Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2004-10-15

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Suspicion fuels
more oversight of
Election Day
page 5
Leech Lakers stand up
for your jobs
page 4
Jourdain letter to Savers
Red Laker protests
Chairman's action
page 4
LaRose looking
pretty sweet
page 4
Time for out
of the box
thinking and
radical change
page 4
Overall problem analysis of Indian education
35 years later
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
by Bill Lawrence
The majority of American
Indians, their families, children,
institutions and governments are
facing serious issues. Among
them are poor health, unacceptable educational achievement,
poverty, and lack of effective
governance.
The focus of three previous
articles has been the fact that
despite all efforts, educational
achievement and aspiration
among Native American youth
remains unchanged over the past
30 or more years. A persistent
gap continues to exist between
the educational achievement
level of white children and Native American children.
This is, to say the least, a serious, even frightening, simation.
It is a core societal belief that
education holds the solution for
all human dilemmas. If Indian
children are consistently unable
to thrive in existing educational
models, the fumre for them, and
for the Nation, is bleak.
A sustainable program that
makes a difference for Indian
youth has yet to be conceived.
Many intelligent educators,
parents, legislators and odier
concerned citizens have wresded
with diis issue and come up with
nothing.   Money has not solved
the problem. What then can be
done?
The first task is to recognize
that many, many factors bind
themselves together to form the
barrier to education. They include: poor health, poverty, cultural and societal confusion, and
in general a flawed communal
and family system.
Poor health is revealed by the
high incidence of diabetes, heart
disease, addictions to alcohol
and drugs, and crime related
injuries. These conditions are
based in large part on poor life
style choices and self-destructive
behavior. Mental health issues
are also prevalent and include
addictions, depression, fetal
alcohol syndrome, anxiety and
suicide.
Smoking, drug and alcohol
abuse, poor food choices, lack
of exercise all contribute to the
general malaise and result in a
sense of hopelessness, low vigor
and stamina, low aspirations,
and worst of all, low self esteem.
These conditions ultimately
make it difficult to learn and
difficult to hold a job. Chronic
poor health due to unwise choices is a by product of the failure
of education.
Poverty in the individual is
die result of both under and unemployment, lack of preparation
for employment, poor health,
low educational achievement and
aspiration. In the community it
is the failing of tribal officials to
effectively promote and manage
realistic economic development
projects, create jobs, provide a
safe, nurturing environment, administer tribal resources, deliver
human services, including housing. In both cases, individually
and communally, tfiere are no
role models and little educational achievement directing the
outcome. Without a firm educational backing, it's not surprising
that poverty is the one common
factor on the reservation.
Lack of effective governance
is at the heart of community
problems and creates an invisible
barrier that keeps tribal members
in a depressed state, bodi economically and mentally.
Here is a list of factors that
keep Indian children from thriving in the educational system:
poor health, poverty, discrimination in the educational setting,
lack of relevance in subject matter, no fumre expectations, low
aspirations, confused cultural
identity, insufficient family involvement, poor life style choices, lack of discipline, truancy, no
role models, drug and alcohol
use. Add to diat the fact that
ANALYSIS to page 4
Leech Lake legal marathon runs on
By Bill Lawrence
The political pot continues
to seethe and boil at Leech
Lake. The latest cycle of events
involves an announcement of
a new Special Election by the
Reservation Business Committee
(RBC). The election, scheduled for February 15,2004, is
proclaimed necessary because
on October 5, die RBC voted
for the 2nd (or is it die 3rd?)
time to remove Arthur "Archie"
LaRose from the elective post of
Secretary/Treasurer.
A primary is scheduled for December 7,2004 in the event there
would be "more than two (2) eligible candidates for the open position." Candidates may file with
die Acting Secretary/Treasurer,
Luke Wilson, during regular business hours beginning October 13.
The filing period closes October
22, 2004, at 4:30 p.m.
