Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-07-19

              INDEX
HHS provides eight
LaRose Mob
Battle Week Two:
Leech Lake RBC
Commentary
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY     2
ambulances to Tribal and
destroys Leech
Archie intends to
votes 3-1 to eliminate
Red Lake voters and
NEWS BRIEFS               •                         3
Indian Health Service
Lake Government
continue the
Commissioner model
tribal council members
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS                 4
Emergency Programs
and its People
struggle at
Leech Lake
of tribal government
deserve congratulations
CLASSIFIEDS                                       6-7
page 3
page 4
page 4
page 1                                 Ffk.Ji
page 4
Brun unseats Whitefeather with 57%, four new
councilmen at Red Lake
by Clara NiiSka
After months of vigorous campaigning, the election season on
Minnesota's seven Ojibwe reservations ended with the Red Lake runoff elections on July 17th.
Former tribal chairman Gerald
"Butch" Brun, who was narrowly
beaten by Bobby Whitefeather
eight years ago, reclaimed the
chairmanship with a 462 vote margin. Brun prevailed in every district except for Whitefeather's
home district of Ponemah, where
the only candidates on the ballot
were those running for chairman.
Butch Brun told Press/ON, "I
wish to thank all Red Lake Nation
voters that supported me throughout the campaign. I stuck to the is-
■—*&**"
Press/ON file photo
Gerald "Butch" Brun at the
Twin Cities candidate forum
on April 27th.
sues, and all my supporters stuck to
the issues, and we prevailed."
Lame duck chairman
Whitefeather was quoted in a
morning-after article in the Bemidji
Pioneer as telling pohtical editor
Brad Swenson, "It's hard to figure,
but the financial situation ofthe
tribe is one ofthe biggest issues	
In recent years, the tribe has undergone real rapid growth and that has
not been really understood by the
people. We are not really in financial stress."
According to audits and other internal tribal documents examined
by Press/ON, the Red Lake Band's
debt created by the "real rapid
growth" described by Whitefeather
is in excess of forty milhon dollars,
and according to one informed
source Red Lake "is probably
closer to fifty milhon dollars" in
debt.. Almost all of this debt was
BRUN to page 8
Certified results ofthe Red Lake Tribal Election, July 17, 2002
Red Lake     Ponemah     Redby   tittle Rock   Absentee     Total      Percentage
Chairman
Bobby Whitct'cather
191
355
251
121
405
1323
42,5676%
Gerald F. "Butch" Brun
562
66
274
244
639
1785
57.4324%
Red Lake 4-year Term
Roman "Ducker" Stately, Jr.
521
276
727
67.0311%
Donald Desjarlait
225
167
392
32.9689%
Red Lake 2-year Term
Jim White
456
192
648
54.9153%
Rosie "Bee" Barren
283
249
532
45.0847%
Redbv District
Julius "Toady" Thunder
234
174
408
51.3854%
Preston Graves
293
93
386
48.6146%
Little Rock 2-year Term
Richard Barrett, Sr.
267
1TJ2
369
70.9615%
Charlie Norris
96
55
151
29.0385%
Little Rock 4-year Term
Harlan Beaulieu
163
76
239
45.6107%
William "Billy" Greene
202
83
285
54.3893%
Appeals court upholds conviction of Fond du Lac
man despite alleged retraction of victim
By Jeff Armstrong
The state court of appeals this
week upheld the conviction of a
Fond du Lac man found guilty in
1998 of sexually assaulting his
young niece several years earlier.
Sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for a crime he says he never
committed, Keith Lind will not be
ehgible for supervised release until
the last day of 2007.
Lind himself initially brought the
girl to Carlton County authorities
when she aUeged that she had been
sexually assaulted by a non-Native
relative. Although the original alleged assailant was never crimi
nally charged, the girl was placed
in a court-ordered foster home, after which she made similar accusations against Lind.
Lind had appealed for a new trial
based on evidence that the alleged
victim had retracted her testimony
against him after sentencing, as
well as on the discovery of medical
records which failed to establish
conclusively that the girl, referred
to as T.L., had been a sexual assault
victim.
