Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2003-09-12

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Kansas AG seeks
closure of tribe's
casino
page 5
Study finds cigarettes easy
to buy for minors on internet
page 3
Sam Rock announces
his candidacy for White
Earth Chair
page 4
A prisoner's opinion
page 4
it's a whole new
ball game out
there in education
page 4
State appeals court rejects child custody jurisdiction
challenge by Red Lake man
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Jeff Armstrong
In what may prove to be die
final chapter of a wrenching
three-year struggle of Leech
Lake modier Jawnie Hough to
decisively gain custody of her
daughter, die Minnesota Court
of Appeals diis week affirmed
a district court order granting
Hough sole physical custody of
Meghan Brun, now age five.
Hough had been awarded
custody of the girl in a 1999
state divorce decree dissolving
a marriage marked by spousal
abuse on the part of her husband, Donald Brun. Instead of
returning Meghan to her modier
after an agreed visit widi Brun's
parents after the divorce, die
Bruns petitioned the Red Lake
tribal court for custody of the
girl without notifying Hough of
the proceeding or informing the
court of either the existing state
custody order or of a domestic
abuse restraining order against
Brun.
Bran dien convinced a state
judge to enforce the tribal court
order at a hearing of which
Hough was never notified.
On Jan. 10, 2001, Meghan
was seized by state police and
Hough charged with parental
kidnapping, a felony. After
initially denying a motion to
amend his court order, district
judge Terrance Holter accused
Brim of misconduct and ordered
him to return Meghan to her
mother on March 4,2002.
Brun openly defied the court
order and his family did not file
an appeal until Hough recovered
her daughter in circumstances
remarkably similar to diose in
which Meghan was taken from
her—widi the assistance of law
enforcement during a hospital
visit. No member of the Brun
famdy was ever charged widi
child abduction.
In its nding, the state appeals
court held that Brun's challenge
to the jurisdiction of die state
court over die divorce proceeding and the consequent custody
decision was both unfounded
and several years too late.
"Because the record adequately supports the district
court's finding that Jawnie
Hough was a Minnesota resident for purposes of dissolution
jurisdiction, and because Hough
and Brun's child was physically
present in Mimiesota and in the
legal and physical custody of
Hough at the time of die custody determination, we affirm,"
the court ruled.
As to personal jurisdiction,
the court held that "Brun did
not contend diat the motion to
recognize die tribal court order
should be granted because die
district court had lacked personal jurisdiction when it made the
initial Hough-Bran custody determination. By effectively asking the district court to modify
its custody order, Brun accepted
die validity of diat order and
thereby waived any defect in
service of process."
The appeals court distinguished the case from its finding
in K.K.S., a 1994 ruling establishing concurrent tribal-state
jurisdiction over a child removed from the reservation by a
non-Native fadier.
"First, the issue hi K.K.S. was
whedier the district court had
exclusive custody jurisdiction
BRUN to page 6
Homeland Security Act amendments could bring
War on Terror to reservations
By Jeff Armstrong
Longtime MCT activist
Marvin Manypeimy warns diat
proposed amendments to the
federal Homeland Security Act
pose a serious threat to the civd
liberties and self-determination
rights of tribal members and
odiers.
"If we think things are bad
right now, they're going to be
much worse under diis system,"
said Manypeimy.
Enacted last November, die
Homeland Security Act provided grants to state and local
governments to identify and
share information widi other
jurisdictions regarding potential
local targets and sources of terrorist acts, in addition to creating a federal cabinet office with
broad investigative authority to
compile personal information on
suspected terrorist tiireats.
Among odier provisions, the
law allows the federal government to collect and distribute
data on individual suspects'
consumer, email, banking, travel
and reading habits in die context
of an alleged terrorist investigation. Under die law, terrorism is
defined very loosely to include
any act which "is a violation of
the criminal laws of the United
States or any State [and which]
appears to be intended... to
influence to policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." Civil liberties advocates
maintain that die law could easily be applied to activities long
viewed as forms of legitimate
dissent.
However, Congress neglected
to mention tribal governments as '
distinct from states in its hastily
enacted, 475-page act, an omission which prompted organizations such as die National Congress of American Indians to call
for extending die scope of the
act to Indian Country. As introduced by Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs Daniel Inouye, die
wording of die proposed amendments to die Homeland Security
Act "declares that the inherent
sovereign authority of an Indian
tribal government includes die
authority to enforce and adjudicate violations of applicable
criminal, civil, and regulatory
laws committed by any person
on land under the jurisdiction of
die Indian tribal government,"
in addition to making Uibes directly eligible for federal grants
under the law.
"The NCAI speaks for tribal
governments; they're part of that
status quo. They don't speak for
ordinary tribal members," said
Manypeimy. '1 think all citizens
should be concerned about this,
what the entire act has done to
civil liberties."
Manypeimy argues that the
amendments would, if adopted,
grant virtual "carte blanche" for
tribal police forces to detain,
harass and spy on political opponents, while raising reservation dissent to die status of
national security threat. On die
odier hand, he says, the proposed
amendments could also reduce
tribal officers to mere proxies
of a foreign law enforcement
system which has traditionally
been hostile lo uibal interests. In
the case of die MCT, Manypeimy
says, die amendments would
be a major setback to a 16-year
movement for constitutional government by formalizing federal
recognition of tribal officials'
sertions of inherent sovereignty.
