Native American Press / Ojibwe News(Bemidji, Minnesota), 1996-02-09

              PPVPWWH
Do casino managers have license to abuse?
MN Supreme Court to rule on jurisdiction in Prescott/Little Six case
By Gary Blair
On Feb. 5, the Minnesota Supreme
Court heard arguments in a case
which could affect the way Indian
Tribes operate casinos in Minnesota.
At issue is the sovereign immunity
defense that allows tribes special
protection from lawsuits. The hearing
was held at the University of
Minnesota Law School and was
attended by more one hundred and
fifty students.
The case challenges the
reservation's right to extend
immunity to casinos through the use
of independent corporations set up to
do business as a foreign company
under Minnesota state law.   The
lawsuit involves a former Mystic
Lake Casino guard, Jill Gavle, who
sued Little Six, Inc. and Leonard
Prescott, the gaming corporation's
former boss.
The lawsuit accuses Prescott of
sexual harassment, gender
discrimination, pregnancy
discrimination, defamation and
battery. Gavle was 25 years old at
the time of alleged incidents. Prescott
was reported to be in his late forties.
In response to the suit, the
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community invoked the sovereign
immunity defense, claiming Little
Six, Inc., the operator ofthe casino,
has the same protection from lawsuits
as the tribe.
Craig Greenberg, attorney for
Gavlel, told the high court, "By filing
an application with the Secretary of
State as a foreign corporation doing
business in Minnesota, they
irrevocably consented to service of
process (to be sued) and agreed to be
bound by Minnesota law." He also
told the court that most of the
mistreatment his client received
occurred off the reservation where the
tribe doesn't have immunity. "The
corporation has its offices off the
reservation and my client was hired
off the reservation," he said.
"The corporation that operates the
casino is separate from the
reservation and it doesn't have the
same immunity. It's the same as any
Abuse cont'd on 3
Finngate postponed due to medical reasons of one of
the indictees, new date scheduled for March 4,1996.
MN Suprm. Crt. to rule on jurisdic. in Prescott case/ pg 1
Legal dispute in trust land headed to suprm. crt./ pg 1
MCT hosts Mn lawmakers at lobbying dinner/ pg 2
Voice of the People
2
Appeals court to rule if state can charge
Natives with 'trespassing' on own land
By Jeff Armstrong
The Minnesota Court of Appeals
heard arguments last month in a case
testing the state's authority to enforce
its trespassing laws against
reservationmembers occupying tribal
trust property. In what could establish
a state precedent on the issue, the
court will rule within 90 days of the
Jan. 16 oral arguments whether to
overturn a district court conviction of
an Anishinabe woman for trespassing
on her own reservation.
Michelle LaRose appealed her Aug.
14 conviction in Cass County on
charges of illegally occupying an
abandoned tribal home on the Leech
Lake Reservation. LaRose argued in
the appeal, filed by attorney Jay
Sommer, that the state has no
jurisdiction to regulate the use of trust
property, much less to prosecute
LaRose criminally for exercising her
communal property rights as a Leech
Lake member.
"What distinguishes the LaRose case
from other cases involving state
criminal jurisdiction over Indians on
their Reservations is the property
rights issue. The property issue goes
to the core of Indian life and history,"
the appeal states. "Cass County is, by
proxy, attempting to regulate Indian
housing in Indian country."
The state simply—and
simplistically—argues that
trespassing is a criminal offense, and
thus subject to state Public Law 280
jurisdiction. As districtjudge Michael
Haas wrote in dismissing LaRose
challenge to the court' s subject matter
Trespass cont'd on 3
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Founded in 1988        Volume 8   Issue 17       February 9, 1996
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Copyright, Native American Press,   1996
Suit brings tribal immunity before high court
Sexual harassment case challenges sovereignty of Dakota casino
After Jill Gavle, 27, sued Little Six   Minnesota: Do relatively untested
By Pat Doyle
Star Tribune Staff Writer
In a rare inquiry with broad
ramifications for tribal casinos and the
public, the Minnesota Supreme Court
heard a sexual harassment case
Monday that tests the power of tribes
to declare themselves immune from
lawsuits.
The case involves a former guard
at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake
who said her ex-boss, Leonard
Prescott, coerced her to have sex,t»eat
her and fired her when she told hirk
she was pregnant with his baby.
Inc., which operates Mystic Lake, she
ran into a legal roadblock. The state
Court of Appeals ruled that Little Six
is immune from suit because its
owner, the Shakopee Mdewakanton
Dakota Community, is a sovereign
government.
Now the Supreme Court will
consider whether Little Six shares the
immunity enjoyed by the tribal
government or whether it waived
immunity when it applied in 1991 to
do business as a foreign corporation
in Minnesota. And the justices
appeared keenly interested in a related
issue of growing importance in
tribal courts provide a meaningful
alternative to state courts?
