The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1995-06-30

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Mahnomen Deputy arrested on sexual
assault, misconduct charges
by Jeff Armstrong
A Mahnomen County Deputy with a
reputation on the White Earth
Anishinabe reservation as a racist
thug was arrested and jailed June 26
on 11 felony charges of criminal
sexual conduct, and four counts each
of misconduct of a public officer and
unlawful use of a teargas compound.
Mahnomen is the only county in the
United States located entirely within
the boundaries of an Indian
reservation.
30-year-old Kevin Penner, a six-
year veteran of Mahnomen County
law enforcement, is accused of
repeatedly raping and otherwise
assaulting at least two White Earth
women while on official duty.  The
misconduct charges stem from the
unwarranted use of mace.
According to the criminal complaint
against Penner, the deputy forced one
woman to engage in sexual acts
"approximately 40-50 times" between
the spring of 1991 and winter of 1992.
The complaint further alleges that he
pushed the victim out of a window
and subsequently arrested her, before
ending his systematic abuse.
Penner is being held in Polk County
Jail in Crookston, MN on $75,000
bond pending a June 29 hearing in
Mahnomen County, which transferred
prosecution ofthe case to Polk County
to avoid any conflict of interest.
While the charges do not specify
the race of the abused women, an
investigator with the state Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension confirmed
that "The majority of the victims are
Native American." Decliningto speak
on the record, the BCA investigator
said, "There will be more charges
coming. The investigation will
continue."
White Earth activist Joe LaGarde
said Penner's violently erratic
behavior has been no secret on the
resenation. "We know about the
three women this has taken place
with as far as the sexual assault. We've
known for years that he's out of
whack," LaGarde said.
Penner has been widely suspected of
involvement in the November 1994
fatal shooting of White Earth Land
Recovery Project organizer Richard
LaGarde, Joe'sbrother. DickLaGarde
Charge cont'd on pg 3
Resort owner clashes with tribal members
over beach on White Earth reservation
By Gary Blair
The June heat wave appears to have
increased the growing tension between a resort owner on the White
Earth reservation and tribal members
who do not want to pay 50 cents per
day to swim at that facility's beach.
The resort's owner, John Karl, told
the PRESS Wednesday evening, "We
couldn't control the people who were
coming here. They weren't just from
the reservation. They were from all
over the area. They were throwing
trash all over the place. They were
people of all ages. Now we have better control."
Reservation residents residing near
the Cedar Crest resort on White Earth
Lake see the pay to use the beach
policy as unfair.
Lowell Bellanger said, "Indian
people are getting tired of having to
pay to swim on property that belongs
to a tribal member.   We're getting
ready to close the place down." He
explained, "The land was allotted and
then heired to my mother-in-law
Margret Lovekins Hanks. Later it was
lost through tax forfeiture to Becker
County."
"Most recently representatives from
WELSA (White Earth Land Settlement Act) were in White Earth and
offered my mother-in-law $247.00 for
the 60 acres of lake shore property,"
Bellanger continued. " I told her to
keep the land, if she wanted $247.00
I would give it to her," he says.
Karl, however, denies the land has
a clouded title. "I think they're talking about the land just north of me,"
he said. Bellanger fired back, "No,
that's the land. He (Karl) was one of
those white people who was pushing
hard to have our land claims settled
right away. All ofthe other lakes close
by have been cut off to us and some of
them are also on Indian land."
Karl countered, "There are other
beaches on the resen'ation, but bottles
were broken in the water during the
many parties that were held there and
now they can't use them. We've
worked hard to keep our beach nice.
We've had the 50 cents per day policy
for the last eight years."
"However," he continued, "last
week I did have an adult Indian man
complain to me about the beach
policy. I am a business man who has
to make money so I can pay my taxes."
Bellanger says the problem has another side to it. "Karl's father-in-law
is Loren Thompson, a former state
representative," he explained. "He had
close ties to Chip Wadena (the
resenation's chairman) for years."
When asked if Wadena had ever offered to try and pay so Indian people
could use the beach, Karl answered,
"No."
Bellanger said of Wadena, "We
heard Chip is in Minneapolis giving
testimony to a federal grand jury. We
heard he's going to be indicted for
corruption real soon."
Pine Ridge landowners reject Wounded
Knee National Park bill
By Shelley Davis-
Wounded Knee, South Dakota—A
bill which has been introduced to the
United States Senate to establish a
Wounded Knee National Tribal Park
has landowners ofthe Pine Ridge Resenation community concerned.
The bill, which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Indian
Affairs, states its purpose is to establish the tribal park and "for other purposes." The Wounded Knee Landowners Association (WKLA) submitted a repartee to the bill, listing point
by point the association's concerns.
The first concern raised by the as
sociation refers to the "other purposes" as they were not found in the
bill. The WKLA also asked why Chief
Spotted Elk is constantly referred to
as "Chief Big Foot," as this was not
his name but a name given him by
soldiers against whom he fought.
