The Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1992-07-10

              Camp Justice meets with Senator Wellstone to discuss election fraud
By Gary Blair
U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, in
a July 6th meeting that was held at
his office in St. Paul, told members
of Camp Justice and their
supporters, "If I do something and
it doesn't work, don't get mad and
blame me."
Wrellstone, who is a member of
the Senate Select Committee on
Indian Affairs, met with the group
of approximately 30 people. The
group complained that they are
living under a "dictator" who has
developed a "police state" on the
White Earth
Indian Reservation.
Wellstone was presented with
sworn affidavits from White Earth
enrollees who told of their past
involvement in helping
Reservation Chairman Darrell
"Chip" Wradena use fraudulent
absentee ballots to obtain his latest
victory .
Erma Vizenor, a spokesperson
for the group, quickly responded
when Wellstone mentioned that
this might be an issue of
democracy. She said, "Senator, we
don't have any democracy at
White Earth."
John   Moran,   another
spokesperson for the group said,
"We need changes in the
reservation's constitution that allow
for a court system to handle
election fraud."
The group told Wellstone that
they didn't want him to do anything
that would effect the sovereignty of
the reservation.
Moran told Wellstone that he
should question his committee's
funding of reservation programs
when the seed of democracy is
being disputed. Moran said, "Your
government approves funds to the
White Earth Reservation; don't you
care   if   the   people   have
democracy?" To this Wellstone
quickly answered, "Yes, I do."
As the hour long meeting
progressed and frustrations grew,
Wellstone avoided any direct
reference to Wadena as a possible
focus for a probe into the issue of
democracy an reservations.
Wellstone said, "I want to be fair.
If the Select Committee were to do
something we'd be looking at all
the reservations and not just White
Earth."
Wellstone's answers became
more ambiguous when he was told
that if he didn't do something
soon, White Earth was going to
turn into another "Wounded
Knee."
One of the group members said
that this is the same thing Dick
Wilson did that started Wounded
Knee. [Dick Wilson was the
chairman of the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota at
the time of the Wounded Knee
takeover in 1973.]
Another group member said,
"Our elders are insulted at White
Earth; they want something to be
done, Senator." When asked by
the Press what type of person the
Senator was looking for in his
replacement of Senate Aid Chuck
Robertson, Jr., he refused to
comment on Robertson's
performance. Instead he said, "I
am looking at another Indian
person who is familiar with Indian
issues."
As the frustrations of the group
became more apparent, some in
attendance became verbally
angry. It was apparent Wellstone
wasn't going to disclose any game
plan for addressing the group's
concerns.
After the meeting Camp Justice
members expressed mixed
emotions about just what the
meeting had accomplished.
By and For the Native American Community
The
fr
ee
Native
American
Press
We support Equal Opportunity For All People
A Weekly Publication
Senator Paul Wellstone listens to Camp Justice Members who claim that a police state exists in White Earth.
75 MNDOT jobs scheduled for fall
Founded in 1991
Volume 2 issue 9
July tO, 1992
Copyright, The Native American Press, 1992
By Larry Adams
There will be 75 new job
openings in construction and
related fields opening in the early
fall for Native people in Minnesota.
Wilma Mason, the executive
director at the Anishinabe Council
of Job Developers (ACJD) in the
Minneapolis area has confirmed the
positions.
Jobs for Native people, ages 18
and over will be for highway
maintenance technicians. Also part
of the second phase of Governor
Carlson's Initiative Employment
program includes the the
recruitment of carpenters, heavy
equipment operators, plumbers,
cement masons, iron workers, and
laborers.
The third phase of the
Governor's Iniative program is to
hire youths for the Department of
Natural Resources (DNR.) The
ACJD has submitted 10 names
already to the DNR for placement.
The ACJD was responsible for
the job p lacement of the jobs
mentioned in the NAP's June 19,
1992, issue on the MNDOT jobs
for youth story.
"Governor Carlson is making a
commitment," said Mason, on
dealing with the unemployment
problem facing Native people in
Minnesota.
The ACJD is currently involved
in working out a budget to finance
the ACJD through the Governor's
Employment Initiative Program.
The ACJD is applying for
telephones, adminstrative costs and
operation funds to assist Native
people find jobs throughout the
state of Minnesota.
In Bemidji, the Area Indian
Employment office is in the
process of putting together another
highway maintenance class for late
next month.
Diane Neeland and Hal Fairbanks
of the IEC are currently recruiting
20 students for the class. The
second class will focus more on
making sure that the students are
better equipped to pass the state
test for highway maintenance jobs.
"We are going to develop our
curriculum based on testing," said
Erv Sargent, director of IEC. The
class plans to focus on
comprehensive reading skills. The
class will be put on in conjunction
with the Bemidji Technical
College, with some of the funding
coming from MNDOT, IEC and
BTC, said Sargent.
The Bemidji IEC also has plans
for another "Inroduction to the
World of Work" class in the fall.
