Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1996-08-09

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Leech Lake's democratic revolution moves
forward Interim General Council elected
By Jeff Armstrong
Meeting as the General Assembly of
the Leech Lake Reservation, tribal
members unanimously directed
Chairman Eli Hunt to declare a state
of emergency and recognize an interim
General Council to administer
reservation affairs.
Hunt has presided for more than a
month over a Reservation Business
Committee which has done everything
in its power to undermine his authority,
including passing resolutions in his
absence, suing Hunt in tribal court,
and refusing to to grant the chairman
his constitutionally mandated check
signing authority. Recall petitions
have been completed on three of
the four RBC members, two of
whom were convicted of
involvement in a million dollar
fraud conspiracy.
All but three of the 218 Leech Lake
members present at the August 5
General Assembly approved a
proclamation which authorized Hunt
"to proclaim a State of Emergency on
Leech Lake Reservation due to the
failure of tribal government and the
endangerment of tribal resources and
the health, safety and welfare of tribal
members."
The 13-member council is made up
of representatives elected at council
meetings held in each of the
reservation's 11 communities. Cass
Lake has two delegates to the General
Council, and Minneapolis/St. Paul
members will choose one.
Hunt will preside over meetings of
the General Council, which will serve
as the legislative body to carry out
community directives. All local
councils were given until August 13 to
finalize their representatives to the
interim government.
On August 6, RBC incumbent Alfred
Fairbanks responded to his ouster by
Council cont'd on 3
Leech Lake's democratic revolution moves forward
Welfare cuts may worsen due to funding decline
TEC censors Brown, repeals referendum interpret.
Power struggle at Leech Lake continues
Beaulieu rejects discrimination claim
Voice of the People
I
Welfare cuts may be exacerbated by decline
in Native program funding
By Gary Blair
The social and economic conditions
of most of Minnesota's urban
American Indian population are
expected to worsen in the next two
years. Part of that decline is being
blamed on projected sweeping
changes in federal welfare programs.
Not even with the efforts of the
Indian programs in last 25 years has
the overall living conditions for the
inter-city Native American
community changed. The only
Indians who seem to have benefited
from these programs have been those
organization's staff members.
According to Wilma Mason,
executive director of Anishinabe
Council of Job Developers (ACJD),
that decline is already taking place.
ACJD is a non-profit employment and
job training service for American
Indians in southeast Minneapolis.
"We are already starting to feel the
effects of the cut-backs," Mason said.
"At one time our program's annual
operating budget was $500,000.
Today, most of the funds we receive
come from the City of Minneapolis
through an employment retention
performance-based contract program,
which I like," she says. "However, this
year our budget is only $300,000 and
we are still trying to serve the same
amount of people.
"We have received foundation
support in the past, but recently we
have been asked, 'How much are the
casinos going to contribute?' The
foundations want the casinos to offer
financial support or they're not willing
to fund Indian programs. Our casinos
are not offering that type support, so
you know what that has meant for us."
Mason continued.
Seventy-five percent of ACJD's
810 clients in 1995 were young males
and the rest were females, single heads
of household often in need of day cafe
services that are difficult to find. "Our
clients do not have job skills. The
males live in extended families,
usually with their girlfriend or family
members," Mason explained
"We have had to discontinue our
temporary employment service
program Native Temps. We started
having problems with employees not
showing up for work when they were
suppose too. We, however, are going
to try to restructure that program," she
said.
"Many of our clients have chemical
dependency problems and our
community does not even have a
treatment program anymore, and no
one is doing anything about it. Some
of our job placement's quit rather then
submit to an employer's drug testing,'
Mason stated.
"We developed a bank teller
Welfare cont'd on 3
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Volume 8   Issue 43
August 3, 1 996
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A weekly publication.
Copyright, Native American Press, 1996
Beaulieu rejects discrimination claim
By Gary Blair
After more than a two year
investigation, the Minnesota
Department of Human Rights
(MDHR) Commissioner David
R?n'ilieu. now sa/s there is no
discrimination in how the City of
Minneapolis employs Native
American Fire Fighters.
Commissioner Beaulieu had earlier
filed a "commissioner's complaint"
against the city, claiming then that he
believed that there was discrimination
in the city's hiring practices of
American    Indian    firefighters.
However, those findings were to be
proven by his department's later
investigation.
Native American fire fighters. Mike
Beaulieu and Leonard Thompson,
who filed the complaint on behalf of
the city's Indian community say they
plan to appeal the decision and to
challenge Beaulieu's order through
other avenues. "We can not say right
now what we are doing, but we have
already talk to people who are willing
to help," Beaulieu told the PRESS on
Thursday. Calls to Commissioner
Beaulieu for his comments were not
returned by press time.
