The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1994-06-24

              Accusations of mismanagement at AIHCA
By Gary Blair
The American Indian Health Care
Association (AIHCA), located in St.
Paul, MN received $2,507,295 in
1992, and of that amount $2,174,510
came from U.S. government grants.
Since that time the non-profit
organization had to borrow money to
meet one of it's payrolls and hasn't
been able to pay their other operational
expenses in 1993. Most recently the
group's Board of Directors stripped
their Executive Director, Carol
Marquez Baines, of her authority and
she has since resigned effective June
16, 1994.
In October, 1993 Norine Smith,
director of the Minneapolis Indian
Health Board (IHB) was reprimanded
by her AIHCA colleagues at the
group's convention held in St. Paul.
Smith was censured for conflict of
interest for serving as President of
AIHCA's Board of Directors while
Baines, the director of AIHCA, served
on IHB's Board of Directors as that
organization's chairperson.
Former AIHCA staff members
report the arrangement led to the
problems within the organization
which have developed within the past
19 months. They stated Smith
appointed Baines an Association
AIHC A/cont'd pg 5
Accusation of mismanagement at AIHCA/pg 1
Suit filed in Red Lake seeks new election/pgl
Nonprofit group sues to protect burial mounds/pg 3
Voice of the Anishinabeg (The People)
Urban Indians want recognition, funding
By Bunty Anquoe
Today Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON ~ Native Americans
who do not live on reservations say
they often feel stripped of their status
as Indians.
Last Friday, about 180 individuals
representing several urban Indian
organizations from across the nation
met with Clinton administration
officials and senior White House staff
to discuss the problems facing tribal
members who live off the reservation.
Participants told the administration
that Indian people who live in urban
centers often have nowhere to turn
because their problems are largely-
ignored by states and counties. They
also said they have little or no access
to tribal, BIA and Indian health
services because they simply live too
far away. Another meeting is
scheduled for Sept. 30.
All Indian people face a host of
tough problems including a lack of
housing, high school dropout rates,
inadequate health care and rising rates
of unemployment, inadequate health
care, teen violence, teen pregnancies
and juvenile crime, participants said,
but these problems are often worse for
Indian in cities because nonprofit
urban Indian centers are too small
and underfunded to cope with the
need.
Scarce federal resources and
funding competition have, over the
years, pitted tribal governments
against urban Indian groups.
Lee Ann Tall Bear, an educator
from Minnesota, said federal social
and health services should extend to
tribal members who live in cities, not
just to reservation residents.
"The right to education is a trust
obligation and Indian people have a
right to this education no matter where
we live," she said. "We have paid a
high price and all of us come from the
same place."
The
Fifty Cents
OJihWi
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 1988
A weekly publication.
Volume 5 Issue 52       June 24, 1994
Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1994
Peltier, Banks ask California AIM members to
cease disruptive activities
By Shelley Davis
Native American Press
National Correspondent
Notable political prisoner Leonard
Peltier wrote a letter to Carole Standing Elk, Northern California American Indian Movement, Inc. executive
director, and Fern Mathias, Southern
California AIM. Inc. executive director, stating the two do not "in anyway" represent Peltier or his Defense
Committee.
"Your attacks further stated that the
two have "attempted to destroy every
event we have ever organized in the
Los Angeles area. You have attacked
Peter Coyote, Bobby Castillo, my
LPDC staff, and many other friends of
mine in your crusade for supremacy."
Peltier's letter maintained that the
women have publicly said he does not
represent AIM and that he cannot use
the Movement's name on the merchandise the Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee sells to help pay the legal
fees, phone bills and the promotion of
his case.
"You have lied and deceived the
people of Los Angeles," the letter
states. "It must stop now."
It also expressed that he has told
them verbally that he would not permit them to "pretend to represent my
case" and that he has written a statement in which he named Los Angeles
AIM as a group he does not work with
or recognize as legitimate. "You are
both guilty of fraud. You're also guilty
of cowardice and deception." Peltier
stated in the letter. "AIM should have
no place for individuals like yourselves."
The letter stated that Peltier will not
tolerate "your blatant abuse and exploitation of my case any longer" and
requested that Standing Elk and
Mathias "cease and desist." It was
signed by Peltier and dated May 24th,
1994.
