Archived News Item

In July 2011, the Historic Preservation Office was awarded a Tribal Historic Preservation Grant by the National Park Service. Funding from this 18-month grant will support much-needed archaeological research on the early 19th century Delaware villages in southwestern Missouri. The grant will also support the travel for tribal members who would like to volunteer to participate in the field work that will be carried out in the Fall of 2011 by the Center for Archaeological Research at Missouri State University (CAR-MSU). The results of this archaeological field work will allow us to better document the Delaware settlements and cemeteries in southwest Missouri and nominate them for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Please contact our office (bobermeyer@delawaretribe.org) if you would like to volunteer.

The NSCDA (Colonial Dames), an organization that is much like the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), sponsors a scholarship for $1,000 per semester, and is available for the semester in nursing school, not for basic nursing, for any Indian student of any tribe. The Delaware nursing candidates have not been applying for this scholarship and we would like to have our students take advantage of the scholarship.

The requirements are: tribal membership card, 1/4 blood quantum, sometimes less will be accepted, resident of any state and must have evidence of enrollment in a nursing school. To get the application for this scholarship, email gaegey@aol.com. Reference NSCDA, American Indian Nurse Scholarship.

A member of the Colonial Dames, Gail Kane of Bartlesville, is the director of this program for NSCDA. She would like to see the Delaware take advantage of this scholarship program. Ms. Kane must have your application and all accompanying information by December 1 for Second Semester and by July 1 for First Semester, of any year the application is submitted. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Kane at the above E-mail address.

Delaware Tribe of Indians Chief Paula Pechonick will be attending the 2010 White House Tribal Nations Summit.

Scheduled for Dec. 16, President Obama wlll host the Summit. The Summit invites one representative from each of the 565 federally recognized trtbes and give them an opportunity to interact directly with the president and representatives from the highest levels of his administration.

The goals of this year’s summit are to continue the meaningful discussion between tribal leadership and the administration and to continue to strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship between the U.S. and Indian Nations.

The Obama Administration hosted the first Tribal Nations Summit last November at the Interior Department. President Obama addressed the attendees, who’d come from all over the country, including Alaska.

Since President Obama’s first Tribal Nations Summit, the federal government has increased the number and scope of tribal consultations, passed lhe Tribal Law and Order Act with bipartisan support and made permanent the Indian Health Care Improvement  Act. The opening session and the closing session will be broadcast at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Pechonlck was elected in November as the first female chief of the tribe. headquartered in Bartlesville. The Delaware Tribe regained federal recognition In 2009, yet it is a landless tribe.

While in Washington, Pechonick will urge the administration to protect the interest of landless tribes. The tribe intends to maintain a more active role in Indian affairs both state and nationwide.

Originally published in the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, December 10, 2010