The Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1992-03-20

              State plays activist role in changing Indian-related educational issues
By Steve Carlson
Attend any high school athletic
competition in Minnesota today and
you will hear spectators talking
about Indians. Indian history?
Culture or customs? No, they're
talking about school districts forcing
changes in team names that make
references to American Indians. And
that's forcing many Minnesotans to
re-examine their own attitudes about
Indians.
For example, at the state high
school hockey Tier I tournament this
month, the Moorhead Spuds were
ahead in the semi-final game. How
did they celebrate? The band broke
into a fast version of the "tomahawk
chop" song and the fans started
doing the 'chop.' A student told the
Native American Press that the fans
were not actually doing the 'chop,' it
just looked like it.
SO while today's students are
learning from Atlanta baseball fans,
they are also learning from Jane
Fonda, wife of the Atlanta baseball
team's owner Ted Turner, who told
CBS Sports at the World Series in
Minnesota that she had been doing a
'pattycake' cheer - it just looked
like a 'chop.'
What is all this about? And why
are Minnesota officials involved in
issues concerning American
Indian-related symbols? Native
American Press talked to officials at
the state Human Rights Department
and the state Board of Education.
Education or discrimination?
Two major concerns motivate
Minnesota state officials regarding
the controversial issue of Indian
symbolism in school activities -
discrimination against American
Indians and providing education
for all Minnesota students. Both
concerns are being pursued by
government and educational
leaders.
The issue started out as a
discrimination issue, when the State
Board of Education adopted a policy
in May 1988 "urging school districts
to eliminate the use of American
Indian logos and mascots,"
according to the board's executive
director Marsha Gronseth. Then the
Board returned to the issue in March
1990, saying that "the scope of the
issue should be broadened to focus
on other curriculum areas."
Dr. Will Antell, an American
Indian who is an official at the
Minnesota Department of Education,
said that the Indian symbolism issue
is an important educational issue as
well. And he said neither he nor the
board were responding to vocal
Indian activists, but had their own
genuine concerns about the issue.
"There are better ways of teaching
young people" about American
Indian knowledge than incorporating
Indian mascots into sporting events
and pep rallies, he told the Native
American Press in a phone interview
recently.
"It's a sad chapter in education
when we have to rely on mascots to
teach us about American Indians,"
he said. He rejected the common
explanation of school districts who
say "we're honoring you" by such
activities, saying it's "just an excuse.
. . . You can do that [honor Indians]
in everyday school activities."
He expressed concern that the
practices, while of questionable
educational value, are going to lead
to opposing teams razzing and
teasing each other with Indian
stereotypes and elicit media
portrayal or Indians in a negative
light.
District plans required
The shift from just fighting
discrimination to developing sound
educational environments will
become more apparent as school
districts develop multicultural
education plans. The Board of
Education has passed a rule, called
the Multicultural and Gender-Fair
curriculum Rule" requiring all
school districts to have such a plan
in effect.
The state's American Indian
Education Committee has said that
school districts should "utilize the
multicultural and gender-fair
curriculum rule to eliminate racist
and stereotypical treatment of
Americans within the entire school
arena."
The committee pointed out that "a
significant amount of information
already exists concerning the
evaluation of curriculum and
textbooks, including the work of a
National Indian Education Project
Task Force of the Education
Commission of the States."
And the committee suggested that
school districts develop criteria and
standards for evaluating textbooks
and curriculum and use those same
standards to evaluate their Indian
logo and mascot practices. That
suggestion was adopted by the State
Board.
Each school district's local plan
should include recommendations on
how a school district will address the
images portrayed by an American
Indian logo, as well as issues related
to behavior and slogans associated
with sports events, pep rallies, etc.
The plans will be monitored and
evaluated by the state department of
education.
A priority issue
It's well known that not all
American Indians have put this issue
at the top of their list of personal
priorities, and many have even
resisted the idea of dropping Indian
symbolism. Antell himself said that
in coming to strongly oppose the use
of Indian symbolism as school logos
and mascots "I've kind of changed
my mind on this thing myself.
We've got drop out problems" and
other issues which had seemed more
pressing to him 20 years ago, he
explained.
"Some tribes in Minnesota have
said they didn't see anything wrong"
with Indian symbolism being used to
represent high school teams. But
Antell said that these practices "can
never be done with dignity" and
create a "symbol less than what we
want to be treated as" which mocks
Indian culture.
