Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-04-05

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY     2
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS                  4
SMOKE SIGNALS OF UPCOMING EVENTS 5
CLASSIFIEDS                                           7
"The Sioux":
prepublication draft
for comment
page 5, 8
Ombudsman reaction
to Pioneer Press article
page 4
Louise Erdich
named Minnesota
humanities prize for
literature winner
page 3
Our Destiny is
Freedom
.  page 4
Commentary
Only eleven days
'til MCT elections
page 4
White Earth abandons pledge for judicial election
By Jeff Armstrong
Despite public pledges by White
Earth chief judge Anita Fineday
last year that her position would be
included on the ballot in upcoming
tribal elections, RBC officials have
no intentions of subjecting then-
controversial legal system to a
popular vote.
According to a Minnesota Public
Radio documentary of last April,
judges were to be up for election
this year.
"At White Earth, tribal judge
Anita Fineday says she can no
longer be fired by the tribal
council. Her judgeship, for the first
time in history, will be up for
election in 2002," stated the
documentary, entitled Broken
Tmst: Civil Rights in Indian
Country.
An White Earth staff member,
who declined to offer her name,
confirmed that no candidates,
including Fineday, have filed for
the office.
"There's been no dicussions at
any ofthe meetings about putting
judges on the ballot," the staff
member said.
For perhaps the first time in
White Earth's 135-year history,
Native and non-Native residents
have joined forces in what they say
is an effort to defend civil rights
and constitutional government on
the reservation. The interracial
coalition, known as Citizens for
Lawful Government (CLG), is
pressing Becker County to
withdraw from a state-reservation
law enforcement agreement the
group claims is contrary to U.S.
and tribal constitutional law.
Mahnomen and Clearwater
County unilaterally withdrew from
the agreement last year, leaving
Becker County the sole remaining
vehicle through which reservation
police can exercise criminal
jurisdiction. While White Earth
officers continue to issue traffic
tickets in the two other counties,
tribal court citations are widely
ignored by reservation citizens who
dispute the legitimacy ofthe forum.
fn a March 26 closed-door
meeting, CLG spokespersons Ken
Pearson and Leonard Thompson,
Jr. lobbied Becker County Attorney
Joe Evans—who has been asked
by the county board of commissioners to issue a legal opinion on
the subject—to abandon the
project.
Pearson, who served as mayor of
the reservation town of Callaway
for 24 years, said prior to the
meeting that he found the situation
historically ironic.
"The Indian people have been
saying they're oppressed all these
years," said Pearson. "Here they're
being oppressed by their own
people and Becker County signs an
agreement that says, 'that's o.k.'"
Until tribal members consent to
the agreement by referendum vote
or other constitutional means,
Pearson said, the county should
terminate its role in the agreement.
"If it's done democratically and
that's what the majority wants, so
be it," said Pearson. "With that
referendum there should be
included a separate, independent
judicial system. Right now, the
judge is appointed and totally at the
mercy of the governmental body
that appointed them."
The meeting with Evans was
inconclusive, said Pearson
afterwards.
"He didn't have much to say at
all; I couldn't get a read on him,"
the CLG spokesman said.
Entering the fray reluctantly,
Pearson said he was originally
optimistic that the agreement
would help alleviate long-term
tensions between tribal members
and state law enforcement. He said
he thought nothing of it when he
received two phone calls from
Callaway residents last fall,
claiming harrassment on the part of
the White Earth officers. But when
the calls kept coming in, Pearson
began to review the agreement.
When Pearson requested records
ofthe county-tribal commission
meetings mandated under the
agreement, he says he was told to
put his request in writing. Weeks
later, he is still waiting for a reply.
"I'm sure the reason they haven't
got [the records] is because they
haven't held any meetings," said
Pearson.
Having heard complaints only
from his former non-Native
constituents, Pearson amitted
surprise that the turnout was almost
evenly divided racially.
"I didn't expect to see any
Native Americans, really," said
Pearson.
Tribal activist Ray Bellcourt
expressed hope that the coalition
effort will carry the long-ignored
voice of grassroots tribal members.
