Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2003-10-03

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY
NEWS BRIEFS
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS
CLASSIFIEDS
2
3
4
7
Find the man who
got lost with Lewis
and Clark
page 3
American Indians seek an
ancestral acreage in four
states
page 3
Oil producers worry
about tribal
environmental
standards
page 3
r l
Casino
audit lawsuit
teleconference
page 4
Feds investigating alleged kickback schemes at Mille
Lacs Housing Authority
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
PRESS/On has been informed
that a federal investigation is
underway into allegations of
kickbacks from contractors
working on projects for the
Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Housing Authority on the Mille
Lacs Indian Reservation. We
attempted to verify this information by calling Brian Besch,
Special Agent for the Office of
Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban
Development since HUD has
jurisdiction over such funds.
However, we were unable to
speak with Mr. Besch prior to
publication.
PRESS/On has also received
copies of signed letters from
four individuals who claim to
have been required to pad the
bids in order to kick back money to Frank Shaaf, a Housing
Ftoject Manager.
An Independent contractor
reported that he was told by
Frank Shaaf to add $1,000. to
an $8,000 job "so we could put
[Frank's] son to work.. .and we
could use the extra money to
pay his wages. We submitted
the bid at the $9,000 as requested and gave the extra thousand
to Frank, however, his son never
showed up for work."
The owner of a construction
company wrote that over the
course of the past year he was
"asked several times for kick
back money." He substantiates
his statement with photocopies
of checks and check stubs. In
one instance the company owner
was told by Frank Shaaf, "to bid
the job out for $800 higher and
he would pass the bid." He was
advised to write the check to
Andy Shaaf even though Andy
had never worked for him. A
photocopy of the check was included.
PRESS/On has a copy of a
letter to the construction company from the Mille Lake Band
Housing Authority canceling
"all contracts between the Mille
Lacs Reservation Housing Authority and the.... construction
company." The letter is signed
by Rick Boyd, Executive Director of the Housing Authority.
It seems that the letter was the
result of a disagreement over the
kick back situation.
A third writer said that Frank
Shaaf approached them "about
all the work he could give us
as long as there was a kickback
for Frank." One such job was
granted to the writer with the
proviso that $1000 be paid to
Frank. They complied, paying
in cash. The writer expressed
a wish that they had paid by
check.
This writer continued, stating
that Frank called them to give
information about several bids
and requested that the writer
under-bid the legitimate, sealed
bids and give a kick back of $5-
800 to Shaaf. They estimated
that over the time period they
worked with Shaaf they paid
him approximately $7000 in
kick back money.
The fourth person to report
a kick back stated that they bid
$2300 on a job, were asked to
and gave a receipt for $2500,
but were paid the actual bid
amount of $2300.
In addition to the kickbacks,
two of the four individuals
reported they had also been
required to make healthy dona-
KICKBACKS to page 4
State report supports perceptions of racial profiling
in Minnesota
By Jeff Armstrong
Native drivers are significantly more likely to be stopped,
searched and arrested by Minnesota pohce than white motorists,
according to a detailed study of
law enforcement data conducted
by the Institute on Race and
Poverty for the Minnesota legislature. Though the report cautions
that bias cannot be scientifically
established as a causal factor,
it recommends a wide-ranging
investigation and review of law
enforcement practices along with
an inclusive public dialogue to
address the disparities.
"Across all jurisdictions,
American Indians were stopped
at a slightly greater rate than
Whites (9.2% compared to
8.3%). Once stopped, American
Indians were subjected to discretionary searches over three
times as often as Whites (9.6%
compared to 3.1 %) even though
contraband was found at a lower
rate in discretionary searches of
American Indians (19.7%) than
of Whites (23.5%).. .These patterns suggest a strong likelihood
that racial/ethnic bias plays a role
in traffic stop policies and practices in Minnesota," the report
states.
In some jurisdictions, the discrepancy is more pronounced.
