Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-02-15

              INDEX
News Around Indian Country
Commentary/Editorials/Voices
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events
Classifieds
Leech Lake
Reservation
hosts career,
job fair
pg7
Dan, that isn't
gonna fly
anymore!
pg4
Clearwater County Court
ordered to reconsider
White Earth "Green Card"
pgi
Indian enrollment
and the Prairie Island
tribal court
pg 1
Tribal-state
casino need
thorough
scrutiny
pg4
Indian enrollment and the Prairie
Island tribal court
by Clara NiiSka
Last week, Press/ONReported on the attempts of
Lawrence Larson, Marcella
Blue Stone and Harvey Owens
to gain official recognition of
their status as Prairie Island Indians. Despite years of efforts,
these three elders' clear ties to
the Prairie Island Indian community, and the Prairie Island
enrollment committee's repeated recommendations for
enrollment, their case is stymied: the Prairie Island tribal
court of appeals has stalled for
more than six months, declining to rule even on whether or
not the tribal court has the jurisdiction to hear enrollment
cases.
The elders' attorney, Gary
Montana, told Press/ON that
the Prairie Island council and
tribal court's actions in this
case are a "typical example of
why our sovereignty is being
eroded by the Supreme Court.
The tribal courts are not responsive to the Indian Civil
Rights Act." At Prairie Island,
the ICRA is clearly 'tribal law'
as well as federal law: the
Community Council adopted it
by Ordinance No. 17 in 1968,
declaring:
"The establishment of a
Court and the maintenance of
Law and Order on and within
Marcella Blue Stone
the limits and jurisdiction of
the Prairie Island Indian Community necessitates the protection and guarantee of Civil
Rights for the Prairie Island Indian Community Members.
The Prairie Island Indian Community Council therefore enacts the Indian Civil Rights Act
Ordinance for the advancement
and protection ofthe Prairie Island Indian Community Members..."
Attorney
Gary Montana
has long been an
advocate of tribal
sovereignty - he
teaches seminars
on Indian law
and says, "once
you give sovereignty away, you
don't get it
back." When
discussing the
Prairie Island elders' enrollment
case, however, he
is sharply critical
of what he describes as irresponsible abuses
of power. "Once
people get into an
IRA council" as
elected officers,
Montana said,
they "can do
whatever the hell they want,
then stand behind sovereign
immunity. Tribal members
have no recourse."
Despite his concerns about
abuses by the tribal court and
IRA councils, Montana structured his legal case on behalf of
the Prairie Island elders in
terms of the legal philosophy
he has publicly advocated for
ENROLLMENT to page 7
Clearwater County court
ordered to reconsider
White Earth 'Green Card9
By Jeff Armstrong
The Minnesota Court of .Appeals this week ordered the district court in Clearwater County
to consider whether a controversial 1997 White Earth resolution
extended treaty hunting and fishing rights to descendants of tribal
members possessing a reservation license. In the process, it
iiiaj I»ave to determine whether
the RBC exceeded its authority
under the constitution ofthe
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in
enacting the resolution.
Tony Iversoh, whose mother is
enrolled at White Earth, was
tried in the district trial court for
shooting a deer on the reservation in accordance with its conservation code in 1998. Although
Iverson challenged the state's jurisdiction, he was convicted and
sentenced on gross misdemeanor
charges to one year in jail, with
all but 30 days stayed. He had
agreed for purposes of litigating
the ease to stipulate that he was
neither a tribal member nor eligible for enrollment.
However, Iverson later came
into possession of RBC resolu-
CARD to page 3
Appellate court overturns
Hennepin County termination
of parental rights
Court's "practices are 'so offensive to a civilized system of
justice that they must be condemned," writes Justice Alan Page
By Jeff Armstrong
The Minnesota appeals court
struck down a mling by the
chief judge ofthe Hennepin
County Juvenile Court terminating the parental rights of a
mother who failed to appear for
a pretrial hearing.
The appellate court ruled that
the county court denied the due
process rights ofthe mother,
identified as L.F., by not informing her that failure to appear could result in default termination of her rights.
According to the appeals
court, trial judge Robert
Blaeser, a White Earth enrollee
and member ofthe Minnesota
American Indian Bar Association, notified L.F. ofthe termination minutes later when he
encountered her at the courthouse.
In an Aug. 23, 2001 dissent
remarkable in its intensity, state
supreme court justice Alan
Page had singled out the
county for flagrantly violating
the rights of poor parents:
COURT to page 3
U.S. Census
2000 report:
81,074
"Indians" in
Minnesota
by Clara NiiSka
According to a report, "The
.American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2000," released
on February 13* by the U.S.
Census, there were 81.074
people who identified themselves as "American Indian and
.Alaska Native" in Minnesota.
Of these, 26,107 people said they
were mixed-race. This is a
162% increase from the 49,909
Minnesotans who categorized
themselves as "American Indian
and Alaska Native" for the 1990
census enumerators. In 1990,
about 1.14% of the people in
Minnesota said they were "Indian." In 2000, about 1.65%
said that they were either "Indian" or mixed-race including
Indian.
The total Indian population in
the United States in 1990 was
1,959,234. In 2000, the total
"Indian" and mixed-Indian
population had more than
doubled, to 4,119,301 people.
Statistics analyzing age distribution by "race" have not yet been
released by the Census Bureau.
The "Indians" and mixed-race
Indians recorded on the 2000
census include 729,533 "Chero-
kees," 291,197 "Navajos," and
180,940 "Latin American Indians." These three largest groups
accounted for more than 1.2 million ofthe Indians recorded on
CENSUS to page 3
Native American Fine Art "Invitati8nal"
MNttttHtJtfMtjMHtJMtfH
Eight of today's most unique and provocative Native artists from the United States and Canada come together to participate in the prestigious 8"1 Native American Fine .Art Invitational in Phoenix, Arizona. The
Heard Museum's Invitational series showcases the work of emerging and well-established professional artists who are on the cutting edge ofthe contemporary Native American fine arts movement. The Invitational is one ofthe only fine art exhibitions of its kind for contemporary Native artists- a series of one-person shows presented as one in a single gallery.
