Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2003-03-14

              INDEX
news around indian country
news briefs
commentary/editorials
2
3
4
Sandy Lake:
Secession Efforts
from the Mille Lacs
Band of Ojibwe
classifieds
7
nnna A
Commentary: MCT
membership standards
should be retained
page 5
Casino should
rethink "no tipping"
policy
page 4
Let's have a
referendum on
HUD resolution
page 4
Commentary
"Rule of law"
comes to Leech
Lake reservation, maybe
page 4
RLTC shuts down modular home plant, 36 laid off
By Bill Lawrence
The week before the July 1998
tribal election and desperate for
votes, former Red Lake tribal
chairman Bobby Whitefeather announced with great fanfare, the issuance of $4 million of tax exempt
bonds to construct a modular home
manufacturing plant on the Red
Lake reservation. The bonds carry
a net interest of 6.21 percent with a
repayment period of 15 years.
In a July 1998 front-page article
in the Bemidji Pioneer,
Whitefeather is quoted to have
said, "this is the first time in the
country that an Indian nation sold
bonds based on the full faith and
credit of the reservation." According to that article, the first phase of
the plant was to employ 70 tribal
members, with plans to add a second shift in the near future.
Whitefeather defeated current
council chairman Gerald "Butch"
Brun by 42 votes in that election.
After 3'/2 years of reported operating losses as of June 30,2002 totaling $3,493,071 (an audit for calendar year 2002 has not been completed), infusions of capital by the
Red Lake Band of nearly $2.5 milhon, outstanding debts of $750,000
and bonds payable of $3,151,520,
a somber Red Lake Tribal Council
voted 10-0 to suspend operations
of the modular home plant immediately. The somberness was not only
the result ofthe financial losses
stemming from plant operations,
but also because the shutdown resulted in the layoff of 36 employees
at the plant. The council action was
taken at the regular meeting on
March 11.
A report dated March 10,2003 recommending suspension of modular
home operations by Red Lake
tribal consultant Eugene "Bugger"
McArthur cited significant management, performance, quality control and financial problems. In
making his report to the council on
March 11, McArthur told the council that in doing his review ofthe
modular home operations he
couldn't find a marketing plan or
really any useable business plan.
RLTC to page 6
LaRose court trial
continued
By Diane E. White
On Thursday, March'13, Leech
Lake's Secretary-Treasurer, Arthur
"Archie" LaRose got his day in
court to prove due process was not
provided to him by the Petition
Validation Committee. Some of
the Validation Committee Members signed the petition against
LaRose in a petition attempt to oust
him from office. However, the
court would not consider as evidence of bias against LaRose as
Judge B. J. Jones acknowledged
the Reservation Business Committee by Constitutional law could put
together this committee in any fashion they wished.
Overall, Randy Thompson, attorney for LaRose had to prove the
validation process used by the
committee was clearly erroneous.
Both attorneys were stipulated to
the number 451 as the number of
petitioners required to meet the
20% eligible resident voters necessary to push the petition toward a
pubhc hearing ofthe evidence
against LaRose.
The biggest issue at hand was
the boundary line at Deer River.
Some committee members accepted the boundary line to be the
line used by the Department of
Natural Resources, the Tribal Po-
TRIAL to page 6
Tribal court hears overwhelming evidence
of constitutional violations in LaRose recall
By Jeff Armstrong
Leech Lake tribal members .
packed a stuffy judicial hearing
room for a lengthy and often repetitive March 13 hearing on the
petition to remove secretary treasurer Archie LaRose from office
early in his term.
Stressing that the court's role
was to review the decision-making process, rather than the conclusions, of a sharply divided Petition Validation Committee
which certified the recall effort
last December, Judge B.J. Jones
sought in vain to limit arguments
to those originally presented to
the committee.
Jones rejected motions by the
petitioners' attorney, Zenas Baer,
to block testimony from witnesses in determining whether 33
disputed signatures belonged to
resident eligible voters, as required by the MCT Constitution.
Baer also challenged the jurisdiction of the tribal court over any
reservation official, presumably
including LaRose.
"Under the Indian Civil Rights
Act, the tribal court has a limited
jurisdiction to decide declarative
and injunctive rehef," said Jones.
"I have to look at whether they
were actually resident eligible
voters."
LaRose's attorney, Randy Thompson, presented overwhelming
evidence, from personal testimony to global satellite positioning, that dozens of signatures on
the recall petition belonged to
non-residents ofthe reservation.
