Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-08-30

              INDEX
ACE lists benefits
Leech Lake accountant
Mille Lacs Tea Party
Digging up whitey:               i*"^P
Commentary
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY
?
of exercise, tips to
contests allegations of
hosts public forum
Lakota activists say
Reservation
NEWS BRIEFS
3.
get started
"chaos"
on Indian issues
that's what they'll do if
turmoil is
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS
4
government doesn't
symptomatic of
CLASSIFIEDS
7
leave ancestors alone
deeper problems
page 3
page 4
page 4
page 3                                   WLM
page 4
Larsen, Blue Stone & Owen v. Prairie Island Community Council
"still waiting after all these years"
by Clara NiiSka
In two weeks, according to
Lawrence Larson, it will have
been twelve years since he, his
mother Marcella Blue Stone,
and Harvey Owen first went to
the enrollment committee at
Prairie Island. Blue Stone, nee
Leith, was listed on the original
1934 rolls of the Minnesota
Mdewakanton Sioux and according to the Article III Section
1 (a) of the Constitution of the
Prairie Island Indian Community, is entitled to enrollment
there. Both Larsen and Owen
are descendents of original enroUees, and all three plaintiffs
were born and raised at Prairie
Island.
According to the plaintiffs'
lawyer, Gary Montana, the Prairie Island enrollment committee
approved their enrollment, in.
the case of Blue Stone recommending enrollment "three
times." The Prairie Island community council, however, did
not act on the enrollments.
In November 1999, they filed
in suit in the Prairie Island tribal
court, suing the Prairie Island
community council: Audrey
Kohnen, Darrell Campbell,
Noah White, Lu Jacobs Taylor
and Ron Johnson "as members
ofthe Community Council...
and in their individual capacity."
As Montana wrote in his brief
for the plaintiffs, "the Defendant
Community Council and as individuals failure to act on the rec
ommendations ofthe Enrollment Committee to enroll all
three (3) Plaintiff(s) is a violation of the Plaintiff's equal protection and due process of tribal
laws as established and promulgated by the Tribe. Thus, such
inaction is clearly "actions outside the scope ofthe authority"
of the Defendants in both their
official and individual capacities."
The Prairie Island community
council, through their attorneys
Joseph Paiement and Richard
McGee, responded with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit for.
"failure to state a claim," and in
the alternative, to dismiss based
on the defendants' sovereign immunity. .
The matter was heard in the
Prairie Island tribal court in
March 2000, and in their order
filed August 23rd, the tribal
court ruled that "the immunity
from suit which protects Indian
tribes extends to each of the Defendants in their official capacities and their actions have been .
within the scope of their authority," and that the Plaintiffs cannot prove any facts which would
entitle the Plaintiffs to relief."
In other words, the tribal court
ruled that there was no legal
process through which Blue
Stone, Larsen, and Owen could
compel the Prairie Island community council to act on the applications for enrollment, and
for Blue Stone, council ac
knowledgment of her original
enrollment.
Blue Stone, Larsen, and Owen
appealed. In a memorandum on
behalf of the plaintiffs filed May
29, 2001, Montana argues that
"the Plaintiff(s) have exhausted
all administrative remedies that
are available to them under
Community law regarding their
individual enrollment. Article
III ofthe Community Constitution does not require the
Plaintiff(s) to prove further
qualifications, once they have
established they meet the requirements of Article HI, Section 1(1),(b) or (c) for enrollment purposes; the burden then
shifts to the Tribe to prove otherwise. In the present situation...
now it is incumbent upon the
Defendant(s) to enforce the recommendations ofthe Enrollment Committee and enroll the
Plaintiffs "
In the response from the community council* their attorneys
argued that "the membership list
has been set," and "plaintiffs are
not on the membership list."
"For plaintiffs to be added to the
membership list, they must seek
and obtain approval from both
the Membership Committee and
the Community Council."
The tribal court does not have
jurisdiction over enrollment disputes, argued the attorneys for
the Prairie Island community
BLUE STONE to page 3
Cass County corrections officer admits to sexual
assault of jail inmate
By Jeff Armstrong
Cass County correctional officer
Robert Stoneking pleaded guilty
Monday to charges of sexually assaulting a female inmate he was
transporting back to jail from the
Cass Lake Hospital on Jan. 1.
