Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2004-06-04

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Chip, how
could you?
page 4
We need to work together
to change the corrupt
system at Leech Lake
page 4
Next election will clearly
define what direction
our Band is going in
page 5
Press-ON endorses
Erma Vizenor
page 4
Tribal Court
Evaluation
could be start of
something good
page 4
Red Lake Tribal Court evaluated
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
Man L. Pearson, Acting
Judge of the Coeur d'Alene
Tribe, visited the Red Lake
Reservation early in April of
this year. She performed an
independent study of the Tribal
Court System at the request of
the Tribal Council. Ms. Pearson,
a Native American, practiced
law for ten years. She is a
member of the Oregon, Idaho
and Washington Bars. Her experience in tribal courts extends
back to 1989 and includes work
in both trial court and appellate court. She is the first law
trained attorney to be appointed
as Chief Judge for the Spokane
Tribe. She occasionally teaches
classes for tribal prosecutors and
judges in the field of Domestic
Violence.
Her findings are presented in
a fifty page document entitled
Evaluation of the Red Lake
Chippewa Tribal Court.
The report is dated .\ lay
21,2004. ".
Judge Pearson's contract stipulated that she
meet with tribal judges,
court staff, probation officers, police, tribal social
services, community
members and tribal council members. She was requested
to evaluate die appropriateness
and the process for case assignments, i.e. the qualifications
of judges and/or their need for
training; evaluate die adequacy
of the filing systems, confidentiality issues, fines and safety of
victims; evaluate the need for
a tracking system; evaluate die
court process for collecting its
case histories; evaluate die need
for court rules and procedures
and whether die Court is meeting the needs of the community;
evaluate the appropriateness of
traditional punishments, including types of offenses and or civil
claims; and comment on tribal
code and procedures.
Additionally, Judge Pearson
chose to comment independently
on Communication; Training;
Drugs in die work place; Indian
Civil Rights Act (ICRA) viola-
lions; Ethics for Court Advocates and Judges and Separation
of Powers.
The report indicates that
Tribal the Red Lake Court
is seriously deficient in every aspect. To list (he major
problems—there are too few
judges, an unsatisfactory arrangement widi a judge also
serving as court administrator,
enormous case loads, back logs,
inadequate record keeping, late
filings, inadequate hacking and
scheduling of cases, no Court
Rules Procedures, no accounting of fine monies, inadequate
space and budget.
Facilities are lacking
for court and jail.
Salaries are below
die amount available
in jobs outside the
Court.
According to the
study, Judges, court
personnel, police
are all in need of
framing. Alarmingly
(here is an enormous number
(15-16,000) of police complaints
Umied over to the prosecutor that
have been unattended. ICRA
violations exist as do viola-
dons of The Violence Agains I
Women Act. Victim safety is
not adequately provided. There
is no Court Room security.
Sentencing individuals to the
overcrowded and condemned jail
"...advocates seemed
to have inappropriate
access to the judges."
amounts to, in her words, cruel
and unusual punishment and
must be addressed immediately.
A lore dian forty individuals
were interviewed for the study.
Among diem were present mid
former judges, the prosecutor
and Ms staff, five Tribal Council members and the Executive
Director, the Directors of Self-
governance and Social Services,
members of die Police Department, two members of Probation
and community members.
Protecting the youth of die
Red Lake Nation is.a strong
dieme of the report. This is present in the form of
abundant commentary on domestic
violence, truancy
issues and the drug
and alcohol problems on die Reservation.
The evaluator
received extensive complaints
about insensitive
judges in domestic violence cases.
Women were berated for repeatedly asking for protection orders
and then dissolving diem or failing to appear to testify. She was
told that police have threatened
to "take you [the victim] in die
next time you call." This action,
if true, was labeled "reprehensible."
Pearson said, 'Tins is caused
by the failure of the judges [and
police] to understand the dynam-
"The Red Lake Nation
is losing an entire
generation of youth to
lack of education."
ics of domestic violence and
results in die victim being revic-
timized by the court." She suggests that each judge, the court
staff, prosecutors, and police ad
receive training in what she refers to as "the cycle of violence."
She reports that she "found
no understanding of The Violence Against Women Act by the
Court personnel, the police, or
even die prosecutor."
The act protects women
when they leave the Reservation and provides general
protections under the law
for victims of domestic
violence. According to
Pearson it is die only full
faith and credit requirement
imposed on states to recognize Indian Tribal Court orders.
In die evaluator's view, training
in die impact of the Act for court
and police personnel is essential.
The report further recommends extensive training for
Court persomiel and police
in "victimless prosecution,"a
system that does not require die
victim's testimony because the
victim's life or the safety of her
children is many times threatened in domestic violence cases
if she is required to testify.
Victim safety in not adequate.
There is no safe location pro
vided for victims of abuse or
"...the prosecutor said
there simply wasn't
time to attend to
truancy and could not
give caseload figures."
domestic violence. She recommends remedying this situation
immediately.
Police are not using a written
protocol and she recommends
they begin doing so, using the
model proposed by the Women's
COURT to page 6
Native voters make a difference again, in South Dakota
Democrat fills Janklow seat due to strength on reservations
By Jean Pagano'
Democrat Stephanie Hersetii
won a close election over Republican Larry Dicdrich in South
Dakota in a special election to fill
the House seat vacated by former
Soudi Dakota Governor Bill Janklow. Janklow vacated his House
seat in December after being
convicted of manslaughter in the
death of a motorcyclist last year.
Thirty-three year-old Hersetii won die election with 51%
of the vote over Diedrich. The
special election was held to fill
the remaining seven-months of
Janklow's term. The two will meet
again in the general election in
November.
