The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1988-08-24

              STATE:
Judge rules FBI acted v
improper at Red Lake riots
page 2
NATIONAL:
Reagan to meet with
Indian leaders
page 3
EDITORIAL:
Ojibwe News. We need your
help and we are not radical
Page 5
News Briefs
Justice
Department
proposes
amendment
to Indian
Civil Rights
Act of 1968
The U.S. Justice Department is preparing
legislation to amend the
1968 Indian Civil Rights
Act, according to a
source at the Bureau of
Indian Affairs office in
Minneapolis.
The proposed amendment would, "provide
recourse or appeal to
the federal courts" in
matters of Indian civil
rights.
The amendment could
eliminate tribal
sovereignty, and in
effect, overturns the
Martinez Decision which
said disputes within a
tribe should be dealt
with in tribal courts and
not in the federal courts.
Worthington, Minn.
(AP) - Commissioners
in Nobles County in the
southwest corner of the
state have voted to pull
out of the running for a
hazardous waste facility, leaving three
counties as possible
hosts.
Of 13 counties
originally in the running
for the facility, Stearns,
Red Lake and Koochiching remain.
The state-owned
"stabilization and
containment facility"
would bind sludge from
metal processors and
incinerator ash in a
cement-like material
and then bury it in
above grade, lined
landfills. Metals like
lead, cadmium and
nickel in the waste
make it hazardous.
Economic incentives
are being offered to the
host county.	
Hibbing, Minn. (AP) -
The forces of the Rev.
Jesse Jackson and Gov.
Michael Dukakis have
agreed to merge their
Minnesota presidential
campaign operations.
Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nom-
inee, approved the
settlement Wednesday
during a meeting in
Hibbing.
Bill Wilson, a member
of the St. Paul City
Council and Minnesota
chairman of the Jack-
son campaign,
announced the
settlement Thursday.
Among the key points
of the agreement are:
Dukakis officials will hire
more Jackson field
representatives in
addition to the four now
on the Dukakis staff. The
Dukakis campaign will
support expansion of
several state DFL Party
committees to provide
for greater representation by Jackson
supporters.
The Dukakis
campaign also will help
retire the remaining
Jackson campaign debt
in Minnesota, wnich is
about $20,000.
The
Ojibwe
News
"News by and for the Ojibwe Nation"
Copyright Ojibwe News 1988
THIRTY-FIVE CENTS
Founded at Bemidji, Minnesota in 1988
Volume 1 Issue 14
Wednesday, August 24, 1988 |
A Weekly Publication
Termination of Ponemah Road Project to be appealed
By Bill Lawrence
Publisher
In a letter dated Aug. 18,
Northwest Piping, Inc. of
Grand Forks, N.D., notified
the Minneapolis Area Office
of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs that it intends to
appeal the termination of
the Ponemah Road Project.
Norhtwest Piping, a 100
percent Indian owned
company, was the
successful low bidder in the
$547,847 construction
project to improve the 5.65
mile stretch of road from
the junction of state
Highway 1 to the Ponemah
Village on the Red Lake
Reservation.
The controversy started
when the Red Lake Tribal
Council wouldn't allow
Northwest Piping access to
the reservation to start
construction. The council's
action denying access to
Northwest Piping was in
retaliation to their under
bidding the Red Lake
Builders for the project.
The Red Lake Builders are
an enterprise of the RLTC,
with the tribal chairman,
Roger Jourdain, its
president.
The BIA's decision to
Dlace the Ponemah Road
Project under the Buy
ndian Act requires that
eligible Indian owned
contracting companies
must competitively bid for
each project.
By letter dated May 19,
1988, tribal chairman
Jourdain notified
Northwest Piping that they
wouldn't be allowed to work
on the Reservation. In
addition, on June 2, 1988,
the RLTC passed a
Resolution effectively
stopping the Ponemah road
construction. That
resolution also reserves all
phases of the project for
the Red Lake Builders.
In its effort to overturn
the contract award to
Northwest Piping, chairman
Jourdain got U.S. Rep.
Sikorski, Vento, Penny,
Oberstar, and Sabo to send
a letter to the BIA
pressuring that agency
to conceal the bid and
award the contract tothe
Red Lake Builders under
the SBA's program for'
small and minority owned
businesses.
This action would have
violated Liberal Acquisition
Regulations which require a
compelling reason before
an agency takes action that
could jeopardize the
integrity of the competitive
bid system.
The BIA found no such
compelling reasons in the
Ponemah Road Project
case and did not cancel the
bid.
By letter dated July 6,
1988, the Minneapolis Area
Office notified Jourdain
that unless Northwest
Piping was allowed access
to the reservation by July
12, 1988, the BIA would
immediately begin
termination proceedings.