Stoneking's Anishinabe victim had
been incarcerated for violating the
terms of her probation by consuming alcohol on New Year's Eve.
Stoneking, who reportedly re- .
signed his position as transport
driver for the comity prior to his
conviction, accepted a guilty plea
to the felony offense of 3rd degree
criminal sexual assault after DNA
tests supported the victim's allegation that the officer had intercourse
with her while she was handcuffed
in the back of a squad car. Although the crime canies a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment, Stoneking has been released
without bail throughout the proceedings and probably faces no
more than six months jail time at
his Oct. 14 sentencing hearing, ac
cording to the plea agreement.
DarreU Johnson, a close friend of
the victim, described the possibility
that Stoneking may never serve a
day in jail for the crime as "a slap in
the face to the Indian community."
"If he was Indian, they would
have slapped a half a milhon dollar
bail on the guy,'' said Johnson.
Johnson said the criminal complaint against Stoneking falsely alleges that the victim invited her own
rape, when in fact she has hved in
fear since the incident. The complaint describes the assault as "consensual intercourse," even though
the statute states that "Consent by
the complainant is not a defense."
"She said T was afraid that if I
tried to run, he would shoot me and
say I was trying to get away,'"
said Johnson. "She was frightened for her own safety and the
safety of her kids."
A Cass County jail employee
said Stoneking was not authorized to carry a firearm in his position and was not hcensed to do
so by the state Peace Officers
Standards and Training board.
Elaine Gamache, executive director of the Bemidji Sexual Assault Program, said the incident
was exceptional only in that the
victim dared testify against her
assailant.
"It's been a really long history
of that going on, women and
girls that have allegedly been
sexually assaulted by cops. Especially in Cass County, there's
been q'tite a few cases." said
Gamache.
Gamache said hght sentences in
such cases are "unfortunately pretty
common" but that the judge could
legally penalize Stoneking beyond
the terms of the plea agreement.
"I think it would help others to.
come forward. It would help
people to feel a httle more secure in
doing so," said Gamache.
The advocate said the vast majority of reported victims of sexual
assault by law enforcement officers
in the area are Native women.
Acquittal of Onigum elder bolsters excessive force
complaint against LLPD
By Jeff Armstrong
Supporting his civil rights claims
against the Leech Lake tribal pohce
department and officer Charles
Lahman, a Cass County jury
found Randolph White, Sr. of
Onigum not guilty of gross misdemeanor charges of obstructing legal process Aug. 27.
A passenger in a car driven by
his son, the Anishinabe elder was
maced, forcibly subdued and arrested by Lahman on the basis of
a questionable trespassing
warrant during an otherwise routine April 7 traffic stop by the reservation officer. White said the
trespassing charge was later conditionally dismissed by Cass
County.
Although White had no
doubt of his innocence, he shares
with many tribal members a
distinct lack of confidence in the
Cass County legal system.
"I feel relieved," said White. "I
was kind of scared they were going to find me guilty."
White had promptly filed a civil
rights complaint to Cass County
sheriff's department over the incident, which the county referred to
reservation pohce for
investigation. The 73-year-old
Onigum man has yet to receive a •
response from Leech Lake pubhc ■
safety commissioner Rocky
Papsadora, who has stated that he
was.investigating the incident.
White said Lahman's performance on the stand swayed the jury
in his favor.
"He never looked at the jury and
he contradicted himself a couple of
times," said White.
White said he hopes to file a
civil rights lawsuit against the tribal
pohce, but has already been discouraged from doing so by one
well-known civil rights attorney in
Minneapolis.
"He said I was too old and they
won't get very much money out of
it. He said no lawyer would take
it," said White. "We don't have any
civil rights in the tribe."
Federal government seeks whereabouts oflndian account holders:
Many IIM accounts remain unclaimed
By Jean Pagano
The case of Cobell v. Norton
brought the Office of Historical
Trust Accounting (OHTA) into existence to. help sort out years upon
years of governmental mismanagement of Individual Indian
Money accounts (UM). The Federal government set up HMs because that self-same government
beheved that Native peoples were
either incompetent or incapable of
managing the trust monies.
