The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1994-10-14

              Joe Day hired as executive director of MIAC
By Gary Blair
The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) held a meeting on Wednesday, Oct., 12. 1994. at the Radisson
Hotel South in Bloomington. MN.
MIAC chairman Tig Pemberton led
a meeting which attendees commented
was refreshingly different from the
way meetings had been going in the
recent past. One person said it's like
new life has been breathed into the
council.
Marge Anderson, chairperson from
the Mille Lacs reservation and Bobbie
White Feather, chairperson from the
Red Lake reservation, attended the
meeting. The Mille Lacs reservation
hasn't been active in MIAC for nearly
four years and the Red Lake reservation for over ten years. Chip Wadena,
who had dominated the council as
chairman for the past ten years and
was responsible for the boycott by Red
Lake and Mille Lacs, sat in silence at
the meeting.
PRESS sources say Anderson and
White Feather were invited to attend
the meeting by Pemberton and they
were there just to observe. Other attendees included: Stanely Crooks,
chairman of the Shakopee
Mdewakanton Souix, Gilbert Caribou
from the Grand Portage Chippewa
reservation and Gary Donald of the
Boise Fort Chippewa. There were representatives from the upper and lower
Sioux reservations. There were no
representatives from the Prairie Island reservation present.
During the meeting, the council
voted to hire loe Dav. 49. a Leech
Votes from the grave/ pg 8
Joe Day hired as MIAC E.D./ pg 1
U of M Native students make recom. to admin/ pg 1
Wub-e-ke-niew's column/ pg 4
Wanted - Senator Skipp Finn/ pg 4
Voice of the Anishinabeg (The People)
MAIC cont'd on pg 3
Judge approves settlement of casino lawsuit
i
By Matt Kelley
SIOUX FALLS. S.D. (AP) _ A federal judge has approved a $182,000
settlement of a lawsuit over management of a tribal casino near Watertown,
despite objections from three ofthe five
tribal members who filed it.
The lawsuit accused Gambler's Supply Inc. of Sioux Falls of swindling the
Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe out of
more than $1 million under an illegal
casino management contract.
U.S. District Judge John B. Jones
approved the settlement Tuesday.
Maynard Bernard, speaking for the
three tribal members, said the setde-
ment was too small for the amount of
money in dispute.
Jones gave Bernard 30 days to appeal.
Bernard said he would decide whether
to appeal after talking with a lawyer.
The settlement would be split three
ways: theplaintiffswouldsplit $75,000,
the tribe would get $75,000, and Gale
Fisher, the attorney who prepared the
suit, would receive $32,750.
Bernard said he suspected GSI was
eager to settle the suit because it is
awaiV.v\s approval to run a riverboat
casino in low a. The Iowa Racing and
Gaming Commission meets to consider the request Thursday.
Company lawyer Gary Thimsen did
not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.
Iowa gaming commission chairman
Richard Canella said Tuesday he did
not know if the suit would affect GSI's
application to run the Miss Marquette
floating casino.
On Tuesday, Terry Hir'sch, director
of riverboat gambling for Iowa's Racing and Gaming Commission, said the
South Dakota proceedings wouldn't
necessarily disqualify- GSI because it
doesn't appear there's any evidence of
WTongdoing strictly related to gaming.
"Anybody can sue anybody," Hirsch
said.
Bernard and four other Sisseton-
Wahpeton Sioux filed the lawsuit in
Casino cont'd onpg 3
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
We Support  Equal  Opportunity Far All  People
Founded   in 19SS
' UBWWHill'PI |i|HPH|i HI
Volume G    Issue 1 E October 14, 1994
]
A weekly publication.
Copyright. The Ojibwe Mews,  1994
Arrests made for illegal buying of gamefish
Minneapolis, Minn. — An international undercover operation has led to
the indictment often individuals, including eight men from Northern Minnesota, for illegally buying and selling protected gamefish and caviar.
The grand jury charged Lonnie
Leroy Watne, 39, from Goodridge,
Matthew Curtis Hunt, 43, from
Walker, Benjamin Elmer Jackson, 54,
from Iron; Richard Schaefbauer, 56,
from Virginia; Darrell D. Westcott,
59, from Winger; Joseph Jacob Thunder, III, 27; Douglas Wayne King, 31;
Llewellyn Charles Thunder, 24 all
from Redby; Michael Francis Quinn,
45, from Bloomington; and Robert
Leshanky, 38, from Valley Stream.