He said that he used to run into
more resistance to the State Board's
position on the issue in the Indian
community, but that the resistance is
"lessening," especially with the
events surrounding the World Series
and the Super Bowl, both of which
took place in Minnesota this year.
Through seeing and experiencing
the behavior of the Atlanta baseball
fans and their famous "tomahawk
chop," more Indians and more
Minnesotans got to see firsthand
"what many [Indians] had
experienced or observed in a less
public way."
He believes that these highly
publicized events are raising
Change/See page 3
*«*L
By and for the native American Community
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The
native
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We Support Cqual Opportunity For All People
Press
Copyright, The native American Press, 1992
Voh
March 20, 1992
Dayton finds Red Lake School District No. 38 $1.4 million in the red
State Auditor expresses doubt whether the District can continue as a going concern
The News recently obtained a copy
of the Audit Report for Red Lake
School District No. 38 dated
December 19, 1991, from the State
Auditor, Mark Dayton's office.
The 72-page report, which was
requested by Minnesota Commissioner
of Education Gene Mammenga,
covered the 1990/91 school year which
ended June 30,1991.
Mammenga requested the audit
due to.previous reports of using
educational aid funds to give out
interest-free loans to school board
members and employees, issuance
of over $500,000 in checks without
vendor names, $750,000 in unpaid
bills, and numerous financial records
either destroyed or missing.
In a letter dated April 24, 1991,
Dayton requested the state
legislature to withhold additional
state funds from the Red Lake
School District effective October 31,
unless a state audit was conducted
by that date. He told the Wen's, in a
phone conversation on April 30, that
the district would be required to
certify that it was complying with
state law in the handling of state
funds.
According to Minnesota Statute
Section 121.914,. if a school district
has a deficit greater than 2.5 percent
of the fiscal year's operating funds,
the district is in operating debt.
The Red Lake School District had
an unreserved deficit in its operating
funds of $617,876 on June 30,1990,
and it was in operating debt in
violation of Minn. Stat. 121.917.
The situation continued to worsen
and, as of June 30, 1991, the
district's unreserved deficit had
increased to $1,040308.
The audit's findings of material
weaknesses and significant
deficiencies in the design or
operation of its internal financial
control structure include many
items. There was a lack of adequate
controls over journal entries, over
cash receipts, over purchase orders,
over payment vouchers, and over
payroll, and a lack of sufficient
control over the petty cash fund.
In addition, there was a lack of
adequate controls over admissions to
athletic events and over bank
reconcilliations.
It was found that the District does
not maintain inventory records of
general fixed assets.
The District, also, did not take a
physical inventory of its U.S.D.A.
commodities on hand on June 30,
1991, as it was required to do, and
the District did not perform adequate
controls over adult lunch sales.
It was discovered that insufficient
School Board meeting minutes were
maintained and the District made
payments of travel expenses for
non-District employees and spouses
of Board members.
The signature card for a checking
account at a local bank was not kept
current, checking accounts at a local
bank were overdrawn, and School
District records were not available
for examination.
A scholarship donation was never
recorded on the district books,
allocation of interest earned was
recorded, but improperly, and the
district had not closed inactive
checking accounts on a timely basis.
The district did not keep records of
obsolete inventory items sold, nor
was board approval obtained.
The district was assessed over
$18,000 in penalties; while interest
and late fees for employee
withholding was not remitted to the
IRS on time.
The district has no organizational
chart. The district's teacherage
(apartment) rental agreements were
not all provided to the auditors and
$20,960.80 in educational aid funds
loaned to employees and board
members was still outstanding as of
June 30,1991.
The district's budget for the year
ended June 30, 1991, which was
McKnight Foundation will pay $2,375 million to
Minnesota Indian Economic Development Fund
By Robert Franklin
Beyond the bright lights of
gambling casinos and the allure of
urban jobs, Indian leaders in
Minnesota are looking at new ways
to fight a history of poverty on the
state's 11 reservations.
The options include businesses that
use the mail or telephone lines rather
than proximity to major markets.
Another idea is to use the
reservation land that never has been
chemically treated to grow
environmentaUy sensitive herbs and
other foodstuffs.
Indian leaders got more tools
Wednesday with announcement that
the McKnight Foundation will pay
$2,375 million over the next three
years to an independent nonprofit
group, the Minnesota Indian
Economic Development Fund.
The year-old fund expects to
provide technical assistance,
low-interest loans and grants to
tribal governments, Indian owned
businesses and individual Indians on
or near the 11 reservations.
