The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1990-01-17

              Red Lake Elderly Home Director Resigns
By William J. Lawrence
Publisher
Pat McNeil, age 34, of Bemidji,
submitted his resignation as Director
of the Jouirdain/Perpich Extended
Care Facility, effective January 31,
1990. McNeil, who is a State
licensed Nursing Home
Administrator, had been
Administrator of the Red Lake
facility since September 1,1989.
In a telephone interviewMr.
McNeil told the News that he
resigned for ethical reasons, fearing
that his license was in jeapordy, due
to the present operation and
management of the nursing Home.
Mr. McNeil told the News that
during the four months he was at
the nursing home he was never
given any authority to manage either
the personel or finances of the home.
He stated that the Red Lake Health
Director, Monte Hammitt, exercised
complete authority over the
Jourdain/Perpich Elderly Care
Facility. McNeil said that when he
confronted Hammitt about the
situation, he was told that he was
having a problem adapting to the
unique Red Lake environment.
When he told Hammitt that he was
concerned about the facility's
compliance with the State and
Federal guidelines, Hammitt told
him that the facility meets the
highest standards of quality health
care. McNeil also told the Netvs that
when he told Hammitt that he was
asking for a hearing before the
Tribal Council, Hammitt told him
that they don't make decisions, only
he and Roger Jourdain did. McNeil
further stated that his request for a
meeting with the Red Lake Tribal
Council was denied during a
telephone conversation he had with
Roger Jourdain.
Mr. McNeil also told the News that
he was deeply distressed by the
blatant exploitation of the Red Lake
elderly people by Monte Hammitt.
He further stated that the current
operation and management of the
home subverted the sanctity of the
elderly and was contrary to
everything he had read about the
reverence Indian people hold for
their elderly people.
The Red Lake Nursing Home,
which is called the Jourdain/Perpich
Extended Care Facility, was built
with a $2.85 million grant from the
State of Minnesota and opened
during July 1989. The Facility,
which has 47 beds, currently has 29
patients and charges a flat per
patient fee of $273 per day. Four
patients are reported to have left the
facility because they were
dissatisfied with the quality of care
provided. One patient who wishes to
remain anonymous, told the News
that may facility staff and workers
are unqualified and need training for
the positions they hold. The same
source told the News that
absenteeism and tardiness plague the
facilities' forty workers. The News
has learned that the Facility is
scheduled for a State Health
Department survey during April, of
1990.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Adolph Lussier
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Fifty Cents
State Board steps back from effort
to eliminate nicknames
• Copyright, the Ojibwe News, 1990
A Bi-Monthly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
St. Paul, Minn. (AP) - The state
Board of Education, which has been
trying to force public schools to drop
Indian nicknames or symbols, has
changed its approach.
A proposal requiring all of the
state's public schools to set policies
aimed at eliminating racism directed
against Indian students was
approved by the board Monday.
"It's not backing away from the
issue. It's saying, 'Look, we're going
to put this issue on hold,'" said board
member Douglas Wallace.
Last year, the board wrote letters
to all school districts urging the
elimination of racially derogatory
mascots, symbols or emblems. The
effort has met with mixed success,
as some schools changed while
others have defended their use of
Indian-theme names.
But the board's American Indian
Education Committee, which
includes a number of Indian parents,
had opposed a total ban on die use of
Indian names and symbols.
Wallace said he was willing to
suspend the effort to eliminate
Indian nicknames and symbols, but
only if strict deadlines are set for
local districts to take action against
racism, and only if districts that fail
to act face sanctions.
Wallace's motion calls on the
American Indian Education
Committee and the Education
Department's staff to report back to
the board next month on proposed
deadlines and sanctions.
Instead of the team-name ban, the
proposal from the American Indian
Education Committee recommends a
package of actions aimed at defining
what constitutes racist treatment of
Indian students.
A subcommittee of the American
Indian Education Committee would
attempt to do that.
The effect of the board's action
Monday would be to allow local
school boards to retain Indian
nicknames, but force them to drop
symbols that are exaggerated
caricatures and to ban cheers and
slogans that demean Indians, said
David Beaulieu, state director of
Indian education.
'"We're out to stop tlie 'Scalp the
Indians' kind of things," Beaulieu
said.
Wallace said the board might renew
its effort to eliminate the Indian
names and symbols if local school
boards do not follow the board's
directive to regulate behavior.
Red Lake loses patriarch
— Adolph Lussier dies at age 80	
Minnesota leech trapping
convictions upheld
SL Louis, Mo. (AP) - A federal
appellate court on Thursday
rejected the arguments of three
Minnesota residents who claimed
their convictions for unlawfully
trapping leeches were
unconstitutional.
Ronald Aanerud, his daughter,
Rhonda Morinville, and her
husband, Paul Morinville, were
arrested in May 1987 by U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service agents for
illegally trapping leeches in a
federally protected waterfowl
production area.
Leeching was prohibited there
except by members of the White
Earth Band of Chippewa Indians,
whose reservation encompassed
the area.
According to Thursday's opinion
by a three-judge panel of the 8th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
leeches are trapped for fishing bait.
The appellants said they staged
the event in order to challenge the
legality of leech trapping by
Native Americans under historic
treaty rights. They argued that the
government's prosecution
constituted selective enforcement
of the laws and that the special
treatment given Native Americans
was unlawful.
The appellate court said the
Native American rights to hunting
and fishing on the reservation were
established by an 1867 treaty.
The court went on to say that
there was no discrimination by the
government in prosecuting the
three.
"Clearly, the members of the
White Earth Band are treated
differently than non-members, but
this differentiation is based on
geography and rights under the
Treaty of 1867, not on race," wrote
Circuit Judge John R. Gibson for
Senior Circuit Judge John R.