However, the court questioned
the validity of T.L.'s "recantation"
in the form of a letter she later denied writing, which in this case ex-
Department of Interior releases strategy for individual
Indian money accounts: lots of planning, little action
By Jean Pagano
The Department ofthe Interior
(Dol), long the fox guarding the hen
house of Individual Indian Money
Accounts (UMA), has released its
strategy for evaluating and improving DMA. Congress ordered an accounting of Dol practices under the
Interior appropriations legislation
for FY2001. The Courts and Congress have been pressuring Dol to
account for billions of doUars which
have disappeared or been misappropriated from Dol coffers. As recently as last year, Secretary Norton
was held in contempt by the Federal
Courts for not adequately explaining
the disappearance of these huge
sums of monies held in trust for Na
tive peoples. Norton's creation of
the Office of Indian Trust Accounting (OHTA) was an attempt to remove the focus ofthe investigation
from her office to a new and separate administration.
The recent report states that the
end ofthe historical accounting period for ITMA is December 31,
2000.The are currently 235,984 IIM
accounts and $348.3 miUion held in
tmst on their behalf. HistoricaUy,
records for the UMA were kept in
nearly 100 different locations across
the country, and accounting was not
done in a uniform manner. As
records were moved from location
to location, information was lost, destroyed, and in some instances
burned. To date, 7,900 DMA have
been reconciled comprising $22.7
miUion dollars. This accounts for
roughly 3% ofthe total ITM accounts and 6% ofthe tmst monies.
The OHTA estimates that it wiU take
10 years and $2.4 billion to complete the accounting for the remaining accounts. Some members of
Congress have questioned the need
to spend $2.4 billion to account for
$348.3 miUion, yet there are many
unanswered questions about what
happened to the nearly $13 billion
dollars that was collected from the
tmst fund's inception in 1909 to the
present.
ACCOUNTS to page 6
Judge dismisses
lawsuit against
Applebee's
Madison - On July IS"1 a federal
judge dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit against an
Applebee's restaurant in Superior,
Wisconsin, ruling that the American Indian plaintiff did not prove
the restaurant intentionaUy discriminated against him when it refused to serve him alcohol.
District Judge Barbara Crabb
ruled that Minnesota-based Gourmet Systems - which owns 45
Applebee's in Minnesota and Wisconsin - is not discriminating
against American Indians in its
pohcy of not accepting tribal identification cards as proof of age.
JUDGE to page 6
House bill could
deny Indians
accounting of
royalties from land
By Robert Gehrke
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Language
in a House spending biU may
deny American Indian landowners a full accounting of royalties
they say were squandered by the
BILL to page 6
Bush administration strips Chinook
Tribe of federal recognition
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Bush
administration has stripped Washington state's Chinook Tribe of
federal recognition, reversing a
Clinton administration decision
and possibly setting up a federal
court battle.
Tribal officials said the Interior
Department looked at the same
evidence the Clinton officials
used to grant recognition in Janu
ary 2001.
Friday's ruling means the Chinooks, based in Chinook, Wash.,
are not recognized as a sovereign
nation.
Federal recognition makes
tribes eligible for federal benefits
and programs. Recognition could
have meant a chance for the Chinooks to build casinos on their
CHINOOK to page 6
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Ojibwe News
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Founded in 1988
Volume 15 Issue 7
July 19,2002
onerated Lind and implicated yet
another relative.
"[T]he letter contains 14 different sets of fingerprints, none of
which belong to her, and the testimony about the way the letter was
obtained and when it was brought
forward suggests falsification," the
appeals court wrote.
Even if the court had accepted
the letter as genuine, it suggested
that recantation of an aUeged victim might not be sufficient to obtain
a new trial.
"Motions for a new trial on al-
C0NVICTI0N to page 3
photo credit Bill Lawrence
Leech Lake RBC from left to right: Lyman "DeDe" Losh, Burton "Luke" Wilson, Eli Hunt, Rich
Robinson, and Archie LaRose.
Leech Lake
RBC votes
3-1 to
eliminate
Commissioner
model of
tribal
government
By Bill Lawrence
Twenty-one persons testified
at the Leech Lake RBC special
meeting in the bingo room of the
Palace Casino in Cass Lake on
Monday morning, July 15th. The
special meeting was called to
consider abolishing the 'Commissioner model' and eliminate
the Commissioners as officers in
tribal aaministration.
