The Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1993-06-04

              June 11 is date for Administrative Hearing for
two of Minneapolis's "Finest"
By Mel Rasmussen
June 11, 1993 will be the start ofthe
ending of a sad state of affairs for the
Minneapolis Police Department. At
10:00 A.M, Minneapolis Police John
Laux will holdan administrative hearing
for the two police officers who were
brought up on charges forthe handling
of two Native Americans who were
placed in the trunk of their patrol car.
According to sources within the Police
Department the Deputy Chief of the
PatrolBureau,. Deputy ChiefDobrotka,
has reviewed the entire affair and has
made a determination on the disposition
and futures for the two officers.
According to the departments policies
the two officers must be given an
■I
Administrative Hearing. During this
process both of the officers will be
brought before the Chief of Police who
will state to them the findings and
whether or not he concurs with the
decision made and allow the parties the
right to respond to the hearing process.
At this point Dobrotka will be
confronting the officers with his
determinations and will give his opinion
on the matter. Dobrotka will deliver the
appropriate punishment or action. The
Chief will concur or disagree and then a
statement will be issued
Because ofthe sensitivity ofthe process
and the protection of rights, the
Department must act within very
restrictive guidelines concerning the
wording ofthe statement. In essence it
becomes a verbal minuet as to the
interpretation ofthe statement Because
of Data Privacy they cannot say what
they are doing. However the key words
within the statement coming from the
Chief that would indicate an adverse
action would go likethis, "Ihavedecided
to discipline Officer —, the person will
be relieved of duty without pay pending
the review of my recommendation by
the Civil Service Commission..." This
means that the individual(s) are fired.
But the entire process of appeal will be
implemented prior to the final
determination and final formal statement
that states that the officer(s) are
terminated.   The   Civil   Service
Police/See Page 3
Children are affected by family violence/ Page 6
Minneapolis Police chief holds AdministrativeHearing/ Page 1
White Earth Band member sues governor and State/ Page 3
St. Paul Indian Center struggles to reopen its doors/ Page 5
Grandpa flaps his gums about social issues/ Page 5
Native American funeral director hassled by Mpls Police/ Page 1
The Largest: Weekly Native Newspaper in North America
Seeds of Change" to open in Minneapolis
amidst controversy
The
Native
American
By Mel Rasmussen
The "Seeds of Change" is an exhibition
developed by the Smithsonian Institute
to examine the cultural and biological
changes set in motion when Europeans
landed in the western hemisphere. The
story of the last five hundred years is
told by tracing the impact of five
biological transfers on a global scale.
These "seeds" are the horse, corn,
potatoes, sugar and disease. As the
themes are developed the horror of
slavery and ofthe atrocities committed
against native peoples are brought to
light. The exhibit also attempts to show
positive developments contributed to
by people of diverse backgrounds that
give hope for the future. It will be on
display at the Minneapolis Public Library
from June 26th to July 25th, 1993.
These opening remarks above
represent an attitude of indifference on
the behalf of the Minneapolis Public
Library towards the Native American
community in the metropolitan area.
SeveralmembersoftheNative American
community have risen in protest to the
showing of this exhibit. Their major
concern is in the benign presentation of
the so-called conquering society over
the Indigenous Natives ofthe Americas.
In a review ofthe presentation provided
by the Library staff it was pointed out
that the driving factors and points were
that conquest and domination were the
key issues. The rape and pillage of
cultures were and never are addressed
by the exhibit. Also the attitudes shown
within the scenario dialogues all leave
the implied perspective that the
Indigenous populations were given and
taught the basics of civilization and
Library/See Page 3
Health Confer-
We Support Equal Opportunity For All
Founded In 1991
Volume 3   Issue 4        June 4, 1993
1
Copyright, The Native
1993
First Annual Indian Women's
ence to be held June 22-24 in New Mexico
The First Annual Indian Women's
Health Conference, "Indian Women's
Health: Issues and Action" will be
held at the Convention Center in
Albuquerque, New Mexico from June
22-24, 1993. The goal of the
convention is to develop strategies to
assist Indian women in taking action
in the political and personal processes
that affect their health.
The keynote speaker is Wilma
Mankiller who is the Chief of the
Cherokee Nation, and appointed by
President Clinton as a task force
member of the planning committee for the new administration.
Special workshops and forums
include a look at current health
and psychosocial issues, facilitated strategic development
activities, ways to eliminate the
barriers to leadership and policy
development, community action
models, and a status report on nine
Indian women's health issues.
