The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1995-10-06

              American Indian Health Care
Association battles discrimination suits
By Gary Blair
Officials of the troubled American
Indian Health Care Association
(AIHCA) have returned to St. Paul
and to the Ramsey County Courthouse. The organization was sued in
what is expected to be the only the
first round of lawsuits the group will
face.
AIHCA. a research group, once
served 34 urban Indian health care
clinics nationwide and recently moved
their base of operations to Denver,
Colorado.
Plaintiffs in the suit are Michelle
Foster, former research analyst; Ginny
Erickson, former accountant; and Peter Saari, also a former research analyst. All three are white and say they
were fired on July 1, 1994, because of
their race. They are being represented
by Attorney Michael D. O'Neill.
Defendant in the case is St. Paul
Companies, insurance carrier for
AIHCA, represented in court by
Donald F. Hunter.
According to court documents filed
by the plaintiff, a memo was circulated among AIHCA's board of directors, which is made-up of individual
clinic directors, that stated the plaintiffs were to be let go because they
were white.
However, defense attorney Hunter
told the jury that the three were terminated because of misconduct. The
plaintiffs are accused of referring to
AIHCA board of directors as "awesomely stupid." A file was alleged to
have been found on one of the
organization's computers that referred
to the group's interim director/business consultant, Fran Miller, in a very
derogatory manner.
The plaintiffs are also accused of
renting luxury automobiles, such as
Jaguars and Cadillacs, on trips that
Suit cont'd on pg 3
Three DFL legislators give up key positions
Minneapolis. (AP) _ A recent
flurry of criminal and ethical
missteps by several Minnesota DFL
legislators prompted an unusual
shakeup that resulted in them
resigning their leadership positions
Wednesday.
Sen. Harold (Skip) Finn, Cass
Lake, who faces trial on a 24-count
federal indictment for alleged fraud
and other charges, resigned as
majority whip of the DFL Senate
caucus, vice chairman of the
Judiciary Committee and chairman
of two subcommittee.    ,
Sen. Joe Bertram, of Paynesville,
who was convicted last week of
shoplifting a leather vest from a
hometown merchant, will step down
as chairman ofthe Agriculture and
Rural Development Committee and
chairman    of    the    Veterans
Subcommittee.
Rep. Bob Johnson, DFL-Bemidji,
resigned Monday as assistant
majority leader. He threatened to
cut money for the Public Safety
Department after its commissioner
denied him a State Patrol plane ride
to the funeral of former Gov. Rudy
Perpich.
House Speaker Irv Anderson,
DFL-International Falls, also said
he will remove Johnson from the
House committee that controls
funding for the Public Safety
Department.
Johnson will, however, retain his
chairmanship of the House Labor-
Management Relations Committee.
In addition to the three newly
announced resignations, Sen. Kevin
Chandler, DFL-White Bear Lake,
resigned Tuesday as a Senate
majority whip and as chairman of
the Environment and Natural
Resources Committee.
None ofthe four has resigned his
seat in the legislature.
Senate Majority Leader Roger
Moe, DFL-Erskine, said in a
prepared statement that he accepted
the resignations of Finn, Bertram
and Chandler from their leadership
posts.
"When individual actions by
members reflect poorly on the image
ofthe entire Minnesota Senate, those
senators must feel an obligation to
take responsibility," Moe said in
the statement.
Anderson called Johnson's
actions and resignation "a regrettable
DFL cont'd on pg 3
$248,383 awarded to Indians' lawyers
Tab on car-trunk transport is now $450,000 for Minneapolis
By Randy Furst
StaffWriter, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Minneapolis City Council has
learned the price of transporting inebriates in the trunk of a police car.
Hennepin County District Judge
Gary Larson ordered the city Monday
to pay $248,383 in legal fees and expenses to the attorneys who represented John Boney and Charles Lone
Eagie in their suit against the city. In
July, a jury awarded the two American Indians $100,000 each, bringing
the total city cost of their 1993 ride in
a Minneapolis squad-car trunk to
$450,000.
"Astronomical," said Council
Member Steve Minn.
Monday's the big winners were attorneys Larry Leventhal and Gary
Bergquist, who represented the two
indigent clients. They and their law
clerks put in thousands of hours on a
case that the city7 attorney's office figured the city7 couldn't lose. The city7
offered only a token settlement before
trial.
"The city's view7 throughout the case
was that the officers' actions were not
improper, and thus we are entitled to
nothing," said Leventhal, a frequent
defender of Indian causes. "So overall, I am exceedingly pleased. We actually have huge debts in operating
costs that can now be addressed. We
put in a lot of time, and had a lot of
expenses." He said the award will encourage other attorneys to represent
poor clients in filing lawsuits.
