products by many Indians who claim they defame
the name of the Lakota Sioux warrior Crazy Horse
and the Menominee leader Oshkosh. Crazy Horse’s
descendants are particularly offended. They point
out that their famous ancestor had been a teetotaler
who warned his people of the destructive effects of
alcohol. (See also entries for SEPTEMBER 17, 1996
and for APRIL 27, 2001.)
“Black Hills of Dakota... home
of Proud Indian Nations. A land
where imagination conjures up
images of blue clad Pony Sol-
diers and magnificent Native
American Warriors... where
wailful winds whisper of Sit-
ting Bull, Crazy Horse and
Custer.”
—from the label of the original
Crazy Horse Malt Liquor1995Massachusetts Indian inmates fight for their
freedom of religion.
Calling themselves the Native American Spiritual
Awareness Council, a group of Indian inmates in a
Massachusetts state prison meet to share their spiri-
tual beliefs and strengthen their Indian identity.
Prison administrators, however, interfere with the
religious group by restricting it to Indians enrolled
in a tribe and by forbidding it to use pipes, drums,
and other items the council regards as sacred. In the
lawsuit Trapp et al. v. DuBois et al., the Massachu-
setts Superior Court agrees with the prisoners that
their right to freedom of religion is being violated.
It orders the prison to allow all Indian inmates to
participate in the council and to permit the group
access to its religious paraphernalia.
Income from Arctic refuge leases is included
in the federal budget.
Due to the efforts of the congressional delegation
from Alaska, $1.4 billion from leases to oil com-
panies for the use of land in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge is included in the federal budget
bill. The measure is meant to pressure the govern-
ment to open up the refuge to oil drilling so this
money can be raised (see entry for 1987). Oppo-
nents to allowing drilling in the refuge include
environmentalists, who maintain the companies
will destroy the delicate wilderness area, and the
Gwich’in Indians, who fear drilling will decimate
the refuge’s caribou herd on which they, as sub-
sistence hunters, depend for their survival. The
Alaskan delegation’s agenda is thwarted only
when President Bill Clinton vetoes the budget bill
in its entirety.March 9The Mescalero Apache approve a nuclear
waste storage facility.
On January 31, the Mescalero Apache vote down
a referendum allowing a consortium of nuclear
energy companies to store waste on their reserva-
tion. Immediately, the tribal government, which
supports the building of the waste storage facil-
ity (see entry for FEBRUARY 15, 1994), launches
a massive campaign to persuade tribe members to
sign a petition calling for a second referendum on
the issue. Under great pressure from their leaders,
30 percent of the tribe signs the petition, which
by the tribal constitution allows the government
to hold another vote. On this second round of
voting, the referendum passes.JuneA Native sentencing circle banishes
a rapist.
Billy Taylor, a 28-year-old man of the La Rouge In-
dian Band in La Rouge, Saskatchewan, requests that
the band’s sentencing circle administer his sentence
after he is convicted of rape. At the band’s office,P