Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-09-20

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY
NEWS BRIEFS
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS
CLASSIFIEDS
GOP is "anti-
Victoria Vasques new
Dept. of Interior
?
Indian," opposed to
director of Office of
responds to Norton
?
development in
Indian Education
sanctions
4
northern
Minnesota
page 4
page 3
page 4
Native American
threatened with
removal off reservation
page 4
MCT Constitution
summarily dismissed in
federal court
page 4
Federal court dismisses civil rights suit against Mille
Lacs over reporter's arrest
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Jeff Armstrong
The U.S. District Court in Minnesota dismissed all remaining
claims against Mille Lacs Reservation defendants over tlie 1997
arrest and detention of Press/On
reporter Jeff Armstrong to prevent his attendance at an MCT
Tribal Executive Committee
meeting. At the meeting, the TEC
voted to reject a $20 milhon land
settlement offer from the federal
government.
Magistrate judge Raymond
Erickson granted a motion on behalf of the tribal defendants for
summary dismissal of the civil
rights complaint, mling that then
Mille Lacs reservation officer
Marc Gabiger had probable cause
to arrest Armstrong and a reasonable basis to jail the reporter.
"Reviewing the largely undisputed facts in the case, when
viewed from the stance of a reasonably prudent pohce officer,
we conclude that Gabiger had
probable cause to arrest
Armstrong on October 22,1997,
or, at the very least, his determination, that he had probable
cause, even if mistaken, was objectively reasonable," wrote
Erickson.
Erickson concluded that
Gabiger indisputably had the authority to determine whether to
jail Armstrong for misdemeanor
trespass, extending him qualified
immunity for his behavior.
"There can be no question,
here, that Gabiger's actions were
discretionary exercises of judgment. He was required to make a
determination, from the circumstances facing him, whether there
was probable cause to arrest
Armstrong, and whether there
was a reasonable belief that, if he
did not arrest Armstrong, criminal
conduct would continue to occur," the opinion states.
Although Gabiger acknowledged ordering Armstrong's detention at the Mille Lacs County
jail for the duration of the tribal
meeting, Erickson was not convinced by the plaintiffs' conten-
DISMISS to page 6
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Native
American
Press
Ojibwe News
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A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
Founded in 1988
Volume 15 Issue 16        September 20,2002
photos: Bill Lawrence
(left) Leech Lake tribal chairman Eli Hunt at the September 13th recall hearing, (middle) District I rep. Burton "Luke" Wilson, Secretary/Treasurer Arthur "Archie" LaRose, District III rep. Richard Robinson, Jr., and District II rep. Lyman "DeDe" Losh. (right) Doug Roberts, Frank LaRose, Waily Storbakken, and Bruce Johnson who acted as spokespersons for the petitioners at the September 13"1 recall hearing
In historic proceedings, Leech Lake RBC votes for recall election of chairman Hunt
Election to be held October 11
By Bill Lawrence
In a historic session (the first of
its kind) for both the Leech Lake
Reservation Business Committee
(RBC) and the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe (MCT) on Friday
afternoon, September the 13% after listening to nearly four hours of
testimony by spokespersons for
the petitioners and responses from
RBC chairman Eli O. Hunt, the
four voting members ofthe Leech
Lake RBC, the four spokespersons
for the petitioners and chairman
Hunt verbally agreed to a recall
election. Hunt waived his right to
hear the rest of the evidence.
The hearing, which was attended by over 300 Leech Lake
tribal members started at 1:00 p.m.
was hastily and surprisingly
brought to a close at 5:00, about
midway through the presentation of
evidence by the spokespersons for
the petitioners. The reason given
for the closing ofthe historic hearing was because the Palace casino
bingo hall, which was being used
as the hearing room, had to be vacated to get it ready for the
evening's bingo.
Before adjourning the hearing,
Leech Lake tribal secretary/treasurer Archie LaRose announced
that the RBC had tentatively agreed
to schedule the recall election on
October 11, which is within the 30
days required by the MCT Constitution. He said that the RBC would
conduct a special council meeting
on Monday, September 16 to vote
on the verbal agreement and make
it official. Other Leech Lake RBC
members in attendance at the hearing in addition lo Hunt and LaRose
were district repres. Luke Wilson,
Richard Robinson and Lyman
"DeDe" Losh.
Immediately following the hearing Hunt said, "I would like to a
have recall election. I want the
people of Leech Lake to vote
should EU Hunt stay in office for
another year-and-a half, or not. I've
been here for six years and I think
the people understand me, and I
was elected to a second term.'
Hunt was served with a petition
for removal at a special RBC meeting on August 22. The petition contained 512 verified signatures, or
85 more that the 20% required by
the MCT Constitution.
The petition charges Hunt with
malfeasance in the handling of
tribal affairs, dereliction or neglect
of duty and refusal to comply with
the constitution and bylaws ofthe
band.
According to 2 Vi pages of
agreed-upon written procedures,
which were handed out at the meeting, all three parties, the RBC,
Hunt, and the petitioners, agreed
not to be represented by counsel.
