Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-11-08

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Yes, there are
"indians" in
California
page 4
Wilson criticizes
LaRose's expenditures
of tribal funds
page 4
Indians upset with
Reid's Shoshone
landrights
legislation
page 4
Wellston's voice
will be missed on
reservations
page 4
Commentary
Did tribal PACs
purchase political
disfavor in 2002?
page 4
Tribal PAC contributions for 2002 Minnesota
elections total $552,550 as of October 21st
Indian PACs, Indian lobbyists,
and Indian gambhng interests
clearly had a vested interest in the
outcome of a number of gambling
proposals before the voters in
the U.S. general elections on
November 5th.
Indian gambling enterprises,
which must be located on tribally-
owned trust land, are extremely
dependent on state-sanctioned
gambling monopolies. Retaining
governmental monopolies underwriting a controversial industry
like gambling requires pohtical influence. Indian tribes are far from
"unique" in perceiving a correlation between pohtical influence
and campaign contributions, and
Indian PACs are increasingly joining the "big money" players in
American politics.
The money - pohtical influence
- money cycle runs both directions for gambling operations.
According to the old American
proverb, "it takes money to make
money," and building and retaining the pohtical infrastructure that
makes casinos profitable takes
money.
Btil Eadington, an economics
professor at the Institute for the
Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaining at the University of
Nevada, talked about the connections between Indian gambling
and politics at a national aborigi
nal problem gambling conference
in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan,
according to a November 6* article in the Calgary Herald.
Indian-owned casinos are an
important source of income for Indian tribes, and they are also a
path to political power, according
to Eadington. "Economic power
buys access, which means your issue is at the front," Eadington said.
Eadington told conference participants that Indian gambhng enterprises have helped some U.S.
Indian tribes become important
pohtical contributors. "I'm more
familiar with the U.S. than
Canada, but I think the same holds
true for both — when tribes have
no money, no one heard what they
said."
Pohtical candidates, pohtical
parties, and pohtical action committees must all file financial reports with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board. Campaign
finance information as of October
21SI, 2002, was released last week,
and on page 6 of this issue, there
is a chart showing some ofthe details of Minnesota tribes' pohtical
contributions for the 2002 elections. This information only covers the period through October
21st. The reports disclosing campaign contributions during the last
two weeks of the election wih be
available in early January.
Re: petition for recognition of tribal court orders and judgments
Tribal court orders and judgments may be
unconstitutional in Minnesota
Honorable Justices ofthe Supreme
Court of Minnesota:
The importance of whether or not
to adopt a court rule expediting the
Minnesota Courts' acceptance of any
"judgment, decree, order, apprehension order, protection order, warrant,
subpoena, record or other judicial act
of a tribal court of a federally-recognized Indian tribe" far outweighs the
apparent significance of a rule perhaps most likely to affect approximately 54,967 adults and children
who were "self-identified" as "Indians" in Minnesota for the 2000 Census.
The key issue is whether the Minnesota Supreme Court will uphold
fair and equal applicability ofthe
Minnesota Constitution and Minnesota laws in Minnesota courts, or
whether the Court will systematically
abrogate the civil and legal rights of
specific groups of Minnesotans and
adopt a proposed rule grounded in
defective process, inadequate information, and biased arguments.
As was clear from my testimony
before this Court on October 29*, I
am urging the Court to reject the proposed'full faith and credit'rule. I
briefly describe the grounds for doing
so, at this point mostly because the
thorny issues at the interface between
tribal courts and state courts will continue to fester until either this Court
or the U.S. Supreme Court unambiguously establishes that Minnesota
courts will not by rule or otherwise
"abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens ofthe United States; nor
... deprive any person of life, liberty
or property without due process of
law, nor deny to any person within
[Minnesota] jurisdiction the equal
protection ofthe laws" [U.S. Const
14* Amendment, see ato Minn.
Const Art. I, Sees. 7,8].
