Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2003-11-14

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Transplant initial
success for
Navajo boys
page 3
Nez Perce teens featured
on Nickelodeon special
page 3
Public comments by
Minnesota Education
Commissioner Yecke
Inflame Indians
page 4
Bush Administration's
word games make
children the losers
page 4
The Feds created
the Mdewakanton
identity theft
page 4
Mdewakanton identity theft
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
This week, November 13 and
14, WCCO Television will air
a two-part documentary on the
current Mdewakanton Identity
Crisis. The documentary is
based on the research by Anthropologist Barbara Freezor Buttes,
Ph.D., who owns a research and
consultation firm, WICANPI, in
Lincoln, Nebraska. Ms. Bnttes'
mother, Winifred Freezor, has
been involved in numerous attempts to further her claim to
membership in the  Shakopee
Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC). The research
grew from a desire to discover
tire facts surrounding tlie very
complex issues that make up tlie
Mdewakanton identity crisis.
Ms. Buttes gave Press/On
a copy of tlie manuscript for
publication. It is tlie product of
extensive research developed
over a considerable time period.
The work gives a comprehensive
discussion of historical records
and scholarly work regarding
tlie original identity of die Mdewakanton and tlie other Sioux
groups. She explains in detail
how the confusion between tlie
designation Mdewakanton and
Santee arose, points out flaws in
historical references and errors
in scholarship.
This body of literature, with
its inherent faults played a major role in creating die current
state of confusion over who
is and who is not a legitimate
Mdewakanton. Errors and misinterpretations were common
in the literature and contributed
substantially to tlie current problem because Federal Agents fre-
quendy made decisions and acted
on confusing and inaccurate historical data.
The manuscript gives a thorough accounting of treaties between the various Sioux groups
and the U.S. Government. These
treaties became the basis for establishing legal identities of the
individual bands, communities
and tribes. Treaties were yet anodier way for Ihe Indian peoples
to be defined. The treaties were
abrogated however after the Minnesota Sioux War of 1862.
After the war, Mimiesota
declared itself an Indian Free
State. The "federal government
accommodated that decision by
rounding up and moving all die
Sioux peoples from Minnesota
to Santee, Nebraska. Those
individuals, regardless of dieir
original group (some of whom
were originally Mdewakanton),
became the Santee Sioux of Nebraska.
Buttes details how die Minnesota Mdewakanton group
came into being. She discusses
die Congressional action that
ultimately created die Prior
Lake kinds and how they were
reserved for die exclusive and
permanent use of die Mnne
sota Mdewakanton Sioux  This
group is easily identifiable. The
restrictions governing the allocation of land to them is concise
and easily understood.
Finally, Buttes gives an accounting of how the current
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community was organized.
I low federal agents whether
through incompetence, indifference or complicity facilitated the
organization of an illegal Community dial has subsequendy
usurped not only die identity
of the discrete group of Indians
who became the 1886 Mnnesota Mdewakanton but have
continued to deny legitimate
descendants of diat group the
opportunity to participate in die
governing of the community
or die distribution of gaming
resources that SMSC currently
enjoys.
Ms. Butles' work indicates
that the majority of individuals
in the SMSC receiving per capita
checks from gaming operations
at N lystic Lake are not verifi-
ably of Mdewakanton descent
and are therefore not qualified to
participate in the distribution. In
fact, by law, since die SMSC has
never complied with the 1988
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
(IGRA) in providing an accurate
list of eligible participants, no
one is technically eligible for
THEFT to page 4
Reluctant trustee: Interior spending rider
attempts to derail full historical accounting
By Jean Pagano
An eleventh-hour maneuver
by the United States Congress
has given the Department of
Interior an excuse to avoid a
court-ordered full historical accounting in die landmark Cobell
v. Secretary of Interior litigation.
In late September, LIS. District Court Judge Royce C. Lainv
berth ordered die Department of
Interior to begin a full historical
accounting of die Individual
Indian Money (IIM) accounts.
ETA is were first created in 1887
as a part of die Dawes Act, and
the plaintiffs in the case claim
diat over $100 billion has been
lost, mismanaged, or misappropriated since die creation of IIMs
in die late 1800's.
President Bush signed the
Department of Interior spending
bill into law on Monday. The
rider prevents Department of Interior (DOI) money from being   .
spent to pay for the historical ac
counting, which Judge Lamberth
ordered completed by September
2007. DOI has estimated diat die
historical accounting will cost
billions of dollars and may be
difficult or even impossible since
many records have been lost or
destroyed!
Additionally, government attorneys are also claiming diat the
new law, which only addresses
the historical accounting, allows
them to refrain from implementing additional court-ordered
changes to the way that DOI
handles the management of trust
assets.
Not long after President Bush
signed tlie DOI spending bill,
government attorneys filed an
appeal to Judge Lamberth's September 25th order. The Bush Administration claims that diey are
shielded from Judge Lamberth's
order because of die newly
signed law.
The relevant part of H.R.
