Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1996-06-07

              Defense overwhelmed  by vote fraud
evidence in week 4 of Chippygate
By Gary Blair
The enrollees came from all over
the country, many of them full-blood
Indians, while some had blonde hair
and blue eyes. However, not one of
them hesitated when asked by
prosecutors if they were eligible to
vote in the White Earth reservation's
elections. "Yes," was the answer
jurors heard from nearly one hundred
witnesses who testified this week that
they were denied the exercise of this
right by the fraudulent practices of
Darrell "Chip" Wadena's gang.
Some of the witnesses reported that
they had never lived on the
reservation or voted in tribal
elections. One of the witnesses was a
doctor, another was a former Twin
Cities radio personality, one was a
minister and yet others were
successful businessmen and women.
Some were raising families, others
were retired elders and some were
also struggling in poverty.
Many said they had left White
Earth as young children or older
adults. Others said they had voted on
the reservation, but not by absentee
ballot. Yet others said they had voted
once, but prosecutors showed them
two sets of signed ballots for
verification. Still others insisted that
they had never voted in the
reservation's 1994 general election,
but that they had voted in other past
White Earth elections.
By day's end, the federal
courthouse in St. Paul, Minnesota
was resembled a White Earth reunion
more than a federal corrpution trial.
The get-together was even larger than
during the reservation's founder's day
Pow-Wow held in mid-June each year.
A common sentiment was
expressed by one witness, who said
after testifying, 'That's the reason my
parents left the reservation, there was
just too much corruption and I guess
it's still going on." Judge Davis would
not allow the prosecution to ask why
they did not vote in tribal elections.
At least six of the witnesses testified
Defense cont'd on 10
Vote in the MCT Election on
Tuesday June 11,1996
Voice of the People
1
Leech Lake members, residents played key
role in White Earth vote conspiracy
By Jeff Armstrong
White Earth Reservation officials
used funds from a public assistance
program with a $1.1 million annual
budget to compensate Leech Lake
and White Earth members who helped
them obtain and certify fraudulent
ballots in 1990 and 1994, according
to testimony in the federal conspiracy
trial of White Earth's top officials.
Indicted White Earth election board
chair Carley Jasken also directed the
assistance program, but despite the
federal charges, Jasken will be
responsible for overseeing next
Tuesday's balloting.
Eleanor Craven testified that she
and fellow Leech Lake member Leo
Gotchie, then a district RBC
candidate, were campaigning for
absenteevotesonMay25,1994, when
they stopped at Peter Peqette's south
Minneapolis home. Craven said
Gotchie suggested the stop in hopes
of obtaining gas money fortheir return
trip by using her notary seal to validate
White Earth ballots.
Shortly after their arrival at
Pequette's, Craven testified, Jerry
Rawley showed up at the residence
with an attache case full of "hundreds"
of signed absentee ballots in sealed
envelopes. Although the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe's election ordinance
requires absentee voters to sign the
"affadavit envelope" in the presence
of a notary public—who must then
verify that the voter actually cast the
enclosed ballot—Craven said she and
Pequette proceeded to notarize the
invalid ballots.
According to Craven, she and a
friend, Connie McKenzie, set up an
assembly line system to validate the
fraudulent votes, with Craven signing
as notary and McKenzie stamping
the envelopes with Craven's seal.
Together, Pequette and Craven
certified at least 168 fraudulent votes,
according to White Earth election
records.
Craven said Rawley then collected
the votes and handed Gotchie an
apparent payment. "He gave
something to Mr. Gotchie and he
said, 'here, take care of your notary,'"
Role cont'd on 3
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Testimony focuses on vote fraud charges
By Pat Doyle
Star Tribune Staff Writer
Plastic garbage bags and a shredding machine were the objects of testimony Monday as the trial into alleged corruption on the White Earth
Indian Reservation focused on
charges of election fraud.
A secretary to the White Earth tribal
council recalled Monday how after a
1994 tribal election an official in
charge of voter lists and absentee ballots phoned with a request: send over
garbage bags.
In U.S. District Court in St. Paul,
Terri Darco testified that she took the
plastic bags to the White Earth election headquarters, where she met election judge Carley Jasken, who had
asked for them.
Darco said Jasken told her that she
didn't care for Dave Barnes, a federal
investigator who had obtained a subpoena to collect election records.
"She said . . . when you see your
friend Dave Barnes, tell him I have
the information he wants, all bagged
up," Darco testified.
Jasken and other White Earth election officials joined in shredding lists
of voters and stuffing the paper into
garbage bags in September 1994, according to testimony of some of the
officials Monday.