In Bemidji, for instance,
Natives account for 11.5% of
subjects of all traffic stops in
while making up just 9.3% of
the driving-age population—a
23.8% disparity the report deems
statistically significant. Based on
a much smaller sample, African
Americans are stopped by police
almost twice as often as their
racial representation in the city
would indicate. White drivers,
in contrast, are pulled over at a
rate 1.9% less than their relative
proportion of the population.
When other factors are taken
into account for the largely
economically deprived Native
community, the disparity is even
greater. Taking into account the
greater access to motor vehicles
for Bemidji whites, Natives are
stopped by pohce 48% more frequently than would be statistically anticipated while the former
are pulled over 4.8% less often.
If age is factored in, Native motorists in the city are more likely
to be pulled over unless they
were born on or after 1972.
In terms of vehicle searches
and arrests, the gulf between the
races grows wider. Bemdiji Natives were searched and arrested
more than three times as frequently as non-Natives. Nearly
one-fourth, 22.6%, of Natives
pulled over were searched by
pohce, though more than one-
third were initially stopped for
minor equipment violations—a
rate much higher than that of any
other race. Of searches identified
by officers as conducted at their
discretion, Natives were nearly
twice as likely as whites to have
their vehicles examined.
"Among older male drivers,
the search rate was approximately the same for American Indian
and White drivers. In all other
age/gender categories, American Indian drivers were more
likely to be searched," the report
on Bemidji concludes. Nearly
17% of traffic stops of Natives
in the city led to the arrest of the
driver, a detention rate far out
of proportion to the overall arrest rate of 5.1 % and the white
rate of 3.5%. Perhaps the most
startling aspect of this statistic
is the finding that searches of
Native vehicles were not significantly more likely to yield illegal
REPORT to page 7
Strike three: Norton loses again
Judge Lamberth orders full IIM accounting from 1887 to present
By Jean Pagano
Judge Royce C. Lamberth of
the United States District Court
of the District of Columbia ordered a full historical accounting
for Individual Indian Money
(DM) accounts from their creation under the Dawes Act of
1887 through the present. In a
powerful conclusion to the Phase
1.5 Trial of Cobell v. Secretary
of Interior, Judge Lamberth
ordered a full historical accounting "without regard to when the
funds were deposited."
Judge Lamberth set forth a
strict timetable for the delivery
and implementation of the historical accounting. The Secretary
of Interior is ordered to provide,
within sixty days, to both the
Court and the Cobell plaintiffs',
a plan detailing a) which records
are likely to be in the possession
of entities outside of the Federal
government; b) identify records
relating to UM accounts; and c)
to issue subpoenas ensuring the
preservation of the records in
question.
The Secretary of Interior also
has ninety days to provide a
detailed plan for collecting and
indexing of all records relating
to the ITM Trust. Additionally,
Judge Lamberth ordered the
Cobell defendants to account for
a) all funds deposited or invested
pursuant to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1938; b) all funds
deposited or invested in the UM
Trust since the General Allotment Act of 1887; and c) provide
an accounting for funds deposited and invested by beneficiaries of the UM Trust whether
they are alive or deceased. The
Department of Interior (DOI)
had attempted to limit the scope
of the historical account to a period beginning in 1994 through
the present and also attempted to
avoid accounting for Trust members who are now deceased.
Secretary Norton had attempted to promote the use of
statistical sampling to facilitate
the requirements of a full historical accounting. This was soundly
rejected by Judge Lamberth who
stated, "The historical account of
the Trust conducted by the Interior Defendants shall not make
use of any statistical sampling to
verify the existence of any transactions that have occurred during
the existence of the Trust, except
as part of an audit of the historical accounting of the Trust."
Judge Lamberth's Order
also takes tribal law into consideration when compiling the
historical accounting. The Interior defendants are required to
provide to the Court and to the
plaintiffs a list of tribal laws and
ordinances that are applicable in
the administration of the Trust.
