Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2003-06-13

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 6-7
The Sioux Today:
Setf-Determination,
1975-2000
page 6
Doctors find a way to bridge
cultural gap
page 4
Are county judges really       Agreement prevents call
elected by the people? on San Juan River
page 4
page 4
Huge crowd opens
NorCal tribal casino,
feared as threat to Reno
page 8
Problems at the Red Lake 'Indian court'
Former Judge Bruce Graves charged with theft from
Lawrence Bedeau estate
by Clara NiiSka
Former tribal court Judge
Bruce Graves has been charged
with theft. A criminal complaint filed by the Red Lake
Band of Chippewa Indians
in Red I.ake tribal court on
March 10"' charges that Graves
"wrongfully took from the
Estate of Lawrence Bedeau at
least $1000.00," constituting
the offense of Theft under Section 505.01, Subd. 1(a) of the
revised Red Lake tribal code.
If convicted, Graves could be
sentenced to a year in tribal jail
and'or a $5,000 fine.
The criminal complaint, which
includes photocopies of bank
statements, checks, cash out
tickets, and other financial
documents, alleges that:
"According to the Order
Approving Plan and Decree
of Distribution In Re The Estate of Lawrence Bedeau, tlie
Defendant Bruce Graves was
granted $1000.00 as the Personal Representative Fee. On
June 13, 2001, the Defendant
transferred $1000.00 of the
estate, along with $2,500 allocated for attorney's fees and
costs, to the Account of Bruce
Graves, [First National Bank of
Bemidji] Account No. 780051.
Then, on November 6, 2001, the
Defendant transferred an additional SL000 to the account
of Bruce E. Graves and Francis
R. Graves, Account No. 780051.
The transactions occurred during business hours."
In other words, Bruce Graves
is charged with paying himself
the $1,000 "personal representative fee" authorized by the tribal
court, twice: once on June 13lh
and again on November 6, 2001.
Was the estate properly distributed?
According to an informed
source, it is also alleged that the
"Plan for Distribution" of deceased tribal councilman Lawrence Bedeau's estate, filed with
the tribal court by Bruce Graves
on June 13, 2001, improperly
deprives Lawrence Bedeau's
daughter, Laurene, of part of the
"$50,000 life insurance excluding funeral, burial and personal
representative expenses" that
Lawrence Bedeau left in his
November 22, 1996 will lo his
daughter Laurene.
Bruce Graves lists the funeral
costs at $3,423.90, $2,400 of
which was paid by tlie B.I.A.
(from Indian burial funds).
Minus the $1,000 "personal
representative fee" allowed by
the tribal court, Laurene was
thus entitled to S47.976.10 of
her father's life insurance, according to the provisions of the
will. According to the "Plan for
Distribution" filed with the tribal court by Graves, she was to
be paid at least $15,455.16 less
than that, because, according to
Graves's signed statement, "It
must be noted that the 401(k)
proceeds and total life insurance proceeds went directly to
Laurene Bedeau; some of the
proceeds were spent and cannot
be accounted for. Therefore, in
the above distribution, Laurene
Bedeau did not receive the full
amount devised to her in the
Will of Lawrence Bedeau."
Bedeau's will also designated
that, "I give $25,000 insurance
benefits not effectively disposed
of by the provisions of any such
written list to my two adopted
sons, Todd Wyatt Bedeau and
Steven Lee Bedeau, or total
sum lo one if the other should
not survive me." According to
the distribution plan filed by
Bruce Graves, the full $25,000
was "to be put into certificate(s)
of deposit that will be paid in
THEFT to page 3
Cause for Concern: Mineral Management Services
Audit Reveals Problems
By Jean Pagano
The Department of Interior
(DOI) Office of the Inspector
General (OIG) released its Audit
of tlie Minerals Management
Services Audit Office in late
March of this year. In tlie report,
several serious lapses were reported which are cause for concern for anyone who benefits,
either directly or indirectly,
from the work of tlie Minerals
Management Services.