"That's the first joint coalition
I've seen on this reservation against
comiption and on the same side,"   •
said Bellcourt. "They'll listen to
white people before they'll listen to
Indians."
BIA Budget Released for 2003, Provides a
1% Increase Over 2002
Yet Significant Cuts Loom
By Jean Pagano
The 2003 Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) Budget has been
released to Congress. The BIA
budget for 2003 is $2.3 billion, and
represents an increase of $22.9
minion over 2002, or roughly 1%.
Much ofthe emphasis ofthe new
BIA budget is on Tmst Services.
Whereas the BIA has failed time
and time again to uphold its
commitment to serve as trustee for
Indian affairs, it is once again
reemphasizing its need to be that
trustee. Departmental highlights
remind readers that 87 million
acres oflndian lands passed from
Indian ownership to homesteaders,
businesses, and others between
1887 and 1934. Perhaps a better
trustee was needed at the time.
In 2001, Secretary Norton
created the Office of Historical
Trust Accounting to provide for an
historical accounting ofthe many
years of federal mismanagement,
carelessness, and neglect with
Native Tmst dollars. The creation
of the Office of Historical Tmst
Accounting now shifts the
responsibility for the research
concerning mismanagement from
the Secretary of the Interior to the
Head of the Historic Tmst
Accounting Office.
Highlights ofthe budgetary
changes are as follows: Education
BIA to page 8
Peltier supporters to sue officials who
opposed clemency
by Chuck Haga, Minneapolis
Star Tribune
Supporters of Leonard Peltier
say they will file a lawsuit today
accusing former FBI Director
Louis Freeh and others of
spreading disinformation to
prevent the imprisoned American
Indian activist from receiving fair
clemency and parole reviews last
year.
Peltier, convicted in the killing
of two FBI agents in 1975 on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota, had sought
clemency from outgoing President Bill Clinton.
In the lawsuit, to be filed by
Peltier's attorneys in U.S. District
Court in Washington, D.C, Freeh
and the FBI Agents Association
are accused of violating Peltier's
rights by making false statements
to Clinton, the pubhc, the Justice
Department and the Parole
Commission.
The Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee alleges that Clinton
declined to pardon Peltier after
FBI agents mounted a national
campaign to portray him as "a
cold-blooded killer who brutally
shot two FBI agents at point-
blank range." But that characterization was "intentionally
deceptive," according to the
committee, "given the
government's long-held position
that it cannot prove who shot the
agents."
Nicholas O'Hara, former
special agent in charge of the
Minneapolis FBI office and now
an inspector in the Ramsey
County Sheriff's Department,
vigorously opposed a pardon for
Peltier.
"This is a great country, and he
[Peltier] has every right to file his
documents," O'Hara said
Wednesday. "But the agents have
every right to speak [and] remind
the public what happened" in
1975.
In letters last year to Clinton
and former Attorney General
Janet Reno, Freeh said there is
compelling evidence that Peltier
shot the agents after they were
wounded in a "sickeningly
brutal" attack.
Peltier, 57, is serving two
consecutive life sentences at the
U.S. Penitentiary in
Leavenworth, Kan. His supporters say he is in poor health.
Inmates may lose advocate office
Editor's Note: Ombudsman reaction
to Pioneer Press article on page 4.
By Ruben Rosario
St. Paul Pioneer Press
David Fogel saw the handwriting
as well as the bloodstains on the
prison walls following the 1971
Attica prison riots in western New
York that left 29 inmates and seven
guards among 43 dead.
Fogel, then Minnesota's
innovative if controversial prison
commissioner, attended the
congressional hearings in Washington following the bloodiest domestic
massacre outside of Indian
rebellions since the Civil War. He
learned firsthand about the
circumstances that mushroomed
into the riot—ignored complaints
over health treatment and prison
conditions.
Fogel came to the conclusion that
the best way to prevent such a tragic
event from happening here or
elsewhere was to treat the inmates in
a lawful and humane manner and
provide them with a credible avenue
for redress. It didn't mean placating
all their concerns. It meant providing an impartial outlet that would
investigate their grievances.