The registration fee for the
conference is $35.00 which includes
refreshment breaks, conference materials and the final report. There is an
additional fee of $21.00 for the June
23, 1993 lunch and evening celebration. Child care is available for a fee at
the convention center. For more information contact the Indian
Affiliates, Inc. at (801)273-3348 or
FAX (801)273-3343 or write to Dr.
Dale Evans of Indian Affiliates, Inc.
at 3760 South Highland Drive, Suite
510, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106.
Former Manager will plead guilty to bribing
tribal officials
Photo by Gary Blair
Pictured is April Smith the current Director of Loaves and Fishes
By Gene Buckanaga
On May 21, 1993, the Wisconsin
Winnebago Business Committee
(WWBC) distributed per capita payment checks to tribal members that
the WWBC previously withheld from
them.
In the April 23 edition of THE NATIVE AMERICAN PRESS, we
reported the WWBC's action of rescinding the "Special Compensation
Offer" to former employees that were
affected by the Glenn v. Corrie dispute (Corrie, the focal point of the
tribal unrest ofthe Winnebago's for
the past two and one half years). Some
of the affected employees received
the special compensation offer and
did not receive the per capita payment
made to the tribal members on April
15th by the WWBC.
It was the previously withheld per
capita payment the WWBC released
on Friday, May 21st to the former
employees. Upon hearing the news of
the release of the per capita payment
checks, the tribal members were overjoyed.
In attempting to ascertain as to the
specific reason for the release and the
change of heart by the WWBC no one
was available to comment. One tribal
member suggested the pending investigation and upcoming hearing of
Glenn Corrie in U.S. District Court
where Corrie will reveal the names of
Corrie/See Page 3
Number of Indians at Minneapolis soup
kitchen continues to rise
White Earth RTC receives grant to aid Women
Business owners
The White Earth Reservation was
recently awarded a grant to provide
training and counseling services to
women who are starting or expanding
their business enterprises. The U.S.
Small Business Administration
awarded more than $1.2 million to 11
organizations to begin their long-term
projects. The new training programs
are a part ofthe national Demonstration Project that was established by
the Business Ownership Act of 1988.
The 11 new awards brings the total
training programs to 38 covering 21
states and to date has benefited 15,000
women.
Administrator Erskine Bowles, calls
the program, "an excellent example
of how a public/private sector partnership can create jobs and be a
catalyst for local economic development efforts." The Demonstration
Project is monitored by the SBA's
Office of Women's Business Owner
ship. Carol White, Acting Director of
the office states, "Through the training offered by these Demonstration
Programs, we have seen many new
businesses open and prosper. These
women were once limited by low
wages and few opportunities. We are
very pleased to participate in the expansion of this program and look
forward to helping to create more
flourishing businesses in these new
localities."
By Gary Blair
More Native Americans are eating
at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church
on 18th Avenue and 24th Street in the
Phillips community of South Minneapolis. April Smith, aNative American,
is the Site Coordinator for Loaves and
Fishes Too, the organization that operates the free dinning facility. Smith
told The Press, "The second week in
April of this year we served 811 people
in one day. That's close to the amount
we were serving by July of last year,
when our record for the year was 863
meals in one day."
Last August The Press interviewed
Smith for a story that was entitled "80
percent of Mpls soup kitchen guests
are Indians with children". At that
time, Smith had estimated the amount
of Indian people using the free meal
site to be 80 percent. Most recently
The Press was informed by Smith that
the situation had worsened based on
numbers from lastyear. She said, "Dur
ing last winter we served 15 elders, but
when the snow melted this spring that
amount jumped to 57 elders and more
ofthe people who are coming here to
eat are families with children and the
disabled." Smith also stated that she
feeds her own family there because
her household income isn't enough to
make ends meet.
Last year the free eating site averaged 450 quests per seating, opening
its doors at 5:30 P.M. and closing
them at 6:30 P.M. Smith said, "In
April of this year 57 percent of those
served were Indians, half of them are
children. In May that amount grew to
65 percent and the number of children
served also increased."
She went on to say, "What's even
worse, we have a lot of young men
coming here on SSI because they're
alcoholic. They've given in to the system; they've excepted that money."
"After the story on our eating site last
year that The Press did, there wasn't
any response from Indian organiza
tions to assist. Only The Native American Press gave a donation," Smith
said. "It seems they were hoping the
story would blow over. So, once again
our Indian people were ignored."
She continued, "I was mad a couple
of weeks ago when they had that powwow in the park across the street from
here. They sent seven Minneapolis
Indian police officers to eat over here.
