The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1994-06-03

              Department of Human Rights issues findings
on 'trunk incident'
By Gary Blair
According to the findings recently
concluded by the Minnesota Department ofHuman Rights (MDHR), no
one disputes that the two Native
American males were drunk when
they were transported in the trunk of a
Minneapolis police car.
Neither the two officers involved,
Marvin Schumer and Michael Lardy,
the Hennepin County Medical Center
personnel, nor the people who called
911 asking that the men be taken to
the hospital dispute those facts. However, the information found in the
MDHR's findings indicate that's
where the agreements as to what
happened.ends. But a determination
that the two officers discriminated
against the men based on their race
was obtained.
Blood tests taken from the two Native Americans at the county medical
center contained alcohol levels of .38
and .47 percent.
The following is contained in the
MDHR's findings: "One of the American Indian men contends that he woke
up to find a police officerbending over
him, prodding him in the chest with
his night stick. Because he had heard
tales about police "taking minorities
to the river," he thought he was better
off seeming to be more intoxicated
than he really was, so he pretended to
be unconscious. He thought, he said,
that he would receive better treatment.
He contends that the police poked at
him with sticks several times saying:
"you fucking Indians, we're tired of
your shit. Why don't you go back to
the reservation?" He believes that he
was picked up by the officers, one
picking him up under each arm, and
hoisting him into the trunk on top of
the other man. He contends that they
drove around for about 15 minutes,
that they would abruply start and stop
and speed and slow down so that he hit
his head on the trunk.
He provided a statement saying that
he apparently had a re-injury to a foot,
tenderness at the sternum, and a laceration on the head. It should be noted
that there is some question about the
credibility of his statements. While
the hospital security guard states that
he was standing at the side of the car
already unloaded from the trunk when
Incident/see page 3
Mpls Indian Center employee files grievance
against director
By Gary Blair
During the past two years allegations of mismanagement have intensified at the Minneapolis American
Indian Center (MAIC). Until last year,
only one MAIC staff member had
been willing to speak out publicly
about those allegations. In an article
that cost Ruth Denny her job, the
former editor of the center's newspaper, The Circle, lambasted MAIC's
director Frances Fairbanks for creating
the center's unwelcome environment.
Frances Haas, a chemical dependency counselor at MAIC, now says
she has been called a "white bitch"
by Fairbanks for reporting the mismanagement to the center's board
of directors. Hass says Fairbanks
also called Denny a "bitch" just
before she had her fired. (Denny is
American Indian.)
Hass told the PRESS on Friday,
"The place is a mess. Fairbanks has
misappropriated state funds and she
had Pat Jackson, one of the chemical
dependency7 counselors, working in
the center's cafe at an annual salary
of $26,000 using state CD funding.
Jackson hasn't worked at the center
in the last two months but she is still
getting paid," Hass said.
Recently, the state of Minnesota's
Human Services Department put a
hold on MAIC' s chemical dependency
program funding because that agency
has not received the required reports
from the Indian center. "Some of the
staff at the center are trying to do a
good job, but a lot of them don't care
anymore and they're leaving," Haas
stated.
According to Hass, there is very
Mafia associates had ties to 5 casinos
By Chris Ison and Lou Kilzer
Staff writers
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Companies and individuals with
links to East Coast Mafia families
have made millions of dollars doing
business with five northern Minnesota casinos.
A company connected to four of
those casinos had ties through key
personnel to what has been one of the
toughest mob organizations in the
United States — the New England
family headed by Raymond Patriarca
Jr. Another casino has had ties with
associates of Philadelphia's Bruno/
Scarfo gang.
Among findings derived from public records and interview:
* Patriarca's accountant and onetime middleman set up the books, did
tax returns and helped handle a multimillion-dollar sale of a Coon Rapids
firm, Creative Games Technology. It
supplied slot machines and market
ing services to four casinos on the
Bois Forte, Leech Lake and Grand
Portage Chippewa reservations.
* A man who Patriarca said helps
run his personal family's vending and
real estate business, and who established the Patriarca family trusts, also
performed accounting work for Creative Games.
* A New England racketeer and
mob banker, now in prison for embezzlement, was part-owner of Creative Games, as was a man whose
family had close ties to Patriarca.
* Though the principals of Creative
Games were forced out by state officials last year after a lengthy investigation into the mob links, many employees and the man who ran it are
involved in a successor company that
is still involved in Minnesota gaming.
State investigators say its activities
are now outside their authority, but
the Star Tribune has learned that it
remains a subject of federal investigators.
