mayminutes99

The meeting was called to order at noon by the Historian, Emily Wright. Minutes for April were accepted with no changes. The Council recognized and welcomed new member Gary West (FSA).

Discussion Topics:

Garet Moravec, a Telecommunications Specialist with the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and a member of the Seneca Nation of New York, will serve as our Vice-Chair until December 31, 1999. Garet grew up mostly in Rapid City, South Dakota and went to school in Arizona. In his spare time he teaches at John Hopkins University Graduate School and plays and sings at pow wows with the Cedar Tree Drum. He expressed his eagerness to participate in and contribute to AIC's activities.

Emily continues to represent the American Indian Council at meetings of the National Outreach Council (NOC). Rick Chavez has also attended these meetings. The NOC was about one year late in getting started so the State Outreach Councils (SOCs) are ahead of the game and have already been preparing and implementing outreach plans for their States. The NOC will give guidance to the SOCs. State Outreach Councils have been submitting minutes of their quarterly meetings to the NOC for evaluation. This year the NOC is chaired by Pearlie Reed, Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NOC will establish policy and the National Office of Outreach, headed by Sam Thornton, is to be considered the support staff for the NOC.

Wayne Brewer and Rick Chavez attended and reported on the May meeting of the Civil Rights Leadership Council. The Director of Civil Rights, Rosalind Gray, presided at the meeting, which included representatives from several other employee organizations. Ms. Gray stated her intentions to reorganize the Special Emphasis section of her office, making those positions an Employment Compliance Unit. Ms. Gray also directed discussion about employee perceptions of the employee complaint process and asked how to establish accountability for implementation of the civil rights program. These items were discussed but no decisions were made.

Members of the AIC have expressed their support for the creation of an Employment Compliance Unit, but not at the expense of a strong Special Emphasis Program. There was agreement among members in our meeting today that agency SEP managers need the leadership provided by a strong Departmental SEP Unit. The AIC sent a letter on this subject, on May 5, to Secretary Glickman. The letter pointed out the importance of the SEP and the fact that several SEP Manager positions are vacant, including the Native American Special Emphasis Manager position. Ms. Gray and the leaders of other employee organizations received a copy of this letter. We will attempt to collaborate with other employee groups on this issue and perhaps sign similar letters along with other employee group leaders. We hope that a civil rights impact study will be made to determine the effects this proposed reorganization will have on minority employees of USDA. Officers of the AIC have received many messages of support for our May 5 letter and for our stance on this issue. So far, we have heard no dissenting opinions from AIC members.

We also urged the Secretary in our May 5th letter, to quickly replace Mary McNeil, the former Director of Native American Programs. This position is a Presidential appointment, located in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. This is an extremely important position but if past experience is any indication, it will remain vacant for many months -- probably until Administrations change.

Dave Bell talked about our webpage. The site is continually under construction. Dave's working on getting the Heritage Month posters to load. He has added a section called "Issues and Concerns." Any AIC member with artistic urges -- please, lend us your talents to further develop this webpage. Suggestions were made about what else we can include on the site, such as information on scholarships, employment opportunities, how to contact AIC officers, etc. Please contact Dave or an AIC officer with your comments and suggestions.

We would still like to develop a logo for the AIC. Suggestions were made about how to solicit ideas and designs for a logo. It was suggested we could have a contest, with prizes to provide incentives for entries. We might be able to get some kind of hand-crafted object donated that could serve as a prize for the best design submitted. If you have any thoughts on this, please contact Dave Bell, 720-0065.

A seminar to be held in Oklahoma City for tribal representatives, USDA agencies and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is scheduled now for August 17 and 18.

Rick Chavez will invite Joan Gill to speak at our next meeting. Joan works for CSREES (the Extension Service) and has been dealing recently with the 1994 land grant schools. We will invite her to give a short presentation about her work and about how USDA has been interacting with these tribal colleges and universities. For a future meeting, Rick suggested we might invite Dr. Charles Laughlin to speak. Dr. Laughlin is the new Administrator (designate) of CSREES and he has already expressed his interest in issues facing minority employees and customers.

Announcements:

The National Congress of American Indians 1999 Mid-Year Session will be in Vancouver, British Columbia July 20 through July 23, 1999. For information, ask Emily for the NCAI newsletter.

For a limited time, the Arts and Industries Museum (Smithsonian) is featuring an excellent exhibit on the people and culture of the Islands of Hawaii. This is just a quick walk from the South Building -- check it out soon!

The handouts this month were:

USA Today articles, "How the West Really Was Won"; "Term of Non-endearment?";

"A Novel Approach Used in Arguments"; "Dictionaries Cite Redskin as 'Offensive Slang'"

How Ni Kan article, "Tribal Members Hurt by BIA Money Handling"

Native Peoples article, "Children of the Circle"

Pow wow flyer -- May 22, Stafford County, VA

The next AIC meeting will be on Thursday June 10, at noon, in room 2854-S. We also have room 2854-S scheduled for Thursdays July 15 and August 12. Mark your calendars! Historian Emily Wright adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.