According to Article X, Section
ie MCT Constitution, The
KbC had only two courses of action: (1) to remove the accused
from office, or (2) schedule a recall
election.
Leech Lake tribal member
Wallace Humphrey acted as hearing officer at the October 13lh hear
ing.
Wally Storbakken, Frank
LaRose, Douglas Roberts and
Bmce Johnson acted as spokespersons for the petitioners.
Storbakken, who was lead spokesperson for the petitioners, made the
opening statement. He stated that in
order to present sufficient facts and
information it will be necessary to
name specific individuals, but that
only the chairman would be
charged.
Storbakken said that many ofthe
17 charges stem from Hunt's efforts to prevent LaRose from fulfilling his duty as secretary/treasurer by denying him access to information and documents.
Storbakken presented evidence
by taking documents from a 4-5
inch thick loose-leaf binder, reading or talking about them then giving copies to chairman Hunt.
Hunt would respond by denying
the charge, explaining his action or
admitting the charge.
Hunt in his opening statement
denied all charges. He said he
would have been better prepared
to answer the allegations if the petitioners had allowed him to see
ahead of time the evidence they
planned to present. A hst of
charges and evidence was included
in the petition for recall.
The movement for the recall petition started shortly after secretary/treasurer Archie LaRose was
elected in a landslide election last
June. One of his first major reform
RECALL to page 8
State, Press/ON file briefs in casino audit appeal
by Clara NiiSka
John Garry, attorney for the Minnesota attorney general's office,
filed briefs with the Minnesota
Court of Appeals on Friday, September 13*, in the consolidated
cases Prairie Island Indian Community vs. Minnesota Department
of Public Safety and Mille Lacs
Band of Ojibwe Indians vs. State of
Minnesota and Charlie Weaver as
tlie Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Bill Lawrence, intevenor in the
same cases, filed briefs the following Monday on behalf of himself
and the Native American Press/
Ojibwe News.
At issue is whether casino audits
held by the Minnesota Department
of Pubhc Safety (DPS) are pubhc
information under the Minnesota
Data Practices Act. The Tribal-
State Compacts, under which Indian gambling enterprises opera
tions are conducted in Minnesota,
require the tribes to conduct audits
done by "an independent certified
pubhc accountant," and to make
"copies ofthe audit... available to
the State upon written request" (§
6.11 of the video gaming compacts,
and § 6 of the blackjack compacts).
Annual audits are also required by
the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), and must be filed
with NIGA 120 days after the end
ofthe casino's operating year.
The DPS, which also does criminal
background checks on prospective
casino employees, has only sporadically requested audits from the
casinos. The most recent audit
held by the state is reportedly from
1997.
In February 2001, Press/ON
made a Minnesota Data Practices
Act request for all Red Lake casino
audits held by the state, but the
DPS refused to release them.
Press/ON challenged the DPS's administrative decision.
On June 6,2001, the Commissioner of Administration issued Advisory Opinion 01-051, which concluded that the Red Lake audits
were public data because they did
not qualify as a trade secret under
Minn. Stat. § 13.37, writing that,
"The Band and the State did not
agree to Compact language... that
says proprietary data are protected,
but instead agreed to a vague statement that the data are protected to
the extent allowed by [state] law.
The failure to include such language indicates that the Band did
not exert reasonable efforts to protect the data to the greatest extent
possible." [emphasis added]
Pre,«/CW published excerpts from
the 1997 Red Lake audit, which the
DPS alleged was the "only" Red
APPEAL to page 3
Court holds Norton, McCaleb
in contempt
By Jean Pagano
Judge Royce C. Lamberth ofthe
United States District Court, in the
matter of Cobell v. Norton et al., today handed down contempt decrees for Secretary ofthe Interior
Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. The two defendants were held in contempt on
five separate counts relating lo
Cobell v. Norton et al., which seeks
to resolve the issue of Individual
Indian Money (1TM) accounts.
Norton and McCalen are in contempt for 1) failing to comply with
the Court's Order of December 21,
1999 to initiate a Historical Accounting Project; 2) for comnutting
fraud by concealing the [Interior]
Department's tme actions regarding the Historical Accounting
Project during the period of March
2000 through January 2001; 3) for
cornmitting fraud by failing to disclose the true nature of the Tmst
Asset and Accounting Management System (TAAMS) subproject
between September 1999 and December 21,1999; 4) for committing fraud by filing false and misleading quarterly reports starting in
March 2000 concerning the
NORTON to page 6
Marion Ross appeal dismissed by
Office of Hearings and Appeals
On September 9,2002, Marion
Ross was again denied enrollment
in the Lower Sioux Indian Community. As reported in the July
26,2002 issue of Press/ON, Ross
has been involved in an ongoing
battle with the community and the
BIA to have her name transferred
from the Flandreau census rolls to
the Lower Sioux Indian Community census rolls.