In answer to die announcement of a new election, "candidates for elected offices of
Secretary/Treasurer and District
I Representative" have created a
petition to the court, requesting
that the Leech Lake Tribal Court
Order of August 29,2004, which
suspended a Special Election,
be upheld and the "new Special
Election (for Secretary-Treasurer
only") be cancelled.
The petition charges die current RBC with violating the Trib-
Special election
to fill Leech
Lake Secretary/
Treasurer
position
Cass Lake, MN-The
Leech Lake Reservation
Business Committee AKA
Tribal Council hereby announces that a Special Election will be held on February 15, 2005 on the Leech
Lake Reservation. This
Special Election was made
necessary when the Leech
Lake Tribal Council voted
to remove Arthur "Archie"
LaRose on October 5, 2004
for: 1) malfeasance in die
handling of tribal affairs;
2) dereliction or neglect
of duty; and 3) refusal to
comply widi any provisions
of the Constitution and
Bylaws of the Tribe. This
Special Election provides
for a December 7, 2004 Primary Election in the event
diere are more than two (2)
eligible candidates for the
open position. Candidates
shall file widi the Acting
Secretary/Treasurer or his
designee during regular
business hours beginning
on October 13,2004. Filing will close on October
22,2004 at 4:30 p.m.
-From Leech Lake Band of
Ojibwe press release,
October 11,2004.
Contact: Mike Garbow,
Legal Director
218-335-3673
al Court Order and claims such
action "demonstrates the need
for a respected tribal court system for the people. " It further
charges "die unilateral decision
by the LLRBC to terminate our
Special Election only serves to
benefit District I Representative
Wilson who was recendy reported as tampering with our Special
Election..." Reinstatement of
the original Election Board for
the first scheduled Special Election is also requested.
In concluding, the petition
charges the LLRBC with violation of both the rule of law and
valid court orders and repeats
die request for "cancellation of
this suspect new Special Election and return to the suspended
Special Election Process, with
Tribal Court supervision if necessary."
On October 12, the LLRBC
(Appellants) filed a NOTICE OF
APPEAL, to the Tribal Court's
September 27,2004, Decision
and Order denying Appellants'
motion for relief from judgment,
claiming the Tribal Court erred
in 3 suppositions: 1. in finding
that Appellants were not acting
in an "official capacity" in denying Arthur LaRose certification
"such diat they enjoyed the protection of sovereign immunity
from suit.   2.   in its belief that
Plaintiffs were not acting within
their legal capacity in grafting
new requirements onto certification criteria, and 3. in its finding
diat Appellants refused to follow
constitutional guidelines.
The following day, October
13, DEFENDANT'S MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF
PETITION FOR WRIT OF
MANDAMUS     was prepared
by Frank Bibeau, attorney for
Defendant LaRose. In scathing
comments, Bibeau charges the
LLRBC Plaintiffs with attempting "a backdoor challenge to
stall and change the suspended
election process to suit their new
wants or needs."  The document
charges the RBC widi deciding
"to honor the Tribal Court s August 29,2004 order" when it was
convenient, and dien stonewalling it in another "attempt to unconstitutionally deny LaRose's
candidacy and shield LLRBC
co-plaintiff Wilson from resignation of his office..."
The allegation is made that
"Plaintiff Wilson in particular
was accused of election tampering and ... Plaintiff Wilson
provided no rebuttal evidence
whatsoever."
The Memorandum states that
the October 12 announcement of
a new Special Election was done
"to allow LLRBC Plaintiff Wil-
ELECTION to page 3
The Savagery of Civilization
David Wallace Adams,
Education for Extinction:
American Indians and the
Boarding School Experience,
1875-1928 (University Press of
Kansas, 1995)
Book Review
By Jeff Armstrong
The provocative tide of Adams' book well capmres the
ideological essence of the United
States government's enduring
efforts to extirpate indigenous
identity and culture from its
original inhabitants by subjecting die minds and bodies of Native youths to penal-like instiui-
tions in the name of education.
