The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1989-05-16

              Bingo popular in
Connecticut
page3
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Fifty Cents
Red Lake Coalition to Meet
The Coalition for Open and Responsible Government at Red Lake
will hold it's initial meeting on Friday, May 26, at 7:30 pm at the VFW
Club in Bemidji.
The purpose of the meeting is to select officers and to discuss issues for
a platofrm to support candidates for the May 1990 tribal elections on
the Red Lake Reservation.
Those interested in an open, fair, and responsible tribal government on
the Red Lake Reservation are strongly urged to attend.
Anti-discrimination group
sets meeting date
A meeting will be held on Friday, May 25, at 701 America Avenue at
7:00 pm to discuss the treatment of Native American Indians in the city
of Bemidji. The meeting is sponsored by the Native American Indians
Against Discrimination, (NAIAD.)
The NAIAD organization maintains that the Bemidji Police, retail
stores, businesses, county and state employees are all in question as to
their own particular brand of apartheid, and the meeting will include
discussion of boycotting certain establishments, and possibly organizing
a protest march.
White Earth Band Members
petition reservation tribal
council for meeting
A meeting has been requested by enrolled members of the White
Earth Reservation, and is set for Thursday, May 18, at White Earth
Tribal Council offices at 12 Noon.
According to News sources, a petition has circulated on the White
Earth Reservation requesting a meeting between enrolled band
members and the reservation tribal officials to discuss the White Earth
Reservtion Tax agreement, the White Earth Conservation Code, which
some band members feel is in violation of the constituion, the White
Earth Land Settlement Act, and the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Constitutional Convention.
Enrolled band members are urged to attend. For more information
call (218)983-3741.
Concerned Ojibwe to meet
with Mineral Policy Center
Representative
On Saturday, May 27, at 1 pm, Mr. Phil Hocker of the Mineral Policy
Center in Washington D.C. will be in the northern Minnesota town of
Ely. Hocker will meet with the Ely City Council and concerned Ojibwe
at Vertins Cafe regarding the State of Minnesota's plans for the massive
mining of northern Minnesota.
Allery Trial Re-set
The trial of Alan Allery, 41, former director of the Bemidji Area
Indian Health Service, has been rescheduled for May 22. Allery has
been indicted on charges of filing false travel vouchers totaling nearly
$28,000. According to News sources, the trial has been delayed for the
convenience of the court,.
Allery, who was indicted last January, will appear before Judge
Edward Devitt on Monday, May 22, at 10:30 am. Ms. Betsy DeLavega,
Assistant U.S. Attorney, is the prosecuting attorney. Allery is
represented by the Ronald Meshbesher Law Fir m of Minneapolis.
Senate panel probe's
Indian Health Service
Washington, D.C. (AP) -
Indians have more health problems
than any other American ethnic
group, but the federal agency
responsible for Indian medical care
has been plagued by mismanagement and corruption, a
congressional investigation has
found.
A detailed look inside the Indian
health service will be provided next
week when a Senate subcommittee
calls witnesses, including current
and former officials of the Indian
Health Service regional office at
Bemidji, Mn..
The hearings, conducted by the
investigations subcommittee of the
Senate Select Committee on Indian
Affairs, will present the latest
statistics on Indian health.
The numbers will show that
Indians are three times as likely to
suffer accidents as the rest of the
population, and have the country's
highest alcoholism, suicide,
homicide, and tuberculosis rates.
Yet the Indian Health Service has
been wasting money. The committee
will receive details about problems
at the Bemidji Office, including
allegations that the office's former
director, Alan Allery, 41, filed false
expense statements totaling more
than $28,000. Allery was indicted
last January.
In addition, the committee will
present evidence that funds were
squandered on extravagant retreatts
and office furnishings by Health
Service offices across the country.
"The picture that will come out in
the hearings is that a significant
amount of moeny has been
mismanaged or wasted, often for the
benefit of...administrators and not
the Indians living on the
reservations," one subcommittee
staff member said this week.
The hearing Monday will be
chaired by Sen. Thomas Daschle,
D-S.D. The Indian Health Service
has assigned several investigators of
its own to look into possible wrong
doing and the investigators will
testify about their findings. Also
testifying will Everett Rhoades, the
director of the service.
The Special Committee on
Investigations of the Senate Select
Committee on Indian Affairs was
formed in early 1988 to look at
corruption in ffederal programs.