It will help close the gaps between
what major lenders will provide and
what Indian entreprenuers need.
We want to be a catalyst for
development of entrepreneurial
activities," said William Connelly,
the fund's executive director and
director of the Small Business
Development Center at the
University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
The fund, whose board includes
Indian representatives, already has
made some planning grants.
The McKnight Foundation,
Minnesota's largest, has worked to
develop another tool that
reservations could adopt: A
concomitant state-tribal court system
to resolve commercial disputes and
give lenders confidence that their
investments would be safe despite
the sovereign immunity that usually
prohibits lawsuits against the tribes.
The idea was developed by the late
U.S. Magistrate Bernard Becker,
who saw immunity as a major block
to outside investment on Indian land.
Some reservations have waived
immunity to borrow money for
casinos and other projects, but
Becker's plan could make the
selective waiver process more
understandable and agreeable, said
herb Dorr, an Indian who is a
management consultant and worked
with Becker and tribal lawyers on
the idea.
The plan includes a "pretrial
peacemaking" that Becker saw as a
bridge between cultures.
Michael O'Keefe, the foundation's
executive vice president, said
yesterday's grant extends McKnight's
concern for the disadvantaged to "a
group that has great need."
The aid was concieved by O'Keefe
and his predecessor, Russell Ewald,
to be an Indian counterpart to the six
Minnesota Initiative Funds that the
foundation created to promote
economic development and social
services in rural Minnesota.
The foundation allocated an
additional $64,412 for the fund's
administrative costs. It also granted
$100,000 over two years to another
group, the American Indian
Business Development Corp., to
support startup businesses and
neighborhood revitalization in the E.
Franklin Ave. area of Minneapolis.
[Reprinted with permission of the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, March
19,1992.]
entered into the Region 1 computer
system did not agree with the
tentative budget adopted by the
school board on May 14, 1990, and
the District failed to collateralize
some of its deposits.
The district did not always publish
its board meeting minutes within the
30-day limit set forth in Minn. Stat.
123.33, subd. 11.
The district did not always award
iacts to the lowest responsible
bidder and during the year audited,
the district disbursed funds for
numerous questionable
expenditures.
The district issued travel advances,
which included stipends and
advance mileage reimbursement
from its regular checking account
during the year ended June 30, 1991
in violation of Minn. Stat. 123.335
subd. 2.
During the year ended June 30,
1991, payroll order-checks were not
signed by the clerk of the school
board as required by law.
The district did not publish its
1990-91 revenue and expenditure
budget in its official newspaper as
required by Minn. Stat. 123.71,
subd. 1.
During the year ended June 30,
1991, many travel expense claims
were submitted for reimbursement
without being proerly itemized in
violation of Minn. Stat. 471.38,
subd. 1.
The reserse side of the district's
order-checks do not all contain the
proper endorsement as required by
Minn. Stat. 471.391, subd. 2.
The acting superintendent's
contract for the 1991-92 school year,
entered into on June 18, 1991,
provides him with a school car. The
car is being used for commuting
between the acting superintendent's
residence and the district's office.
According to Minnesota Attorney
General opinion, schol districts may
not provide a vehicle to an employee
for personal use.
The district's participation in a $1.74
million General Obligation Aid
anticipation Certificate of
Indebtedness, Series 1990C dated
August 28, 1990, which matured of
September 27,1991, were in violation
of debt covenant requirements.
The district is using federal funds
intended for the Tide V Program to
temporarily finance other district
operations, a violation.
According to Minnesota's
Assistant State Auditor Jim Kaihoi,
the Red Lake School Board declined
to hold a public school board
meeting to review the audit with him
and his staff.
The News tried to contact Red
Lake Acting Superintendent, Ed
Kroenke, but he was out of town on
business.
In a telephone interview with Ms.
Carrie Smith, Minnesota Department
of Education's Support Services
Boards, the Red Lake School
District's administration is preparing
an update to their current special
operating plan to bring their revenue
in line with their expenditures by
reducing expenditures by $300,000 a
year for the next five years.
Further complicating the Red Lake
District's financial problem is the
report that nearly 100 Red Lake
students are currently attending
school in other districts under the
state's open enrollment law.
According to a 1991 Minnesota
Department of Education enrollment
report, Red Lake School District had
981 students.
The same report cites the per pupil
cost at Red Lake at $8,245.
