The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1995-10-27

              No more business as usual in the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe
By Jeff Armstrong
A federal lawsuit by members ofthe
White Earth band of the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe charges the U.S.
Interior Department's Bureau of
Indian Affairs with complicity in a
conspiracy to defraud and
misrepresent tribal members.
"We are suing the U.S. Government
to force them to act as they should
have acted all along in protecting the
people ofWhite Earth, protecting their
rights and their resources," said
.attorney Zenas Baer at an Oct. 20
press conference. Specifically, the
precedent-setting complaint demands
the installation of an independent
trustee to administer resenation assets
and programs on an interim basis.
Baer said the trustee would "oversee
the day-to-day tribal operation, the
day-to-day operation of the casino,
and make sure it is run in accordance
with proper gaming laws."
White Earth's Shooting Star Casino
is currently run by a Pennsylvania-
based management company with
alleged ties to organized crime. That
company, Gaming World
International, siphons off 35% of
casino revenues under a contract never
approved—or disapproved—by the
National Indian Gaming
Commission. The casino was funded
primarily with proceeds from an
unconstitutional land settlement act
which also undenvrote some of the
illegal activities alleged against the
White Earth RBC members.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt—who was named in the suit
along with BIA Director Ada Deer
and Area Director Denise Homer—
Baer and former federal judge Miles
Lord write: "Now, with the
indictments of the tribal leaders,
inaction on the part ofthe Department
ofthe Interior will be viewed as tacit
approval of the criminal activity that
has   long   pervaded   all   tribal
operations."
The Bureau assumed a familiar
posture, making itself unavailable for
comment, as did MCT Attorney James
Schoessler and Executive Director
Gary Frazer. A spokesman for Ada
Deer said the Assistant Secretary
could not discuss pending litigation,
but repeated a position taken after the
closely parallel Leech Lake situation
that the indicted officials are innocent
until proven guilty. Baer, however,
noted the irony of the fact that the
U.S. Justice Department must now
defend the Bureau with one hand,
while prosecuting the officials with
the other.
To date, 1/3 of the'MCT's Tribal
Executive Committee and 1/5 ofthe
individual Resen'ation Business
Committee members have been
charged in federal court with election
fraud and/or theft of tribal funds. Yet
both the Tribe and its BIA sponsors
MCT continued on pg 3
No more business as usual in the MCT/ pg 1
Crime overtakes poverty in Phillips/ pg 1
IHB/Norine Smith hit with another lawsuit/ pg 1
Tribal language key to retaining sovereignty/ pg 4
Leonard Peltier Ojibwe Patriot/ pgs 6 & 8
Voice ofthe The People
l
Crime overtakes poverty as biggest problem
in Phillips neighborhood
IMatit/e
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
By Gary Blair
Crime, not poverty, is the new
focus of concern in the Phillips
Neighborhood of South
Minneapolis. Recently, there have
been meetings held in the
community to discuss efforts on
how to deal with the growing
problem. Block clubs have been
formed and members are being
instructed on how to prevent and
report suspected criminal activity to
the police.
On Tuesday evening a meeting
was held at 2509 Bloomington
Avenue South to further address the
crime problem. Those in
attendance included the city's new
police chief, Robert Olson, who
shared his ideas and answered
questions on how community
members can organize to assist the
police.
Only a few American Indians
attended the meeting. Some of the
residents told Olson they felt the
main problem was that police
officers were slow in responding to
their complaints. They took the
slow response time personally.
"They don't come right away
because the people who call are
poor," one person said.
Olson told the gathering the
crime wave that's hit Minneapolis
is coming from other states and it
involves "gangs, guns and dope."
He added that his department
believes there are about 152 crack
houses in the Phillips
Neighborhood and the operators
change locations about every two
days. According to Olson, there are
about 2000 crackhouses throughout
the city.
The Phillips community has been
the home of the city's largest Native
American population, but in recent
years Indian people have been
leaving because of the crime.
Indian mothers are complaining
that their children are being
assaulted and that their homes or
the home of their neighbor has been
shot-up due to gang activity. Also
affected by the increased crime,
Crime cont'd on pg 5
r
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 19BB
Volume B   issue 2       October 27, 1995
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, Native American Preee, 1995
Former casino      Indian Health Board/Norine Smith
employee faces
charges
Red Wing, Minn. — A federal
grand jury in Minneapolis has
charged a former bingo money supervisor with embezzling $ 110,000 from
the Treasure Island Casino in Red
Wing, Mn.
