The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1995-05-07

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MAPP divided overworking with Bud Grant group
By Gary Blair
The Mille Lacs Anishanabe People' s
Party (MAPP) held another meeting
Wednesday at Catholic Charties
Branch One on Franklin Avenue in
Minneapolis.
Until recently the group's efforts
had focused on the Mille Lacs tribal
chairperson Marge Anderson, who
they say is violating band members
civil rights. However, the latest meeting centered on the organization's
contact with the Bud Grant/Howard
Hanson anti-Indian treaty bunch and
the debate over that involvement was
heated.
"I don't want to be seen as an 'Indian scout,' " one woman told the
group. She asked that her name not be
revealed due to fear of retaliation
against relatives living on the reservation.
"It's dividing people on the reservation against this group," Herbert
Wevaus said.
Others spoke about their frustration
with other band members living on
the resen'ation. "There is a lot of them
who know what' s going on, but they' re
too scared to speak-out," the woman
said. "I am not going to apologize to
anyone for talking with Howard
Hanson."
"What do we do, drop any contact
with them and go back to ten people at
our meetings?" said another man who
asked not to be identified. "Look at all
the people we have here just because
we've had contact with them, we have
twenty people here," he added.
Vincent Hill, MAPP's chairperson
told members that the organization
has no direct involvement with the
Bud Grant, Howard Hanson group. "I
think we haven't been clear about our
position and people have misunderstood our intent," Hill said. "The media
has ignored us and we need the publicity that group can get us," he added.
Hill polled MAPP members for their
opinion on continuing contact with
the Grant/Hanson group. The mem
bers voted a 75% margin to discontinue contact with the anti-Indian
treaty group. An additional vote was
then taken ofthe MAPP board members who were present and they voted
to continue dialog with the Grant/
Hanson supporters pending a vote by
the full board of the organization.
It is apparent MAPP's leadership realizes the Mille Lacs
Lake Treaty will ultimately
be settled in a court of law and
the civil rights violations of
band members will continue if
not enough attention is drawn
to the problem.
MAPP divided on with Bud Grant group/ pg 1
Children returned to Leech Lake home/ pg 1
Jim Northrup to perform at Illusion Theatre/ pg 8
Red Lake Elem. teams up Int'l. via computer/ pg 3
Indian leaders impatient for progress/ pg 1
Voice of the Anishinabek (The People)
1
The organization's leaders are willing to run the risk of dividing their
support for the time being in order to
bring theseissuesto the forefront. The
group's contact with the Grant/Hanson
group could prove to be helpful. It
could open-up communications with
non-Indians as never before.
Children returned to Leech Lake home
Fifty Cents
By Jeff Armstrong
After more than 12 years of
struggling with state and tribal social
service agencies for the return of her
son and daughter, a Leech Lake
woman regained custody of the
children from the Three Affiliated
Tribes of the Fort Berthold
Reservation, located within the state
of North Dakota. Pam Smith was
reunited with the children, James and
Tanya Martin, after a May 2 placement
hearing with a tribal social worker.
The resenation had intended to
commit the children, ages 12 and 14,
to "therapeutic foster care until 18
years old" because of abuses they
suffered in foster homes, but Smith
forced a hearing on the issue by
refusing to return the children to Fort
Berthold's custody after a holiday
visit.
Separated from her mother virtually
since birth, Tanya described her return
home as the fulfillment of a lifelong
dream. "I'm just surprised that they
finally gave us back to my mom. I'm
happy because I wanted to live with
her all my life. I'm already halfway
grownup," said Tanya. "I don't think
there's any way to ever make up for
being away from her so long," Tanya
said sadly.
Smith, who was just a few years
olderthan her children are today when
they were first separated by the state
of North Dakota, said the hearing was
the first to consider the wishes of
James and Tanya. "I don't know why
they couldn't have asked them where
they wanted to live years ago. They
told us they would have to work out
interstate compacts and transfer
custody to Leech Lake before we could
get them back, but they could have
given them to us at any time," said
Smith.
She said Fort Berthold Social
Senice worker Alana Baker initially
attempted to postpone the hearing
when Smith's nominal tribal
representative, Leech Lake Attorney
Anita Fineday, failed to appear. But,
Smith said, she was able to persuade
Baker of Fineday's conflict of interest
as a party to truancy charges filed
against two other children in her
home.   Smith said Baker informed
her that James and Tanya had been
having school attendance and
disciplinary problems, and that both
she and the children would be held
responsible for their actions. "She
told me it will be my problem now.
That's right. At least it will be my
problem and we can deal with it as a
family. It's been out of my control for
12 years, and they haven't even kept
me informed of what's happening."
