ing the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer
at the Battle of Little Bighorn (see entry for JUNE
25 TO 26, 1876). The six-minute program was
performed during halftime at football games by
the school’s MARCHing band and dancers dressed
as soldiers and Indians. The show fell under scru-
tiny after 16-year-old student Dylan Lodge, a Gros
Ventre (Atsina) tribal member, complained that its
depiction of Indian history was “cartoonish.”
October 11
The Mashantucket Pequot are accused of
misusing a government drug subsidy.
An audit conducted by the Department of Health
and Human Services holds that the Mashantucket
Pequot have illegally distributed $5.8 million worth
of prescription drugs to non-Indian employees of
the tribe’s Foxwoods casino (see entry for FEBRUARY
12, 1992). The government maintains the drugs
were obtained through a federal discount program
intended for Indians only. Tribal leaders question
the audits’ findings in a statement reading in part,
“The tribal government considers tribal employees
and their families to be members of the tribal com-
munity for purposes of health care.”
October 23
The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic
Site is established.
Congress passes a bill to establish the location of the
Sand Creek Massacre as a national historic site. At
Sand Creek, the Third Colorado Cavalry murdered
nearly 200 Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho, who
were camping peacefully in the area (see entry for
NOVEMBER 29, 1864). As a national historic site,
graves at Sand Creek will be protected from arti-
fact poachers. The designation also will allow the
Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes to claim the remains
of those killed. The bill was introduced to Congress
by Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell,
a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. The
second wife of Campbell’s great-grandfather was a
survivor of the massacre.
October 29The Hopi are given permission to use eagle
hatchlings in a religious ceremony.
The Department of the Interior announces that it
will permit the Hopi to collect golden eagle hatch-
lings from nests at Arizona’s Wupatki National
Monument. Traditionally, Hopi men gathered
the hatchlings in the spring and smothered them
during a July ceremony to release their spirits. En-
vironmental organizations criticize the Interior
Department’s decision, maintaining that only Con-
gress has the right to determine whether animals
can be hunted on federal lands.NovemberThe Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) covers a mural depicting attacking
Indians.
Responding to complaints by employees, including
several American Indians, the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency (EPA) agrees to set up temporary
displays to cover “Dangers of the Mail,” a 13 -
foot-long mural in the agency’s new headquarters
in the Ariel Rios Building in Washington, D.C.
The mural, painted by Colorado artist Frank Albert
Mechau in the 1930s, depicts Indian warriors at-
tacking and scalping white settlers. Although the
EPA asks that the mural be removed from public
view, the General Services Administration, which
owns the building, announces that instead it will
post signs to help viewers put the mural’s images
in historical context. (See also entry for MARCH 17,
2005.)December
A judge dismisses the suit against the Yakama’s li-
quor ban. U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley will
find that the suit was filed too early since the ban
had not yet gone into effect. He will add that the
court lacks authority over the tribal officials behind
the ban, who are “protected by the Yakama Nation’s
sovereign immunity.”