The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1993-10-08

              U^.WJON»^»l«fHW^|l! »»""■*■>»»'
Two NAP staff hit with Temporary Restraining
Order
By Mel Rasmussen
OhMonday, October 4,1993 at 10:13
a.rh., Ms. Norine Smith, Executive
Director of the Indian Health Board
(TUB) filed a request for a temporary
restraining order in Hennepin County
District Court. It was called an orderfor
harassment hearing and ex parte
temporary restraining order. It was noted
on the face ofthe order that Smith filed
asaprivatecitizenandnotastheDirector
of IHB. The two individuals she filed
agaisnt were William Lawrence and
Gary Blair. Lawrence is the owner and
publisher ofthe Native American Press
and Blair is a writer for the same paper.
At issue is the rights of a newspaper to
do business. The following statement
ensures that a newspaper can right
stories. Hopefully, some people will
recognize it. "Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of
religion, orprohibitingthe free exercise
thereof; or abridging the frreedom of
speech, or of the press; or'the right ofthe
people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for a redress of
grievances." The question is why is
there such protection for the press? In a
1957 obsecnity case the United States
Supreme court stated that the press was
protected. It ruled, to assure the
"unfettered interchange of ideas for
bringing about the political and social
changes desiredby the people.'' Without
this type of protection the truth of any
situation would forever be hidden from
the cleansing light of day.
According to the face of the order
Smith has alleged that she has been
harassed by both Blair and Lawrence.
Her reasons for the harassment in the
petition and affidavit were based on the
facts that she is the Executive Director
ofthe Indian Health Board and the the
respondents (Lawrence and Blair) were
members ofthe American Indian culture
who have opposing views to hers. She
charged that because Lawrence wrote
three articles about her and they were
false.
The same was said of Blair who wrote
articles about her that she alleges were
Problems persist at IHB
By Gary Blair
Minneapolis, Minn. -Problems con-
tinuetomountat theMinneapolis Indian
Health Board (MB). Last week's PRESS
articles about the troubled organization
gave new insight into the daily management ofthe25year old operation. Reports
now coming into the PRESS say IHB's
checks for non-payroll accounts are
bouncing at the Norwest Bank.
This week former staff who worked at
the clinic 20 years ago when they hired
their present executive director, now
say it's not surprising that the place
finallyblcw-up. Thispast Tuesday, your
staff writer was ordered from IHB's
third floor while attempting lo report on
a staff/board of directors meeting. In
fact, the police were called as a result to
assure our removal. Margret Brown, an
employee of Ute clinic was the one who
asked your staff writer to leave, she said,
' 'You better leave, because we've called
the police.'' PRESS sources say Brown
is a catholic nun who started work at
Angelo Medure files suit
By Jamie Marks
Staff Writer
The management company for
Shooting Star Casino is taking U.S.
News & World Report to court over
an article alleging its corporate head
has mob ties.
The defamation lawsuit was filed
by Angelo Medure, president of Gaming World International; his wife
Charlotte; and Gaming World.
On Aug. 16, U.S. News & World
Report published an article titled
"Gaming with the Mob? Wise Guys
Have Set Their Sights on Booming
Indian Gaming Business." The article accused Medure and Gaming
World of being associated with organized crime and of infiltrating the
mob into the Indian gaming industry.
Among other things, Medure's lawsuit contends the article consisted of
falsehoods, insinuations, innuendoes
and misrepresentations adversely reflecting the plaintiffs.
Medure has repeatedly denied any
Mafia ties, and claims the rumors and
accusations arc the result of prejudice
against Italian-Americans.
A press release from Gaming
Worlds claims the article, which was
false. But her real concern was over an
article which showed a picture of her
house. Smith stated that she was afraid
for her family becasue she felt Blair had
been looking into her home. According
to Gary Blair all he did was just take a
picture of her house. The reports in the
paper about the dance studio were given
to the NAP by people within the
community who told them about her
house.
Lawrence stated that Norine Smith's
attempt at stifling the stories about her
at IHB smacked ofthe denial ofthe civil
liberties of himself and of Blair. He
stated that he would be moving quickly
to dissolve this ex parte restraining
order by going back to the courts.
Lawrence reiterated that all ofhis information in his articles came from reports
that were given to Smith's Board of
Directors or that had been submitted as
part ofa standard reporting process.
Lawrence stated also that neither he
or Blair had ever talked to Smith, or set
Smith/See Page 3
IHB with the Golden Eagle's program.
They say when that program was recently closed down, Brown was retained
becauseshe'stheroommateof Virginia
Schuster, a former nun and the clime's
medical director and the person who
helped Brown get the job. Brown is said
to receive a paycheck from IHB that
goes to the church and they in turn give
her funds to live on.