Also in the plans is a grant to
develop a class to train Native
people in the retail industry. Traits {
that the retail class will focus on
are how students can enhance
personality marketability, math and
reading skills. The retail class will
be taught with the assistance of the
Bemidji Target store manager.
Rick LaVoy, Sargent said.
Bush administration asserts
power to declare tribes extinct
Seattle, Wash. (AP) - The Bush
administration has quietly asserted
that it has the power to declare any
Indian tribe in the nation extinct,
even if the tribe has been recognized
by a congressionally ratified treaty.
The new policy is stated deep in
the text of a Bureau of Indian
Affairs decision last month denying
recognition to the Miami tribe of
Indiana. The Seattle Post-
Intelligencer reported on the move
in a copyright story in Thursday's
editions.
The BIA, an agency of the Interior
Department, says it has no plans to
use the power to disqualify
already-recognized tribes, though it
claims the right to do so if they fall
short of agency requirements on
continuous existence.
"It isn't the policy or desire of the
secretary of Interior to seek to
reduce the number of tribes or set
out to take away tribal status from
any legitimate tribe," Interior
Department spokesman Bob Walker
told the Post-Intelligencer.
"I can't speculate what policy may
be in five years from now. All I can
tell you is what the policy is now
and what the intention is."
"What is likely is that money will
be taken from existing tribes when
new tribes come in," he said. "We
have an obligation to existing tribes
to make sure that any new tribes are
truly tribes."
But Indian law experts say the new
policy is an intrusion by the
executive branch on Congress'
treaty-making powers and a
violation of the separation-
of-powers doctrine.
"The BIA can now roam and
reconsider the tribal status of any
tribe it chooses. It's a shocking
conclusion," said Arlinda Locklear,
a lawyer for the Miamis and a
member of another unrecognized
tribe, the Lumbee.
At stake is not just the legal status
of hundreds of tribes but their claims
to land, benefits and fishing rights
and their rights to tax and regulate
businesses that operate on their land.
The administration policy
statement cites as its legal basis a
1979 decision by the late U.S.'
District Judge George H. Boldt.
The Post-Intelligencer reported
last month that Boldt's death
certificate indicates he had suffered
from Alzheimer's disease, a brain
disorder, since 1978, a year before
he signed, virtually unchanged, a
proposed order written by BIA
lawyers that declared five groups of
Northwest Indians extinct as tribes.
John Shappard, a former BIA
official who was the main author of
the 1978 tribal-acknowledgment
rules, said this week he never
anticipated the process could be
used to eliminate recognized tribes.
"I have created a monster. I am the
first to admit it. They ought to
abandon the process."
Walker, at the Interior
Department, acknowledged the Bush
administration has asserted its power
to declare any tribe extinct.
"That is what the court says, that
we have that right," he said.
Of the 20 Indian groups to go
through the federal acknowledgment
process, 13 have been rejected.
Thirty-six others are under review,
and 64 groups have said they plan to
file petitions.
Top, I to r, Roger Jourdain and "Tig" Pemberton, bottom, Tig Pemberton speaks to a crowd in Cass Lake.
Pemberton inaugurated at Leech Lake
Commission chief sees gambling collapse
Milwaukee, Wis. (AP) - Indian
tribes making money with their
gambling operations should take
advantage of the capital-building
opportunity before the gaming
industry collapses, the head of a
federal commission says.
"They should be amassing capital
as fast as they can and hold onto it
dearly," Anthony Hope, chairman of
the National Indian Gaming
Commission, said.
"Gambling runs in cycles," he told
an interviewer while in Wisconsin to
take part in a Indian gambling panel
discussion Saturday sponsored by
the State Bar Association. "We
happen to be at the top of the biggest
boom in gambling in the history of
the planet."
Hope, son of comedian Bob Hope,
said the tribes that use the profits to
make payments to tribal members
"are going to kill themselves
because they will become dependent
on gambling revenue just as it dries
up."
The revenue will dwindle "and
they won't have jobs."
He said the tribes have about "five
to 10 good years left" to make use of
gambling before the industry starts
to collapse.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee Mayor
John O. Norquist and state Senate
Minority Leader Michael Ellis,
R-Neenah, want the state Supreme
Court to rule on whether the
Legislature or governor has the
constitutional authority to authorize
casino gambling.
Norquist said in a letter to
Milwaukee City Attorney Grant
Langley that a February legal brief
prepared for Ellis by legislative
attorney Barry Stern persuasively
argues that the Wisconsin
Constitution continues to prohibit
casino gambling, that the
amendment authorizing the state
lottery did just that, and no more.
Stern's brief disputes a 1991
opinion from state Attorney General
James Doyle that the word lottery in
the Constitution refers to any form
of gambling and that, therefore, the
Legislature could authorize any form
of state gambling.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb
of Madison later "gave substantial
weight" to the Doyle opinion in
deciding federal law required the
state to negotiate with tribes over
casino-type games on Indian lands
because those games are not
expressly prohibited by the
constitution or statutes. Stern wrote.
