[b]Name:[/b]
The League of First Peoples

[b]Flag:[/b]
[center][img]http://oi68.tinypic.com/jrwr5l.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Nation Type:[/b]
Socialist Confederation

[b]Claims:[/b]
[hider=Claim][IMG]http://oi67.tinypic.com/igjep5.jpg[/IMG][/hider]

[b]Terrain:[/b]
The deserts and vast prairies of the League territories are pockmarked with radioactive craters and separated from each other by mountains and cliffs. Former cities and metropolises have been reduced to rubble. A great deal of the land is now infertile, unable to sustain plant or animal life, and has been termed "The Badlands." The arable land that remains is barely sufficient for the purposes of subsistence farming, though the hills and mountains have become home to resilient, prolific and edible (if slightly mutated) breeds of mountain goats.

The exception to this grim picture is the Grand Canyon. Somehow, the Grand Canyon has expanded and now houses a long, verdant valley that grows along the Colorado River, making it the Nile of the Southwest U.S.A. Though the land is rocky and makes for poor farming, certain areas of the canyon are forested and filled with game, and others still make for good pasture.

[b]Government Type:[/b]
The League of First Peoples is an alliance of four nations: The Navajo Nation, the Utah Republic, the United Pueblos, and the Hopi Nation. There is a central government, and there is a treaty which forces all member states to enact certain policies, but by and large each of the nations is autonomous.

The League's central government is akin to a mish-mash of the former U.S. government and the organization of the United Nations. There are three branches: the Security Council (executive), the Assembly (legislative), and the Supreme Court (judicial). They serve very similar functions to those of the U.S. The head of the central government is called the Secretary General, and he is elected from a group of candidates from each of the member nations. Each nation within the League is considered independent and is free to withdraw their membership if they so choose; however, doing so also means relinquishing the benefits provided member states.

Certain institutions are controlled by the central government. Namely, while each of the four nations has their own military force, the central government also musters its own and the Secretary General has supreme command of all five forces in times of armed conflict. Likewise, while each nation determines for itself what to goods to produce, all produced goods are divided up amongst the four nations to feed, clothe, and otherwise sustain the citizens of the League of First Peoples.

[b]Capital:[/b] Canyon City is located in the eponymous Grand Canyon. It is far longer than it is wide, stretching along part of the Canyon. Every bit of available space is used: besides the makeshift homes built along the bottom of the canyon, buildings have been carved into the canyon's walls like the Ancient Pueblos might have done. There are emergency shafts and elevators from the pre-Collapse era that lead on up to the upper half of the city - a useful defensive position in case of emergencies.

[b]Head of State:[/b]
Secretary General Bill Bigishie (affectionately called "Big Bill") is from the Navajo Nation and a firm believer in Theodore Roosevelt's "Big Stick" style of diplomacy. He is an idealist, but he's no fool; he knows very well how dangerous the shattered U.S. is and has compared it to the Sengoku and the Dark Ages of Europe. Still, he strives to maintain peace in the region as long as he can, and is not averse to the prospect of diplomatically inducting neighbors into the League. Thus far, that seems unlikely to happen.

Bill has helped keep rebellious tendencies at a minimum by arranging for non-violent demonstrations of the standing military's capabilities. He knows well that subversive elements remain, but he'd rather they bide their time rather than act in the present. He hopes these elements will slowly disperse once the League is stable.

[b]Other Important People:[/b]
[hider=President Jeremiah Evans]President Jeremiah Evans of the Utah Republic is a man who manages to do a good job while not taking his job very seriously. He is a close friend of the Secretary General: it was these two men who were key to bringing Utah into the League's fold, and they both have a mixture of respect and disdain for the other. Jeremiah is serving out his third term, and it's believed this one will be his last.[/hider]

[hider=Captain Diane Keyoni]Captain Diane Keyoni of the Council Guard is a local hero who has contacts among most of the folk who live out in the Badlands. She has jurisdiction over the border regions of the four nations. It's hard to pin down precisely what her job is: she delivers rations and the mail, scavenges from pre-war ruins, hunts bandits, and has served in a police-like role. Whatever the case, this Navajo woman is the person to turn to should you have problems in the Badlands.[/hider]

[b]Population:[/b]
3 million

[b]Attitude Towards Evols:[/b]
Evols are a matter of hot debate in the four nations of the League, both in the courts of the nations individually and in the Supreme Court. Some people think they ought to be treated as, well, people; others think they need to be exiled. The Assembly has yet to take an official stance, so the four nations each make their own decisions on the matter. Some vigilante justice has been meted out against Evols. The Secretary General would like to put a stop to that.

