The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1989-02-01

              Mixed opinions of
the movie Red
Earth, White Earth
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Mole Lake elders
need time to study
proposal
Kids may be
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news briefe
Reservoir lakes being lowered
According to the St.Paul office of the Army Corps of Engineers,
levels at Winnibigoshish, Leech, Pokegama, Sandy, Pine River and Gull
reservoirs are being slowly lowered in an effort to make additional
storage available for spring runoff in the headwaters region.
"The extreme drought conditions that existed this past summer in the
headwaters have improved substantially due to heavy rainfall in August
and September and above normal snowfall over the past two months,"
Ed Eaton, chief of Water Control, said last Wednesday.
At this time the snowpack in the region averages from 24 to 36 inches
in depth with an average water content from 3 to 5 inches. These snow
depths and water contents are above normal for this time of year and are
more typical of early March conditions, Eaton explained.
The reservoir drawdowns will be closely monitored, said Eaton, and
may be adjusted based on actual snowfall and weather conditions over
the next several months.
Winter Pow Wow set for Feb. 4-5
Experience the Ojibwe culture at the Council of Indian Students'
Winter Pow Wow Feb 4-5 in Memorial Hall on the campus of Bemidji
State University. A pow-wow warm up is planned for Feb. 3 from 7-10
p.m.
The 16th annual pow wow, which is free and open to the public,
consists of a grand entry, intertribal and honor songs, and exhibition
dancing. The grand entry will be at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and
Sunday.
Sung by a select drum group, the grand entry includes a flag song and
a veterans' song, before an invocation is presented by a spiritual leader.
The color guard enters first and is followed by royalty, men traditional
dancers, grass dancers, fancy dancers, women traditional dancers, jingle
dress dancers, shawl dancers, junior dancers and tiny tot dancers.
After the invocation and the posting of colors, a round of intertribal
songs will be performed.
Along with cultural dances, a traditional meal will be served at 5 p.m.
on Feb. 5 in the Beaux Arts Ballroom.
For more information concerning the pow wow, contact the Indian
Student Services in Sanford Hall, room 216 or call (218) 755-2032.
Tax law changes subject of program
Tax Break '89, a two-hour special hosted by former NBC newsman
Edwin Newman, will air Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. over most public
television stations, including KAWE in Bemidji.
IRS and private-sector tax specialists will highlight changes in the tax
law and provide tips on filling out 1988 federal returns.
The program will also feature:
> Discussion on tax issues affecting specific groups such as singles,
married couples, senior citizens and business people.
> An entertaining quiz show-type segment designed to help viewers
understand such tax matters as itemized deductions, tax rates and the
standard.
> A segment highlighting the recently-enacted "Taxpayer Bill of
Rights," including the rights people have when their returns are audited
by the IRS.
> A discussion of the tax provisions in the catastrophic health
insurance program for Medicare beneficiaries.
IRS phonelines will be open during the program for viewers with
questions. To reach a tax specialist, dial 291-1422 in the Twin Cities
area, or toll free 1-800-424-1040 elsewhere. The program will be
closed- captioned, and deaf or hearing impaired viewers with access to a
TDD can get help during the broadcast by call toll-free 1-800-428-4732.
Several stations will be airing the program later the same day. IRS
phonelines will not be open during these later broadcasts.
Tax Break '89 is produced by WQED-TV in Pittsburgh in cooperation
with the IRS
Ojib we
Fifty Cents
News
Founded in 1988
Volume 1  Issue 37
February 1,1989
_l
Copyright, the Ojibwe News. 1989
A Weekly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
Brian Bloom shadow-boxing in White Earth. More serious boxing can be seen in Red Lake
tonight. Several area schools will be represented. photo by Mark Boswell
Funds allegedly
diverted from Red
Lake Builders account
By Wiliam J. Lawrence
Publisher
According to sources who wish to remain anonymous,
Red Lake Tribal Chairman Roger A. Jourdain has
allegedly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars
belonging to the Red Lake Builders, an enterprise of the
Red Lake tribe, for his personal use.
The sources indicate that Jourdain used over $70,000 to
renovate his residence at 2309 Caliban Ave in Bemidji in
Builders/page 10
Allery assigned to Red Lake
By William Lawrence
Publisher
The News recently learned that Alan Allery, former area
director of the Bemidji Indian Health Services, has been
assigned to work on the Red Lake Reservation at the
request of Red Lake Chairman Roger A. Jourdain.