Thirty days after Interior files its
NORTON to page 5
Backers of casino plan for Mall of America find
unlikely ally
Associated Press
ST. PAUL - Park Place Entertainment, one of the largest
casino companies in the world,
has hired an improbable ally in
its efforts to overcome opposition by Minnesota's Indian tribes
to its plans for a Las Vegas-style
casino at the Mall of America.
Oglala Sioux author and former Green Party U.S. Senate
candidate Ed McGaa is one of
the company's three lobbyists on
the project. He said he took the
job to help Minnesota Indians,
but tribal leaders suspect he was
hired to cause confusion within
the tribes.
Minnesota's 11 Indian tribes
have had a monopoly on casino
gaming since 1989, when the
state entered into a series of
compacts with them. Since then,
casino gambling has turned into
an estimated $3 billion-per-year
business for the tribes.
Non-Indians have been itching to get a piece of the action.
They don't have it yet, but this
year, a 6-year-old proposal to
allow nontribal casino gambling
at Canterbury Park racetrack in
Shakopee got further than ever
before at the Legislature because
of pressure on representatives
to find ways to erase the $4.2
billion state deficit. The state,
which gets nothing from tribal
casinos now, would have received a cut of the revenue from
a Canterbury Park casino.
Park Place, which has not
sealed a deal with the owners of
the megamall in Bloomington,
could be among many competitors seeking legislative approval
next year.
If any nontribal casinos are
allowed in Minnesota, it is generally assumed they will cut
into the tribes' revenues. vTt's
the concept of once it starts,
it'll never stop," said John McCarthy, executive director of the
Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.
Under the circumstances, it
might seem odd for an American
Indian to take up with the other
side in this debate. But it's not
the least bit unusual for McGaa
to take an unexpected position.
When McGaa ran for the U.S.
Senate as a Green last year, he
was a controversial candidate.
His pride in his military career
a Marine pilot agitated Green
activists who take the party's
nonviolence platform to heart.
Party environmentalists were
further outraged when the media
PLAN to page 7
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A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2003
Founded in 1988
Volume 16 Issue 16
October 3, 2003
Michael Lee Littlewolf
MN appeals court upholds 20-year assault conviction
By Jeff Armstrong
Despite finding some
evidence of prosecutorial
misconduct, the Minnesota
Court of Appeals affirmed
the 20-year prison sentence
of 34-year-old Michael Lee
Littlewolf for assaulting his
girlfriend Lisa Johnson in the
presence of her children.
Littlewolf was convicted
of first-degree assault in the
Feb. 13, 2002 incident and
sentenced to the statutory
maximum period of confinement, though state guidelines
recommend a sentence of just
over 13 years. According to
a witness, Littlewolf grabbed
the victim by the head and
threw her to the floor, causing
Johnson to strike her head on
the refrigerator. Because she
suffered facial scars on her
eyebrow, cheek and nose in
the assault, the jury agreed
with state arguments that her
injury constituted "serious
permanent disfigurement,"
which along with creating a
"high probability of death" is
grounds for conviction of first-
degree assault.
"This type of scarring is consistent with scarring we have
previously held to constitute serious permanent disfigurement,"
the court held.
The appeals court struck down
the trial court's sentencing under
the "career criminal" statute because one of his convictions occurred after the assault last year,
but the judges instead upheld the
sentencing departure under the
"dangerous offender" category.
Although Littlewolf had not been
convicted of a prior felony since
1995, the appellate court ruled
that his eight misdemeanors or
gross misdemeanors could be
considered.
"Neither the dangerous offender statute nor the case law
interpreting the statute distinguish between felony convictions
and misdemeanor convictions
for purposes of evaluating past
criminal behavior.. .The record
supports the finding that appellant has a long history and high
frequency of involvement in
criminal activity. Accordingly,
the district court did not abuse
its discretion by imposing an
upward durational sentencing de
parture based on the determination that appellant is a dangerous
offender," the court ruled.
Littlewolf also argued that the
prosecutor's closing statement
prejudiced the jury, maintaining
that he was thus entitled to a new
trial. While the court agreed that
the state's emotional reference
to the approaching Valentine's
holiday was improper, the three-
judge panel held that such statements failed to meet the high
threshold of altering the outcome
of the trial.
