The Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1993-05-07

              Inspector General finds gross errors
at BIA's Minneapolis Area Office
By Mel Rasmussen
The United States Department of
the Interior Inspector General (IG)
issued a final audit report concerning
Business Enterprise Development,
Minneapolis Area Office, Bureau of
Indian Affairs on March 29, 1993.
The purposes of the audit were to
evaluate the economy, efficiency, and
effectiveness of the Minneapolis
Area's credit and finance programs
and to determine whether the
programs stimulated the economies
on Indian reservations. Also
determined was whether the Area
evaluated borrowers' qualifications
prior to approving loans and to
determine whether the Bureau ensured
that funds were used for the intended
purposes and in accordance with
applicable regulations.
In its report to the Assistant
Secretary for Indian Affairs, the IG
stated the following:
We concluded that the Minneapolis
Area Office failed to manage its direct
and guaranteed loan programs in an
effective manner. Specifically, we
found that:
- The Bureau improperly wrote off
delinquent loans to Indian tribes that
had the economic resources to pay the
loan debts and did not make serious
collection efforts to recover delinquent
loan balances. In addition, the Area
Credit Office did not liquidate loan
collateral to satisfy delinquent loan
obligations. These deficiencies
occurred because Area Office
personnel ignored the Bureau's
policies and procedures (1) to
determine borrowers' financial
resources to repay loans before writing
them off, (2) to file loan collateral
security documents and foreclose and
liquidate collateral in a timely manner,
and (3) to aggressively pursue the
collection of delinquent debts. As a
result, the Bureau lost about $5.4
million in written-off loan principal
and interest ($4.9 million) and lo^i
collateral ($465,000) andjeopardized
the recovery of an additional $14
million in delinquent loan debts.
- The Area Office allowed lenders
to charge borrowers unallowable loan
service charges, did not properly pay
interest subsidies, and did not control
loan payments and deposit them in a
timely manner. These deficiencies
occurred because Area Office
personnel ignored the Bureau's
policies and procedures related to loan
service charges, interest subsidies, and
loan receipts; because a system was
not in place to track when interest
subsidies were due; and because of
staff turnover and position vacancies.
Consequently, guaranteed loan funds
IG Audit/See Page 3
New Field Representative for National
IncfianGamingCommissionin
• .•    x*
By Mel Rasmussen
Former U.S. Attorney Doris Poppler
of Montana, left her job with the U.S.
Justice Department to start a new job in
Minneapolis. She is now the
commissioner's field representative for
the National Indian Gaming
Commission. Poppler is one ofthe first
of seven field representatives the
Department of Interior plans to hire.
These positions are new for the gaming
commission which was created five
years ago under the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act.
This new position will include
reviewing all Class II gambling contracts
between tribes and gambling contracts
between tribes and gambling operators,
monitoring gaming for violations of
tribal and federal laws, reviewing audits
of gaming operations and acting as the
liaison between tribal, federal and state
governments. Class II gaming includes
bingo and various card games. Poppler
also said she hopes to put together
training programs for tribal officials.
Poppler will be field representative
for the Northwest states, including
Montana, Washington, Idaho and
Oregon. Her first assignment however,
will be in Minnesota It is expected that
until all the field representatives have
been hired, she will be serving wherever
the need arises. She will work out of her
home and be linked to the Washington
office by computer.
Last Monday, she informed the
Montana tribes that under federal law
they had until Saturday to reach compacts
with the states or shut down Class III
gambling on the reservations. Class HI
gambling includes electronic poker and
keno machines. Under the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act, tribes are
required to reach compacts with states
outlining what kinds of gambling will
be permitted. Itis expected thatallofthe
other gambling casinos and tribes will
be contacted shortly and advised of this
requirement
By Jeff Armstrong
Reports last month of abuse and
neglect of staff and students at the
Wahpeton Indian School have
prompted Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)
to call for a "thorough investigation"
of the BIA boarding school for students grade K-8. Conrad, a member
of the Select Committee on Indian
Affairs, expressed concern over
charges by parents and teachers of
"verbal and physical abuse to staff
and students, as well as the estimated
damage to community property" in a
letter to BIA Indian Education Director John Tippeconnic.
Despite alleged threats of dismissal
by school Superintendent Robert Hall,
8 of the 34 academic staff members
sent letters to Conrad detailing incidents of sexual molestation and
harassment, vandalism and gang activity, drug and alcohol abuse,
falsification of attendance records, and
lax or non-existent educational and
disciplinary standards.