According to tribal sources, Allery has been assisting
Comprehensive Health Services director Monte Hammitt
in perparing the tribe's proposal to contract the Red Lake
Indian Hospital.
The length of Allery's assignment to Red Lake is
unknown.
Allery was recently indicted by a federal grand jury in
St. Paul on three counts of filing false travel claims
totaling $28,000. If found guilty, Allery could face a
sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to
$250,000.
RLTC request delay
in agency contract
By William J. Lawrence
Publisher
According Bureau of Indian Affairs sources,
representatives of the Red Lake Tribal Council have
requested that contracting of all remaining programs
currently administered by the Red Lake agency of the BIA
be delayed until July 1, 1989. This is the tribe's second
request for a delay of the contracting that was initially
scheduled to begin on Dec. 1,1988.      Q^^^j^g^ 10
Corruption among BIA, SBA staffs uncovered
Senate panel to begin hearings on Indian programs
Washington (AP)- A Senate committee
begins hearings this week to lay out the
results of an investigation of alleged
improprieties in federal Indian programs, a
yearlong, 600-witness inquiry that panel
leaders say could lead to criminal
prosecutions.
The allegations of corruption, fraud and
waste in federal Indian programs were aired
initially in a series of articles by The
Arizona Republic.
All evidence of criminal wrongdoing will
be handed over to the Justice Department,
said Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., head
of the special committee formed in October
1987 following the newspaper articles.
Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., also are on the
committee.
DeConcini and McCain told the
Republic's Washington bureau the initial
two weeks of hearings will bring to a close
the inquiry's first phase.
After initial testimony on the U.S.
government treaty's obligations to Indians,
the first week of hearings will be
dominated by examples of abuses and fraud
in federal programs designed to encourage
the government to contract with
Indian-owned firms for construction
projects on reservations and for providing
supplies to Indians, DeConcini said.
Owners of companies have offered bribes
of cars, trips and money to Indian leaders
and Small Business Administration
officials to win contracts, DeConcini said.
DeConcini declined to provide specifics,
saying they would be disclosed during the
hearings.
A second round of hearings, slated to
begin this spring, will investigate fraud in
Indian-resource programs.
Senate investigators have found that large
companies bilked taxpayers and Indians of
undisclosed amounts by outright theft of
resources and by underpaying royalties for
oil, gas, minerals and timber from Indian
lands, DeConcini said.
But he said investigators have not yet
uncovered what The Republic's series
reported was billions of dollars in theft of
resources or underreporting of production
volumes, done to lower royalty payments.
DeConcini said the ongoing resources
inquiry has been slowed by shoddy record
keeping by the Interior Department, of
which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is a
part.
He said record keeping is so lax
investigators have been forced to piece
together contracts and production levels by
cross-checking them with documents at
resource companies and associations.
DeConcini and McCain stressed that
corruption is not the central focus of the
investigation.
"We want to highlight the problems for
American people, who don't know or don't
care, about a significant portion of the
population which lives under vastly
different conditions than the majority of
other Americans," McCain said.
McCain, discussing allegations of child
abuse at Indian schools, said Senate
investigators will show that federal officials
repeatedly fail to make even cursory
background checks of prospective teachers.
The Senate inquiry also found that indian
affairs officials have resisted investigating
charges of abuse, he said.
DeConcini said investigators also have
solid evidence that organized crime figures
have infiltrated Indian gaming operations,
using coercion and "a heavy hand."
"The bingo area has been a real invitation
to organized crime," DeConcini said,
adding that the hearings will look into "the
inability or unwillingness of tribal leaders
to resist" and inadequate laws and
enforcement.
Officials said the Senate inquiry has
taken investigators to 30 states. More than
900,000 pages of documents have been
reviewed and more than 600 people
interviewed.
The panel has subpoenaed more than 270
people and, after consulting with the Justice
Department, granted immunity to an
undisclosed number, including Indian aides
and contracting company owners. The
Republic said.
ROSS Swimmer ends     Weaver expresses his opinion of Red Earth, White Earth
tenure as BIA director
Tulsa, OHa. (AP)- Ross Swimmer,
who ended a three-year tenure as
director of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, says Oklahoma politics
could be in his future.