ITMs are defined by the federal
government (25 CFR § 115.1) as:
"those accounts under the control
of the Secretary of the Interior or
his authorized representative belonging to individuals." Sources
ofthe funds in these accounts include royalties from oil, gas, and
mineral leases; leases of land and
grazing rights; stumpage payments; and per capita payments
from land settlements for Indian
people who are minors or are designated as "incompetents." The
property which generates these
tmst monies is legally owned by
the United States government, "in
tmst" for the benefit of a federally
recognized Indian tribe or individual Indians.
Congress' implementation of
the American Indian Tmst Fund
Management Reform Act (25
USCS § 4001 etseq.) stipulated
that the Secretary of the Interior
"shall account for the daily and
annual balance of ah funds held in
trust by the United States for the
benefit of an Indian tribe or an individual Indian which are deposited or invested pursuant to the
Act of June 24,1938" (28 U.S.C.
162a). In Cobell v. Norton (240
F3d 1081) it was established that .
the U.S. government has "preexisting fiduciary duty to perform
complete historical accounting of
tmst fund assets."
The Department of the Interior,
in their report to Congress dated
July 2002, states that there are
235,984 ITMs worth $348.3 milhon. As part of the effort to reunite
money and Native peoples, the
Office of Tmst Fund Management
(OTFM) has instituted a Whereabouts Unknown program.
Whereabouts Unknown asks
people to help match names from
government docuiments to addresses so that money due to
people can be assigned to the individuals in question.
The Department of Interior has
set up a web site, http://
www.ost.doi.gov/
whereabouts.html. which has a set
of lists of names, in alphabetical
order, of people who have ITM accounts. OTFM asks that anyone
having addresses or information
about the names hsted contact:
Office of Tmst Funds Management, ATTN: Whereabouts Unknown, 505 Marquette, Suite
1000
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
When writing to OTFM, the letter needs to contain the full name
of the person from the hst (last,
first, and middle initial), date of
birth (if known), the current address of the account holder, and
the signature ofthe person supplying the infonnation. New names
will be added to the website
monthly. Names on the hst represent each letter of the alphabet,
from "A", A Nau Des Bah to "Z",
Steven L. Zylstra.
VOICE       OF       THE       PEOPLE
web* page: www.press-on.net
t>&e/
Native *
American
Press
Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
Founded in 1988
Volume 15 Issue 13
August 30,2002
Photo: Larry Adams
Explaining how to make the clay balls with wild rice inside, Bemahdizewin coordinator Mike Neumann
shows the kids how to do it with the hopes of harvesting rice next year.
'Bemahdizewin' takes place on
Miskwa-gami wizaga iganing
By Larry Adams
Bemahdizewin, or "Living
The Good Life," took part on
August 10,2002, on a day when
it seemed that Mother Earth
didn't know whether to shine the
sun or obscure it with Her
clouds.
With a staff of ten and a cast
of 30 youth fresh from the
"Mni," (Minneapolis) as it tends
to be known around Miskwa-
gami wizaga iganing,.the Red
Lake Ojibwe Nation in northern
Minnesota or "the rez," the rendezvous point was the "cut-off'
on the southwestern part of
Lower Red Lake.
There, Darwin Sumner, one of
the counselors, albeit a httle late
yet right on time as far as
"Anishinaabe Time" is concerned, (that is, 15 minutes to an
hour later, depending on where you
are on Turtle Island at any given
point in time). The caravan of staff
and Native youth from the Twin
Cities consisted of 30 teens from
White Earth, Red Lake, Fond du
. Lac and some who also reside in
Minneapolis as well, spent the
night before at Red Lake's .Thief
River Falls Seven Clans Casino
swimming and carousing, included
White Earth's Earl and Kathy
Hoagland, Mike Neumann and a
host of other counselors, who met
up and followed us to the village of
Red Lake. Bemahdizewin is
funded by a grant in the amount of
$25,000 through the McKnight
Foundation by the Indigenous
People's Task Force out of Minneapolis and is headed by Sharon
Day, who is originally from Nett
Lake. Also, this joint effort re
ceived funding from a $15,000
EPAgrant from the Independent
School District 196 out of
Rosemont. The purpose of
Bemahdizewin "is to strengthen individual identity and community by
practicing traditional values and
sustainable development technologies that reestablish our relationship with the earth" according to
Bemahdizewin's mission statement.
