The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1994-12-23

              Commissioner of Human Rights may be too
good at job for some local politicians
By Gary Blair
It has become a "Pandora's box"
since David Beaulieu, Commissioner
ofthe Minnesota Department ofHuman Rights (MDHR), charged the
City of Minneapolis with employment
discrimination in October of this year.
Beaulieu's complaint sighted the
Minneapolis Fire Department's hiring practices of Native Americans.
His complaint alleged the city was
hiring personnel that claimed to be
Native American but couldn't document any ancestral background.
According to PRESS sources close
to the issue, Beaulieu's discrimination charge is being disregarded by
Minneapolis officials. Not only is the
MDHR's complaint being ignored,
political forces at city hall are report
ing that there are plans to get rid of
Beaulieu right after state legislators
return from their Christmas break.
Sources say Beaulieu (who is a Native
American) has become more of an
activist than state polititians expected
and pressure will be applied to Governor Arne Carlson to have him removed.
Additionally, Beaulieu's removal is
planned so he won't be able to enforce
his department's discrimination
charges against the City of Minneapolis.
Beaulieu told the PRESS on Tuesday of this week, "%es, Fve heard
those rumors before. It's wishful thinking by some of my staff."
Beaulieu added, "It's the same old
thing that was reported by the Star
Tribune. I've been assured that I'll be
here."
But PRESS sources say Governor
Carlson doesn't like "messy" civil
rights cases and Beaulieu has done a
good job of earning out the mission of
his office.
To allegations that the source ofthe
rumors is coming from the state capital, Beaulieu responded, "I've been
assured by Governor Carlson that I'll
be here for another four years. I've
talked with the governor and I've
been putting together a new management team."
Sources say Beaulieu's deputy director Delores Frige, a black woman,
has been groomed to take control of
the State Human Rights Department
if Beaulieu was to be ousted.
Beaulieu was appointed by Governor Carlson four years ago when the
state's political winds were blowing
in a different direction.
Voice of the Anishinabeg (The People)
i
Minneapolis' first minority mayor may face
media blitz in '95
By Gary Blair
It appears Sharon Sayles Belton, the
City of Minneapolis' first black mayor,
could be in trouble. PRESS sources
say local media has been combing city
hall and questioning department heads
about complaints of dysfunction since
Belton took office nearly a year ago.
Allegations that Belton is seldom in
her office are part of the complaints
being leveled against her.
Other reports say she's become an
ineffective mayor. Part of the problem, it appears, is due to her lack of
minority7 support and loyalties to femi
nist groups who are trying to control
her. Additional reports say
council member Jackie Cherryhomes
wants to be the city's next mayor and
is part of the group secretly trying to
discredit Belton's administration.
Mary7 Pollack, the mayor's media
spokesperson, says the allegations are
"crazy."
However, sources also say some of
Belton's own staff have been working
against her and she's been ignoring
what's going on behind her back.
Additional reports say downtown
businessmen want Belton removed
from office because they feel a black
mayor will hinder their plans to build
an Indian controlled casino in that
part of the city.
It appears that part of Belton's problems started when she pressured the
city's fire chief to hire and promote
more female firefighters. They say
. Belton approached the fire chief when
his employment contract with the city7
was about' to end. As part of their
agreement Belton wanted a black female fire fighter promoted to a fire
investigator, but that person didn't
have the proper experience. Sources
say it's that and other reports that are
going to be leaked to the Minneapolis
Mayor cont'd on pg 3
Fifty Cents
OJibwWi
News
We Support Equal Opportunity  For All  People
Founded  in 1988
Volume G   Issue EG        December 23, 1 994
i
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe Mews,  1994
State officials reviewing Mille Lacs band's
spearing plans
i?'?'; 5 %•
ST. PAUL (AP) _ State officials
don't expect the Mille Lacs Band of
Chippewa's plans to spear northern
pike'next month on Lake Mille Lacs
to result in confrontations with angry
resort owners and anglers.
"Although they have very strong
feelings about band hunting and
fishing and although they perceive
fairness issues, peuple have shown a
willingness to work in the legislative
and judicial" arenas, assistant
Department of Natural Resources
commissioner Gail Lewellan said
Friday.
The band also will likely hold spring
spearing sessions for walleye and
northern pike on Mille Lacs, band
natural resources commissioner Don
Wedll said Thursday. The band's
northern pike spearing limit will be
three daily, with six allowed in
possession.
The spearing option is part of a
winter fishing season for band
members that has been submitted to
the DNR for review.
Band members will be issued tribal
spearing licenses good from Jan. 14
to Feb. 20, after which weekly spearing
licenses for northern pike will be
issued until the lake is ice-free.
