Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-11-15

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Dakota
Commemorative
Walk and
Remembering Paul
Wellstone
page 5
Greens lose major party
status - an open letter from
Ed McGaa
page 5
Leech Lake voices
against the Native
American Press
page 4
Secretary of State
thanks minority
voters
page 4
Commentary
Good Luck,
Shirley
page 4
RLTC hires Shirley Cain as chief judge and
court administrator
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
At its regular monthly meeting on November 12,h, the Red
Lake tribal council hired Red
Lake tribal member Shirley
Cain as chief judge and court
administrator.
Cain, age 48, will assume her
new duties on Monday, November 18th. She is a licensed attorney and a member of the Minnesota Bar Association. She is
a 1985 graduate of Metro State
University and a 1988 graduate
of William Mitchell College of
Law. She has worked in the legal departments for the White
Earth band and the Mille Lacs
Band of Ojibwe, and has been
in private practice since she became a member of the Minnesota Bar in 1991. She agreed to
a one-year contract at a salary
of $70,000 for the combined
position of chief judge and
court administrator.
Ms. Cain will be the first licensed attorney to become chief
judge for the Red Lake tribal
court since its inception more
than a hundred years ago. Ms.
Cain told Press/ON in a phone
interview that she was excited
about her new position and
looks forward to assuming her
duties next Monday. She said
that she has long been a critic of
the court in the past because of
web page: www.press-on.net
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Native
American
Press
Ojibwe News
irTy Adams
BSU Senior Tara Novak and newly-appointed Red Lake Chief Judge Shirley
M. Cain at the 2002 BSU Pow wow in Bemidji.
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
its lack of independence and its
lack of law-trained judges, but
that recently she has changed
her thinking and she decided
that the best way to help overcome the court's deficiencies is
to try to work from within the
system rather than criticize it
from the outside.
She said that her first task
would be to conduct a meeting
with the court judges and the
court staff, and to encourage everyone to work as a team.
Current chief judge Wanda
Lyons will become an associate
judge, and current Red Lake
tribal court administrator
Donald Cook, Sr., was terminated due to the fact that his position of court administrator
was abolished.
The Red Lake tribal council
resolution to hire Ms. Cain was
introduced by Richard Barrett,
Sr., and seconded by Billy
Greene, both Little Rock reps.
The resolution was passed by a
vote of 8 'for,' 0 'against,' and
two abstentions. Both Ponemah
reps, Clifford Hardy and Rudy
Johnson, abstained.
Anishinaabe community organizer Elaine Fleming
Anishinaabe mayor-elect of Cass Lake wins recount,
demands cleanup of toxic site
By Jeff Armstrong
A Nov. 13 recount confirmed
Anishinaabe community organizer
Elaine Fleming's historic electoral
victory over 14-year incumbent
Ardean Brasgalla in the race for
Cass Lake mayor. Fleming, believed to be the first Native mayor
ofthe small reservation town,
added one vote to her six-vote margin of victory last week after
Brasgalla insisted upon a manual
count of the ballots.
In a dramatic change to the complexion of Cass Lake politics,
Fleming will be joined in city gov
ernment by fellow Leech Lake
tribal member Rhonda Michaud,
who was elected to a four-year
term on the city council.
While conscious ofthe pohtical
significance of her victory, Fleming
said she would seek to reconcile
and serve the community as a
whole.
"I hope we can look at ourselves
here in Cass Lake as a unified community. I don't want it to be seen as
them and us," the mayor-elect said.
A single mother and chair of two
departments at the reservation's
tribal college, Fleming is no ordi
nary politician—in fact she cringes
at the label. She calculates her campaign budget at somewhere in
double figures.
"It really upset me when people
called me a politician," she said.
"My dad was in tribal politics and
that kind of animosity turned me
off to politics."