The Minerals Management
Service (MMS) manages oil,
gas, and various mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf as well as managing
mineral resources produced
on federal and Native lands.
MMS takes ill approximately $6
billion in rents, royalties, and
odier payments each year. The
MMS Audit Office employs
165 auditors to conduct audits
and ensure compliance. The Office of the Inspector General is
required to report on a semi-annual basis to Congress, and tlie
recent audit was undertaken to
determine whether MMS' internal quality control demonstrated
that the MMS audits were performed in according to Government Auditing Standards. What
the Office of Inspector General
reported did not demonstrate
that these standards were being employed. In one particular
case, audit records were recreated when the originals did not
exist and tlie resulting recreation
was passed of as an original. In
diis particular case, the auditor
involved was given an award
for being 'creativity'.
Especially damaging were
OIG's assessment of MMS professionalism. The OIG report
stated, "MMS auditors did not
always meet the Standards for
conducting their audits with due
professional care. We believe
diese deficiencies occurred
because MMS had not made a
consistent commitment to conduct audits in accordance with
tlie required Standards." The
report continues, "We found in
one instance that MMS officials
did not adhere to high levels of
integrity and professionalism
[... ] We selected for review an
audit involving Navajo Indian
leases. When MMS audit officials could not locate this
audit file, instead of informing
us of the fact, they recreated
and backdated the working papers. MMS then granted a cash
award, citing 'creativity' to the
auditor who reconstructed tlie
working papers."
A further finding of die audit report was that 12% of die \
MMS auditors did not have sufficient number of Continuing
Professional Education hours to
meet the Standards. In addition,
MMS could not produce supporting documentation to prove
that their auditors did receive
sufficient training in the time
period in question. It was also
discovered that MMS does not
produce written reports for all
AUDIT to page 3
Constitutional Reform Series
Compiled by Wallace W.
Storbakken
On September 29-30,2001,
the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
sponsored a Constitutional
Hearing at die Grand Casino
- N Idle Lacs. This is die sixdi
of a series of "quotes" based on
oral testimony at the hearing.
The testimony has been edited lo
conserve space, while attempting
to include die major points, opinions, and ideas of the speaker.
Every effort has been taken so as
to not present the testimony out
of context. We apologize that the
presentations are not in chronological order and that in many
cases the speaker is not identified. The full transcription of the
hearing testimony is available
through the Mimiesota Chippewa Tribe facility in Cass Lake,
Mimiesota.
Excerpts and quotes from testimony of Margaret Truer-
White Earth:
"As I said before I am enrolled
at White Earth, but I grew up
on Leech Lake in die Village of
Bena. When I was growing up,
that was a very mixed community of White Earth, Leech Lake,
and a few strays from other
Bands as well, who lived tiiere,
and we lived there as a very
strong community. . .We didn't
have running water, sometimes
food was scarce, but we took
care of each other. We cared
about one another. [W]e didn't
care if you were from Leech
Lake, or White Earth, or wherever. If you were an Indian, and
you were hungry, and I had food,
it was shared with you.. .1 am
proud of the way we were then.
Things are different today."
"P]t seems like the more we
get, and the more we have, the
less we want to share. I trace
some of this change in values
and attitudes toward each other
to the change in the Constitution
that happened when people could
no longer vote on the reservation
of their residence and, instead,
had to vote wherever they were
enrolled.. .If you were an Elder,
and you have lived there all your
life, and your parents before you
lived there all their lives, you
can't get your walk shoveled or
your snow plowed unless you
have a Leech Lake Band Member card.. .[I]f we are going to
be a strong people, and we are
going to adhere to the values diat
were left to us by our Elders and
our ancestors, we need to take a
look at that and see how does our
tribal government and our Constitution play into that.. .[T]his
is an issue that I think we really
need to take a look at because it
is not right. It is not the Anishinabe way, as I understand die
Anishinabe way to be."