Thompson argued that the certification of invalid signatures and
the failure to accept the removal
of signatories at their request constituted proof of an "arbitrary and
capricious" denial of LaRose's
due process rights. He also maintained that the validation committee had no authority to exceed the
terms ofthe tribal constitution in
interpreting residency.
Baer objected to virtually everything that the plaintiff presented and aggressively challenged the credibility of witnesses, but the court generally
agreed to accept all evidence and
sort out its relevance and admissibility later. Instead, Baer was
forced to rely upon an expansive
redefining of Leech Lake boundaries and a liberal interpretation
of residency.
Validation committee member
Richard Jones, who authored the
reports of both sections of the
committee, testified that he was
"completely disgusted" with the
LAROSE to page 5
Department of Interior 'Frivolous' Motion Denied in Cobelt.
Department of Justice officials may be
referred to disciplinary panel
By Jean Pagano
U.S. Federal Court Judge Royce
C. Lamberth, presiding over the
landmark trust case Cobell v. Secretary ofthe Interior, recendy ruled
the Department of Interior's recent
motion for a protective order regarding documents requested by
Special Master Monitor Joseph S.
Kiefer, was 'frivolous' and thereby
denied.
On September 17*. 2002, Judge
Lamberth found both Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former Assistant Interior Secretary Neal
McCaleb in civil contempt for
'committing several frauds upon
the Court.' On the same date,
Lamberth named Kiefer to act as
Special Monitor Master in the
Cobell case. Kiefer's duties were
detailed in the September 17 order
as "the Special Master-Monitor
shall have the power to regulate all
proceedings in every hearing before the master-monitor and to do
all acts and take all measures necessary or proper for the efficient performance ofthe special master-
monitor's duties."
The issue ofthe protective order
arose during the 20 December
deposition of Acting Special
Trustee Donna Erwin. When
Trustee Erwin was asked whether
Justice Department attorneys had
made any factual misrepresentations to the Court, Erwin's counsel
directed her not to answer stating
that the information was protected
under attorney-client privilege. The
Monitor determined that the information in question was not protected and instructed Erwin to answer the question. Erwin's counsel
again told her not to answer, even
after the Monitor had made his determination. By the end ofthe sessions, the question remained unanswered.
At a subsequent hearing on the
matter on January 2,2003, the Special Master-Monitor Keifer notified
the Department of Interior that if
the defendants refused to comply
with Special Master-Monitor's instructions that the deposition would
be terminated and a recommendation made to the Court that would
require the defense counsel to show
cause why their conduct should not
be referred to the Disciplinary
Panel ofthe U.S. District Court for
DOJ to page 6
Department of Interior
Sanctioned, Again, In
Cobell
'Patterns of deceit'
by Interior cited
By Jean Pagano
U.S. District Court Judge Royce
C. Lamberth ruled on Tuesday
March 11"1 on a motion from the
plaintiffs in Cobell v. Secretary of
the Interior (Cobell) for sanctions
and a contempt filing relating to an
affidavit filed in the defendants
third motion for summary judgment. The judge found that the defendants should pay reasonable expenses for the time wasted by the
plaintiffs and the court, but stopped
short of again finding the Department of Interior ("Interior") in contempt.
In 2000, the Department of Interior, under then Secretary of State
Bruce Babbitt, filed its Third Motion for summary judgment in the
Cobell case. As part of its supporting documentation, Interior submitted an affidavit from then director
of the Indian Trust Accounting Division ofthe General Services Administration (GS A) known as the
Sapienza Affidavit. According to
this affidavit, Sapienza concluded,
DECEIT to page 6
Morton man
acquitted in Lower
Sioux slaying
Associated Press
NEW ULM, Minn.—ANicollet
County jury has acquitted a Morton
man in the shooting death of a Minneapolis man on an American Indian reservation.
After 10 hours of deliberation late
Thursday, the jury acquitted Christopher Richard Sander of two felony
murder charges — aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree murder for the benefit of a gang.
He was accused in the death of
22-year-old Frank Irving Parker D,
who was shot and killed on the
Lower Sioux Community reservation on June 9.
Sander, 25, and Dennis William
Pendleton, Jr., 23, of Morton, were
the only suspects charged with
Parker's death.
Pendleton received immunity
against further prosecution and had
several other charges dismissed
when he entered an Alford plea Feb.
