The Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1992-09-18

              Hennepin County Detox Center charged with physical abuse of patients
By Gary Blair
In meetings held at the Hennepin
county Detoxification Center at
1800 Chicago Ave. this past
Tuesday. The Press learned of the
extent of the physical abuses
American Indians and other patients
of color receive at this
county-operated facility. The abuses
go far beyond the physical and
verbal abuses reported earlier in the
August 28, 1992 edition of the
Native American Press.
Irene Wage and Lynn FitzPatrick
employees of the Detox Center
spoke to a group of approximately
IS people who met to discuss the
allegations of abuse. Wade said,
"I've seen patient's being hit kicked,
verbally abused and their money
being stolen by staff." She
continued, "I've reported it and
nothing has been done." She said the
abuse often starts the moment the
staff learns the name of the person
who is being admitted. "You'll hear
someone say, 'I'll take care of him.'
If it's a person of color they're
grabbed by the hair or a foot or any
other place the staff person can get
their hands on. The person is then
dragged down the hall to the
"QUIET ROOM" (QR) where their
money, shoes and belt are removed."
Wade went on to say, "There are
about six or seven staff that are
doing all the abuse, but the bigger
problem has been with their
supervisors. They know the staff is
abusive and they have done nothing
to stop them." She also told the
group about the county's use of help
from temporary labor pools. Wade
said the abuse is so bad in the detox
unit that the regular county
employees have even assaulted the
temporary help from the labor pools.
According to Wade and
FitzPatrick, if patients are put on the
12-hour kickout plan, which most
American Indian patients are, both
male and female are subject to be
kicked out with no place to go at
2:00 or 5:00 a.m. year-round. To
this, Paul Norman, Director of the
Hennepin County Detox Center
spoke up and disagreed. He said,
"that's not our policy! That's not
happening." Both Wade and
FitzPatrick told him that yes, it is
happening. The PRESS learned that
one person was even discharged
without shoes in the wintertime and
he froze his feet and his toes had to
be removed.
Wade, who is an American
Indian, said detox staff had told
her, "If these people don't have
any respect for themselves, then
why should we have respect for
them?" she also said that not too
long ago an elderly Black man lost
one of his fingers in the QR door
when a staff person was trying to
lock him in. "The state ruled this
staff person could no longer work
at the Detox Center, but though the
help of her co-workers and the
union she is still working here. We
have also had women raped here as
patients and no investigations have
been done. Also, we had staff seen
stealing patient's money and still
they continue to have them work
here."
Wade continued, "The one thing
that really sticks in my mind is when
I learned from another Indian staff
member about a non-Indian staff
member who whistled at an Indian
patient like you would if you were
calling a dog."
Lynn FitzPatrick then told the
group about what she has
experienced working at the Detox
Center for the past ten years. She
said, "I've had to become an
advocate for the Indian patient who
comes in here, because of the abuse
they receive." She reported she is
isolated by other staff members
because they know she will write
them up if she sees them abusing
patients. FitzPatrick, who is a
non-Indian, said, "I don't care if
they don't talk to me. It's more
important to me to stop the abuse."
FitzPatrick went on to say that
one day she was in the part of the
building where the social workers
have their offices and she saw an
Indian man talking to one of the
center's social workers. This person
appeared to have been drinking, but
was not drunk. The next thing she
saw was two security guards from
within the building grab this
individual and pull him into a closet
and start to beat him. She said she
ran over to the door and tried to get
them to open it. When that didn't
work she ran down the halls asking
other people to help her, but not
one person came out of their
office. "They all just sat there and
did nothing."
Attention was then drawn to
Frank Broderick, who had just
joined the meeting. Broderick, who
is also a non-Indian stated that he
also had worked at the Detox
Center and later took a different
position with the county because
of the abuse he witnessed. He said
he wanted to help the group make
changes at the Detox Center.
Up to this point, Paul Norman,
the Detox Center's Program
Manager, had responded very little
to the allegations and had done
nothing to stop the abuse. He
continued to remain silent when
Francis Fairbanks, Excutive
Director of the Minneapolis
American Indian Center asked
him what he was going to do about
what had just been heard.
Fairbanks told Norman, "If you
don't make some drastic changes
we are going to start our own
detox." Norman also did not
answer when others in the group
raised additional questions about
his most recent conduct when he
refused to meet with Sharon No
Heart, Program Director for
American Indian Services (AIS). It
seems Norman did not want to
meet with No Heart because she
brought other people with her and
he wanted to meet with her alone.
The group then moved its
meeting from the third floor to the
second floor of the Detox Center.
