The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1989-01-04

              A"
Man challenges
BWCA rule
news briefer
Train derails in Mahnomen
A Soo Line freight train derailed Dec. 31 as it passed through
Mahnomen at about 12:40 a.m., according to the Mahnomen County
Sheriffs office.
The train was heading south when it derailed on the south end of town
blocking traffic on Jefferson Avenue. The derailment started about three
cars back from the engine. A total of 13 cars derailed.
According to officials, six of the cars were loaded with wheat and the
other seven cars were loaded with newsprint. The train was enroute
from Thief River Falls to Glenwood. There was one liquid propane tank
on the 78 car train, but officials said it was not damaged and was not
considered a hazard.
No injuries were reported and Soo Line officials say they believe the
derailment was caused by a bad wheel bearing on one of the cars.
Damage was limited to Soo Line property, including the track, signals
lights and a utility shed. Clean up is expected to last two to three days.
Naytahwaush man to
appear in district court
According to Mahomen County officials, John Diablo Gonzalles is
scehduled to go on trial in district court in Mahnomen on Jan. 17.
Gonzalles, 21 of Naytahwaush, is charged with leaving the scene of an
accident in which 13-year-old Rhonda Bellanger, of White Earth, was
killed. The accident occurred Oct. 15. According to reports, Gonzalles
and Bellanger were travelling on county road 114 at about 6 a.m. when
the pickup they were in overturned.
Gonzalles is also charged with receiving stolen property. According to
county officials, the pickup truck Gonzalles was driving when the
accident occurred was stolen, along with about $20,000 worth of
outdoor and sporting equipment, from a residence in Hackensack.
According to sheriffs officials, warrants were issued for Gonzalles,
but he fled Minnesota after he failed to turn himself over to his attorney,
Peter Cannon, as he had agreed.
Mahnomen County later notified Santa Clara County officials in
California after they received information that said Gonzalles was seen
in San Jose. Officials in California apprehended Gonzalles just two
hours after receiving the information from Mahnomen County.
Cass Lake man dies
A Cass Lake man who apparently died of exposure to below-zero
temperatures, was found on a porch less than a block from his home
shortly before 9 a.m. Monday morning.
The man was identified by Cass County sheriff's officials as
57-year-old Melvin Rogers. The man was reportedly discovered by a
passerby. >
Strawberry Lake Store
destroyed by fire
According to White Earth Fire Chief Gus Bevins, the Strawberry Lake
Store, located about 10 miles east of White Earth, bumed to the ground
early Monday morning.
Bevins said they received the call at about 12:30 a.m. and by the time
they arrived on the scene the store, including the owners residence and
bait job, were engulfed in flames. The fire apparently started in the
chimney.
According to Bevins, it took the White Earth and Callaway fire
departments over four hours to put the fire out. Below-zero
temperatures hampered the fire fighters' efforts.
No one was injured in the fire, and no damage estimate has yet been
made.
Taylor to propose tougher
drunk driving law
St Paul, Minn. (AP) - Sen. Glen
Taylor, IR-Mankato, said Friday
he will ask the 1989 Legislature
to substantially lower the
blood-alcohol level permitted in
driving while intoxicated cases.
Taylor said his bill reduces the
permissible limit for
blood-alcohol concentration to
.05 percent from .10 percent. He
said that under the proposed
standard a 200-pound person
would have to consume three
drinks within one hour to be
considered drunk.
He said the tougher standards
are needed because evidence
from seven studies reviewed by
the American Medical
Association shows that up to 68
percent of persons with levels of
.05 percent to .10 percent were
"drunk.'*
Studies have also shown
significant impairment of driving
skills and judgments of persons
with .05 percent Wood-alcohol
content, according to Taylor.
He said his bill would give
Minnesota one of the toughest
drunken driving standards in the
country.
Taylor, who is conducting an
exploratory campaign for the
Independent-Republican
nomination for governor in 1990,
said he will line up bipartisan
support for his bill.
The 1989 Legislature convenes
Tuesday.
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7
The
Ojib we
News
Founded in 1988
Volume 1  Issue 33
January 4, 1989
i
Copyright, the Ojibwe News, 1988
BemkJji. Minnesota 56601
IHS hospital to be contracted by Red Lake tribe
By William J. Lawrence
Publisher
According to information
obatained from reliable sources, the
Afews has learned that the Red Lake
Tribal Council plans to contract
operation of the Red Lake Indian
Health Services hospital by
mid-July.
The current hospital facility, with
a bed capacity of 23, was opened in
March 1981 at a cost of $7 million.
