The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1989-01-18

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news briefer
Red Earth, White
Earth to air Jan. 24
The movie based on BSU English professor Will Weaver's novel. Red
Earth. While Earth, will be broadcast Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. on CBS affiliate
stations.
Red Earth, White Earth tells the story of Guy Pehrsson, who left his
family farm in northern Minnesota to become a successful businessman
in California. His life is disrupted when he receives a summons from his
dying grandfather. Guy returns home to find turmoil both in his troubled
family and in his hometown, where a conflict has developed between
white fanners and the local Native Americans led by his childhood
friend Tom Littlewolf. The movie stars Timothy Daly, Ralph Waite and
Genevieve Bujold.
The film was orginally scheduled to be aired Oct. 13, but was
postponed due to a conflict with the 1988 Presidential Debate.
Leech Lake Alliance to meet
The Leech Lake Reservation Advisory Alliance will be hosting a
general membership meeting at the Che-Wa-Ka-E-Gon complex in Cass
Lake Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Representatives from the Minnesota DNR's Trails and Waterways
division will discuss general lake access programs and plans for the
local are. Also, representatives from the Koochiching County Board of
Commissioners, Northland Concerned Citizens and the Minnesota
Environmental Quality Board will discuss the hazardous waste
treatment and storage facility proposed for Koochiching County.
Election of officers is also scheduled.
Naytahwaush man pleads guilty
John Diablo Gonzalles, 21 of Naytahwaush, plead guilty in District
Court Tuesday to both charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident
and receiving stolen property.
According to Mahnomen County officials, Gonzalles changed his plea
from not guilty to guilty to avoid a jury trial which was scheduled for
Tuesday.
The judge in the case ordered Gonzalles to appear for sentencing on
Feb. 21 following a pre-sentence investigation into the matter.
Gonzalles had been charged with leaving the scene of accident in
which 13-year-old Rhonda Bellanger, of White Earth, was killed. The
two were traveling on a Mahnomen County road at about 6 a.m. on Oct.
15 when their pickup overturned.
The pickup Gonzalles was driving turned out to be reported stolen,
along with about $20,000 worth of sporting and outdoor equipment,
from Hackensack.
Warrants were issued for Gonzalles following the accident after he
failed to turn himself over to his attorney, Peter Cannon, as agreed.
Gonzalles reportedly tied the state and was later apprehended in San
Jose, Calif.
The
Ojib we
Fifty Cents
News
Founded in 1988
Volume 1  Issue 35
January 18,1989
\k
Copyright, the Ojibwe News, 1988
A Weekly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig basketball off to
• •it
start
■■nnRHnHMHnRBHMHHHHRMHHH
The Eagles planning their strategy
Exclusive interview
Boys' team beats
Circle of Life
Warriors, 78-49
Girts win 48-21
By Dawne Goose
Correspondent
The Chief Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig
Eagles started their new basketball
season with a 78-49 victory over
the White Earth Circle of Life
School Warriors last Friday.
The leading scorer in the game
was junior Joel Pemberton, of the
Eagles, with 26 points. L. Kingbird
was close behind with 21 points.
Leading scorers for the Warriors
were C. Van Wert with 17 points
and R. Thompson with 13 points.
For the Warriors only having
played six team members, they
were unable to top the Eagles.
In girls' action between the
Eagles and the Warriors, the Eagles
beat the Warriors 48-21.
Eagles sophomore Maureen
Moose was the leading scorer with
34 points. Micki Peterson of the
Warriors captured two baskets and
three free-throws to become the
leading scorer on her team.
The lady Eagles played very
aggressive to pull away from the
Warriors for a good game. Good
luck next time Warriors.
Vernon Bellecourt talks about his ties with Libya
By Mark Boswell
Assistant Editor
This is the first in a series of
interviews with Vernon Bellecourt.
I met Vernon Bellecourt for an
interview, appropriately enough, on
Martin Luther King Day, the
recently established national
holiday commemorating the birth
of the famed leader of the Civil
Rights Movement of the 1960's.
I conversed with him at his
residence in the Twin Cities.
Although he lives off- reservation
in Minneapolis, he pointedly
emphasized that he considers White
Earth his home.
Bellecourt, who has received
much media attention because of
his trips to Libya and and his
relationship with the leader of that
country. Col. Muammar Quaddafi,
was relaxing between meetings and
peace rallies sponsored by
organizations like Women Against
Military' Madness, the Honeywell
Project, and the organization he is
most associated with--the
American Indian Movement.
Bellecourt has traveled to Libya
seven times in the past two years.
Last fall, he was arrested and jailed
for refusing to testify in court about
a previous visit to Libya.
He is currently planning to lead
another delegation to Libya to
investigate an alleged chemical
weapons factory in that country.
Bellecourt believes that the factory'
is a pharmaceutical plant.
MB: How were you originally
invited to Libya?
VB: The American Indian
Movement has an international
organization called the
International Indian Treaty
Council.
The IITC is a non-governmental
organization of the United Nations.
It functions in the economic and
social council of the
Sub-Commission on Human
Rights. As a representative of the
IITC we carry out an official UN
function. In that capacity, the IITC
has developed relationships with
many different liberation
movements and countries,
particularly those with indigenous
peoples throughout the South
Pacific Rim, Central and South
America in particular, and African
indigenous people as well.
Through this relationship we
have developed connections with
various student organizations in the
United States. These foreign
student organizations have given us
the capacity to develop friendship
relationships with Libyan students.