Brown and Circuit Judge Roger L.
Wollman.
Mrs. Minnesota contest announced
The search is on for the 1990 Mrs.
Minnesota.
A contestant must be married at
least one year before the date of
entry and throughout the
competition. She must be at least 18
years of age, a United States citizen
and a resident of the state she
represents for at least six months.
This year's Mrs. Minnesota
Pageant will be directed by two
major title holders—the reigning
Mrs. America, Jennifer Kline of
Minnetonka and the 1985 Mrs.
Minnesota, Faith Schway of
Mendota Heights.
By Mark Boswell
Editor
It can be said that the death of
Adolph Lussier has marked the
passing of an era. A time when a
man was only as good as his word.
We know that the word with Adolph
was 'honesty'.
Adolph lived through some of the
most apocryphal and tumultuous
times in Red Lake; an era marked by
important events that have affected
everyone on the Red Lake
Reservation. It was an era of hard
work.
Adolph made himself part of those
times and took the reins whenever J
he could to promote the causes that
were dear to him. These causes were
simple: honesty, fair play, and
sincerity toward the people of Red
Lake.
The obituary printed in the
Bemidji Pioneer reads like a history
of Red Lake in the 20th Century.
Adolph was born Feb. 22, 1909, in
the Clearwater area on the Red Lake
Reservation. He grew up there and
worked hard to keep the integrity of
Red Lake intact despite the
pressures and influences of an
increasingly corrupt world. The son
of Joseph and Maggie Lussier,
Adolph grew up under the tutelage
of the Catholic Church, as did many
children on the reservation.
As a boy he attended St. Mary's
Mission School and the boarding
school in Redlake.
He was a farmer and lumberman.
For three years he contracted out
piling of lumber at the Redlake
Indian Mill. He worked on a local
farm and drove teams of horses to
deliver wood to the mill for use as
fuel.
Later, he became a self-taught
mechanic and immersed himself in
the "new" technology of
automobiles. He became shop
foreman of the auto mechanics
department at the Redlake sawmill.
Later he worked as logging
foreman.
During this time he was also
employed with civil service, where
he continued to work for 30 years.
After 36 years of hard work at the
sawmill, Adolph retired in 1966. He
was 58.
For those who looked to him for
direction and guidance, Adolph
represented a great deal more that
just a man. He symbolized the
concerns of the Ojibwe people.
For many years he was a member
of the Hereditary Chiefs Council.
Appointed by Basil Lawrence,
Adolph became an integral member
of the most important political body
in Red Lake. This council, unique
among Minnesota's reservations,
stood for the integrity and solidarity
of the aboriginal culture of Red
Lake.
On June 12, 1958, Adolph signed
the First Revised Tribal Constitution
of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa
Indians. Co-signers of the document
were Dan Needham Sr., Tom Cain,
Roger Jourdain, Byron Graves,
Andrew Sigana, and Louis Stately.
The document embodied
everything Adolph has fought for:
"We, the members of the Red Lake
Band of Chippewa Indians, in order
to promote justice, insure tranquility,
Adolph Lussier
encourage the general welfare,
safeguard our interests and secure
the blessings of freedom and liberty
for ourselves and for our posterity,
do hereby form and organize a Red
Lake Tribal Council and we do
ordain and establish this constitution
and set of bylaws as the rules for its
deliberation."
After retirement he was active in
tribal politics; tirelessly pursuing the
ideals of the Red Lake Constitution.
He was elected to the Red Lake
Tribal Coucil in 1968 and served
two four-year terms. From 1950 to
1960 he was manager of the Redby
baseball team.
He was instrumental in organizing
a powwow committee and worked to
keep the tradition alive. He helped
build the Redby Church and was its
first treasurer.
A staunch Republican, Adolph was
active in the Independent Republican
Party, a delegate to the National
Republican Convention in Seattle,
Wash., during the 1970's, a member
of the Beltrami County Republican
Committee, and a delegate to several
district and state conventions. He
was currently on the board of
directors of Paul Bunyan Telephone
LllSSier/ see page 2
WiSS Weaver to present lecture
Minnesota Author Will Weaver
will be presenting the lecture
"Biography of a Novel: Red Earth,
White Earth" on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. in
Room 115 of the Education/Art
Building at Bemidji State
University.
Sponsored by the BSU Honors
Program, the lecrture is open to the
public at no charge.
Weaver, a professor of English at
BSU, will discuss the conception,
writing, publication and eventual
film version of Red Earth, White
Earth (Simon & Schuster, 1986).
The television adaptation was
attacked by numerous Indian leaders
as being a racist presentation which
underplays the seriousness of the
White Earth land claims dispute.
The focus will be on the book's
translation from novel to CBS
television movie. Selected scenes
will be shown and analyzed to
provide aninside look at the long and
winding road from novel to film. A
reception will follow the lecture.
This is the 15th consecutive year
the Honors Program has sponsored
public presentations. The lecture
series is designed to promote
scholarly discourse at BSU and
throughout the community.
For more information contact Dr.
Michael Field, Honors Program
direc«or,*Bemidji State University,
1500 Birchmont Dr. Ne, Bemidji,
MN 56601-2699 (218)755-3984.
Will Weaver
photo courtesy of BSU News Services
0
Child sexual abuse:
While child sexual abuse is a growing meance throughout Indian Country and indeed across the nation, the
Bureau of Indian Affairs has ignored the problem in its
own schools. This was the conclusion of the recently
published document presented by the Senate Select
Committee on Investigations. In this issue, the Ojibwe
Newshas reprinted these findings as they originally
appeared in the final report (as part of an on-going series
examining the landmark document). See page 8.