications. He saw one use in radio where the device could conceivably be adapted to being a most sensitive detector of disturbances in the medium. The rotating brush appears to be a precursor of the plasma globe toys now in fashion; these are sometimes called Tesla globes. Tesla's new lighting was famous in its time. Tesla, the promoter, saw to it. He conducted demonstrations at lectures before the electric industry associations, before large audiences in rented halls, and before select groups of influential New Yorkers in his Manhattan lab.

His articles about the new lighting were published in the popular scientific press and it was reported in the newspapers. Still, it did not catch on with the powers-that-be who no doubt saw in it Tesla's perennial pile-of scrap problem. But, I wonder, would the whole electric distribution system have to be scrapped to implement the efficiencies of Tesla lighting? Conceivably, the new lighting could be run off of local oscillators at the consumer end, the old power distribution system remaining intact. This is still a possibility, as it has been for about one hundred years.

7. Transportation

Tesla speculated, that, perhaps the most valuable application of wireless energy, will be the propulsion of the flying machine, which will carry no fuel and be free from any limitations of the present airplanes and dirigibles. The possibility of electric flight intrigued Tesla, though he never did patent an electric aircraft. But he did patent an electric railway using his high frequency, high-potential electricity in a by-wire mode, and also patented a radical aircraft that, while not electric, did have an advanced power plant: his disk turbine. Tesla's railway and aircraft can be numbered among the lost inventions. The closest transport technology has come to putting any of Tesla into actual practice is with diesel-electric power using Tesla poly phase motors, an early and notable example of which was the ocean liner Normandy. In the field of transport, Tesla is more commonly identified with antigravity flight and UFOs. Although this identification is based upon nothing more than a few public utterances, his suggestions charge the imagination with possibilities.

High-frequency railway

Tesla's high-frequency, high-potential railway picks up its power inductively without the use of the rolling or sliding contacts used in conventional trolley or third-rail systems. A pickup bar travels near a cable carrying the oscillating energy. This cable, which Tesla specifically invented to carry such currents, is the precursor of the grounded shielded cable used today to carry TV and other high-frequency signals. But unlike today's cables, which carry energy only of signal strength and shield by means of a continuous grounded static screen of fine braided copper wire, Tesla's high voltage cable uses metal pipe or screen that is broken up into short lengths, very much shorter, says Tesla in his patent, than the wave lengths of the current used. This feature reduces loss. Since the shielding must not be interrupted, the short sections are made to overlap but are insulated from one another. To further reduce loss to ground, an inductance of high ohmic resistance or a small capacity is placed in the ground line.

Motor mystery

A conundrum raised by Tesla's railway patent is that the vehicle is powered by an electric motor, but nowhere among Tesla's inventions is to be found an electric motor that runs off of high-frequency currents. Was Tesla planning to use a lower frequency here, something under 1,000 cycles? Did he have a converter in mind that could bring the frequency down? Or did Tesla invent a high-frequency motor that never made it into patent, an invention that may be among his unpublished notes? Anyway, Tesla proceeds in many of his discussions of high-frequency power as if this problem were solved. I've seen references post-Tesla to the existence of such a motor. Free-energy inventor, Hermann Plauson, (next chapter) refers to high-frequency motors. These motors have magnetic cores made of very thin laminations insulated from each other, a design that would limit damping effects.

Turbine aircraft

Tesla's only patented aircraft is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane that he intended as an improvement upon the helicopter, already invented at this time (1921): The helicopter type of flying machine, especially with large inclination angle of the propeller axis to the horizontal, at which it is generally expected to operate, is quite unsuitable for speedy aerial transport; it is incapable of proceeding horizontally along a straight line under prevailing air conditions; it is subject to dangerous plunges and oscillations ... and it is almost certainly doomed to destruction in case the motive power gives out. Advances in helicopter design may have mitigated some of these problems, but at least the last one still holds true: Tesla's craft, which has a large wing area, is powered by two disk turbines, rotating in opposite directions. The engineering problem of swinging the pilot and passengers around 90 degrees after takeoff, is solved at least to Tesla's satisfaction. There have been some experimental VTOL's but nothing in production.

Electric flight

Tesla's dream electric aircraft would be powered by means of magnifying transmitters: Aerial machines will be propelled around the earth without a stop. Also, in 1900, he predicted a cold coal battery with such output that a practical flying machine would be possible. Such a battery also would enormously enhance the introduction of the automobile. Tesla fantasized a personal aerial taxi which could be folded into a six-foot cube, and would weigh under 250 lb.: It can be run through the streets and put in a garage, if desired, just like an automobile.

Explaining how his earth-resonant wireless-power system could energize vehicles aloft, he said, power can be readily supplied without ground connection, for, although the flow is confined to earth, an electromagnetic field is created in the atmosphere surrounding it. Tesla believed such a system to be the ultimate method of man-made flight: With an industrial plant of great capacity, sufficient power can be derived in this manner to propel any kind of aerial machine. This I have always considered the best and permanent solution to the problems of flight. No fuel of any kind will be required as the propulsion will be accomplished by light electric motors operated at great speed.

Antigravity

Tesla wrote in 1900 of an antigravity motor: Imagine a disk of some homogeneous material turned perfectly true and arranged to turn in friction less bearings on a horizontal shaft above the ground. Now, it is possible that we may learn how to make such a disk rotate continuously and perform work by the force of gravity. To do so, he said, we have only to invent a screen against this force. By such a screen we could prevent this force from acting on one-half of the disk, and rotation of the latter would follow.

Does it not follow then, that such a gravity screen could also be used to levitate a vehicle? Tesla held no patent on such a device or on any other antigravity device, and there are no published notes on experimentation in the area. Nevertheless, Tesla inevitably pops up in the literature of antigravity and UFOs. This may be because Tesla was a prominent exponent of a physics in which antigravity seems more feasible because gravity is better explained.

A researcher-theorist of today, Thomas Bearden, allows for gravity control in the physics he calls the new Tesla electromagnetic. Scalar (standing) waves in time itself can be produced electrically and this becomes a magic tool capable of directly affecting and altering anything that exists in time, including gravitational fields, says Bearden. In 1931 the editor of Science And Mechanics, Hugo Gernsback reported, It is believed by many scientists today that the force of gravitation is merely another manifestation of electromagnetic waves. Edward Farrow, a New York inventor, reported in 1911 an antigravity effect produced by a ring of spark gaps. When the gaps were fired, the device, called a condensing dynamo, lost one-sixth of its weight. T. Henry Moray wrote, Frequencies may be developed which will balance the force of gravity to a point of neutralization. Antigravity researcher Richard Lefors Clark places the frequency of gravity's vibrations right at Nature's neutral center in the radiant energy spectrum, above radar and below infrared, at l012 cycles per second.

8. Free-Energy Receiver

For starters, think of this as a solar-electric panel. Tesla's invention is very different, but the closest thing to it in conventional technology is in photovoltaic. One radical difference is that conventional solar-electric panels consist of a substrate coated with crystalline silicon; the latest use amorphous silicon. Conventional solar panels are expensive, and, whatever the coating, they are manufactured by esoteric processes. But Tesla's solar panel is just a shiny metal plate with a transparent coating of some insulating material, which today could be a spray plastic. Stick one of these antenna-like panels up in the air, the higher the better, and wire it to one side of a capacitor, the other going to a good earth ground. Now the energy from the sun is charging that capacitor. Connect across the capacitor some sort of switching device so that it can be discharged arrhythmic intervals, and you have an electric output. Tesla's patent is telling us that it is that simple to get electric energy. The bigger the area of the insulated plate, the more energy you get. But this is more than a solar panel because it does not necessarily need sunshine to operate. It also produces power at night Of course; this is impossible according to official science.

For this reason, you could not get a patent on such an invention today. Many an inventor has learned this the hard way. Tesla had his problems with the patent examiners, but today's free-energy inventor has it much tougher. Tesla's free-energy receiver was patented in 1901 as An Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy. The patent refers to the sun, as well as other sources of radiant energy, like cosmic rays. That the device works at night is explained in terms of the nighttime availability of cosmic rays.

Tesla also refers to the ground as a vast reservoir of negative electricity. Tesla was fascinated by radiant energy and its free-energy possibilities. He called the Crooke's radiometer (a device which has vanes that spin in a vacuum when exposed to radiant energy) a beautiful invention. He believed that it would become possible to harness energy directly by connecting to the very wheelwork of nature. His free-energy receiver is as close as he ever came to such a device in his patented work. But on his 76th birthday at the ritual press conference, Tesla (who was without the financial wherewithal to patent but went on inventing in his head) announced a cosmic-ray motor. When asked if it was more powerful than the Crooke's radiometer, he answered, thousands of times more powerful.

how it works

From the electric potential that exists between the elevated plate (plus) and the ground (minus), energy builds in the capacitor, and, after a suitable time interval, the accumu

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Update & Action! Contact New Yellowstone Superintendent, Dan Wenk!

Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field
and in the policy arena to protect America's last wild buffalo.

Buffalo Field Campaign

Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
February 24, 2011

------------------------------
------------------------------
* Update from the Field: Contact New Yellowstone Superintendent
* EXCELLENT EDITORIAL: Bison Abuse Merits Harsh Criticism
* WHAT YOU CAN DO
* BFC Participates in Yellowstone Bison Citizen Working Group
* By the Numbers
* Last Words

------------------------------
* Update from the Field: Contact New Yellowstone Superintendent

This beautiful cow buffalo stops to look back towards members of her family, during a hazing operation conducted by Yellowstone National Park, Montana Department of Livestock, USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, and US Forest Service agents. BFC file photo. Click photo for larger image.

Dan Wenk has started in his official capacity as Yellowstone National Park's new Superintendent. He enters his office at a critical time for the buffalo and needs to hear from you! Please take a moment right now to contact Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk, welcoming him to Yellowstone and urging him to take action to protect the buffalo. Please share this link with everyone who you think might be interested in helping protect the wild buffalo.

Over 500 wild buffalo are still captive inside Yellowstone's Stephens Creek bison trap. Many of the females in the trap are a month or less away from calving. Yellowstone's own bison biologist has admitted that confining buffalo during this time can exacerbate increased prevalence of brucellosis among buffalo.

The buffalo in the trap are being fed alfalfa, a livestock food that is not natural for wild buffalo, and in large quantities can cause complications for pregnant mothers, including calf deaths. Injuries and death are also very common for buffalo that are confined. Yellowstone has not announced what they intend to do with the buffalo in the trap - if they will hold them there, or let them go. Other wild buffalo have suffered hazing operations nearly every day along the west side of the Yellowstone River, as they attempt to migrate out of deep snow into lower-elevation lands where they can find the grass they need to survive the winter. A few times during hazing operations, BFC patrols have witnessed the trapped buffalo stampeding while their friends on the outside are being chased by agents. At other times, we've seen buffalo in the trap try to walk along side of their relatives on the outside, who have come to pay them visits, only to bump into the fence, unable to follow their migrating brethren.

Wild buffalo are relentlessly forced to flee their winter range. Hazing operations like the one shown here are taking place nearly every day on critical habitat north of and inside Yellowtone National Park. BFC file photo. Click photo for larger image.