2691, Department of Interior and
Related Agencies Appropriations
Act of 2004 reads as follows:
"That nothing in the .American Indian Tnist Management
Refonn Acl of 1994, Public Law
103-412, or in any other statute,
and no principle of common law,
shall be construed or applied to
require die Department of die Interior to commence or continue
historical accounting activities
with respect to the Individual
Indian Money Tnist until die
earlier of the following shall
have occun-cd: (a) Congress
shall have amended die .Amen
am Indian Tnist Management
Refonn Act of 1994 to delineate
the specific historical accounting
obligations of die Department of
die Interior with respect lo the
Individual Indian Money Trust;
or (b) December 31,2004"
Effectively, this new law attempts to legislate what die De-
ACCOUNTING to page 4
Goal for Minneapolis Native cabinetmakers to
provide wooden caskets
By Shirley M. Cain
'Three Native students from
Minneapolis Community and
Technical College who are
enrolled in a cabinetmaking class
anived at a novel idea for the
Native community - which is
building wooden caskets.
Traditionally, many Native
Tribes and traditionalists use
wooden caskets to bury dieir
people who pass on into die
spirit world.
The three students involved in
the class are George Cain, from
die Red Lake Ojibwe Nation,
Juanita Tukrook, an Alaskan
Native and Dehnar Banks from
die Leech Lake Ojibwe Nation.
Mark Lindstrom is die instmc-
tor for the .cabinet-making class.
The other student involved who
is not in die cabinet-making
class is Ted Wind, an enrolled
member from the Leech Lake
Ojibwe Nation. The student who
first diought of this was Tukrook, who wanted to leani how-
to make wooden caskets to take
back to her village in Alaska.
Cain has hopes of fulfilling his
dream of making wooden and
relatively inexpensive caskets for
Native people and odiers wlio
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(l-r) Ted Wind; Russell Quanbeck;
Juanita Tukrook; Mark Lindstrom
use diem. Cain is well aware of
die astronomical costs diat Native people face when a loved
one passes on. It is at a time
when they are grief-stricken and
dien left widi a debt they may-
have for a long time.
One of die students who took
the idea and besan lo research
George Cain; Delmar Banks;
the subject was Cain in September, 2003, Cain first contacted Father Jim Notebaart from
Cadiolic Indian Mnistries in
Minneapolis to discuss die idea
of wooden casket making. Fadier
Jim then went over die plans
CASKETS to page 6
Reservation cigarette smugglers face prison terms
Associated Press
IRVING, N.Y. - Two women
from the Seneca Nation of Indians' Cattaraugus reservation
face prison tenns at sentencing
next month for dieir roles in a
cigarette-smuggling ring.
One co-defendant admitted
sending part of his profits to
Hezbollah, die Islamic militant
group blamed for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed 241
U.S. Marines and sailors in Beirut, Lebanon.
Carole Thompson Gordon,
58, was accused of heading the
New York-based operations
of die Cattaraugus group. She
hired others from die reservation to drive vans loaded with
untaxed cigarettes to Mchigan
for resale at convenience stores,
federal agents said.
At sentencing Dec. 11 in
federal court in Detroit, Gordon faces 33 months in prison
after admitting her role in tlie
conspiracy, prosecutors told
The Buffalo News. Brady Jo
Bowman, 24, who is Gordon's
granddaughter, is facing 18
months.
Bowman's husband, Elias
N lohamad Akhdar, 30, of Dearborn, Mich., faces 78 mondis
for the conspiracy that included
Iris burning down Gordon's
Indian Express Smoke Shop in
Irving in 2001 for the insurance
money after diey looted it of
cigarettes, prosecutors said.
Akhdar, a ringleader of the
smuggling operation who hid
from U.S. authorities on the reservation, has since been banned
by Seneca authorities, the newspaper reported in Wednesday's
editions. Prosecutors claimed
the native of Lebanon had taken
part in military incursions in
Lebanon on behalf of the Hezbollah.
Also pleading guilty was Hassan \ loussa Makki, 41, who
admitted sending more than
$2,000 of Ins profits lo Hezbollah for its"orphans of martyrs
program."
The indictment in February
charged 11 people with conspiracy to commit a pattern of
racketeering;
web page: www.press-on.net
American
Press
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A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2003
Founded in 1988
Volume 16 Issue 22
November 14, 2003
Left to right: Chris Mato Numpa, Ph.D. Associate Prof.at Southwest Minnesota State U.; Will An-
tel, Education Consultant to Minneapolis Public Schools.
Lower Sioux dedicated to unearthing tradition
buried in battle
By Renee Ruble
Associated Press
MORTON, Minn. -Gripping a cane tightly, I srnest Wabasha slowly reached to touch
a pair of heavy iron shackles
hanging from his mantel _
Uie same shackles his greatgrandfather, the legendary
Chief Wabasha, wore during a
forced march across die southwestern .\ linnesola plains a
century ago.
A portrait of Chief Wabasha
hung nearby, surrounded by
die strong faces of die Wabasha line before and after. The
most recent are photos of Ernest and his son, Wabasha No.
6 and No. 7. '
Eniest Wabasha's eyes are
watery and his 73-year-old
body is frail, but the proud lift
of his chin and the straight line
of his mouth echo die framed
pictures of his Mdewakanton
Dakota ancestors.