Larson's award came much closer
to the $230,000 that the city offered
after the verdict than the $377,000
proposal from Leventhal and
Bergquist.
State Rep. Bob Johnson is accused of
threats Was refused use of state plane
By Patricia Lopez Baden .
Staff writer, Mpls. Star Tribune
You totaled your car plowing into a
deer and now you've got an important funeral to attend at the other end
ofthe state. What to do?
If you're state Rep. Bob Johnson,
DFL-Bemidji, you call the State Patrol and ask to be flown there on a
state-owned plane.
But State Patrol planes don't offer
chauffeur service — not even for
elected officials, not even if the funeral is that of former Gov. Rudy
Perpich.
To make his ethical breach worse,
Johnson called Public Safety Commissioner Michael Jordan on Sept. 22
and, according to Jordan, used "vulgar, obscene language and threatened
to cut the funding of my department."
That same day, Johnson wrote a letter to Jordan calling his decision "arbitrary," and his manner to Johnson
"disrespectful."
In a confidential file memo Sept. 25,
Jordan said Johnson told him that earlier legislative difficulties he had experienced "were nothing compared to
the crucifixion I would go through in
the upcoming budget session in
1997."
AIHCA battles discrimination suits/ pg 1
$764,800 Celebration at Red Lake/ pg 4
Wings of the Great Lakes/ pg 8
ALC opens on Red Lake Res./ pg 8
Notice to our readership/ pg 1
Voice of the Anishinabek (The People)
\
Fifty Cents
OJibWk
News
We Support Equal Opportunity Fur All People
Founded   in 1988
Volume 7    Issue 15 October E, 1995
\
A weekly publication.
Copyright. The Ojibwe News,  1 995
There were mixed emotions in the
city attorney's office Monday. "I'm extremely ambivalent," said Jim Moore,
an assistant city attorney who represented the city. He said he wished the
city did not have to pay any attorney's
fees, but said Larson's "decision
seems fair and rea-sonable." He said
his office will recommend that the
council pay it.
In his ruling, Larson said he did not
doubt the amount of hours that Leventhal and Bergquist said they 3e*H/
on the case, though he found a "lack
of specificity" in a minority of their
records. He also said Leventhal should
be paid at the rate of $160 an hour
and Bergquist at $140 an hour, less
than what they contended were comparable fees in other
civil-rights cases.
Award cont'd on pg 5
Johnson said Monday that he was
ill at the time with a viral infection
and that while he doesn't deny making the threats, said he has "very little
memory" of his conversation with
Jordan.
Johnson said he had hit a deer with
his car during the recent legislative
minisession in Bemidji and had no
transportation to the funeral.
"I had been escorted by the highway patrol during the entire week of
the minisession," he said, "so I didn't
think it would be a problem.
"I certainly wasn't looking for a free
Threats cont'd on pg 3
Resources Committee thumbs nose at
American people National Parks at risk
Washington, D.C. - Flouting the
will of a bipartisan majority in the
House of Representatives, members
of the House Resources Committee
recently attached the just-defeated
H.R. 260, the controversial park
closure bill, to the Interior
Department's budget reconciliation
bill. Because of this action, 315
national park areas across the country
remain vulnerable to removal from
the National Park System. Just a few-
hours before, the park closure bill had
been soundly defeated when 67
Republicansjoined 164 Democrats in
voting against the measure, 231 to
180, on the house floor.
On Sept. 20, the president of the
nation's leading national park
watchdog group expressed outrage
that Reps. Jim Hansen (R-Utah) and
Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) would ignore a
majority7 floor vote and the democratic
process which defeated H.R. 260. "Mr.
Hansen and Mr. Hefgley are so
obsessed with closing parks that they
will thumb their noses at the will of
the people as expressed by 231 of
their House colleagues - both
Republicans and Democrats -in order
to railroad H.R. 260 into law," said
Paul C. Pritchard, President of the
National Parks and Conservation
Association (NPCA). "This lack of
respect for our legislative process is
shameful. The leadership ofthe House
should reject this blatant move which
disregards the wishes ofthe majority."
Pritchard said Hansen, who chairs
the House Resources Subcommittee
on National Parks, Forests and Lands,
"has been relentlessly pursuing an
anti-parks agenda in the committee
ever since the 104th Congress
convened." Mr. Hansen "has
advocated park closures, introduced a
bill protecting the anti-competitive
monopolies enjoyed by park
concessioners, and refused to consider
bills that would generate new revenues
for the financially beleaguered
national parks," said Pritchard. "It is
disingenuous for Mr. Hansen to claim
to be a friend ofthe parks. The actions
ofthe Resources Committee are proof
to the American people that our parks
are not safe."
