The History Behind Cobell Vs. Salazar

The History Behind Cobell Vs. Salazar Surviving multiple presidential administrations since its inception in 1996, the Cobell case has been known variously as Cobell v. Babbit, Cobell v. Norton, Cobell v. Kempthorne and its current name, Cobell v. Salazar (all defendants being Secretaries of the Interior under which the Bureau of Indian affairs is organized). With upwards of 500,000 plaintiffs, it has been called the largest class-action lawsuit against the United States in U.S. history. The suit is the result of over 100 years of abusive federal Indian policy and gross negligence in the management of Indian trust lands. Overview Eloise Cobell, a Blackfoot Indian from Montana and banker by profession, filed the lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of thousands of individual Indians in 1996 after finding many discrepancies in the management of funds for lands held in trust by the United States in her job as treasurer for the Blackfoot tribe. According to U.S. law, Indian lands are technically not owned by tribes or individual Indians themselves but are held in trust by the U.S. government. Under U.S. management, Indian trust lands Indian reservations are often leased to non-Indian individuals or companies for resource extraction or other uses. The revenue generated from the leases is to be paid to the tribes and individual Indian land owners. The United States has a fiduciary responsibility to manage the lands to the best benefit of tribes and individual Indians, but as the lawsuit revealed, for over 100 years the government failed in its duties to accurately account for the income generated by the leases, let alone pay the revenues to the Indians. History of Indian Land Policy and Law The foundation of federal Indian law begins with the principles based on the doctrine of discovery, originally defined in Johnson v. MacIntosh (1823) which maintains that Indians only have a right to occupancy and not the title to their own lands. This led to the legal principle of the trust doctrine to which the United States is held on behalf of Native American tribes. In its mission to civilize and assimilate Indians into mainstream American culture, the Dawes Act of 1887 broke up the communal landholdings of tribes into individual allotments which were held in trust for a period of 25 years. After the 25-year period, a patent in fee simple would be issued, enabling an individual to sell their land if they chose to and ultimately breaking up the reservations. The goal of the assimilation policy would have resulted in all Indian trust lands in private ownership, but a new generation of lawmakers in the early 20th century reversed the assimilation policy based on the landmark Merria m Report which detailed the deleterious effects of the previous policy. Fractionation Throughout the decades as the original allottees died the allotments passed to their heirs in subsequent generations. The result has been that an allotment of 40, 60, 80, or 160 acres, which was originally owned by one person is now owned by hundreds or sometimes even thousands of people. These fractionated allotments are usually vacant parcels of land that are still managed under resource leases by the U.S. and have been rendered useless for any other purposes because they can only be developed with the approval 51% of all other owners, an unlikely scenario. Each of those people is assigned Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts which are credited with any revenue generated by the leases (or would have been had there been appropriate accounting and crediting maintained). With hundreds of thousands of IIM accounts now in existence, accounting has become a bureaucratic nightmare and highly costly. The Settlement The Cobell case hinged in large part on whether or not an accurate accounting of the IIM accounts could be determined. After over 15 years of litigation, the defendant and the plaintiffs both agreed that an accurate accounting was not possible and in 2010 a settlement was finally reached for a total of $3.4 billion. The settlement, known as the Claims Settlement Act of 2010, was divided into three sections: $1.5 billion was created for an Accounting/Trust Administration fund (to be distributed to IIM account holders), $60 million is set aside for Indian access to higher education, and the remaining $1.9 billion sets up the Trust Land Consolidation Fund, which provides funds for tribal governments to purchase individual fractionated interests, consolidating the allotments into once again communally held land. However, the settlement has yet to be paid due to legal challenges by four Indian plaintiffs.

