Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1996-11-01

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Ousted as MN Indian Education director,
Novack defends role as election judge
By Gary Blair
Two former White Earth election
appeals judges spoke out this week
about the June 11 elections and how
they determined their decisions that
continue to be at the center of
controversy on the northwestern
Minnesota reservation.
White Earth enrollee Yvonne
Novack says she agreed to become an
election appeals judge after being
asked by former White Earth secretary/
treasurer Jerry Rawley and former
district one representative Rick Clark.
"They told me that they had asked
eight other people and that I was their
last hope," Novack said Wednesday.
Novack was director of the office of
Indian Education for the state of MN
al the time of her decision. She has
recently been replaced by former
director David Beaulieu, who was
allowed to return to his position under
state civil service policies. Beaulieu
had been Minnesota commissioner of
the Department of Human Rights.
Shortly before the June election,
Rawley, Clark and former reservation
chairman Darrell "Chip" Wadena were
on trial for corruption in federal court
in St. Paul, MN. Wadena, who was
defeated in a fifth term bid, and others
who had also lost in that election then
filed appeals claiming election
irregularities.
Eugene "Bugger" McArthur, who
had defeated Doyle Turner by fourteen
votes in that election, then seized
power after Wadena, Rawley and C jark
were convicted. McArthur then moved
to appoint his own election appeals
judge, disregarding Novack, claiming
she had ties to Wadena.
Leech Lake enrollee Paul Day says
he was then approached by Erma
Vizenor. presently acting secretary
treasurer for White Earth, who he met
at Bemidji State University where she
had been employed. "I agreed to be
theirelection appealsjudge. because I
felt I could do a good job," says Day,
an attorney at Honeywell in
Minneapolis.
"Turner's attorneys asked for
discovery at the first hearing that I felt
was proper. However, that was blocked
when the election judge refused to
turn over the voting records," Day
explained. "At that point Turner
dropped out of the appeals process.
Later, others did the same and
eventually there wasn't anything for
Novack cont'd on 3
Duluth school district faces charges of
denying equal educational access j
By Jeff Armstrong
An Abanaki woman whose children
were turned away from the only Duluth
school with Ojibwe language
instruction formally charged the
district this week with misusing state
desegregation laws to discriminate
against non-white families. The Duluth
school district receives about $2
million annually in federal
desegregation funds.
Duluth Native Lindy Grell submitted
well-documented allegations of
educational racism to the school
district, the MN Dept. of Children,
Families & Learning, and the U.S.
Justice Department on Oct. 29. "It's
basically a civil rights complaint now.
They've known about this, they've had
all kinds of warning," she said. "They
said it was no big deal."
Grell says her children were told
shortly before this school year that
they could no longer attend the Grant
Language Magnet School because the
school's minority population had
exceeded the desegregation threshold
of 15% beyond the overall district
percentage of about 10%. Since the
closure of the Spotted Eagle School
two years ago, the Grant magnet
program's Ojibwe and Spanish
language and culture courses provided
the only alternative to a monocultural
Anglo curriculum.
Grell said further that Grant has
drastically scaled back its Ojibwe
program due to complaints frommajority
parents who objected to the focus on
what they termed a "dead language."
The district's sole Ojibwe language
slot was reduced from a full- to half-
time position, though budgeting and
funding remained constant, said Grell.
"Last year, the kids had Ojibwe
language every single year, every
single grade for the first semester,
then they had Spanish every day for
the second semester. This year, they
have Spanish four days a week and
Duluth cont'd on 6
Tribal leaders worry about sovereignty in
changing budget era
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) _
Leaders of 23 Native American tribes
gathered Tuesday, with many of them
worried that tribal sovereignty is
eroding as Washington cuts the federal
budget and returns spending power to
states.
"Th.- j.r.uc.-piph- issue it: important,"
said Keller George, president of the
United South and Eastern Tribes Inc.
Tribes have a special government-
to-government relationship with
Congress, which approved most
treaties recognizing them, he said.
"Most attorney generals in most
states don't seem to get that picture.
They want to control aspects of
everything we do on reservations,"
George said.
About 500 tribal leaders are attending
the conference of the United South and
Eastern Tribes. The organization
represents tribes from Maine to Texas
with about 56,000 members.
"The national trend is to turn all the
programs over to the states and let
them be state-run," Executive Director
Tim Martin said. "The tribes are
concerned. ... Do they get lost in the
cracks? Do they become another, as it
was in the past, forgotten race?"
