Fort Belknap Tribal program gets $58,000 grant

Tribal program gets $58,000 grant
FORT BELKNAP — A tribal program has been awarded more than $58,000 to develop and protect sacred sites on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

The Fort Belknap Planning and Development Corporation in Harlem will focus on locations within the Grinnell Notch, which is an area where the tribe's sacred sites are in danger of desecration from mining activities, Indian Country Today reported.

The program was awarded the money this fall from the Indian Land Tenure Foundation Board of Directors. The program will be charged with developing a comprehensive, culturally appropriate and sustainable sacred site protection and preservation plan for the Grinnell Notch.

Two local elder/cultural advisory groups — the Buffalo Chasers and the White Clay Societies — are working closely with the corporation to accurately identify and document sacred sites in the area and help with the protection plan.

Former teacher's complaint rerouted
TWIN BRIDGES — A U.S. judge says federal court is not the proper place for a man to challenge his loss of work as a teacher in Twin Bridges.

Mark Weber says he lost his teaching position in 2005, after 21 years with the Twin Bridges School District, for being an hour late in returning an employment contract. Weber says he was fired. The school district says he resigned.

U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull says that under state law, Weber must pursue his complaint not in federal court, but through a process that includes arbitration. Earlier, Cebull agreed with the school district that Weber quit, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling. The court left Cebull to decide whether Weber followed the proper procedure to contest his loss of employment.

Carroll professor receives fellowship
HELENA — The National Endowment for the Arts is awarding a $25,000 fellowship to Loren Graham, an associate professor of English at Carroll College in Helena.

Graham is one of 42 American poets the endowment chose for fellowships.

His grant is in recognition of 10 poems in his manuscript titled "Mirrow."

Graham says he will use the fellowship to support a year away from his job at Carroll and work on his poetry book now in progress.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20081209/NEWS01/812090309