Tim LaRose, a guardian for the
children and an outspoken critic of
the Leech Lake Resenation Business
Committee, said the issue is far from
resolved, accusing the RBC of
misrepresenting its constituents. "Our
own tribal administration was against
us," said LaRose. "They wouldn't do
anything because of their personal
vendettas against my family. They're
going to sit back and try to find
something to hang us with. Leech
Lake is making itself into an arm of
the county and state and using an
outside system to destroy our families
and our culture as Anishinabe people.
They're making it illegal to be an
Indian."
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal  Opportunity  For All  People
Founded   in 1988
Volume E    Issue 45 May 5, 1 995
I
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe Mews,  1995
Indian Hospitals unknowingly hire problem
doctors, GAO says
By Philip Brasher
WASHINGTON (AP) _The Indian
Health Senice screens its temporary
doctors so poorly that it has
unknowingly hired physicians with
histories of "gross and repeated
malpractice" and other misconduct,
congressional investigators say.
The IHS, which provides free care
to more than a million American
Indians, many on remote resenations,
is chronically short of medical staff
and relies heavily on temporary
physicians to fill vacancies.
The agency hires the doctors
through private companies. However,
the companies usually aren't required
to give the agency all the information
they have on the doctors, and the IHS
often does not check their credentials
independently, according to a report
by the General Accounting Office.
When IHS hospitals do discover
problem doctors, the facilities often
don't share the information with each
other, the report said. GAO is the
investigative arm of Congress.
"American Indian and Alaskan
Native patients should have
reasonable assurance that every
physician who treats them in an IHS
facility is qualified to do so," the
report said.
At two hospitals in Oklahoma, seven
of 50 temporary doctors referred to
IHS had prior performance or
disciplinary problems, the report said.
In one case, an IHS hospital
unknowingly hired an internist who
had been fined $3,000 and ordered to
attend 50 hours of medical education
for altering medical records and
providing poor treatment to a heart
patient. The hospital, which wasn't
identified, learned ofthe problem the
day before the doctor's term ended.
The investigation focused on
hospitals in Ada and Claremore,
Okla., but a GAO official said Friday
that other IHS facilities followed
similar practices in hiring temporary
doctors.
The investigators said IHS should
Superintendent and Shriner Roger Schmidt surrounded by 750 excited students on their way to the Shrine
Circus in Hibbing, MN. » photo byJulie Strons
750 Red Lake Elementary students go to the
Circus
750 Red Lake children piled into
busses early Friday morning, on their
way to the Shrine Circus in Hibbing.
The trip was sponsored by Red Lake
Superintendent and Shriner Roger
Schmidt, and the Shrine Club of.
Hibbing.
"I just wanted to do it for the
children, so they could see all the
animals. All the elephants, and
trapeze artists, everything's going to
be there," commented Schmidt.
There are seven Shrine hospitals
across the nation treating burned and
crippled children. The Shriners work
a 70 million dollar budget
accumulated through the Circus and
Shriners' donations.
Auditors say government programs better
run under Indians
Doctor cont'd on pg 3   Bv Phi,iPBrasher
First Indian securities firm opens on
Minnesota reservation
By Jeffrey Shelman
PRIOR LAKE, Minn. (AP) _
Mutual funds and municipal bonds
have replaced minimum bets and the
sound of a celebrating winner at the
original bingo hall on the Shakopee
Mdewakanton Dakota Resenation.
Most of the gambling on the
resenation 30 miles southwest of
Minneapolis has moved down the
road to the modern, flashy Mystic
Lake    Casino.    But    financial
transactions _ albeit ones that don't
depend on the bounce of ping-pong
balls _ are still being made at one of
Minnesota's first sites of Indian
gambling.
First American Securities Inc., the
first American Indian-owned
securities firm licensed by the
Securities and Exchange
Commission, opened offices in the
renovated former bingo hall in
January.
John Herrera, the founder and
chairman of the company, said that
while mainstream America can
deliver money for tribes, his company
has a greater understanding of what
tribes are looking for.
"There was a need in Indian country
for a financial senices firm that was
owned by someone who came from
Indian country," said Herrera, who
has a law degree from William
Mitchell College of Law and a master
of business administration from the
University of Minnesota. "There was
Firm cont'd on pg 3
High court to hear Chickasaw tax case
By Bunty Anquoe
Reprinted w/ permission
from Indian Country Today
Washington - Can a state impose
a fuel tax on gasoline sold by tribally
owned stores in Indian country?
The Supreme Court again took on
tribal sovereignty in agreeing to hear
Oklahoma Tax Commission vs.