[b]Economic System:[/b]
There is no currency in the League of First Peoples. All essential goods (food, water, medicine) are distributed by the central government to the four nations, and from the four nations to the citizenry. Major industries are government owned; ranching, agriculture, arms manufacturing, and others all supply the government so it may work toward the public good directly. However, this does not stop people from making their own goods in private and trading them with others. It [i]does[/i] mean that the barter system has replaced currency and that the acquisition of foodstuffs, lumber, metals, and other such things are considered public enterprises.

All the land is government-owned as well. The farms, pastures, and hunting grounds are thus worked by the citizenry and then provided to the population at large for free. The ruins of destroyed cities are similarly owned by the government at least in name; scavenging expeditions are sent out to recover useful materials and bring them back to the populated areas, and those resources are then supposed to be used for the benefit of the people. Some scavengers, however, prefer to go looting without informing others they have done so, keeping whatever they find for themselves. Thus, while scavenged goods are publicly owned in theory, it has been difficult for the government to enforce that rule.

[b]Resources:[/b]
Agriculture and ranching are the primary industries in the League. Mining is also conducted, but the ores produced are of little use to the League; there aren't many sites left in the ravaged southwest that can turn ore into usable steel, and trade isn't exactly easy to conduct in the post-apocalyptic age. There are still some operational gas and oil production facilities as well, a valuable resource in this era. A small amount of timber is collected, but the present policy is to let the forest growing in the Grand Canyon continue to grow.

Food is a little tight in the League. While very few people could be described as "starving," it's hard to argue that anyone is "well fed." Rationing is practiced in all four of the member nations.

[b]Currency:[/b]
Barter, but essentials are provided to the citizenry for free as fairly as possible.

[b]Technology:[/b]
Bits and pieces of the electrical grid remain, and there is a small but steady stream of gasoline and oil available. However, because much of the southwest was so devastated in the war, new towns and cities have had to be built, and there's not enough power to supply everyone with utilities. Thus, while foodstuffs and ores are collected on a mass scale by whole communities, most everything else is produced in a cottage industry.

[b]Official Religion:[/b]
Free religion is the name of the game.

[b]Religious Information:[/b]
Both Christian beliefs and the traditional practices of the Pueblos and Navajo are common. Some people are believers in all of the above.

[b]History:[/b]
When the nukes fell and the U.S. collapsed, the reservations in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah were relatively untouched. The already semi-autonomous indigenous nations managed to mobilize themselves quickly enough to secure a defensive perimeter and carve out a spot for themselves. The Navajo, the Hopi, and the various tribes that made up the United Pueblos were all initially at odds, but after a series of raids from outside factions crippled each of them, they decided to work together. A few years later, the League of First Peoples was officially signed into being.

The birth of this confederation of states had a rocky start, but soon refugees from the more devastated parts of the four states were coming to them for help. These refugees were let in, and so were the refugees after that, and soon the three nations of the League had a sizable enough population. They were able to focus on infrastructure and build more permanent settlements.

When the Republic of Utah found itself attacked on all sides by raiders and worse, it turned to its neighbors for help. And help they did, and when all was said and done they offered Utah a place in their League and permanent protection. Utah accepted, and since then the League of First Peoples has been a small but noteworthy power in the region.

[b]Culture:[/b]
The League has a diverse collection of cultures. There is no majority racial group in the four nations, but caucasians and Latinos outnumber the racially indigenous population. However, the cultures of the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Nation, and the many tribes that make up the United Pueblos are actually dominant in their respective nations, and people have actively taken steps to become full members of the tribes (which is a requirement to vote).

The three original member nations - the Navajo, Hopi, and United Pueblos - all allow refugees from outside the League to join them and eventually become members of their nations, as if they themselves were Navajo, Hopi, or Pueblo. The most recent addition to the League, the Utah Republic, is actually the former Utah state government that sought membership in the League for defensive purposes. It also welcomes refugees. This open-armed policy has become a badge of pride for the League's citizens, reinforcing altruistic and community-oriented behavior while also fostering a self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude toward other nations not in the League.

This is not to say that there is harmony and that everyone is content with the current government; far from it. Many citizens and public officials would prefer to have a more "American" style of government and disdain the cultural shifts that have taken place. They are very vocal about their desire for change, and a few have tried to seize control of the government from the tribal leaders (and been summarily dealt with). For now, however, they are a minority. The majority of people are content with the current state of affairs and are slowly incorporating indigenous customs into their own culture. This relative contentment, however, is not guaranteed to last, and it will take some time before the First Peoples are truly stable.