Scary Clown Costume Ideas for This Halloween

Scary Clown Costume Ideas for This Halloween In case you haven’t heard, scary clowns are all the rage this fall. The trend has sparked terror all across the country and internationally as people don scary clown costumes at night and head out to terrorize their neighborhood. With a costume this hot, nobody wants to be left out. So if you’re planning to be your own breed of scary clown this Halloween, or even tonight, here are some tips on how to do it right. There are lots of scary clown styles to choose from, from Stephen King’s It to Clownhouse to Carnival of Souls to Zombieland. Here are some top scary looks and how to get them: Stephen King’s IT The hair He doesn’t have the classic Ronald McDonald Hair, instead he has frizzy red hair and a majorly receding hairline. So, you’ll need to cover up your own hairline with a swim-cap or other cap before you don the wig. The face Use white face-paint and lots of it. If you put a thin layer on, your skin tone will still shine through so make sure you pile on the white face-paint to get his look right. The nose He doesn’t have one of those perfectly red noses, instead it’s textured and bulbous. You can get the same effect by covering a traditional red nose with a sponge material and painting it red. The eyes Red contacts can help you imitate his menacing gaze. The teeth This clown’s got killer teeth. And they’re yellow to boot. Look for a set of scary sharp teeth to complete your look and dirty them up with brown and yellow food coloring before going out. Clownhouse There’s more than one scary clown in this film but the lead clown’s look is the best. The hair Again, he has a receding hairline, but with shorter hair than the It clown. You’ll need to don that swim-cap again to cover up your hairline before putting on the wig. The face Use a base of white face-paint first. This clown has triangles above his eyes and he frames the eyes with a black line that goes from the temples and across the forehead which can be drawn in with black eyeliner or face-paint. The nose A traditional clown’s nose made out of rubber, not plastic, will work here. The lips His lips are filled in with a deep red color that goes outside the border of his lips, making for a creepy looking red mouth. Carnival of Souls The hair This guy doesn’t have the traditional red hair. Instead, you can find a dark green wig for the hair. Top it off with his signature purple top-hat. The face Begin with a base of white face-paint. Then draw in exaggerated arched eyebrows with black eyeliner or face-paint. For his creepy eye look, use red face-paint all around the eyes. His mouth has a downturned smile, so use red face-paint or lipstick to fill in and around the lips. Zombieland The hair This clown is also a zombie and has two green tufts of hair growing out of either side and is bald in the middle. The face You’ll have a lot of fun with this one. His zombie look has rotten flesh around the chin and deep unhealed scars across his temples and cheeks. Use a base of grey-ish white face-paint for his undead look. Black face-paint around the eyes will create a sunken eyeball look. Add a turned up red clown’s smile around the mouth with lipstick or face-paint. His bulbous red nose is shiny plastic. The accessory You simply can’t ignore this guy’s bowtie. The enormous blue and white polka-dot tie would make this scary clown outfit complete. Choose your favorite scary clown look to scare your neighbors tonight or to have the most popular Halloween costume of the season. If you dont like clowns, you should check out other Halloween costume ideas to create the scariest costume for the party! Also, you can be even scarier after applying Halloween makeup! image credit: flickr.com

Human genetic enhancement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Human genetic enhancement - Essay Example Gene insertion may be intended to affect a single individual through somatic cell modification, or it may target the Gametes, in which case the resulting effect could be passed on to generations. The concept of genetic enhancement is not new if one considers the use of genetically modified drug products such as Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which before 1985 could only be obtained in limited quantities from cadaveric pituitary glands but now can be produced using recombinant DNA technology (Stock, 2003). When its supply was limited HGH could only be prescribed to children with short stature caused by classical growth hormone deficiency however with the advent of recombinant DNA manufacturing some physicians are recommending use of HGH for nonhormone deficient children who are below normal height. After reports were heard of a pregnancy achieved through Human cloning program a bill was set up by the Senate that would outlaw all forms of cloning including biometric research aimed at crea ting embryonic stem cells that would not be rejected when transplanted, simply known as therapeutic cloning, and the bill had the support of then president George W. Bush. Any embryonic researcher was threatened with extreme criminal penalties (10 years in jail). An executive order on March 9, 2009 with its main aim of removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cell was introduced and it highlighted the advances over the past decade in the research field was very promising and would support it with federal funds. The order was to remove all forms of limitations on scientific inquiry expand NIH support on human stem cell research and enhance American scientist's contribution in new discoveries enhance the reputation for the fact that the U.S.A houses the most powerful biometric research facility in the world. There are issues regarding human genetic modifications and they bring up major questions like what extent is permitted by law, the risk involved, and availability of research benefits to people from all walks of life, use of animal model with the aim of human application. Gene transfer at an embryonic stage through a technique called pronuclear micro injections is being tested in animals but based on the experiments it suggests that embryo gene transfer is unsafe and its use results in random integration of the donor DNA, a lack of control of the number of gene copies inserted,rearrangement of host genetic material and the process was necessarily followed by nuclear transfer of enucleated oocytes led to low birth rate and a very high rate of late pregnancy loss or newborn death thus making gene transfer at the embryonic stage for enhancement would reach far beyond the means of acceptable medical intervention (Stock, 2003). But scientists have crossed that line, they have been able to change the DNA in a human egg and might easily ignore the goal which is prevent rare but horrible disorders in babies, caused by defects in the DNA that only passed down from a mother to a kid. Human genetic enhancement is a controversial topic and to make sense of this requires ethical reflection between Therapy and Enhancement. Both proponents and critics of bioenhancemet have argued that the line between therapy and enhancement is very thin. Therapy includes medical interventions that restore human functioning to species typical norms. One example of human genetic