Norman told the group he would
join them there, but instead left for
the day. Here the meeting became
even more informal. People spoke
openly about what they had just
heard. Joe BigBear, who is an
American Indian and works in
administration on the first floor of
the detox building told the PRESS,
"It's hard to believe what we just
heard." The PRESS asked Wade if
any staff members were involved
in the "rapes of patients." She
answered, "We don't know, there
has never been any investigations."
In an earlier meeting that day
with Paul Norman and Joe
BigBear, the PRESS was told
nothing about the abuse by Detox
Center staff. Instead, both Norman
and BigBear blamed the police for
the abuse they said happens
outside of the building. Norman
said, "I've been referring about
five abuse complaints per month to
the Internal Affairs unit of the
police Department and also the
Citizens' Review Board. I referred
some people to an attorney when
they complained to me about the
police beating them up. He said he
had treated the complaint as
isolated incidences.
Staff on the floors just below the
Detox Center told the The PRESS
they don't hear about what goes on
at the Detox Center. However,
PRESS ieamed on Wednesday they
all knew about the meetings that
were held on Tuesday. Bob
Olander, who is one of the
financial supervisers on the first
floor told his staff not to talk to any
press, and to refer them to him.
When the PRESS asked to speak
with Olander, the PRESS was told
by him to come back tomorrow.
Jerry Stafford, an American
Indian who was also at the meeting,
told the PRESS he worked with
Vernon Bellecourt in the Prison
Program and they used to visit the
Detox Center as part of their work,
but both stopped their visits
because of the abuse.
By and For the Native American Community        j
UM Native
American
Press
We support Equal Opportunity For All People
A Weekly Publication
Push to reopen gaming act begins
Tribes may face tough times next year
Founded in 1991
Volume 2 Issue 19
September 18, 1992
Copyright, The Native American Press, 1992
By Bunty Anquoe
Lakota Times Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The gaming
war is escalating and foes to Indian
gaming are beginning to coordinate
their efforts in order to reopen the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act next
year.
The National Association of
Attorneys General, at a July meeting
in Pittsburgh, resolved to get
Congress to review the scope of
gaming on Indian lands, the effect of
state law on Indian gaming
enterprises and the authority of state
governors on Indian gaming issues.
The association and its individual
members are "gravely concerned that
absent prompt action by the Congress
to address certain questions that have
arisen under the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act of 1988, the
objectives of strict control of gaming
to protect against criminal influenced
and the preservation of the criminal
laws and public polity of the states ...
will be irrepairable frustrated,"
according to the official resolution
obtained by the Lakota Times.
The group assailed court opinions
upholding tribal rights to conduct
Class III, or casino gaming and
asserted that the act only permits the
specific gaming activities permitted by
the states. Federal courts have held that
tribes may conduct Class III games if
some form of Class III gaming is
allowed by the state.
Indian tribes are facing an increasing
barrage of attacks from the federal
government, state officials, and private
businesses who are applying political
and financial pressure to reopen the
gaming act.
Gaming enterprises have proven an
economic boon to many tribes by
reducing unemployment rates and
generating revenue to provide relief
from welfare, improved health and
community services, build schools, fire
departments, sewer avd water systems
and other governmental services, tribal
leaders stress.
Many tribal officials assert that states
and the private gaming industry are
threatened by the economic success of
tribal gaming and will do anything to
prevent tribes from competing with them.
More states have begun invoking the
11th Amendment to dodge the
negotiations process required by the
gaming act. The amendment prohibits
suits against states unless states consent
to be sued. To date, seven court cases
have been filed over the issue.
The Indian Gaming Commission has
drawn narrow guidelines to what
constitutes legal gaming without state
approval in order to restrict tribal gaming,
tribal leaders allege.
The Nevada Resort Association has so
far spent over a quarter of a million
dollars in campaign contributions and
employed expensive lobbyists in a "plan
to get the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
amended in this session of Congress"
according to the group's March meeting
minutes.
"We've spent a few million dollars
looking at Indian gaming," association
Executive Director Richard Bunker told
the Las Vegas Re\iew-JoumaJJviy 31.
He added that campaign contributions
"are insignificant" compared to what the
association has spent in other areas
lobbying on the Indian gaming issue.
The most favored recipient of the
association's largess, Sen. Harry Reid,
D-NEV., said, "There's going to be
action by Congress next year to assure
the law is fairly and stricdy enforced,"
according to a Sept. 2 Associated Press
report
[Reprinted with permission of the
Lakota Times.J
■A meetting to discuss the alleged abuses at the Hennepind County Detoxification Center in South Minneapolis.