Further hazing operations belie the failure of the Royal Teton Ranch land lease experiment, which in early January saw twenty-five buffalo forced through a $3.3 million corridor to a small section of Gallatin National Forest, where agents hoped they would stay for a couple months. Agents said they wanted to see how they might use the landscape. The buffalo showed them that wild buffalo use the landscape by migrating, so the agents shot two and have the rest in the trap. On Monday, a group of about forty buffalo used that exact same corridor, naturally migrating there own their own, yet six riders on horseback from Yellowstone, the Montana Department of Livestock, and USDA APHIS, along with US Forest Service law enforcement, chased them all back into Yellowstone.

These wild buffalo naturally migrated through the Royal Teton Ranch land easement corridor, only to be hazed back into Yellowstone National Park. Millions have been spent for buffalo to be able to use these lands, yet they are still refused access. BFC file photo. Click photo for larger image.

The Montana Department of Livestock has also been conducting some curious activities along Hwy. 89 near Gardiner. On numerous occasions last week, patrols monitored DOL agents driving nearly 100-mile round trips to the Gardiner area in big pick-up trucks towing horse trailers, gathering with National Park Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Park County Sheriffs, and US Forest Service law enforcement, as if poised for hazing or shooting buffalo; yet, instead of witnessing actions against the buffalo, patrols saw the agents stand around and chat it up, go to lunch and leave town. Great for the buffalo, but extremely wasteful with U.S. tax dollars. A further demonstration of the extreme waste of funds allocated to the Interagency Bison Management Plan. These funds would be much better spent on habitat-based solutions.

Since we last wrote, twenty more buffalo have been killed by hunters. Sixteen bull buffalo were taken by the Nez Perce within four days on Gallatin National Forest lands outside of the Park's northern boundary. Another four buffalo were taken by Nez Perce and Umatilla hunters off of public lands west of Yellowstone. There are very few buffalo left for hunters to take.

Snow keeps falling, and wild buffalo will continue to migrate as their survival instincts dictate. BFC remains steadfast on the front lines with the buffalo around Gardinder and West Yellowstone. We sincerely appreciate all the actions you have been taking for the buffalo, and all the words of support you have been sending our way. All of you are Buffalo Field Campaign, and together, we will press on, as the buffalo do.

ROAM FREE!

------------------------------
* Excellent Editorial: Bison Abuse Merits Harsh Criticism

Please read and widely share this powerful, articulate and moving editorial by Dr. Brian L. Horejsi:

Bison Abuse Merits Harsh Criticism

------------------------------
* WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Contact Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk and welcome him to Yellowstone, tell him to set the trapped buffalo free, pull out of the Interagency Bison Management Plan, stop harassing and killing wildlife and work towards habitat-based solutions for America's last wild buffalo! Take Action Now!

2. Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to intervene with the Park on your behalf and to support federal funding to protect America's last wild buffalo and their habitat. Ask them to support the re-direction of funds wasted on the Interagency Bison Management Plan towards habitat-based solutions that honor the wild integrity of our national heritage. Write Your Representative and Write Your Senators

3. Contact Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and and THANK HIM for the 90-day stay of execution, tell him he did the right thing. Please also remind him that wild buffalo must be allowed to access habitat in Montana. Brucellosis is not the issue, but habitat for wild buffalo is the solution. Remind him that until Montana embraces and respects wild, free-roaming bison, the state will continue to be globally shamed by these actions against America's last wild buffalo! Remind him that tourism sustains Montana. governor@mt.gov 406-444-3111

4. Sign BFC's Petition to National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis urging him to abandon the failed Interagency Bison Management Plan. Sign the petition.

5. Write Letters to the Editor to newspapers in your region to help raise awareness and bring an end to the unjust treatment of America's last wild buffalo. Write on for the buffalo!

6. Vote for wild buffalo and all wildlife with your money by Boycotting beef.

7. Volunteer with BFC by joining us on the front lines! volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org 406-646-0070

8. Watch & Share This Video to Inspire Yourself & Others to Protect the Wild Bison

THANK YOU! Please spread the word to save these herds by telling everyone you know what is happening to the country's last wild buffalo and what they can do to. Knowledge is power!

------------------------------
* BFC Participates in Yellowstone Bison Citizen Working Group

On Tuesday evening, February 22, Buffalo Field Campaign gathered with other bison advocates, hunters, ranchers, film makers, land owners, and other interested parties to begin the process of creating a Yellowstone Bison Citizens Working Group. The group has been born out of frustration with the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Nearly fifty people attended the initial meeting, each having an opportunity to express their interest as to why they were there. Most people present expressed that they were there because they want to see wild buffalo managed as wildlife in Montana, though there were certainly a few that expressed interest in protecting livestock. It is definitely going to be a challenge to see if we can all find a meaningful way to work together to find solutions that everyone feels good about. While we know we will not agree with everyone all the time, it is an opportunity for us to listen and learn from one another, build unlikely relationships, strengthen others, and offer sound alternatives to the quagmire of the Interagency Bison Management Plan. The next meeting is scheduled for March 7th, in Bozeman, Montana. We will keep you posted on how things progress. Read a brief article and watch a video from the meeting.

------------------------------
* By the Numbers

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S. The last wild population is currently estimated at fewer than 3,700 individual buffalo.

2010-2011 Total: 173

2010-2011 Government Capture: 513
2010-2011 Government Slaughter:
2010-2011 Died In Government Trap: 1
2010-2011 State & Treaty Hunts: 173
2010-2011 Quarantine: 0
2010-2011 Shot by Agents: 2
2010-2011 Highway Mortality: 2

2009-2010 Total: 7
2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631
Total Since 2000: 3,884*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality

-----------------------------
* Last Words

"We negotiated [the Interagency Bison Management Plan] in the good faith that it would eventually lead to free-ranging, untested bison. That was our end goal, not to be doing what we're doing now."

~ Keith Aune, former FWP employee and now senior conservation scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Quote appeared in a 2/20/11 Bozeman Daily Chronicle article, Time for a New Direction?


Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you all for the poems, songs and stories you have been sending; you'll see them here!

------------------------------

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day
in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.

KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES

Join Buffalo Field Campaign -- It's Free!

Tell-a-Friend!

Take Action!

ROAM FREE!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Photos from Longest Walk 3 - Northern Route - Oregon

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63932&id=100000174280125&l=a69f3448fe http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64642&id=100000174280125&l=4192d77af2 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64813&id=100000174280125&l=240b67d56f http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=65694&id=100000174280125&l=e4d40d8d46 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Peltier Update: Medical Treatment Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:12 AM PST The biopsy that was ordered by a physician last November was finally performed yesterday, 23 February. Leonard will receive the results in roughly 7 to 10 days. The feedback from the physician wasn't positive, however. Everyone must continue to pressure the BOP for Leonard's transfer so that he can receive timely, quality care. Please print this letter (PDF format). Sign the letter; write your name and mailing address; and mail or fax your letter today. Mail to: Federal Bureau of Prisons Address: 320 1st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20534 Fax: (202) 514-6620 Sample Text Often a handwritten heartfelt letter is quite effective. Remember to always employ a respectful tone and keep your comments brief and to the point. If you wish, you may adapt the following text. Harley G. Lappin, Director U.S. Bureau of Prisons 320 First Street, NW Washington, DC 20534 Dear Mr. Lappin: It has come to my attention that Leonard Peltier #89637-132, an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, is in dire need of medical attention. I believe that Mr. Peltier's medical needs are urgent. He needs to be seen by proper medical staff. Therefore, I respectfully request that Leonard Peltier be transferred to FCI-Oxford in Wisconsin or FMC-Rochester in Minnesota. Either of these facilities can adequately accommodate Mr. Peltier's medical needs. Thank you in advance for transferring Leonard Peltier and immediately addressing his medical needs! Sincerely, Signature (Print Your Name) (Print Your Street Address) (Print Your City/State/Zip Code) Thank you for all you do on Leonard's behalf. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Tongva Demand that County Stop Excavations of Ancestors and Human Remains To: "Robert García" <rgarcia@cityprojectca.org> Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 10:49 PM We urge you and your organization to please sign on to the following statement as soon as possible. Please ask others to sign on and forward to me at rgarcia@cityprojectca.org. * * * We urge Supervisor Gloria Molina and the County of Los Angeles to stop construction and excavations of human remains including Native Americans at the site of El Pueblo Campo Santo in downtown Los Angeles. The County reports that 117 sets of human remains have already been excavated at the Campo Santo (Spanish for Sacred Ground or cemetery) next to La Placita Catholic Church at La Plaza de Los Angeles National Historic District and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, which is in the area of the Tongva Gabrielino village of Yaangna. Church records at the Huntington Library show 696 burials at the site, with one third to one half being Native Americans. Remains were first unearthed beginning in October 2010. Additional excavation activity has reportedly occurred as recently as February 12, 2011. The remains have been moved first to California State University at Los Angeles and then to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The Native American Heritage Commission and the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles have asked the County to stop excavations until there is a proper investigation. The County should engage in respectful consultations with the Tongva Gabrielino community, other Native Americans, and others whose ancestors have been laid to rest at the site about the reburials and protecting the ancestors at Yaangna and the Campo Santo. * * * Please learn more here: http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/archives/8489 and here: http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/archives/7818. Robert García Executive Director and Counsel The City Project 1055 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1660 Los Angeles, CA 90017 rgarcia@cityprojectca.org 213-260-1035 Visit our website and blog at www.cityprojectca.org This e-mail message and any attachments are confidential and may be attorney-client privileged. Dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or attachments without proper authorization is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or by e-mail, and permanently delete the original, and destroy all copies, of this message and all attachments. Robert García Executive Director and Counsel The City Project 1055 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1660 Los Angeles, CA 90017 rgarcia@cityprojectca.org 213-260-1035 Visit our website and blog at www.cityprojectca.org @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Expert says gasoline should be at 50 cents a gallon now To: "flagstone" <flagstone456@gmx.de> Date: Friday, February 25, 2011, 11:33 PM When gas sold here for $4, Hugo Chavez was selling it to his people for 19 Cents a gallon. And the Russians found back in the 70's inexhaustible oil, the blood of the earth, below 50,000 feet. Hang the oil Barons and every congresscritter looking the other way, or the oil rapine will never end. From: Dick Fojut Before we totally "swallow" the excuse of ME riots for the SUDDEN price increase at the pump, we need re-read the following January article by a Market Insider! - Dick F. --------------------------- Expert says gasoline should be at 50 cents a gallon now http://www.helium.com/items/2070877-why-gasoline-should-be-at-50-cents-a-gallon-now by Terrence Aym Robert Pretcher is disgusted. The Yale University graduate, New York Times bestselling author, and top market guru has proclaimed, "Oil should fall to between $4 and $10 a barrel based on a technical analysis called Elliott Wave principle." The Elliott wave is a technical model based on the Elliott Theory. The theory was promoted during the 1930s by the man who conceived it: professional accountant Ralph Nelson Elliott. The basic hypothesis summed up by Elliott extrapolates that "because man is subject to rhythmical procedure, calculations having to do with his activities can be projected far into the future with a justification and certainty heretofore unattainable." So, the cutting edge discipline of advanced technical analysis reveals that gasoline prices at the pump should be hovering around 50 cents. Yet the pump price as of this writing is pushing towards a national average of $3.50 a gallon-about half a buck away from the national all time high of $4.00. And it's not just the Elliott Wave that reveals oil on the world markets is vastly overpriced. Supply and demand is a driving principle of economics. No economy has ever been able to escape the realities of supply and demand-the defunct Soviet Union discovered that to their chagrin. Facts The last time a barrel of oil sold for $10 was during 1974; that year gasoline sold for a mere 50 cents a gallon. The cost of getting some barrels of oil out of the ground is as low as $1 to $10 a barrel. The average cost to pump crude in Saudi Arabia? About $10 a barrel. U.S. "energy crisis" self-imposed Yet the supply and demand that is driving the marketplace for energy-particularly oil-is an artificial construct. Oil prices are not being market driven, they're being driven by political agendas. Despite the fact that the technical analysis of what a gallon of gas should be worth is accurate, the economic numbers are terribly skewed by policy. For the most part the policy is being driven by the political structure in Washington, D.C. and western European capitals which are hell bent on restricting growth, diminishing wealth, jacking up the cost of energy and squeezing the middle class out of existence in favor of some of the more "religious" aspects of environmentalism. The huge oil reserves of the United States of America have been declared virtually verboten by US agencies and many elected representatives. While bemoaning America's dependence of foreign oil, policymakers charge ahead restricting the domestic production of self-sustaining energy in the name of environmentalism. Despite the fact that the U.S. is sitting on the largest coal reserves in the world, the largest natural gas fields on the planet, and oil reserves estimated to dwarf those in Saudi Arabia, the federal government-and some states like Florida and California-have legislated the crucial resources as "off limits." Regulations and taxation have also been carefully crafted to limit the ability to tap into domestic energy resources, refine them and bring them to the marketplace. No new gasoline refinery has been built in America for almost 40 years. The shortage of gasoline supplies in the United States has become chronic-to the point where according to industry figures America is now importing up to 13 percent of its annual gasoline needs. Artificially suppressing the acquisition of oil and the refining of it drives up costs across every economic sector. Much of the oil pumped from wells does not end up in the gas tank of automobiles. Oil is used extensively in the plastics industry, to make synthetic textiles, to create pharmaceuticals, and in agricultural products affecting the baseline cost of food. As the cost of oil is driven up, so is the cost of transportation whether by ground, air or sea. Food prices rise, consumer goods prices soar, the cost of doing any business escalates-even the cost of running government increasesŠand the driving force is not marketplace pressures, not supply and demand per se, but government policy, edicts, interference and agendas. And for what? To achieve the fantasy of making America "green?" To mandate building fleets of electric cars that many will not be able to run because the cost of electricity will skyrocket to three or four times its present levels? To bring America to the point of food riots? To make untold millions of Americans reach the unenviable position of being unable to afford to stay warm in the bitter freezes of winter and cool in the sizzling summer months? Advanced technology has saved America The amazing advances in drilling technology furthered by Howard Hughes in the 1950s and 1960s and enhanced mightily since then has allowed drilling into oil reserves at depths undreamed of by wildcatters 100 years ago. Oil reserves can be tapped as far as 40,000 feet down. The costs of bringing oil to the marketplace has dropped precipitously and so has the cost to refine it and transport it to the end users. Unfortunately, those savings have been offset by a twisted labyrinth of Kafkaesque regulations, permits, licenses, fees and taxes. If oil prices were driven solely by the inflation rate, a gallon of gasoline would have reached $6.00 a gallon by the late 1990s. The cost was kept low by innovations by the petroleum companies and-compared to inflation-the prices of the commodity continued to drop. Today, if free market production were allowed free reign in America there would be no energy crisis. Oil, gas and coal would be plentiful, a gallon of gasoline as low as 50 to 60 cents before any federal or state excise taxes were added, and energy itself would be less expensive than at any time in history. Even electricity would cost about one-tenth of the current rate per kilowatt hour. There exists an old adage that "Man will destroy himself." In the case of the U.S. and its irrational domestic energy policy-a world superpower with an economy dependent upon easy access to expanding and cheap energy-America is destroying itself. And that is why Robert Pretcher is disgusted. Copyright © 2002-2011 Helium, Inc. All rights reserved. 200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Call To Action!! Stop South Dakota Senate Bill NO. 158 To: UNA-News@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 12:55 PM United Native America supports James Magaska Swan in standing up to the South Dakota government against Senate bill No.158 We need help in getting this issue out nation wide here on face book and message boards on the Internet. Stop Government- Corporate America from poisoning us and our land!! Mike Graham, Founder United Native America On Monday February 28, 2011 SB 158 is scheduled to be heard on the House floor at 2:00 pm. This bill will allow for the mining of Uranium in the North/West part of South Dakota. Uranium is very dangerous and has been shown to cause cancer. Drilling for Uranium will almost always result in leakage into the aquafirs polluting the water systems and destroying the land. Please email your State Legislators and ask them to vote against this bill! Genocide is not acceptable!! Click the link below to email the Legislators http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2011/MemberMenu.aspx State of South Dakota EIGHTY-SIXTH SESSION LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2011 921S0681 SENATE BILL NO. 158 Introduced by: Senators Rave, Brown, Gray, Hundstad, Olson (Russell), and Rampelberg and Representatives Rausch, Cronin, Dennert, Gosch, Lust, Russell, and Verchio James Magaska Swan United Urban Warrior Society http://bit.ly/hBW0AH Face Book page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=716947740&ref=profile#!/profile.php?id=1785955707

