Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2003-08-08

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Longtime chairman
of Southern Ute
tribe dies after heart
attack
page 3
New bill could boost
economy on reservations
page 3
Campbell: The truth
about the Indian energy
bill
page 4
Indian rights vs.
American principles
page 4
S.578 would only create
more problems than it
solves and should be
rejected
page 4
State district court rejects stay of Hough custody order
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Jeff Armstrong
Beltrami County district
judge Terrance Holter denied a
motion by a Red Lake man to
refrain from enforcing a child
custody decision issued last year
while the state appeals court
considers his jurisdictional challenge to the state court order. In
his July 29 order, Holter ruled
that Donald Brun, Jr.'s defiance of previous court decisions
weighed against his efforts to
force reconsideration by the district court.
"Respondent (Bran) has failed
to obey all orders of this Court.
Now Respondent seeks an order
of this Court to stay all other
orders pending die decision of
the Court of Appeals... To come
now to this Court and request
an order when Respondent will
only obey it if it is favorable
to him is absurd," judge Holter
wrote.
Holter further took die rare
step of criticizing Bran's attorney, Lawrence Nichols, for.
delaying his motion until Hough
had regained physical custody
of the child more than one year
after Bran was ordered to return
Meghan Brun to her mother,
Jawnie Hough.
"It would appear that Respondent's-attorney has similar
contemptuous behavior toward
this Court by failing to file the
Writ until the child was returned
to her mother as per die order of
this Court," wrote Holter.
Holter ruled that his previ
ous orders were "valid and
enforceable" and ordered diat
Brun take no action "to disturb
the custody of the child." The
district court, however, declined
a motion by Hough to impose
civil and criminal contempt
penalties against Bran, including restitution of Hough's legal
costs and jailing die Red Lake
man, unless he again violated
state court rulings.
Brun and his parents had obtained custody of the child by
refusing to return die child from
a March 2000 visit agreed to by
Hough. The Brans subsequently
petitioned the Red Lake Court
for custody widiout notifying
Hough of the proceedings nor
informing the tribal court of the
contrary state court order.
After Hough recovered her
daughter outside a Bemidji
barber shop, she was charged
with parental abduction on the
basis of legal actions of which
she was never informed, while
Meghan was returned to the
Brans. In his latest motion,
Brun continues to advance
the deception that Hough had
abandoned the child-without
accounting for die fact that she
had subsequently gone to great
lengths to regain physical and
legal custody of die girl.
In her affidavit, Hough alleged that her daughter had
been subjected by Brim's parents 'to "continuous, psychological brainwashing" against
her modier, jeopardizing the
girl's emotional and physical
well-being. She charged diat
Meghan "was instructed by the
non-party grandparents to jump
from my moving vehicle if necessary, if and when I was able to
recover her."
Hough pleaded with the court
to sanction Brun for his misconduct in order to protect the girl
against furdier unlawful action.
"I now must live with the fear
diat Respondent or his non-party grandparents will again resort
to illegal conduct, including
kidnapping, to have dieir way
and my child," wrote Hough.
In the end, die district court
ruled, die ultimate decision of
die child's best interests was
clear from the record before the
court.
"However, despite the contemptuous behavior of Respondent and his attorney, the
issue here is what is in the best
interest of die child pending
the Court of Appeals' decision.
The child's stability at home
has been disrupted by returning
her to her modier; however, the
danger to die child of not being
returned to her mother, if the
Minnesota Court of Appeals
so determines, far exceeds the
disruption in her life pending
die appeal.. .The best interest of
the child is to remain with her
mother pending the decision of
the Court of Appeals," wrote
Holter.
Department of Interior has a trust plan:
Defendants plan filed with the court
By Jean Pagano
The government has rested
its case in the Phase 1.5 trial of
Cobell v. Secretary of Interior
(Cobell). On Monday, August
4th, the government presented its
Proposed Findings of Fact and
Conclusions of Law pertaining
to Cobell. In many ways, the
Department of Interior is saying
many of die same tilings it has
said all along.
While die Dep;irlment of Interior (DOT) cliiiiiis diat "Interior
has made the performance of a
historical account of IIM funds
a priority", the record, as is presented in Cobell does not seem
to provide the same conclusion.
The history of Cobell over the
last several years is full of attempts to deny responsibility, delay accounting, diminish results,
and in general defuse the Court's
attempt, to provide for a long
overdue accounting. According
to plaintiffs, billions of dollars
are unaccounted for. In contrast,
the government tried to tell the
Court earlier this year that only
$61 was unaccounted for. The
truth must lie somewhere in between.