"If I get into politics, it would be
at the state level doing something
there," the Tulsa Republican told
The Tulsa Tribune in Friday's
editions. "I'm going to go home and
see which direction my career
takes."
Swimmer, 45, said he decided a
year ago to retire from the BIA at
the end of the Reagan administration. The attorney and former
banker said he hopes his yet-to-be
named successor continues some of
the policies he has initiated.
"I've been able to put things in
place. I hope they won't come in and
discontinue them," the former
principal chief of the Cherokee
Nation said.
Swimmer, hired by former Interior
Secretary Donald Hodel, accepted
the call to come to Washington and
manaee the RIA's $1 billion budeet
almost reluctantly.
"I came here with a lot of big
ideas, things I hoped we could get
done," said Swimmer. "Some we
did."
Swimmer's programs and
philosophy have been criticized by
many Indians who say the U.S.
government is once again abandoning its commitment to Indians.
Swimmer said he expected poor
reviews from Indians who suspect
his intentions.
"Regardless of who is in this job
and what you do, there are people
who get upset and start hollering for
your resignation. It wasn't six
months before it seemed like
everybody was wanting me to leave
office," he said. "But we charged
on."
Swimmer cites as a major
accomplishment the launching of a
10- to 15-year transition period in
which Indian tribes were encouraged
to run their own affairs, lessening
Swimmer/page 10
By James Johnson
Editor
The movie Red Earth, White Earth
is being -attacked by numerous
Indian leaders and groups as being a
racist presentation which underplays
the seriousness of the White Earth
land claims dispute.
Based upon the novel by Bemidj
State University English professor
Will Weaver, Red Earth, White
Earth was aired on CBS Jan. 24.
Since then, a number of people have
expressed their distaste for the
movie.
Vernon Bellecourt and a number
of other Indian activists are hoping
to press CBS to air, as an attempt to
provide fair coverage of the land
claims dispute, the documentary by
Randy Croce, Clouded Land.
The Ojibwe News spoke to Will
Weaver after the movie was
broadcast, to get his opinion of the
movie and the controversy it has
created:
News: A number of people have
contacted the Ojibwe Neus and have
expressed their displeasure of the
movie based on your novel.
Wl Weaver
photo courtesy of BSU News Services
Weaver: The first thing to keep in
mind is I'm the guy who lives in
Bemidji and writes the books, and
not the guy who lives in Hollywood
and makes the movies.
Really, that's hard to keep up
front. It's a natural problem that
people think the writer made the
film. I'm not trying to disassociate
myself with it completely, by any
means, but there were things I would
have done differently.
News: Was there a cultural
consultant on location while the
movie was being filmed?
Weaver: Yes there was, pretty
much throughout the filming. I met
him when I was on the set and
wanted to make sure he was there
while they were filming.
The movie was filmed in Quebec,
not far from Montreal, on and near
an Indian reserve.
News: Was the consultant a
Canadian Indian?
Weaver: That's right. His name is
Mylo Mastain, a French-Canadian.
News: A lot of people have said
that the whole land claims issue and*
the Indians were merely a backdrop
for a bigger soap opera-type
production. Do you see it that way?
Weaver: I won't go along with the
soap opera description, but in a way
the backdrop term is correct because
that's the way it is in the book as
well. The land claims issue in
northern Minnesota is a backdrop
for this troubled, white, farm family.
In that sense, the movie stayed with
the book by emphasizing the family
situation and their difficulties,
moreso than the land claims.
News: Vernon Bellecourt and his
associates are going to complain to
CBS ask them to broadcast the
documentary Clouded Land. Do you
think the people at CBS would go
for that?
Weaver: I have made certain that
the producers of Red Earth, White
Earth were in touch, from the
beginning, with Randy Croce who
did Clouded Land. I introduced
Randy Croce to them and they have
been in touch with him. So, I guess
I've done everything I can.
News: I've talked to several
people who have seen the movie but
never read the book and they assume
that the movie was taken directly
from the book. Some of them are
misdirecting their anger toward you.
Weaver: Yeah, that's a good
point. And just to mention a few
things that I have done, very early
on in this process I was in touch
Weaver/page 10