Commissioner Beaulieu's ordered
dated, August 1, 1996, concluded
there was "no probable cause," of
discrimination based on the following
facts: 1. This complaint concerns
administration of a "positive action
program as defined by the Minnesota
Human Rights Act. That Act says, in
part. "Nothing in this chapter sha!
interpreted as restricting the
implementation of positive action
programs to combat discrimination."
2. Respondent has sought to
administer its positive action program
in a manner consistent with its
purpose. The use of tribal enrollment
Claim cont'd on 3
Wadena jailed for taking casino money
By Pat Doyle
Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Writer
Angry that ousted tribal leader
Darrell (Chip) Wadena violated an
order against raking casino money, a
federal judge sent him to jail Friday
to await his sentencing for casino bid-
rigging and other crimes.
"You pose a danger to the
community, so the court will not allow
you to walk the streets," said U.S.,
District Judge Michael Davis in
Minneapolis.
As U.S. marshals waited to take him
to a lockup, Wadena hugged his wife,
Bonnie, handed her a necklace, watch
and change and told her, "Don't worry,
everything is going to be all right."
When Wadena and other tribal
officials were convicted in June, Davis
allowed them to remain free pending
sentencing, on the condition they stay
away from funds of the White Earth
Band of Chippewa and its Shooting
Star Casino in Mahnomen, Minn.
But only days after that order, the
Shooting Star covered $1,400 in
expenses for the wedding reception of
Wadena's daughter, Tracy, at a
community center in Waubun and for
hotel rooms at the casino. Wadena's
political opponents learned of the
transaction and notified authorities.
Wadena, former chairman of the
tribe, stood before Davis in court
Friday and called the transaction "just
a terrible mistake. It was never
intended that the casino would pay my
bill. Why they did, I don't know."
Wadena told Davis he arranged for
a loan from a banker, who paid the
casino in cash, and that he later repaid
the loan, His attorney, John Brink,
showed documents indicating that the
casino deposited $ 1,400 in cash from
the banker July 19 and that Wadena
wrote the banker a check for $1,500
to reimburse him.
But the check was dated July 27 -
three weeks after the wedding and one
day after Wadena's conduct was first
questioned by Davis. Wadena said he
didn't pay the banker right away
because the banker was away on a
fishing trip and having heart surgery.
The judge didn't buy the account.
Raising his voice, he accused Brink
of misleading him at the earlier
hearing about reimbursement.
"It seemed you gave the impression
to the court that this matter was taken
care of by Mr. Wadena, when in fact
it had not been," Davis told Brink.
"It seems like you at least misled
the government and the court about
Wadena cont'd on 6
TEC censors
interpretation
By Jeff Armstrong
In a significant victory for the
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe's
grassroots movement, the Tribal
Executive Committee rescinded its
constitutional interpretation limiting
the referendum process, censored
former Leech Lake secretary treasurer
Dan Brown, and said Leech Lake's
decision to replace the failed five-man
RBC system with a 13-mcmber
General Council was an internal
reservation question.
But the TEC meeting, held on the
Grand Portage reservation in the
remote tip of northeastern Minnesota,
almost didn't get underway, as the
committee was bogged down in closed
session for more than six hours. Upon
Analysis promised on project that prompted
blockade EPA regional office to conduct
HIGHBRIDGE, Wis. (AP) _ The
Environmental Protection Agency
agreed Tuesday to conduct an
environmental analysis of a Michigan
mining project that prompted a
Chippewa Indian blockade of some
Wisconsin railroad tracks.
The EPA's regional office in
Chicago said it would examine issues
including transportation safety
surrounding the project by Copper
Range Co. at its mine near White Pine,
on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
American Indian demonstrators have
camped on a Wisconsin Central Ltd.
railroad line crossing the Bad River
Reservation in extreme northern
Wisconsin since July 22. They halted
a daily freight train from traveling to
and from the White Pine mine.
Demonstrators object to the railroad
hauling tankers of sulfuric acid over
the line, fearing a derailment would
spill the sulfuric acid. Copper Range
Co. uses the acid to leach copper traces
from mine tunnels.
The EPA would work with state and
tribal governments and other federal
agencies to assess environmental
impacts of the process, said Jo Lynn
Traub, director of the EPA's regional
water division.
Public meetings would be planned,
she said.
Wisconsin Attorney General James
Doyle, who sought the EPA's help,
said he was pleased the agency would
give the Copper Range project a closer
look and seek public input.
"Gaining the input of the citizens of
northern Wisconsin on this project is
extremely important," Doyle said in a
statement.
The development came as talks
began Tuesday to resolve the blockade.
A federal mediator said the opening
round went well.
"I got good feelings. This is not the
typical high tense situation like most
of the them are," said John Terronez,
a conciliation specialist for the U.S.