Economic development, social
issues and legal matters are the topics
of the three-day meeting during which
most sessions are closed to reporters.
Tuesday's meetings included a
discussion with officials from the U.S.
Justice Department. Attorney General
Janet Reno was to have attended, but
a schedule conflict kept her in
Washington.
One of the irritants to tribal leaders
is a provision in this year's federal
budget that prevents the Narragansett
Indians in Rhode Island from opening
gaming operations as other tribes are
permitted to do.
"In all my life, I thought the
Constitution said we had equal
protection," Eddie Tullis, tribal
chairman of the Poarch Band of Creek
Indians of Alabama, told the federal
officials.
"If they could do that to the
Narragansett last month, they could
do itto the Pudrch Creek next month,
he said.
Mark Van Norman, deputy director
of the Justice Department's Office of
Tribal Justice, said the department
wrote a letter opposing the amendment
that was inserted in the budget without
a hearing.
Dewey Adams of South Carolina's
Catawba Indian Nation, which is host
to the conference, worried that Indian
programs will be unfairly targeted by
Congress in cutting the budget.
"We're citizens, too. We understand
the need to cut the budget. We just
don't want it all to come out of our
programs," he said.
Artist Joe F. Geshick releases new print
By Julie Shortridge
On Tuesday, October 29th, over 60
people attended an Open House in St.
Paul to help celebrate the release of
Joe F. Geshick's latest prinfc
"The Stone People' is my personal
version of spirits called Stone People.
I've never seen them myself, but I've
heard about them. They come into
homes of certain people who have
medicine bundles, and leave a small
stone on the floor which is then added
to the medicine bundles and used in
healing ceremonies," says Joe F.
Geshick about his new painting. Hand-
signed and thumb-printed lithographs
of the painting sell for $195.00.
Joe has been painting for over 40
years. He has taught art in Nevada and
Ontario, and has been in his St. Paul
studio for seven years. His work is
displayed in two galleries - one in
Scottsdale, Arizona, and one in
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as well as
in his St. Paul studio.
Joe creates uncomplicated designs
using muted tones of red, yellow, blue
and brown, often depicting elders and
healers at work. It's the kind of art that
draws a person in and makes you want
to look at it for hours.
Get out and vote November 5,1996
Our rights must not be taken for granted
As our elders tell us, that things that
are taken for granted often do not last.
Voice of the People
1
Photo by Julie Shortridge
Artist Joe F. Geshick with his latest painting, "The Stone People."
I'm trying to share my spiritual   and manager, describes Joe's paintings
experience with the public, but at the
same time not violate the sacredness
of the ceremonies. For that reason I
do not depict pipes or medicine
bundles in my art." says Joe.
Joe and his art have been gaining
recognition in recent years. Last year
he received a 3rd place award in the
Santa Fe Art Market, a very
prestigious honor.
Sara Remke. Joe's live-in partner
as peaceful and powerful. "He's a very
patient and disciplined painter. Every
color is carefully created, and every
detail thoughtfully done. He receives
an inspiration and is able to make that
inspiration visible in his paintings."
On Thursday. October 31, Joe will
undergo heart bypass surgery in order
to make him ready to receive a kidney
transplant in a couple of months. Best
of luck to Joe in his recuperation.
Goldwater opposes gambling measure
PHOENIX (AP) _ Former Sen.
Barry Goldwater has announced his
opposition to Proposition 201, saying
he supports Indian economic
development but opposes expansion
of on-reservation gambling.
"Many Arizona tribes already have
gambling, but that doesn't make it
right," Goldwater said in a letter
addressed to his fellow Arizonans.
The letter by the patriarch of the state
Republican Party was released
Tuesday by U.S. Rep. John Shadegg.
R-Ariz.. an opponent of Prop 201.
In enacted Tuesday. Prop 201 would
require the state, through the governor,
to enter into gaming compacts with
eligible Indian tribes on similar terms
and conditions entered into with other
IMative
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
L
Founded In 1988
Volume 9   Issue 3
November 1, 199E
i
tribes before a  1994 federal court
decision.
"Sadly, wherever gambling occurs,
organized crime _ and even everyday
street crime _ soon follows,"
Goldwater wrote. "Gambling preys
upon human frailty and greed _ a
shabby means of economic boon for
peoples of proud tradition and
independent spirit."
A weekly publication.