NY. The indictments charged misdemeanor and felony violations of the
Lacey Act.
The cases were the result of a three
year cooperative investigation, known
as the Cooperative Commercial Wildlife Investigation, initiatedin response
to information that revealed there was
an illegal commercial marketfor regulated gamefish in Ontario, Canada,
and the upper midwest of the United
States.
Agencies involved in the cases include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigators, Leech Lake and Red Lake
Tribal Conservation Officers, the
Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources, the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources and the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources.
In order to infiltrate the illegal market, in 1990 the agencies opened an
undercover wholesale specialty foods
business in Hastings, MN known as
CAN-AM Foods, Inc. During the
course of the undercover operation.
CAN-AM Foods purchased legal and
illegally taken fish from commercial
fisherman, as well from wholesale
fish dealers who knowingly purchased
illegally taken fish.
Mahnomen treaty rights case a surprise
During the investigation the Minnesota DNR and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service also received complaints from Leech Lake and Red Lake
Reservation fishermen and tribal conservation officers that gamefish were
being illegally bought and sold.
The Lacey Act prohibits the possession, transportation and sale of wildlife thathasbeen illegally taken, transported, bought or sold in violation of
tribal law or federal regulation.
If convicted, the defendants face a
maximum potential penalty of five
years in prison and/or $250,000 fine,
for each felony Lacey Act violation
and up to one year in prison and/or a
$100,000 fine for each misdemeanor
Lacey Act violation. The actual sentence would be determined by a judge
based on the federal sentencing guidelines.
Assistant United States Attornev
Jeanne J Graham is prosecuting \kv Tnc Council of Indian Students sponsored float received the first place trophy at this years BSU homecoming
parade last weekend. Pictured (I-r) are Andy Kader, Bradley Downwind, Christina Dupris, Melvin Losh and
Rachelle Heisler, driving the float was David Morgan. staff photo
cases.
By Lu Ann Hurd-Lof
Staff writer,  Becker County
Record
Another case based on treaty rights,
this lime on the White Earth Reservation, has the Minnesota Department
of Natural Resources in a stir.
"It is a complete reversal ofthe way
we have operated the last 100 years,"
said Bill Spence, DNR Division of
Enforcement field operations officer
in Bemidji.
According to court documents,
Judge M. Roue, district court judge in
Mahnomen County, ruled Aug. 2 on a
case involving three enrolled members of the Whit,e Earth Band. The
three were charged with trespassing
on privately owned, posted agriculture lands located within the boundaries of the White Earth Reservation.
The charges were brought by Mahnomen County law enforcement, not a
DNR conservation officer.
Attorney Peter Cannon, representing the defendants, asked for dismissal
on the grounds that as treaty Indians
the three have an absolute right to
hunt within the confines ofthe reservation free of regulation by the state
and that they have an implied easement to enter privately owned lands
for that purpose.
Judge Roue agreed and dismissed
the charges for lack of state jurisdiction. He write that "tribal members
have an easement to go upon such
private lands to exercise their hunting
rights and arc no subject to prosecution for trespass while doing so."
According to the DNR, the ruling is
being reviewed by the Attorney
General's office.
In the meantime, the DNR's position, according to  Capt.  Byron
Dyrland, enforcement supervisor, is
to turn complaints of Indians trespassing on non-Indian private lands
within the reservation over to the sheriff, not only Mahnomen County but in
Clearwater and Becker counties as
well.
Cannon declined to comment on the
case, admitting this may be the first
time a judge in Minnesota had ruled
this way, but indicating there have
been similar decisions in other states.
Gerald Paulson, Mahnomen County-
attorney, who represented the county,
said the decision was "very disappointing" and law enforcement intends to continue to enforce the existing statutes. "If a case presents itself,
charges willbebrought,"Paulsonsaid,
adding next time if a similar decision
is reached, it may be appealed.
Paulson said if the decision stands,
the ramifications of the judge's finding in this case are obviously.
Charges against Aboriginal harvesters
wasting and money, says UCCM
By Dwayne Nashkawa
Reprinted with permission
of Anishinabck News
Gore Bay, Ontario - Operation
Rainbow represents "an abuse of state
power," while wasting time and resources, said the United Chiefs and
Councils of Manitoulin Island re
cently.
