Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2004-10-01

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Tribes fight high
stakes blood
battle
page 5
To the Leech Lake
Rez People
page 4
Rebuttal to Wagosh,
What's Up?
page 4
Who will protect
our children from
the courts?
page 4
Education and
the information
revolution
page 4
Indian education 35 years later
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
In last week's article we
looked at statistics that show
there is a big gap between Indian
student and white student success
in school. Over the years this
situation has prompted millions
of lines of print from educators, researchers, politicians and
administrators. What follows
is a pot pourri of philosophical
thoughts, arguments, and recommendations.
"Task Force and conference
finds—produced in early 1991
and 1992, respectively—suggest systemic reforms that would
(a) foster intercultural harmony
in schools, (b) improve teacher
preparation, (c) develop instructional curricula and strategies that
support diverse cultural needs
and learning styles, (d) include
American Indian parents in the
educational process, and (e) adopt
a new paradigm for evaluation of
American Indian student progress
and success." (Source: "Blueprints for Indian Education: Improving Mainstream Schooling."
Robin A. Butterfield, author).
This is a theme that has reverberated throughout the last
30 years. The results have been
development and inclusion of
Native American cultural and
history into the curriculum. The
rate of success for Indian students has not increased since the
inclusion of culturally appropri
ate materials into the curriculum.
"For years, various researchers have criticized the overuse of
standardized nationally normed
tests to assess learner and school
success.... The problems with
using such testing are compounded for American Indian learners
by the common disregard for
the diversity of languages and
cultures among Native learners
from more than 500 tribes, clans,
and villages the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills" is
inappropriate for native learners.
"Today... performance-based
assessment is regaining wide
acceptance as a way to evaluate
learner success.... Performance-based assessment directly
examines student performance
on specific tasks that are important for life.... Some forms
of performance-based assessment include student portfolios,
group assessments, and extended
tasks." (Source: "Assessment for
American Indian... Learners."
Roger Bordeaux, author).
Indian children have not done
well on standardized tests. This
led to the argument that the test
measured verbal ability and
since Indian students were often
not adept in language use, their
scores would not be an accurate
assessment of their abilities. The
remedy for this was obviously
a need to change the method of
testing. This idea doesn't seem
to have been well received, although it may have merit.
"During the year leading up
to" The White House Conference on Indian Education [1992],
"state steering committees
conducted hearings and other
meetings designed to prepare
and finalize recommendations
to the Conference." These recommendations were "designed
to help guide Congress and the
President in their responsibilities
to create and implement legislation impacting Native education." .. ."committees submitted
30 reports; in 22 of them Native
languages and cultures were
identified as priority aspects of
any school improvement effort.
The reports contended that Native languages were in critical
danger of being lost and that
Native cultural priorities were
not consistent with what students were learning in schools.
... The reports concluded that
tribal priorities must include
programs that strengthen the Native languages and cultures; and
that parents, tribes, communities, and schools in partnership
with each other must develop
programs to strengthen surviving
language and traditional skills
and rebuild skills that have been
lost." (Source: "Blueprint for Indian Education: Languages and
Cultures." William Demmert,
REPORT to page 6
Leech Lake Election Board
demands special election stopped
By Diane E. White
CASS LAKE, MN-In a
three and a half hour court hearing on Friday, September 24, in
front of Chief Judge Margaret
Treuer, the Leech Lake Band of
Ojibwe's (LLBO) Tribal Attorney, Michael Garbow defended
the Band against a Temporary
Restraining Order brought by
three members of the Election
Board demanding the Special
Election be stopped or they be
returned to their appointed positions. The Election Board members are Kay Jackson, Luella
Novak and April Green. Gary
Frazer, President of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT)
represented the MCT who were
also named in the court proceedings.
Attorney Frank Bibeau represented the Plaintiffs who were
members of the Election Board.