Pictured above is 'Manifold Destiny;' an oil painting by Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie, who lives and
works in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. The other Nativeartists to be featured in the Invitational include Sean
Chandler, 'AAninin (Gros-Ventre); Anita Fields (Osage/Creek); Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq/
Athabascan); Kapulani Landgraf (Kanaka Maoli); Alan Michelson (Mohawk); Othniel Oomittuk
(Inupiaq); and Richard James Rivet (Metis/Dene).
Voice      of      the      People
web page: www.press-on.net
Native
American
Press
Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
Founded in 1988
Volume 14 issue 11
February 15,2002
Pictured (left to right): Raymond Sayers, Walker; Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer;
Erica Wind, Bemidji; Jessica Kingbird, Deer River.
Minnesota Secretary of State
Mary Kiffmeyer met on February 5 with high school students
Participating in Project 120.
Project i 21 us a program of the
Institute for Learning and
Teaching, which brings high
school students from across
Mnnesota to participate in
week-long sessions at the
Capitol during the legislative session.
Secretary Kiffmeyer spoke
with the students about her dunes as a Constitutional Officer,
and her role as chief elections official of Minnesota. While at
Secretary Kiffmeyer's office, the
students were able to make a
souvenir impression ofthe State
Seal to take home.
"It was a real pleasure to be
able to meet with the Project 120
students, and I really appreciate
seeing their active citizenship at
a young age," said Kiffmeyer.
"Meeting with the Project 120
students is one of my favorite
things to do as Secretary of
State."
Indian Health Services
appropriation increases
under new federal budget
Gains and losses net to 2% increase
By Jean Pagano
The Indian Health Service
(IHS) announced this week that
its proposed share ofthe budget
for FY 2003 is S2.88 billion. IHS
is an agency ofthe Department
of Health and Human Services
(HHS). The appropriation is a
2% increase over the FY 2002
budget of $2.82 billion. The IHS
proposed budget authority accounts for less than 1 % ofthe total Health and Human Services
budget allocation and 5% ofthe
HHS discretionary budget. A total of $84 million increases are
included in the proposed number, offset by reductions totaling
$23 in specific IHS budget areas.
The Indian Health Service is
the primary federal health care
provider and advocate for 1.5
million American Indians and
.Alaskan Natives who belong to
approximately 560 federally recognized tribes. The IHS has 12
regional offices, 49 hospitals,
123 health stations, and 170
.Alaska village clinics across 35
states. The IHS also provides
support to 34 urban projects.
The $61 million increase,
along with funds from health insurance collections ($508 million), mandatory diabetes funds
($100 million), and funds from
staff quarters rental collections
($5.9 million) pushes the IHS'
program level spending to $3.5
IHS to page 8
Cobell:
Norton's
testimony
makes the
case for
receivership
"She gave herself a
passing grade - That's
not good enough for a
tnistee "
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Elouise Cobell said today that Interior Secretaiy Gale Norton's
testimony that she gets a "passing grade" as tmstee for the
failed Individual Indian Monies
(IIM) tmst makes the case that a
federal judge should remove the
tmst from Interior's control and
NORTON to page 8
Prairie Island
Indian
community's
oldest resident
turns 100
Associated Press
RED WING, Minn.-The
sing-song chant in her Dakota
language seemed to soothe Hazel Wells. Ceremonial singers
were at her feet, drumming an
honor song for Wells, who had
just turned" 100.
The Prairie Island Indian
Community's oldest resident
welcomed well-wishers Wednesday. Friends and six generations
of family from near and far
jammed into her home to help
her celebrate.
Vine Wells said that considering his mother's age, she is doing
quite well.
"She's been pretty good - except for a few colds," he said.
Hazel Wells has seen most of
Prairie Island's modem history.
She left the area only as a young
woman to attend boarding
RESIDENT to page 7
Indian trust in disarray
By Michael Milstein
Newhonse News Say ice
The stories are bewildering legend among American Indians:
family inheritances that vanished
like smoke; checks for a few dollars or pennies that anive out of tlie
blue; land they owned but now
cannot trace.
"When I was a very little girl, I
remember my dad saying that we
had this land, that someday we
would get some money from it,"
says Lecile Jay, a Blackfeet Indian
who lives in Florence, Ore.
But when she tried to find the
land near tlie Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, or some record of
it, tlie federal Bureau of Indian Affairs told her "it wouldn't be worth
our time."
Now the legend of such missing
Indian land and money has unfolded into the worst nightmare of
tlie U.S. Interior Department since
tlie Teapot Dome scandal of tlie
1920s, and perhaps the greatest
case of government financial incompetence in history.
TRUST to page 8
Red Lake seizes angler's plane
after landing on reservation
AssociatedPress
RED LAKE, Minn. - A tribal
judge will decide whether a Pine
River angler will receive his plane
back after it was seized by the
Red Lake Band of Ojibwe when
the man illegally landed on reservation waters to fish.
Justin Fulirer, 33, had never
been to Red Lake when he landed
and began fishing two weeks ago
on Lower Red Lake in the middle
ofthe Red Lake Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota.
Fuhrer, along with his cousin,
Shawn Fuhrer, of St. Cloud, say
they didn't realize they were on
reservation waters, which are
closed to nonband anglers. Only a
portion of Upper Red Lake
owned by tlie state is open to
nonband anglers.
Two tribal conservation officers
PLANE to page 8