"[T]he need to take a look at
what kind of requirements we
have for tribal membership. .
We have families where half
the kids are able to be enrolled
and the other half aren't, and
SERIES to page 6
Federal appeals court upholds dismissal of
Press/ON lawsuit
In an unpublished opinion issued oearly six years after the
arrest of reporter Jeff Armstrong
at a \ Gnnesota (Ihippewa Tribe
meeting in Mille Lacs, die 8lh
U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a
district court ruling dismissing a
civil rights law suit arising from
the incident. Armstrong and
Press ON publisher Bill Lawrence contended the arrest was a
politically motivated attempt to
intimidate and interfere with die
plaintiffs in the exercise of their
First Amendment rights, filing
suit in federal court.
Although die case generated thousands of pages of legal
documents since Armstrong filed
habeas corpus petitions disputing die constitutionality of his
1997 arrest, die appeals court
dispensed widi the subsequent
lawsuit in a three-sentence,
unanimous per curiam opmion-
-usually signifying die non-controversial nature of a case.
"Having carefully reviewed
the record.. .we agree with the'
district court's thorough analysis;
and we decline to address the
new arguments and allegations
appellants raise." the diree-judge
panel concluded.
Criminal trespass charges
against Armstrong were ultimately dismissed for lack of state
jurisdiction on April 27, 1998.
The ruling by Mille Lacs Count}
district judge Thomas Knapp
seriously questioned the state's
ability to prosecute tribal members for "trespassing" on com-
monly-owned property, despite
a contrary decision by the state
appeals court in A linnesota v.
LaRose.
"This case involves compli
cated questions unique to a tribe's
own self-governance and not die
basic property rights of tribal
members. The element of 'claim
of right' could not properly be
interpreted by a state court in diis
proceeding," wrote Knapp.
The federal district court
failed to consider plaintiffs' challenge to the legitimacy of the
\ lille Lacs Tribal Police under
die \ ICT Constitution, ruling
diat such questions must first be
presented to reservation trial and
appellate courts. In an Aug. 2,
2000 opinion, magistrate judge
Raymond Erickson ordered die
plaintiffs to exhaust tribal court
remedies.
"Here, because the Plaintiffs
have not attempted to exhaust
dicir Tribal Court remedies, a
DISMISSAL to page 5
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
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American
Press
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A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2003
Founded in 1988
Volume 16 Issue 1
June 13,2003
Pictured: (l-r) Maureen Peralta, Terry Robinson, Mike Johnson, Eric Morgan, Malerie LaRose, Jason Goggleye, Queta Flores,
Mike Donnell, and Shanelle Bowstring.
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig Graduation
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High
School held its graduation
ceremony on Friday, May
30'\ in die school gym. The
school drum group provided
the honor song to honor diis
year's graduates: Mike Donnell, Shanelle Bowstring,
Jason Goggleye, Maureen Peralta, Terry Robinson, Malerie
LaRose, Eric Morgan, Enriqueta
Flores, and Mike Johnson.
Following the invocation Principal Henry Flocken welcomed
the guests. Speakers included
snidents Mike Donnell, Jason
Goggleye, and Queta Flores,
teacher Jodi Perrington and
school board members. Adrian
Liberty was the master of cer
emonies.
The principal and school board
presented scholarships to several
of the graduates, and tiien presented the graduates with their
diplomas, eagle feathers, and
blankets. The graduates and their
families enjoyed visiting outside
in the beautiful spring weather
after tlie ceremony.
Minnesota Indian Scholarship News
By Jean Pagano
The Office of Indian Education administers the Minnesota Indian Scholarship
Program (MISP). The Office
of Indian Education (OIE)
recently embarked on two
ventures designed to hold
schools more accountable for
scholarship funding in which
smdents either a) do not qualify for continuing funding, due
to grades; or b) students did
not attend the institution.
OIE noticed that a number
of smdents did not submit
their grades lo the office in
order to qualify for further
funding into the next term.