Chickasaw Nation. It will be the only
federal Indian law case to be heard by
the high court in the 1994-95 term.
The nation's highest court will also
decide whether a treaty between the
United States and the tribe prohibits
Oklahoma from taxing the income of
tribal members who work for the tribe
on Indian lands but whose homes are
located outside Indian country.
The state asked the justices to
resene a decision made by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
in which the Appellate court held that
the state motor fuel tax on a tribal
retailer was preempted by federal law
prohibiting direct taxation on a tribe.
The 10th Circuit also held that
treaties forbid the imposition of state
income taxes on wages paid by the
tribe to tribal members employees on
tribal land, regardless of where a tribal
member lives.
Although the appellate court ruling
follows established federal Indian law,
the Chichasaw case may face a
difficulty because last summer the
Supreme Court created a gray area in
which a tribal member's residence
becomes a factor in deciding whether
state or federal law prevails.
In Oklahoma Tax Commission vs.
Sac and Fox Nation, the high court
established two new rules to determine
jurisdiction: To determine whether a
tribal member is exempt from state
income taxes, a court must first
determine the residence of that tribal
member; and if "the tribal members
live in Indian country - whether the
land is within resenation boundaries,
on allotted lands, or in dependent
communities," state income taxes are
preempted.
Therefore, if tribal members do not
live on Indian land but work there,
the state has taxing authority.
Conversely, if tribal members do live
in Indian country, but do not work for
the tribe, the state can then tax them.
Court cont'd on pg 3
WASHINGTON (AP) _ American
Indians have long argued that they
can run federal programs on their
reservations better than the
bureaucrats. Now an Interior
Department audit says the tribes are
right.
Tribes that took over federal
programs expanded resen'ation
senices, created new jobs and reported
"a sense of pride and
accomplishment," according to a
report by the department's inspector
general.
Tribes also established new
programs and "established their own
priorities rather than following the
objectives" of federal officials, the
auditors said.
Congress started allowing tribes to
take over federal programs in the late
1980s amid pressure from tribes for
more autonomy and heavy criticism
of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, long
considered one of the government's
worst-run agencies.
The programs, which include social
services, education and law
enforcement, had been run directly by
the BIA or through contracts with
tribes.
"We've said throughout history:
How can a guy in Washington who
doesn't understand the realities of
Indian life understand how the money
should be spent?" Jim Kalt, a
spokesman for Minrtesota's Mille
Lacs Band of Ojibwe, said in an
interview Tuesday.
Tribes that wish to operate federal
programs themselves negotiate with
the BIA for their share ofthe money.
So far, 29 of the 550 federally
recognized tribes have signed "self-
governance" agreements with the
BIA. Eleven other tribes are in
negotiations with the agency.
Some tribes are not qualified or
interested in taking over programs,
agency officials say.
The Interior Department auditors
reviewed 10 tribes that have, including
the Mille Lacs band and the Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma.
The tribes "generally increased the
services provided to their members
for essential programs... and created
new programs to further benefit the
tribes and individual members," the
auditors said.
Six of the tribes increased their
police forces; six added judges or
other court personnel; one started a
veterans affairs office; and eight tribes
increased their spending on housing,
the report said.
The tribes are not required to keep
job statistics, but one tribe, which
also runs Indian Health Service
programs, increased its employment
Auditor cont'd on pg 3
Indian leaders impatient for progress
By Philip Brasher
WASHINGTON (AP) _ American
Indian leaders say they won't be satisfied with high-level meetings at the
White House. They want faster
progress from the federal government
in improving conditions on their resenations.
"We'd like to see the federal government start to live up to a lot of
treaty obligations that they have,"
said Albert Hale, president of the
Navajo Nation.
Leaders of nearly 200 tribes attended a daylong private session Fri
day with senior Clinton administration officials, including Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Attorney
General Janet Reno. The meeting was
billed as a follow-up to a historic
meeting with President Clinton one
year ago.
"I don't know what the tribes are
going to come off with here today,"
Arlyn Ackley Sr., chairman of the
Sokaogon Chippewa Community of
Wisconsin, said at a news conference.
"Last year we got a replica of a
medal. This year we didn't even get a
cup of coffee."
Ada Deer, the assistant Interior
secretary for Indian affairs, said the
tribal leaders were expressing "pent-
up frustration" built up from years of
neglect by Republican
administrations.
"It takes time for government to
move. ...It takes time to overcome
these many problems," she said.
Some ofthe tribal leaders expressed
displeasure that Clinton was not there.
The White House said he didn't attend
because the meeting was a "working
session."
"Last year we sat in his garden.
Now we were about on the fence. We
need to get closer," saidTom Maulson,
Leaders cont'd on pg 3