KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |LA Indian tribe signs friendship affirmation with Israel

LA Indian tribe signs friendship affirmation with Israel

ELTON, LA (AP) - The Coushatta Tribe proclaimed its friendship with Israel in a ceremony Monday marking the expected start of a relationship with the Mideast state as the Louisiana tribe seeks to extend beyond gambling ventures with Israeli help into new businesses.

The event, colorfully highlighted by a traditional "stomp" dance, marked the first time a Native American tribe has signed an "affirmation of friendship" with the State of Israel, said Asher Yarden, Israel's consul general based in Houston.

Coushatta and Israeli representatives said they could identify with each other over their searches for a sovereign identity and homeland.

The southwestern Louisiana tribe hopes to develop unspecified business relationships. Members of the Israeli delegation pointed to information technology as a likely sector for financial partnerships.

"It is natural that we feel a connection to you and your people," Kevin Sickey, chairman of the Coushatta Tribal Council, told Yarden and the Israeli delegation. "You stand for the same fundamental principles and values upon which the sovereign nation of Coushatta was (founded): freedom and opportunity, justice and deep respect for your history and culture."

The 862 Coushatta are among 3,370 members of four federally recognized tribes in Louisiana; their tribe is the second-largest. The state recognizes another 10 tribes with more than 33,100 members, said Mark Ford, director of the Governor's Office of Indian Affairs. Another four are listed as "other tribes" on the office's Web site.

Sickey said the establishment of ties with Israel was the tribe's first foray abroad. Because the tribe is federally recognized, it is permitted under U.S. law to pursue its interests internationally.

He said Israel was chosen because of similar plights of the Native Americans and Jews and the relative youth of each as a sovereign nation. The tribe was officially recognized by the U.S. government in 1973, only a few decades after Israel was created in 1948.

Tribal dancers commemorated the event with a traditional dance by men and boys in feathered cowboy hats tracing circular steps with women and girls in prairie-style skirts and bead necklaces. Native singing mixed with the sound of the women marking rhythm with pebble-filled tin cans tied to their legs.

The tribe owns and operates a lucrative casino in nearby Kinder that employs more than 2,700 people. The tribe is not required to report its revenue but is believed to be financially well-off because of the business.

Both sides called the event unprecedented. However, Yarden said the agreement was not to be construed as the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations - a more sensitive negotiation that Yarden said his office was not authorized to conduct.

Yarden led the Israeli delegation from Houston to the tiny town of Elton and the reservation for the Coushatta Tribe, which holds 8,000 acres of land nestled near rice fields and farming communities in the sparsely populated area.

"At first glance, one may ask the question, 'What two peoples possibly have less in common than that of Israel and Coushatta?' Well, the truth of the matter is we're not so different after all," Yarden said.

The Israeli delegation said the country has no similar relations with other native American tribes.

The signing ceremony was a major event on the reservation as about 300 people watched. Banners bearing the Star of David and the Coushatta seal were attached to power poles, the gas station cafe shut down Monday, and schoolchildren attended the ceremony, held in a field near the tribe's administration building.

Tribal leaders signed the friendship proclamation at a small, ornate wooden table set on a stage and presented it to the Israeli delegation before the ceremonial dance began.

Crystal Williams, one of the dancers, said the stomp dance tradition was revived this year as members of the tribe seek to re-establish Coushatta customs and language.

"Many of the songs that accompany these dances are lost. There are a lot of traditions that have been lost," said Williams.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)