They say since Brown has started
Health Board/SeePage3
republished in papers nationwide has
detrimentally affected the ability of
Medure and Gaming World to conduct business, and has seriously
jeopardized substantial investment
opportunities.
The lawsuit was recorded Sept. 24
in the Court of Common Pleas of
Lawrence County, Penn., according
to a court spokeswoman and to an
attorney for Gaming World.
Gaming World, which manages the
Ma hnomen casino for the While Earth
band of Chippewa, is based in Pennsylvania. Medure has residences in
Detroit Lakes.
Bureau of Indian Affairs official accepted gifts
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A top
regional official ofthe U. S. Bureau
of Indian Affairs who regulates
Indian-owned casinos routinely
accepted hundreds of dollars
worth of gifts from a Minnesota
casino, a newspaper says. The Star
Tribune of Minneapolis said
Sunday in a copyright story that
Earl Barlow, area director for the
BIA in Minneapolis, was one of at
least three BIA employees who
received complimentary vouchers
from Jackpot Junction in Morton,
in violation of federal policy.
Barlow is the top BIA official for
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan
and Iowa.
Barlow  and  his  executive
assistant together accepted $300
in vouchers and smaller gifts on
Aug. 21, when they were at the
casino to consider a consulting
contract the casino was
negotiating, Jackpot Junction
manager Dennis Prescott said.
Barlow approved the contract
about a week later. He said the two
Bureau/See Page 3
Rift developing between Black and Indian
leaders over job training program
By Gary Blair
Racial tension ofa different kind
may be developing in Minnesota.
This week trie PRESS spoke with a
member of the Minneapolis Black
community who says he and many
other Black leaders have grown dissatisfied with some of the Indian
leaders in Minneapolis.
The rift between the two groups
has come about over the disparities
in program funding now affecting
the Black community. Recently,
those tensions were heightened when
the Black community awoke to find
that certain Indian leadership had
pulled a fast one on one of their
organizations.
According to the source, the Twin
Cities Opportunities and Industrialization Center (TCOIC), a majorjobs
training program, was put under the
control of theAmerican Indian Opportunities and Industrialization
Center (AIOIC) through the efforts of
Michael Bongo, former AIOIC executive director, and the
organization's chairperson for the
board of directors, Clyde Bellecourt.
Before the take over occurred, the
programs had worked in partnership
with one another. Since that time
TCOIC has not received the funding
they were accustomed to.
Over 21years ago the AIOIC pro
gram was developed for the states
northern Indian Reservations. Black
leaders say they're the ones who developed the AIOIC program concept
that's now located on the corner of
Cedar Avenue and Franklin Avenue
in Minneapolis. They say their efforts
were never recognized. Instead, Clyde
Bellecourt has taken all the credit for
himself.
Since that time, additional programs were also developed for the
Native American community of Minneapolis. Over the past twenty years
the Black community has watched as
more of the foundation funding has
AIOIC/See Page 3
NAFTA is becoming a threat to Native
Americans
By Mel Rasmussen
As the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) progresses
through the political process towards
ratification it has become apparent
that something is wrong. The Native
American community across the
country has been forgotten and not
included in this negotiation. More
than 700 Native American
communities in both the United States
and Canada have been excluded from
any input to this agreement.
On December 17, 1992, Mexico,
The United States, and Canada signed
this agreement. It involves market
access,   trade   rules,   services,
investment, intellectual property, and
Trump states organized crime is rampant in casinos/Page 4
Turtle Island Blues to open in Park Rapids/ Page 5
Local boy defies odds and stereotypes/ Page 3
3 Rivers gallery has upcoming art show/ Page 6
Red School House is alive and revitalized/ Page 1
NAP receives restraining order from Norine Smith/ Page 1
Voice of the Anishinabeg
._«™~_—_______
	
The
Fifty Cents
U.S Postage Paid
BULK RATE
Permit No.
40
Bemidji, MN 56601
Ojibwe
News
We Support: Equal Opportunity} For All People
Founded In 19B8      Volume 5   Issue 15       October 8
I __ ~ !	
■ ■     ,■■       ■-,-.■■>.;■'.■■■   :
, 1993
 1
A weekly publication.
Copyright:, The Ojibwe Mews, 1993
NAP File Photo
Pictured are some young students enjoying the late summer warmth at the Red School House steps
TallBear changes Red School House's
direction
trade remedies. On August 13, 1993,
trade representatives for each of these
countries announced that three
supplemental side agreements had
been negotiated. These included issues
concerning labor, import surges and
the environment.
