The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1995-09-01

              Finn claims state has jurisdiction in tribal
conspiracy case, says Leech Lakers tax exempt
By Jeff Armstrong
Attorneys for indicted state senator
Harold Finn—who eluded an
investigation by the senate ethics
committee by arguing that the state
had no jurisdiction in the matter—
asserted in US district court in Duluth
Aug. 30 that Minnesota has exclusive
jurisdiction, and that federal charges
should be thrown out.
The motion contesting federal
jurisdiction was joined by Leech Lake
tribal chair Alfred Pemberton and
secretary treasurer Dan Brown, Finn's
co-defendants in a $1 million
insurance scheme.
While conceding that there was no
precedent to support such a ruling,
attorney Doug Kelley asked federal
magistrate Raymond L. Erickson to
dismiss the 38-count indictment
because, he said, theU.S. government
relinquished criminal jurisdiction to
the state through passage of Public
Law 280. Kelley said the 1953 act
"clearly and unambiguously intended
to confer exclusive jurisdiction
initially on five states, including
Minnesota." Under state law, a three-
year statute of limitations would be
up for most of the crimes. U.S. law
generally mandates federal
jurisdiction for misappropriation of
government funds in excess of
$10,000.
According to Kelley, the legislative
history of the bill suggests that
Congress considered language
allowing concurrent federal
jurisdiction. But by rejecting inclusion
of such a clause, the attorney argued,
the U.S. ceded full criminal
jurisdiction to the state. "We recognize
that the motion, if granted, would
have far-reaching implications for law
enforcement, not only in Minnesota,
but throughout the United States,"
said Kelley.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael
Ward said the judge need not consider
the argument because the alleged
offenses occurred outside the
boundaries of the Leech Lake
Reservation, at banks in Walker and
Duluth, and at Finn's former law
office in Walker. But Ward said the
U.S. only granted the states
jurisdiction over the 14 crimes
enumerated in the Major Crimes Act,
and extended "enclave jurisdiction,"
federal authority based solely on the
location of the offense in Indian
Country. Ward said other criminal
acts, "laws of general applicability,"
remain under the sole jurisdiction of
the U.S. government..
Leech Lake opposition spokesperson
Roxanne LaRose accused Finn of
Case cont'd on pg 3
White Earth tribal officials indicted/ pg 1
Complete text of WE Indictments/ pgs 2, 4 & 8
Reflections on peace from the former USSR/ pg 3
Finn claims state has jurisdiction in case/ pg 1
NA files discrim. suit against Fridley ISD/ pg 1
Voice of the Anishinabek (The People)
1
Native American files discrimination suit
against Fridley School District
The
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
IVewvi
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
By Gary Blair
The parent of a fifteen-year-old Native American student has filed a federal lawsuit against Independent
School District No. 14 in Fridley,
Minnesota alleging disability and racial discrimination.
The suit, filed by plaintiff's attorney Margaret Kane of St. Paul, is asking for $260,000 in damages. The
Minneapolis law firm of Rider,
Bennett, Egan and Arundell represent
the Fridley school board and three of
the school's top administrators.
Pursuant to the Family Education
Right to Privacy Act, which affords
protection from further publicity regarding the student's disability, the
plaintiffs initials are used in the complaint in place ofhis full name. However, the student's mother, with permission from their attorney, has decided to allow her name to be used
for the purpose of this article.
Charlene Goodman, a White Earth
enrollee, decided to take legal action
against defendants because they
placed her son in an Emotional Behavior Disorder (EBD) program for
three years without her knowledge.
The suit also alleges that Goodman's
son was treated differently because
he's Native American.
The complaint reads: "Defendants,
acting under color of state law as public entity, principals, administrators
and the board of education, deprived
Plaintiff V.G. of his right to an education free from racial discrimination
as guaranteed by state and federal law
as protected by the Fourteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I of the Constitution ofthe State ofMinnesota."
Goodman told the PRESS, "They
told me the class was like a chapter
one tutoring program. They never
mentioned that it was EBD. This
could effect his future. My son's embarrassed about this."
The suit also alleges the school district did the following: "Plaintiff V.G.
is a fifteen-year-old, male, Native
American Indian presently attending
Heart of the Earth Survival School in
which he is not enrolled in a special
education program that requires him
to be removed from the classroom.
Plaintiff V.G. is making academic
progress in his present program, Heart
ofthe Earth Survival School.
Previous to V.G.'s attendance at
Heart of the Earth Survival School,
V.G. was placed in the Project Y.E.S.
on the 14th of November, 1994, as an
Emotionally and Behaviorally Disturbed student. Project Y.E. S. is a segregated educational environment.
During the course of V.G.'s education at Fridley Middle and High
School, V.G. has been variously segregated from mainstream classrooms
culminating in the complete removal
of him from the mainstream classroom to a segregated program entitled
Project Y.E.S. at Columbia Heights."