As the audior demonstrates, coercive assimilation was nothing
less than a more sophisticated
and insidious incarnation of the
Indian war mentality.
Boarding schools offered a
more palatable and workable alternative to physical eradication,
as exemplified by Carlisle Indian School founder and fonner
Indian fighter Richard Pratt's
famous definition of the school's
objective as to "kill the Indian in
him, and save the man." Having
largely achieved its Manifest
Destiny by the latter part of the
19th Cenmry, a more secure nation mined to an innovative answer to its Indian Problem which
reflected the dominant American
values of republican virtue and
free market discipline. As Pratt
argued, the new policy would
also prove considerably more
economically efficient than, and
perhaps equally effective to, the
cosdy and messy business of all-
out warfare.
Indian boarding schools were
America's reeducation camps,
sites of a vast cultural ethnic
cleansing project in which Natives were to be purged oftheir
savage instincts to make way
for the instillation of superior
civilized habits. Basing his account on die memoirs of Luther
Standing Bear, Adams describes
the long journey east to Carlisle,
Pennsylvania of the first Lakota recruits into Captain Pratt's
army of Indian salvation. Unbeknownst to Pratt, the trip itself
served the dual purpose of discrediting the apparent Sioux belief that the eardi was a four-cornered plane off whose precipice
one who strays too far would
surely plummet. In metaphorical
tenns, however, Standing Bear's
expectation that he would fall off
the edge of his world was not far
from the mark.
Upon arrival at Carlisle, the
cliildren were shorn of their hair
and clothes, in much the same
fashion as military recruits.
Dressed in crisp U.S. military
uniforms and forbidden to speak
their native tongues under direat
of corporal punishment, the children were even stripped of their
names and assigned new identities for purposes of symbolism
and convenience. It was the Year
Zero for new arrivals to Carlisle,
where Indian pupils were to be
reduced to a blank slate on which
was to be inscribed the language
of progress. Here they were to
be introduced to die supposed
virtues of obedience, uniformity,
middle-class morality and abject
servitude. Adams characterizes
die institutions as seeking to "restructure the Indians' minds and
personalities." The pupils were
compelled to perform military
drills and were commensurately
issued military rations, diough
REVIEW to page 6
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Volume 17 Issue 18
October 15, 2004
Assistant Secretary Dave Anderson and Mike Goze, one of his aides, at the opening reception. Anderson
spoke to NCAI on Tuesday.
61st annual National Congress of American
Indians (NCAI) underway in Fort Lauderdale
From Indianz.com
The 61st annual National
Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is underway
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
this week. Here's a vvrapup
of some of the events that
took place on Day 2 of
NCAI.
New Miss NCAI
A new Miss NCAI was introduced yesterday morning
after winning the pageant
the night before. Madeline
SoboleffLevy,20yisa
Thngit-Haida from Alaska
whose platform focuses
on improving educational
levels among American In
dians and Alaska Natives.
The outgoing Miss NCAI
2003-2004 is Cheryl V. Dixon of
Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico.
Happy. Healthy. Terrific?
Bureau of Indian Affairs head
Dave Anderson led NCAI
through his usual cheer (but only
once) before highlighting some
of the agency's challenges and
achievements. He said the BIA is
overhauling its policies to better
serve tribes and tribal members.
"We need to set a new course
for the BIA," he told tribal leaders. "What we are doing doesn't
work."
Anderson, who joined the
Bush administration in February,
is creating a book of tribal success stories to share with Indian
Country. He said he hopes tribes
can learn from one anodier in
areas like economic development.
He also said people need to
know diat the BIA is making
positive changes. "We do many
wonderful things at the bureau
but it never gets out," he said.