The meeting was called as a
result of a petition signed by 53
tribal members, as required by
the Leech Lake constitution and
bylaws. The petition was circulated because the issue was not
aUowed to be brought up at the
regular July 3rd quarterly meeting
ofthe Leech Lake RBC. Leech
Lakers demonstrated both serious concerns and strong feelings
about the issue at the July 15th
meeting.
A httle over a year ago, the
Commissioner model was
brought to Leech Lake tribal
VOTE to page 8
Diane White, a Leech Lake tribal from Onigum and currently employed in the accounting office of the Leech Lake band, also testified in opposition to the Commissioner model. White cited the increase in costly consultant contracts since the Commissioner
model was adopted.
photo credit UHITawrence
Sandy Gotchie was one of twenty-three speakers at the Leech
Lake tribal council special meeting on Monday, July 15th.
Gotchie identified himself as a White Oak Point tribal member.
White Oak Point was one of the several Indian settlements
which was combined in the late 1800s to form the Leech Lake
band. Gotchie advocated the elimination of the Commissioner
model in Leech Lake band government.
What's happening with
"payment" at Red Lake?
photo: Clara NiiSka
Red Lake enroUees are issued tribal ID cards at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on Monday, July 15th. The
IDs cards were issued in conjunction with polling for absentee voters at the Indian Center, using digital technology to
search tribal enrollment databases, photograph the applicant, and, in just minutes, issue a plastic-encased ID card.
by Clara NiiSka
There have been any number
of contradictory rumors circulating about "payment" at Red
Lake. Recently, a reader emailed
Press/ON: "A mother of 2 Red
Lake members asked me to contact you regarding a payment they
were/are to receive. She stated
that it was supposed to be here
around xmas, then in the spring
and now nothing. Do you have
any infonnation on this?"
Press/ON caUed the offices of
Congressman Colin Peterson
(DFL-District 7). Rep. Peterson
sponsored the legislation H.R.
4208, 'To approve the use or distribution of judgment funds ofthe
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota by the Senate
and the House of Representatives, and for other purposes,"
which was referred to the House
Committee on April 11,2002,
and had apparently staUed there.
According to Robin Goracke,
Peterson's legislative assistant,
H.R. 4208 "is moot."
Goracke explained that Red
PAYMENT to page 5
Men accused of embezzling from
tribe appear in court
By Megan Boldt
Associated Press
MINOT, N.D. —A former
chairman of the Turtle Mountain
Band of Chippewa and another
man, both charged with embezzling more than $ 100,000 from
the tribe, have been released on
their own recognizance.
Raphael Decoteau, who
served as Turtle Mountain chairman in 1997 and 1998, and
Ronald Morin appeared in U.S.
District Court here on Tuesday.
They are accused of fraudulently
transferring a bus garage owned
by the tribe to Morin.
Both of their arraignments
were scheduled for Thursday.
They could enter pleas at that
time.
"I wiU plead not guilty to all
the charges," Decoteau said Tuesday.
Morin could not be immediately reached for comment.
According to court documents,
Decoteau directed Uniband, a
business the tribe controUed, to
pay $77,000 to rent the building
in 1998 from the Belcourt/
Dunseith ATA Black Belt Academy.
Morin was chairman of ATA at
the time, and the money aUegedly
was deposited in an account he
COURT to page 6
Darnell Dee
Whitefeather
sentenced to
7+ years
Minneapolis—DarneU Dee
Whitefeather, a resident ofthe Red
Lake Indian Reservation was sentenced today in United States District Court to robbery.
Whitefeather, age 20, was sentenced to 92 months in prison by
Judge David Doty in Minneapolis.
Whitefeather admitted during
his guUty plea hearing in November 2001 that he robbed two other
members ofthe Red Lake Band of
their pick-up tmck at knife point
on February 4,2001.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation and Red Lake Law
Enforcement. Assistant United
States Attorney Clifford B.
Wardlaw prosecuted by the case.
Former Red
Lake coach faces
child sexual
abuse charges
Associated Press
BEMTDJI, Minn. -A former
janitor and coach at St. Mary's
Mission School in Red Lake has
been indicted by a federal grand
jury on felony charges related to
child sexual abuse.
CHARGES to page 6