NAFTA if passed will, according to
numerous groups, have a significant
impact on Native American
communities. Both nations have failed
to include Native American
governments, reservations and other
such groups whose aboriginal rights
are discussed within this act. The act
will have a major impact on their
economies, environments and basic
human rights.
Most recently the Indigenous
Environmental Network (IEN) which
is composed of over fifty Indigenous
community based groups has taken
the position of opposing NAFTA.
One of their national spokespersons
stated the following.' 'Native people
in the U.S. and Canada still hold
treaty rights and agreements that will
likely be affected by NAFTA. NAFTA
includes state, local and Canadian
provincial governments, but makes
no specific mention of Native
governments, reservations, and our
aboriginal rights to millions of acres
of land and water."
Their concern is best described by
Beth Hege, a Nez Perce graduate
NAFTA/See Page 3
By Mel Rasmussen
Ms. LceAnn TallBear has been
the Executive Director for the Red
School House in St. Paul,
Minnesota for a month. She has
been charged with the herculean
task of taking a educational system
that had been adrift without
leadership and changing its
direction. For TallBear it was a
tall order.
In a interview with TallBear
was asked about what has changed
at the Red School. House. She
stated that she has developed a
comprehensive plan that will
change the direction ofthe school
and how it is to operated. She had
just come from a meeting with
The St. Paul Companies where
she had presented the plan for
possible funding.
There are four objectives to the
plan. The first one was to secure
emergency funding in order to
keep the school open for 93-94 to
keep the k-12 programs going.
The school had not received
approximately $800,000 from
discretionary grants from the U.S.
Department of Education. The
school has had to compete for these
grants in the past and was
fortunate to have them made
available. However their needs did
not meet the competitiveness of
other institutions from across the
country who won the discretionary
grants.
The second objective was to
develop .funding for the
rehabilitation of the school
property. By rehabilitation
TallBear intends to move the
school back to its original building
in the Frogtown area of St. Paul.
TallBear indicated that the reason
they had to move from this
building was due to its inability to
meet various building codes. She
stated that there is still $145,000
available in matching funds from
Community Development Block
Grants. By matching these funds
there would be enough monies
available to refurbish the original
school and allow them to return to
the original location at 643
Virginia Street.
The third objective of the plan
was for a three year funding
strategy to secure permanent
funding for the school. In three
years the school will have been in
existence for 25 years. There
would be no further need to
continue validating their student
populations for funding
purposes.They have an established
track record. The school would
like to take in more and see there
is a need out there. However,
without increased funding they
cannot offer more services.
TallBear went on to state a key
point of their plan was to make the
federal government and the state
more accountable for the education
monies of the children. This is
based upon the trust obligation of
the government for the education
of its children.
She went on to state that at this
point the Red School House was
probably eligible for Bureau of
Indian Affairs education dollars.
All it would take to obtain these
funds would be the recognition of
the school by one of the tribal
governments. However in doing
so it would identify the school as
part of that tribal reservation. But
the grey area that comes to light in
this process is the urban Indian
recognition and how to deal with
this. But when it is looked at in
perspective it is understandable
that the BIA has in the past done
just this through their relocation
programs of the early 50s. They
developed the urban Indian as they-
moved people to the cities off of
the reservations.
In support of this avenue of
approach the school will be
seeking legislation that will
address the issues of the urban
Indian. This would dovetail with
their approach to solving some of
their problems at the school. It
would eliminate this grey area that
exists. Both Paul Wellstone and
Bruce Vento will be approached
on this issue in the future.
If all else fails then the school
would pursue this issue through
litigation in the courts. This would
be a test case and could change
how the urban issue is handled
forevermore in the future. As it
was mentioned before the urban
Indian was the direct result of
BIA policies in the 50's. In essence
it was a method of assimilation
and termination all at once.
TallBear went on to say that for
the last 22 years the various state
agencies and school districts have
used the Red School House as a
model and font for information to
upgrade their systems. Never
through this time did these group
ever take up the responsibility they
had for the childrens education
needs. All they allowed was that
the school would be allowed to
compete for discretionary funding
only. There has never been any
support. According to TallBear
this was about to change in the
future as the school changes its
direction and movement into the
21st century.
TallBear was asked about the
problems that had occurred in the
past at the school and with its
employees. She stated that she has
had to take a hard look at their
problems. Because of the
discretionary funding issue all
parties from the administration
and the board have been forced to
see the direction they had to go. It
was realized that these issues have
not been faced in the past and now
they will be addressed and
corrected. She stated that the board
and her current administrative
staff are all informed about what
is occurring. Major avenues of
communication havebeen opened
to allow the open exchange of
information.
TallBear stated that she has set
up and submitted a ton of reports
Red School/See Page 3
v