In an indictment released Wednesday, Joyce C. Daleiden was charged
with taking the money between Jan.
8, 1993, and Aug. 19, 1994. Treasure
Island Casino is run by the Prairie Island Dakota (Sioux) Indians.
The investigation was conducted by
the Office ofthe Inspector General, the
Department of Interior and the FBI.
hit with another lawsuit
By Gary Blair
The Indian Health Board of
Minneapolis and its director, Norine
Smith, are about to be hit with another
lawsuit filed by another former
employee. The Plaintiff, Denise
Deegan Pioche, was employed as a
medical records clerk at the Health
Board.
Pioche alleges in her complaint the
following allegations: that she was a
"whistle blower" and that she was
terminated from her job for reporting
illegal activities and violations ofthe
law at the Indian Health Board to the
Native American Press and the
Inspector General ofthe United States
(Department of Health and Human /
Services):
The complaint also alleges that she
reported discrimination at the Indian
Health Board to the Minnesota
Department of Human Rights. The
plaintiff is asking for damages in
excess of $50,000.00 and she's also
■ seeking attorney fees and expenses.
Judith Schermer, of the law firm of
Schermer and Schermer is
representing the Plaintiff.
Calls to the Indian Health Board's
attorney, Louis Brenner, found him not
available for comment at press time.
Zenas Bear one of the Attorney's for White Earth tribal members discusses
Hawley, MN. Oct 20th, 1995. Then relaxes with a copy ofthe N.A.P.
law suit at Press conference in
Photo by: J. Rainbird
Big money doesn't impress reservation
rife with poverty
Even his critics acknowledge
that Darrell (Chip) Wadena
has brought jobs to the White
Earth Indian Reservation.
But a federal indictment confirms to many detractors that
the tribal chairman has placed
himself above the law.
By Pat Doyle
Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Writer
WHITE EARTH INDIAN
RESERVATION — Twenty miles of
highway separate a dusty Indian town
of battered wood-frame houses and
broken glass from a tribal casino with
live music and stretch limousines.
Inside the casino, a large portrait
of tribal leader Darrell (Chip)
Wadena, beaming broadly, greets
tourists as they stroll down a hall
connecting their lodge rooms to the
gambling floor.
But in the town of White Earth, a
boarded-uD buildine bears freshlv
painted graffiti of a tradition Indian
dream catcher alongside an epithet:
"Chip you pig."
It appeared after a federal grand
jury in August indicted Wadena and
two other tribal officials on 44 counts,
including charges of rigging
construction bids for the Shooting
Star Casino and siphoning hundreds
of thousands of dollars from the
White Earth Band of Chippewa.
Those charges resonate on a
reservation with poverty to rival that
found in most cities and where the
prosperity of a handful of tribal
officials stands in stark contrast to the
living standards of most others on the
reservation.
"That whole bunch. They're the
ones driving the decent cars,"
said tribal member Carolyn
Goodman,  pointing at tribal
offices in White Earth.
Wadena's indictment also has
stirred a sense of fatalism among some
reservation residents who believe the;
lure of new money leads to corruption.
"When he first go into office, I'm
sure he had it in his heart to do right
by the people," said tribal member
Althea Hutchinson, 54, a cook's
helper at an Indian school in
Wadena's hometown of Naytahvvaush
"But when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars, money
changes you."
A longtime leader
Wadena has been chairman of the
White Earth Band in northwestern
Minnesota for nearly 20 years. Most
of that time, he also was president of
the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the
umbrella organization that represents
more than 40,000 members of White
Rife cont'd on pg 6
Ann Dunn (1) & Sharon White (r) talk about the recently concluded workshop "Walking the Red Road in
a White Landscape" at the N.A.P. office last week. Photo by: J. Rainbird
Government authority to invalidate tribal
vote upheld
St. Paul (AP) _ A judge's ruling
upholds the federal government's
right to annual election results from
a Minnesota Indian tribe that would
have allowed hundreds of people to
profit from the tribe's casino.