I also very briefly mention concerns about problems the processes
through which the Tribal Court /
State Court Forum arrived at its proposed ' 'rule of procedure for the recognition of tribal court orders and
judgments," and note that the factual
and background information presently before the Court is grievously
inadequate. My purpose is, in part, to
encourage the Minnesota Appellate
Courts to initiate and maintain a collection of tribal codes, tribal council
resolutions, and other pertinent information as a part of the public State
Law Library system, in part so that
anyone who does become involved
with a tribal court in Minnesota has
access to fairly up-to-date, comprehensive information.
I. Problems with Tribal Court / State
Court Forurii's process
There are several serious problems
with the process by which the proposed "full faith and credit" rule has
come to the Minnesota Supreme
Court. These include:
1. Procedural problems. I request
judicial notice ofthe minutes ofthe
Tribal Court /State Court Fortim
('Forum") in their entirety. The minutes of those meetings held on-reser-
vation are not part of the pubhc
record. Some ofthe on-reservation
Forum meetings were closed to the
pubhc, some were meetings at which
the public was barred from comment,
Bemidji Indian
Education Offices
closes
According to media reports, the
Bemidji headquarters ofthe Minnesota Indian Education Office, an
agency in limbo since June 4, closed
Wednesday, October 30,2002, Due
to the budget cuts enacted by the
2002 Legislature, the Department
was forced to consolidate its operations at one location. The original
closing was set for June 28, but supporters of keeping the office in
Bemidji obtained a temporary restraining order so they could make
legal arguments against the CFL
(Childrens Families and Learning).
Beltrami County District Judge
Paul Benshoof ruled that the law
supported the CFL in closing the
Bemidji office and that the closing
did not violate any treaty rights or
due process laws.
American Indian students applying for scholarships through the program wtil now deal directly with the
Department of Children, Families
and Learning in Roseville, MN.
The Minnesota Indian Scholarship
Program will continue to operate as
it has in the past. No scholarship
funds have been lost, and no students wih be without funding as a
result ofthe closure ofthe Bemidji
office. Please direct all inquiries relating to the Minnesota Indian
Scholarship Program to: Minnesota
Indian Scholarship Program, Office
oflndian Education, Department of
Children, Families & Learning,
1500 Highway 36 West, Roseville,
Mn 55113-4266, Telephone: 1-800-
657-3927, Fax: 651-582-8879,
Email: cfiindianeducalkn@s1ateirm.us
Surprise, Surprise!
Bush Administration drafts legislation to "extinguish'
IIM accounts
By Jean Pagano
The Individual Indian Money
(DM) accounts were set up by Congress to pass along trust payments
to individual Native peoples instead of paying corrupt Indian
Agents. If the Bush Administration
has its way, Congress wih, in 2003,
extinguish the DM accounts,
thereby wiping away the governments 100+ year mismanagement
of the Department of Interiors trust
responsibihty to Native peoples.
The issue of DMs, forcefully
brought to the fore by Cobell v.
Secretary ofthe Interior (Cobell),
has illustrated the government's neglect and mismanagement of nearly
$10 billion in Native peoples'
money, held in trust by the U.S
Government. Judge Royce
Lamberth admonished former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt for
the Department's lack of responsiveness to the Court's requests.
Judge Lamberth has also held current Secretary ofthe Interior Gale
Norton in contempt for a number
of issues relating to Cobell and the
DMs.
The issue ofthe settlement of
Cobell v. Secretary ofthe Interior
comes to Judge Lamberth's courtroom early next year. So far, the
IIM to page 3
Standing Rock area woman works
to save native language
Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. — Mary
Louise Defender Wilson is trying
to save her language.
"A language does not live unless
it is spoken in the home," she says.
The language she learned in her
home is Dakotah, a language that is
struggling to survive, said Neil
McKay, a language instructor at the
University of Minnesota.
"The main thing that people
don't quite get is the spirituality, the
kinship, the way we conduct ourselves, everything is wrapped up in
the language," McKay said. 'To us,
the language itself is sacred and has
a spirit of its own."