A letter addressed to Standing Elk
and Mathias and signed by Dennis
Banks, board member of the National
American Indian Movement. Inc. of
Minneapolis, Minnesota, stated that
Leonard [Peltier] had contacted him
regarding the two women's alleged
"interference" with Peltier events in
AIM/contfd pg 2
VVyb-e-ke-niew (a. k. a, Francis Blake) talks about his new book "We Have the Right to Exist"
Former MIAC head's wife sentenced for theft at t0be pub,ished by B,ack Thist,e Press N Y NY
Gilfillan Center
BEMIDJI - Fifty-year-old Mary
Ester Head of Bemidji, pleaded guilty
to felony theft for embezzling funds
from the Archdeacon Gilfillan Center,
and was sentenced Monday in
Beltrami County Court.
Mrs. Head, 117 Westvvood Acres,
was placed on supervised probation
after Judge James Preece ordered her
sentence stayed for ten years. Head
must also serve a six month jail term,
and pay restitution and serve 500
hours of community service work.
As part of an agreement, Head's
felony conviction will be reduced to a
misdemeanor and removed from her
permanent record once probation is
satisfactorily completed.
According to a criminal complaint,.
officials at the center discovered in
November 1993 that Head embezzled
$62,410.09 as the head bookkeeper.
Four days after Head resigned from
the center after 24 years as an
employee, Administrator Richard
Wolleat contacted the Bemidji Police
Department to report an
embezzlement.
Wolleat reported the center received
a check, made out to Head and
improperly endorsed, the day after
she announced her departure. When
confronted, Wolleat said Head
admitted to forging and cashing the
check. An investigation of the
bookkeeping records revealed
additional forged checks, including
one made out to the University of
North Dakota, apparently used by-
Head to pay for her son's tuition.
According to a court transcript from
her plea hearing in May, Head said
she had access to the center's funds
throughout her 24 years of
employment there but only began
embezzling in 1983 or 1984. Head
admitted she took more than $200,000
in about a ten year period from the
center.
Head's husband, Roger, resigned
from his position as executive director
of the Minnesota Indian Affairs
Council a day after his wife was fired.
He told a reporter that he quit to
pursue other job prospects. He has not
been implicated for any wrong doing.
The Indian Affairs Council provides
loans to American Indian-owned
businesses and serves as a go-between
with state agencies and Minnesota's
11 Chippewa and Sioux tribes. It has
offices in Bemidji and St. Paul.
The Gilfillan Center is a residential
treatment facility located in Bemidji,
Minnesota, which provides intensive
counseling and special schooling for
emotionally and physically abused
children ages 8 to 18.
The Center and the adjoining Edith
Hatch Evaluation Center currently
are two of five programs operated by
the Episcopal Community Services,
Inc. (ECSI), which is located at 430
Oak Grove St., Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Other programs operated by ECSI
are the Midway Home, a group home
located on the White Earth
Reservation; the Birchview Group
Home located south of Bagley,
Minnesota andPutting It All Together
(PAT), a career counseling, job search
program for low income women who
are heads of households located in the
Twin Cities.
According to their 1992 audit, total
public support and revenue for ECSI
was $4,582,421, of which 80% was
fees and grants from government
agencies. The C.P.A. firm of Hansen,
Jergenson & Co. of 3800 West 80th
perforrned the audit.
Knife-wielding woman shot by police
By Gary Blair
According to a recent press release,
an Anoka, Minnesota police officer
shot and killed White Earth enrollee
Wilma Jean Brown, 43, of Ponsford,
Minnesota.
The incident is reported to have
occurred in Anoka at 8:30 p.m. on
June 12,1994. A police spokesperson
says their department received a 911
call "that a female was threatening
herself and others with a knife."
They say once officers arrived
Brown was instructed to put the knife
down. Despite warnings she continued
to advance on the officers and three
shots were fired, killing her.
The police spokesperson said Brown
was intoxicated at the time of the
shooting, however, calls from
Ponsford say the police report states
the victim was 22 feet from the officers
at the time she was shot.
The police spokesperson also said
they had difficulty in notifying
Brown's family of her death. Brown,
they say, had been raised in a foster
home and that was the reason they
couldn't find her family members
sooner.
The two officers involved are on
administrative duty pending a grand
jury' ruling.
The State Bureau of Criminal
Apprehension and the Anoka County
Sheriffs department and the County
Coroner's Office are reported to be
handling the investigation., the
spokesperson said.
Tribe won't tap gaming to build school
Witness tells of historic pressure on Chippewa
By Pat Doyle, Staff Writer
Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Mille Lacs Chippewa engaged
in a "relentless struggle" in the 19th
century to hold onto their way of
fishing and hunting against a rushing
tide of settlers, according to testimony-
Wednesday in the treaty rights trial.
The pressure on them was intense. A
former Minnesota governor referred
to Indians as "savage miscreants" in a
proclamation ordering them to stay-
on their reservations or face the
militia.