The season for the band's 2,800
members would fall within a 12-
county area of east-central Minnesota,
where former U.S. District Judge
Diana Murphy in August reaffirmed
hunting and fishing rights granted to
the band in an 1837 treaty.
The state of Minnesota, a group of
Mille Lacs-area property owners and
some counties within the region had
argued in court that the band's off-
reservation rights had been
extinguished. Murphy's decision has
been appealed.
The trial's second phase _ in which
the region's fish, game and other
resources will be allocated between
band and non-band members will
begin in March 1996.
In October, Murphy ruled that the:
band could exercise its treaty rights
before the trial's second phase after
giving the state 30 days notice, unless
its plans presented concerns about
conservation, public health or safety.
If the state, counties or landowners
believe the band's plan raises such
concerns, the parties must attempt to
negotiate a solution. Barring that, a
From an 1865 lithograph: The execution of the 38 Lakota (Sioux) at Mankato, Minn., December 26,1862.
100-mile Memorial Run to Mankato honors
38 Dakotas executed in 1862
By Dr. David Gonzales
Plans cont'd on pg 3
A thirty-eight eagle feather staff
will sway in Minnesota's below zero
.   wintry night. December 25 and 26,
Gaming a dead issue after Navajo voters reject ^asDakotaandomermdigenous
runners gather at Fort Snelling by the
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Despite
support by the Navajo Nation Council
Navajo voters on Nov. 8 rejected a
referendum that would have opened
talks between the Navajo Nation and
Arizona and New Mexico state gaming commissions.
Voters dismissed the referendum to
open casino gaming by a 27, 022 to
21,988 vote. The Navajo Nation was
the first Indian nation to decide not to
seek gaming as a means of economic
development.
Newly elected President Albert Hale
said in a press conference after the
results were tallied that the Navajo
voters made their decision and he
would not pursue the gaming issue.
For now, the council cannot call for
another referendum, but 35 percent of
the voters can sign a petition asking
for a special election.
Warren Denetsosie, an economist
with the nation's Department of Economic Development, which was
charged with heading the gaming
project, said as far as his department is
concerned gamin is a dead issue until
it is resurrected by the community.
"If any action is going to happen, it
is going to happen at the chapter
level," Mr. Denetsosie said. A chapter
could decide to develop gaming
through a resolution that would then
go to the council for approval but it
would be a difficult process, he said.
Many Navajo people believed voters were leery ofthe ill repercussions
of gaming.
Gaming opponent Rosalyn Curtis,
the only woman to run for the presidency, was one ofthe voters who did
not want to see negative aspects of
gamin affect the Navajo people.
"When people want money to jingle
in their pocket, they'll do anything,"
Ms. Curtis said. "In voting no, Navajo
people should have a lot of pride. It's
the values of the Navajo people that
voted no."
A resolution passed by the Cameron
Chapter admonishes gambling as the
cause ofthe loss of family and properties, respect, sale of oneself, and
countless other negative effects."
Like many other nations across the
United States which are investing resources into the multi-million dollar
gambling industry, 15 of the 21 Arizona tribes are operating or planning
casino operations. It was estimated
that casino gambling would generate
approximately $50 million a year in
wages for the Navajo Nation, and
once the debt was repaid, $66 million
annually in tribal revenue.
Mr. Denetsosie said gaming would
have been a large enough operation to
generate a sizable number of jobs and
revenue - to supplement by gas and
coal lease income, which is in decline.
"We can't identify any one project to
create that number of jobs or revenue,
except maybe taxes," he said.
President Hale proposes dismantling
bureaucratic red tape to develop Navajo businesses in the hopes of establishing economic development.
Ms. Curtis also would like to see the
entrance ofthe old fort in Saint Paul
Gathering for the seventh winter at a
cold pre-midnight hour, Christmas,
near a sacred fire at the fort for the
100-mile relay memorial run to Mankato, will be the Mankato runners
who will follow the same trail, as close
as possible, that thirty-eight Dakota
men and boys were forced to go on that
concluded in the largest execution in
American legal history in 1862.
The book Saint Paul: The First 150
Years by Virginian Brainard Kunz in
1991, captured the wintry run as an
historicial event. We remember it
orally, as each year imprints it in our
collective consciousness.
The significances of this wintry memorial journey, for me as well, is my
memory ofthe person responsible for
its spiritual initiation, Amos Owen,
who passed away four years ago. Since
then, his two sons, Ray and Art Owen
and their family have continued to
organize and spiritually support it.
When I think of Amos Owen, I am
reminded of his words.