He also amended the complaint
by adding Donald "Mick" Finn
and Burton "Luke" Wilson in
an official and personal capacity without protest from them
or the Tribal Attorney. He then
opened the Hearing by stating
he would show that, "It appears
that what's happened is a person
has been wrongfully removed
from the Council. It's created a
vacancy that a person is running
Morton man,
24, among 3
wanted in
for. And then that vacancy is
being used to try to make themselves the best or most likely
candidate whose going to get the
best showing and the results."
He also stated the Leech Lake
Tribal Council has no authority
to fire the Election Board and
that they should have taken this
to the [MCT's] Tribal Executive
Committee (TEC) or the MCT
for them to take action and make
a decision.
In Garbow's opening statement, he argued that the Tribal
Court is not the proper forum to
protest an election, but instead
the Petitioners should utilize the
proper channel as set forth in the
MCT Constitution and Ordinance
No. 9 after the Special Election is
over. He further stated that only
a candidate for office can protest and no one else. There were
several candidates present in the
courtroom.
Frank Bibeau countered Garbow's opening statement, "The
jurisdiction that's described in
Ordinance No. 9 is very, very
limited. This is only going to
work for people who are in the
race and after the race has been
conducted. So they have narrowed the jurisdiction to this
BOARD to page 3
Leech Lake tribal
court reaffirms
decision, upholding
hearing certification
By Bill Lawrence
By decision & order filed
on September 29, 2004, Leech
Lake Reservation chief tribal
judge Margaret Treuer rejected
a Leech Lake RBC's motion for
reconsideration and affirmed her
memorandum decision of August 29, 2004. She also rejected
LaRose's request for reinstatement to his office without comment. Oral arguments by the
parties were presented before
Judge Treuer on Friday September, 24 at the Leech Lake Facilities Center.
In her earlier decision, judge
Treuer ordered: "that the removal hearing be reopened to
permit Arthur LaRose to present a meaningful defense to the
charges against him; that the special election be put on hold until
such time as the hearing was
reopened; and that LaRose was
to be certified as a candidate."
Treuer's order is the latest in the
year and half old legal and political struggle over the recall petition to remove LaRose from his
position as the Band's secretary-
treasurer. The full text of judge
Treuer's September 29 decision
on page 6-7.
Pawlenty ups the ante on casinos
slaying
By Terry Collins
Star Tribune
Authorities in southwestern
Minnesota are looking for a
24-year-old man who is facing second-degree murder
charges in a fatal stabbing in
Morton, Minn., early Friday.
Morris J. Pendleton Jr., of
Morton, is a suspect in the
death of Robert F. Berry, 50,
also of Morton. Berry was
stabbed at least 14 times after
both men attended a party in
town, according to a criminal
complaint filed in Renville
County.
"There is some reason to
believe [Pendleton] stabbed
him or knows who did," Renville County Attorney David
Torgelson said Monday, adding that the suspect may have
fled to South Dakota. "Either
way, it would be in his best
interests to turn himself in."
Berry's body was found
Saturday morning in the Minnesota River near Redwood
County, a day after Lower
Sioux Indian Reservation
police had detained — and
later released — a man and a
woman after discovering a
sport-utility vehicle on fire.
Keith Hapana Crow, 22, of
Morton, and Alicia Ann Connor, 18, of Rosemount, face
felony obstruction charges for
allegedly dumping Berry's
body in the river and setting
the SUV on fire. Authorities
later learned that the torched
vehicle had been driven pri-
MORTON to page 5
By Patricia Lopez
Star Tribune
Signaling his most serious
intention yet for the state to cash
in on Indian gambling revenue,
Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday
released a report that says casino
gambling is now a $10 billion-a-
year industry in Minnesota and
yet the state barely shares in the
take.
"That needs to change,"
Pawlenty said in a letter sent to
all four legislative leaders Friday.