They identified large plastic bags,
shredded paper visible inside, that
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeanne Graham held near the jury.
The election workers downplayed
the shredding, saying it was normal
procedure after an election was over
Fraud cont'd on 10
Money is at core of court queries
Photo by Dee Fairbanks
Interested Leech Lake enrollees at the candidate forum in Minneapolis, on Thursday night June 6,1996.
Supreme Court reverses tax decision on Red Lake
By Pat Doyle
Star Tribune Staff Writer
The question drew a response that
startled some in the courtroom: How
much money do you make in a year?
When Darwin McArthur, executive
director of the White Earth Band of
Chippewa, replied that he made
$59,000, a tribal member in the
spectator section gasped.
By standards of the White Earth
Indian Reservation, McArthur's
salary is extraordinary—but not close
to the income of his bosses.
The money and power of three of
those bosses have been the focus of
much of the testimony in the White
Earth corruption trial, which enters
its fourth week Monday in U.S.
District Court in St. Paul.
Jurors watched intently and took
notes as prosecutors displayed salary
figures for Tribal Council members
on TV monitors. And they listened to
testimony of how council members
tapped tribal accounts to buy
themselves vehicles or to pay their
taxes.
"If they tell you to issue a check,
that's what you do?" a prosecutor
asked McArthur.
"Yes," he replied.
In 1993 tribal funds provided
$240,122 for Chairman Darrell
(Chip) Wadena, $209,507 for Council
Member Rick Clark and $ 187,237 for
Secretary-Treasurer Jerry Rawley.
Prosecutors say those figures
include tens of thousands of dollars
that the officials embezzled from their
tribe by creating gambling and fishing
commissions that provided them with
Money cont on 6
History, personalities, money play roles in
bitter feud        Dispute continues in Keweenaw Bay
By John Flesher
ASSININS, Mich. (AP) _ Slashed
tires, burned-out cars, tear gas and
rocks _ these are the unexpected
payouts from Indian gambling that
threaten to tear an Upper Peninsula
tribe apart.
"We were happier when we were
poor," said John Hascall, a Catholic
priest in the Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community.
Last week tribal police hurled tear
gas canisters in a failed attempt to
flush out a group who seized the
community's headquarters building
nine months ago.
The tribal center grounds, littered
with burned cars from previous
clashes, resembleafortress. Entrances
are blocked by felled trees and barbed
wire. Sentries patrol the area on off-
road vehicles.
Hascall blames the dispute on fast
money and says similar rifts are
opening in tribes across the country
because the booming casino business
is causing Indians to lose their spiritual
moorings.
"The common denominator is lack
of spirituality, and the misuse and
abuse of money," Hascall said.
Dissidents accuse leaders of the
2,400-member tribe of lining their
pockets at the expense of the rank and
file, rigging elections to the 12-person
tribal council and stripping the voting
rights of anyone who challenges them.
The dissidents say they are
"traditionalists" who want the tribe
to return to its cultural roots.
"Being traditional means getting
back to our spirituality, respecting
the elders, re-learning our language,"
dissident Nancy Edwards said.
The tribal government says many
of the dissidents have dubious claims
of membership and recently moved to
the reservation to cash in on the
success of its two casinos and bingo
hall. The main casino is on the
reservation; a smaller operation is
about 80 miles east in Marquette
County.
At the center of the dispute is tribal
Fued cont'd on 6
By Rochelle Olson
Associated Press Writer
ST. PAUL (AP) - An American Indian couple who worked on the Red
Lake Reservation, but had a home in
Bemidji, must pay state taxes on their
earnings, under a Minnesota Supreme
Court ruling issued Thursday.
The decision overturned a ruling by
the state Tax Court and ordered that
court to calculate the amount owed
by Francis and Barbara Brun, who are
members of the Red Lake Band of
Chippewa.
Although the state cannot tax tribal
members who live and work on the
reservation, that was not the case
here, the Supreme Court said in an
opinion written by Justice Mary
Jeanne Coyne.
"It is apparent that these taxpayers
have not demonstrated that they resided on the Red Lake Reservation
during the entire 10-year period involved in this tax dispute," the opinion said.
The couple contended the money
they earned on the reservation from
1979 to 1988 should be exempt from
state income taxes.
The Bruns were born on the Red
Lake Reservation, lived there most of
their lives and worked there during
the years in question, the opinion
said.
The couple bought the Bemidji
home in July 1979. They lived there
from July 1979 to August 1980, from
August 1981 to October 1982 and
sporadically from 1986 to 1988, the
court said.