Minorities poised for big gains in congressional election
BIA ordered to curb abuses in housing program
MESA, Ariz. (AP) - Elimination
of waste and abuse in a housing
program for Indians will require that
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
managers keep a closer eye on the
program, an Interior Department
official says.
Assistant Secretary Eddie Brown
said Monday he had ordered BIA
managers "to focus attention on
increased monitoring and
inspections to curtail abuses and
mismanagement" in the Housing
Improvement Program.
He was in Mesa to meet with BIA
officials who during a three-day
session were to update and rewrite
agency proceedures, BIA spokesman
Carl Shaw said.
An audit released in July by the
Interior Department Inspector
General said housing improvement
benefits totaling $878,000 were
provided to 78 inelgible people in
the Northern Pueblos and Southern
Pueblos agencies of the BIA's
Albuquerque (N.M.) Area Office,
according to a summary.
The Albuquerque Area includes
reservations in New Mexico and
Colorado. The summary did not
specify which reservations were
involved in the audit.
An additional $1 million may
have been spent unnecessarily on
improvements for 141 applicants
whose eligibility had not been
determined, the summary said.
Other findings included that
$375,000 was spent unnecessarily
because housing personnel of the
Northern Pueblos and Southern
Pueblos agencies failed to inspect
improvement projects, did not
determine whether improvements
were needed or whether
homeowners were able to use
provided construction materials and
''approved and provided
extravagant improvements," the
summary said.
Because contracts were issued
without proper authority or
accounting, 125 construction
contracts totaling about $1.3 million
were awarded "without full and
open competition by individuals
who were not authorized contracting
officers," the summary said.
In addition, the summary said,
$350,000 in construction materials
"could not be accounted for and are
presumed missing."
Shaw said a draft audit report by
the Inspector General's Office found
similar problems in a housing
program administered by the BIA's
Sacramento (Calif.) Area by the Pit
River Tribe.
Similar audits are to be conducted
in the Minnesota and Portland, Ore.,
areas, he said.
By Donna Cassata
Associated Press
Washington, D.C- Carrie Meek's
primary victory in Florida this week
can be traced to the bloody
Selma-to-Montgomery march that
forced Congress to adopt the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 and open
elections to millions of blacks.
Twenty-seven years later, the
legacy of that landmark legislation
will be the election of a record
number of blacks and other
minorities to Congress, political
analysts say.
Current totals of 26 blacks and 14
hispanics in the House—none in the
Senate—are likely to reach nearly
60, thanks to the law that outlawed
the poll taxes and literacy tests once
used to prevent blacks from voting.
Guided by that legislation and
population changes, majority black
districts were drawn in Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Maryland, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
"It will be the most dramatic
increase in the number of women
and minorities in the history of
Congress at one time," said Rep. John
Lewis, D-Ga., who endured the blows
of police billy clubs on that Alabama
march nearly three decades ago.
And Meek will inherit one of those
seats in the House.
Born to a sharecropper and the
granddaughter of slaves, the
66-year-old Meek handily defeated
two other opponents Tuesday in the
Democratic primary. Florida's first
black woman state senator faces no
Republican opposition in November
and will become the state's first
black in Congress since 1876.
Joining Meek on the likely
winner's list are Sanford Bishop and
Cynthia McKinney in Georgia; Eva
Clayton and Melvin Watt in North
Carolina; Earl Hilliard in Alabama;
and Albert Wynn in Maryland.
Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley
Braun stands a good chance of
becoming the first black woman in
the Senate.
Political analysts say 12 more
blacks are nearly certain to emerge
victorious, while gains by Hispanics
could be close to five.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart defeated
fellow state Sen. Javier Souto in
Florida's Republican primary
Tuesday. Diaz-Balart, a Cuban
native, faces no Democratic
opposition in the general election.
Chicago Alderman Luis Gutierrez
and Lucille Roybal-AUard of
California are expected to prevail in
November. She is the daughter of
retiring Rep. Edward Roybal,
D-Calif.
Lewis described the latest group of
candidates as a "new breed," far
different from pioneers such as Rep.
Ron Dellums, D-Calif., a Berkeley
radical elected in 1970, or liberal
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
The minority lawmaker of the next
generation is likely to be a
Southerner, experienced in state
government or the product of a
district that is not composed entirely
of black voters, analysts say.
Among the candidates is Bobby
Rush, a founder of the Illinois Black
Panthers, who has served as a
Chicago alderman since 1983 and
now talks about corporate tax
breaks.
