Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2004-04-09

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Red Lake personnel
see problems
page 4
It is time for change in
Leech Lake
page 4
Open letter to
Chairman White
page 4
Leech Lake needs to
quit borrowing money,
Tribal Council must
have better team work
page 4
Duty of BIA is to protect
historic tribes, not
decimate them
page 4
Leech Lake quarterly meeting ends abruptly
VOICE      OF      THE       PEOPLE
By Diane E. White
BALL CLUB, MN—The
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe's
constitution, Leech Lake
Band ordinances, bylaws, and
resolutions require die elected
officials of the Leech Lake Reservation Business Conunittee
(RBC) to meet publicly every
quarter primarily to present and
discuss progrmn reports and
finances.
On Friday, April 02, the
. meeting was called to order
by Chainnan Pete White and
adjourned a mere 10 minutes
later after an argument between
the Executive Director, Gerald
White and District 1 Representative Burton "Luke" Wilson
enipted. The Secretary-Treasurer Arthur "Archie" LaRose
joined the heated discussion and
even made a motion to adjourn
the meeting. The Chainnan
called the meeting back to order
only to make excuses for not
continuing the meeting to its legal end and promised to reconvene when a more cooperative
Council quorum would assure
the passage of the January 2
Quarterly Meeting Financial
Report, then White made a motion to adjourn the meeting and
LaRose seconded the motion
and the meeting was officially
adjourned.
The heated discussion began
after Uie first two items on the
"Old Business" were passed,
but the third item was not. The
third item was die unapproved
January 2 quarterly meeting financial reports diat were disputed by Wilson who wanted more
infonnation into line item expendimres. At the January quarterly meeting, White had agreed
and ordered Govenunent Controller Veldon Baird and Gaming Controller Dan Erickson to
have the requested documentation presented on January 20 at
a meeting at the Palace Bingo &
Casino. ITie January 20 deadline
passed without a public meeting
and die financial data requested
was not presented in public or
data provided to Wilson. However, since January, Wdson
sued die Secretary-Treasurer in
tribal court for the right to access financial data for business
purposes and was so granted by
Judge Margaret Treuer; however, the order did allow IaRose
to provide copies or to allow review of documents. At die April
2 meeting, both controllers
stated that all data was ready to
be reviewed. Wliite assured Wilson the data was gathered and
he coidd go to die Controller's
office to "only view" the data,
but is not allowed copies of any
data. Wilson was not agreeable
to this limited access. LaRose
dien made die motion to pass
the January 2 quarterly meeting
financial reports, and Wilson
remained silent, thus allowing
the motion to die since no other
committeemen were present. At
that point, the Executive Director, Gerald White charged at
the table where the Councilmen
were sitting and stood in front
of Wilson angrily demanding,
"What is wrong with you?"
wliich could be heard by the
first couple rows in die audience. He then quieted down, but
his demeanor had not changed
wliich only fueled LaRose to
begin talking to Wilson.
At die conclusion of the meeting, die audience of mostly program directors dispersed along
with the feuding councilmen
and then witnessed a verbal
altercation between IaRose and
Wilson. This writer got to the
argument after it started and
oidy heard and seen Wilson accusing LaRose of using employees to campaign and alleged
that LaRose used die Tribe's
cash to pay for his campaigning; and LaRose shouting to
Wilson diat he could not bring
anyone with him to review accounting data he had previously
requested. LaRose agreed that
he and Charlie Michaud had
been out "visiting constituents
in their homes during business hours." He adamantly
denied this was campaigning,
but instead insisted this act
was a part of his constitutional
duties. Wilson argued that he
checked Midland's timecard
and noted that Michaud did not
use any personal lime, and that
he [Michaud] "clocked in" and
"clocked out" as usual to incur a
MEETING to page 6
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe: From ethnocide to
indirect rule
By Jeff Armstrong
Part 1 of 2
The dismemberment and
subsequent theft of the land and
resources of die White Eardi reservation ma>' be one of die best-
documented crimes in history,
but it did not occur in isolation.