Hall denied the most serious ofthe
charges and said others were wildly
exaggerated accounts of real pio'sF
lems stemming from adherence to an
archaic educational model. "Things
have changed considerably in the last
85 years. Most of the kids are here
Wahpeton/See page 5
By Mel Rasmussen
Monday evening Leonard
Thompson and Vernon Bellecourt
were arrested at Mille Lacs Lake for
attempting to spear walleyes. This is a
new chapter in the "Minnesota Fish
Wars". According to Bellecourt he
and Thompson were roughed up by
the DNR while being charged with
their fishing violations.
Bellecourt stated, "We had the main
body pull into the Cedar Creek public
boat landing and they had a pipe
ceremony. While they were doing that
we went down to that creek about two
hundred yards down from the landing
and put a canoe in there. And this one
guy, Leonard Thompson and his boy
with fishing with a canoe and a light.
They charged him with attempting to
take fish with a artificial light and a
net. I had a net. I was in a canoe with
Leonard Thompson and he had a spear.
So we went out on the mouth of that
little creek. Of course, they were
waiting for us out there."
Bellecourt stated that at that point
the DNR pulled them into shore and
roughed them up. He went on to state,
"They pulled us into shore and threw
Leonard down on his face into the
sand, handcuffed him and carried him
off. It was really brutal. I exercised
passive resistance, I just limp and
made them carry me to the car. They
put a $365 bond on each of us, Leonard
and my self and $ 13 7 on his son.. .They
charged Leonard and I for exercising
passive resistance and with obstructing
and resisting."
Bellecourt felt that there should be
a further involvement by the
community to protect their treaty
rights. He thought that it was important
that all Anishinabe continue to be
active in this process and keep the
issue alive. Bellecourt stated that he
United Express Airlines to begin
service to Bemidji May 24th
By Bill Lawrence
Great Lakes Aviation, Inc., dba United
Express, based in Spencer, Iowa recently
announced that it will begin daily airline
service to Bemidji, MN from
Minneapolis, MN on May 24, 1993.
According to the announcement, United
Express will initiate its service by
providing three non-stop flights
weekdays, one on Saturday and two on
Sundays. It will utilize Beech 1900
aircraft which seat 19passengers. United
Express currently operates into
Airlines and will offer combination
airfares and a frequently flyer program
with that major airline. United Express
anticipates employing several people in
the Bemidji area. The exact number is
unknown at this time. Daily flights to
Bemidji will operate out ofthe Regional
Terminal at the Minneapolis/St. Paul
IntT Airport
Currently Bemidji is served by
Mesaba-Northwest Airlink. They
operate five flights a day, seven days a
week., through the summer at the
Bemidji terminal. Flights are provided
Shirley Cain new legal counsel for Red Lake Iribe
Northern Lights Blackjack Dealers being coerced
Earl Barlow has problems with accounting of Indian monies
ALF's Milacs 8 have rescheduled trial date
Vein Bellecourt gets busted seeking Walleyes
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Menchu in Minneapolis
L
The Largest Weekly Native Newspaper In North America
1
Senator Conrad joins call by school staff for
investigation of Wahpeton Indian School
talked to Chief Hole-In-The-Day
about this issue and both felt that this
is really important to all Chippewas
and that all of the bands should be
involved with this.
In a follow up interview with Cliff
Skinaway, Tribal Chief of the Sandy
Lake Reservation, he stated that it
was important to have the Chippewa
gather to meet on this issue. He stated
that ALF (Anishinabe Liberation
Front) would be meeting with other
band members at the Cedar Creek
Boat Landing on Mille Lacs Lake on
Saturday.
According to ALF spokespersons
there will be a gathering starting at
2:00 pm, Saturday, May 8,1993. This
meeting will be a continuation ofthe
ongoing issue ofthe Mille Lacs Treaty
Sell Out being engineered by the Mille
Lacs Reservation Committee and the
Vernon/See Page 3
The
l\I at i ve
American
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Founded In 1991        Volume 2   Issue 52 May 7, 1993
1
Copyright, The Native American Press, 1993
Vernon Bellecourt gets busted for
spearing at Mille Lacs
approximately 40 cities in the states of by 44 passenger Fokker aircraft, with
Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska,
North Dakota. South Dakota and
Wisconsin. It is a privately owned
company.
Daily flight schedules and fares will
be announced in the near future. United
one flight serviced by a 38 passenger
Dash 8.
Officials at Bemidji Airlines
announcedWednesdaythatthecompany
will terminate its Commuter Air Service
to Minneapolis International Airport as
Larry Diffley, said the decision was
based largely on declining passenger
volume. "Our fares have been very
reasonable for passengers traveling to
and from the Twin cities," said Diffley,
"but we have been unable to compete
with other carriers which are able to
offer frequent flyer programs and joint
fares to passengers with destinations
beyond Minneapolis."
According to Diffley, the commuter
operation represents only about 6% of
the company's total revenue. Bemidji
Aviation currently operates a fleet of 28
aircraft.