DOI claims that its Historical
Account Plan wdl provide the
account holder with a statement
showing opening balance, trans-
action-by-transaction account
history, an ending balance, and
a statement regarding die accuracy of said transactions. The
Court lias asked die Department
of Interior to provide a detaded
accounting of all historical transactions. The Department of Interior, however, does not intend
to provide a totally historical
account, but instead desires to
combine a limited historical ac
count with a statistical sampling
method. This statistical sampling
mediod will allow the Department of Interior to gloss over
the years of missing, misplaced,
mismanaged, and mangled data
and instead provide an approximation of the accounting that
has been done since Individual
Indian Money (IIM) accounts
were established in 1887: The
Department further states that
since 1909. SI3 billion has entered the system .did that 312.6
billion have been paid out. DOI
estimates diat it will cost $335
million to complete the historical
accounting.
Notwithstanding the fact IIM
accounts have been around
since 1887, die DOI proposes to
begin its accounting as of June
24,1938 through December 31,
2000, the date that all Interior offices were converted to the Trust
Fund Accounting System. The
June 24, 1938 date is culled from
the American Indian Trust Reform Act of 1994. In the Department of Interiors zeal to provide
its "performance of an historical
accounting", it is recommending
that a statute of limitations be
put into effect, which effectively
wipes out the June 24,1938 date
and instead replaces it with a
new starting date of 1 October
1984.
Whereas DOI's original starting
date, in dieir quest for historical
accuracy, shaves 51 years off
from the inception of IIMs,
their suggested statute of limitations date eliminates the need
to provide a historical accounting for the first 97 years of the
program's existence.
The plaintiffs in the Cobell
case first brought forward their
suit in 1996, alleging years of
mismanagement and laxity in
DOI's execution of die U.S.
Government's trust obligation
to Native peoples. The proposed
hewing of decades worth of responsibility from the historical
accounting does litde to assuage
the clamor of the original plaintiffs' arguments.
The Department of the Interior has previously reported to
I I.S. District Judge Royce C.
Lamberth diat to do an accur;iw
historical accounting, a total of
$2.4 billion would be required
over a ten-year period. DOI feels
diat there is concern in Congress
about this large expenditure and
the amount of time it would take
to properly account for all transaction. It is interesting to note
that a ten-year period of time is
viewed as a long time in a lawsuit that is now in its eighth year.
Nonetheless, Interior feels diat
its plan will accomplish the same
work in a shorter period of time
for an eighth of the expense. The
result will be that on many of die
IIM account statements, there
will be a "confidence assertion"
relative to die accounting proposed.
Essentially, as opposed to the
historical accounting mediod
required by Judge Lambertii, the
Department of Interior is proposing to use "mathematical theories
supported by] sampling technologies" to arrive at results. Until
the Department converted to the
Trust Fund Accounting System
at the end of 2000, accounting
was not done in a standardized
manner. Information was record
on non-permanent surfaces and
INTERIOR to page 3
Why Indians are Second Class Citizens:
Congress' Plenary Power, Tribal Sovereignty and
Constitutional Rights
By Darrel Smith
The author is a reservation
resident. He is the Editor of
CERA NEWS and Secretary/
Treasurer of Citizens Equal
Rights Foundation (CERF).
This article will be published in
the May 2002 issue of CERA
NEWS and in CERF's web site
at: www.citizensalliance.org.
An ancient Jewish story tells
of a hungry Esau despising "his
birthright" and selling it to his
brother, Jacob, for a meal of
stew. A more recent story tells
of Peter Minuit purchasing the
entire island of Manhattan from
Indians, in 1626, "for a handful
of merchandise-mosdy trinkets." In a similar way, today's
tribal members are giving away
their right to constitutional protections—their American birthright, either from ignorance, or
for the modern equivalent of a
bowl of stew or "a handful of
merchandise-mostly trinkets."
The U. S. Government as Tyrant.
The United States Code
states, "the Congress finds — (1)
that clause 3, section 8, article
I of the United States Constitu
tion provides that 'The Congress shall have Power * * * To
regulate Commerce *■ * * with
Indian tribes and, dirough this
and other constitutional authority, Congress has plenary power
over Indian affairs." [emphasis
added] The word "plenary" is
defined as full, unqualified, entire, complete or absolute. Thus
the United States Code is saying
that Congress has full, unqualified, entire, complete or absolute power over Indian affairs.
The Supreme Court has recognized this plenary power of
Congress on numerous occasions. One recognition is in the
Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez
(1978) decision which states,
"Congress has plenary authority
to limit, modify or eliminate the
powers of local self-government which the tribes otherwise
possess." The Santa Clara decision refers back to an earlier
Supreme Court decision called
Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903).
