Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1996-10-18

              Leech Lake to vote on Brown's removal
By Jeff Armstrong
Forthe first time in the 60 year history
of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, a
tribal official will be subjected to a
recall vote for complicity in the
corruption which has plagued the MCT
for at least the last two decades.
Yet there are many suspicions
surrounding Tribal Executive
Committee member Daniel Brown's
Oct. 22 recall vote, which he himself
called for at a closed RBC meeting.
To many, the vote to unseat the
convicted Leech Lake secretary
treasurer seems redundant, because
Brown has held his position in violation
of the tribal constitution since his April
12 conviction of a felony while in
office, is unable to attend RBC
meetings while under house arrest,
and has already been removed by the
Leech Lake General Council, made
up of all reservation members. The
Council's interim representatives from
the 12 constituent communities urged
a "yes" vote on the recall, however,
while warning of the threat of vote
fraud.
Overseeing Tuesday's balloting will
be veteran election board members
rejected by candidates in last June's
elections, along with former TEC
president and ex-RBC official Simon
(Si) Howard, who some blame for
helping create the absentee balloting
system which has been the source of
much of the Tribe's vote fraud. Howard
said the board has received just one
absentee request for the little-
publicized recall vote.
Howard will serve as election judge
with Nancy Whitebird. Whitebird's
integrity was questioned at a candidate
certification meeting on April 25,1996,
the same day she was reported in a local
paper to have been arrested on felony
theft charges. The Leech Lake election
judge's charges were dismissed after she
repaid half of the $966 missing from the
Bemidji Bowl's league prize fund, a
fund she controlled as treasurer, but
could not~or would not-account for.
According to prosecuting attorney
Randall    Burg,   the   necessary
accounting documentation, which
Whitebird would have been
responsible for keeping, could not be
obtained to prosecute the case.
"When the shortfalls were discovered
afterward, it was very difficult for Mr.
Zschokke, the president of the mixed
bowling league, to ascertain after the
fact whether there was any credibility
to her claim" not to have received the
funds, Burg said.
Court records indicate that she was
given at least three attempts to account
for the discrepancy since it occurred
between September of 1992 and April
of 1993—all of which she ignored.
Nearly one of out of every four on-
reservation adult members signed a
legal petition to remove Brown, who
was also suspended by RBC chair Eli
Hunt and censured by the Tribal
Executive Committee. Yet he has clung
to office and his sizable paycheck
with the active collaboration of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal
attorneys and his three other RBC
colleagues, who also co-signed a
$25,000 loan to Brown last month.
Beaulieu denies pressure to resign from
Human Rights    May replace Novack at Indian Ed
By Gary Blair
Speculation as to why David
Beaulieu resigned as commissioner of
the Minnesota Department of Human
Rights (MDHR) appeared this week
in both the Minneapolis Star Tribune
and the St. Paul Pioneer Press
newspapers.
Beaulieu was stopped by Burnsville
police at 1:20 a.m. on Aug. 27 and
charged with DWI. Police say they
found one open can of beer in his car
and other cans that were unopened,
according to the articles.
Beaulieu says his decision to step
down as MDHR commissioner had
nothing to do with his recent arrest for
drunken driving. He says his decision
was based on what he felt he had
accomplished and his sense that it was
time for a change.
He had assured the PRESS seven
months ago—when he came under fire
for charging the City of Minneapolis
with discrimination in their hiring
practices of Native American
firefighters-that his job was secure.
"The Governor has assured me that I
will have this job for another four
years," he said at that time.
Beaulieu was alleged to have been
booked with either a .12 or a .14
percent blood-alcohol level depending
on what newspaper's account you
read. The St. Paul Pioneer Press also
reported that he had $2,000 in cash
on him, and that was detained for
several hours before being released.
Police say he was weaving on the road
when he was stopped by them.
Beaulieu, 48, is an enrollee of the
White   Earth   reservation.    His
appointment by Minnesota Governor
Arne Carlson nearly six years ago
makes him the longest serving of any
previous commissioners. Carlson
named Delores Fridge, a black
woman, to serve as interim MDHR
commissioner.
Fridge had been Beaulieu's
assistant for the past year and before
that had worked for the Minneapolis
Civil Rights Department, the same
department where the firefighter's
complaint had originally been filed.
Later, that same complaint was
transferred to MDHR for
investigation.
Recently, Beaulieu issued a no
probable cause finding in the
Minneapolis firefighter's case. Those
findings came amid allegations that his
Beaulieu cont'd on 3
Race, gender makeup of legislature
expected to stay about the same
ST. PAUL (AP) _ Party officials,
candidates and advocates for more
diversity in state government do not
expect this year's elections to
significantly change the low number
of women and minorities in the
Legislature.