Minnesota became one of the first
states in the nation to establish an
ombudsman office for corrections,
an independent watchdog agency
that looks into concerns of inmates,
ranging from deaths in custody to
access to law libraries.
Thirty-one years later, the office is
politically vulnerable, a possible
victim of its obscurity and traditionally unpopular constituency.
Funding for the office will be
eljxninated under an anti-terrorism
bill passed by the Minnesota House
of Representatives earlier this year.
A Senate Version restores
funding, but the House action
symbolizes what some say is a
troubling national trend: legislators
are taking advantage of the antiterrorism fervor to scuttle funding
for programs or agencies that do not
pass ideological muster.
At the center of the debate is Rep.
Rich Stanek R-Maple Grove, a
Minneapolis police inspector and
head ofthe powerful and influential
House Judiciary Committee.
Stanek's committee has also
drastically gutted the funding for the
Ombudsman for Crime Victims
Office, which investigates complaints or concerns against police,
prosecutors and other entities on
behalf of crime victims. Its duties
are slated to be transferred to the
Department of Public Safety,
essentially a law enforcement
INMATES to page 7
Hull calls special
session on Indian
gambling
By Scott Thomsen
Associated Press
PHOENIX — Gov. Jane Hull
issued a call Thursday for a special
session of the Legislature to
consider whether to approve new
gambling agreements for Arizona's
Indian tribes.
The special session will begin
Monday and run concurrently with
the Legislature's regular session
that is now underway.
Hull set the table for discussions
by submitting a bill that would
allow the tribes to operate Las
Vegas-style blackjack and put more
slot machines into play in exchange
for a share of the profits. Her
proposal embodies an agreement
she negotiated with the Arizona
Indian Gaming Association over
the past two years.
It would resolve legal problems
identified by a federal judge in a
lawsuit brought by horse and dog
racing tracks. It also would set the
framework for new gaming
compacts. The original agreements
that brought casinos to Arizona's
reservations in 1993 begin to
HULL to page 7
VOICE       OF       THE       PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
-t^e^
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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 18
April 5,2002
Photo credits: Clara NiiSka
Demonstrators outside the Indian Health Board Clinic at 1315 E. Franklin Avenue in
South Minneapolis on Monday, April 1st protesting the firing of numerous physicians and
clinic staff, including clinic director Dr. Lydia Caros a few weeks ago, and Dr. Carol
Krush and Dr. Lori Banaszak on Friday, Mach 29th. The demonstration continued all
week. The demonstrators are also publicizing a community meeting - scheduled for
6:00 pm on Monday, April 8lh at the Minneapolis American Indian Center - and pressing
for a board of directors elected by the community.
Weeklong picket at IHB
Community meeting planned for 6:00 pm on Monday,
April 8 at Minneapolis Indian Center
by Clara NiiSka .
On Friday, March 29'\
physicians Dr. Carol Krush
and Dr. Lori Banaszak were
fired from their jobs at the
Indian Health Board community clinic in south Minneapolis. Both had worked at
the clinic for years, Dr. Krush
since the clinic opened
twenty-eight years ago.
Press/ON spoke with Dr.
Krush as she picketed the
clinic on Wednesday, April
3rd.
Dr. Krush said that her
signing the letter, "Physicians
respond to IHB board of
directors' open letter,"
published in Press/ON on
March 22, 2002 was "the
straw that broke the camel's
back," leading to her being
fired for "insubordination."
When the letter came out in
the paper, there was a
"disciplinary meeting," Dr.
Krush said, then she "kept
getting voice mails about the '
disciplinary meeting," which she
understood as the
administration's 'building a
record' to justify her being fired.
Late Friday afternoon, "at the
end of the day," she heard "the
person at the front desk telling
Penny Scheffler that I was still
seeing patients." When Dr.
Krush had seen her last patient,
at about 5:30, interim director
Penny Scheffler and a lawyer
took Dr. Krush and Dr.