Norquist said that, if the state
Supreme Court issues a declaratory
judgment that the constitution
prohibits casino gambling, it could
invalidate all Indian gaming
compacts in the state that allow
casino-type games.
The city of Milwaukee has been
caught up in a dispute with Gov.
Tommy Thompson and the Forest
County Potawatomi tribe over a
compact that allows the tribe to offer
up to 200 casino-type games at its
Bingo Hall in the Menomonee
Valley. The city has strenuously
opposed any casino games in the
valley.
Norquist has asked Langley for
help in getting the matter before the
court.
Langley said several members of
his staff were reviewing the matter,
both for matters of merit and
procedure.
"There are those that would like to
use the spread of Indian gaming to
justify spreading gaming among
non-Indian owners, tavern, dog track
owners," Norquist said.
"If Ellis and I can get this before
the Supreme Court, it will put the
genie back in the bottle."
Doyle said he has not seen what
Norquist or Ellis were proposing and
declined to comment.
Accountability to the people is
number one on the agenda of
newly elected Leech Lake Tribal
Chairman Al "Tig" Pemberton.
In an inaugural address to a
packed Mission Community
Center, Tig outlined the issues
which will take priority during the
first year of his chairmanship.
Preventive health care available
to all Leech Lake people ranked
high on the list. This means
improved maternity and early child
care, facilities that will provide
better health care for elders, and a
revitalized hospital for Leech
Lake.
Tig went on to pledge support
for the tribal education system
from Head Start through the Chief
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School to the
new Tribal College.
In addition, the new chairman
plans to resist pressure from forces
outside the reservation to
implement hazardous waste
storage on reservation land and to
assure that a tribal voice leads the
way in decisions affecting other
tribal resources. The wishes ofthe
people will be made known to
federal, state, and local agencies
concerning lake front
development, timber harvesting,
and game and fish management.
However, accountability to the
people, highlighted by new
procedures in the administration of
gaming funds, was the most
encouraging news.
Tig acknowledged the fact that
profits from the gaming industry
belong to every member of the
tribe and the administration of
which will therefore be open to
scrutiny. "We need to keep you
people informed about profits," he
stated at the address.
Another aspect of the gaming
industry that Tig plans to revitalize
is the minimum wage. He would
like to see an increase from the
current $5 an hour to $7.
Words of encouragement were
offered to Tig by former Red Lake
Tribal Chairman Roger Jourdain
and former Leech Lake Tribal
Chairman Hartley White.
White told tribal members to be
patient, that it might take at least
two years for Pemberton's
programs to have a noticeable
affect. "Just be patient and help
him through these hard times."
Jourdain told Pemberton that he
had a "great responsibility" ahead
to safeguard tribal sovereignty
against federal authority that may
have the right to declare any
Indian tribe in the nation extinct.
"That's going too far," Jourdain
stated. "All tribes are recognized
by the sovereignty of the
respective tribes. You can't
disregard that...Congress is
empowered to deal with foreign
countries, states and Indian tribes.
The sovereignty of our Indian
nations is all we have left."
Minnesota Sen. Skip Finn,
DFL-Cass Lake, an enrollee of the
Leech Lake Band, echoed the
encouragement of tribal members
to stand behind Tig.
Psychologist: Suppressing news of suicides
(AP) Washington, D.C.
A psychologist says a key to
stopping a string of teen suicides on
the White Earth Indian Reservation
was to keep the news media from
finding out about them.
The reservation in northwestern
Minnesota was in an uproar two
years ago after three teenagers had
killed themselves, members of a
suicide prevention team said at a
conference of thejndian Health
Service Wednesday.
Social and healthcare workers
responded to the crisis by
persuading tribal officials to
suppress news about the suicides,
said psychologist Darryl Zitzow.
"We didn't want the kids to read
about it in the paper for fear other
suicides would follow," said Bruce
Johnson, a social worker on the
reservation.
So successful was the effort that
reporters could not find anyone on
the reservation who would talk to
them about the suicides, Zitzow
said.
There were 56 attempted suicides
on the reservation and four
successful ones in 1990. At least two
of the suicides and as many as 18 of
the attempts were linked to occult
activity, which has since subsided,
he said.
Suicide is a mojor problem among
Indian youth. Nearly one in six
Indian adolescents has attempted
suicide, which is four times the
mational rate among teenagers,
according to recent research at the
University of Minnesota.
Zitzow and Johnson spoke at the
conference Tuesday on the success
they say they had in dealing with the
spate of suicides in 1990.
The White Earth reservation,
which has 4,200 people, recorded
fewer than one suicide a year among
its youth until 1990, Zitzow said.
Since that year there have been one
successful suicide and 47 attempts,
33 of them in 1991.
That decline would bring the
reservation's suicide rate in line with
the average for American Indians, he
said.