The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1989-09-13

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Waybenais
page2
Jourdain's letter
concerning Saunders'
position as Tribal
Administrator    fr*^6
1 Copyright, the Ojibwe News, 1989
A Bi-Monthly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
Weekly series featuring
American Indians
Minneapolis, Minn. - A new weekly series featuring programs about
American Indians will start in the Twin Cities on Thursday, Sept. 21st
at 8:00 p.m. on Channel 32.
The first program entitled Keep Your Heart Strong is an hour long
show exploring the meaning and history of the pow-wow.
This program can be viewed on the Minneapolis Television Network
MTN) where shows of from 30 minutes to an hour are planned to be
aired each Thursday, supplied by the Native American Public
Broadcasting Corporation.
A grant from the Cable Value Network has made this series possible.
The shows shown on Thursdays will be repeated the following
Saturday at 8 p.m. on Channel 32.
To publish original works
SL Paul, Minn. - A new arts publication from the St. Paul American
Indian Center has begun. The publication publishes original works of
poetry, nonfiction, fiction and graphics.
For more information contact Sandra King, St. Paul Indian Center,
341 University Ave., St. Paul, Minn. 55103.
Gilfillan Center will hold celebration
Bemidji, Minn. - A pipe ceremony will be held on Thursday,
September 14, at 2 p.m. at the Gilfillan Center on 15th St., Bemidji.
Two drum groups, one from Cass Lake with Henry Flocken as the
group leader and the other group from Canada will perform. A ground
blessing and a program blessing wilt be held.
A grant was received to help develop a cultural awareness and pride
in Indian ways for the residents. The public is welcome to attend.
Northern Plains Tribal
Art show and market
Sioux Falls, S.D. - More than 100 Native American artists from the
six-state area will show their work at the Northern Plains Tribal Art
show and market September 22, 23, and 24 in Sioux Falls. Tribal Arts
'89 is the region's only juried art show that caters exclusively to Native
American artists.
Traditional and contemporary works of paint, pottery, textiles,
drawings, jewelry and traditional art forms will be exhibited.
For more information, call Shirley Bordeaux or Mick LaPointe in
Sioux Falls. (605)334-4060.
Bear River history being
refought: battle, or massacre?
Logan, Utah (AP) - Those saying
they have studied the 1863 fight
between U.S. soldiers and Shoshone
Indians on the Bear River agree it
deserves national landmark status.
But their agreement ends there.
Edwin C. Bearss, chief historian
for the National Park Service, has
been studying the incident at the
request of the Utah and Idaho
legislatures. He told members of the
Bear River-Battle Creek Association
last month he believed the site
deserves the designation.
He also said he supports the
group's request that the name of the
site be changed from "Battle of the
Bear River" to the "Bear River
Massacre," reflecting accounts that
up to 400 Indians _ many of them
women and children _ died in the
clash on the Utah-Idaho border.
But Tom McDevitt, of Pocatello,
Idaho, said his research into the
incident supports the traditional
account that it was a battle. Further,
he says the 400 casualties claimed
by others is an exaggeration.
He contends the Indians had been
terrorizing whites in Franklin, Idaho,
the day before the battle. He also
said that after the battle, the Army
fed and clothed 160 squaws and
children and then released them.
Allie Hansen, president of the
association, stands by her group's
account, which states the troopers
attacked at dawn as the Indians
slept.
"It is extremely important to tell
the Indian side of the story, and
there are books out now making that
side known," she said.
Photo by WilBam J. Lawrence
Red Lake Tribal Headquarters, Red Lake, Minnesota, is one of the offices that new Red Lake Tribal Administrator, Linda J. Saunders will
be spending a lot of her time in.
Red Lake's Tribal Administrator's
qualifications questioned
By William J. Lawrence
Newly hired Red Lake Tribal
Administrator, Linda J. Saunders,
appears to lack qualifications for
that position according to
information obtained by The News.