The bill, S.382, states, "in December of 1890, approximately 350 to 375
Sioux men, women and children under the leadership of Chief Big Foot
journeyed from the Cheyenne River
Indian Reservation to the Pine Ridge
Indian Resenation at the invitation
of Chief Red Cloud to help make
peace between the non-Indians and
Indians."
To this the WKLA responds that the
Utilities give go ahead to storage project
Mahnomen Deputy arrested on various charges/ pg 1
Resort owner clashes with WE tribal members/ pg 1
Pine Ridge landowners reject National Park bill/ pg 1
Menominees vow fierce fight against Crandon/ pg 6
Senator Grams invites Gore to tour Prairie Island/ pg 8
Voice of the Anishinabek (The People)
1
line is misleading. "Journeyed" indicates an orderly and common journey
as opposed to the desperate flight from
the soldiers after the assassination of
Sitting Bull, as is the truth.
"We believe the word 'journeyed'
perpetuates the great lie that is the
government's version of the history
of Wounded Knee," the WKLA states.
WKLA also stated that the invitation statement is misleading because
"the people were fleeing for their lives
not to participate in a powwow with
other tribes or the Army." The bill
utilizes words like "intercepted," "escorted" and "incident." The WKLA
Park cont'd on pg 3
MESCALERO, N.M. (AP) _ A
Mescalero Apache facility to store
highly radioactive fuel from nuclear
power plants could open by the year
2002, now that 23 utilities from around
the country have pledged support.
The above-ground facility would
house spent fuel from reactors for up
to 40 years, until the federal
government develops a permanent
storage site. The facility must be
licensed by the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
"Funding committed by the utilities
will be used for the planning,
engineering, design and license
application phases ofthe project," the
tribe said Monday in a news release.
Led by Minneapolis-based Northern
States Power Co., the utilities backing
the proposal represent about 75 ofthe
nation's 110 commercial nuclear
power plants, the tribe said.
Tribal members on Jan. 31
ovenvhelmingly voted against the
project, which is opposed by
communities in south-central New
Mexico and members of the state's
congressional delegation. The project
was revived in March after a petition
drive and a second, successful
referendum that pitted tribal members
against each other in ugly verbal
sparring matches.
The Mescalero government said it
wants the radioactive fuel storage
facility to spur economic development
and to create jobs on the reservation,
where one in three tribal members is
unemployed. The tribe has about 3,475
Storage cont'd on pg 3
The Extreme Edge of Freedom
By Nick Van Der Puy
The last story in this series was
entitled, "The Grove of Joy," celebrated Danish soldier-of-fortune
Wilhelm Dinesen's 1870's journey to
the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa
territory.
The Danish officer and hunter earlier obsened some plains tribes like
the Pawnee wither under alcohol, the
U.S. Army and sodbusting farmers.
By contrast, the northern forest
Chippewa, were living out their last
decade insulated from timber interests and enjoying a traditional lifestyle.
Dinesen's Danish daughter, Karen
Blixen, grew up to write a great twentieth century novel, "Out of Africa."
In the early summer of 1873,
Wilhelm Dinesen moved into the
trader William Johnson's Mole Lake
cabin. Behind lay the great forest and
out front gurgled a little creek. The
house had been built by the government during the Civil War as a station on the Military or War Road
(now highway 55), between Green
Bay to the south and the copper mines
on Lake Superior
Only a few other whitemen,
Strauss, Gagen, and Johnson lived
near Dinesen. The three men were
married to Chippewa women with
cabins almost a day's walk through
the forest.
Johnson and his Chippewa wife,
Mag-Wey-Ashseen-Oquay, (The
Maid of the Forest), remained near
Mole Lake, eventually moving south
and living out their days in Antigo,
Wisconsin.
Dinesen named the abode,
Frydenland, or The Grove of Joy. The
house was built from pine logs,
heated by a excellent stove, and divided into two rooms with a loft. A
stone fireplace handled larger logs.
A table, some square block for seats,
and shelving filled out the place.
The Danish adventurer made a bed
in the loft from split cedar poles and
stuffed a mattress with ferns. During
the winter he slept under blankets and
furs.
A little further down the creek, a
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded   in 1988
Volume 7    Issue  1
June 3D, 1995
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A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe News,  1995
Summer is the season for outdoor pow wows, dancers circle the staffs and flags in Morton, Minnesota.
Plea bargain reached in gill netting charges
Two young Red Lake men accused
of fishing with gill nets east of the
resenation line on Upper Red Lake
pleaded guilty Monday in Beltrami
County District Court.
Matt Dion Sayers, 19, and Roman
Charles Sayers, 20, were arrested by
Department of Natural Resources
consenation officers Oct. 1, after
the officers received an anonymous
tip and discovered the gill nets on
Sept. 30.