The hospital employs a
P'ovisional staff of 45 and has a
apport staff of 57 people. Annual
operating costs of the hospital are
estimated to be over $3 million.
The Red Lake hospital presently
has an occupancy rate of 40
percent.
The Indian Health Services also
operates a dental service unit in the
hospital facility. In addition, the
d Lake tribe operates a $2
million a year comprehensive
health service program out of the
same facility which employs 79
people.
Sources indicate that Red Lake
Comprehensive Health Service's
program director Monte Hammitt is
the primary proponent of the tribe
taking over the hospital.
Sources also indicate that at least
several Red Lake Tribal Council
memebers have expressed
concerned with the takeover on the
grounds that future IHS funding
Camp Justice sat dormaint Monday afternoon as temperatures remained near zero.
Photo by James Johnson
and availability of professional
staff could seriously jeopardize
quality care deliver}' if the facility
was operated by the tribe.
According to informed sources,
the IHS is not scheduled to receive
any increase in its budget during
either the 1989 or 1990 fiscal year.
With a normal annual increase in
health care cost, due to inflation
and otherwise, this could prove to
be a definite factor in funding of
health care on the reservation.
The IHS is also experiencing a
difficult time recruiting and filling
professional health care positions,
especially in the M.D. field.
Conservation
code meetings
scheduled for
Thursday
Open meetings are scheduled for
Thursday evening on the White
Earth Reservation to discuss
changes and input into a newly
proposed conservation code.
According to Dale Boyer of the
WE Conservation Department,
"We'd like to get more input from
the silent majority around here."
Turnout has been poor at past
meetings for the proposed code.
Meetings will be held in ail or the
local communities at 7:00 pm on
Thursday, with the exception of
Rice Lake, where the meeting will
be held at 5:00 pm. Locations have
been posted.
Commission   recommends
separate Indian school district
SL Paul, Minn. (AP) - The state
Legislature should establish the
nation's first American
Indian-run urban school district to
focus on the special educational
needs of native American
children, a group of educators
recommends.
The 15-member Indian School
Council, created by the
Legislature last February,
recently submitted a preliminary
report recommending that the
special district open a school in
the Twin Cities by the fall of
1990.
Minnesota's Indian children,
who have had some of the public
school system's lowest test scores
and highest dropout rates, would
not be required to attend the
school. But the council said it
believes the Twin Cities' Indian
community would overwhelmingly support such a school,
which they anticipate would be
three-quarters Indian.
Supporters of the plan say they
hope an Indian-run school that
puts the needs of Indians first will
instill self-confidence and pride
in students about their Indian
heritage and reduce the stream of
dropouts from public schools.
The supporters also say an
Indian-controlled school would
encourage support from Indian
parents, who traditionally have
seen education as a tool of white
society to separate them from their
Indian identity.
"The idea is to make what is
public about public education
closer to the constituents'
students," said David Beaulieu,
director of Indian education for the
state Department of Eduation and a
member of the Indian School
Council. "You can change the child
to fit the school, or you can change
the school to fit the child."
"It's real clear that public
education is not working well for a
lot of American Indians," he said.
"So I'm in favor of anything that I
can be convinced will increase
student achievement."
The Legislature opened the door
for the creation of an urban
Indian-run school district when it
created the Indian School Council
during the past session.
But the report arrives at a time
when metropolitan school districts
are wresding with the question of
how to desegregate, and the idea of
a predominantly Indian school flies
in the face of that ideal.
Indian-run reservation schools are
commonplace, but an Indian-run
public school in an urban setting
would be unique and involve
meshing the tenets of mainstream
education with traditional Indian
ideas, such as the study of tribal
law and culture.
Such a school would place Indian
concerns first because the majority
of students would be composed of
Indians, said Don Allery, chairman
of the Indian School Council and
tribal historian for the Red Lake
Indian Reservation.
"Who controls the system is who
dictates the priorities," Allery said
last week.
But the Indian School Council
was not unanimous in its
recommendation of the school
proposal.
St. Paul School Board member
Eleanor Weber, who sat on the
council as a representative of her
school board, says the Legislature
should consider alternatives, such
as creating an Indian magnet
school in an existing school
district, recruiting more Indian
teachers, and beefing up funding
for existing Indian education
programs.
"The viewpoint I have heard is
there is something inherently
beneficial about the education of
Indians by Indians," she said.
"Now, I have yet to see the
evidence."
The report's authors say they
envision a school that includes
grades K-12 located in the
metropolitan area. No site or preferred city was named.