Ms. Saunders, who started her
employment at Red Lake on August
15,1989, was hired by the Red Lake
Tribal Council pursuant to the
Intergovernmental Personnel Act
(IPA) as amended by Public Law
93-638, the Indian Self-Determination
Act.
The provisions of these laws
provide for federal personnel to be
assigned to Indian tribes to
contribute to career development
and for the purpose of gaining
experience with local governments.
Ms. Saunders' employment is the
direct result of the Government-to-
Govemment cooperative agreement
executed between the Red Lake
Tribal Council and the Bureau of
Indian Affairs on July 7,1989.
Ms. Saunders' personal
qualification statement lists her
highest educational achievement as
an Associate of Arts Degree (2 year)
in 1977 from Phoenix College,
Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, she
lists 22 years of federal service
experience, starting as clerk-typist
trainee (GS-2). Other work
experience includes participating in
the BIA's Administrative Officer
Intern Program and holding various
administrative and acting positions,
without citing dates of tenure.
Her most recent position as
^Assistant to former Acting Assistant
Secretary of Indian Affairs Pat
Ragsdale was abolished by the new
Assistant Secretary Ed Brown.
Sources told The News that both
Saunders and Ragsdale had 6 hours
to clear out of the Central Office
when Assistant Secretary Brown
took over.
The source also indicated that Ms.
Saunders' IPA Red Lake assignment
was part of the deal between
Jourdain and Ragsdale that resulted
in the BIA's agreeing to the
cooperative agreement. See copy of
letter dated July 26, 1989, from
Roger A. Jourdain to Walter Mills
on page 6, regarding IPA assignment
of Linda Saunders.
Mr. Ragsdale is now back in
Oklahoma working for the Cherokee
Tribe.
The job description for the
position of Red Lake Tribal
Administrator appears to have been
drafted with Ms. Saunders'
qualifications in mind. The job
description as written requires no
degrees and is very general in
nature.
However, the description does
require knowledge of the Red Lake
Band's origin, culture and traditions
as well as the interrelationship of
tribal, federal, state and local laws,
which obviously Ms. Saunders
doesn't possess.
Some of the duties of the Tribal
administrator as set forth by that
position's job description are as
follows:
• function as the chief administrative officer of the Red Lake Band
in charge of the effective direction
and administration of all BIA
programs operated under contract or
pursuant to the Cooperative
Agreement.
• exercise authority and responsibility for the daily management of
all BIA programs operated under
contract or pursuant to the
Agreement, and authority and
responsibility for the daily
management of such other tribally
operated programs as the Tribal
Council may specifically designate.
Management includes such activities
as funds management, personnel
management, management analysis,
procurement, administration,
property management, space
management, data processing, travel
and transportation equipment, public
information, safety, or security.
• perform the overall planning,
organizing, staffing, directing,
controlling,  execution   and
coordination of the Red Lake Band's
BIA programs operated under
contract or pursuant to the
Agreement.
• act as the coordinator of the
activities and reports to the Tribal
Chairman and Tribal Council made
by the program directors of the Red
Lake Band's BIA programs operated
under contract or pursuant to the
Agreement
In addition, The News recendy has
learned that the day to day
administrative supervision of all Red
Lake employees has been transferred
from the Minneapolis Area Director
Earl Barlow to the Red Lake Tribal
Administrator Ms. Saunders. She
will report directly to Red Lake
Tribal Chairman Roger A. Jourdain.
Ms. Saunders, who claims to be a
member of the Oneida Tribe of
Wisconsin, is reported to be in her
early 40's and the mother of two
grown children. Her marital status is
unknown and she is temporarily
residing in a motel in the Bemidji
area. Her starting salary as Red Lake
Administrator is reported to be
$56,000 per year.
Ms. Saunders was contacted by
The News for an interview, but she
declined stating that Red Lake
Tribal Chairman Roger Jourdain
would not allow her to talk to The
News.