Dakotah is a picturesque language, one that "paints pictures,"
he said.
Defender Wilson travels and
talks to school chhdren, telling
Dakotah stories. When she lost her
house in last summer's prairie fires
in Shields, she picked up and
moved to nearby Porcupine, but
continued her travels.
To teach Dakotah to children,
she sets up for them a "place like
home," where they can do such
things as prepare lunch, using the
Dakotah words for foods, ingredients, directions.
Along with the language, Defender Wilson offers Dakotah wisdom. When children squabble during meal preparation, for example,
WILSON to page 3
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
As the 2002 campaign approached the home stretch, Indian
PACs made some substantial late-
in-the-campaign contributions to
DFL organizations: $36,900 to the
DFL House Caucus, $25,250 to
the DFL State Central Committee,
and $39,550 to the DFL Senate
Majority Caucus. Indian PACs
also contributed $6,650 to the
House Repubhcan Caucus.
Other large contributions made
after August 19th were mostly to
DFLers, including $900 to Satveer
Chaudhary (DFL), $1000 to John
Hottinger (DFL), $1300 to Mee
Moua (DFL), and $705 to Becky
Lourey(DFL). Indian PACs also
made numerous campaign contribution in the $200 - $500 range between August 19th and October 21st.
On October 25,h, Press/ON pubhshed a summary campaign contributions using the most recent information available at that time: reports detailing expenditures and
contributions through August 19*.
Donations for the 2002 campaigns made as of August 19111 totaled $261,300, and donations
made during the next two months,
until October 21s', totaled
$197,450, for a total of $458,750
as reported by the tribal PACs.
The total campaign contributions when calculated from the
CONTRIBUTIONS to page 6
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November 8,2002
and some were devoted to planning
lobbying strategies intended to secure
acceptance of the proposed' full faith
and credit" rule. Whether or not the
exemptions to Public Law 280's unambiguous extensions of state jurisdiction [28 USCS § 1360] delineated
by Bryan v. Itasca County, 426 U.S.
373 (1976), etc., could be stretched
to include Minnesota judges'
nonpublic meeting with tribal employees and tribal attorneys and to
discuss matters which would significantly expand the power of those at-
torneys' clients, those closed and off-
the-record Forum meetings give at
the very least the appearance of impropriety.
2. The Forum did not properly fulfill the mandate from the Supreme
Court to study the issues involving
tribal courts in Minnesota. Some of
the requisites for a proper study were
discussed at early meetings, but such
balanced and comprehensive research quickly became overshadowed by certain Fomm members'
push for "full faith and credit"
3. Documents crucial to any
proper study of tribal courts are apparently absent from the Forum's
records, and there is no indication
that Forum members examined them.
Many of these records are not a part
ofthe state law library system and, in
fact, are not catalogued as a part of
any public library in Minnesota. One
ofthe Forum's tribal attomey/tribal
court judges (Andrew Small) explained at one meeting that tribal
courts are "different" Precisely how
tribal courts are "different' is impor-
TRIBAL COURTS to page 5
AP P/iofo/Charlie Riedel
A 22-foot-tall statue titled "Ad Astra" stands on top of the Capital dome in Topeka, Kan., Monday, Nov. 4, 2002.
The bronze statue of a Kansas Indian was dedicated Monday more the 14 years since the project's inception.
Janklow wins
U.S. House race
By Doris Haugen
Associated Press
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. —
Love him or loathe him, South
Dakotans wih keep two-term
Republican Gov. Bill Janklow
as a top pohtical leader.
Janklow, the state's longest-
serving governor, beat Democratic opponent Stephanie
Herseth on Tuesday for the
state's lone seat in the U.S.
House.
With 843 of 844 precincts reporting, Janklow had 53 percent
of the vote to 46 percent for
Herseth. The unofficial tally
was 179,668 votes for Janklow
to Herseth's 153,362.
"I'm excited. I'm happy,"
Janklow said in an interview
late Tuesday evening. "I understand the responsibihty I've
been given. It's my job to represent those people who didn't
vote for me as well as those that
did.