"This statement falls into
the category of inflaming and
prejudicing the jury. Rather
than focusing on the legitimate
arguments based on the evidence, analyzing and explaining the evidence, or presenting
proper inferences to be drawn
from the evidence, the prosecutor attempted to inflame the
jury. But the statement does not
require a reversal of appellant's
conviction. The Valentine's Day
story spanned only one-half
of a page of the transcript; the
prosecutor's closing argument
spans almost 20 pages," the appeals court ruled.
Tribes responding to Schwarzenegger criticism
with cash, ads
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - The
state's newest political powerhouses are now in open
battle with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose
stance on tribal gambling is
beginning to sound more like
the man he wants to replace
in next week's recall election,
Gov. Gray Davis.
First Americans for a
Better California is airing
three new ads: one accusing
Schwarzenegger of ^untruthful attacks" on tribes' lawful
participation in the political
process; a second backing his
major opponents, Democrat
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and
Republican state Sen. Tom
McClintock; and a third tout
ing tribes' good works.
The advertisements are in response to Schwarzenegger ads in
which the Republican front-runner says it is time for tribes vvto
pay their fair share" of taxes, and
accuses other candidates of pandering to tribes because of the
$120 million he says they have
spent to influence state politics
the last five years.
Tribes' participation in the
recall election has topped $11
million and is mounting by hundreds of thousands of dollars a
day, making them the new top
contributor in the California political process.
vvJVIr. Schwarzenegger has
chosen to condemn our participation for his own political ends,"
says Mark Macarro, chairman of
the Pechanga Band of Luiseno
Indians, who is featured in all
three of the ads.
Macarro was best known as
the spokesman for the ballot
initiatives that gave California
Indian gambling. The Pechangas
and Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay
Indians since created First Americans for a Better California that
is running the ads.
Schwarzenegger said Bustamante's and McClintock's acceptance of tribal money creates
a conflict of interest because the
governor has to approve Indian
casino compacts. Early in the
campaign, Schwarzenegger said
he would accept no special interest money, but he soon narrowed
that to contributions from tribes
and labor unions that are oppos-
CRITICISM to page 5
American Indian tribes making leaps in
diabetes programs
By Renee Ruble
Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. - American Indian tribes are making
significant leaps in diabetes
treatment and prevention programs, but they're not tapping
in to all the federal resources
available, national health leaders said Tuesday.
Of the roughly 320 diabetes
grant programs created in recent years throughout Indian
Country, more than 80 percent
are tribally run, said Kelly
Acton, director of the Indian
Health Service National Diabetes Program.
^These outcomes are impressive," Acton said at the
National Indian Health Board
annual conference.
Diabetes took center stage
at the gathering of tribal leaders and Indians from across
the United States and Canada
- including the Ojibwe, Cree,
Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw,
One and Kiowa - who discussed
the future of American Indian
and Alaska Native health care.
The adult diabetes rate for
American Indians is double the
national rate (15.3 percent for
American Indians and Alaska natives versus 7.3 percent), according to a recent federal study.
Congress has increased funding for the national Indian diabetes program to $150 million per
year through 2008 _ a dramatic
hike from the prior $30 million
it set aside for the program to be
spread over a five-year period
(1998-2002).
Acton credited tribal leaders
for making diabetes a priority
and creating innovative programs
like the Rocky Boy Reservation
in Montana, which has a diabetes
newsletter and wellness center,
where cooking classes are held.
And in northeastern Minnesota, the Fond du Lac Band of
Ojibwe teaches about diabetes in
day-camps for teenagers and in
early childhood programs. Tribes
have created similar programs in
Fairbanks, Alaska; Redding, Calif; Wagner, S.D.; and Oklahoma
City.
Of the 318 diabetes programs
that receive federal grants, about
21 percent incorporate traditional
Indian practices, including 17
percent that use traditional healers
and 16 percent that include tradi-
DIABETES to page 7
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