Larry Morrin, the Regional Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs,
had previously stated, "that because the community had denied
Ross' transfer apphcation, there
was no enrollment transfer request upon which the BIA could
act." Ross then appealed to the
Department ofthe Interior, Office
ROSS to page 7
Tribal leaders
bring concerns to
Senate committee
field hearing
Associated Press
RAPID CITY, S.D. —American
Indians frustrated with the federal
government should join the decision-making process by speaking
out and voting, the chairman ofthe
U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee said.
"It is the height of patriotism to
speak up," Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-
Hawaii, told nearly 300 people
who turned out Saturday in Rapid
City for a field hearing on tribal issues.
The senator cited one study that
showed voter turnout in tribal elections at 85 percent. But Indian voting falls to 8 perdent when the elections involve state and federal elections, he said.
"That has to change. (Voter
clout) is what they recognize in
Washington. That and money," said
Inouye.
South Dakota tribal leaders told
Inouye and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-
S.D., a member ofthe Senate committee, that their people are discouraged and desperate.
HEARING to page 6
Lac Vieux Desert
Band set to prevail
in blocking bigger
casinos
Grand Rapids
judge to be
overturned
again
By Jean Pagano
The 6* U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Cincinnati issued an
injunction on Thursday September 12th preventing the City of
Detroit from issuing hcenses for
permanent casinos and prevents
developers from starting to
build. U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, who refused to
issue the injunction in July, was
once again overruled by the 6^
Court of Appeals.
The issue of the Detroit casi-
. nos goes back to hcenses that
were granted in 1996 by the
city of Detroit. The Lac Vieux
Desert Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa (the Band) first filed
suit in 1997, complaining that
the methodology used by the
city to select hcensees was
flawed and unconstitutional.
Judge Bell disagreed with the
Band, but was overturned by
the AppeUate Court who mled
the selection process unconstitutional. This case has been all
the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court, which sent the case back
to Judge Bell for review. In
July, Judge Bell mled that while
the selection process was
flawed, he would not go along
with the Band's request to re-
bid the casinos. Judge Bell
stated that to re-bid the hcenses
would causes harm to the city,
the casinos, the workers, and
others. When the Band asked
Judge Bell on July 16th to halt
discussions on the new development agreements, Judge Bell
again refused. The Band then
appealed to the 6th Circuit Court
and asked that construction be
halted while the appeal was
heard.
The Band, a 430-member
tribe from the Western Upper
Peninsula, has questioned the
CEREMONY to page 5
State judges meet in secret with tribal
attorneys, tribal court judges
Agenda: "full faith and credit" for tribal court actions
by Clara NiiSka
The Minnesota Tribal Court/
State Court Forum reportedly met
at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, September
20th in Shakopee.
According to Bridget Johnson,
court services project specialist for
the Minnesota appellate courts, the
meeting was not publicly announced.
When Press/ON asked Johnson
where the meeting "was to be held,
she refused to provide that information. She explained that she had
gotten a call from tribal attorney /
tribal court judge Andrew Small,
"saying that the meeting is by invitation only."
The Tribal Court State Court Fo
rum was created at the behest of the
Minnesota Supreme Court to help
formulate state courts' policies toward tribal courts. Sitting state
judges attend Forum meetings as
representatives ofthe state court
system. Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Robert H. Schumacher
serves as Forum co-Chair. Shakopee is a reservation subject to state
jurisdiction under Pubhc Law 280.
Press/ON asked Johnson how
the Forum could hold secret meetings at secret locations, since the
Minnesota Open Meeting Law
(Minnesota Statute 13D) rigorously
limits that practice.
Johnson explained that current
FORUM to page 8
Tony Lee Lussier indicted on
assault and kidnapping charges
MinneapoUs—Twenty-one-
year old Tony Lee Lussier from
the Red Lake Indian Reservation
was indicted by a federal grand
jury on charges of assault and
kidnapping.
Defendant Lussier was charged
with one count of burglary in the
first degree, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault
with intent to commit murder and
two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
On or about July 6,2002, defendant Tony Lee Lussier entered
a buUding without consent and
with intent to commit a crime assaulted Liane Lussier, an enroUed
member of the Red Lake Band of
. Chippewa Indians. Defendant
than kidnapped, abducted, and
carried away Liane Lussier and
two other persons, both known
juvenile females, enroUed mem-
LUSSIER to page 7
Tribal leaders
gather in Phoenix
for economic
summit
By Jonathon Drew
Associated Press
PHOENIX — More than a thousand Indian leaders are expected in
Phoenix this week for a national
summit aimed at combating unemployment on reservations and
stimulating tribal economies.
The National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies was proposed by the Interior Department
and planned with the help of tribal
leaders as a first step toward creat-
SUMMITtopage6
Theresa Ann
Stately, Nola Jean
Parkhurst indicted
in federal court
Duluth—Two members ofthe
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians appeared in federal court
today for aUegedly taking action
related to the robbery and beating
of another Band member.
Theresa Ann Stately, age 35,
was charged with one count of
robbery and two counts of aggravated assault, while Nola Jean
Parkhurst, age 33, was charged
with two counts of aiding and
abetting aggravated assault.
According to the Indictment
CHARGED to page 7