"Here," Amos told me on one occasion, "smudge them." And he gave me
a ropelike wrap of sacred sage. Each
runner stood still as I brushed them
from head to toe with the sweet odor of
the sage's smoke. Each one cupped
their hands and gathered the sacred
smoke to bring it up to their faces and
ruh it on their hair.
At the same time, the sacred flames
of our fire licked at the dark, inky
night; sparks flew, crackled and
popped. It was almost time to start, for
we would leave just after midnight.
We made a circle of human beings
near the sacred fire, and everyone
seemed to be of one mind and one
heart as Owen lit the pipe. This was
our first of many winter runs. The
Mankato run of 1990 had 40 below
zero winds. The run would continue
and December 25,1994, we again will
gather.
The memory of Amos Owen symbolizes our spiritual efforts to remind
ourselves, Indians and non-Indians,
of the need to remember Minnesota
history. The hanging of thirty-eight
Dakotas is the historicial metaphor,
Run cont'd on pg 3
Red Lake man indicted on second degree
murder
Non-Indians turning big profit with Indian Casinos
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ Three businessmen reportedly have turned investments of $5,000 apiece into stock
valued at more than $100 million
total in just four months, and they
received annual bonuses that last year
exceeded $500,000 apiece.
Their business is Indian casinos.
The men _ Lyle Berman, Stanley
Taube and David Anderson _ financed
a small bingo hall on the Mille Lacs
Reservation and made it the foundation of Grand Casinos Inc., now the
dominant management company in
the Indian gaming industry.
The men are, according to a newspaper report, an example of non-Indians who manage casinos or provide
financing and come up big winners.
Their profits come from selling stock
in their gaming companies, making
millions from investors in the stock
market.
But the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported Sunday that besides being smart businessmen with good timing, Berman, Taube and Anderson
benefited from contracts that federal
auditors since have found to exceed
legal limits, giving Grand Casinos
millions in extra casino profits at the
tribe's expense.
Grand Casinos, in turn, built on
those contracts, selling stock and raising millions more for gambling ventures in Minnesota, Mississippi and
Louisiana.
At times, stock owned by Grand
Casinos' three principals has been
worth more than three times what the
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - A thirty-
four year old Red Lake man was indicted today by a federal grand jury on
charges of second degree murder for
the shooting death of another Red
Lake man.
GaiTling Cont'd On pg 3      Curtis. Floyd Iceman was charged
with second degree murder, assault
and use of a firearm during a violent
felony. According to an affidavit filed
in the case, on the afternoon of November 30, Iceman allegedly went
Mille Lacs Band made for its whole
tribe through 1993, the Star Tribune
said.
Berman and his partners told the
newspaper that contracts were approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and said earnings were well-
deserved considering the risk they
took financing construction and remodeling of tribal casinos before
gambling's popularity was certain.
The Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa gets 60 percent of the profits
from a first-class gambling operation. It has made about $36 million
in three years off casino gambling
and used the money for a new clinic,
schools, sewers.
Profit cont'd on pg 3
back to a house on the reservation
where he and the victim had been
arguing. Iceman allegedly brought a
rifle with him and forced the victim to
get on his knees. Iceman then allegedly shot the victim in the left leg. The
victim was transported by air to Duluth but later died from his wounds.
Iceman was arrested and continues
to be held without bond. If convicted,
he faces a maximum potential penality
of life in prison for second degree
murder, up to ten years in prison for
assault and up to five consecutive
years in prison for the use of a firearm
during a violent felony. Any sentence
would be determined by a judge based
on the federal sentencing guidelines.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Red Lake Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Michael W. Ward is prosecuting the case.
Tribe shows appreciation after schools
changes team name
COTTAGE GROVE, Minn. (AP)
_ Last year, Park High School changed
its team name from the Indians to the
Wolfpack as a stand against racism.
When officials ofthe Prairie Island
Mdewakanton Sioux Community
visited the school recently to show
their appreciation, the principal
thought they'd present a plaque.
Instead, they gave the school a check
for $10,000'.
"That was the first time I've ever
seen our principal speechless," said
senior Chris Reckinger, Park's student
body president.
An officer of the tribe, which
operates the Treasure Island Casino
just outside Red Wing, said the tribal
council wanted to reward the school
for its efforts to raise sensitivity to
American Indians and their culture.
The matter was brought to the
council's attention by John Campbell,
a Cottage Grove resident and assistant
marketing director at Treasure Island.
Indian leaders called principal Walt
Lyszak, who told them about the
school's five-year effort to remove
the old Indian symbols and unite the
community around a new name, logo
and mascot.
Among other things, the school had
been removing Indian logos as it
bought new uniforms, and it replaced
two 8-foot-by-8-foot logos in the
school gym at a cost of about $2,500
to $3,000.
Name cont'd on pg 4