They were the security for the powwow. Why couldn't they have hired
people from the neighborhood to do
that job?" "Those officers were fed
first and the other people had to wait,"
she continued. "That was the day after
it was announced that those officers
who had put those Indians in their
squad car trunk weren't going to be
charged," she said, "and that just made
things worse."
Smith concluded, "This place should
be open 5 days a week, but at present
we don't have the funds to do that."
Federal Judge dismisses 40 cases concerning
gaming leases
Abuse allegations against Mpls Police
Department continue
By Delvin Cree
By Mel Rasmussen
Federal District Judge Paul A.
Magnuson last week ruled on more
than 40 cases that had been filed in
U.S. District Court. These cases were
filed by parties who were seeking to
invalidate the existing gaming vendor
agreements with several Native
American Tribes in Minnesota and
Chippewa. The 42 cases had been
filed by band members from Lac
Courte Oreilles and the St. Croix
Bands. Their complaints were based
on the fact that the agreements with
the gaming vendors were invalid
because they had not been approved
by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Judge Magnuson in his decision to
dismiss these cases based his ruling
on specific reasons and that the
existing law recognizes the
importance of the issue of tribal
sovereignty. His major points for
dismissal were as follows: The
plaintiffs lacked "standing" to bring
the case under Article 3 of the
Constitution because they had not
incurred any real injury. The Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act does not grant
"standing" for private parties to bring
such actions. Challenges to the validity
of contracts with tribes could not go
forward without the tribe being a party
to the suit. With these points as the
touchstone of his decision he
dismissed the cases for a "lack of
subject matter jurisdiction".
In explaining his decision.
Magnuson stated the following: "In a
larger sense, the precedent set by
rescission of transactions freely
entered by the tribes would likely be
extremely prejudicial to the tribes'
long term interest in Indian gaming
and the revenue it provides. The
message such a judgement would send
to outside vendors would be that
transactions with Indian enterprises
are subject to cancellation at any time
and without regard to whether the
contracts were freely and fairly
negotiated, theextenttowhichtheparties
have performed their duties under the
contracts or the settled expectations and
reliance of the parties. Very few
merchants would be willing to transact
business with Indian casinos under such
risky conditions. This might well signal
the end of Indian gaming in the Upper
Midwest. Regardless of whether such a
judgement would otherwise constitute
the correct application of the law, it
would undeniably be prejudicial to the
interest ofthe Indian tribes."
Throughout the upper Midwest there
has been a sigh of relief from the
dismissal of these cases. In a press
release, Mr. Don Saros, Chairman ofthe
St. Croix Chippewa stated, "This is a
clear victory for those concerned with
the defense of tribal sovereignty and for
those who have worked so long and so
hard to secure a brighter economic future
for Native Americans everywhere."
Abuse allegations against the Minneapolis Police Department by the
Native American community continue.
This time, Steve Perion, Director and
Owner of Perion Funeral Services alleges that he was harrassed and
assaulted on May 6,1993, around midnight. The incident took place at his
home near the intersection of 19th and
Portland Avenue South in Minneapolis. Perion is an enrollee of the Lac
Courte Oreilles Reservation in
Hayward, Wisconsin.
According to Perion, he was questioned by police after they followed
him home with their lights off. The
officers questioned him briefly and
after completing a check on his drivers
license, the officers left. However, they
returned about twenty minutes later
and knocked on his door. Perion's
wife answered the door and the officers asked for Perion to come outside.
He did so and at that time they told him
that he had been driving without a
valid license because his had been
Perion/SeePage4
Menominee overcome years of government
termination policies
By Gene Buckanaga
In 1953, Congress passed the
Menominee Termination Act, another
federal experiment to Americanize
Indian people, by terminating and
eliminating the Menominee Reservation. Through this experiment, the
Menominee people found themselves
in deep poverty, major health problems and the sale or loss of precious
land.
In 1972, after 19 years of total failure, Congress introduced the
Menominee Restoration Act. One year
later, after extensive lobbying efforts,
the Bill was signed into law.
Today, the Menominee nation is
thriving and on the road to building a
future for their children. The reservation proudly displays many social/
health programs and economic enterprises; a timber operation, health
clinic, housing authority, tribal plan
ning department, natural resource
department, bingo and casino operations, a new college ofthe Menominee
nation, and its own Menominee Indian School District to just name a
few of the successful accomplishments.
The Menominee Nation has many
local, regional and nationally recognized leaders - Glen Miller, Tribal
Menominee/See Page 3
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