According to court records, the
officers used a global position system
to determine that the five gill nets,
each about a half-mile long, were
located on the wrong side of the
invisible line where the reservation's
eastern boundary is drawn through
the middle of Upper Red Lake.
The gill net farthest outside
resenation waters was located about
a mile east of the line. The men
should have known from clearly
visible landmarks that they were
illegally fishing in public waters,
according to court records.
DNR officers confiscated the
men's boat, motor, and 45 fish boxes
containing netting and several
species of fish.
The two first appeared before
Judge Paul Rasmussen Nov, 16,
1994, and the case was postponed
repeatedly, at the request of first the
prosecution and then the defense,
until Monday, according to court
records.
In identical plea agreements, both
men pleaded guilty in exchange for
recommendations by the prosecution
that they be sentenced within the
limits of a misdemeanor, serve no
jail time, receive no restitution for
their lost fish, and that they perform
community service work either in
Beltrami County or the Red Lake
Reservation.
Their boat, motor and other seized
property will be returned, with the
exception ofthe gill netting.
Preece ordered a presentence
investigation.
Congress divided over tribal gambling issues
lake filled with wild rice spread like
a green tye field with tiny yellow and
purple flowers. Huge pike surfaced
and sucked under young ducklings.
Muskrats clattered through the wetland and from stalk to stalk, redwing
blackbirds vented the air above singing their songs. A kingfisher plunged
from the nearby tree branches catching surfacing sunfish. The brownish
waters squiggled through the abundant lake, called Rice Lake, emptying into the Wolf River.
The timber cruisers hadn't yet
staked out the territory. There were
next to no settlers here, even though
the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe established Chippewa reservations in
northern Wisconsin, the Mole or Post
Lake band's ancestral homeland
wasn't yet recognized by the federal
government. The Chippewa still
freely hunted and fished in the forest, streams and lakes.
But this would soon change as the
land was surveyed, the railroad built,
and smart businessmen competed to
Edge cont'd on pg 5
By Philip Brasher .
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Organized
crime has made few inroads into tribal
casinos, but the Indian gambling
industry needs tougher standards and
regulation, the Justice Department
says.
"Whatever incursions or attempted
incursions there have been by
organized crime have been limited
ones," said Kevin DiGregory, deputy
assistant attorney general for the
department's criminal division.
A bill introduced by leaders ofthe
Senate Indian Affairs Committee
would lead to new standards for
governing Indian gambling
operations, including the licensing of
key employees, contractors and
similar games. The bill also would
create a new commission to enforce
the standards and to take over the
regulation of Indian casinos.
The federal standards would be an
"important prudential measure" even
though many tribes already have
sophisticated ways of regulating their
gambling operations, DiGregory told
a joint hearing of House and Senate
committees Thursday.
New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson
said the standards should be good for
tribes and the states. Tribes will know
that "the standards they must adhere
to are the same as every other tribe,"
he said.
Sen. John McCain, chairman ofthe
Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said
the bill would be the first
"comprehensive regulatory
framework" for the $2.6 billion-a-
year Indian gambling industry.
The existing National Indian
Gaming Commission regulates bingo
and similar games. Tribal casinos are
regulated under agreements between
states and tribes.
Congress is under increasing
pressure to rein in the Indian gambling
industry, which has exploded since
Issues cont'd on pg 3
Mille Lacs Band buys bank with casino profits
ONAMIA, Minn. (AP) _ The Mille
Lacs Band of Oj ibwe, flush with profits
from two successful casinos, says it is
buying the local bank.
The band did not disclose how
much it plans to pay for the First State
Bank of Onamia, whose current
owners are retiring.
"The Mille Lacs Band is committed
to investing our resources in our own
community," said Marge Anderson,
the band's chief executive, said
Wednesday. "We are extremely
excited and confident that this
opportunity will be mutually
beneficial to both the bank and the
community."
The sale is expected to be closed
once the Mille Lacs Band receives
approval from bank regulators, which
could take months. Bank officials said
they plan to continue to keep the bank
FDIC-insured and audited.
Applications to transfer the bank
have not been filed with the state, said
deputy commerce commissioner
James Miller. State-chartered banks
are governed by his department and
the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation. Miller said tribal
ownership shouldn't create any
unusual regulatory issues.
The bank, one of three in Mille
Lacs County, had about $20 million
in assets at the end of 1994. The band
plans to expand the bank beyond its
current sendee area, and possibly open
new branches.
"Our long-term goal will be to
increase visibility and grow the bank
along with the region," said incoming
bank board member Mitchell Corbine.
The Mille Lacs Band will be the
ninth native American tribe to
operate its own bank. But this marks
the first time that one of the 11
Indian bands in Minnesota involved
in gaming has expanded to full-
service banking. The Mdewakanton
Sioux community, which operates
the large Mystic Lake Casino in
Bank cont'd on pg 3
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