Census figures show that minorities
make up just under 6 percent of the
state population, but they accounted
foronly2percentofthc20I legislators
during the last session. Women make
up 51 percent of the state's population
but only 25 percent of the Legislature.
Of the 18 U.S. House candidates
fielded by Minnesota's three major
political parties, only one candidate_
DFLer Mary Rieder in southeast
Minnesota's lstDistrict_isa woman.
None are minorities. And the three
main candidates in Minnesota's U.S.
Senate campaign arc white men.
"Progress is sometimes glacially
slow," DFL Party Chair Mark Andrew
said.
A minority has never represented
Minnesota in Congress. And only one
woman, Coya Knutson, who died last
week, was elected to serve in Congress.
Despite the paucity of women and
Race cont'd on 3
Wisconsin in focus: state fights tribes' new
power over water quality
By James A. Carlson
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A federal
policy giving Native American tribes
the right to set their own anti-pollution
standards has turned Wisconsin
reservations into battlegrounds
between the state and federal
governments.
The state has filed five lawsuits
against the Environmental Protection
Agency, claiming it infringed on state
rights by granting tribes authority to
enforce the Clean Water Act on their
reservations. Previously, it was the
state's responsibility.
The legal war, already being fought
in several states, seems destined for
.theU.S. Supreme Court, state officials
say.
"I think it's just a game of power,
who has the right to do this or the right
to do that," said Thomas Maulson,
chairman of the Lac du Flambeau
Chippewa band.
The EPA amended the Clean Water
Act of 1972 in 1987 to grant tribes the
right to enforce water standards, and
there has been a movement since the
Reagan era to treat tribes as states in
managing their resources.
The first treatment-as-a-state, or
TAS, agreement with a Wisconsin tribe
was approved in September 1995,
authorizing the Mole Lake, or
Sakaogon, Chippewa band to control
water quality on its reservation in
northeastern Wisconsin. After three
more tribes got approval in January,
the state started its string of legal
challenges.
Nationwide, the EPA had reached
about 150 agreements with tribes
throughout the nation on resource
management, including 21 for
controlling water quality. Among
tribes enforcing water quality
standards are the Seminole in Florida,
parts of the Pueblo tribe in New
Leech Lake to vote on Brown's removal
Beaulieu denies pressure to resign from HR
Groups spent $1 mill, to get proposal on ballot/ pg 3
Americans' soc. well-being at two-decade low/ pg 6
Red Lake Tribal Council Oct. minutes/ pgs 5 & 8
Voice of the People
1
Mexico and Sioux in Montana.
Some states have sued, but none so
aggressively as Wisconsin.
Last March, a federal judge in
Montana ruled in favor of the EPA in
a similar case; the state has appealed.
Last week, a federal appeals court in
New Mexico ruled in favor of the EPA
and against the city of Albuquerque in
its challenge to a nearby tribe's water
quality standards.
Critics say new water regulations
could lead to power grabs by tribes
such as the Oneida in northeastern
Wisconsin, which each year has been
buying up hundreds of acres of its
historic reservation _the 65,000 acres
it was granted under an 1838 treaty.
The tribe currently owns about 8,000
acres.
"The water quality could be used to
slow down or totally stop development
in this area," said home-builder Mark
Water cont'd on 5
Mescalero President Wendell Chino not
happy with President Clinton
By Martha Mendoza
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) _
Mescalero Apache President Wendell
Chino had a bit of criticism for
President Clinton, who is visiting New
Mexico this week.
Chino, who was forced by federal
officials to close a casino last month,
said Clinton is snubbing tribal leaders
during his visit to the state.
The Mescalero president said
Indians in New Mexico _ who have
traditionally supported Democrats _
might want to consider supporting
Clinton's Republican challenger Bob
Dole, who is coming to Albuquerque
Thursday.
"Perhaps it is time Indian tribes and
leaders rethink their association and
alliance to put their resources and
support in the Dole-Kemp ... camp,"
said Chino in a written statement on
Monday.
"We must support our friends, not
our enemies," he said.
Clinton's campaign officials did not
immediately return telephone calls
Monday.
Chino closed down the tribe's casino
Sept. 24afterU.S. Attorney John Kelly
threatened to seize its gambling
equipment.
/Vati%/&
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
Mews
We Support Equal Opportunity Fur All People
Founded in 1988
Volume 9   Issue 1
October 18, 1996
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, Native American Press,  1996
(above) Leech Lake General Council members and representatives discuss how to return power to the
people and communities. Council members will raise the issue at the Nov. 7 TEC meeting in Cass Lake.
Land dispute gets sent back to S.D. Interior
Secretary for study
By Richard Carelli
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The
Supreme Court today set aside a ruling
that threatened to stymie the federal
government's efforts to place privately
owned land in trust for Indian tribes.