Dr.
ed Acting Area Director
Bemidji, Minn.
permanent Bemi'
Health Service (II
been delayed. Inst
Annette, M.D., I
and Chief Medi
Bemidji Area O
appointed to serv<
Director effectiv
for a period not
days,
Sources indicate
es have told the News, that
"qualified Indian applicants
Rhoades' office has "violated
doral policy" in attempting to
i position, sources said.
! officials met in Duluth with
eaders from Wisconsin,
can and Minnesota to discuss
were tribal representatives from
Minnesota.
Sources have told the News that
the IHS officials were influenced
by Jourdain and Wadena because
they were unhappy with some of
the candidates.
"It is illegal for tribal leaders to
select (a director for the position).
They can present recommendations but they cannot select,"
News sources said*
American Indian teens learn inner workings of state agency
By Diane Mundt Star Tribune
Minneapolis, Minn. (AP) - They've had run-ins
with wood ticks and leeches. They've done hard labor
in steamy summer heat. But most of the 10 American
Indian teen-agers who learned the inner workings of
the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources this
summer say a job with the DNR looks pretty good to
them.
They are all city kids from Minneapolis and have
spent little time in the natural world of Minnesota
woods, waters and prairies. Before signing up for the
Youth in Natural Resources program, they knew little
about the DNR.
The eight-week program, based at Fort Snelling State
Park, is sponsored by the DNR and the American
Indian Opportunity Industrialization Center in
Minneapolis, which runs a federal jobs program.
Trying to interest young people in careers with the
DNR is a new approach to DNR minority recruiting,
which has not been very successful in the past,
according to John Winter, DNR regional parks
manager.
Working in parks all over the metropolitan area, the
six boys and four girls, ages 14 to 17, earned $4 an
hour building trails and a boat ramp, sampling fish,
planting trees and studying landscaping, wildlife
management, loons, real estate and firearms safety.
They also learned something about their own heritage
by planting a garden using old Indian methods and
building a drum arbor and three sweat lodges for a
powwow at Fort Snelling.
The worst job for the kids was building a boat access
ramp in mud like quicksand and removing their hip
waders to find their legs covered with leeches, said
Samantha Whiteman, 22, of Minneapolis, one of two
Indian group leaders.
"It was the hottest week of the summer, but they
finished it ahead of schedule," she said.
Bridget Deegan, 16, says park management appeals
to her and she'd like to return to the program next
summer. After passing a written safety test, part of a
firearms safety program run by the DNR, Deegan and
the others spent time firing rifles and shotguns in target
practice. It was the first time Deegan had fired a rifle,
but she put several shots close to the bull's eye.
Jack Rohrbach, 17, will be a senior this fall at the
Red School House. He's interested in working toward a
job as a conservation officer and would like to return to
Fort Snelling next summer. The low point of the
program for him came during the first week of training
at St. Croix State Park when people in the park stared
at the group.
"We were the only Indians there. It was like we were
aliens," he said.
If there is one place members of the Indian
community do belong it is in state forests and parks
and in natural resource programs, said Clyde
Bellecourt, a founder of the AIOIC and community
organizer for the Elaine Stately Indian Youth Service
leadership training program.
"On or near every Indian reservation is a state park,"
he said.
Indian young people who have grown up in the city
are often unaware of how the American Indians'
heritage is tied to our natural resources, he said.
"Our emphasis is to get Indian young people in touch
with their own culture and tradition and the natural way
of life they lived at one time," said Bellecourt.
"I'm really excited about this partnership between the
DNR and the Indian community to get young people
interested in natural resources management as a career.
We've been at odds with the DNR over hunting and
fishing rights issues for years, and this is a new
direction," he said.
DNR and AIOIC representatives met recently and
made a commitment to continue and expand the
program next summer, Bellecourt said.
"We are starting to look for funds," he said.
This year's program operated with AIOIC federal
funds and donations from the Pillsbury Co., Lutheran
Brotherhood and the Fort Snelling State Park
Association.
The interest in the Youth in Natural Resources
program, with 14 people applying as group leaders and
a waiting list of students, shows that aggressive
recruiting within the Indian community will turn up
qualified candidates for DNR jobs, Bellecourt said.
v