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

NDN News ACTION ALERT ~ Uranium Mining Bill 158....Need opposition letters

Hello everyone,

I was asked to send this action alert out by one of our concerned South Dakota Legislators. This Bill will be heard on Monday, February 28^th @ 2:00. It will open the door for uranium mining in Western SD.

Please take a moment to send opposition letters to all the SD Legislators. You can use the contact us website and send the letters all at once at the following web addresses:

http://legis.state.sd.us/email/LegislatorEmail.aspx?MemberID=148

Please see info below on upcoming Bill 158.

Thank you,

Tamra

South Dakota House committee approves bill aiming at halt of state regulation of in-situ leach ( or solution mining ) uranium mining: A South Dakota House committee has approved a measure that would allow the company behind a controversial uranium mining project to bypass some state regulations. A bill passed Friday (Feb. 25) by the House State Affairs Committee would suspend state rules for the form of uranium mining proposed at the Dewey Burdock site in the Black Hills. That suspension would remain in place unless the state takes over authority from federal agencies that now enforce certain mining rules.
Powertech USA, the company that has proposed Dewey Burdock, says many state regulations duplicate federal laws. It wants to save time by only getting federal permits for certain parts of the project. Environmental advocates opposed the bill. It now moves to the full House. The Senate already has approved the measure. (AP Feb. 25, 2011)

The bill is now scheduled to be heard on the House floor on Monday February 28, 2011.

State of South Dakota

EIGHTY-SIXTH SESSION LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2011

921S0681

SENATE BILL NO. 158

Introduced by: Senators Rave, Brown, Gray, Hundstad, Olson (Russell), and Rampelberg and Representatives Rausch, Cronin, Dennert, Gosch, Lust, Russell, and Verchio

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to toll the Department of Environment and Natural Resources administrative rules on underground injection control Class III wells and in situ leach mining until the department obtains primary enforcement authority of the comparable federal programs.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That chapter 34A-2 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:

The legal force and effect of the underground injection control Class III rules promulgated under subdivision 34A-2-93(15) are tolled until the department obtains primary enforcement authority for underground injection control Class III wells from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The in situ leach mining rules promulgated under subdivision 45-6B-81(10) as they relate to uranium are tolled until the department obtains agreement state status from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

CherokeeLink Newsletter
**************************
For The HTML Format of the Newsletter:
(Having Problems With The Links? Try this version instead.)http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=newsletter&Date=2/28/2011

AOL - http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=newsletter&Date=2/28/2011">2/28/2011 Newsletter
------------------------------------------------------------
Osiyo,

As with any government, citizen participation is through voting is vital. If you are a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, please take a moment to view the video here:http://www.cherokee.org/Government/Election/Default.aspx

Looking for something to do? Want to learn a new skill or improve your knowledge about things happening within the Cherokee Nation? You can always check the Community Calender on the Cherokee Nation website athttp://www.cherokee.org/Events/Calendar.aspx

Did you miss last week's Cherokee Nation Radio show featuring Dennis Sixkiller? Want to watch the latest tribal council video? Subscribe to free podcasts videos for your smartphone or computer from here:http://www.cherokee.org/NewsRoom/RSSandPodcasts.aspx?Tab=NewsRoom



Wado! (Thank you)
Cherokee Nation
P.O.Box 948
Tahlequah, OK 74465
918 453-5000
communications@cherokee.org

------------------------------------------------------------
**************************
***Cherokee Nation News***
**************************
Cherokee Nation to Expand Services with New Vinita Health Center: 2/24/2011
(C) Cherokee Nation
More than 100 local officials and community residents joined with Cherokee Nation officials to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new Unadiwisdi (Where They Get Well) Health Center Thursday in Vinita. The new 91,000 square-foot facility will bring additional health care services and more than 90 new jobs to the area.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3512

Sequoyah Students Earn National Science Award: 2/23/2011 8:42:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
Fifty-two students have qualified for national recognition for outstanding performance in science. They will be named in the high school publication of Who’s Who among All-American Scholars and be eligible for the United States Achievement Academy scholarship.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3511

Sequoyah Crowns Basketball Royalty : 2/22/2011 3:32:00 PM
(C) Cherokee Nation
Sequoyah Schools recently crowned the basketball royalty at the Homecoming coronation ceremony sponsored by the Sequoyah Schools’ student council. The 2011 basketball homecoming queen and king are Tara Comingdeer and Kenlee Stopp.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3510

Cherokee Nation Head Start Accepting Applications: 2/22/2011 10:44:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is accepting applications for children up to five years of age for Head Start and Early Head Start. Head Start and Early Head Start are comprehensive development programs that implement American Indian heritage, Cherokee culture and language, and provide education, physical fitness, medical and dental, health, nutrition and social development. Children with special needs, including those with significant disabilities, are encouraged to apply.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3509

Sequoyah Admission Aps Available, Parent Night Planned: 2/22/2011 8:18:00 AM
(C) Cherokee Nation
Students who are interested in attending Sequoyah Schools during the 2011-12 school year, and their parents, are invited to attend Parent Night Feb. 22 from 6-8 p.m. to learn more about the school and the application process.
http://www.cherokee.org/news.aspx?id=3508

-----------------------------------------------------------
*********************************
**** Other Links of Interest ****
*********************************
Games - http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=culture&culture=games

Community Calendar - http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=calendar
RSS Feed - http://rss.cherokee.org
Podcasts - http://podcasts.cherokee.org
E-Cards - http://ecards.cherokee.org
------------------------------------------------------------

**************************
**** Cultural Tidbits ****
**************************

The journey by water route on the Trail of Tears was accomplished by using flat boat barges with steam boats pulling them. Ironically, the first two steam boats were called 'Tecumseh' and 'George Guess'.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

NDN News ACTION ALERT! BEAR BUTTE ~ OIL DRILLING<<

ACTION ALERT!

February 28, 2011

Update from Protect Sacred Sites

www.protectsacredsites.org

www.protectbearbutte.com

Hello everyone,

The DENR has reopened public comment for the oil drilling near Bear Butte. The public comments are due by March 30th and hearing will be April 21^st, located in Pierre.

The South Dakota State Historic Preservation Officer, Jason Haug has asked me to include their office in our public comment action alert. SDSHPO would like to see all the comments and take them into consideration during their decision process and recommendations to DENR.