Hearings held thus far have revealed
corruption in Indian contracting
programs, child abuse and
mismanagement of oil and gas
resources.
Founded in 1988
Volume 1  Issue 49
— :	
May 16, 1989
' Copyright, the Ojibwe News, 1989
A Bi-Monthly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
Top: Pounded in 1888, St. Mary's Mission School remains open for another year. Bottom: Some of the students at the school, really do
" have sparkle in their eyes, love in their hearts and joy in their feces." For more see story on page 5. Photos are taken by S. Hauser.
■
Indian tribes mulling bond sales;
Japanese are intrigued
New York (AP) - American
Indian tribes are exploring major
bond issues as a way to raise cash
for tribal development projects, an
idea boosted by a recent change in
federal law and one that has
piqued the interest of the
Japanese.
Late last month, Daiwa
Securities America, U.S. arm of
the Japanese investment house,
gathered tribal leaders,
government officials, Indian
experts and others in New York
for a day long conference on
tribal financing. Charles
Entwistle, a Daiwa senior vice
president, said the meeting was
designed to present financing
opportunities to both the tribes
and investors.
"It looks like a good opportnnity
for channeling some of the
Japanese money coming into the
United States," Entwistle said.
"We're satisfied that the
business is there. Now it's just a
matter of can we pot deals
together."
Tbe effort is prompted by an
amendment to the federal Indian
Finance Act signed into law last
September.
The amendment allows tribes to
float bonds that would be backed
by government guarantees for up to
90 percent of their value.
Such government backing would
put tribal bonds on a par with many
bonds issued by government
agencies.
Government guarantees allow the
bond issuer to pay a lower interest
rate since die buyers are assured of
getting most of their money back
should there be a default. The lower
interest rate makes the bonds
cheaper for the tribes to issue.
Daiwa is working on a major Indian
funding project that would amount
to hundreds of millions of dollars,
Entwistle said, though he declined
to give details. Tn addition to bonds,
funding mechanisms for tribal
projects under exploration by
Daiwa include joint ventures, equity
interests and private placements, or
debt issues that are sold privately
and not publicly traded, Entwistle
said.
One bond issue the company is
working on would provide about
$6,5 million for the Chickasaw
Nation to buy the Arbuckle
Wilderness, a 485-acre drive-
through park and exotic wild animal
preserve in Oklahoma that is a
major tourist attraction. However,
the government-guaranteed bond
issue has been delayed by the
federal Bureau of Indian Affairs,
which must approve me financing.
The BIA and its parent, the Interior
Department, have not finished
writing regulations to implement
the amendment to the Indian
Finance Act, said BIA spokesman
Carl Shaw.
"No one knew at the time that
amendment was passed that there
would have to be new regulations
written," Shaw said last week. In
addition, the BIA must receive
funding for a reserve fund to
guarantee the bond issues, Shaw
said.
A request for that funding was not
submitted to Congress this year
because "we don't feel like we can
request those funds" due to
budgetary constraints, Shaw said.
The soonest the reserve fund could
be approved, allowing government-
backed tribal bonds to be issued,
would be fiscal 1991, which starts
October 1, 1990, assuming
Congress approves the funding by
then, Shaw said. Entwistle said he
believes the BIA is creating
unnecessary delays. Nowhere in the
amendment does it say that new
regulations or a new reserve fund
are needed, he said, pointing out
that a reserve fund was created
under the existing Indian Finance
Act.
"The law was written to be
enacted immediately," be said.
Indian tribes can float bonds
under the original Indian Finance
Act, which was approved in the
early 1980s, but the bonds aren't
guaranteed by the government.
Instead, the tribes must back the
issues by natural-resource
earnings or other tribal revenue.
The amended finance law
provides enhanced capability for
the tribes to raise money, Shaw
said.
Charles Blackwell, an Indian
attorney who is a consultant to
Daiwa, said the BIA dispute is
overshadowed by the significance
of the Indian gathering in New
York."
Leaders from 20-plus tribes
came to Walt Street bringing their
deals and saying 'Let's do
business," he said. "It was tbe
first time in history.
"Congress is 100 percent behind
the individual initiatives that are
taking place in Indian country,"
he added.
"And the tribes themselves are
emerging as very powerful
business entities in-.theUnited
States. The BIA will fall in line."
in i.