Goodman continued, "They don't
have many Indian kids in this school
district. I think they have some definite ideas about Indians that move to
the suburbs and how they should
handle them. My son is a good looking 15-year-old who is six feet tall,
Suit cont'd on pg 5
Founded in 19BB
Volume 7   Issue IO      September 1, 1995
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe Mews,  1995
Shakeup threatens minority representation
in public defense office
By Jeff Armstrong
The June 30 suspension of an
Anishinabe woman hired last year as
head ofthe 9th Judicial District public
defense system, and the dismissal of
the two other Native support staff in
the district has generated at least two
human rights complaints, the
resignation of a Mexican American
legal assistant, and widespread fears
that the shakeup will halt efforts to
reform the system on behalf of
minority clients.
Red Lake attorney Marny Stately
was hired as Chief Public Defender in
August 1994 as part of an effort to
restructure and racially diversify a
defense system widely criticized for
underrepresenting Native and
Chicano people, a disproportionately
large percentage of its caseload.
Stately says she ran afoul of the
predominately white male enclave of
the judicial district simply by her
presence, and as a result of her
attempts to carry out the mandate for
which she was hired.
"I think the fear of the 'good old
boys' up here, and that's what they're
called in the legal circle, is one that I
would come up here and hire a lot of
minorities, kind of displace them,"
Stately said. "Those guys say they're
afraid of me, and the reason they're
afraid is because I'm not white, and I
don't have the samepolitical agenda."
Stately says her first antagonist was
Bemidji District Judge James Preece,
who publicly accused her of labeling
Bemidji judges as racists at an October
1994 judges' meeting. Preece
reportedly threatened to file a
complaint against the Anishinabe
woman with the MN Lawyer's
Office cont'd on pg 4
W.E. tribal sec.-treas. Jerry Rawley (L) was indicted on 18 counts and chairman Darrell "Chip" Wadena
indicted on IS counts, both were charged with conspiracy, bribery, theft, embezzlement and money laundering.
White Earth tribal officials indicted
Casinos prosper, dog tracks falter
TURTLE LAKE, Wis. (AP) _ The
differences between a night at the St.
Croix Casino and the Hudson dog
track illustrate the prosperity of the
state's 13 Indian-run casinos and the
struggles of its four dog tracks.
On a typical night at St. Croix
Casino, about 2,000 gamblers are
crammed in the facility that dominates
downtown. The gamblers outnumber
town folks by three to one.
At the St. Croix Meadows
Greyhound Race Track, 65 miles away
in Hudson, about 600 greyhound fans
roamed freely in a $42 million
building constructed to accommodate
10,000 customers.
"I'm surprised this place is still
open," said GuyKangas, a track teller,
who sat alone at a table in a food
service area where a handful of
customers watched the faces on closed-
circuit television.
St. Croix County officials
announced recently that foreclosure
proceedings would soon start if track
owners failed to pay $1.3 million in
back taxes.
"We've tried every conceivable way
to get people in the door," general
manger Ed Braunger said. "But it's
virtually impossible to compete with
the casinos."
A recent study by the state
Legislative Audit Bureau concluded
gamblers favored betting on things _
like slot machines _ that offered
instant gratification.
"Wagering at the track is a skilled
sport," Braunger said. "You have to
know what you're doing _ or at least
you should."
The track offers free seminars that
teach the basics and "how to bet"
brochures are stacked on counters
throughout the facility.
But cuts in the track's operating
budget have made the job of attracting
customers even harder. About 85
percent ofthe track's clientele comes
from the Minneapolis and St. Paul,
Minn., where there are three Indian
casinos and a horse track, Braunger
said.
Free buses once picked up customers
across the state line and brought them
to the track, but the service proved
unprofitable. Hired clowns and
jugglers may not help either.
"It's going to be sad to see this
place go under," said Jeff Meyers,
37, a housepainter from St. Paul
who counts himself among the
regular customers. "They're mostly
regulars."
By Margaret Taus
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ An
indictment Tuesday accused White
Earth Tribal Chairman Darrell "Chip"
Wadena and two other reservation
officials of embezzlement, election
fraud and other corruption.
U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug said
a federal grand jury indicted Wadena
on 15 counts, including corrupt
activities in connection with the
construction of the reservation's
Shooting Star Casino near
Mahnomen.
Tribal secretary-treasurer Jerry
Rawley was named in 18 counts, and
tribal committeeman Rick Clark was
indicted on 23 counts. Those counts
include election fraud.
. Wadena, Rawley and Clark were
charged with conspiracy, bribery,
theft, embezzlement and money
laundering. Clark also was charged
with mail fraud.
Three other people were named in
the"44-count felony indictment.
Election Judge Carley Jasken was
charged with requesting fictitious
ballots for two elections and with
shredding election documents to cover
up the scheme. She was indicted on
two counts.
Henry Harper was indicted on five
counts and Peter G. Pequette Jr. was
indicted on seven counts, the
indictment said.
Lillehaug said the federal
government hasjurisdiction over the
case.
"While Indian tribes are governments...no person is above the law,
whether Indianor non-Indian," he said.