Justice Department in Chicago.
Terronez said he met with six
protesters, three railroad executives, a
representative of the U.S. Bureau of
Indian Affairs and Bad River Tribal
Chairman John Wilmer for three hours
at the protest site near Highbridge.
Only ground rules for further talks
Wednesday at the tribal center in
Odanah were discussed, Terronez said.
The talks Tuesday began with a
Chippewa religious ceremony
conducted by a spiritual leader, he
said.
Terronez was called in to help
resolve the dispute after a week of
negotiation between railroad officials
and protesters broke down.
Wisconsin Central asked Ashland
County Sheriff Mike Hanson to arrest
the protesters, but he refused.
Brown, repeals referendum
of MCT Constitution
host President Norman Deschampe's
announcement that the TEC would
seat White Earth Chairman Eugene
(Bugger) McArthur and his appointed
secretary treasurer Erma Vizenor,
several dozen supporters of former
Chairman Chip Wadena shouted down
the Grand Portage chairman.
"Nobody has the right to come on to
our reservation and take our
sovereignty away," said Roberta
Brown, calling instead for the
installation of Tony Wadena, the
former chairman's son and current
RBC district rep., and former RBC
member Paul (Poncho) Williams as
acting TEC members until proposed
new elections can be held in
September.
Deschampe then adjourned the
meeting into executive session to
discuss the issue for what he said would
be about 10 minutes. As the minutes
dragged into hours, a group of about
30 tribal reform activists marched into
the closed meeting and successfully
demanded the TEC return to convene
its first open meeting in nearly a decade.
Representing Leech Lake as its
spokesperson, Roxanne LaRose
accused the TEC of fosterting the intra-
tribal division evident at the meeting.
"Your action causes disunity, not only
on White Earth and Leech Lake, but
throughout the whole tribe," LaRose
said. "They've kept us divided for too
long. Now we're being held hostage by
you."
LaRose requested TEC recognition
of the newly elected Leech Lake
Censors cont'd on 6
Power struggle at Leech Lake
Hunt ponders dissolving
Tribal Council
By Nate Bowe
Bemidji Pioneer Staff Writer
Leech Lake Tribal Chairman Eli
Hunt said Wednesday that he is
"strongly considering following the
advice of his supporters and declaring
a state of emergency on the
reservation. That would enable him to
dissolve the Tribal Council and
establish an interim grassroots
government based on a new
constitution, he said.
The four other members of the
Tribal Council - Alfred Fairbanks Jr.,
Jack Seelye, Myron Ellis and
Secretary-Treasurer Dan Brown - on
Monday released a news release
calling for "an end to the bizarre
behavior by newly elected Chairman
Eli Hunt, whose attempts to seize
absolute, dictatorial control over the
Leech Lake Band of Chippewa has
earned him the nickname 'Hunt the
Dictator.'"
The recommendation to dismiss the
Tribal Council came from a group
appointed by Hunt called the
Chairman's Advisory Committee,
Hunt said in a telephone interview
Wednesday. The group considers the
existing Tribal Council to be corrupt.
"I'm considering the people's
directive to me to declare a state of
emergency." he said. "We do have a
state of emergency here, but I haven't
declared it yet."
The group has developed a draft
constitution that would replace the
existing Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
Constitution that governs six tribal
bands including Leech Lake.
The new constitution would provide
for a separation of powers by
establishing legislative, executive and
judicial branches of tribal government,
Hunt said.
By Tuesday,  12 Local Indian
Power cont'd on 8
Petitions call for removal of chairman
By Nate Bowe
Bemidji Pioneer Staff Writer
A group of Leech Lake Band
members is circulating petitions that
call for the removal of Tribal
Chairman Eli Hunt, charging that he
"has blatantly violated the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe's court order against
him and has created turmoil on the
Leech Lake Reservation since his
election in June," according to a news
release from band members Bob
Aitken and Louise Mastcn.
The petitions charge Hunt with
malfeasance in the handling of tribal
affairs, dereliction or neglect of duly,
and refusal to comply with any
provisions of the constitution and
bylaws of the tribe. The charges also
outline seven specific instances in
which Hunt is said to have violated
the constitution.
Petitions have also been circulated
- and validated by a three-person
committee appointed by Hunt - for the
removal of Tribal Council members
Myron Ellis and Secretary-Treasurer
Dan Brown. Petitions are also
circulating for the removal of council
members Alfred Fairbanks Jr. and
JackSeelye.
The anti-Hunt petitions are being
circulated throughout the community,
and will be presented to the Tribal
Council as soon as the required
number of signatures are collected.
According to the tribe's constitution,
20 percent of the band's [resident]
eligible voters must sign the petition
to make it valid.
In an interview, Hunt said the
people of the reservation are behind
Petition cont'd on 8