Please send your public comments to the following individuals:

DENR, Oil and Gas Supervisor

Fred Steece

fred.steece@state.sd.us

AND

South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office

Jason Haug, State Historic Preservation Director

Jason.Haug@state.sd.us

Attached is the rehearing documentation. If anyone needs copies of the original permits, maps or previous findings, please contact me attamra@protectsacredsites.org

Thank you for your continued support for the Protect Bear Butte efforts!

In peace & solidarity,

Tamra Brennan

Founder/Director

Protect Sacred Sites

“Our Sacred Land Is NOT Your Playground!”

From: Jenny.Hegg@state.sd.us [mailto:Jenny.Hegg@state.sd.us]
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 10:58 AM
Subject: Nakota notice of rehearing

On November 18, 2010, the Board of Minerals and Environment held a publicly noticed hearing to consider an application from Nakota Energy LLC to develop an oil field on private land approximately one and one-half miles west of Bear Butte. At the conclusion of the public hearing, the board then issued Oil and Gas Order No. 17-2010 allowing Nakota to develop the oil field. The field is in all of Section 14 and the north half of Section 23, Township 6 North, Range 5 East, about four miles northeast of Sturgis, SD.

After the board issued Oil and Gas Order No. 17-2010, it was determined that state approval of this oil development project should have undergone a review in accordance with state historic preservation laws because the project encroaches upon or may impact the environs of the Bear Butte National Historic Landmark. Therefore, the Board of Minerals and Environment will rehear Oil and Gas Case No. 17-2010 on April 21, 2011, to take public comments and to reconsider the case.

The attached Notice of Rehearing for Oil and Gas Case No. 17-2010 outlines the scope and location of Nakota's proposed project, and describes how you can comment or formally intervene in the case. Please submit any written comments by March 30, 2011, as described in the notice. If you have any questions, please contact Fred V. Steece atfred.steece@state.sd.us or call the office at 605.394.2229. Thank you.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Bay Area Indian Calendar, Mar 1, 2011

Thanks to American Indian Contemporary Arts for the calendar. More info is linked to the Bay Native Circle page atwww.kpfa.org. To include events in calendar send text info to Janeen Antoine or post on the Bay Area Native American Indian Network.

Bay Native Circle at kpfa 94.1 airs Weds 2–3 pm with rotating hosts Lakota Harden; Janeen Antoine; Morningstar Gali or Ras K’Dee; and Gregg McVicar. Thanks for listening to BNC, live, podcast, online and archived for 2 weeks, and made possible through your public support. KPFA is in fund drive mode 1 more week then regular programming will resume. Lakota Harden will host next week. Please if you can, support kpfa.org with a financial contribution. Thank you.

UPCOMING

Condolences are extended to the family of Professor Jack Forbes. A husband, father, family member, friend, colleague, mentor, and professor Jack D. Forbes (UCD Professor Emeritus), moved on to the Spirit World on Wednesday, February 23, 2011. Services will be private with a public memorial to be scheduled at a later date. A full obituary can be viewed and private condolences sent to the website for Wiscombe Funeral Home,. Donations to the Jack D. Forbes Memorial Fund in Native American Studies can be sent c/o Native American Studies, UC Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis CA 95616, made payable to the UC Regents.

Condolences are also extended to the family of Ricky and Agnes McBride. Ricky crossed over February 13, 2011. He was the son of Agnes McBride who crossed over Jan 14, 2011. Services for Ricky will be Saturday, Mar 5, 2-4 pm, at Driscoll’s Mortuary, 1465 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA.

Wed, Mar 2, 4-6 PM: Spring 2011 open house and community gathering potluck at San Francisco State University. 1600 Holloway Avenue, Ethnic Studies Psychology Building Room 116 We will be announcing the recipients of the Jacques Johnet Scholarship for Native Americans and the first recipient of the Dr. Elizabeth "Betty" Parent Award, followed by a special surprise presentation. When you RSVP, please let us know what you might be able to bring so we can plan to provide as much as possible for those attending. FMI: Andrew Jolivette at ajoli@sfsu.edu or Gabriela Segovia-McGahan.

Thurs, Mar 3, Alameda Island Poets celebrating 100 years of International Women's Month to benefit Turtle Island to Abya Yala; An Anthology of Poetry and Art by Native American and Latina Women. Featured readers Mica Valdez, editor, poet and multidisciplinary artist, author of "Love and the Lost Nation", Kim Shuck, Cherokee, Saux/Fox & Polish poet, textile artist and author of Smuggling Cherokee; Nanette Bradley Deetz, Cherokee, Dakota & German American poet, musician, journalist and educator. Featured readers: 7-7:45 pm; open mic 7:45-9 pm. Books Inc., 1344 Park St., Alameda, CA.

Fri, Mar 4, 7 pm. Professor David Carrasco will give a special lecture called "The Olmec Sacred World: Giants and Mixtures in Stone," which is in conjunction with the current exhibition "Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico." at the deYoung Museum in SF. Admission Free.

Fri, Mar 4, 6 pm. Tchia Amet and Valley of Light Trio performs at the Round Valley Elementary School Fundraiser in Covelo, CA. Tickets $10. FMI: mkalenda@covelo.k12.ca.us.

Mar 5-6, Grand Entry Sat 12- Sun 12. Sierra High School 2nd Annual Powwow. Honoring All Chieftains. SHS Campus, 33326 Lodge Road, Tollhouse, CA. All Damcers/Drums welcome. Free, DAFE, Camping available. FMI: Yalanda Walker, 559-855-2508, walkeryalanda@yahoo.com. Vendors: Tammie Walker, 559-855-2508, monowalker@yahoo.com.

Sat, Mar 5, 3 pm, FREE RAPA NUI Teach-In & Protest Planning MTG

CHAA , 255 International Blvd, Oakland, CA.

Sun, Mar 6, Ohlone Village Site Tour, 10 am - 12 pm, and 1:30-4:30 pm, Coyote Hills Regional Park, 8000 Patterson Ranch Road, Fremont. 510.544-3200. www.ebparks.org. Dino Labiste, Naturalist. Learn about Ohlone culture as we tour a model of village life at the Visitor Center. Walk to a 2,400-year-old Ohlone village site, see replicated structures and examine reproductions of artifacts. Along the trail, we’ll identify plants that provided food, medicine and tools.

Sun, Mar 6, 2 - 4 pm, CSU Sacramento’s Serna Center and La Raza Galeria Posada present a Festival of Native American Films at Hinde Auditorium, CSUS, 6000 J Street, Sacramento. Free admission, donations accepted. Three original films, courtesy of Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) will be screened for the first time in Sacramento. Shirley Sneve, Director, NAPT and Luke Griswold-Tergis (producer Smokin' Fish) will introduce films and host Q&A. Films include River of Renewal, the tumultuous back story of recent historic accords in the longtime battle over salmon and water in the Klamath Basin; The Last Conquistador, about the controversy over an El Paso City Council commissioned statue of Spanish Conquistador Juan de Oñate; and Smokin' Fish, the story of Cory Mann and the untold history of his people interweave with the process of preparing traditional food as he struggles to pay his bills, keep the IRS off his back, and keep his business afloat. (The film will premiere at the LA Film Festival this spring). FMI: Marie Acosta, 415.846-2179, larazagaleria@gmail.com.

Thurs, Mar 10, 6 - 7:30 PM, The San Francisco Arts Commission and The San Francisco Foundation will host a reception for Lulani Arquette, President & CEO of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) founded in 2007, and based in Vancouver, WA. The NACF is a permanently endowed national foundation supporting American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities by strengthening and supporting their diverse arts and cultures. Ms. Arquette will discuss the foundation, its goals, and the grants it provides to individuals and organizations. Admission is free, beverages and snacks provided. The San Francisco Foundation, 225 Bush Street, 5th floor, SF. RSVP, Jaime Cortez, 510-213-4044.

Thurs, Mar 10, OLO (One Love Oceania), at The Humanities Ctr, Stanford University. 5:30 Reception with Food & Drink, 7pm Performance Free & Open to all. Trailblazing queer women of Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian descent explore the complexities and intersections of gender, sexualities, class, race, colonialisms, resistance movements, and Pacific Islander diasporic histories through muti-medium performances that fuse dance, music, film, theater and poetry. With Jean Melesaine, Erica Nalani Benton, Michelle Kaonohikaimana, Terisa Siagatonu, Loa Niumeitolu, Madeline Alefosio, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu FMI: Disney@fmstadmin@stanford.edu. Also on fb.

Fri, Mar 11, 7 - 8:30 pm: An Evening of Poetry by Native Women, Gathering Tribes 1412 Solano Avenue Albany, CA 94706-2124 (510) 528-9038. Join Mica Valdez, Jaynie Weye Hlapsi, Nanette Deetz & Pennie Opal Plant as they share their inspirations on this special evening. Abya Yala: Help fund the publishing of art and poetry of over 60 talented Native American and Latina women artists. All contributions will go toward the publishing of the book Turtle Island to Abya Yala (Malinalli Press), a release party, and book tour. 510.528-9038, https://www.fracturedatlas.org/s/campaign/188.

Sat, Mar 12, 7:30 am - 12:00 pm, Running Is My High, Lake Merritt Sailboat House Parking Lot, 568 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland. Registration $5: 12 and under, adults $10 before Mar 1, or $15 after. FMI: Laura, 510-535-4463, www.nativehealth.org. The Native American Health Center's 10th annual Running Is My High event, a 10K and 5K Fun Run/Walk Around Lake Merritt, promotes active and healthy lifestyles in the Native American population and in the community at large.

Sun, Mar 12, Ohlone Village Site Tour, 12-2pm, Coyote Hills Regional Park, 8000 Patterson Ranch Road, Fremont, CA 94555. 510.544-3200. www.ebparks.org. Kristina Parkinson, Naturalist Learn about Ohlone culture as we tour a model of village life at the Visitor Center. Walk to a 2,400-year-old Ohlone village site, see replicated structures and examine reproductions of artifacts. Will learn games, and discover culture past and present.

Sat, Mar 12 · 10:00am - 6:00pm, SFSU SKINS 36th Annual Pow-Wow "Time to Honor Women", Jack Adams Hall, Cesar Chavez Building, SFSU. MC: L Frank Manriquez Arena Director: Gilbert Blacksmith Head Northern Drum: Mankillers Head Southern Drum: Head Man: Harley Tallchief Head Woman: Dauwila Harrison Head Teen Boy: Gabe Castro Jr. Head Little Girl: Winona Brown Special Guest Drums: Red Storm and Turtle Nation Special Performances: Danza Azteca Xitlalli Xichoatl. FMI:nmhowell317@gmail.com.

Sat, Mar 12, 2011, 1-5pm: CHIPRA Community BBQ. Come join NAHC's CHIPRA Outreach team in sharing food, laughs and a good time while learning how you can enroll your children in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. Families that make an appointment at the BBQ and then complete a Medi-Cal or Healthy Families application will receive a $20 gift card. IFH, 523 International Blvd, Oakland. Free, open to community. FMI: Shirley Begay, 510.535-4474 or Carol Wahpepah, 510. 836-1955.

Sat/Sun, Mar 12 & 13, 2011 Mexica New Year Ceremony, National Hispanic University 14271 Story Rd., San Jose. Starting with sunrise ceremony at 5:00 a.m. with many activities. Free to the public, dancing, songs, and sharing. FMI: Calpulli Tonalehqueh, 408-510-1377 andFacebook, My Space, Twitter or www.aztecdancers.com.