"I think it's a direct intrusion
into our sovereignty and to die
people's right to consent. It certainly puts a cap on dissent," said
Manypeimy. 'That's what [MCT
officials have] been attempting
to do since 1987—gain absolute
power. But the people have always stood up against diem and
they should stand up against this
act, which takes away any consent we might have had under a
government which purports to
represent us," he said.
Secretary Norton Loses in the
Court of Appeals
Lawyer-client privilege cannot be used to
withhold trust data
By Jean Pagano
A three-judge U.S. Court
of Appeals on Tuesday ruled
against Secretary Norton and the
Bush Administration in the most
recent set of appeals relating to
die landmark Cobell v. Norton
case. The seven year old lawsuit
was brought forth to compel an
accounting for billions of dollars
allegedly missing, mismanaged,
or lost from Individual Indian
Money (IIM) accounts.
The Appellate Court, based in
the District of Columbia circuit,
mled diat Secretary Norton had
"waived any right to pursue the
currendy pending challenges to
(he district court's application
of die fiduciary exception to die
attorney-client privilege and the
work product doctrine."
The DeparUnent of Interior
(DOI) had claimed diat certain
information relating to Cobell
was protected under client-attorney privilege and therefore could
not be turned over to the U.S.
District Court, presided over by
Judge Royce C. Lamberth. The
recent Appedate ruling indicates
that Interior cannot hold back in-
formation because of its lawyers,
and therefore the client-attorney
privilege does not apply. The
Court also allowed die plaintiffs
to submit a bdl for legal costs
NORTON to page 6
Tracking state
lobbyist
spending: Mostly
an honor system
By Patrick Howe
Associated Press
ST. PAUL - When baseball
stadium supporter David Hoch
challenged whether the Mile
Lacs Band of Ojibwe properly
reported how much it spent
battling plans for a state casino
at Canterbury Park, the tribe's
lobbyist was quick to respond,
acknowledging the tribe failed
to disclose nearly $180,000 it
spent during diis year's legislative session.
But what die tribe's lobbyist
called a simple oversight, Hoch
and government watchdogs say
is a symptom of a larger prob-
LOBBYIST to page 6
Native Ozarks medicinal root could link farmers
with baby-booming
By Scott Charton
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, MO. - American Indians and folk medicine
practitioners swear by the root of
black cohosh as a natural source
of relief from die symptoms of
menopause, ranging from fatigue
to hot flashes.
Entrepreneur magazine estimates more than 4,000 baby
boomers start menopause each
day. Coupled with recent research linking estrogen-proges-
tiu hormone supplements widi
breast cancer and heart disease,
die market demand for natural
alternatives, such as black cohosh, is rising.
Andy Thomas is trying to figure out how fanners in Missouri
might help meet diat demand
commercially.
He's a horticulturist by training and a scientific detective in
practice, tending thousands of
black cohosh samples in "shade
houses" at the University of
Missouri's agricultural research
station near Mount Vernon.
"There's still a lot we don't
kuow about black cohosh, and
we are searching for the answers," Thomas said. "We just
think our farmers ought to be
able to grow it better, with the
right guidance."
Commercial cultivation of
black cohosh is rare, and small-
scale at diat. It's a member of die
buttercup family, and the flowers
grow wild in a swath extending
from Missouri across die southeastern United States, usually no
more dian about 10 flowers to a
patch, Thomas said.
The root has been used for
centuries for medicinal purposes.
Widiin the last year, federally
funded sUidies have concluded
Native Americans and hill-country herbalists were on to something.
Researchers at Columbia University and Tlie George Washington University examined the
results of 29 independent sUidies
on alternative treatments for hot
flashes and found that only black
cohosh appeared to work.
That review, published last
November in die Annals of Internal Medicine, noted diat "neidier
die identity of active compounds
nor die mechanism of action of
black cohosh is known." It also
said black cohosh usually hasn't
been used on a long-term basis,
and diat no clinical trials have
lasted longer dian six months.
Dr. Wulf Utian, executive
director of die North American
Menopause Society and a gynecologist at the Cleveland Clinic,
said die Missouri research
- growing black cohosh and analyzing it - could benefit patients
yearning for more information.
OZARKS to page 3
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Volume 16 Issue 13
September 12, 2003
AP Photo/Lawrence Journal-World, Mike Yoder
"Dance of the Yeis," photographed Sept. 2, 2003, in Lawrence, Kan. is an acrylic/sand on
canvas piece by Navajo artist Ron Toahani Jackson. The piece and other American Indian
art will be on exhibit in Lawrence, Kan., at the 15th annual Lawrence Indian Arts Show which
runs Saturday, Sept. 13 through Oct. 11.
State attorney generals support county
Reservation lawsuit appeal finds allies
by Joel Patenaude
Messenger Staff Writer
The attorney generals for
Minnesota and South Dakota
formally support Mille Lacs
County's appeal of its dismissed reservation boundary
lawsuit.