Mercury Poisoning is Environmental Genocide to Indigenous People
A new study shows that millions of
Americans may be unknowingly exposed
to dangerous and rapidly increasing levels
of mercury in freshwater fish they catch in
lakes and streams. The study, conducted
and released by the Clean Water Fund and
Clean Water Action, found mat 26 states
havervowissuedmercuryhealmadvisories
covering tens of thousands oflakes, urging
c^ylirnrtedcwnsumpticnoffi^
waters or, for some lakes, warning against
eating the fish at all.
But warnings are often not posted and
many states make little effort to publicize
the dangerto vacationers or to low income
families who catch and consume large
quantities of fish.
Indigenous people (Native
Americans) are tremendously impacted
by mercury poisoning. Many parts of
the regions that are effected by mercury
emissions are indigenous territories.
The traditional diets of indigenous
people consist offish consumption, in
addition to the entire chain of other
indigenous foods and wild game which
is impacted by the quality ofthe water,
air and soil.
"Mercury contamination is rising
very rapidly in the upper Midwest and
South Florida," Dr. Henry S. Cole,
principal author of study, said. The
study identified Michigan, Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Florida as suffering from
the most serious contamination
problems among states where fish have
been tested.
These areas identified are still
inhabited by the original and
indigenous population of this country.
In the Minnesota and Great Lakes
region, the traditional Anishinabe
(Chippewa) livelihood is sustained
from fish. In the Florida Everglades,
the traditional Seminole still maintain
indigenous diets from the waters and
land.
State authorities in Michigan have
been forced to issue mercury health
advisories for all ofthe state's 11,000
lakes. All 2,000 lakes in Minnesota's
Superior National Forest are subject to
U.S. Forest Service mercury advisories,
and mercury concentrations in
Minnesota fish are rising at a rate of 3-
5% per year.
In much ofthe Florida Everglades,
large game fish have mercury levels
50% higher than the levels at which
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) requires fish to be removed from
the market. Fish-eating animals in the
area are already suffering the impacts:
the last known female panther in the
Everglades died in 1991 with high
levels of mercury in her body. In the
Great Lakes, other wildlife such as
mink, otter, eagles and loons have also
accumulated mercury. Their
survivability may decline due to damage
to central nervous and reproductive
systems.
The study calls for an aggressive
federal effort to warn the public ofthe
dangers of eating contaminated fish.
"The non-indigenous thinking person
has difficulty understanding why it isn't
easy advising our people not to eat the
fish in these poisoned areas. The
Creator put us here, both humans and
the fish nation, to live together in a
special reciprocal relationship. An
example of this is the Klickitat tribe
that live along the Columbia River on
the Oregon and Washington border.
The River people as they call
themselves, have this special
relationship to the salmon nation. If
they can't eat the salmon they will die,
and if the salmon can't be used by the
River People, the salmon will also die.
The Columbia River is polluted from
the upstream nuclear waste dump called
Hanford. Also, the inherent sovereign
rights they were given by the Creator
to fish along the Columbia has been
violated by this U. S. Government Their
people have been imprisoned for
exercising their indigenous rights,"
states Tom Goldtooth, National Task
Force Member of the Indigenous
Environmental Network.
Mercury, a toxic metal like lead,
interferes with the development ofthe
brain and nervous system lowering
intelligence and impairing hearing,
speech and coordination. It can be
transmitted to fetuses in their mothers'
blood and to infants in breast milk. At
higher exposure levels, adults suffer
from tremors and vision distortions.
According to a case study report
of indigenous environmental
issues authored by Winona
LaDuke and Lea Foushee,
members of the Indigenous
Womens Network, an
international group, mercury
poisoning is not new to indigenous"
people in North America. In 1956,
the first massive outbreak of
mercury poisoning occurred in
Minimata Japan. By 1968, the
Minimata disaster and the nature
of mercury poisoning was well
documented.
The Indigenous Womens
Network report states that in 1960,
four years after the Minimata
disaster, Dryden Pulp and Paper
began to contaminate the
Wabigoon river in Southern
Ontario north of the Minnesota
border. In March of 1962, Reed
Paper opened its Dryden chlor-
alkali plant which used mercury
to bleach paper products, and then
released it into the river. An
estimated 20 pounds of mercury
per day were released. In 1975, an
Ontario Minister Health official
admitted that twenty to thirty of
the indigenous people living on
the Grassy Narrows Reserve had
showed symptoms of Minimata
disease. Tests indicated as high as
358 parts per billion mercury in
their blood.
Beyond the environmental
health impact of the Grassy
Narrows people was the impact of
Environmental
Genocide/page 5
'