Managing High Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Managing High Performance - Essay Example There is collective ownership of the work. On the other hand, autocratic system excessive control in the autocratic system creates resentment, absenteeism and increased turnover. Decentralized system is favorable to centralized system. Though certain decisions will have to remain at the main office, certain functions will be left with the smaller units. In the decentralized system, each of the units will have the power to make their own decisions as regards most matters. This will help in greater participation by the employees in the project work, and will foster faster decision making (Reddin, 1999). Self directed work teams are preferable to conventional teams (Wright, 2006). The self directed work teams are particularly important because it is the team- not the supervisor which assigns the work, the team completes the whole piece of work, are responsible for and have the authority to correct problems with work flow as they occur. In addition, the team also receives rewards and feedbacks at the team level. This reinforces hard

The Rise Of The Nuclear Weapon Into A Political Weapon Essay -- essays

During last 50 years of development, the nuclear bomb, as the ultimate weapon became the peacekeeping force on the earth. The nuclear bomb was developed in Manhattan project during the WW II and was successfully tested in the New Mexico on July 16 1945. At this point started the change of nuclear weapon from ultimate weapon to political weapon. USA decided to use the atomic bomb to defeat Japan in order to save around 500.000 lives of American soldiers that were needed to end the war and in the summer 1945 the USA dropped two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The nuclear weapon raised the confidence of USA but president Truman did not ordered its mass production because at that time he saw no explicit political function for the bomb. USA even tried to internationalize control of the bomb under the UNITED NATIONS but the Soviets were reluctant to support American plan for two reasons. To stop soviet nuclear program before developing the first soviet bomb would give Americans permanent lead in nuclear weapons technology. Soviets believed that instruments of force always have political capabilities. For the Kremlin weapons were political tools. This led Americans to the same conclusion. The beginning of Cold War created several political functions of nuclear weapons: nuclear deterrence, alliance building, and international prestige. The Nuclear Bomb was developed as the weapon of war at the end of the Second World War. Nuclear Deterrence was than the natural function of nuclear bomb. The atomic bomb had a function of â€Å"natural deterrence† at the early beginning of Cold War when Soviets did not have nuclear weapons. The Soviets would not attack West Europe because they would risk war with USA and USA had atomic bomb that was seen by Soviets as the essence of deterrence. USA also believed that if Soviets finish their own bomb they would not be deterred by USA and its nuclear arsenal therefore the West Europe would become vulnerable. After the Soviets detonated its own bomb in September 1949, the Truman administration abandoned its policy of natural deterrence and ordered the development of more powerful hydrogen thermonuclear bomb. Since Soviet nuclear bombs deterred US deterrence, Truman sought a way to restore deterrence. He ordered a study by the Department of State’s policy planning staff and the result, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL PAPER 68 (NSC-68), went to Tru... ...r weapons that would give him the leadership in Arab world and he could organize and lead an alliance against Israel. The increasing proliferation of nuclear technology in areas of simmering regional conflicts increases the probability of nuclear war. During the 50 years of existence, the real function of nuclear power was changed from direct use as a weapon of war through deterrence tool to the ticket to nuclear club that means the sing of superpower. References Atomic Archive. (1997,April 6). Timeline [WWW document]. < http://www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Timeline.shtml> Atomic Archive. (1997,April 6). Arms Control Treaties [WWW document]. http://www.atomicarchive.com/ACTreaty.shtml Foreign policy in focus. (1999,November). In Focus: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy at the End of the Century: Lost Opportunities and New Dangers. [WWW document]. http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol4/v4n25nuc.html Nuclear History at the National Security Archive [WWW document]. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/NC/nuchis.html The Bulletin of Atomic Scientist. (1999,December). Where they were. [WWW document]. http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1999/nd99/nd99norris.html