"While the Bruns have maintained
that their primary residence was on
the reservation, they have conceded
that they spent a percentage of their
time in the Bemidji home during most
of the period in question," the opinion said.
Further, the Bruns received homestead status for the Bemidji residence
for all 10 years and claimed the home
on tax forms as their "permanent residence," the court said.
The lower court acknowledged
there was "little question that the
Bruns during some periods spent a
lot of time" at the Bemidji home, but
concluded the couple did not intend
to abandon the reservation as their
home so their income was exempt
from state tax.
No telephone number was listed for
the Bruns.
Nation's high court denies hearing for
Indian hunting rights case
Witness says she helped forge ballots
By Tom Meersman
Star Tribune Staff Writer
A White Earth tribal member
testified Tuesday that she and two
friends forged signatures on 135
absentee ballots in a 1990 tribal
election.
Sue Bellefeuille said she marked all
of the ballots for Secretary-Treasurer
Jerry Rawley, who was running for
reelection, and called her sister to
notarize ballot envelopes with phony
signatures before they were turned in
to election officials.
The testimony came as federal
prosecutors questioned 17 witnesses
in U.S. District Court in St. Paul in
connection with alleged vote fraud on
the reservation in northwestern
Minnesota in 1990 and 1994.
Rawley and Tribal Council Member
Rick Clark are charged with
embezzling money and conspiring
with others, including tribal election
judge Carley Jasken, to submit
fictitious absentee ballots. Clark and
Tribal Chariman Darrell (Chip)
Wadena are charged with mail fraud,
and all three officials are accused of
bribery and money laundering.
Bellefeuille testified that Jasken
asked her in August 1990 to "help
Jerry [Rawley] stay in office." Rawley
had lost his reelection bid in June by
12 votes, but protested and a new
election was scheduled for September.
SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) _The U.S.
Supreme Court has denied a petition
to hear a Wyoming case on tribal
hunting rights.
The petition denial last week means
that a federal appeals court decision
stands and cannot be raised again,
according to Ron Arnold, senior
assistant attorney general for
Wyoming.
Arnold said the decision quiets fears
by Wyoming Game and Fish
personnel about unregulated hunters.
"Game and Fish is happy that this
case is over," Arnold said. "They can
get back to managing wildlife and the
federal forests and not have to worry
about people not complying with the
rules and regulations."
The case involved Crow tribal
member Thomas Ten Bear, who was
cited in 1989 for shooting and killing
anelkwithoutalicenseontheBighorn
National Forest in northern Wyoming.
The forest lies south of the Crow
tribe's 8 million-acre reservation in
southeastern Montana.
Ten Bear and the tribe appealed the
citation. They said the Fort Laramie
treaties of 1851 and 1868 gave the
Crow tribe the right to hunt and fish
on all unoccupied lands.
But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Denver upheld a federal
district court' s decision last December
against Ten Bear. The district court
dismissed the argument, citing a U. S.
Supreme Court ruling that said such
treaties are "temporary and
precarious."
Arnold said the U.S. Supreme
Court's denial of a petition ends the
Ten Bear case and gives other courts
a better direction in case tribal
members fight hunting violation
citation.
"We thought it was a well-reasoned
case," Arnold said. "The 10th Circuit
certainly thought so."
Arnold said the U. S. Supreme Court
receives about 10,000 petitions for
review each year and only grants about
85. He said the high court gave no
comment in its denial.
Supreme court justice says tribal courts offer lessons
Bellefeuille said Rawley provided By Kelly Kurt
her with a tribal enrollment book with
names, addresses and birthdates, and
Jasken gave her 35 and later another
100 absentee ballots and ballot
envelopes.
Bellefeuille said she picked names
from the book, marked the ballots,
Ballots cont'd on 9
TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Federal and
state courts could learn a lesson from
the nation's tribal courts where
disputes often are resolved through
cooperation instead of confrontation,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor said Tuesday.
O'Connor, speaking ata symposium
on Indian law, praised the role of
tribal courts in maintaining
sovereignty. But she said the courts
also face challenges in balancing
modern systems with tradition.
"New methods have something to
offer to tribal communities and have
something to teach the other court
systems operating in the United
States," she said.
O'Connor, the first woman to serve
on the nation's high court, was greeted
by drum beats in a procession that
included leaders from Oklahoma
Indian tribes.
About 550 people are participating
in the Sovereignty Symposium, an
annual meeting sponsored by the
Oklahoma Supreme Court, the
Oklahoma      Indian      Affairs
Courts cont'd on 7
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