The report was prepared by
Mike Vekich, outgoing acting
director of the Minnesota Lottery, who noted that Minnesota's
is the nation's third-largest tribal
casino industry — only California's and Connecticut's are larger
~ and is the only one of the three
not to directly share its profits
with the state.
Connecticut tribes make the
largest payments, according to
the report ~ 25 percent of revenue from machine games. In
return, Connecticut guarantees
the tribes exclusivity over such
video gambling.
Minnesota gambling,
today...and tomorrow
California is still negotiat
ing some of its compacts, but
there, too, tribes will share with
the state as much as 25 percent,
depending on the size of their
operation, the report said.
In what appears to lay the
groundwork for next year's legislative session, the report sets
out the state's options on gambling revenue, including a state-
tribal cooperative casino that
could yield $97 million a year
for the state and video lottery
terminals that could result in a
whopping $400 million annually.
The report divided the state's
tribes. Those with the state's
most lucrative casinos remain
adamantly opposed to what they
see as an attempt to force money
from them, while those still
seeking a larger cut of the action
were hopeful that their proposal
may provide middle ground.
John McCarthy of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which represents nine of
the state's 11 tribes, disputed the
report's numbers and said the report itself "is just another way of
threatening the tribes with a gun
to the head." McCarthy said the
state has continually asked the
PAWLENTY to page 3
Eviction case heads to high court
Oneidas whose homes have
been ordered demolished by
the Oneida Indian Nation will
take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, their lawyer said
Wednesday.
Last week, a federal appeals
court in Manhattan officially
rejected an appeal filed by the
dozen residents of Territory
Road who sought to stop the
demolitions. They now have
until late December to file their
appeal with the high court, said
lawyer Donald Daines.
From Our Advertiser
In the meantime, Daines said,
a court order by the 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals will
prevent the nation from demolishing the trailers until Daines
can file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
Glenn Coin, The Post-Standard,
Thursday, September 30, 2004
web page: www.press-on.net
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2004
Founded in 1988
Volume 17 Issue 16
October 1,2004
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T\Z- .--
Leech Lake Band members demonstrate for Mark Dayton meeting
Democratic Elections and Dayton
This past week on Leech
Lake has been very interesting. The tribal court
heard two interrelated
cases. One concerned the
removal of Archie LaRose
from his position as Secretary-Treasurer and the violation of his due process
rights. The other case was
about the removffl of three Election Board members and the
tribal government's attempt to
interfere with the election to fill
the empty Secretary-Treasurer
position.
On Saturday, September 25,
2004, the Leech Lake Reservation Business Committee (RBC)
hosted a fundraiser for DFL
candidate Frank Moe. The featured speakers were Leech Lake
Chairman George Goggleye
and Minnesota Senator Mark
Dayton. In the parking lot of
the head-start facility, in Cass
Lake where the event was held,
were a number of Leech Lake
members that were holding a
DAYTON to page 4
Elections raise interest in Native affairs:
Kerry puts forth Native American health care plan
By Jean Pagano
Presidential candidate
John Kerry (D-MA) and his
running mate John Edwards
(D-NC) have unveiled a
health care plan for Native
Americans. The plan released
today is the first health care
plan aimed specifically at Native Americans by any of the
Presidential candidates. Native
American voters are seen as a
powerful faction in the upcoming Presidential election.
Kerry has proposed a
five-point plan to reduce
health care disparities among
Native peoples. This plan
proposes to a) increase access to health care coverage;
b) ensure access to culturally
and linguistically appropriate
health care; c) diversify the
health workforce; d) collect,
analyze, and report health
data by race, ethnicity, and
primary language; and e) invest in health promotion and
disease prevention for minority communities.
According to Kerry, the
Federal government spends
approximately $6,000 for
each Medicare recipient,
$3,800 for each federal
prisoner, and $2,000 per person covered by the Indian
Health Service. Kerry states
in his "Ensuring Health Care
Access and Quality for Native Americans" plan that
he supports reauthorization
of the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act (IHCIA).