[hider=Minor Details]
[hider=Architecture]The new towns that have sprung up in the League's territory look much as you'd expect of a Post Apocolyptic town: like large junkyards that happen to be populated. The old cities that remain are shadows of their former selves.

Canyon City is much more vibrant and unique. Houses have been carved into the canyon walls, and large communal housing is common. Thanks to this, the buildings have a much cleaner look (though not quite so clean on the ground level) and are really quite solid.
[hider=Example][center][img]http://america.pink/images/3/8/1/8/3/6/en/1-ancestral-puebloan-dwellings.jpg[/img]
[i]Like this, but made partly from modern materials with that rugged "Post Apocolyptia" aesthetic.[/i][/center][/hider][/hider]
[hider=Kivas]A great many people are beginning to live in communes called [i]kivas[/i], though the transition to this style of housing is still underway. Some [i]kivas[/i] may only be home to a few families while others comfortably house twenty families or more. These communes often develop their own rules and regulations generally intended to make sure all members contribute to the group. Of the four nations, the Republic of Utah has been the least keen on adopting [i]kivas[/i] and provide only nominal support for their construction. Its citizenry have begun to establish their own, but call them communes or communities rather than [i]kivas.[/i][/hider]
[/hider]

[b]Military Numbers:[/b]
30,000 professionals
50,000 militia

[b]Military Units:[/b] 
While the League has some problems actually organizing its army (thanks to essentially having five armies from four separate nations), it does have some very unique advantages. For one, it has an actual steady resource of oil and gas. Secondly, its terrain is perfect for a defensive war of attrition. Thirdly, while there aren't many military weapons available, there [i]are[/i] some civilian vehicles still around in varying states of disrepair.

The League has arranged the Council Guard accordingly. The Security Council directly commands a vehicular unit called they've dubbed the League Cavalry. This cavalry unit consists of civilian vehicles that have been repaired, armored up and converted into actual combat vehicles: pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted on the bed, vans turned into sloppy APCs, and jeeps with blades sticking out of the wheels are just a few examples of the "Frankentanks" that have been produced. Each of these vehicles is different from the next, and their drivers outfit them however they feel works best. They're also decorated however the driver wishes, much like how fighter pilots of yore would paint their planes.

The rest of the Council Guard is organized more like the former U.S. Army infantry. Squad and platoon based combat is the norm and is what they train for; defensive combat and ambushes in the hills, desert and mountains are their specialties. They aren't as well equipped as other nations' troops, but they're very dangerous when fighting in Canyon City or in the wilderness. They have excellent scouts and sharpshooters in their ranks, but they don't have much in the way of heavy weapons like RPGs or machine guns.

The Council Guard only make up a portion of the professional standing army - roughly 10,000 troops, give or take. The remaining 20,000 are soldiers beholden to their nations first and the Security Council second. This makes it difficult for the Secretary General to properly command the army, as sometimes the national generals are less cooperative than is desirable. Descriptions of individual units from these nations are below.

[hider=National Units]The Navajo Nation, being the most powerful of the nations in the League, also has a more grandiose perception of itself. Their military arm is called the Grand Army of the Navajo, and their specialty is the same as that of the regular army: fighting defensively in the rough terrain of their homeland. They also boast the best sharpshooters outside the Council Guard.

The Puebloan army - the Union Guard - has more unorthodox elements in its ranks. For instance, their Cliffrunners are specialist soldiers equipped with climbing gear, gliders, small arms and explosives. A common tactic is to lie in wait at a high vantage point before gliding over the enemy and dropping their explosive payload. Another unit, the Sand Wraiths, are jokingly called the "Pop Tarts" because of their use of tunnels that go between the Grand Canyon and the Badlands. They are known to burst out from the sand, fire several shots at passing opponents, and then retreat back into the tunnels.

The Republican Army of Utah has a tough, mobile Engineer Corps that can set up defenses relatively quickly. Otherwise, its soldiers are much like the rest of the League's forces: experienced but not very well equipped.

Likewise, the Hopi Nation has a rather regular force with one exception: most of the Honor Guard, the Hopi army, are well trained in hand-to-hand combat. This does not mean they are melee specialists; it merely means they have a fallback option for shorter combat ranges. They prefer to rely on their guns than on their machetes, knives, and axes.[/hider]

The militia are less well equipped and typically carry hunting rifles, pistols or melee weapons. Bows and arrows aren't unheard of, either; the art of archery is still alive in the Four Nations. Still, the militia can't stand up to a large professional army and mostly exist as supplementary forces to the Confederate Guard and as an emergency defense.