Sun, Mar 13, 6 - 11 pm, Bunky Echohawk @ Eastside Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd., Oakland. SNAG's Making Pathways & ESAA presents Bunky, a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, an artist, graphic designer, photographer, writer, traditional singer and dancer whose work spans both media and lifestyle. Plus live artists Peps 357 (Huichol/Apache), Renee Castro (Ohlone) & Nice One (Hawaii) AND guest singers Ta'c wees (traditional womens acapella group). $5-$15 suggested donation, Youth Free! No one turned away. FMI: SNAG. RSVP on Facebook:

Wed, Mar 16 · 9 am - 12 pm, Free Rapa Nui Day of Action, Chilean Consulate General, 870 Market Street, Suite 1062, San Francsico. Rally against the Chilean government’s illegal occupation and evictions of the indigenous peoples of Rapa Nui from their ancestral homelands and against the Chilean government’s heinous use of violence and human rights violations against unarmed families and communities. We hope to raise awareness on these issues as we petition the Chilean government to come to a peaceful resolution. FMI: Dallas Te'o (dallas.teo@gmail.com) Save-Rapanui USA:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Rapanui-USA/126262820769194?ref=ts http://saverapanui.org/

Sat, Mar 19, 9:30 am - 4 pm. NAHC/IFH Native Boys and Men’s Wellness Conference, (ages 12 up), IFH, 523 International Blvd, Oakland, CA.. FMI: 510.836-1955.

Sat, Mar 19, 2-5pm , Pot Luck Convivio celebrating Josefina Lopez' recent Honoring by the Berkeley City Council. Corazon del Pueblo , 4814 International Boulevard, Oakland, 510.532-6733. RSVP Dorinda Moreno or

Josefina Lopez.

Sat, Mar 19, Land and Life Garden Collective Spring Equinox Blessing of Your Neighborhood Garden from 3 - 7pm with a ceremony at sunset. With Gardening, Vendors, Live Art & Food. Ygnacio & Vicksburg Ave., Oakland. FMI: Diane.

Sat, Mar 19, 12 noon, Protest/Rally at UN Plaza (7th & Market Sts.) followed by a march to Lo. 2 boycotted hotels. FUND JOBS, HEALTHCARE & EDUCATION, NOT WAR Stop the Cutbacks & Layoffs! END WAR & OCCUPATION Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti & Everywhere! Solidarity with Local 2 Workers! March 19 is the 8th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Today, Iraq remains occupied by 50,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of foreign mercenaries. Bay Native for Peace meet near the front of the stage. If you plan to attend email janeenantoine@mac.com for an update.

Opening Mar 19 & 20, The Betty D’ari Collection, featuring basketry from California, the Northwest Coast and Alaska, the Southwest and the East, the collection will show throughout the Spring with exhibits featuring lithics, pottery, carvings, weavings, and basketry. Pacific Western Traders, 305 Wool Street, Folsom, .916 985-3851.

Fri Mar 25, 8 am- 3 pm, Press conference at Noon Sat Mar 26, 8 am - 3 pm, Rally at The Hearst Castle Entrance, 750 Hearst Castle Road San Simeon, CA, Please Bring Drums & Hand-Held Signs to show Solidarity in Protesting the Theft of The Black Hills and The Homestake Gold Mine. UNA Demanding Reparations & Accountability for the Illegal Taking of The Black Hills & The Homestake http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147763811947846 FMI: United Native Americans, Inc. Lehman L. Brightman, National President, 510.758-8160 or Quanah Parker Brightman Vice President, 510.672-7187.

Sat, Mar 26, 2-4 pm, Film: For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska, Alameda Main Library, 1550 Oak St. Guest Speaker: Kathryn Paddock, (SF Tlingit-Haida Community Council President and niece of Elizabeth Peratrovich - featured in film) This outstanding 2009 documentary tells the story of how Alaska Natives won passage of the 1945 State Anti-Discrimination Act, the first anti-discrimination law in the U.S. and passed 19 years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Testimony by Elizabeth Peratrovich (Tlingit) before the Alaska Senate turned the tide in favor of passage of the law. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Near bus lines 20, 21 & 51A. Refreshments served. FMI: 510-521-9405 oralamulticultural@gmail.com. Co-sponsors: Alameda Multicultural Community Center & League of Women Voters of Alameda.

Sat, Apr 2 · 10:00am - 10:00pm, 39th Annual UC Davis Pow Wow, ARC pavilion UC Davis, All Drums Welcome. Hand Drum contest. Vendor applications still open.FMI: Akale Brown abrown@ucdavis.edu.

Fri, Apr 8, American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) CLUE-IN Day (College Life and Undergraduate Education for Interested Natives) at Stanford University. Local student/parent travel sponsored by Rayethon. Submissions of student research projects also welcome as part of the day's activities. FMI: Anya Adams, 808.345-2883, or Faith Begay, 605.730-2103.

Apr 15, Jul 15 and Aug 19, 4-6 pm. American Indian Care Awareness Days, Food, games, prizes, raggle. Make appointments, get your eyes check, get info on blood pressure control and screen for diabetes. 2950 International Blvd., Oakland. FMI: Dawn Lulua-Claxton, 510-535-4471, Native American Health Center.

Sat, Apr 16, 1:30-3:30 pm, Lecture: The Two Worlds of Ishi, California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, 5250 Aero Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95403. 707.579-3004. http://www.cimcc.org/.

Apr 30, 10 am - sundown, camping set up Fri Apr 29. Sofia Yohema 2nd Annual Gathering, Honoring Our Daughters, Lake Yosemite, Merced. California Traditional Dancers, Arts/Crafts, Youth Activities, youth hand games tourney, dinner, storytelling, raffle, prizes, limited camping. Demonstrations booths for baskets, clapper sticks, berrys , etc. Free, No drugs, tobacco, alcohol or pets. FMI: Johnny Clay, 209-230-0192, johnnyclayart@gmail.com.

Fri, May 13 - Sun, May 15. 3rd Annual Pit River "Big Time" Powwow, MC - Fred Hill Sr., Arena Director: Carlos Calica, Head Man: Ardell Scalplock, Head Lady: Henrietta Scalplock, Host Drum: North Bear - Lame Deer, MT, Invited Drum: Southern Express - WA, Host Local Drum: Northern Eagle - Chico, CA All Categories pay out 4 places! Special Contests: Sweep the Tee Pee, Clown Dance, Chicken Dance, Hand Drum Contest, more TBA. Pit River Casino, 20265 Tamarack Ave Burney. map and directions.

Sun May 14, 5am - Noon, 12th Annual Bloody Island Memorial, In honor of the Pomo Indian people that perished and those that survived the Bloody Island Massacre of 1850. To Forgive the Oppressor is the Medicine that heals. The Sunrise Ceremony starts at 5:30 am. Potluck Breakfast 8 am: speakers and dancers at Oddfellows Hall, Upper Lake. Cleanup of Oddfellows Hall: 12 Noon(Volunteers welcome). Directions: From Upper Lake, go 1.5 miles east on Hwy 20, turn right at Reclamation Road, go 2.5 miles and park on the side of the Road. FMI: Clayton Duncan 707.274-6788.

EXHIBITS

Beyond Borders: Immigration Images and Stories Photographs by David Bacon and Kathya Landeros Viewpoint Photographic Art Center 2015 J. Street, Suite 101 Sacramento, CA 95811-3124 Phone: 916-441-2341 Exhibit Dates: Wed, 03/09/2011 - Sat, 04/02/2011 Artist Reception Date: Fri, 03/11/2011 - 5:30pm - 9:00pm 2nd Sat Reception: Sat, 03/12/2011 - 5:30pm - 9:00pm An exhibition of documentary photographs by David Bacon and Kathya Landeros about immigration to the United States from Mexico and Central America. An experienced photographer, journalist, and former labor organizer, Bacon's stunning work of photographs and oral history documents the new reality of migrant experience: the creation of transnational communities. He takes us inside these communities and illuminates the ties that bind them together, the influence of their working conditions on their families and health, and their struggle for better lives. Landeros, herself from a family of immigrants from Central Mexico, proposes that "If one can accept that the history of migratory policy toward Mexico has been complicated as we negotiate between our demands for labor and our need for cultural sovereignty, then we can acknowledge that the migrant communities that have developed in Mexico are a manifestation of these complexities."

Life is Precious. an exhibition of prints by Edgar Heap of Birds. Edgar Heap of Birds is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work ranges from conceptual public art messages to paintings, prints, and monumental sculpture. Feb 12-Apr 2. Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd St Sacramento. FMI: 916-446-5133, www.larazagaleriaposada.org,larazagaleria@gmail.com

Sa Moana: The Sea Inside. Dan Taulapapa McMullin. Jan 6 - Mar 10. Artist Talk Mar 10, 4pm. CN Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall, UC Davis. Mon-Fri 12 - 5pm & Sun 2 - 5pm, http://gormanmuseum.ucdavis.edu/ FMI: cngorman@ucdavis.edu 530.752-6567. *** In search of an indigenous Oceania visual language that expresses the complexities of contemporary life of Pacific Islanders, American Samoan artist Dan Taulapapa McMullin presents new work developed recently in the Cook Islands, the Fiji Islands and in California that addresses issues of tsunami, climate change, the indigenous body, traditions and urban change.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/OPPORTUNITIES

US Forest Service (FS) CA Sacred Site Listening Sessions on the effectiveness of existing department and agency sacred sites laws, regulations, and procedures. 1. The first was a national conference call Monday, February 14. 2. Tuesday, Mar 1, (1-4 pm) Garden Pavilion at the McClellan Air Force Base, 5640 Dudley Blvd, McClellan, CA 95652. 3. Fri Mar 4, (1-5 pm) in Eureka, site TBD. 4. Tuesday, Mar 8, (1-5 pm), San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor's Office, 602 South Tippecanoe Ave, San Bernardino, CA. FMI: Merv George, Regional Tribal Relations Program Manager, USDA Forest Service- Pacific Southwest Region R5, 1323 Club Drive, Vallejo, 707-562-8919, mgeorge@fs.fed.us.

The City Project urges support on the following statement as soon as possible. Please ask others to sign on and forward to Robert Garcia, of The City Project, 213.260-1035.* * * We urge Supervisor Gloria Molina and the County of Los Angeles to stop construction and excavations of human remains including Native Americans at the site of El Pueblo Campo Santo in downtown Los Angeles. The County reports that 117 sets of human remains have already been excavated at the Campo Santo (Spanish for Sacred Ground or cemetery) next to La Placita Catholic Church at La Plaza de Los Angeles National Historic District and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, which is in the area of the Tongva Gabrielino village of Yaangna. Church records at the Huntington Library show 696 burials at the site, with one third to one half being Native Americans. Remains were first unearthed beginning in October 2010. Additional excavation activity has reportedly occurred as recently as February 12, 2011. The remains have been moved first to California State University at Los Angeles and then to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The Native American Heritage Commission and the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles have asked the County to stop excavations until there is a proper investigation. The County should engage in respectful consultations with the Tongva Gabrielino community, other Native Americans, and others whose ancestors have been laid to rest at the site about the reburials and protecting the ancestors at Yaangna and the Campo Santo.

May 19-21, Third Annual Meeting of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association, at the Hyatt Regency, 1209 L Steet, Sacramento, CA, Host: Department of Native American Studies,UC Davis. The NAISA Council is currently accepting proposals from NAISA members for individual papers, panel sessions, or roundtables. The Council is limiting submissions to one proposed sessionper person. The Council may recruit panel chairs and commentators from people on successful proposals. FMI: naisa.org.