The News estimates that the
72-page audit report will cost the
Red Lake School District nealry
$50,000. This is in addition to the
$45,000 paid by the District to
McGladrey & Pullen, Duluth,
Minnesota, the CPA firm the District
hired for the audit report for the
1989/90 school year.
Casino operating in spite of controversy
Wadena wants less money for the tribe 	
Darrell "Chip" Wadena, chairman
of the White Earth Band of
Chippewa Indians says the tribe
needs to pay the company managing
its Shooting Star Casino in
Mahnomen more than the Bureau of
Indian Affairs will permit.
He said he will ask BIA's
Washington office to overturn a
Minneapolis BIA office decision
requiring the tribe to pay the casino
managers only 30 percent of the
casino's net income for a five-year
period. The tribe and management
company had agreed on a fee of 40
percent of the proceeds over a
seven-year contract.
Federal officials said they couldn't
explain why Wadena would try to
get less money, rather than more, for
the tribe.
"There was quite a bit of
disagreement on how to separate
gross income from net income, to
get what we thought was the right
deal for the tribe," Robert
Wynecoop, BIA's assistant area
director in Minneapolis, said.
Gaming World International of
Pennsylvania, the management
company involved, wants the
higher fee to make the investment
in the casino that the tribe needs,
Wadena said.
"They're investing 33 percent of
the capital in the operation," he said
after a meeting with David
Mathison, the deputy commissioner
of Indian affairs.
Federal law limits the percentage
paid to casino managers to 30
percent of the profits, in most cases.
"Why would you give the gaming
company 40 percent when you have
30 percent?" said Wynecoop.
He said the gaming company's
investment did not justify the higher
fee. The Mille Lacs tribe in
Minnesota was allowed to pay the
higher fee but its management
company was making a larger
investment, Wynecoop said.
The White Earth tribe borrowed
money to build the $16.3 million
casino from WELSA funds, and
Gaming World International, is
buying the gambling machines,
furnishing the adjacent hotel, and
subsidizing salaries of the casino's
managers, Wadena said.
Area Director Earl Barlow last
Friday signed a five-year contract
that gives the tribe 70 percent of the
profits, after BIA and FBI security
clearances.
The casino opened in November
at its temporary location and has
been operating since that time
without a federally approved
contract, in violation of federal law.
The tribe is presendy constructing a
65,000-square-foot casino south of
Mahnomen.
With the contract all but settled,
the tribal dissidants, led by Erma
Vizenor, continue to object to the
Shooting Stat claiming that the
tribe is short $9.5 million in
construction funds. They also
claim that since the casino is not
on trust land, an environmental
impact statement is in order, and
that the casino will be subject to
steep property taxes.
Terri Heide, a Minneapolis
archeologist who oversees
environmental compliance, said the
White Earth Conservation
Department followed state
guidelines but sent the report to the
federal government; and, she
explained that their is less than
adequate communication between
the two agencies.
The permanent casino is still
scheduled to open in late May.
Interior proposes fees to manage Indian funds
Washington, D.C. (AP) - Indians
should pay the government to oversee
$2 billion in trust funds despite
claims by some tribes that the funds
have been mismanaged, Interior
Department auditors say.
The fees could save the government
more than $12 million a year,
according to a recent report by the
department's inspector general.
"The task of accounting for these
funds and their earnings is both time
consuming and expensive and could
not have been envisioned in 1934, let
alone in treaties dating back to the
1800s," the report said.
The BIA, however, doesn't want to
impose the fees, which would
undoubtedly be unpopular with the
individuals and tribes who are angry
about the government's handling of
their accounts.
"We've fought those (fees) all along,
but we're going to have to make a
policy as to what we're going to do
now," said Carl Shaw, a BIA
spokesman.
The White House budget office
ordered government agencies to
charge fees for special services. But
in a letter to the inspector general,
BIA said it would be "unconscionable" to charge Indians to
manage the funds without consulting
them first.
BIA last year signed a five-year
contract with an outside accounting
firm to figure exactly how much
money is in the more than 300,000
individual and tribal accounts.
Before the audit started, BIA
already estimated it overpaid some
account holders by $4.8 million and
underpaid others by $12.1 million.
The Red Lake Band of Chippewa
was owed nearly $700,000 alone.
Some of the accounts go back as far
as 70 years and have never been
reconciled, according to the General
Accounting Office.
The trust funds include income
from Indian lands, payments of
claims against the government and
royalties from oil, gas and minerals.