"Can this lady get a fair trial in
tribal court?" Chief Justice A.M.
(Sandy) Keith asked, interrupting an
argument by tribal attorney Steven
Olson.
"You have hundreds and hundreds
of employees — this is a big business
—who are not Indians and could have
problems, and you have a system that
can handle it?" Keith asked Olson.
"That's right," 01s*on said. Bui
when he told Associate Justice Jeanne
Suit cont'd on 4
IEN charges NSP with using nuke plan to
divide tribal-environmental alliance
The only commercial walleye fishery in the United States and the largest tribal fishery on the continent
Some tribal members fear fishing industry
could collapse
The director of a Native-
environmental organization
condemned plans by a Minnesota-
based utility to compensate a Dakota
tribe for agreeing to changes in a state
law which allowed temporary storage
of high-level nuclear waste on land
adjacent to the Prairie Island
reservation.
If approved by the state legislature,
the amendments would provide the
tribe funding from NSP to relocate
reservation residents, in return for
allowing continued and expanded
nuclear storage at the site.
"The proposal made by Northern
States Power utility company in
relation to the Mdewakanton Dakota
community of Prairie Island is an
unethical, immoral and blatant act of
environmental racism," says Tom
Goldtooth, national coordinator of
the Indigenous Environmental
Network. Goldtooth said, however,
that NSP's "racist policy" of siting
facilities in communities of color is
consistent with its action in the
predominately African American city
of Homer Louisiana, where the
company is pushing a uranium
enrichment processing plant to be
built, despite community opposition.
For more than 22 years, the Prairie
Island community has been exposed
to radioactivity from the two nuclear
reactors near the reservation,
according to tribal member Joseph
Campbell. "Ithas impacted the animal
life, the fish, and the birds. It is only
logical to understand that the air, the
water and the people must also be
contaminated," said Campbell. "NSP
is agitating disunity between tribal
Nuke cont'd on 3
RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) _ Some
members of the Red Lake band of
Chippewa Indians fear that their
reservation's fishing industry could
collapse because of overfishing,
wrecking their main industry.
The tribe is considering limiting
commercial fishing to 300 full-time
people, and taking the privilege away
from the approximately 500 people
who net fish from the lakes only part
time.
Lawrence Bedeau, a tribal council
member, said the fishery will be ruined
if too many people continue to put out
too many nets. He said that even with
strict controls, the walleye population
will still need 10 to 20 years to recover.
"A lot of people will disagree with
me on that," Bedeau said. "But we
have the scientific data that shows
that. It'll collapse."
The tribe says Upper and Lower
Red lakes have the only commercial
walleye fishery in the United States
and the largest tribal fishery on the
continent. The lakes, which cover
Fishing cont'd on 3
Schafer, Standing Rock tribe sign agreement
Legal dispute in Indian trust land likely
headed to supreme court
By Chet Brokaw
PIERRE, S.D. (AP)_ A legal dispute
over the ability of Indian tribes to buy
land and exempt it from state and
local taxes is likely headed to theU.S.
Supreme Court, South Dakota
Attorney General Mark Barnett said
Tuesday.
In November, a three-judge panel
of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals stuck down a 60-year-old
law that has allowed the U.S.
Department of Interior to acquire land
and place it in trust for tribes or
individual Indians.
The full appeals court in St. Louis
decided last week not to rehear the
case. Barnett said he received notice
ofthe ruling Tuesday.
The attorney general said he believes
federal and tribal officials will appeal
to the Supreme Court. He said there is
a good chance the Supreme Court
will agree to hear the case because the
issue has far-reaching effects in many
states.
"It has nationwide impact," Barnett
said.
Barnett said the issue is important
to states and local governments
because land placed in trust for tribes
is no longer on the property tax rolls.
The state and local governments also
lose jurisdiction to enforce laws on
trust property, he said.
The decision by the appeals court
also could hamper Indian tribes'
efforts to locate casinos on land they
purchase outside reservation
boundaries.
The November decision by the three-
judge panel said the federal law that
allows the Interior Department to
place land in trust for Indians is
Land cont'd on 3
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ Gov.
Ed Schafer and Jesse Taken Alive,
chairman ofthe Standing Rock Sioux
tribe, signed an agreement Wednesday
that lays out a framework for
cooperation between the state and
tribe.
The two-page document, signed
during a ceremony at tribal
headquarters inFort Yates, explicitly
recognizes the sovereignty ofthe state
and the Standing Rock nation.
It is meant to push for "more efficient,
improved and beneficial services to
Indian and non-Indian people of our
state," according to its text.