NPCA and its 450,00 citizen
members have led the opposition to
H.R. 260, which creates a park closure
commission similar to the military
base-closure commission with the sole
purpose of recommending a "hit list"
of park areas that should be stripped
of Park Service protection. "Not only
is this a destructive bill," said
Pritchard, "but it is the key in the door
that those who would exploit
America's public lands are counting
on to help open up forests, wildlife
refuges, wilderness areas, and other
public lands to exploitation and
development."
The NPCA is America's only private
nonprofit citizen organization
dedicated solely to protecting,
preserving, and enhancing the U.S.
National Park System. An association
of "Citizens Protecting America's
Parks," NPCA was founded in 1919,
and has more than 450,00 members.
Native parents and students picket Center School.
Photo by Ga«y Blair
Walk-out closes Minneapolis' Center School
By Gary Blair
The student walk-out that closed the
Center School last Wednesday is over
and classes are scheduled to resume
on Monday. The standoff came to an
end when Rosalie Clark, chairperson
ofthe school's board of directors, and
interim director Carol Brieschke
reportedly resigned. Brieschke will
receive pay until mid-December
Arizonan sentenced
for trying to sell Hopi
kachina mask
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) _ A Payson,
Ariz., man has been sentenced to two
years' probation for taking a sacred
Hopi kachina mask to Santa Fe and
trying to sell it for $16,000.
Don Edwin Stephenson, 71, also
was fined $2,500 by U.S. District
Judge C. LeRoy Hansen, who issued
the sentence Monday.
Stephenson pleaded guilty June 26
to one count of a federal indictment
that accused him of transporting the
mask to Santa Fe, where he tried to
sell it to Stanley Marcus, chairman of
the Neiman Marcus department store
group.
As part of a plea agreement,
Stephenson is to return items owned by
the Hopi, Zuni and Acoma tribes that
were seized in October 1992.
according to her contract but will no
longer have any direct involvement
with the school.
Clark said from her office at the
Minneapolis BIA on Wednesday, "I
had planned to resign for the past
three years, that school hasn't
adequately served the commumty."
When asked if her decision to resign
was prompted by the recent events,
she answered emphatically, "No."
Brieschke could not be reached for
comment. However, staff at the school
say her decision to resign was most
likely "mutual."
Clark once served as the school's
executive director while Brieschke
served on the board of directors before
becoming the school's interim
director three years ago.
According to a press release dated
October 3, 1995, that was distributed
Center cont'd on pg 5
Notice to our readership
Due to the continuing increase of print paper costs (70% in
a little over a year) and our efforts to keep you better informed,
it has begin necessary to began charging .50 cents per copy
for the Native American Press. In addition, in order to
standardize production we have decided to publish both
editions ofthe papers under the title ofthe Native American
Press/Ojibwe News. These changes will go into effect with
the October 20, 1995, edition.
For your convenience we will publish a list of the new
locations at which the NAP/ON will be sold. We apologize
for any inconvenience you may experience as a result of these
changes. We appreciate your past support and look forward
to your continued support in the future. If you have any
comments or questions concerning the above changes, please
call or write us at either of our two offices. Bill Lawrence,
publisher
Banished teens sent to prison
By James L Eng
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) _ The judge
who turned two teen-age Indian
robbers over to a tribal court for
banishment to remote Alaska islands
ended the year-long judicial
rehabilitation experiment Tuesday
and sentenced them to prison.
Snohomish County Superior Court
Judge James Allendoerfer said he had
seen dramatic changes for the better
in Simon Roberts and Adrian Guthrie
since they were banished in September
1994. He said for the most part, the
experiment paid off.
But he added, "I find that this
experiment has some flaws which
unfortunately threaten its credibility
and integrity.
"I have determined, therefore, that
it is time to end this experiment,
while it can still be ended on a positive
note."
Allendoerfer sentenced Roberts to
4 years and 7 months in prison, with
credit for about a year already served
in jail prior to the banishment, and
Guthrie to 2 years and 7 months, also
with credit for time served.
In giving them sentences at the low
end ofthe state's standard range, the
judge said he took into consideration
the teens' improvement in attitude
and demeanor in the time spent in
banishment. Prosecutors had
recommended prison terms of about 5
1/2 years for Roberts and about 3 1/2
years for Guthrie.
"I find that each of you has matured
significantly," Allendoerfer told the
teens.
The judge also ordered them to
jointly pay $35,779.52 restitution to
Tim Whittlesey, the pizza delivery
driver they robbed and severely beat
in August 1993.
Roberts and Guthrie were 16 at the
time of the robbery. Roberts got the
longer term because he wielded the
bat.
"I think the judge made a good
decision," a somber Roberts said after
the hearing, adding that he had
expected to serve prison time from
the outset ofthe case.
Guthrie declined comment.
Deputy prosecutor Seth Fine, who
opposed the banishment, said the
prison sentence should have been
Teens cont'd on pg 5
j