In diat decision die Supreme
Court stated, "Plenary audiority over the tribal relations of
the Indians has been exercised
by Congress from the begin
ning, and the power has always
been deemed a political one,
not subject to be controlled by
the judicial department of the
government.... The power exists
to abrogate the provisions of an
Indian treaty,...In any event, as
Congress possessed full power
in the matter, the judiciary cannot question or inquire into the
motives which prompted the
enachnent of this legislation."
This plenary power of Congress over Indian affairs shoidd
end the discussion about federal
and state constitutional protections for tribal members all by
itself. How can it be claimed
that a particular group of American citizens who live under the
absolute power of Congress also
has equal federal and state constitutional protections? The U.S.
Constitution was provided by
"We the People" to give limited,
enumerated, separated powers to the federal government.
All other powers and rights are
"retained by die people and the
states." The Constitution was
specifically written to limit
absolute power. Isn't Congress'
CITIZENS to page 6
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Dressed in a traditional fancy dancer outfit Donald Iceman of Brockton, Mont., performs during the
Native American Powwow held Saturday, Aug. 2, 2003, at the Upper Sioux Agency near Granite
Falls, Minnesota.
Recall petition for two members of Lower Sioux council
PressON has learned that
there is a petition circulating
among members of the Lower
Sioux Indian Community
calling for the removal of two
members of the tribal council,
Ann Larsen, president, and
Brian Pendleton, treasurer.
Sources said that a copy of the
petition would be released in
the near future at which time
PressON would be publishing
it. According to sources, die
petition is the result of what
members feel is fiscal impropriety by the president and
treasurer of die Lower Sioux
Community, involving monies
paid as loans to die council
members and dieir families.
Allegedly, the money for the
most recent loan program came
from fimds designated for economic development.
PressON did receive a copy
of the comments and recommendations from the audit of
the 2002 Tribal Funds financial
statements by the audit firm,
Schechter Dokken Kanter dated
June 26,2003, which is printed
in its entirety in this issue.
Comments and Recommendations Audit of 2002 of Lower
Sioux Indian Community Tribal Funds financial statements
by Schechter Dokken Kanter, Andrews & Selcer Ltd
Request and Retain Support for Per Capita Deductions
During our audit, we noted one per capita deduction for which there
was no support other than inquiry of accounting staff, who noted the
deduction was per a verbal agreement. Without documentation, deductions could be challenged by Community members possibly resulting in reimbursement for the deduction by the Community.
We recommend a direshold be established for per capita deductions,
above which documentation shoidd be received and retained by the
Community before a deduction is
COMMENTS to page 4
Tribes look to develop tourism
before others do
By Sara Thorson
Associated Press
CHANDLER, Ariz.-
American Indian tribes should
develop their own tourism
businesses or they risk normative businesses encroaching on
tribal land, said participants at
an Indian tourism conference
Tuesday.
Rory Majenty, director of
tourism for Arizona's Hualapai
Tribe, said tourists will visit
tribal lands whether or not
tribal businesses are prepared.
""Tribes are a destination,"
said Gloria Cobb, deputy
economic development director for the Great Lakes Inter-
Tribal Council in Wisconsin.
Tribal economic and tourism leaders gathered diis week
for the Fifth Annual American
Indian Tourism Conference,
which is designed to discover
die best ways to draw tourists
and to share tribal culture with
them.
Tribes have seen visitors
since the first nonnatives arrived
on American soil, conference
participants said.
Brian Vallo, manager of die
Sky City Cultural Center in
Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico,
said Acoma women served as
tour guides to visitors, including
edinographers and archaeologists,
as far back as die 1880s.
*" There were women that
would find diese people showing
up on die mesa top, who were
a totally different color dian we
were and wondering what we're
all about," Vallo said.
Camille Ferguson, economic
development director for Sitka
Tribal Enterprises in .Alaska, said
all members of tribes have to be
ready for tourists.
vvFriendly or foe, they're still
our guests and they're coming,"
she said. svTlie whole purpose
of this is to use tourism to raise
funds and educate our children.
We need those kids coming up to
carry on what we're going to do."
TOURISM to page 3
Upper Sioux
chairwoman to
lead Indian
Affairs Council
Associated Press
BEMIDJI, Minn. - Leaders
from the state's 11 American
Indian bands elected Helen Blue
of the Upper Sioux Community
as chairwoman of the Minnesota
Indian Affairs Council.
Pete White, chairman of the
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe,
was selected in a special meeting last week as vice chairman
of die councd, which serves as
die official liaison between state
and tribal governments.
Blue has lead the Upper Sioux
since May 2001. She succeeds
Audrey Bennett, president of the
Prairie Island Indian Community, as council chairwoman.
The Minnesota Legislature
created the Indian Affairs Council in 1963. Headquartered in
Bemidji, the council meets
quarterly at various sites in Minnesota.