Voter turnout was heavy in
many of the comities. In Jones
county, voter turnout was the highest at 74.1 %, whereas in predominantly Native Shannon Comity
where die Pine Ridge Reservation
is located, turnout was lowest
at30.7%. With overall voting
percentages at 56.4%, every vote
counts when less than 3,000 votes
separate the two candidates.
In Bennett County, voter turnout was 62.1% percent, higher
than the state average. Ziebach
County had a turnout percentage
of 44.3 while in Dewey County,
42.7% of die voters exercised
their rights on Election Day.
Corson County had a 40% voter
turnout, followed by Todd County at 39%, and Shannon County
30.7%. Thus, in all but one of die
predominandy Native counties,
turnout percentages were below
the statewide average of 56.4%.
Although die actual number of
voters in heavily Native counties
was lower than in non-Native
counties, in an election where
2% separates die winner from
the loser, Native voters may have
helped make the difference for
Herseth. Those same voters surely have the potential to make a
difference as tiiey did in the 2000
election, which pitted Democrat
Tim Johnson against Republican
John Thune. Large Native turnouts in predominandy Native
counties contributed to Johnson's
524-vote margin. Since diat time,
bodi Republicans and Democrats
have been courting Native voters
on the 9 reservations in Soudi
Dakota hoping to capture Native interests for die upcoming
November elections for not onlv
U.S. Representative and Senator,
but also for die presidency. Native voters account for approximately 9 percent of the state's
registered voters.
Herseth's campaign focused
on a number of Native issues,
namely sovereignty, education,
making quality healtii care available to all Native people, finding
solutions for Trust issues, and issues relating to Native American
soldiers. Diedrich on the odier
hand, was short on details as it
relates to Native issues, other
than a support for sovereignty
and an opposition to die reorganization of die BIA.
While last minute campaign
appearances by Lynne Cheney
and Laura Bush did not seem to
be enough to propel Diedrich
to victory, die small margin of
victory wdl most likely give
Diedrich hope for his November
repeat witii Hersedi. And while
the small percentage was enough
to give Herseth the victory she
desired, she may need to work
harder at energizing more Native
voters to tuni out for die November elections.
VOTE June 8th
for Pride, Honesty, Integrity & Honor
Vf VOTE
George Goggleye - Chairman
Mick Fintl - District Representative
'it's time for us to take back
our Tribal Government!"
web page: www.press-on.net
Native
American
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2004
Founded in 1988
Volume 16 Issue 50
June 4, 2004
AP Photo/Brainerd daily Dispatch, Steve Kohls
Noel Kegg, 7, of Garrison, Minn, danced in a contemporary pow wow Monday, May 31, 2004,
celebrating Memorial Day and honoring American Indian Veterans at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum
and Trading Post located 12 miles north of Onamia, Minn. Kegg, a Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Junior
Princess, performed the "fancy shawl" dance.
Awaken The Spare Rib Within
New BIA chief Dave Anderson uses $13,930 for
staff development
by Paul Demko
CityPages
Newsweek reports in
its May 24 issue that the
new Bureau of Indian Affairs chief Dave Anderson
recently dispatched top
staff members, at taxpayer
expense, to a seminar being put on by self-help guru
Tony Robbins in Chicago.
Reborns is the ridiculously
popular author of such moti--
vational tomes as Unlimited
Power: The New Science of
Personal Achievement and
Awaken the Giant Within. The
local barbecue magnate, a 51-
year-old member of die Choctaw
and Chippewa tribes, is also a
longtime Robbins admirer.
According to die BIA, 14
employees attended the four-
day event at a cost of $995 per
person. For those keeping score,
that's $13,930 in public funds.
How does the chronically
mismanaged BIA justify this expense?
"He just wanted to help the
employees in his office create
a more positive environment
in working on hard issues and
widi odier employees," says BIA
spokeswoman Nedra Darling.
"He thought that this would lend
to diat very well."
Darling further maintains
diat other government agencies
have sent their employees to
Robbins's seminars, though she
could not name one when asked.
Apparently, along with unlimited power comes the ability to
roll logs: Robbins just happens
to have pemied a nice blurb for
BIA to page 7
Biskupic:
Potawatomi
must pay or
quit casino
games
By Todd Richmond
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - The
Forest County Potawatomi
must make dieir payments to
die state or face die prospect
of having their Las Vegas-
style casino games shut
down, a federal prosecutor
said Friday.
Hie slate Supreme Court
ruled earlier this mondi the
games ;ire unconstitutional in
Wisconsin. The Potawatomi
contend die games are legal
GAMES to page 3
Upper Sioux gaining ground in
western Minnesota prairie
By Renee Ruble
Associated Press
GRANITE FALLS, Minn. - It
takes only a few minutes to tour
die new housing development
on the Upper Sioux Indian Community. The circle of homes is a
speck in the vast prairie.
Children run and jump on
shiny new playground equipment, bracing diemselves against
gusts of wind diat rake die freshly plowed soybean fields.
Helen Bluc-Rcdner, die band's
chairwoman, drives slowly
through die small neighborhood,
pointing out details on die two-
story homes, die new septic and
water systems. She motions beyond, to die surrounding fields,
where she hopes someday to see
more homes, a store, roads.
"It's not ours vet," she said of
the land. "But it will be."
The Upper Sioux are one
of die smallest and poorest of
Minnesota's 11 American Indian
bands. They stniggle with dieir
health; diey worry simultaneously about the effect of casino
money on their kids and that
casino revenues might dwindle
someday. And diey' re grateful
for die help that comes their way
from dieir fellow Dakota bands.
"All we're trying to do is
make sure the Upper Sioux is
here _ we have a future." said
Tom Ross, a member of the tribal Board of Trustees. "There's
no untangling us from the area
now."
Nearly all of the Upper
Sioux's 414 members live widiin
15 miles of die community they
PRAIRIE to page 6