Copyright, Native American Press, 1 996
Dave Anderson of Famous Dave's BBQ Shack, with a Feast Platter and giant piggy bank. "I'm living a
remarkable life."
Dave Anderson makes it big in restaurant
bUSi neSS  ^/s vision is to turn his local success into a national chain
By Julie Shortridge
Dave Anderson, one of the founders
of Grand Casinos, Inc. and third largest investor in the successful
Rainforest Cafes, brought his latest
business venture to the stock market
last week. It's one of the only Indian
owned and developed businesses to
ever sell stock on Wall Street, if not
the only one.
Famous Dave's BBQ Shacks went
public on Monday, October 21, meaning people can now buy stock (or part
ownership) in the business. During the
first couple weeks of trading, Famous
Dave's raised over $ 15 million, which
the company will use to finance the
opening of new restaurants. Dave will
remain the largest shareholder in the
business.
There are currently four Famous
Dave's restaurants, which have all
opened in the past year and a half—
the original restaurant/lodge in Hayward, Wisconsin, two roadhouse BBQ
shacks in Linden Hills (Mpls) and
Roseville, and the BBQ and Blues
restaurant/nightclub which opened
two weeks ago in Calhoun Square
(Mpls) and includes an in-house all-
star blues band led by Big John
Dickerson. Famous Dave's plans to
open 10 more restaurants in the Twin
Cities and expand into other cities by
the end of next year, including plans
to open 36 restaurants in 1998 alone.
His vision is to turn his local success
into a national chain.
Dave Anderson is an ambition man.
He and his brother and sister grew up
in Chicago where his father, a full-
biooded Choctaw, was an electrician
and his mother, a 3/4 La Courte
Oreilles Ojibwe, worked for the De-
Anderson cont'd on 8
Court rules Indian casinos immune
By Amy Kuebelbeck
ST. PAUL (AP) - The Minnesota
Supreme Court ruled Thursday that
Indian-owned casinos are immune
from lawsuit because their tribal
owners are sovereign governments.
A former guard sued the owner of
Mystic Lake Casino, Little Six, Inc.,
contending that her ex-boss coerced
her to have sex and assaulted her and
fired her when she told him she was
pregnant with his baby.
In a 5-2 ruling, the court said the
Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota
Community's sovereign immunity
extends to the casino because it is a
"tribal business entity, organized for
the general benefit of the community
and closely linked to the governing
structure of the community."
"There is simply no way to avoid
the fact that (Little Six) is different
from other corporations," the ruling
said.
Chief Justice A.M. "Sandy" Keith
and Associate Justice Mary Jeanne
Coyne dissented.
"The result of the majority's
decision in this case is to grant total
immunity from suit to a complex, for-
profit entity with hundreds of
employees which transacts business
both inside and outside Indian
country," Keith wrote.
"Denying sovereign immunity to
(Little Six), a corporation whose
primary responsibilities consist of
running a casino, would not infringe
upon the federal government's
laudable goals of cultural
preservation, conservation of natural
resources owned by the tribe, or
promotion of tribal self-government''
Coyne wrote that Little Six had
Court cont'd on 8
Federal appeals panel says Yankton Sioux
treaty boundaries, jurisdiction still intact
By Chet Brokaw
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The Yankton
Sioux Reservation still exists within
boundaries set by an 1858 treaty, a
federal appeals court said in a ruling
that greatly expands the tribe's law
enforcement authority in the area.
An 1892 treaty and an 1894 federal
law that opened part of the reservation
in south-central South Dakota to white
settlers did not reduce or eliminate the
reservation boundaries set by the 1858
treaty, the ruling said.
The state will appeal the 2-1 ruling
by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S.
CircuitCourt of Appeals, ChiefDeputy
Attorney General Larry Long said
Friday.
The state most likely will ask that
the entire federal appeals court review
the three-judge panel's decision. Long
said. The case almost certainly will
wind up going all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court, he said.
"These cases are so important and
have such a major impact in the area
involved that these cases tend to get to
the Supreme Court." Long said.
Sioux Falls lawyer James Abourezk,
who is representing the tribe in the
case, said the appeals panel's: ruling is
a major victory for the Yankton Sioux
Tribe.
"This is a question that's sort of
been up in the air for 100 years,"
Aboure/k said.
The ruling does not change
jurisdiction in criminal cases that
involve only non-Indians. The state
still will have a;.tho: ic handle such
cases, no matter whether they occur
Panel cont'd on 8