"I'm going to show people
I'm worthy of it," the governor
said.
Janklow had planned to return to his Brandon home and
practice law once his term as
governor ended. But then came
the Sept. 11 attacks and he saw
another opportunity to serve the
state.
His top priority as South
Dakota's lone member of the
U.S. House is homeland security, said Janklow, 63.
"There's nothing more important than the safety and security
JANKLOW to page 7
Leech Lake woman elected
mayor of Cass Lake
by Melissa Olson
In a three way race for mayor of
Cass Lake, voters elected Elaine
Hemming, an Anishinaabe woman
and enrolled member of the Leech
Lake reservation. Cass Lake, population 860, is located in Northern
Minnesota, 13 miles East of
Bemijdi, inside the borders ofthe
Leech Lake reservation. Hemming
defeated fourteen year incumbent
Ardean Brasgalla by a margin of
just six votes.
Hemming, mother of three, was
inspired to run for office after
speaking with Green Party gubernatorial candidate Ken Pentel this
past May. In his campaign for Governor, Pentel visited area Green
Party members to leam more about
environmental and social issues being raised on Leech Lake reservation. Hemming, a professor at the
Leech Lake Tribal CoUege, has
been active in efforts to educate
students and tribal members on the
effects of cancer-causing dioxins
found in the water of nearby Pike
Bay, which the EPA declared a
Superfund site inl984. Hemming,
an active member ofthe newly
founded Leech Lake Green Party,
campaigned alongside Audrey
Thayer, the recent Green candidate
for Beltrami County Commissioner.
The vote was just close enough
for one of Hemming's opponent,
Brasgalla, to call for a recount of
the baUots. Ofthe 860 people tiv-
ing in Cass Lake, 328 voted.
Hemming received 97 votes;
BrasgaUa 91; and LaDuke-Fisher
38. BrascaUa wtil file a request for
recount this week with the Cass
County Auditor's office. Pending
the results of the recount,
Hemming wih become the first
Anishinaabe woman to be elected
mayor of Cass Lake.
Shirley wins Navaj
Associated Press
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.—Joe
Shirley Jr. apparently defeated incumbent Kelsey Begaye to become
president ofthe Navajo Nation.
Unofficial returns from ah but
one of the 110 chapters, or precincts, Tuesday night showed
Shirley leading by nearly 6,500
votes out of 55,000 baUots cast.
Begaye, a Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic who once hved on
the streets of Los Angeles before
turning his life around and becoming a leading Navajo figure, defeated Shiriey four years ago.
Shirley and Begaye faced each
other Tuesday after they finished atop
o presidency
a list of 17 candidates in an August primary. Shiriey had 8,000 votes more
than Begaye in the August election.
Begaye was criticized for being
slow to name heads of agencies and
not doing enough to combat crime.
He vetoed a measure to aUow
council members to give themselves a $10,000 pay raise, but accepted the raise after the council
overrode his veto.
Both men are Democrats who
have served on the Navajo Nation
Council. The Navajo Nation is one
ofthe country's largest Indian
tribes with nearly 300,000 members spread across parts of Arizona,
New Mexico and Utah.
Derrick Lee Kingbird pleads guilty to assault
MinneapoUs - Twenty-two year
old Derrick Lee Kingbird from the
Red Lake Indian Reservation pled
gutity today in United States District Court to assault charges.
Kingbird pled guilty to assault
with intent to commit murder before federal Judge John Tunheim
in MinneapoUs.
During his guUty plea hearing,
Kingbird admitted that on August
21,2002, on the Red Lake Indian
Reservation, he assaulted a juvenile
male with a 12-guage shotgun with
the intent to commit murder.
Kingbird faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The actual sentence
will be determined by Judge
Tunheim based on the federal sentencing guidelines.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and Red Lake Law
Enforcement. Assistant United
States Attorney Brigid Dowdal
prosecuted the case.