Peer and Self Assessment

Assessing Learning Peer and Self Assessment Peer Assessment One of the ways in which students internalize the characteristics of quality work is by evaluating the work of their peers. However, if they are to offer helpful feedback, students must have a clear understanding of what they are to look for in their peers' work. The instructor must explain expectations clearly to them before they begin. One way to make sure students understand this type of evaluation is to give students a practice session with it. The instructor provides a sample writing or speaking assignment. As a group, students determine what should be assessed and how criteria for successful completion of the communication task should be defined. Then the instructor gives students a sample completed assignment. Students assess this using the criteria they have developed, and determine how to convey feedback clearly to the fictitious student. Students can also benefit from using rubrics or checklists to guide their assessments. At first these can be provided by the instructor; once the students have more experience, they can develop them themselves. An example of a peer editing checklist for a writing assignment is given in the popup window. Notice that the checklist asks the peer evaluator to comment primarily on the content and organization of the essay. It helps the peer evaluator focus on these areas by asking questions about specific points, such as the presence of examples to support the ideas discussed. For peer evaluation to work effectively, the learning environment in the classroom must be supportive. Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback. Instructors who use group work and peer assessment frequently can help students develop trust by forming them into small groups early in the semester and having them work in the same groups throughout the term. This allows them to become more comfortable with each other and leads to better peer feedback. Self Assessment Students can become better language learners when they engage in deliberate thought about what they are learning and how they are learning it. In this kind of reflection, students step back from the learning process to think about their language learning strategies and their progress as language earners. Such self assessment encourages students to become independent learners and can increase their motivation. The successful use of student self assessment depends on three key elements:  ·Goal setting  ·Guided practice with assessment tools  ·Portfolios Goal setting Goal setting is essential because students can evaluate their progress more clearly when they have targets against which to measure their performance. In addition, students' motivation to learn increases when they have self-defined, and therefore relevant, learning goals. At first, students tend to create lofty long-range goals (â€Å"to speak Russian)† that do not lend themselves to self assessment. To help students develop realistic, short-term, attainable goals, instructors can use a framework like SMART goals outline shown in the popup window. One way to begin the process of introducing students to self-assessment is to create student-teacher contracts. Contracts are written agreements between students and instructors, which commonly involve determining the number and type of assignments that are required for particular grades. For example, a student may agree to work toward the grade of â€Å"B† by completing a specific number of assignments at a level of quality described by the instructor. Contracts can serve as a good way of helping students to begin to consider establishing goals for themselves as language learners. Guided practice with assessment tools Students do not learn to monitor or assess their learning on their own; they need to be taught strategies for self monitoring and self assessment. Techniques for teaching students these strategies are parallel to those used for teaching learning strategies (see Motivating Learners[->0]). The instructor models the technique (use of a checklist or rubric, for example); students then try the technique themselves; finally, students discuss whether and how well the technique worked and what to do differently next time. In addition to checklists and rubrics for specific communication tasks, students can also use broader self-assessment tools to reflect on topics they have studied, skills they have learned, their study habits, and heir sense of their overall strengths and weaknesses. An example of such a tool appears in the popup window. Students can share their self-assessments with a peer or in a small group, with instructions that they compare their impressions with other criteria such as test scores, teacher evaluations, and peers' opinions. This kind of practice helps students to be aware of their learning. It also informs the te acher about students' thoughts on their progress, and gives the teacher feedback about course content and instruction. Portfolios Portfolios are purposeful, organized, systematic collections of student work that tell the story of a student's efforts, progress, and achievement in specific areas. The student participates in the selection of portfolio content, the development of guidelines for selection, and the definition of criteria for judging merit. Portfolio assessment is a joint process for instructor and student. Portfolio assessment emphasizes evaluation of students' progress, processes, and performance over time. There are two basic types of portfolios:  ·A process portfolio serves the purpose of classroom-level assessment on the part of both the instructor and the student. It most often reflects formative assessment, although it may be assigned a grade at the end of the semester or academic year. It may also include summative types of assignments that were awarded grades.  ·A product portfolio is more summative in nature. It is intended for a major evaluation of some sort and is often accompanied by an oral presentation of its contents. For example, it may be used as a evaluation tool for graduation from a program or for the purpose of seeking employment. In both types of portfolios, emphasis is placed on including a variety of tasks that elicit spontaneous as well as planned language performance for a variety of purposes and audiences, using rubrics to assess performance, and demonstrating reflection about learning, including goal setting and self and peer assessment. Portfolio characteristics:  ·Represent an emphasis on language use and cultural understanding  ·Represent a collaborative approach to assessment Represent a student's range of performance in reading, writing, speaking, and listening as well as cultural understanding  ·Emphasize what students can do rather than what they cannot do  ·Represent a student's progress over time  ·Engage students in establishing ongoing learning goals and assessing their progress towards those goals  ·Measure each student's achievement while allowing for individu al differences between students in a class  ·Address improvement, effort, and achievement  ·Allow for assessment of process and product  ·Link teaching and assessment to learning [-;0] – http://www. nclrc. org/essentials/motivating/moindex. htm