The U.S. Dept of Education urban Indian Listening and Learning sessions with Indian community and tribal leaders and Native student-serving representatives will be Fri, Mar 4, 2011, at the Denver Indian Center and additional Listening and Learning sessions will be held in Los Angeles, CA; Stockton, CA; and Green Bay, WI, dates and locations TBD. They are a follow-up to six tribal leader consultations conducted in 2010.
FMI: www.edtribalconsultations.org.

Elena Varela, a Chilean documentary filmmaker was detained and persecuted by the state of Chile for documenting the Mapuche struggle for land rights. Her footage was confiscated and used against her by intelligence police who accused her of “Illicit association” and “terrorism.” After 2 years of struggle she was able to demonstrate her innocence and finish the movie. Newen Mapu Che premiered in Chile on October 14^th, 2010 but has not gained the visibility it deserves as a human rights project of this magnitude. Supporters are trying to bring Varela to the Bay Area, as a demonstration of solidarity and to listen to her stories about the Mapuche and her own struggle against repression and censorship. If anyone has airline miles they can donate, or other ideas please let Miguel Angel or Elisabeth Milos know.

A free 48 page Student Resource Guide is available from California Congresswoman Lucille Royball-Allard.

Native American public Telecommunicatiosn NAPT Releases:

Good Meat captures the real-time, personal weight loss battle of one Oglala Lakota man, Beau LeBeau. Once a star athlete in his community, he struggles to shed the pounds from his 333-pound frame in an unsupportive environment. Mar 2011.

Columbus Day Legacy, a new documentary that examines issues of free speech and ethnic pride through the cultural tensions that arise between Denver, Colorado's Native and Italian-American communities during the city's annual Columbus Day parade. Mar 2011.

Games of the North is a very personal journey for many athletes past and present. The Arctic Winter Games connect athletes living in distinct worlds--bonding urban and rural Alaska Natives in a spirit of support and camaraderie with each character featured in the film revealing a unique relationship to the games. Apr 2011.Apache 8, a heart-felt documentary about the first all-women firefighting crew, comes to public television Mar 2011.

The San Francisco Tlingit & Haida Community Council produces a local newsletter with T&H news To obtain an e-copy, contactKathryn Paddock, President, 415.887-9315.

The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues invites indigenous photographers from around the world to submit photographs related to the theme the “Right to Water”. to be exhibited at UN Headquarters in new York during the Tenth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May 2011. Deadline: Mar 11. Email 3 image(s) (of 200 - 800 pixels) tomasaquiza@un.org in 500 KB or less per file. Include brief bio (500 words max), artist's indigenous identity and brief explanation (500 words max) in English or Spanish for each image.

Call for Proposals, due Mar 18 for the 2011 Native Diabetes Prevention Conference, June 14 - 17, 2011, Eldorado Hotel & Spa, Santa Fe, New Mexico

.J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and the McCormick Foundation will fund four women-led start-up journalism projects $12,000 for creating new Web sites, mobile news services, and other entrepreneurial initiatives that offer interactive opportunities to engage, inspire, and improve news and information in a geographic community or a community of interest. Deadline Apr 4.

The 2011-2012 AIEF Scholarship application is at www.aiefprograms.org. Must mail with required documents by Apr 4, 2011 for Undergraduate and Graduate level. FMI: Murray Lee, 866-866-8642, American Indian Education Foundation.

More than 100 elders, parents, children uprooted after fire ravages homes on Yakama Indian Reservation. Community seeks support for daunting rebuild. Donations can be made to The White Swan Fire Relief Fund at Bank of America, with donations accepted at branches nationwide, or at the Toppenish Armory, 326 S. Division St., Toppenish, WA 98948, or mailed to Yakama Nation CFO Henry Roy, P.O. Box 151, Toppenish, WA 98948. FMI: Colleen Reimer, Yakama Nation Tribal Administrative Director, 509.388.3300 (cell) 509.865.5121 ext. 6004 (office).

Kawika Alfiche’s single "Ho`i Hou Mai" from the upcoming album: KALE`A (CD purchase for Mar release) atwww.hawaiitunes.com for $3.00. Proceeds benefit Hawaiian Cultural Center in So. San Francisco. Tour begins in Mar.

Mar 27 – 31: 10th Annual Native Women & Men’s Wellness Conference, Hotel Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM. “Healing Connections” Mind – Body – Spirit - Community, Register: www.aii.ou.edu. largest comprehensive Native wellness conference in North America..

Subscribe to News From Native California for a mere $22.50. Read a message from Margaret Dubin, Managing Editor of News and lend your much needed support. Yahwey, yahwey.

Free Bay Area events: mybart.org, and sf.funcheap.com. Also in Oakland, kids eat for free.

ONGOING

TV: San Jose, Channel 15, Native Voice TV, Sat 4-5 pm. Hosts Cihuapili and Michael New Moon. Also 1st, 3rd, 4th Mon, 8 pm courtesy La Raza Round Table.

Radio:

Bay Native Circle, Wed 2-3 pm, kpfa.org 94.1 fm, McVicar / Antoine producers, Berkeley.

Indian Time Tues 8-10 pm, kkup.com 91.5 fm, Jack Hyatt/David Romero.

Native Way, 2nd/4th Sun, 1-3 pm, David Romero / Veronica Gonzales. San Jose.

On Native Ground - Where Art Speaks! kdvs.com, 90.3 fm,Thurs 8:30-9:30 am, Jack Kohler / Patrice Pena. Sovereignty Sound, DJ Ya-nah, Sun 3-6 am, 916.380-2818. Davis.

Webworks: Voices of the Native Nation, 3rd/4th Wed, 6-8 pm, kpoo.com 89.5, Mary Jean Robertson, San Francisco.

Calendars:

Bay Area native community network.

Bay Area Indian Calendar.

News from Native California Quarterly newsletter. Submissions by email, or PO Box 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709 or fax 510.549-1889.

East Bay (To Tuolumne)

Four Directions AA Meetings, Suns at 2, IFH, 523 International Blvd, Oakland. Meetings: 1st Sun: Birthdays; 2nd Sun: As Bill Sees It; 3rd Sun: Step Study; 4th Sun: Basket Drop. Children welcome, open meeting. FMI Vermaine @415-933-1259.

Lakota conversation class, Mon, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, IFH, 523 International, Oakland. FMI: Janeen. *** Healthy potluck, donations requested per class. Lila wopila to IFH, Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, Community Futures Collective, AICA and AICRC for helping our tiyospaye learn Lakota. Thanks also to Willie who is temporarily away as he prepares for the coming of his expected twins with his partner Christina.

Medicine Warriors All Nations Dance Practice. Free, open to all. Thurs, 7-9 pm, IFH, 523 International, Oakland. Motto: Friendship, Fitness, Fun.

Gathering Tribes, 1412 Solano, Albany. 510.528-9038. Weekend artist presentations.

Intertribal Friendship House, 523 International Blvd, Oakland. 510.836-1955. Classes: Mon: 6:30-8:30 Lakota, Tues: 6-9 pm, Beading Circle w Gayle Burns, Drum, Aerobics. Thurs: Medicine Warriors/All Nations Dance, Fri: Talking Circles, Sat: Gardening, Parenting. Library open some Tues/Thurs.

Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St, Oakland. 501.238-2200. Historical display of California lifeways/basketry. Free First Suns.

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, 103 Kroeber Hall, Berkeley. 510.643-7649. Wed-Sat, 10 am-4:30 pm, Sun 12-4 pm. Free; $5 tours, $2 children.

North Bay (To Sacramento)

CN Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall, UC Davis. cngorman@ucdavis.edu 530.752-6567.

California Indian Museum, 1020 O St, Sacramento. “American Masterpieces: Artistic Legacy of California Indian Basketry,” Through early 2010, Admission.

California Indian Museum & Cultural Center, 5250 Aero Drive, Santa Rosa, 707.579-3004, cimandcc@aol.com. “Ishi: A California Indian Story of Dignity, Hope, Courage and Survival.”

Jesse Peter Native American Art Museum, Santa Rosa Jr. College, Bussman Hall, 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa. 707.527-4479. California cultures, artists change monthly.

Maidu Museum and Historic Site, 1960 Johnson Ranch Dr., Roseville. 916.774-5934.

Marin Museum of the American Indian, 2200 Novato Blvd., Novato, 415.897-4064. “Sharing Traditions,” last Sat, 1-4 pm. Tues-Sun 12-4 pm. Free.

Mendocino County Museum. 400 E. Commercial St., Willits, 707.459-2739. Wed-Sun: 10-4:30. Pomo baskets and basket weavers. Free.

Northern California Flute Circle. 530.432-2716. Native Am. Flute concerts & workshops.

Pacific Western Traders, 305 Wool St., Folsom. 916.985-3851 Wed-Sun, 10-5. Native American arts, books, recordings, videos, Pendletons. Changing exhibits.

Vallejo Inter-Tribal Council. Mugg’s Coffee Shop, Ferry Building, 495 Mare Island Way, Vallejo. 707.552-2562 or 707.554-6114. Call to confirm Wed 7 pm meetings.

West Bay (SF Peninsula)

New Day!! Come learn powwow and honor songs. 1st Tuesday of every month 7:30 - 9:00 pm, at LGBT Center, 1800 Market Street, San Francisco. Ask for BAAITS drum practice; Jaynie Weye Hlapsi aka (Jaynie Lara) leads the classes sings and drums on Sweet Medicine Drum.

Cantor Arts Center, Stanford. 650-723-4177. “Living Traditions: Arts of the Americas,” Northwest Coast, California, Southwest, and Mesoamerica collections. Wed–Sun. Free.

de Young Museum, Teotihuacan murals, California baskets, Inuit/Eskimo art, Pueblo pottery. Free 1st Tues, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, SF, 415.750-3600. For admission to see the Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico

Admission for Olmec exhibit: $25 adults; $22 seniors 65+; students with ID $21; youth 6–17 $15. Members and children 5 and under are free; the first Tuesday of every month is free. Advance purchase: $5 discount on all tickets. Group (10 or more) $16 per person with advance purchase. FMI: www.deyoungmuseum.org; 415-750-3600.

Images of the North. Inuit sculptures, prints, masks, jewelry, several exhibits yearly, Oct. Cape Dorset Print Show. 2036 Union, SF, 415.673-1273, gallery@imagesnorth.com.

Kaululehua Hawaiian Cultural Center, 423 Baden Ave, So. SF. Mon: Men & Women (13-40) 6:30-7:30; Tues: Kupuna (50+) 6-7; Wed: Keiki (5-12) 6-7; Thurs: Makua (35-50) 6:30-7:30. Bring an open mind and willingness to learn. ($10/class for the month of Sept) rsvp: info@apop.net 650-588-1091.

Mission Dolores. 3321 16th St, SF, 415.621-8203, Andrew A. Galvan, (Ohlone), Curator. SF’s oldest intact building. The only intact Mission Chapel of the original 21. Final resting place of 5,000 First Californians. Native plants / artifacts.

South Bay (To Santa Cruz)

Indian Canyon, Ceremonial Refuge/Facilities, w. of Hollister, ams@indiancanyon.org.

ANNUAL EVENTS

The “Annual Events” section aims to help community event planners avoid scheduling conflicts and plan in advance. For inclusion, email listings in same format as listings below. Wopila! Also, you can post your full events on the Bay Area Native American Indian Network.