With Red Lake's waves rising
and falling rather roughly along the
trip to the village and the sun shining suggestively, everyone eventuaUy got to Tom Lussier's house.
Lussier came out of the house as
greetings and salutations were the
order of the day. From there,
BEMAHDIZEWIN to page 6
Problems at
St. Cloud
Indian Center?
■ \
by Clara NiiSka
Allegations of financial mismanagement by Debbie Fuller,
former director of the St.
Cloud Area American Indian
Center, have resulted in documents being turned over to law
enforcement officials for investigation and possible criminal prosecution of Fuller, according to an informed source.
"She was asked to bring the financial reports to the board
meetings, but" Fuller claimed
the information was "not available," the source said.
"In June," the board "had to
go to the bank to get copies"
of cancelled checks" in order
to ascertain the financial situation at the Indian Center, and
"when they got copies of
' PROBLEMS to page 6
Hudson Casino: Ojibwes' federal
lawsuit moved to Madison
Associated Press
A federal lawsuit filed by three
northern Wisconsin Ojibwe bands
seeking to open a casino in
Hudson, Wis., has been moved
from Washington, DC, to Madison.
The lawsuit could eventuaUy pit
American Indian nations, the states
and the federal government against
one other in the U.S. Supreme
Court overthe provisions ofthe 12-
year-old Indian Gaming Regulatory
Act.
The suit, filed in May 2001 by the
Sokaogon, Lac Courte OreiUes and
Red Chff bands ofthe Lake Superior Ojibwe, maintains that Congress acted unconstitutionaUy in delegating veto power over casinos to
governors. Allowing governors to
overrule the Interior Department's
approval of gaming faculties violates the federal government's tmst
obligations to Indian nations and ti-
legally delegates federal policymaking authority and executive
branch powers to the states, the suit
claims.
The lawsuit also aUeges that the
veto power violates due process because governors can exercise the
power arbitrarily without meeting
any standards or legal requirements
and without any opportunity for In-,
dian nations to appeal decisions.
The bands wanted the case heard
in Washington because of its national implications, spokesman
Mark Goff said. The federal government argued the case should be
heard in the district where the land is
located. Afederal judge in Washington moved the lawsuit this month to
Madison.
In February 2001, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs reversed an earlier decision and approved the bands' apphcation to acquire the now-defunct
Chippewa Meadows Greyhound
Racing Park and to open a casino
there. But Gov. Scott McCaUum rejected the request to take the property into tmst for the Ojibwe.
Legal battle on Rosebud hog farm
appears far from over
By Chet Brokaw
Associated Press
PIERRE, S.D. —After several court rulings, the legal
battle has escalated over the
fate of the huge hog farm on
land owned by the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe in south-central
South Dakota.
The company that built and
operates the hog farm wants the
U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision. It also has filed another
lawsuit alleging that federal
agencies and the trifle have violated its constitutional rights.
In April, a three-judge panel
ofthe 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals shuck down a judge's
order that had aUowed the hog
farm to be built and operated.
The panel said Sun Prairie, a Nebraska company that operates the
farm, had no legal standing to
seek the 1999 order that has protected the operation.
On Aug. 14, the appeals court
rejected Sun Prairie's request for
a rehearing. Sun Prairie then
asked the court to delay enforcement of its mling so the company
can seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
ROSEBUD to page 7
Derek Lee
Thunder sentenced
Minneapolis—A Red Lake
man who was driving his car
while under the influence of alcohol when he caused an auto
accident that left two passengers
injured, was sentenced in United
States District Court to 18
months in prison. Derek Lee
Thunder was sentenced on Friday, August 23,2002 by Chief
Judge James Rosenbaum in
Minneapolis.
Thunder pled guilty in April
2002 to criminal vehicular injury. He admitted that on June
15,2001, he was driving well in
THUNDER to page 3