10 to second-degree assault with a
deadly weapon. Under such a plea,
a defendant does not admit guilt but
agrees that a judge or jury could
convict him based on the evidence
in the case.
Tribe to appeal ruling in key political
donations case
Associated Press
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. —
The Agua Caliente Band of
Cahuilla Indians will appeal a
judge's decision refusing to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of violating state campaign-finance
laws.
Sacramento Superior Court
Judge Loren McMaster ruled last
week that the tribe is subject to
the same state campaign-finance
laws that apply to other pohtical
contributors. The case was seen
as an important test of Indian
sovereignty.
The five-member tribal council
voted Tuesday to make an accelerated request for an appeal,
tribal attorney Art Bunce said
Wednesday.
The tribe will attempt to have
the case heard in a state appeals
APPEAL to page 3
Arguments heard in second key case
over tribal donations
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO—The second
of two cases that could help define
the limits of Indian tribal sovereignty was heard in a Sacramento
County courtroom Thursday,
though there was no immediate ruling.
It's the same court, but a different judge, that ruled last week that
a different tribe must abide by the
same finance laws as everyone else
when contributing to California pohtical campaigns.
'Tribes aren't like any other ma
jor donors. Tribes are governments," Michael Robinson argued
Thursday on behalf of the Santa
Rosa Indian Community ofthe
Santa Rosa Rancheria.
It's not the tribe's sovereignty,
but California's that is at stake,
countered Charity Kenyon on behalf of the state Fair Pohtical Practices Commission. The state's position drew written support from
elections officials in Connecticut,
IVIinnesota and Wisconsin, illustrating the national implications.
ARGUMENTS to page 6
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Volume 15 Issue 40
March 14,2003
■
V            HIGH LEVEL
<jwS
SS^ NUCLEAR WASTE
\£JmD   prohibited
jfff       EXCEPT BY
PERMIT
AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, file
A pickup truck passes an anti-nuclear waste sign along Highway 186 leading to the Goshute Indian
Reservation in Skull Valley, Utah, April 18, 2002. Federal regulators on Monday, March 10, 2003,
blocked a proposal by private utility companies to store high-level nuclear waste on the Indian reservation in Utah's west desert, citing the dangers posed by a nearby Air Force training range.
NRC blocks plan to store nuclear waste in Utah's west desert
L
By Robert Gehrke
Associated Press
WASHINGTON— Federal
regulators on Monday blocked a
proposal by private utility companies to store high-level nuclear
waste on an Indian reservation in
Utah's west desert, citing the dangers posed by a nearby Air Force
training range.
Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of electric utilities, had
sought to build a temporary storage
facility oh the Skull Valley Goshute
reservation, 45 miles southwest of
Salt Lake City, until a permanent
storage facility could be built at
Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Utah officials had objected to the
proposal, raising a series of safety
concerns, including the threat
posed by military aircraft and the
potential for earthquakes and other
problems.
The Air Force flies thousands
of training missions each year
over the sprawling Utah Test and
Training Range near the Skull'
Valley Goshute reservation.
"There is enough likelihood of
an F-16 crash into the proposed
facility that such an accident must
be deemed 'credible.' The result
is that the PFS facility cannot be
NRC to page 6
Sandy Lakers renew efforts to 'secede'
Mille Lacs Band, feds don't recognize tribe
by Joel Patenaude
Mille Lacs Messenger
A visit to the north end of Big
Sandy Lake in the company of the
ancestors ofthe Ojibwe chiefs
named Hole in the Day is not
complete without a subjective history lesson. They tell of more than
a century of oppression suffered
at the hands of whites and, for the
past several decades, under the
thumb of fellow Indians.
To illustrate the more recent
struggle, Sandy Skinaway steers
her car up the gravel driveways to
her house and that of her mother,
both within the wooded vestiges
of a ceded 60,000-acre Sandy
Lake Indian Reservation.
Between the two small, rather
dilapidated structures are a handful of newer homes. "Our neighbors get then driveways plowed,
garbage picked up and home repairs," Skinaway said, "but my
mom and I don't."
From the front passenger seat,
Monroe Skinaway Jr. lists by
name the fellow Ojibwes in the
neighboring 10 homes that enjoy
services his niece's family is denied.
They say the difference between the Indian people living
here and the treatment they get
depends entirely on whether they
are enrolled Mille Lacs Band
members or not. The less fortunate, oddly enough, are the ones
who call themselves Sandy Lake
Band members because they've
been here for generations.