The passage of IHCIA has been
delayed for over three years. The
Act, originally passed in 1976,
expired in 2001 and has been
moving very slowly through the
chambers of Congress. Only last
week did the House Resource
Committee unanimously approve
the IHCIA (H.R. 2440) and the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs also approved its own version of IHCIA(S.B. 556). Candidate Kerry also proposes expanded coverage for low-income
adults through existing federal
and state health care programs.
The plan also points out that a
small percentage of minorities,
including Native Americans,
fill the nation's pool of doctors,
nurses, and dentists. In order to
increase the number of minority
health care professionals, Kerry
would support Title VII Training.
Title VE has been used to bring
health care professionals into
rural and underserved areas. According to the "Ensuring Health
Care Access" plan, "Patients who
share the same race or ethnicity
as their provider report higher
levers of satisfaction, participation in decisions involving their
health, and use of health services
and compliance."
Kerry also calls for collecting,
analyzing, and reporting health
data by race, ethnicity, and primary language. His goal is to
improve the quality and quantity
of minority health data by promoting voluntary minority health
data collection through programs
like Medicare and Medicaid. Ad-
ditionally, the plan encourages
involvement of minority investigators in clinical trials to help
overcome mistrust of data collection in minority communities.
Finally, Kerry proposes to
narrow the disparities between
Native peoples and their white
counterparts in disease prevention. The plan claims that Natives
are more likely to die from alcoholism, tuberculosis, diabetes, and
influenza than other minorities
and whites. To combat the double
and triple digit percentage differences between Natives and the
rest of Americans, the plan would
encourage healthier lifestyles,
which may lower the incidence of
preventable diseases like diabetes,
heart disease, and cancer. The
plan would also increase research
funding especially for conditions
that disproportionately affect minorities.
While the strategies presented
by the Kerry camp are long on
ideas, they are short on details
such as how these programs are
to be funded. In an environment
where Federal monies seem
harder and harder to come by, the
means to pay for the programs become more and more important.
The Kerry plan is interesting in
two important ways. Firstly, it attempts to address the disparities
in a health care system in which
Natives have often been under
funded. Yet more importantly, it
acknowledges the importance of
Native peoples as not only a demographic entity, but as a group
of people with the ability to vote
in an important election.
Flush with casino cash, Indian tribes placing bets
in key races
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
WASHINGTON- American Indian tribes, flush with
casino cash, are contributing
thousands of dollars to candidates in close Senate and
House races, including to
Senate Democratic Leader
Tom Daschle.
While most of the money
is going to Democrats,
Republicans are getting a
bigger share than they did
four years ago. Indian gaming interests gave 65 percent
to Democrats in the last
two years, compared to 79
percent in the 2000 election
cycle, according to the nonpartisan Center for Respon
sive Politics.
Wealthy tribes who mainly
make their money in casino
gaming used several events surrounding last week's opening
of the Smithsonian's National
Museum of the American Indian
to build on the $4.86 million
they have already poured into
the 2004 campaigns. Since 1990,
according to the Center for
Responsive Politics, they have
given more than $20 million to
political campaigns.
Their support could be critical
in states such as South Dakota,
where former Republican Rep.
John Thune is waging a strong
challenge to Daschle, and in
Arizona, where freshman Republican Rep. Rick Renzi is in
a close race with Democrat Paul
Babbitt, the brother of former Interior Secretary and Gov. Bruce
Babbitt.
Daschle is one of the top
recipients of campaign contributions from tribes involved in
gaming. Last week, he pulled
in more funds at a $l,000-per-
person fund-raiser in the Washington offices of the Connecticut-based Mashantucket Pequot
Tribe.
^He's been a tremendous
supporter of Indian Country,"
said Pequot Chairman Michael
Thomas.
The Pequots and the Morongo
Band of Mission Indians in California, both successful casino-
BETS to page 5