* The White Earth Chippewa reser
vation, which now owns Shooting Star
Casino, used slot machines — at the
time illegal in the state — made by a
New Jersey associateof Philadelphia's
Bruno/Scarfo mob family. At one
point, tribal officials negotiated with
that mob associate for $5 million investment in that casino. The plan
called for him to manage the casino
once it was built. That deal fell through
and he was later indicted, along with
the top figures of the Scarfo group, for
illegal gaming in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania.
* Finally, the man who runs Shooting Star today has faced a separate
investigation for a noncasino business relationship in which he dealt—
unknowingly, he says—with reputed
associates of New York's Genovese
mob family.
Representatives of these companies
say any involvement with people associated with organized crime are coincidental and indirect. They say they
Casinos/ see page 2.
Supporters of Beartrack family begin phone/
letter campaign
By Shelley Davis
Tulsa, Oklahoma — A rally/ceremony for Donald Beartrack, Jr. was
conducted at the Federal Building in
Tulsa, OK on Memorial Day.
Beartrack's body was found five
miles north of Watts. OK on March 4.
He had been shot at close range twice
in the head. Beartrack had written a
license tag number on his arm, in ink
and in marker, which led to the arrest
of three suspects. Two of the three are
involved in preliminary hearings and
the other is undergoing competency
examinations.
"Since then, the statement has been
made that Donnie was murdered because he was Indian," said JoKay
Dowell, Northeast Oklahoma American Indian Movement coordinator.
"This should be of concern to all
people, no matter what color. A heinous crime was committed and we
need to see justice served."
Dowell said a telephone and letter
writing campaign has been initiated
to demand swift and harsh punishment of the accused murderers. She
asks that no allowances for reduced
sentences or plea bargaining be considered.
She also asks that supporters of
justice call on the U. S. Justice Department, the Oklahoma State Attorney
General and the Oklahoma Human
Rights Commission and ask that they
educate themselves on the case.
Dowell asks that they "make themselves aware of ... the history of
lawlessness, double standards of justice, and inequality of law enforcement in Adair County, Oklahoma as
well as the disproportionate number
of deaths of full-blood Indian males
occurring while in the custody of Adair
County jail."
The rally was for the Beartrack family but was also to advocate victims'
rights and human rights in general
and to call upon the "administration
and staff' of the Tulsa World newspaper to exercise responsibility in reporting "critical issues important to
grassroots people of color, such as
racism, exploitation, poverty and historical injustice."
After guest speakers talked to the
family and supporters about the upcoming trial, the rally participants
walked to the Tulsa World building
and confronted one of the editors. The
participants signed a statement and
gave it to the Tulsa World editor.
Family/ see page 3
Ponemah man faces charges in ax murder
By Dawn Schuett
Reprint w/ permission .
from The Pioneer
A 23 year-old Ponemah man was
chargedTuesdayinUS. District Court
with premeditated murder he allegedly
committed early Sunday morning by
cutting up his victim with an ax.
Robert Wayne Parker appeared
TuesdaybeforeU.S. Magistrate Judge
Randall Burg in Bemidji. Parker was
ordered to be held without bond and
was transferred to Minneapolis where
he is awaiting a preliminary hearing
set for Friday before U.S. Magistrate
Judge J. Earl Cudd.
The victim, Kimberly Jean White,
25, also of Ponemah, was the mother
of Parker's three children.
According to a criminal complaint
filed in U.S. District Court by the
FBI, Parker allegedly said that the
two returned home after daylight
Sunday morning to the residence of
Priscilla White, Kimberly's mother,
where the family was living on the
Red Lake Reservation in Ponemah.
Parker said Kimberly White was
acting "crabby.' After White made a
phone call to her sister and Parker
heard her say, "Get Robert Parker out
of here," he asked her what he did
wrong.
Parker then allegedly walked to a
closet at the back of the kitchen,
retrieved a two-blade ax, and went
back to where White was standing.
He allegedly struck her in the head
with the ax once before Priscilla White
attempted to stop him by grabbing the
ax handle as he swung at Kimberly's
head a second time. According to the
Murder/see page 3
Mafia's connection to 5 tribal casino's
ICWA adoption case heard by MN Supreme Court
Ax murder rocks Red Lake Reservation
IHB Exec. Director charged with discrimination
Complete Red Lake election results
Voice of the Anishinabeg (The People)
little being done for people who use
the services of the Indian center. She
said the center's restaurant is in debt
at $25,000 and that's the reason
Fairbanks had Jackson working there.
Hass says the center's cafe ordered
too many supplies and had too many
employees and that's the reason for
the deficit.
"When Fairbanks found out that I'd
reported her to MAIC's board of
director's she told me that I just want
to start trouble like all white people,"
Hass told the PRESS. She also said
that she has been sharing an office
with Fairbanks.