They work out of a group called the
People's Committee for Libyan
Students. Its located in Virginia.
Through that relationship we had
been invited to Libya to see for
ourselves the tremendous
improvements that Libyans have
made since their revolution. We
have developed a friendship with
many of the Libyan Peace
Committees, which are the Libyan
people themselves. In that process I
have had a chance, an honor in fact,
to meet a great leader like the
Libyan leader Quaddafi.
MB: Some people wouldn't see
it that way.
VB: You've got to understand the
whole thing about what the US is
perpetuating. At any time in our
history when our leaders, our
chiefs, stood to defend themselves
and their lands and their people,
they were called savages, hostiles,
renegades, red dogs, heathens,
pagans—the rhetoric of genocide.
America has refined this process.
They were able to justify the
genocide and massacre against our
people.
The churches stood by, a lot of
people stood by and watched the
whole of our history unfold against
us. And now, the U.S. government
knows how to do it. So that any
time anyone disagrees with U.S.
policies of domination, they simply
have to say that the person is a
terrorist, a mad-dog, insane, or
crazy.
Its the media that picks up on
this, like parrots the media picks up
the jargon and repeats it. You can
watch people on TV, very innocent
people start to say the same things
over and over.
The American people are being
totally misled through the media.
Television and newspapers are
perpetuating a massive lie on the
American people.
Those of us, like myself and
others, who have had a chance to
travel to Libya to see the truth feel
an obligation. As we would defend
our struggle and our people, we
choose to defend the truth about
Libya. That puts me out here where
people think that perhaps I am
being used or I am being
manipulated.
MB: It would appear that way.
VB: Well, on April 14,1987 we
took 200 Americans to Libya, the
people were 25 percent Chicano, 25
percent Black, 25 peercent White
and a great many American Indians
and Asians. It was really a cross
section of America, some very
prominent organizations were
represented.
These individuals saw the same
things that I saw on previous trips.
And many of them feel compelled
to travel the country and expose the
truth about this country.
The problem with all of this is the
wall we run into when we try to
gain media attention. Whenever
we would return, our stories were
slanted against the Libyans.
For instance, when we came
back, a delegation of a group from
Minneapolis which included Sally
Kundert and Shari Wilson of
Women Against Military Madness;
and Dick Bancroft, a photographer
for the project who lives in a very
conservative community and who
has become very politicized for his
work doing photography for AIM.
He's a white man.
Anyway, this group went to the
Minneapolis Tribune and gave'a
very long interview to Kurt
Chandler, a writer for that paper.
Essentially, they were exposing the
lies surrounding Libya.
The story never appeared in the
(Minneapolis) Tribune. When they
contacted the paper about why it
never appeared they said that they
didn't have time. Essentially what
they're saying is that they don't
have time to give an objective
opportunity for people to give an
objective, truthful picture of what's
going on.
MB: You believe that the media
in America are puppets of the State
Department?
VB: It has its origins in the
Reagan Administration. To give
further support to the Reagan
Administration campaign against
the Libyans.
Two executive orders were made
to further their hold on the
American perception of Libya. One
is an economic embargo and the
other is a ban on travel to Libya.
They're trying to make it virtually
impossible for people to go and
ascertain the truth.
I have always felt that, as an
Indian man, that we have to reserve
our absolute right, which is
fortified by UN covenants on
human rights, to leave and return to
the country of your birth. I continue
to uphold that right by traveling to
Libya.
Even though there is a ban on
travel, I have gone seven times
since the ban. Technically I am
facing 35 years in prison and
$350,000 in fines.
MB: A recent Time magazine
article mentioned the popular film
Top Gun in its opening paragraph
on a story about the recent downing
of two Libyan jets. How do you
react to this portrayal of the
American military presence in the
region?
VB: Its typical US arrogance and
the "cowboy mentality" of
Washington. They perpetuate that.
Its the same thing as Gen. George
Armstrong Custer arrogantly riding
into Dakota territory to murder
Indians.
And all Reagan has spoken of is
American glory.
Who suffers from this? Its not the
Air Force pilots who shot down the
Libyan planes. Its the students, its
the businessmen, its the
businesswomen, its the tourists that
suffer because of this. Its become
increasingly difficult to travel
thoughout the world.
People don't hate Americans in
the world. Everywhere I've
traveled in the world you hear a
great outpouring of good-will and
respect toward Americans abroad.
But, they hate and detest our
government because they know
what our government is doing in
perpetuating 16 "low intensity"
wars around the world.
And then the U.S. leaders say
"We are at peace with the world."
A blatant lie, so then the American
people become the targets of
retaliation around the world.
MB: You've gotten some harsh
criticism from people at White
Earth because of your association
with the Libyans. How does this
affect your stand on these issues?
VB: I'm saddened by that
situation. However, I've tried. I
think that history will prove that we
have taken the correct position on
the side of truth and justice.
I'm willing in to accept the
criticism.
My commitment to the people of
White Earth has not lessened to any
degree. Because of my commit
ment to the suffering of peoples in
South and Central America and
throughout the world.
I think that if people would truly
and honestly look at it, I've done a
remarkable amount of work. At one
time I was one voice up on White
Earth on the land issue. Look back
and think about it. I was one voice,
finally I got a lot of young people
thinking the same way, thus we
have Anishinabe Akeeng. I am
totally committed and dedicated to
the struggle of Indian People in
White Earth, across this country,
and throughout Central and South
America.
-Continued next week
Graphic created from photo by Terri LaDuke f '■ ^