Fleming said her motivation to
run for office stems in part from the
cancer death of her 40-year-old
brother last year. She believes he
died as a result of years of exposure
to dioxm-contaminated soil and
RECOUNT to page 6
Indian leaders
gather in San
Diego, urge tribal
cooperation
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO —American Indians need to work together despite
tribal differences in order to fight
U.S. Supreme Court rulings that
could hinder their ability to govern
themselves, Indian officials said.
Tribal leaders from across the
country gathered Monday for the
opening ofthe 59th annual convention of the National Congress of
American Indians, the nation's oldest and largest Indian organization.
Many of the 3,000 in attendance
said American Indians are at a
crossroads. In recent years, tribes
have gained economic success by
creating casinos and new businesses on their reservations. But
two U.S. Supreme Court cases in
2001 favoring states' rights over
tribal sovereignty have caused setbacks for American Indians, officials said.
On Monday, a group of tribal
leaders released a draft of the
Tribal Sovereignty Protection Initiative, legislation proposing increased authority for Indian tribes.
Some tribal members also have
started a campaign to encourage
the courts to rule more on the side
of Indians.
"This is going to be an incredible
year for us," said Juana Majel,
leader of the Pauma Indian band in
north San Diego County. "This is
going to be one of those times
CONVENTION to page 7
Interior Dodges Civil Contempt:
Court Describes Department as
'Reprehensible'
By Jean Pagano
United States District Judge
Royce C. Lamberth ruled this week
on a Motion for Order to Show
Cause in Cobell v. Secretary ofthe
Interior et al. (Cobell). Judge
Lamberth rejected the plaintiffs'
motion by overruling tbe Special
Master's recommendation that Secretary Norton and her counsel be
held in civil contempt for their conduct regarding the Special Master's
Anti-Reprisal Order of February 8,
2001.
The Court found that the Department ofthe Interior's reaction to
the Special Master's Anti-Reprisal
Order was seriously deficient: "The
Court finds that while Interior's initial reaction to the Special Master's
Anti-Reprisal Order was reprehensible and came perilously close to
'deliberate or reckless disregard,'
their subsequent actions to remedy
these deficiencies mitigate against
such a finding."
The Special Master's Anti-Reprisal Order contained three provisions. They are: 1) that all BIA employees may contact the office of
the Office ofthe Special Master for
any and all issues relating to the
COURT to page 6
American Indian doctor says tribes
must seize initiative for own health care
By Bill Bergstrom
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA —Swiftly
spreading diabetes among American Indians shows vividly that
tribes need to take the initiative
for their own health care rather
than count on government programs or other outside help, an
American Indian doctor said
Monday.
"How long are we going to
wait for someone else to solve
this problem for us," Dr. Yvette
Roubideaux, an assistant professor in pubhc health and medicine
at the University of Arizona
Health Sciences Center, said in a
session at the 130th annual meeting of the American Pubhc
Health Association.
Congress has established a
$400 miUion program to combat
diabetes among American Indians, launching 330 new programs, many of which focus on
prevention, but the problem continues to worsen, Roubideaux
said.
Rather than more grants and
research to reverse the trend, she
said, "One way is to start to reclaim our responsibihty for Indian health in Indian communities."
The convention is expected to
draw some 13,000 people as it
continues through Wednesday at
INITIATIVE to page 8
Founded in 1988
Volume 15 Issue 24       November 15,2002
Lenoir Waylon, 12, carried the eagle staff on the final leg of the commemorative walk on Wednesday, Nov. 13, along
Minnesota Highway 13 in Eagan.
Photos: Maxine V. Eidsvig
Chris Mato Nunpa addressing the commemorative walkers upon their arrival at the site of the Fort Snelling internment camp.
Retracing the steps of our ancestors
By Maxine V. Eidsvig
One hundred and forty years
ago approximately 1,700 Dakota
men, women and children were
forced to walk from the Lower
Sioux Agency to Fort Snelling
where they were interned for the
winter of 1862-63. They were
the innocent victims of the U.S.Dakota War of 1862.    Chris
Mato Nunpa, a Dakota and
American Indian Studies professor
at Southwest State University, who
organized a commemorative walk
said "The march is to remember
and honor these people."