Under! the ideological imperative
of apportioning reservation lands
to individual Indians and hence
magically transforming diem
into Christian yeoman farmers,
the 1887 I r.S. General Allotment
Act sponsored by Sen. Henry
Dawes divested Uibal peoples of
some 90 million acres of land,
nearly two-thirds of all indigenous territories reserved under
international treaties. Theodore
Roosevelt once described the
Dawes Act as "a mighty machine to break up die tribal
mass."
To share die dubious benefits
of forced Americanization with
diose indigenous to his state,
U.S. Senator Knute Nelson successfully introduced die ironically-named "Act for die Relief
and Civilization of the Chippewa
Indians in the State of Minnesota." The fonn of relief offered up
by die 1889 Nelson Act was diat
of dissolving all Anishinaabe
reservations in Minnesota with
the exception of Red Lake and
Wliite Earth, with die latter two
passing into private ownership.
As a residt, of die six reservations of die Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, only Grand Portage
has retained the majority of its
original land, wliile Leech Lake
holds onlv 5%, Mile Lacs 5.7%,
Wliite Earth 8%, Nett Lake 10%
and Fond du Lac 21.8%. It is important to keep in mind that die
vast majority of resenation lands
are controlled by the federal and
state governments, rather dian
held by private landowners.
Needless to say, the Anishinaa-
beg strongly resisted die allotment program, as they would all
subsequent efforts to legitimize
die purchase or theft of dieir
land. Due to the consent requirements of die Nelson Act, the U.S.
was obliged to obtain the assent
of 2/3 of affected Anishinaabe
males to give the act effect.
In one of at least ten councils
held at Leecli Lake alone, die
Anishinaabeg insisted diat die
three federal commissioners raise
their hands to a bishop present
to swear diat the government
would allow diem to remain on
dieir land and sought Only die
pine trees. Expressing the mood
of many of his fellow Anishinaabeg, one delegate said, 'There is
nodiing wliich would harm die
Pillagers so much as that Which
you now bring diem. It is our
property, and it is for us to take
care of it. We will not give up to
the Indian who wishes to sign
away our rights to this place."
While Red Lake was able
to forestall allotment until assimilation was abandoned as a
guiding federal doctrine, White    i
Eartii quickly became the focus
of federal allotment efforts. Of
Wliite Earth's 837,120 acres,
673,257 were allotted. All but
7,738 acres of allotted land were
taken dirough a variety of means,
including state tax forfeitures,
mortgage foreclosure, or often-
fraudulent purchase; most of the
remaining land, including four
of die 36 reservation townships
were annexed outright by die
LI.S. government. The most desirable land was largely distributed to non-Indians or so-called
mixed-bloods, or Metis, who had
relocated to Wliite Eartii over die
objections of Hole-in-die-Day
II. The latter was assassinated in
MCT to page 3
Special Master Balaran resigns in Cobell case:
Claims that top Interior officials have energy industry
By Jean Pagano
Special Master Alan Balaran
tendered his resignation to LIS.
District Judge Royce C. Lamberth diis week. Balaran, named
Special Master by Judge Lamberth in 1999, has been die target
of recent Department of Interior
(DOI) motions to have him disqualified from the landmark
Cobell v. Secretary of Interior .
lawsuit.
Balaran claims in his resignation letter that die DOI motions
were filed against him because
he was uncovering questionable
practices widiin die Department
of Interior relating to a number
of issues in and around Cobell.
According to the Special Master, the most recent DOI actions
against him were due to two discoveries diat he uneardied wliile
investigating Cobell issues. First,
Balaran claims to have found
evidence that energy companies
routinely .underpaid Native peoples for gas and od easements on
Native lands, all under die know
ing eves of DOI (as reported in
Press/ON - Aug 29,2003). Secondly, Balaran charged that DOI
failed to properly monitor oil and
gas leasing activities on Native
lands.
According to die Balaran resignation letter, die attempts to
have die Special Master disqualified began widi a March 2003
visit to die Office of Appraisal
Services of die Navajo Regional
Office in Gallup, New Mexico.
