Indians to Meet at CSUN for Summit Conference

“Carl Bryant no longer exists,” announced Little Crow. “I’m phasing him out.”

The 55-year-old American Indian from Orange County patted the chest of his black satin jacket, embroidered with the tribal name he has used for 16 years, saying “What I’m now is this.”

Although he has never filed any papers to change his name, the pastor and former professor told a forum on Indian spirituality that he has been calling himself Little Crow for the last 16 years, after one of his ancestors.

Little Crow was one of the early participants Friday in this weekend’s national summit conference for American Indians at Cal State Northridge. More than 500 people are expected to attend the conference, representing tribes throughout the country.

The conference was planned to address the political, economic and social issues facing American Indians. Participants will join forums on education, treaty rights and other topics to draft a resolution that will be delivered to Vice President George Bush, Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis and President Reagan.

Rural, Urban Indians

Sponsored by the Alliance of Native Americans, a Los Angeles group that was formed in March, the summit is being billed as a rare gathering of rural and urban Indians.

“This is the first meeting of its kind,” said Isaac Urquidi, a member of the Mescalero branch of the Apache tribe and a retired banker who lives in Los Angeles. “Considering that we are a new organization, the inroads that we have already been able to make are tremendous.”

He said past conferences of American Indians have been plagued by tribal antagonisms. “You couldn’t have people from certain different tribes sitting on the same panel,” Urquidi said. “It would always get very personal.”

Greg Flewin, a coordinator for the alliance, said it also has been difficult to arrange such conferences because many American Indians “don’t even want to recognize the United States government.”

Kathi Manness, a member of the Huron tribe and a social worker in the county’s mental health department, said American Indians lag behind all other ethnic groups in health, education and other areas.

“Nationally, 20% to 25% of American Indian children suffer from some kind of mental illness,” Manness said. “Their incarceration rate is 10 times greater than the national average.”

Lack of Money

She attributed these problems to a dire lack of local and federal funds. In Los Angeles County, less than $200,000 a year is spent on an estimated 70,000 to 90,000 American Indians, she said.

“Virtually none of it reaches the urban areas,” Manness said. “Their policy is, ‘When you leave the reservation, you don’t get served.’ ”

Official U.S. government figures put the number of American Indians at a little more than 1.5 million, said Marcus Lopez of the Chumash tribe, a leader of the alliance. “We figure there’s another 2 or 3 million that’s unrecorded.”

Officially, there are about 250 recognized Indian tribes in the country, but American Indians believe there are dozens more tribes the federal government does not recognize, Flewin said.