"If it wasn't for my father and
brother, these Mille Lacs Band
members probably wouldn't be
here," Monroe said, explaining
that it was at the behest of the elder Skinaway that the U.S. Department of Interior in 1940
bought these 147 acres and put
them in trust for the benefit of the
Sandy Lake Ojibwe. Clifford
Skinaway, Monroe's older
brother, extended an invitation for
Mille Lacs Band members to
settle here — a welcome mat he
later regretted laying on the doorstep.
There's also the 32.35-acre reservation a few miles away on the
north shore of Big Sandy — east
of Aitkin and north of McGregor
— created by an executive order
signed by President Woodrow
Wilson in 1915. Here, with a picturesque view of the lake, hes the
twisted and collapsed metal shell
of a burned down mobile home
where Monroe Skinaway Jr. lived
and ran the unrecognized Sandy
Lake Tribal Council until two
years ago.
Monroe, who now hves in Minneapolis, said he would like to
build a nice home here and see
the 250 other known Sandy Lake
Band members do the same in
this area. But it appears unlikely
that these people — whose ancestors signed 10 treaties with the
federal government and were
awarded three reservations — will
even qualify for housing assistance like their Mille Lacs brethren. Meanwhile, the construction
of homes for Mille Lacs Band
members continues, leaving
Sandy Lakers dispersed.
The parcels, apparentiy for
U.S. bureaucratic convenience,
were placed under the authority of
the Mille Lacs Band in the 1930s,
although its government center
was 75 miles away.
The effect was that the Sandy
Lake Band lost its federal recognition as a politically and culturally distinct tribe. And many
SECEDE to page 8
Bemidji legislator
sponsors bill for
state recognition of
Sandy Lake
By Jeff Armstrong
A bipartisan bill to extend state
recognition to the Sandy Lake Reservation has been referred to the
Minnesota House of Representatives committee on Governmental
Operations and Veterans' Affairs
Policy.
Sponsored by Rep. Doug Fuller
and Rep. Irv Anderson, House File
455 would grant what Fuller concedes would amount to symbolic
support for Sandy Lake's effort to
achieve federal recognition of its
status independent of Mille Lacs
and the Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe.
"They've been going through
this struggle for a number of
years," said Fuller. "They would
like to be recognized by Mille Lacs
or go out on their own."
Sandy Lake band members argue that the reservation was
wrongly incorporated into the
Mille Lacs Reservation and the
MCT without their consent by virtue of 1934 Indian Reorganization
Act elections. Although Sandy
Lake was recognized in treaties
dating back to the beginning of the
18* century and in a 1915 executive order establishing their 32.35-
acre reservation, band members
say they were never allowed to
vote on adoption of the IRA consolidation. Not only were band
members denied a vote as a reservation, but there were no polling
places provided on Sandy Lake by
the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to the band's website.
Sandy Lake maintains that the
absence of federal recognition,
coupled with the perceived denial
BILL to page 5
Upper Sioux open
new casino near
Granite Falls
Associated Press
GRANITE FALLS, Jvlinn.-
The Upper Sioux Community
opens a new casino near Granite
Falls in west-central IVIinnesota
on Tuesday.
Prairie's Edge Casino and Resort replaces the 12-year-old Firefly Creek Casino.
The $25 milhon Prairie's Edge
will offer:
—600 slots and 10 blackjack
tables in a casino that's 50 per-
CASINO to page 5
Some lawmakers ready to roll the dice
on casino gambling
By Steve LeBlanc   •
Associated Press
BOSTON — Beacon Hill lawmakers, battered by program cuts
and facing another dismal year of
budget austerity, are hoping casinos
— or at least the threat of them —
could rouse the state from its fiscal
morass.
Gov. Jvlitt Romney has already
floated the idea of allowing video
gambling machines at the state's
dog and horse tracks. Romney.said
he would agree to block the games,
and other casino operations in
Massachusetts, in return for annual
payments of $75 million from
neighboring states that have casinos.
On Thursday, state Sen. Joan
Menard, D-Somerset, upped the
ante, filing a bill that would pave
the way for three full-scale casinos
and up to 1,000 slot machines at
each of the state's four race tracks.
The state would collect a license
fee of $150 milhon on each of the
three casinos and $50 milhon on
each of the four slot operations —
a one-time injection of about $650
LAWMAKERS to page 6