The tribal council made the charge
as court proceedings began for more
than 20 fish and wildfish harvesters at
Gore Bay, most of whom are Ojibway
or Odawa Nations residents on
Manitoulin.
"If the money Ontario has spent on
this investigation had been dedicated
instead to negotiations, we believe
that the issues would already have
been resolved," read a press release
prepared by the UCCM.
Six years ago, more than 30 Ministry of Natural Resources Conservation Officers began the largest hunting and fishing sting in the history of
Ontario. By the winter of 1990, more
Charges cont'd on pg 3
UofM-Twin Cities Native American students
make recommendations to administration
Fraudulent Medicine Men Posing Problems
for Traditional Healers
By Denis M Scarlcs
DENVER (AP) _ The mystique of
pulsing tom-toms and chanters, the
casting of sands and movies like
"Dancing With Wolves" are creating
problems for authentic American
Indian medicine men.
Non-Indians with terminal diseases
such as AIDS or cancer are seeking
them out in growing numbers for
cures. Ncw-Agcrs and yuppies,
forsaking their own heritage, offer
cash to attend spiritual ceremonies.
And of even more concern to tribal
spokesmen are frauds posing as
medicine men. Often living in the
cities, they charge exorbitant prices
for healing and spiritual ceremonies.
Indian leaders, however, believe
medicine men lose their powers and
stir up evil and disharmony if they
leave the place where the creator gave
them their powers.
"A lot of their power comes from
the area where they were born," said
Charles Cambridge, a Navajo and
anthropologist who teaches ethnic
studies al the University of Colorado
in Denver.
Cambridge belongs to the Folded
Arms Clan with family lands near
Shiprock. N.M., on the Navajo
reservation.
Cambridge said most fraudulent
untrained people who "decided to con
non-Indians for economic reasons."
He believes that when an authentic
medicine man moves to the city for
economic reasons, he has become
selfish and will start losing his powers.
"The cures and rituals people will
undergo with him become dangerous
because these rituals have become an
evil force _ everything that is done
becomes disruptive instead of
healing." Cambridge said.
Rick Two Dogs, a respected Oglala
Lakota medicine man on the Pine
Ridge Reservation in South Dakota,
traces his medicine-man lineage back
at least 250 vears.
medicinemen fall into two categories    .- ,
_ apprentices who dropped out and   rTaUQS Cont'd On pg 3
By Dr. Josie R. Johnson
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Provost
University of Minnesota
Editor's Note: This is the first of a
periodic column by Dr. Josie Johnson, Associate Vice President for
A cademic Affairs and A ssociate Provost at the University of Minnesota.
The column will feature activities
and programs at the University that
relate to students and communities
of color.
The University of Minnesota has a
long history of collaboration with
members ofthe communities of color
on many issues of mutual interest
and concern. In May 1991, President
Nils Hasselmo established four minority advisory committees representing the African American,
American Indian. Asian/Pacific Is-
landerand Chicano/Latino/Hispanic
communities.
These advisorv committees offer a
vehicle by which the communities of
color can provide the President with
advice and guidance regarding the
recruitment, retention and graduation
of minority students, as well as the
scholarly success and satisfaction of
minority faculty members.
Committee Recommendations:
In July 1994, the President's minority
advisorv- committees submitted to the
Board of Regents many recommendations on what the University could
and should do to help remove barriers
to the successful recruitment and retention of minority students and faculty.
The American Indian Advisory
Committee, co-chaired by Dean
BirdsbillandTammv Stromstad, made
the following recommendations:
Recruitment
1. Provide a comprehensive and
culturally relevant recruitment package, which should include video tapes,
displays, pamphlets, etc.
2. Continue to provide an updated,
comprehensive guide detailing academic and financial aid services available to American Indian students at
all levels.
3. Utilize American Indian staff
members to plan and implement recruitment strategies that network
American Indian circles where outstanding students can be found.
4. Provide resources to recruit outstanding American Indian students
for both professional and graduate
programs, as well as undergraduate
programs.
5. Offer American Indian students
comprehensive financial aid packages
in a time frame that is competitive
with other leading academic institutions.
6. Offer scholarships, fellowships,
grants, academic appointments and
work-study opportunities for American Indian students in a manner which
will promote increased enrollment.
7. Reward American Indian students
who achieve and maintain academic
excellence.
8. Consider the use of "free tuition"
or "tuition waiver" for American Indian students as a recruitment tool for
U of M cont'd on pg 5
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