Traditionally, students had to
submit their fall term grades
to OIE so that additional
funding would be released
for the next term. OIE compiled a survey to be sent to
all schools receiving Indian
Scholarships to determine the
status of scholarship recipients. When scholarship funds
are not used in die Indian
Scholarship Fund, die monies are redistributed to other
qualified recipients. Money
that is not redistributed runs
the risk of being absorbed
back into state coffers at the
end of die biennium.
The surveys yielded the following results: 114 students
would not be attending tiieir
chosen schools the next terms.
The amount of money that
would be returned, or re-encumbered totals $177,808. Some
schools oidy had a few smdents
that had their funds re-encum-
branced, but other schools had
more than a few. Currentiy,
the number of applications for
MISP is 396. The two schools
diat had the highest number of
re-encumbrances were Leech
Lake Tribal College widi 31 and
Northwestern Tech in Bemidji
with 17. Out of the 27 institutions, Leech Lake Tribal College accounted for more than
a quarter of all the re-encumbrances and about 10% of the
total number of applications.
Refunds of MISPs are for
students that did not attend the
schools. Out of the 22 schools
diat accounted for 95 refunds,
totaling $127,441.80, Leech
Lake Tribal College and Northwestern Tech in Bemidji once
again had the highest number.
Leech Lake Tribal College accounted for more than a third
of the refund students. Adding
the 31 re-encumbrance smdents
and the 37 refund students,
Leech Lake Tribal College had
to return funds to MISP for
about 20% of all of the students
receiving scholarships. The
two tables accompanying this
story provide die breakdown by
category, by school, by number,
and by dollar amount.
Minnesota Indian Scholarship Program Update:
Re-encumbrances and Refunds
Re-encumbrances
This amount was found by
sending a memo to all of the
post secondary schools asking them to identify students
who were funded for the fall
semester as to whether they are
returning for the spring semester. The survey was done after
reviewing the number of smdents who did not submit their
grades to the office for funding
the next semester. In the past,
the students were required to
submit grades to have their
award released for the next
term of funding. The process
itself is cumbersome, but with
a small staff it was even more
so. This survey proved to
be successful in identifying
students who would not return
for the next term and allowing
the unused money to be redistributed.
It was found that there
were 114 students who would
not be attending the next
term, which amounted to
8177,808.00 that was awarded
UPDATE to page 8
American
Indians in
neighboring
states watch
dispute
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa - The
tribal dispute that led to the
closing of the Meskwaki casmo in Tama is being closely
watched by American Indian
leaders in other states as the
government continues to enforce tlie casino's closing.
Ron Gilbert, executive secretary of the Flandreau Santee
Sioux Tribal Gaining Commission near Sioux Falls, S.D.,
DISPUTE to page 6
Judge allows lawsuit to continue on
Rosebud hog farm
Associated Press
RAPID CITY, S.D. - A lease
allowing a Nebraska company
to build huge hog farms on
Rosebud Sioux Tribe land is
valid, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Richard
Battey's finding was a key part
of his ruling that Sun Prairie
Partnership, owner of two huge
hog farms in Mellette County,
can continue its lawsuit against
the federal government and the
tribe.
The judge rejected motions
by the federal government, the
tribe and other groups to dismiss the lawsuit.
Battey's finding appears to be
in line with what Sun Prairie is
ultimately seeking in its lawsuit.
Sun Prairie is an affiliate of
Bell Farms of Wahpeton, N.D.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribal
Council in 1998 signed a lease
with Sun Prairie to build up to
288 large hog barns on 13 sites
on tribal trust land in Mellette
County. Bureau of Indian Affairs
officials approved the lease a
short time later.
But after environmental and
humane-farming groups and
some tribal members filed a
lawsuit that alleged the lease was
signed in error, BIA head Kevin
Gover rescinded the lease in
early 1999, citing the need for an
environmental impact statement.
Later that year, U.S. District
LAWSUIT to page 3