Some of those successes, he
said, include the first "green"
BIA school, a project to help the
Warm Springs Tribes of Oregon
become the majority owner in
a hydro plant, a BIA records
repository in Kansas and a state-
NCAI to page 3
Homeownership opportunity for Native Americans
Act passes in Senate, sent to President for signature
By Jean Pagano
The U.S. Senate passed
the Homeownership Opportunity for Native Americans
Act of 2004 (HONAA) on
October 11th, and sent die
bdl to President Bush for his
signature. This act, which is
a combination of bills H.R.
4471 and S. B. 2571, amends
the 1996 Native American
Housing Assistance and
Self-lDetermination Bill to
set the federal governments
repayment rate on defaulted
loans to 95%.
Since the Tide VI clause
of the 1996 Native Housing
Assistance Act was passed
into law, die U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) has
set the guarantee rate for
tribal obligations at 95%
to help pay for affordable
housing initiatives. Recendy,
the President's Office of
Management and Budget said
that loan guarantees could not
surpass the 80% level without
statutory authority. This weekis
enactment of HONAA set the
loan guarantee rate back to 95%.
At issue is homeownership on
tribal lands. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) holds Native
lands in trust and therefore die
land cannot be used as collateral
when a home is purchased. Until
Tide VI, the federal government
previously guaranteed 95% of
die purchase price in the event of
a default. Local tribes guaranteed
die other 5%. When the OMB
stated that the federal government could guarantee only 80%
of die price, local Native authorities were forced to assume the
additional 15% that the federal
government no longer provided.
The return of die 95% guarantee level provides an additional
incentive to lenders to make
loans in Indian Countrv. Fearful
of defaults on Native lands, lenders are more likely to provide
loans when the federal government is the guarantor.
The text of the recendy passed
legislation is appended to die
end of Section 601 of the Native
American Housing and Self-
Determination Act of 1996 and
reads as follows: i(d) Limitation
on Percentage A guarantee made
under diis tide shall guarantee
repayment of 95 percent of the
unpaid principal and interest due
on notes or other obligations
guaranteed.!
During healings held earlier this year, the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) estimated
diat die additional 15% loan
guarantee rate would cost the
federal government less than
$500,000 per year. The current
loan volume provided by HUD
is $16.7 million dollars. The
subsidy cost of the program is
ACT to page 3
American
Indian summit
aims to raise
cancer
awareness
Associated Press
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.
- Health statistics show diat
once diagnosed with cancer,
American Indians have a
lower five-year survival rate
dian any other group in the
country.
Organizers of the Northern Plains American Indian
Cancer Summit, which begins Tuesday in Rapid City,
hope raising awareness of
the disease will help reverse
that statistic.
vvPart of it is due to lack
SUMMIT to page 5
Chairwoman of Upper Sioux
challenges governor to debate
ST. PAUL - (AP) Helen Blue-
Redner, chairwoman of the
Granite Falls-based Upper Sioux
tribe, has challenged Gov. Tim
Pawlenty to a debate on tribal
gambling issues.
vvYou tell your side, make
your accusations, and make us
look as bad as you can," she
wrote in a letter to Pawlenty.
vvWe'll tell our side - and we'll
tell the truth."
Pawlenty's office hadn't
received the letter yet, a spokeswoman said Monday.
It's the latest twist in a series of developments between
Pawlenty and the various tribes
over casino funds this year.
A group representing American Indian bands diat run casinos
in Minnesota earlier accused
Pawlenty of distorting revenue
figures to increase pressure on
them to share profits with die
state.
Pawlenty's administration last
month released a report saying as
much as $10 billion is wagered
each year in Minnesota, contributing to casino profits of about
$1.4 billion.
The Minnesota Indian Gaming
Association said Pawlenty was
failing to say diat the figure isn' t
adjusted for prize payouts and
operating expenses.
Pawlenty has said die numbers
are based on the best infonnation
available.
Blue-Redner said in her
letter to Pawlenty that she was
upset he didn't visit the reservation last week during a trip to
nearby Willmar, during which he
talked about the issue.