Book Review The Prince Essay - 1014 Words

This semester in Mr. Sellers’ History class, we were asked to read a history novel and write a book review on it. I chose to read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, and it sure did not disappoint. For a book on history, it was not so bad. The two parts to this review include a summary and a critical analysis. This paper will discuss the major points Machiavelli made in his book and analyze his tone and writing style, with an overall critique. The Prince is a novel written in 1513 by Niccolo Machiavelli. This book contains 26 chapters, focusing on acquiring and maintaining political power. In other words, it could be seen as the â€Å"do’s and don’ts† of the political world. In Chapters One through Eleven, the author discusses the different†¦show more content†¦Auxiliaries are just as unreliable and dangerous as the mercenaries, but they are loaned to a ruler from others. The most desirable troops are the natives, the citizens and subjects. Mixed troops are less desirable than fully native troops because they are a mixture of natives and mercenaries or auxiliaries. These descriptions are accompanied by examples to help the reader better understand the roles different types of troops served and how effective each type was for the rulers mentioned. Machiavelli goes on in Chapters Fifteen through Twenty Three to discuss his advice to the reader in the ideal behavior and characteristics of a prince. He mentions that doing good would only lead to the ruin of a prince’s kingdom. He claims that a prince should be stingy and cruel as opposed to generous and merciful. He then, of course, adds in examples of successful rulers who were both moral and immoral alike. A prince should break promises more than he keeps them, according to the author. He also suggests that, while behaving in the aforementioned ways, a prince should do his best to avoid being despised by leaving his subjects’ land and women alone and by undertaking great projects to boost his reputation. As suggested at the beginning of Chapter Nineteen, a prince should not be â€Å"fickle, frivolous, effeminate, cowardly, [or] irresolute,† (70).  ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬He should also choose wise, as opposed to flattering, advisors. In the last few chapters, the author refers toShow MoreRelatedHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Reveiw1484 Words   |  6 PagesPotter and the Half-Blood Prince, I exited the theater with an excruciating headache, a lingering sense of emptiness and a very strong desire to punch the film’s cinematographer,† (Ewing) which relates to the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which stars Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, and directed by David Yates. 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