The walk began at the present
site ofthe Lower Sioux Indian
Community at Morton, MN on November 7"1 and ended on the 131" at
the Fort Snelling State Park, where
the internment camp was located.
Once spring arrived and the ice on
the Mississippi River had broken
up, the approximately 1,700 men,
women and children were placed
aboard boats for their journey
down the Mississippi, and up the
Missouri River to Crow Creek, a
remote area in Dakota Territory.
Thus began their exile from the
ANCESTORS to page 6
Montana asks
U.S. Supreme
Court to hear
Indian tax case
By Bob Anez
Associated Press
HELENA, Mont.— Montana
has asked the U.S. Supreme
Court to overturn a rating that
an American Indian-owned
business on the Fort Peck Reservation cannot be taxed by the
state.
The state contends the Montana Supreme Court was wrong
earlier this year in concluding
the corporation shares its owners' immunity from state taxation.
But lawyers for Flat Center
Farms Inc. maintained the state
court was right to prohibit taxation of the wholly Indian-
owned business operating
solely on the reservation.
The nation's high court has
not yet decided whether to hear
the appeal.
The case raises questions of
tribal sovereignty, how far the
arm of state taxation can reach
onto reservations and whether
other court rulings on the issue
apply in this case.
The farming operation at the
MONTANA to page 8
Johnson pledges to work on
American Indian issues
By Peter Harriman
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
In the weak light of dawn
Wednesday, Rep. John Thune
clung to a narrow lead in the
U.S. Senate race that the traditional Republican West River
stronghold had delivered late
the night before.
Three hours later, however,
Sen. Tim Johnson was reelected by a 528-vote margin.
As the sun rose in South Dakota, so did a new political
force.
The returns from the Pine
Ridge reservation in Shannon
County that erased Thune's lead
graphically illustrated the importance of the Native American
vote to Democrats.
On the state's reservations,
whose residents had largely ignored state and federal politics
in the past, a concerted voter
registration drive by Democrats
that saw about 4,000 new Indian
voters registered since July paid
off. Voter turnout reached 44.6
percent in Shannon County, 51.8
percent in Todd County, where
the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is concentrated, and 56.7 percent in
Dewey County, home ofthe
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Participation by Indian voters
in the general election was up
20 percent or more over historic
averages, according to Johnson
campaign officials.
Now, it's payback time.
"When you win by 528 votes,
there are lots of communities
and organizations that can claim
credit," Johnson says. "I owe a
lot to the teachers, firefighters,
police and Farmer's Union.
"But one group I take particular satisfaction in is the growing
political presence of our Native
American community. I am
heartened by the level of participation and voter turnout we had.
They made a huge difference,
no question."
Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle says that in Johnson's
first term in the Senate, "Tim
earned their support by involving himself heavily in the work
ofthe Indian Affairs Committee."
Johnson says he will continue
that, and he will do more than
simply try to convince Congress
to fund projects on reservations.
"We haven't had as many Indian interns as I'd like, and I
want to step that up," he says.
"I am a big supporter of tribal
JOHNSON to page 5
Foundation grants $20 million to American Indian fund
By Robert Franklin
Minneapohs Star Tribune
ST. PAUL - The Northwest
Area Foundation will grant $20
milhon over the next decade to
the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, which it helped form
last year.
The foundation's money
comes from the family of James
J. Hill, who once ran railroad
tracks across the plains and
through American Indian land,
once wangling special legislation
to transfer Montana reservation
property to his railroad.
Now money descended from
the St. Paul empire builder's fam
ily will help tribal members reclaim some ofthe millions of
acres they lost to widespread
fraud more than a century ago.
The foundation announced the
grant, the largest in its 78-year
history, on Tuesday.
The money is believed to be
GRANT to page 7