Diffley emphasized that his company
- which consists of Bemidji Airlines,
National Car Rental of Bemidji, and air
Direct Charter Service, located at the
International Airport in Minneapolis -
does not anticipate any personnel
Photo by John Rainbird
Pictured is the Red Lake Honor Guard during Grand Entry at the CIS 20th Annual Traditional Pow-Wow.
CIS puts on 20th annual Pow-wow at BSU's
John Glas Field House for Spring Season
By John Rainbird
The scene was set again by the
Anishinabe Club (CIS) "Council of
Indian Students" of BSU as they put
another great Pow-wow together. This
Pow-wow started off another new
spring season at Bemidji State.
An array of colorful outfits brightened up the John Glas Field House as
the dancers and the Red Lake Honor
Guard led the Grand Entry procession. The sounds of Traditional drums
surrounded the dancers as the men's
Traditional dancers led the Native
American Princess royalty around the
arbor.
Cameras clicked away as the dancers entered the arena. After the
Traditional Men's Dancers came the
Grass Dancers, Fancy Dancers,
Women's Traditional, Jingle and Shawl
Dancers. But the most spectacular of
them all were the younger dancers each
in their brightly colored outfits.
Mr. Porky White honored the occasion with aninvocationandwashonored
as the spokesperson for CIS. He related
to all the many things that promoted him
to do this for the people. He talked about
following in his father's steps as a traditional person. Appreciation was shown
for his comments, as a dancer fanned a
traditional song to warm up the dancers
for a good Pow-wow.
With a feast each day and a giveaway, it seemed that there were more
dancers than usual. It was overheard
by a member ofthe Press that" So far
this year's Pow-wow is the best Powwow I've seen put on by the
Anishinabeg students", exclaimed by
a visitor from the area. "For that matter, I know how hard it is to help put
things together ; not to mention, it's
CIS's 20th Annual Pow-wow for the
surrounding communities of three reservations."
Adrian Liberty and Tony Treuer
played a major role in setting up this
function held this past week-end.
Many people would have been left
standing if it were not for these two
individuals. Tony is a counselor for
the Native Students and Adrian is the
current President ofthe CIS Student
Council. Both men worked hard to
bring it together.
It is always nice to see the Powwows in the spring at BSU. It'll be
hard to waiting for the next one. I
heard that it is planned to be just as
neat.
Trouble brews in the Blackjack Pits
at Northern Lights Casino
By Mel Rasmussen
Inside sources within the ranks ofthe
employees and former employees have
been concerned about the problems and
abuse that have been directed towards
them at the Northern Lights Casino.
Blackjack dealers have been asked to
provide their tips to a pool from which
the floor managers and workers would
then be paid
According to informed sources, some
blackjack dealer wrote a letter
concerning this issue and included 10
points which addressed the issue. The
thrust ofthe letter was in opposition to
the dividing up of their tips that these
dealers make for their services rendered
Because of this so-called opposition
against the pit bosses and management,
the management, more specifically
Myron Ellis and Jim Michaud of the
casinosat Walker and Cass Lake, closed
down the blackjack tables forfour hours
on Monday.
All ofthe dealers were called into a
meeting at the Palace Casino and where
read theriotact by these two individuals.
Casino/See Page 10
Indigenous Nobel Prize winnervisits
Minneapolis
Express is a feeder carrier for United  ofMay21,1993.Theairline'spresident,   United/See Page 5
By Jeff Armstrong
Like tens of thousands of indigenous Guatemalans, 1992 Nobel Peace
Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu was
orphaned in a brutal, one-sided war
being waged by a military loyal to the
U.S. But Menchu was accepted into
the Native American community in a
May 2 honoring ceremony at the Minneapolis Indian Center, one stop on
her cross-country tour of the United
States to promote peace and human
rights for Natives in the International
Year of Indigenous People.
Menchu, whose parents and brother
were assassinated by U. S .-trained Guatemalan security forces, was given an
eagle feather on behalf of the Lakota
and Dakota peoples by a fellow warrior from the Standing Rock
reservation in South Dakota. "You
are all her family as of this day forward," said Germaine Tremell as she
prepared for the ceremonial honoring
and passing of responsibility before a
crowd of several hundred people. "She
is an orphan and she leads the way—
and that is standing for us. So we will
replace that by presenting ourselves as
her family today," Tremell said.
Menchu, however, asked that indigenous North Americans and solidarity
activists also adopt her struggle as
their own. The 33 year old Mayan
Quiche woman urged the audience to
recognize the international scope of
the indigenous movement for self-determination. "If I see you here working
in solidarity with Guatemala, that
means that you also make that a part of
your life," said Menchu.
"With  Rigoberta or without
Menchu/See Page 10
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