During diis visit, in die presence
of officials from die Departments
of Justice and Interior, die Chief
Appraiser admitted to appraising
Native gas and oil leases at values far less dian those of non-Natives. The Chief Appraiser also
admitted to undervaluing leases
for 20 years and told Balaran that
he had destroyed evidence of diis
practice. DOI lias never denied
diese charges nor'have they taken
any disciplinary action against
the Chief Appraiser: To the contrary, diey recendy hired two attorneys to represent him during a
recent deposition.
Balaran offered an August
2003 report where he detailed
how die DeparUnent of Interior
was placing die interests of energy companies over diose of ■
individual Indian beneficiaries-.
The Special Master also
recounted his visit to die Dallas offices of die Minerals
Management Sen ices (MAIS)
in September 2003. This visit
highlighted MMS' fabrication
of audit files and the subsequent
rewards dispensed to those
people who compiled the audit
reports. Whereas in previous
visits, die Department of Interior
had approved and encouraged
die Balaran visits, after just two
hours in the MMS offices in
Dallas, Balaran was ordered by
die Justice Department to leave.
Aldiough previous visits by'
the Special Master revealed scattered incidents of unprotected
(rust documents, these two visits
COBELL to page 3
Indian gaming chairman sees industry's political linkage
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
- Indian gaming's success is not
only cnicial to Indian Country
economic development but is
helping American Indians gain
a stronger political voice, the
chainnan of die National Indian
Gaining Association said.
""Having economic support in
Indian country has helped us be
visible in state capitals; it has
helped us be visible in Washington, D.C," Ernest Stevens Jr.
said in an interview. ~Our
goal is to strengthen sovereignty,
strengdien government-to-government relations and defend the
rights we have."
Earlier, Stevens told industry representatives dial Indian
gaming has created more than
500,000 jobs nationwide and
generated $16 billion in revenue
last year, according to an association analysis.
The group's annual meeting
and trade show, wliich was concluding Wednesday, has drawn
4,000 people and some 300
exhibitors featuring everything
from gaining machine suppli
ers to security firms and casino
architects. The nonprofit group
is die nation's largest American
Indian trade association and represents 184 Indian nations.
The event comes as the debate
over Indimi gaming continues
on Capitol Hill. Among pending
legislation is a bill that would
amend die Indian Gaming Regulator}'Act, including die addition
of various conditions required
for tribes to share revenue with
states.
Stevens said die bill would
GAMING to page 3
web page: www.press-on.net
American
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2004
Founded in 1988
Volume 16 Issue 42
April 9, 2004
Protesters in front of WCCO-TV station in Minneapolis.
by Delvin Cree
The group, "HONOR
NATION' and other Native
American activists held, yet
another protest at WCCO
television in downtown
Minneapolis. The most recent protest look place on
March 16,2004.
The group has been wanting to hand over a petition
signed by 13,000-signitories
who oppose the stereotyping of Native Americans by
the media, which was the
case at this years Grammy
Awards. The hip hop group,
"OUTKAST" performed on
stage wearing green fringed
leather outfits and wearing
headresses.
One protester was arrested at the protest after a
scuffle in the atruim area
of the station and released
after being charged widi 5th
dgree assault. One security
person from WCCO was injured in the rukus.    ,
There are conflicting reports
as to how the scuffle started.
WCCO is saying the protesters
were charging at their employees and trying lo gain entrance
to the building. Some members
of the group alledge, one of die
security guards provoked the
incident
W( ICOTelei isron showed
a clip of a security tape to its
viewers on the 10:00 I'M evening news report. Thou the tape
shows both parties in a confrontation at the entrance of the
building, the station did not play
the part where one of the Native
American protesters was being
kicked and punched by WCCO
staff. This added fuel to the fire,
when other protesters were trying to pull the man lo safety, according to one of the wiuiesses.
WCCO also did not play any
audio of the incident, when
broadcasting the incidenton
the evening news cast. WCCO
staff members involved in die
scuffle could be heard yelling
out racist remarks to the Native
American demonstrators
An elder and member of the
American Indian N lovement,
Vemon Bellecourt also was involved in (he scuffle. With one
leg in cast, he wrestled his way
into the croud to help out. Lie
was not injured in the incident.