Minneapolis has the metro
area's largest concentration of
Indian students - slightly less than
3,000 or about 7.5 percent of its
39,500 total student population.
St. Paul has about 900 Indian
students, or 3 percent of its
33,000 student body.
The report does not set the
school's size, but estimates by
supporters have ranged from 500
to 3,000 students.
New state laws took effect Sunday
By Gene LaHammer
Associated Press Writer ..
SL Paul, Minn. (AP) - It will be
harder for smokers to find a place
to light up in the Capitol and other
state buildings under a new law
which took effect at 12:01 a.m.
Sunday.
Other new laws which took effect
in 1989 provide for pay raises for
top state officials as well as for
minimum-wage employees in
Minnesota.
The strengthening of the state's
1975 Clean Indoor Air Act says
smoking in many state buildings is
permitted only in designated areas,
which must have physical barriers
or ventilating systems that "prevent
the presence of smoke in adjacent
non-smoking areas."
State Employee Relations
Commissioner Nina Rothchild, the
official in charge of implementing
smoking restrictions in buildings
owned or leased by state
government, said this means
smoking will be banned in
corridors outside the House and
Senate chambers where lobbyists
congregate, as well as the cafeteria,
concession facilities and the
rotunda.
But smoking will be permitted in
legislative offices and apparently in
the private retiring rooms in the
back of both the House and Senate
chambers, which have served as
smoking rooms since smoking was
banned several years ago in the
chambers.
Rothchild said state correctional
facilities, regional treatment
centers, the state university system
and community college system
outside the Twin Cities area are
exempt from the law approved by
the 1988 Legislature.
Also taking effect in the new year
are 5 percent pay raises for top
state officials, judges, legislators
and department heads. Gov. Rudy
Perpich's $94,204 salary was
boosted to $98,914. Legislators,
considered part-time positions, had
their salaries boosted to $25,138
from $23,941. Lawmakers also
receive "per diem" payments to
cover expenses when the
Legislature is in session and when
they are on legislative business.
Those payments boost lawmakers'
total annual compensation to more
than $30,000.
The state's minimum wage for
businesses with annual sales of
more than $362,500 was boosted
30 cents to $3.85 per hour on
Sunday. Businesses with annual
sales of less than $362,500 have to
raise wages by 15 cents to $3.65
per hour.
Supporters of the higher
minimum wage have estimated that
145,000 to 200,000 Minnesotans
are affected by the law.
Another new law is designed to
close loopholes in disease
immunization requirements for
elementary and secondary school
students. After Sunday, children
age 7 or oldeT who have not had a
mumps vaccination will no longer
be admitted to schools. Younger
children entering elementary school
have been required to have the
shots since 1978, but transfer
students and those who started
school before 1978 had not been
covered.
The changes were enacted partly
in response to the 700 cases of
mumps in Minnesota in 1987, said
Diane Peterson, chief of acute
disease programs for the state
health Department.
Another law which took effect
Sunday requires owners of cars
seven years old or older to replace
their license plates. Previously,
license plates were good for the life
of the vehicle. The $3 cost for a
pair of license plates is reduced to
$2 by the new law.
The 1988 Legislature also gave
prosecutors an additional tool to
curb the operation of "chop shops,"
where stolen cars are taken apart
and the parts are sold.
Rep. Alice Johnson, DFL-Spring
Lake Park, chief House author, said
the bill was supported by law
enforcement agencies and
automobile dealers as a way to halt
the growing number of car thefts.
The new law requires any person
who operates as a scrap metal
processor, used vehicle parts dealer
or salvage pool to acquire a motor
vehicle dealer license costing
$153.25.
In addition to raises for the
governor and state legislators, other
state officials who received pay
increases include the attorney
general, whose pay was boosted to
$77,274 from $73,294; state
auditor, $59,352 from $56,526;
lieutenant governor and secretary
of state, $54,405 from $51,814;
state treasurer, $51,469 from
$49,018; trial judges, $70,770 from
$67,400; associate Supreme Court
justices, $80,010 from $76,200;
chief justice, $86,210 from
$82,105; Appeals Court judges,
$73,811 from $70,296; chief judge
$76,969 from $73304.
Here are the new and previous
salaries of department heads:
-$77,713 from $73,498: finance,
human services, transportation
commissioners. Investment Board
director.
-$75,682 from $72,078:
education.
-$66,145 from $62,995:
administration, labor and industry,
planning, revenue, trade and
economic development.
-$65,903 from $62,765:
agriculture, commerce, corrections,
employee relations, health, jobs and
training, natural resources,
pollution control and public safety.