Apr 30-May 1, CA Indian Market, San Juan Bautista, fourcornerstrading@msn.com.

Apr 30, Sofia Yohema Gathering, Lake Merced, johnnyclayart@gmail.com.

Mar 12, Sat, Running is My High, Oakland, LauraM@nativehealth.org.

Mar 19, Sat, Taking Care of the Tribe NAAP Powwow 5, Horace Mann School, SF, sendawee@yahoo.com.

May 6-8, Mothers Day Weekend, Stanford Powwow, info@stanfordpowwow.org.

May, c. 15, Sat, CA Indian Market, Tuolumne, jbates@blackoakcasino.com.

Jun 5, Sat, Gathering of Honored Elders, Sacramento.

Jun 18, Sat, Native Contemp Arts Festival, SF, Janeen Antoine.

Jun 18, Sat, Storytelling Festival, Indian Canyon, Hollister, ams@indiancanyon.org. date to be revised..

Jul 17, Sat, Kule Loklo Big Time, Point Reyes National Seashore, 415.464-5100.

Sep 11, Sat, MWAN Powwow, Oakland, Gilbert Blacksmith.

Sep 18, Sat, AmInd Heritage Celeb/Big Time/Powwow/Market, San Jose, vmcloud@ihcscv.org.

Sep 18-19, Black NA Assn Powwow, CSU Hayward, Don Little Cloud.

Sep 24, 4th Fri, California Indian Day.

Oct 2-3, NAHC Pow Wow, Treasure Island, SF, Cathy Wisdom.

Oct 2, Tlingit Haida Gathering, Oakland 1st Congre. Church, Kathy Paddock.

Oct 3, Ohlone Gathering, Coyote Hills, Fremont, chvisit@ebparks.org.

Oct 9, IPD Pow Wow/Market, Berkeley, info@ipdpowwow.org.

Oct 11, IPD Sunrise Ceremony, Alacatraz, Morningstar Gali.

Oct 28-29, California Indian Conference, Amy Huberland, 530.898-5438.

Oct 30, Sat, Oakland Library N. A. Culture Day, rchacon@oaklandlibrary.org.

Nov 5-13, Sat, AIFF American Indian Film Festival, SF, filmfestival@aifisf.com.

Nov 13, AIFF Awards Night, SF, www.aifisf.com.

Nov 22-26, AIM National Conference, SF, Tony Gonzales.

Nov 25, Sunrise Ceremony, Alcatraz Island, Morningstar Gali.

Nov 26, Black Fri Shellmound Mall Protest, Emeryville, shellmoundwalk@yahoo.com

Dec 3-4, Sat/Sun, AICRC Powwow, Laney College, Oakland, Mary Trimble Norris. .

Jan 29, MWAN B-Day Party, IFH, Oakland, Gilbert Blacksmith.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Hey all- So below is a link to the new petition to save Sogorea Te/Glen Cove. Please read & sign it, and forward it to your friends, family, and listserves. Hopefully we can collect a solid chunk of signatures in the next 6 weeks, prior to the city council meeting that we may be attending in April... Many thanks! In Solidarity, Michelle http://www.petitiononline.com/ssprit/petition.html @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field and in the policy arena to protect America's last wild buffalo. Buffalo Field Campaign Yellowstone Bison Update from the Field March 3, 2011 ------------------------------ ------------------------------ * Update from the Field * Update from the Trap * WHAT YOU CAN DO - New Action! * Elk Are Next * By the Numbers * Last Words ~ Healing Wishes for barb abramo ------------------------------ * Update from the Field Impressive bull buffalo that used to roam the Gardiner basin. Bulls like this magificent giant have been heavily impacted by the hunt. BFC file photo. Click photo for larger image. One hundred and ninety-nine of America's last wild buffalo have been killed in the hunt. This marks the largest number of wild buffalo killed by hunters since it was reinstated in 2005. Two First Nations are still hunting under treaty right - Nez Perce and Umatilla Confederation - and will continue to hunt buffalo through March. The wild buffalo of the Greater Yellowstone region are the last continuously wild population left in America. Fewer than 3,700 exist, and because of politically-driven mismanagement schemes that block them from accessing available habitat, they are ecologically extinct throughout their native range. Winter herself has yet to reveal the toll she will take from this last wild population. March is one of the most trying months for the buffalo, as they have now used up most of their stores of body fat, while the grass they seek remains deeply covered in snow and ice, or else is wrongly off-limits to them. This is one of the last wild bull buffalo patrols encountered in the Eagle Creek hunt area; he and many other bulls have all been killed by hunters. BFC file photo by Peter. Click photo for larger image. Near Gardiner, all of the bulls that had been wintering in the Eagle Creek area of Gallatin National Forest - the main area for hunting buffalo north of Yellowstone - have been killed by hunters. Massive, handsome, feisty, graceful, powerful and wise ... they are all gone. Near West Yellowstone, along the Madison River, this rich riparian corridor in the Hebgen Basin was once teeming with multiple family groups of the gentle giants. Now there is nothing left but their ghosts. For the first time this winter, since the buffalo began to migrate and the buffalo hunt began, patrols have found these migration areas empty of buffalo. Just the way Montana's cattle interests want it. Five hundred and twenty five wild buffalo remain in captivity inside Yellowstone National Park's Stephens Creek buffalo trap. One would-be buffalo mother has recently lost her calf, likely due to the stress of confinement and the intake of unnatural feed. The Park says they have no plans to ship any of the buffalo to slaughter, nor any plans to capture more. Our attorneys with the Montana office of Western Watersheds Projectare pressing forward with an appeal to our emergency injunction, legal action that - along with your many calls and letters to Montana and Yellowstone - has helped keep these buffalo alive. These efforts seek not only to prevent slaughter, but release them from the trap. Yellowstone officials also say they are still trying to interpret the meaning of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's executive order which halted the Park's plans to transport wild bison to slaughter through Montana. Yellowstone's Superintendent Dan Wenk is scheduled to meet with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on March 8th. Wild buffalo badly need your voice. Below are nine things you can do to help. With endless pressure, endlessly applied we will set the buffalo free. ------------------------------ * Update from the Trap A wild buffalo inside Yellowstone's Stephens Creek bison trap. BFC file photo. The situation regarding bison in Yellowstone National Park remains the same. In light of the Governor's recent Executive Order and the ongoing legal situation in which you are involved, our approach to bison management remains unchanged. We continue to temporarily hold somewhere on the order of 525 bison in the fenced pastures at Stephens Creek. We are feeding between 5 and 6 tons of hay a day. There is water piped into the pastures. Several hundred bison remain in the park between Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Junction. We have not observed any significant movement of animals toward the park's northern boundary. During the time we've been holding bison at Stephens Creek, I understand there has been one bison fatality and one abortion event. I do not have any further details. Upon request, we are assisting the Montana Department of Livestock with hazing mixed groups of bison from outside the park's northern boundary back inside the park. Hazing operations have been occuring regularly, but not daily. We have had no capture operations for several weeks. There are no plans to ship any bison to slaughter. As you may have seen reported, Dan Wenk, our new Superintendent, is scheduled to go to Helena next week to meet with Governor Schweitzer. The subject of bison management is one of the topics he intends to bring up during this, his first meeting with the Governor. ~ Yellowstone National Park, March 1, 2011 ------------------------------ * WHAT YOU CAN DO 1. Contact Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk and welcome him to Yellowstone, tell him to set the trapped buffalo free, pull out of the Interagency Bison Management Plan, stop harassing and killing wildlife and work towards habitat-based solutions for America's last wild buffalo! Take Action Now! 2. NEW! Please contact Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson and ask her exactly what the Forest Service is doing to fulfill their legal mandate to provide year-round habitats maintaining wild buffalo populations. Hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest habitats exist for wild buffalo contiguous to Yellowstone National Park's north and west boundaries. These critical public lands are a small part of the buffalo's ancient migrations to wintering range and spring calving grounds in the Paradise, Gallatin and Madison river valleys. Please ask Supervisor Mary Erickson and the U.S. Forest Service to manage habitats to support these gentle, nomadic giants. Supervisor Mary Erickson needs to stand up to the state of Montana and no longer allow the state to dictate where and when buffalo are allowed to roam our National Forests. Ask her as Supervisor of the Gallatin National Forest to reallocate habitat permitted for grazing cattle to support the keystone ecological roles migratory populations of wild buffalo fulfill on land that is their birth right. Email: mcerickson@fs.fed.us Phone: 406-587-6758 3. Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to intervene with the Park on your behalf and to support federal funding to protect America's last wild buffalo and their habitat. Ask them to support the re-direction of funds wasted on the Interagency Bison Management Plan towards habitat-based solutions that honor the wild integrity of our national heritage. Write your Representative Write your Senators 4. Contact Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and THANK HIM for the 90-day stay of execution, tell him he did the right thing. Please also remind him that wild buffalo must be allowed to access habitat in Montana. Brucellosis is not the issue, but habitat for wild buffalo is the solution. Remind him that until Montana embraces and respects wild, free-roaming bison, the state will continue to be globally shamed by these actions against America's last wild buffalo! Remind him that tourism sustains Montana. governor@mt.gov 406-444-3111 5. Sign BFC's Petition to National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis urging him to abandon the failed Interagency Bison Management Plan. Sign the petition. 6. Write Letters to the Editor to newspapers in your region to help raise awareness and bring an end to the unjust treatment of America's last wild buffalo. Write on for the buffalo! 7. Vote for wild buffalo and all wildlife with your money by Boycotting beef. 8. Volunteer with BFC by joining us on the front lines! volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org 406-646-0070 9. Watch & Share This Video to inspire yourself and others to Protect the Wild Bison THANK YOU! Please spread the word to save these herds by telling everyone you know what is happening to the country's last wild buffalo and what they can do to . Knowledge is power! ------------------------------ * Elk Are Next "The blood testing only indicates if an animal has been exposed to the disease and does not mean the animal is necessarily infected and can spread the disease." ~ Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Accurate words. But, this truthful statement was made in regards to elk, not buffalo, even though the exact same holds true for both animals. When the government or cattle industry mention buffalo and brucellosis together, you would think the world was about to end. Buffalo that blood-test positive for brucellosis are shipped to slaughter. End of story. But with Montana's elk herds - which bring the state a lot of money through hunting - they don't want any negative publicity. Tell the truth for the animals you like, spin lies about the animals you don't. So, with elk, brucellosis is really no big deal, but with buffalo - according to the government - the cattle industry would crumble. Baloney. Since the livestock industry is blaming elk for actually transmitting brucellosis back to cattle, Montana FWP is bowing to the cattle lords, allowing elk harassment and eventual slaughter to begin. But they are being very careful about how they do it, so as not to ruffle any elk hunting-interest feathers. They are even going to double-check their blood samples to make sure there were no false-positives. Over the next five years, FWP will attempt to test up to 500 elk in for exposure to brucellosis. BFC was present - and documenting - during the first round of testing that took place in the Ruby Valley. Above are a series of FWP photos from this first round of testing. As the first photo shows, elk were tranquilized, netted and wrapped in a tarp, then flown by helicopter to a testing site. The downed elk had their blood taken, and were then fitted with radio collars and vaginal telemetry devices for further tracking, then they were released. No bull elk will be captured since these impressive fellows are coveted by trophy hunters. Eventually, FWP will kill some of the elk if they keep testing sero-positive for brucellosis exposure. We'll have some exclusive video footage to share with you soon, so please stay tuned. In the meantime, let's think about some - just a few, mind you - of the thick hypocrisies in the brucellosis argument: There has never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis back to cattle. Elk have been blamed for transmitting brucellosis back to cattle. Wild bison are not allowed to migrate into Montana due to unfounded fears that they will transmit brucellosis to cattle and are hazed, hunted, captured, slaughtered and quarantined for entering Montana; elk, however, migrate freely throughtout the state, even within cattle pastures where cattle are present. Bull bison are shipped to slaughter, hunted, or molested due to unfounded fears of brucellosis transmission; bull elk are absolutely left alone by Montana, so they are around for hunters in the fall. Bison are rounded up like livestock, blood-tesed and shipped to slaughter if they test positive for brucellosis antibodies; elk are tranquilized in the field, tested, and released regardless of test results. The bacteria brucella exists in the reproductive tissues, yet elk, bison and deer are hunted every year, and hunters leave gut piles all over the landscape. If brucellosis was such a threat, wouldn't this be addressed? People who eat wild game from the Greater Yellowstone region eat brucellosis-exposed meat without their health being in any danger. While elk may be getting off easier than the buffalo in these cattle industry-driven wars against wildlife, it is nonetheless unnecessary, harmful and disrespectful treatment of our nation's native fauna. Cattle are invasive species that have brought disease and destroyed habitat, they are the manageable element, and they must be carefully managed in order to protect our wildlife. ------------------------------ * By the Numbers AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S. The last wild population is currently estimated at fewer than 3,700 individual buffalo. 2010-2011 Total: 205 2010-2011 Government Capture: 525 2010-2011 Government Slaughter: 2010-2011 Died In Government Trap: 1 2010-2011 Miscarriage in Government Trap: 1 2010-2011 State & Treaty Hunts: 199 2010-2011 Quarantine: 0 2010-2011 Shot by Agents: 2 2010-2011 Highway Mortality: 2 2009-2010 Total: 7 2008-2009 Total: 22 2007-2008 Total: 1,631 * Total Since 2000: 3,916* *includes lethal government action, trap-related fatalities, quarantine, hunts, highway mortality ----------------------------- * Last Words ~ Healing Wishes for BFC's barb abramo This Last Words is a little different, as we wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that one of our dear family members is quite ill. If you have written a letter, sent a donation, ordered BFC merchandise, or dropped us an email, you have likely been in touch with BFC's Office Coordinator, barb abramo. Our beloved barb - who prefers not to capitalize her name - is currently in the hospital, in the intensive care unit. We are not sure exactly what is wrong, but it sounds potentially serious, though doctors say it is not life-threatening. She will be looked after by doctors for at least the next few days. It would make barb feel really good to hear from you. If you have a moment, please consider dropping barb a note. Emails can be sent to buffalo@wildrockies.orgor mail can be sent to: barb abramao, Buffalo Field Campaign, P.O. Box 957, West Yellowstone, MT 59758. Thank you! Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you for all the poems, songs, quotes, and stories you have been sending; you'll see them here! ------------------------------ Media & Outreach Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 406-646-0070 bfc-media@wildrockies.org http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org BFC is the only group working in the field every day in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S. KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES Join Buffalo Field Campaign -- It's Free! Tell-a-Friend! Take Action! ROAM FREE!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Fwd: Applications open for new Native Nations Team associate positio