"Too much time and effort has been
wasted or misdirected by working in
isolation or in fragmented approaches,
and in some cases (in) the opposite
direction," Schafer said during the
ceremony.
Taken Alive said the agreement
could help resolve jurisdictional
disputes between the state and the
Standing Rock tribe on everything
from highways to fishing and boating.
Relationships between the Standing
Rock Sioux and state government will
be reviewed periodically by the state
Indian Affairs Commission, Schafer
said. The panel includes tribal
chairmen.
Negotiations for a similar accord
are underway with the Three Affiliated
Tribes, Schafer said.
State lawmakers said Wednesday
the Standing Rock agreement was
general enough that any review by the
Legislature is probably unnecessary.
"Who would object? It sounds
good," said Rep. William Kretschmar,
R-Venturia, chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee. "The devil will
be in the details, not in this broad
outline."
Sen. Wayne Stenehjem, R-Grand
Forks, chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, had a similar
reaction.
"Anything that we can do to bring
state governments and tribal
governments closer together is
useful," he said. "The governor has
done a good job with the tribal
governments, in trying to bring them
together."
Stenehjem clashed with Schafer and
tribal chairmen during the 1995
Legislature in a dispute over whether
the state's gambling compacts with
its five tribes could seal casino records
from public inspection.
White House opposed gambling plan, court told
State threatens to close Indian casinos
By William F Rawson
PHOENIX (AP) _ State regulators
threatened Monday to close two
Indian gambling operations unless
the tribes come up with about
$117,000 the state claims it is owed
for regulation costs.
Meanwhile, three tribes _ including
the two that run the threatened casinos
asked for binding arbitration to
resolve the dispute, blaming it on the
state's failure to live up to the terms of
negotiated Indian gambling compacts.
Gary Husk, director of the state
Department of Gaming, wrote letters
Monday to the Tohono O'odham and
San Carlos Apache tribes demanding
immediate payment ofthe $ 117,000.
Husk said the amount reflects the
unpaid portion ofthe annual $500 per
slot machine assessment the tribes
agreed to pay the state.
He said compacts negotiated
between the state and each of the
tribes called for the payment of the
$500 per machine assessment for the
first two years of the compacts. The
money goes toward department
expenses.
The compacts specify that after the
first two years, the amount of the
assessment is to be negotiated.
The Tohono o'odham and San
Carlos tribes acknowledged that they
independently cut their payments to
reflect the department's actual costs
over the past two years.
Husk called the action "a major
breach" of the compacts, which he
said require the payments to be based
both on the department's actual costs
as well as projected costs. The
department believes costs will require
payments of at least $500 per machine
in future years.
"That is a reflection of the growth
ofthe industry," he said. "While two
State cont'd on 4
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ Improper
pressure on the Interior Department
influenced the government's rejection
of plans by Chippewa Indians to operate a western Wisconsin casino, lawyers told a federal judge.
"It was the most egregious demonstration of improper political pressure
you'll ever find," attorney Robert
Friebert said Friday in asking U. S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb to enforce
a request to question federal officials.
Friebert represents Chippewa from
northern Wisconsin's Red Cliff, Mole
Lake and Lac Courte Oreilles reservations.
They and the St. Croix Meadows
pari-mutuel track in Hudson have talked
about opening a casino annex
The proposal would need the sanction ofthe department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and state officials, includ
ing Gov. Tommy G. Thompson who
has said he opposes the idea.
The application received support from
the BIA office inMinneapolis, but when
it got to the nation's capital, Democrats
in and out of the Clinton administration
persuaded the Interior Department to
reject it, lawyers said.
Crabb took the lawyers' request under advisement They also want the
department's rejection overturned.
David Jones, assistant U.S. attorney,
said the rejection was denied because of
state opposition and without political
influence.
The Indians' lawyers have not demonstrated anyone tampered with the
process, Jones said.
Friebert said the influence began in
1994 during a Minneapolis meeting
between President Clinton and Minnesota Indians, followed by letters from a
Minnesota tribal lobbyist to White
House deputy counsel Harold Ickes.
Ickes telephoned the Interior Department, he said. A memorandum last
June 26 from the department to Ickes
said the application would be denied,
Crabb was told
A lawyer for the Chippewa spoke July
14 with Interior Secretary Brace Babbitt about the pressure, and Babbitt said
Ickes told him a decision had to be
issued that day, Friebert said.
Ada Deer, assistant U.S. secretary of
Indian affairs and former leader of
Wisconsin's Menominee Indian Reservation, had authority to sign the decision, he said.
However, she wrongly removed herself on grounds she once contributed
$250 to an election campaign for
Gaiashkibos, chairman of the Lac
Courte Oreilles, he said.