Wabasha's band endured a
bloody war and was stripped
of its soudi-cenlral territory
in die last century, but in time
they made dieir way back.
Asked about die strength of
die Dakota - why they were
driven to return - Wabasha became quiet and started straight
ahead.
"Il all comes back lo leadership," Wabasha said.
The Wabashas, the Good-
diunders and die Bluestones
are among die old names in
new generations in die Lower
Sioux Indimi Community.
Todaj "s N fdewakanton Dakota
say they are renewing a commitment loward unearthing then-
past from diese river bluffs and
surrounding prairies.
'We are coming together as a
group again, as a Mdewakanton
tribe," said Jody GoodUiunder,
a council member and former
chainnan. "We are reverting
back to our culture. A lot of our
members are moving back to the
old ways."
Tlie band's reservation once
fell nearly hidden among die
cornfields just outside Redwood
Falls. Men and boys would work
for local fanners, often paid widi
a bag of Hour or some meat.
Too poor to afford cars, fiimilies
would walk down the hill to
town, to schxxil and lo church:
Today, die roads bustie widi
traffic to die band's Jackpot
Junction casino and new Daco-
tali Ridge Golf Club, a popular
trend among reservations that
are expanding into golf to create
resort-like destination points.
Crews busily clean the reservation's water tower, mid diunp
ttucks roll by to the building site
of a community center dial will
soon replace a split-level house
as die center of Uibal functions.
About half of die almost
800 registered Lower Sioux
members live on the 1,700-acre
reservation - mainly in modest
homes clustered in small circles
off gravel roads.
They have to live within 10
aiiies of ihe reservation to receive their slime of die Jackpot
Junction revenue, an amount
that isn't disclosed to outsiders. Tnist funds are held for the
Lower Sioux children, who gain
access to part of it at age 18. The
remaining money is received at
21.
In die past decade, median
household income on die Lower
Sioux reservation jumped 300
percent to $69,792 in the year
2000 from $16,223 in 1989,
according to census figures adjusted for inflation. It was the
second-highest median income
on the 11 reservations in Mnnesota, trailing only Prairie Island
($76,186).
The new money is luring band
members home, like Kaye Hester, who reUimed diis summer
after leaving diree decades ago
as mi impatient 21-year-old.
"People are gathering back
togedier, learning die ways of
each Odier. I never diought I'd
come back. There was no hope
here," Hester said.
Despite the new homes and
roads, diere are plenty of historical markers to remind members
of a past that has been difficult.
They show where die Dakota,
starving and ignored by local
wliite leaders, attacked fur traders mid dien government posts
BATTLE to page 6
Red Lake considers casino in International Falls
Associated Press
INTERNATIONAL
FALLS, Minn: - The Red
Lake Band of Chippewa is
considering diis northern border city as die site of a new casino complex that could create
300 jobs.
The casino would have an
estimated $6 million annual
payroll and include 400 slot
machines as well as blackjack
tables, conference rooms and
a gift shop, according to die
American Indimi band.
"We're pretty stagnant up
here mid starving for economic development," said
Paul Nevanen, Koochiching
Economic Development Audiority director. "We wmit to
make it a destination stop and
get people to stop here on their
way to Canada."
Like odier areas of northern
N linnesota, International Falls
is facing an uncertain future in
job creation, Nevanen said. A
partnership between die comity, city mid Red Lake could
help bring new jobs mid attract
tourists, he said.
Environmental pennits mid
approval from Gov. Tim Pawlenty would need to be completed
before the project could move
ahead, Nevanen said.
Gene McArthur, Red Lake
business development specialist, said International Falls area
economic development officials
approached the bmid about the
casino project.
"We have three odier casinos
and our compact allows one
more," McArthur said. "We just
feel die point has come to move
ahead widi another."
Red Lake Band operates casinos in Thief River Falls, Warroad
and Red Lake. About 30,000
people live in International Falls,
Fort Frances and surrounding
areas, McArthur said.
A 40-acre parcel of property-
next to the Duludi
Clinic-International Falls is
proposed as die site. It's owned
by tlie Duludi Clinic.
Koochiching County has a
$177,000 purchase agreement on
die property. The city of International Falls would contribute
about $200,000 in infrastructure
improvements at die site.
It's still unclear whedier mi
environmental assessment worksheet or full-blown environmental impact statement would be
required on the project, Nevanen
smd.
Fortune Bay Resort mid Casino at Lake Vermilion - about 110
miles from International Falls
- is the nearest casino, Nevanen
said.
"If we cmi contribute to the
infrastmemre mid land acquisition, you cmi create 250 jobs
and dien diere's spinoff jobs,"
Nevanen said. "Our geography
makes economic development
tough. It's a situation diat I diink
a lot of conumiiiities mid economic developers me in."
About six months ago, die
Red Lake Tribal Council unanimously approved construction of
the casino.
About 350 people - some in
favor and others opposed lo die
project - turned out for a public
meeting last week in International Falls. Public meetings would
continue to be held during die
environmental review process,
Nevanen smd. "It's a long process. It's got a long ways to go."