Posted by: "Christina Rose" Rosepetl5@aol.com rosepetl5

Fri Mar 4, 2011 9:42 am (PST)

Sent: Fri, Mar 4, 2011 11:10 am
Subject: Applications open for new Native Nations Teamassociate position

Dear Colleagues,

The Bush Foundation is accepting applications for a new associate positionon the Native Nations Team. The team is focused on the Foundation's goalthat by 2020, all 23 Native nations that share the same geography of Minnesota, North Dakotaand South Dakotaare exercising self-determination to actively rebuild the infrastructure ofnationhood.
Please take a minute tothink through your contacts and forward this e-mail to people whom you believemight be interested and qualified. Interested applicants should refer tothe Bush Foundation’s website for informationon applying. The application deadline is March 23, 2011.
The positionhas key responsibilities of:
· administeringthe Native Nations Rebuilder Program, which selects 20 to 30 emergingleaders each year to participate in seminars to strengthen their leadershipskills and nation-building knowledge and support their tribes in achievingtheir nation-building goals, and
· supporting the jointeffort between the Native Nations Team and tribes in developing and writingagreements and grants.
Click here for adetailed job description.
The ideal candidatewill possess a bachelor’s degree and five years program managementexperience with a foundation, nonprofit, or tribal community. A candidatewith an understanding of Indian Country, preferably the 23 sovereign nationsthroughout Minnesota, North Dakota, or South Dakota,is desired. Experience with a quality leadership development program ispreferred. Success in using social media tools, including Skype, blogs,and podcasts, is required.
Initial screeningof applications will begin immediately and continue until the position isfilled. Application materials should include a resume and a letteraddressing how the candidate’s experiences meet the requirements of theposition. Materials must be submitted by the deadline of March 23,2011. For more information about the Bush Foundation, visit www.bushfoundation.org.
Submit materials to:
Ann Yelich, HumanResource Consultant
Bush Foundation
332 Minnesota Street, Suite E-900
St. Paul, MN 55101
Fax: 651-297-6485
E-mail: Human_Resources@bushfoundation.org
The Bush Foundation, anindependent, private foundation, was established in 1953 by 3M executiveArchibald G. Bush and his wife, Edyth. Our mission is to improve thequality of life in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 sovereign tribal nations thatshare the same geography by strengthening organizational, community, andindividual leadership.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

OGLALA TRIBAL COUNCIL RETALIATION AGAINST ELDERS, WARRIORS!!

• Posted by GREYFOX CUCUMBER on March 5, 2011 at 9:28am

Cante Tenza Okolakiciye - Strong Heart Warrior Society
Free & Independent Lakota Nation
Box 512, Hill City, South Dakota 57745 | 605-454-0449 or
605-517-1547 | lakotaoyate.net

MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release: March 3, 2011
Contact: Duane Martin Sr. 605-517-1547 or 605-454-0449


OGLALA TRIBAL COUNCIL RETALIATION ESCALATES AGAINST ELDERS, WARRIORS
Grandmother Evicted from Home, Protest Leader’s Road Cut, Police
Harassment


Pine Ridge Reservation, SD – Members of the Oglala Tribal Council have
Begun a series of retaliatory actions against respected Elders and the
Strong Heart Warrior Society in advance of the planned protest
Occupation of the Porcupine Elderly Meals center. The occupation is
Being staged to protest incidents of elder abuse, illegal sales of
Drugs and alcohol from the center, abuse of police power against
Elders, and lack of action from the corrupt Oglala Tribal Council.


• On Wednesday night, respected Red Society grandmother Wilma Thin Elk
Was evicted from tribal housing by tribal council member Kathy Janis
And Oglala tribal police under bogus charges of child abuse.


• Also on Wednesday night, Oglala tribal police visited the home of
Strong Heart headsman Duane Martin Sr.'s and interrogated him about
The protest occupation. He asked them to leave.


• Thursday morning, the road to the home of grandfather Enoch Brings
Plenty was cut so that he is unable to travel to help lead the protest
Occupation.


• Calls to Tribal Council member Kathy Janis about the status of Wilma
Thin Elk was met with denials that any actions had been taken against
The Red Society grandmother.


Strong Heart Warrior Society headsman Duane Martin Sr. Said, “The
Elders are tired of being subjugated to colonial abuse, and that is
what’s happening. This (retaliation) has to stop!”


The Strong Heart Warrior Society is documenting the acts of
Retaliation by Oglala government officials and said that the lack of
Media coverage of these stories helps to perpetuate abuse and
Corruption on Pine Ridge by allowing illegal and abusive acts to go
Without publicity or accountability.


In virtually any other U.S. Community, physical abuse of elders, the
False arrest and persecution of the elderly by police, the forced
Evictions of elders in the middle of the winter, and the illegal
Selling of drugs and alcohol by staff of an elderly meals center would
Be headline news. But not if the community is the Oglala Pine Ridge
Reservation, and the people are the poor and traditional Lakota
Oyate.


“Tribal government has never listened to our elders,” Martin
Explained. “That’s why they (the elders) turn to the Strong Heart
Warrior Society - because we are the only ones who will protect them.”


###


The Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota
Is the size of the state of Connecticut. Due to decades of abuse,
Corruption and colonial enforcement, Pine Ridge faces epidemic rates
Of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, elder abuse, and poverty. Life
Expectancy for Lakota men is below 40 years of age. Nearly ¾ of the
Lakota people have lost their language, and the traditional language
Is on the verge of extinction in Pine Ridge. The reservation has one
Of the highest rates of unsolved murders. These unsolved deaths are
Widely attributed to violent retaliation against those seeking an end
To corruption and assertion of traditional Lakota sovereignty.


Cante Tenza Okolakiciye also known as the Strong Heart Warrior Society
Of the Lakota Nation is an ancient Lakota warrior society as well as a
Broad-based civil rights movement that works to protect, enforce and
Restore treaty rights, civil rights, and sovereignty of Native people
And their communities across Turtle Island. In addition to activist
Efforts to protect the land and people, each year Cante Tenza collects
And freely distributes shoes, winter coats, school supplies, food, and
Other support to Oglala Lakota elders, children and families.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees." - Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody), Nuxalk Nation "Of the people for the people and BY the people". We are still the people! Thank you for your consideration. The 26th amendment to the Constitution (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! Because the people demanded it. That was in 1971... before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure. I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around. Congressional Reform Act of 2011 1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below.. A. Two Six-year Senate terms B. Six Two-year House terms C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms 2. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. 4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time. THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Adoptees Have Answers (AHA)

First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) and

Metropolitan State University Department of Social Work

are pleased to invite you to attend

A Transracial Adoptee

Truth, Healing & Reconciliation Forum

History: Truth Healing, Reconciliation Forum model was developed by the founding members of the First Nations Orphan Association for First Nations adoptees/fostered individuals, their families and communities. This model addresses grief and loss caused by separation from family and culture.

Who: For the first time at the March 26^th Forum, FNRI facilitators will welcome all transracial adoptees/fostered individuals to share their stories and participate in a Forum.

Why: This is an opportunity for adoptees to meet other adoptees and fosterees. It is also a unique opportunity for family members and professionals to hear first-hand how adotoption and foster care impact our families and communities.

Date: Saturday, March 26^th, 2011

Time: 8:30 A.M to 4:30 P.M.

Location: Metro State University

St. Paul Campus, New Main Building

700 East 7^th Street

St. Paul, MN 55106

Cost: $5 for the day, includes lunch. For info about scholarships please call Anne Johnson, 612-747-7122

Parking: $2.50 all day in lot; free street parking

Registration: Please go to the Community Calendar athttp://www.aha.mn/ and click on the event

For more information, map & directions go to: http:/www.aha.mn/aha-events/.

Questions? Contact Julia Decker at 612-746-5133

--
Sandy White Hawk
651-442-4872
www.wearecominghome.com

--
"When crazy people call you crazy,

you know you're sane.

When evil people call you evil,

you know that you are a good person.

When lairs call you a liar,

you know that you are truthful.

Know who you are and don't

let others tell you who you are."

- Dave Kitchen