In late August, die states'
highest law enforcement offices issued amicus briefs urging die Eighth Circuit Court
of Appeals to reverse tlie May
decision by US. Judge James
Rosenbaum throwing out die
lawsuit against the Mdle Lacs
Band of Ojibwe.
Minnesota Deputy Attorney
General Ken Peterson sent a
letter to the appeals court on
Aug. 29 asserting "die state,
for its own interests, would
like die reservation boundaries
issue resolved."
Peterson previously raised
doubts that a specific jurisdictional dispute existed between
die comity and the band over
which die comity could sue for
clarification of die reservation
boundaries.
'We still don't see die type
of controversy here that die
courts usually look for," Peterson told die Messenger Monday. "We haven't changed our
position on diat. But we also
haven't changed our overall
position that diis is a diminished reservation."
In his brief supporting die
county argument, Peterson
wrote diat the state, "not the
Mile Lacs Band, retains jurisdiction and regulatory audiority over the public water bodies
and land not held in trust lying
widiin the boundaries of the reservation established by the 1855
Treaty between die United States
govermnent and the Mdle Lacs
Band of Ojibwe."
The reservation is limited to
the land currendy held in trust
for the band by tlie federal government, he wrote. That amounts
to about 4,000 acres - much less
dian the 61,000 acres on die
south end of Mille Lacs Lake
originally set aside as die Mille
Lacs Indian Reservation.
Peterson said die state has an
interest in retaining its jurisdiction over the disputed area for
financial and environmental reasons.
He cited die affidavit of a licensed Mille Lacs area appraiser
who argued property values are
hurt by die band's claim diat die
larger reservation continues to
exist. Rosenbaum rejected diis
argument when attorneys for
die county and First National
Bank of Milaca failed to present
evidence comparing die market
value sale prices of property
inside and outside the disputed
reservation boundaries.
Assuming that die reservation
boundary dispute has depressed
property values, Peterson said
local government will "inevitably" receive less local tax revenue and become more reliant
on state aid. A court decision on
die merits of die lawsuit in favor
of tlie county and the bank, he
wrote, "would help minimize
diese anticipated state expendi-
Uires."
State agencies have worked
out agreements widi die Mdle
Lacs Band as needed but "without fully addressing die ultimate
question of jurisdictional audiority," Peterson wrote.
The Minnesota Pollution Con-
trol Agency (MPCA) opposed
die band's 1989 application for
"treatment as a state" from the
federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which the
latter agency granted based on
its conclusion diat 1855 reservation still existed.
Rather than reconsider its
decision as requested by several
local governments, the EPA in
1998 forged a "memorandum of
understanding" (MOU) with die
MPCA and the band.
The MOLT — winch determines how the three parties
regulate large commercial septic
systems — acknowledges the
opposing positions of die state
and die band regarding the area
diat comprises die reservation.
Peterson also noted diat still
pending is a federal application by die band to be treated
as a state under die Non-Point
Source Program of die federal
Water Pollution Control Act. Tlie
MPCA is opposed to die band's
application.
Iu diese cases, die dispute,
over the reservation boundaries
requires analysis and review of
Indian treaties, federal statutes
and historical records. It is difficult to sort dirough diis material
on bodi sides widiin a 30-day
period, which is typically all die
time the EPA allows for comment, Peterson argued.
LAWSUIT to page 7
Looking Cloud asks for trial delay in AIM member slaying
By Carson Walker
Associated Press
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.
- One of two men charged
with killing a member of die
American Indian Movement
in 1975 lias asked for a three-
month delay just diree weeks
before trial.
Arlo Looking Cloud's
federal trial in Rapid City
is scheduled lo begin Sept.
30. He and John Graham are
charged with first-degree
murder for die slaying of
Aima Mae Pictou-Aquash on
the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Looking Cloud's court-appointed lawyer, Tim Rensch,
said diis week he needs more
time to prepare a defense because of the large number of
documents, tapes and odier
information.
His investigation lias taken
more time than expected, some
evidence has been provided
only recendy and other issues
have come up, he said.
Rensch and prosecutors declined comment following the
court filing.
Looking Cloud was arrested
in Denver in March and pleaded
innocent Graham has not been
arrested and is thought to be in
Canada. Both would serve mandatory life terms if convicted.
Graham is a Canadian Indian
and Looking Cloud is a Lakota
Indian who grew up on the Pine
Ridge reservation. They were
both security guards with AIM
indie 1970s.
Pictou-Aquash was killed at
a time when tensions between
AIM members and govern
ment-backed factions ended in
numerous deaths on the reservation.
A member of Mi'kmaq Tribe
of Canada, Pictou-Aquash was
among Indian militants who occupied the village of Woimded
Knee in 1973. She vanished
from a Denver home iu December 1975, and her frozen body
was found near Wanblee in February 1976. She had been shot
in die head.
American Indians have said
for years that federal investigators and prosecutors knew who
took Pictou-Aquash from a
home in Denver, drove her to
the Pine Ridge reservation and
executed her.
In his request, Rensch said
die investigation "is not even
close to being complete."