When the RLTC failed to
respond by the July 12
deadline, the Minneapolis
Area Office acted to
terminate the Ponemah
Road Project.
It is this termination
action that Northwest
Piping is appealing.
Termination of the
contract will not only mean
loss of 1988 funding and
local jobs, for the project,
but will also include all
termination costs will be
charged to the Red Lake
Reservation's share of the
Highway Trust Fund's road
construction program.
Workers carefully sift through tons of dirt by the searching for human remains and artifacts.
(Photo by James Johnson)
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
RLTC notified
of 1988 audit
deficiencies
By Bill Lawrence
Publisher
According to an
informed source, the Red
Lake Tribal Council was
recently notified by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
that the Fiscal Year 1986
Single Audit Report
identified serious weaknesses and deficiencies
within the tribe's management system.
The informed source
also indicated that the
audit report also contained
questioned costs for one of
the programs subject to
the audit.
The RLTC has 30 days
to respond to the findings
of the audit report. The
council's response must
contain what actions have
been or will be taken to
correct the identified
weaknesses and the
questioned costs.
The Single Audit Act of
1984 and Of fi ce of
Management and Budget
circular A-128 requires all
recipients of federal funds
to have an audit conducted
annually. The audit is to
include all of the
organization's federally
funded contracts and
grants. If any federally
funded programs are
excluded from the audit,
then the audit will not
meet the requirements and
the organization is subject
to h aving sanctions
imposed upon it by the
funding agencies.
These sanctions could
include suspending Letter
of Credit, to termination of
contracts or grants for
non-compliance with the
requirements of the Single
Audit Act.
On Aug. 4 and 5 a delegation from the BIA's
Minneapolis Area Office
tried to meet with the
RLTC at Red Lake to
discuss the Single Audit
Report but were rebuked
by tribal officials. The
meeting was then switched
to the federal building in
Bemidji where only a
BIA-paid consultant
showed up for the meeting.
In related developments
the News also learned that
the 1987 Red Lake Tribal
General Fund and Enterprise audits are also not
completed. Serious conflict
of interest issues may exist
between tribal council
officers and tribal enterprise officers.
Agreement reached over Indian cemetery
By James Johnson
Acting Editor
An agreement has been
reached as to what to do
with an ancient Dakota
Indian cemetery which was
uncovered during construction of an addition to
the Pamida store in Bemidji
last week.
The agreement calls for
workers from the Leech
Lake Archaeology Department, and others, to sift
through the soil that has
already been excavated
and recover whatever
human remains they find.
The bones will then be
identified and reburied at
the site in compliance with
traditional customs. The
site will then be cemented
over and Pamida will
continue with the construction.
Earl Sargent of the
Minnesota Indian Affairs
office in Bemidji said the
agreement was reached
between his office, the
state archaeol ogist,
representatives from the
Intertribal Council and
spiritual leaders last Friday.
State Archaeologist
Christy Hohman-Caine said
there were several options
available for dealing with
the situation.
"We could try to remove
any other burials that are
here and move them all
someplace else," she said,
"but they (the representatives of the Dakota
people) said they would like
as little further disturbance
as possible, and they would
just as soon have the
remains recovered and put
back. They also said they
don't want any other
burials that might be here
moved."
They could have also not
allowed any construction
once the area was authenticated and designated as
a cemetery, she said.
Hohman-Caine said that
the management of
Pamida has been very
cooperative in dealing with
the situation.
Construction on the
addition started about a
month ago, but it wasn't
until Joe Day, of Bemidji,
contacted the Minnesota
Indian Affairs Council and
asked them to investigate
the site.
Day said he remembered
that some Indian remains
were found in that area
when the railroad was was
put in and when the Pamida
store was originally built.
He became concerned when
he saw how deep workers
were digging to put in
footings for the 55-by-150
foot addition.
The law protecting such
cemeteries didn't go into
effect until 1978 which was
after the Pamida store was
built, according to Sargent.
Since then, the state has
set up guidelines for
handling cases like this.
Hohman-Caine said
fragments of skulls and jaw
bones, along with pieces of
pottery from the Blackduck
and Sandy Lake peoples
were found at the site on
Wednesday. The Sandy
Lake people are believed
to be ancestors of the
Dakota Indians who lived in
the area before the Ojibwe
people.
Hohman-Caine said she
has dated some of the
findings at between A.D.
800 to A.D. 1600. She also
said the site contained
artifacts dating up to the
fur trading era
She said this is the third
summer the state has had
crews out.
"We've mainly been
working with in the reservations looking for archaeological sites, recording
cemetery sites, and that
type of thing," she said.
Hohman-Caine said they
expect to be finished by
Friday and have th e
reburial by this weekend.
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