The HONOR NATION group
will be meeting soon with
W( CO, CBS and the apparent
owner of both, Viacom Television Station Group. The petition will be handed over after
discussions take place among
all the parties involved.
J ake Al Reum, spokesperson
for the group and a founder,
said he is hoping all will go
well in the discussions. If not,
the group will continue to protest at WCCO.
Report: Coushatta controller warned of
$24 million spending
Associated Press
ELTON, La. - Hie former
controller of die Coushatta
Tribe of Louisiana alerted
tribal leaders diat $24 million intended for tribal healdi
care, housing and education
had been used to pay for lobbyists, according to a published report.
The American Press
of Lake Charles reported
Wednesday diat the May
16,2003, memo from Erick
LaRocque to fonner tribal
council secretary-treasurer
Bertney Langley detailed
how $32.4 million of tribal
funds had been spent on lobbyists from 2001 tlirough
April 2003.
LaRocque sent Langley
die report before resigning.
The memo was written nearly a year before a
congressional investigation
was launched into spending
by five tribes, including die
Coushattas.
""Before I resign my
position as controller ... I
feel obligated to express some
concerns,"LaRocque wrote. "I
hope diis infonnation will assist
die tribe and die council."
LaRocque said many of his
concerns relate to a lack of
"communication of information." He wrote the infonnation
may have been available, but it
was not always made available
to liim.
Besides die lobbyist spending,
die memo highlighted several areas of concern, including casino
expansion projects, tribal investments, life insurance policies
and die use of grants.
The memo also said "significant funds" had been transferred
from tiibal accounts to different
companies.
LaRocque estimated that the
tribe paid more than S32 million from 2001 to April 2003 on
lobbying expenses. To help fund
spending for lobbyists, the tribal
council obligated the tribe to a
$10 million line of credit, die
memo stated.
In February, U.S. Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., called for a
congressional investigation into
spending by five tribes, including the Coushattas, after tribal
members complained about huge
fees being paid for lobbyists.
.\ lcCain also said the Senate Indian Affairs Conunittee
wdl conduct a hearing into the
probe's findings, probably later
this spring or in early summer.
A source close to the investigation who asked not to be
' identified told the American
Press diat die Coushatta tribe
paid Washington lobbyist Jack
Abrainoff $32 million"from 2001
tlirough early 2004.
Abrainoff joined the Miami-
based firm of Greenberg & Trau-
rig in 2001. He left die finn last
mondi after the spending revelations surfaced. He declined to
conmient on die allegations.
The Coushattas own and operate Grand Casino Coushatta near
Kinder, in .Allen Parish. It generates more than $300 million a
year in revenue, employs more
dian 3,000 and is die state's larg-
REPORT to page 3
Judge declines tribe's request to block further state action
Associated Press
TbPEKA.Kau-A federal judge declined Wednesday lo block further state
action against an Oklahoma
Indian tribe and its Kansas
City, Kan., casino or to force
audiorities to return property
seized when diey shut down
the gambling operation.
The Wyandotte Nation of
Oklahoma argued in U.S.
District Court that state and
local officials acted improperly when they closed the
tribe's casino last week. The
tribe also sought the return
of more than a S1 million
worth of properly, including.
150 gambling machines and
money seized by state and local
officials.
But U.S. District Judge Julie
Robinson refused lo grant an order against the state, niling from
die bench diat the tribe had not
made a compelling enough case.
Late last month, die National
Indimi Gaming Commission
ruled die casino was operating
illegally and gave the tribe a
week to respond. After diat week
passed, state and local officials
dien stepped in and closed die
casino.
A key legal question is whether die tribe owns the land upon
which the casino was located.
Jackie Rapstine, an attorney
representing die gmning com
mission mid the U.S. Department
of Justice, acknowledged that
if the land belongs to die tribe,
then die state did not have die
authority to act. Only die federal
government would have such
authority.
But she mid attorneys for the
stale argued that courts have
never settled die question of
whether the land is tribal-owned.
The LIS. Department of die
Interior put the land in trust for
the tribe mid last yem declared
that gmnbling could occur there.
I Iowever, Kansas Attorney
(ieneral Phill Kline still is challenging both decisions in federal
court.