Banaszak to clinic administrator
Dr. Terril Hart's office, "separately. Laurie was first." Both
physicians were given their
termination papers, severance
checks, and told to turn in their
keys. Dr. Krush said that she
has not cashed her termination
check, and does not intend to
until she has done everything
she can to resolve the problems
at IHB and—perhaps—return to
the clinic and the generations of
patients who she has served as
their family doctor.
"I knew when I signed [the
"Physicians respond ..." letter]
that it would not go down
well," Dr. Krush said, but "they
were lying in the letter from
the board. I could not let it go.
They said we were doing FAS
(fetal alcohol syndrome)
evaluations. That's my
department - we have not been
doing FAS evaluations since
[Dr.] Lydia [Caros] left."
The March 22nd physicians
response letter was reportedly
jointly written at a meeting of a
number of physicians and
medical staff. "I knew when I
[said], 'put my name on it' that
I would get in trouble," Dr.
Krush said. "But, I do not
regret it. It had to be done. If
my getting fired is what it takes
to get this mess cleaned up -
I'm not a martyr, but a some
point you have to stand up."
IHB to page 8
Bush administration wants high court
to overturn Navajo damage decision
By Robert Gehrke
Associated Press
WASHINGTON—The Bush
administration wants the Supreme
Court to overturn a decision in a
contract dispute that could force
the government to pay the Navajo
Nation as much as $600 million.
The tribe won a lawsuit last
August, when a federal appeals
court ruled the government failed
in its duty to protect the tribe's
interest in mining leases on
reservation land and was liable for
damages.
The Navajo claim then-Interior
Secretary Donald Hodel secretly
conspired with Peabody Coal Co.
to undermine the tribe's contract
negotiations with the company.
The talks began in 1984 and
ended with a contract signing in
1987.
Forcing the government to pay
damages in a case where the tribe
negotiated the leases could set a
dangerous precedent, Solicitor
General Ted Olson said in
documents filed with the Supreme
Court
"Any Indian tribe that believes,
with the benefit of hindsight, that it
could have negotiated a better
mineral lease deal may seek to
obtain damages," Olson wrote. "At
a minimum, such a development
will subject the United States to
costly litigation over such matters."
The Navajo's response is due
April 18. The court may decide
before it adjourns this summer
whether it will hear the case.
The Navajo Nation is the
nation's largest reservation,
sprawling over 25,000 square
miles in parts of Utah, Arizona and
New Mexico. Since 1964, the tribe
has leased mining rights to
Peabody for two strip mines—the
Black Mesa Mine and the Kryenta
Mine — in northeastern Arizona.
For the first two decades, the
tribe was paid 37.5 cents per ton of
coal, about 2 percent ofthe gross
proceeds. During negotiations on a
new contract in 1984, the Navajos
sought 20 percent
When talks hit a sticking point, a
regional Bureau of Indian Affairs
official was asked to intervene and
ruled the tribe should get 20
percent But before the tribe was
notified ofthe decision, Hodel met
secretly with Peabody lobbyist and
personal friend Stanley Hulett, then
blocked the regional BIA official's
decision.
BUSH to page 7
Navajos, federal
government spar
over inmates
Associated Press
WINDOW ROCK Ariz. — The
Navajo Nation's chief prosecutor
beheves federal agents should
obtain a tribal judge's approval
before having Navajo prisoners
released into their custody.
A dispute over Navajo prisoners,
brewing for some time, erupted
when a woman accused of Jailing
three of her children failed to show
up Feb. 7 in tribal court for a
pretrial conference because the FBI
already had her in custody in
Phoenix for federal prosecution.
Tribal Judge LaVerne Johnson
has scheduled an April 30 hearing
for police because she had ordered
Elvira Charley, of Klagetoh, Ariz.,
on the Navajo reservation, kept in
tribal jail and there was no
paperwork to show Charley was
transferred.
Federal lawyers and tribal police
plan to meet Friday in Albuquerque
to discuss the conflict with tribal
prosecutors over how Navajo
prisoners are to be taken into
federal custody.
Chief tribal prosecutor Donovan
NAVAJO to page 8
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