The justices, granting a Clinton
administration request, wiped out a
federal appeals court decision that
barred the Department of Interior from
acquiring 91 acres of land near the
South Dakota reservation of the Lower
Brule Sioux Tribe.
Today's order, reached by a 6-3
vote, sends the dispute back to the
Interior secretary for more study.
Justices Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day
O'Connor and Clarence Thomas
dissented. They voted to hear
arguments in the case, but four votes
are needed to grant such review.
The South Dakota case has its roots
in U.S. history. Beginning in the late
1800s, Congress adopted a policy of
allotting Indian lands to individual
tribal members. The pol icy ultimately
resulted in a huge transfer of land out
oflndian ownership.
Total   Indian   landholdings
diminished from 138 million acres in
1887 to 48 million acres in 1934.
In the Indian Reorganization Act of
1934, Congress discontinued the
allotment policy and authorized the
Interior secretary to take property into
trust in behalf of Indian tribes and
individual Indians.
The Interior Department later issued
regulations governing the acquisition
of such land.
In 1990, the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe
requested that 91 acres be placed in
trust. The land is located about seven
miles south of the tribe's reservation
in central South Dakota, and had been
purchased by the tribe from a private
owner. Some of the land is located in
Dispute cont'd on 6
Two sides will square off before the U.S.
Supreme Court
COEUR d'ALENE, Idaho (AP) _
Attorney Ray Givens will face the
most intense, and quite possibly most
important, 30 minutes of his 22-year
career on Wednesday.
Givens, chief legal counsel for the
Coeur d'Alene Tribe, will square off
against Idaho attorney general Alan
Lance in a forum only a fraction of the
nation's attorneys make it to: the U.S.
Supreme Court.
The nation's highest court will hear
arguments on the tribe's claim to
ownership of Lake Coeur d'Alene.
It could be a crucial turning point in
the tribe's lawsuit, re-filed in October
1991 against the Idaho Land Boards
While Givens says neither side is
arguing "for the whole ball of wax,"
the Supreme Court's eventual ruling
could sink the tribe's claim, or give
the litigation the buoyancy it needs for
a victory.
"All the tribe wants is its day in
court," Givens said Saturday.
The high court will not rule on
ownership, however.
It will determine whether a federal
court has jurisdiction to enjoin state
officials from violating somebody
else's ownership claim to submerged
lands, Givens said.
Another critical issue to be decided
by the Supreme Court is whether an
executive order signed by President
Ulysses S. Grant in 1873 conveying
most of the lake to the tribe was valid
despite the absence of Congress'
approval.
Each side gets only one half hour.
"You spend a lot of time thinking
and a little time praying," Givens said.
Clinton signs Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act
Federal courts have ruled that New
Mexico's 11 Indian casinos are
operating illegally because state-tribal
compacts that sanctioned them are
invalid. Tribal leaders argue the
compacts, signed in 1995, are still
good.
On Nov. 20, a federal appeals court
is scheduled to consider the legality of
New Mexico's Indian casinos, 10 of
which remain open.
Clinton, who carried New Mexico
in 1992, arrived in Albuquerque on
Sunday for three days of preparation
for the second debate with Dole. The
Chino cont'd on 6
(AP) _ President Clinton has
signed legislation he and others say
may lead to peace in a decades-old
land dispute in northern Arizona
between the Navajo and Hopi Indian
tribes.
Some Navajos continue to oppose
its provisions, however.
Under the Navajo-Hopi Land
Settlement Act, the Hopis agreed to
drop several lawsuits against the
federal government and to allow
some 250 Navajo families to remain
on Hopi land under 75-year leases
with conditions.
"This   historic   settlement
constitutes a courageous step by the
people of two honorable tribes
toward coexistence in peace and
mutual respect," Clinton said Friday
in a statement from Washington.
The government will pay the Hopis
$50.2 million the tribe will likely
use to buy up to 500,000 acres of
land in northern Arizona. The land
then would be considered part of the
reservation.
Hopi tribal chairman Ferrell
Secakuku said the agreement should
finally "bring peace to this troubled
land."
"The lease makes it clear that the
Hopi will treat the Navajo families
fairly," he said in a statement.
"If the Navajo families living on
the (Hopi partitioned land) abide by
the Hopi laws, this lease shall bring
peace and provide a way for our
families to live together on this land
in harmony."
Officials at the Navajo Nation did
not return a call seeking comment.
The Hopis and Navajos have been
quarreling over the land in question
since the 1800s. The new legislation
was worked out after a federal judge
in 1991 ordered them to reach an
agreement on their longstanding
battle.
In order to receive the full $50.2
million, the Hopis must get 85
Land cont'd on 8