He said subpoenas are being issued
for those who have been indicted.
None of those indicted could be
reached immediately for comment.
Lillehaug said the elected officials
"betrayed their constituents.... The
members of the White Earth Band
deserve better."
Wadena, Rawley and Clark all were
indicted in connection with the casino
construction.
The indictment said Clark gave
Wadena a secret one-half ownership
interest in Clark's company, Northern
Drywall and Construction Inc., which
got the subcontract for casino
construction.
Wadena, tribal chairman for 19
years, got $428,682 in illicit profits
from the project, and Rawley
separately got $21,500 in direct
payments from the company, the
indictment said.
Wadena, Rawley and Clark also
cheated the band by creating a
"clandestine fishing commission"
separate from the Tribal Council,
appointing themselves commissioners
and voting themselves additional tax-
exempt salaries of $65,000 to $75,000
a year, the indictment said.
The men also received payments
from tribal funds for personal use, the
indictment said. Wadena used
$10,000 to make a payment on his
1992 Cadillac; Rawley got a $31,000
check to pay his federal income taxes;
and tribal money was spent on
snowmobiles, an all-terrain vehicle
and a snowplow, the indictment said.
Rawley, Clark, Jasken, Pequette and
Harper were charged with conspiring
to rig tribal elections in favor of the
candidates they supported.
Clark and Rawley used tribal money
to keep their elected positions, the
indictment said.
Jasken asked someone to request
absentee ballots for the person's
relatives, who didn't actually vote,
the indictment said. The ballots were
cast in their names in the 1994
election.
Pequette and Harper are accused of
illegally notarizing absentee ballots
in the 1994 elections.
Twin Cities attorney Miles Lord
praised the indictment in a statement
Tuesday.
Lord represented 63 members of
the White Earth Band who were
arrested on the reservation and jailed
at Detroit Lakes four years ago for
protesting alleged election fraud.
The indictment was handed up after
an 18-month investigation, Lillehaug
said.
Tribes taking ancestral lands off property tax roll
Experts warns tribes not to mislead Congress
ST. PAUL (AP) _ Bankrolled by
casino profits, some Indian tribes in
■ Minnesota are buying thousands of
acres of property and placing parts of
it in federal trust, a move that exempts
the land from local property taxes.
While the tribes' newfound wealth
has allowed them to regain some of
their ancestral lands and provide
economic opportunities to their
members, the practice is eroding local
tax bases.
Profits from Grand Casino Mille
Lacs in Onamia have allowed the
Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa to buy
and remove from the county tax roll
property with an estimated market
value of $615,300 since May of 1992.
"We don't ignore that there are
economic benefits to the county,"
Mille Lacs County Commissioner
Dave Oberfeld said. "But basically,
nothing that has happened has been
good for county government. There
has been an increased demand for
county services, and this has decreased
the tax base."
Mahnomen County in northwestern
Minnesota is being hit particularly
hard by its shrinking tax base.
The White Earth Band of Chippewa
built the Shooting Star Casino, a bingo
palace, a hotel and a commercial strip
mall that made the band "by far" the
largest property-taxpayer in the
county, Mahnomen County Auditor
Frank Thompson said.
After paying taxes on the mall for
two years, the band placed it in trust,
exempting it from property taxes
starting in 1996. And the band has
applied for trust status for the casino
complex, which is worth $11.5
million.
If the BIA grants trust protection as
expected, one-fifth of the total tax
base in Mahnomen County will be
gone.
Land cont'd on pg 3
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Indians must
be careful not to give an inflated
impression of tribal riches when
reporting the success of reservation
gambling operations, a national
conference was told.
Harold Monteau, chairman of the
National Indian Gambling
Commission, said some members of
Congress have gotten the mistaken
idea that tribes are reaping giant
profits from casinos, and that has
resulted in proposed massive cuts in
federal aid to Indians.
"Let's not oversell our success,"
Monteau said Wednesday at the
National       Indian       Gaming
Association's convention in
Milwaukee.
Only a fraction ofthe nation's 500-
plus tribes have experienced major
success with gambling, he said.
"For most, this industry is still in its
infancy," said Monteau, an attorney
who is a member of a Montana tribe.
More than 100 tribes in about two
dozen states, including the
Mashantucket Pequots in Connecticut, offer casino gambling today.
The Mashantuckets, who are
federally recognized, own and
operated the highly successful
Foxwoods Resort Casino on their
reservation near Ledyard. The tribe
pays the state about $130 million a
year in exchange for exclusive rights
to operate slot machines.
The Mohegans, the other federally
recognized tribe in Connecticut, plan
to build a casino in Montville next
year.
Monteau's commission and the
association both oppose a measure
pendingbefore Congress, S487, which
would provide for creation of national
regulatory standards for tribal
gambling.
Monteau said tribes need to reduce
the influence tribal governments have
over their individual gambling
commissions. He said autonomous
commissions are needed to ensure the
integrity of gambling operations.