In an order released Tuesday, U.S.
District Court Judge Richard Kyle
ruled in favor of several members of
the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community who challenged the
results of an April 19 election to
amend the tribe's constitution and
broaden membership.
The challengers said people who
were not members of the tribe had
been allowed to cast ballots when
the community voted to waive blood
requirements for descendants of
current or former band members.
The election could have allowed
hundreds of people to share profits
from the community's Mystic lake
Casino which now pays individual
tribe members 18 years old and older
more than $500,000 annually.
Kyle's Oct. 20 ruling upholds a
decision by Ada Deer, Assistant
secretary ofthe interior, to overturn
the election results.
Jim Cohen, attorney for the
challengers, said Kyle's ruling sends
a message to tribal leaders "who
seek improperly to use their
supporters, or to solidify their power
base."
Cohen said they should now know,
that "their attempts to abuse the
cherished concept of sovereignty
will no longer go unnoticed or
unchallenged."
Tribal attorney Richard Duncan
said Sioux officials have not decided
whether to ask the 8th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals to review Kyle's
order.
"The tribe held an election
pursuant to rules the secretary ofthe
interior provides, and approved
amendments to the constitution,"
Duncan said. "In that situation,
Congress has said the secretary is
supposed to allow the tribe to amend
its constitution."
Appeals court says Fond du Lac treaty rights
lawsuit may proceed
Ada Deer vows to continue fight against
refuge development
St. Paul (AP) _ A federal appeals
court ruled that the Fond du Lac
band of Chippewa may continue its
lawsuit against state officials over
hunting and fishing rights in
Minnesota.
The court upheld an earlier ruling
by U.S. District Judge Kyle, who
rejected the state's claim that it was
immune from being sued in federal
court in this case.
The Fond du Lac band says it has
the right to hunt and fish off-
reservation, outside of Minnesota
game and fish laws, under 1837 and
1854 treaties.
The first part ofthe lawsuit seeks
a ruling that band members never
lost special hunting and fishing
rights in the same 3.5 million-acre
portion of east-central Minnesota
where a federal judge ruled the Mille
Lacs band enjoys those rights.
The second part deals with
hunting and fishing on the lakes
and woodlands of 5.9 million acres
in the Arrowhead area.
The state would be immune had
the lawsuit been filed against the
the state itself, wrote 8th Circuit
Judge Donald Lay. But Lay wrote
that the suit is properly filed against
state officials, including Gov. Arne
Carlson and Natural Resources
Commisson Rod Sando, because
they are the ones who must "shape
their official conduct" if the band
wins.
The state unseccessfully tried a
similar defense in the Mille Lacs
case. That band won its first trial
phase and faces a second, which is
to divide resouces in the affected
area between Indians and non-
Indians.
By Paula M Story
ANCHORAGE (AP) _ In her first
public response since the Alaska
Federation of Natives ignored her
stance against drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, Interior
Department Assistant Secretary Ada
Deer vowed to use her influence to bar
exploration.
But in an interview Monday at the
University of Alaska Anchorage,
Deer, who oversees Indian Affairs,
said she also could be realistic.
"This is a political year and
government is sensitive to these
issues," she said.
Delegates to the AFN convention
on Saturday voted down a resolution
to remain neutral on arctic drilling _
a resolution Deer publicly endorsed _
and went on record favoring
exploration on the coastal plain.
President Clinton and Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt also have
opposed arctic drilling. The issue is
part of a budget resolution scheduled
for congressional vote as soon as this
week.
Deer said she expected proponents
to work at every level of government
to lift a congressional ban on drilling.
Deer, who spoke to AFN on Friday
and toured the refuge and the
Gwich'in community of Arctic
Village over the weekend, led a group
discussion and lectured Monday at
UAA.
Deer said she was not surprised by
the AFN vote, dismissing it as a
reflection of Native "corporate
culture."
Leadership of AFN voted in June to
support arctic drilling, and since then
the Gwich'in have pursued a
campaign to let policymakers know
the vote did not represent all Alaska
Natives.
Deer said it was that response that
educated her about the divisiveness of
the issue among Natives. She
complained that the Alaska delegation
had made it seem as if Natives were
united in support of development.