"The woman doesn't have any administrative skills. When she isn't in
her office talking on the phone, she's
sitting in the restaurant at the center
Center/ see page 3
The
Fifty Cents
1
Founded   in 1988
Ojibwe
ISIews
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
1
Volume 5   Issue 49
June 3, 1994
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1994
Lee Antell, a White Earth enrollee
and a resident of New Brighton has
been awarded a 1994 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship. Antell
will use his fellowship at the University of Minnesota to pursue his doctorate in educational administration.
Currently Antell is the Director of
Affirmative Action and Cultural Diversity for the Minnesota Community
College System.
EMM
Photo by Monty Draper
Leech traditonal dancers at the Veterans Memorial Pow Wow in Cass Lake.
Whitefeather, Roy, Strong, English, Stately,
P.Graves, Dudley and Hardy win at Red Lake
Three other candidates file petition to contest election
By Bill Lawrence
The Red Lake Tribal election which
was held the 25th of May, after a one
week delay because of a court challenge, was again the target of challenges filed in the Red Lake Nation
Court and with the Red Lake General
Election Board. The challenge was
contained in a petition filed on May
30,1994, by unsuccessful Redby candidates Thomas Westbrook, Betty
Schoenborn and Clarence Stately. The
grounds on which the petitioner's
based their challenge are:
(1) that the council allowed felons
to remain on the ballet in violation of
Amendment No. 2 to the Red Lake
Tribal Constitution. That Amendment
makes anyone with a felony record
ineligible to run for or to hold tribal
office;
(2) that the chairperson of the General Election Board is related to one
of the candidates;
(3) ballots were held in Redby for
eight hours;
(4) discrepancy between the numbers who voted in 1992 and those voting in 1994 in the Redby District; and
the fact that ballots were cast in pencil and not in pen.
According to Redby candidate Tom
Wesbrook, other unsuccessful candidates would be joining the suit within
the next couple of days as party plaintiffs. He also told the PRESS that due
to uncertainty over filing requirements
of the General Election Board and the
Red Lake Nation Court, the petitioners felt it necessary to file an abbreviated complaint immediately and a
more comprehensive one in the near
future. No date hase been set by ei
ther the General Election Board or the
Red Lake Nation Court when the contest would be heard.
Baring any changes that may be
made by the election contest, the
newely and re-elected candidates are
set to take office at the next regularily
scheduled meeting to the Red Lake
Tribal Council which is scheduled for
June 14, 1994.
The following are the results of the
Red Lake Election (May 25, 1994):
CHAIRMAN;
Bobby Whitefeather 1250
Archie R.King 660
Walter Jourdain 414
Bruce Graves 151
Frank Dickenson 52
Results/ see page 3
Oral Arguments heard in Minnesota Supreme
Court in ICWA adoption case
By Bill Lawrence
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - On Tuesday morning, May 31, 1994, five Supreme Court Justices heard attorneys
Anita Fineday, Shari Schlucter,
Wright Walling, and Charles Powell
argue their case for and against a non-
Indian Bemidji couple's attempt to
adopt three enrolled Leech Lake children. The five Minnesota Supreme
Court Justices in attendance were
Chief Justice Keith, Justices
Gardebring, Page, Tomljanovich, and
Coyne.
Eugene and Carol Campbell were
granted permission by the trial court
and affirmed in the Court of Appeals
to proceed with their plans to adopt
the three girls who were foster care
children in their PATH foster home.
The children are currently residing in
a temporary PATH foster home on the
Fond du Lac Reservation where they
have been scheduled to be moved at
the end of the school year at the request of the PATH foster parent who
is a trained social worker. Indian expert witnesses who testified at last
year's trial court found that all rela-
Man found dead in Red Lake
By John Rainbird
RED LAKE, MN—In a non-
related incident two men were found
1-1/4 mile from Redby on Hwy #1
King in the road.
Curtis Cloud and William Mountain
Jr. were found facing North about 20
inches apart in the middle of the road.
The PRESS had been informed that
both men had been at a party and were
heading home, and apparently laid
on the road and fell asleep before the
incident happened.
Curtis Cloud had been found with
apparent extensive damage to the left
side of his head and William Mountain
was found unscaved.    William
fives were deemed to be "unsuitable"
to adopt these children; however, this
year a now "suitable" relative has been
located and in April, 1994 petitioned
to adopt the three girls.
Fineday, representing the Leech
Lake Band of Chippewa, argued the
Indian way of raising children and the
Indian concept of "permanency" is
that our children move between various relative home placements as often as necessary and this movement
between relative homes is an accept-
Court/ see page 3
Mountain apparently remembers
nothing of the incident.
Joyce Roy, Red Lake's Bureau of
Indian Affairs Criminal Investigator
and is heading a joint investigation,
asks if anyone knows anything of the
incident they can call the Red Lake
Police Department at 679-3313.