As recently as the turn of this
century, a Mille Lacs County sheriff
confiscated the property of 25
reservation familiesandburned down
their homes. The government paid
$40,000 to the Indians in 1902 for
compensation and to coax them into
move.
Anthropologist James McClurken
provided an unvarnished and not-so-
pretty picture of a state that was
changing rapidly from Indian to white
in the latter half of the 19th century.
The testimony also showed why
Chippewa on the Mille Lacs
reservation today refer to themselves
as members of the "non-removable
Mille Lacs band."
The band argues that treaties
betw een it and the federal government
preserving fishing and hunting
Treaty/cont'd pg 3
By Jason Skog
Duluth News-Tribune staff writer
Fond du Lac Chippewa reservation
members voted overwhelmingly
Tuesday not to use tribal gaming
profits to build a new $9 million Fond
du Lac Ojibwe School.
The vote means the reservation will
have to relay on federal funding to
replace the aging school, and tribal
officials say they don't expect any of
those dollars until 1999.
Referendum results showed 474
members were opposed to using
gaming profits for a new- school, while
only 173 supported the proposal.
Today's reservation school holds more
than 300 students in pre-school
through 12th grade. The school is
overcrowded and needs repairs, so
reservation members called the
referendum to decide if gaming profits
should be used to build a new one.
The new building would have held as
many as 420 students ranging in
kindergarten through 12th grade, 100
more preschoolers and i ncluded three
classrooms for adult technical
education.
Referendum opponents made it clear
they didn't want to use gaming receipts
for education—that money should
come from the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. But Fond du Lac is 14th on
the bureau's education funding list,
and tribal officials aren't holding their
breath.
"The facility will probably be
condemned before we ever get the
dollars," Robert "Sonny" Peacock,
tribal chairman for the Fond du Lac
band, said of the current school.
Which is why Peacock wanted to see
the referendum passed and have the
federal government reimburse the
reservation for at least part of the cost
of the new school.
"If you ship doesn't come in,
sometimes you have to paddle, out to
it," Peacock said.
In other Fond du Lac election results,
Pete DeFoe Jr. was elected secretary-
treasurer of the band with 418 votes;
and Daryold Blacketter was elected
Sawyer representative for the band
with 118 votes.
[Reprinted with permission from the
Duluth News-Tribune, June 15, 1994
edition.]
Preliminary hearing for murdered youth continues
Suit filed in Red Lake Court seeks new election
By Bill Lawrence
According to a complaint filed today in the Red Lake Nation Court,
four unsuccessful candidate are asking the court to order the Red Lake
Tribal Council to conduct a new election for the offices of secretary and
Redby Reps, (both seats). Filing the
complaint as Plaintiff's are Eugene
Stillday, Sr. (secretary),Tom
Westbrook, Clarence Stately and Betty
Schoenborn (Redby reps.).
The complaint states "That Article
V, Section 5 (B) as amended provides
in part, anyone who has been convicted or is under indictment for a
criminal felony offense shall be ineligible to become a candidate in any
Tribal Election." That upon information and belief the election referred
to above taking place on or about May
25,1994, included candidates who are
not in compliance with the revised
constitution of the Red Lake Band of
Chippewa Indians cited above. That
as a result of votes being cast in favor
By Shelley Davis
Native American Press
National Correspondent
Stilwell, OK - The preliminary
hearing for the alleged murder of
Donald Beartrack, Jr., 17, has been
continued again as the defense called
witnesses in June.
Beartrack's body was found north of
Watts, in Adair County, under a bridge
near the Illinois River. There were
two bullet wounds in his head, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing. A vehicle license tag
number was written twice on
Beartrack's arm leading authorities to
three suspects.
Suspect Joe Dale Cox, 25, of
Ringling, has gone through competency testing and will have a competency hearing in early July. Suspects
Bret Lee Adams, 23, of Watts, and
Howard Russell Murray, 21, of
Healdton, have been involved in the
preliminary hearing since April. All
three suspects have been charged with
first degree murder.
The defense called a former cellmate
of Cox who testified that Cox had told
him the first bullet was meant for
Adams.
Raymond Dugger testified that Cox
said he shot Beartrack because "he
didn't like Indians."
Cox allegedly told Dugger he should
have shot Adams and Murray, as well,
and authorities would have never
found out, according to Dugger's testimony. Cox had been placed in a cell
with Dugger after he was arrested
March 7. .
Defense attorneys claim their clients were not involved in the shooting
of Beartrack.The preliminary will be
continued June 29. Cox is scheduled
for a competency hearing early July.
He has been released from the state
hospital where competency tests were
given and is now in the custody of
Adair County Sheriffs Department.
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