Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2005-02-04

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Burton "Luke'
Wilson reponds
page 4
Gambling partnership with
State of Minnesota deeply
womes me
page 4
A Brief Look: Archie's
■Solutions" to Leech
Lake's "Problems"
page 4
What's up LLRBC?
Got the Midas Touch?
page 4
Anderson's
departure a big
loss for Indian
country
page 4
Famous Dave Resigns
By Bill Lawrence
Effective 2/12/05, Dave
Anderson will step down as
Head of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA). In a letter to
Gale Norton, Secretary of the
Interior, Anderson outlined the
Bureau's accomplishments of
the last year and pledged to
continue working "to promote
the improved financial health
of Indian Country." He stated
his intention to continue working privately to find solutions
to problems facing American
Indians, specifically "to tap the
experiences of other successful Indian entrepreneurs along
with academic resources like
the Harvard University Nation's
Building Program, to develop
innovative concepts to promote
economic development in Indian Country." He then promised
to share his thoughts and plans
with the Secretary.
Secretary Norton's reply
acknowledged his accomplishments both as the Bureau's
chief and as a private entrepreneur. She accepted his resignation regretfully but with understanding of his position. She
expressed interest in reviewing
his future plans.
Anderson listed six area of
accomplishment. They are
as follows: An increase of
$43 million in higher educa
tion funding for BIA managed
schools. Implementation of a
pending final rule under the No
Child Left Behind Act developed in "extensive consultation
with Indian Country."  Priority
funding established for "a new
Replacement School Construction List... for Indian Country
schools that have critical health
and safety concerns." Multiple
safety and security improvements for Indian Country detention centers. Building of a new
National Indian Programs Training Center.
His resignation was a bit of
a surprise. As recently as December 2004 he indicated he intended to stay through President
Bush's second term. In an AP
interview he said, "I think this is
an incredible opportunity to get
some things done. Oneof the
reasons I'm here is to help create the change that's needed in
the bureau."
As is typical of Washington
scutdebutt, there are many
opinions as to what caused his
change of heart. It is generally
conceded that the Cobell v. Secretary of Interior lawsuit, and
the trust reform issues that have
arisen, have constrained the
Department, robbed resources
from other Indian programs and
in general created strife and dissension.   It's conceivable the
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
DaveAnderson hasspentjustayearin
his post as head ofthe Bureau of Indian
Affairs. He resigned Monday, saying
he could be more effective in helping
Indians in the private sector.
Photo: David Melmer, Indian Country Today
administration's emphasis on
trust reform lead to disillusionment and loss of faith in the
ability to make progress on his
own agenda items.
A Star Tribune quote supports
this idea, "I felt that my calling
in life is that of an Indian businessman. I feel like I can do
more in tlie private sector than I
could do here basically having
my hands tied."
Tex Hall, president of the
National Congress of American
Indians, said, "Dave Anderson
wanted to develop education,
establish leadership academies,
... revamp die entire economic
FAMOUS DAVE to page 5
Gambling interests' donations detailed
Spokesman for group of Indian casinos predicts 2004 a record year
By Patrick Sweeney
Rachel E. Stassenberger
Pioneer Press
Seventy-three legislators or
candidates for tlie Legislature
accepted contributions from
one or more of seven Indian
political action committees. The
contributions raged from $100
to multiple gifts that totaled up
to $2,200, according to year-end
reports filed over the past several
days with the Campaign Finance
and Public Disclosure Board.
Minnesota Indian tribes, including some whose casinos
would be most affected by Gov..
Tim Pawlenty's effort to cut the
state in on a share of gaming
profits, gave about $550,000 to
legislative candidates and campaign committees last year, according to new reports.
Most, but not all, of the money
went to Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party groups and candidates.
Seventy-three legislators or
candidates for the Legislature
accepted contributions from
one or more of seven Indian
political action committees. The
contributions raged from $100
to multiple gifts that totaled up
to $2,200, according to year-end
reports filed over the past several
days with the Campaign Finance
and Public Disclosure Board.
Final 2004 reports for several
tribes with small casino operations had not been filed Tuesday.
Other gaming interests — top
executives and employees of
Canterbury Park racetrack,
which is seeking a casino, and
executives of the casino company seeking a harness track
and poker club in Anoka County
— also made significant contributions to House and Senate
campaign committees in 2004.
That money, which was far less
than the Indian contributions,
went mostly to Republicans.
John McCarthy, the executive
director of the Minnesota Indian
Gaming Association, which represents the tribes operating the
state's largest casinos, predicted
last week that American Indian
political donations for 2004
would be a record for the tribes.
McCarthy, in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Dick Day
last week, said the Indian donations to the Democrats were a
response to actions by Pawlenty
and legislative Republicans diat
McCarthy characterized as "a
very deliberate attack on tribal
interests."
Day, who in the past has
charged that the tribes' big donations to Democrats bought legislative protection for the Indian
NIGC wants to ensure tribes
receive 'fair share'
The National Indian Gaming
Commission plans to continue
its review of tribal casino deals
with non-Indian investors despite
a call to show restraint by the
former leaders of a key Senate
committee.
At a tribal conference last
week, top NIGC officials said
they are examining various
agreements that tribes have made
with gaming vendors, developers
and other backers. The goal is
to find out whether the deals are
fair to tribes and whether non-Indians are obtaining too much of
a stake in casino projects.
"Are we concerned that the
tribes are not getting their fair
share?" said Phil Hogen, chairman of the NIGC. "That's the
perspective we are attempting to
take. We sit in the shoes of the
trustee."
Hogen, a Bush administration appointee whose term is up
at the end of this year, said the
agency is not attempting to set
any rules in stone. The comment
appeared to be directed at a letter
from retired Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell (R-Colorado) and Sen.
Daniel Inouye (R-Hawaii) who
questioned whether the NIGC
was taking actions without tribal
consultation or public comment.
"We don't want to be to too
intrusive [but] when a developer
comes along to a penniless tribe
and says, 'Boy have we got a
deal for you,'" he noted, "we're
supposed to be the trustee and
keep an eye on it."
Penny Coleman, the agency's
top lawyer, elaborated on some
of the issues being considered.
She spoke of arrangements that
call for tribes to share 30 percent
of gross revenues from a third-
party's casino machines rather
than net profits, land "gifts" and
other property-related transactions mat could tip the scales in
favor of a non-Indian company.
"In many places, that can be as
much as 62 to 65 percent of the
tribe's net profits," Coleman said
of casino machine agreements
common in Oklahoma. "But in
the industry that we looked at at-
large, we found that 30 percent is
not tlie standard, that it's generally much lower."
According to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, a tribe must
maintain a "sole proprietary inr
terest" in a casino. Coleman said
the NIGC is trying to detennine
if any of these agreements violate that standard, which Hogen
acknowledged is "not terribly
precise."
The issue has gained prominence in Oklahoma as tribes
there have engaged in a rapid
expansion of their gaming facilities with the help of a non-Indian
company that is the leading supplier of Class II casino machines.
Multimedia Games (MGAM)
requires the tribes to dedicate
about 70 percent of floor spaces
to its machines and share 30
percent of gross revenues from
those machines under various
lease agreements.
"Has the company developed
an ownership interest in this
facility by ending up with a majority of the profit?" Coleman
asked.
Multimedia also has made
donations of land to at least one
tribe, the Chickasaw Nation.
The property is aimed over to
the tribe and held in trust but the
company is maintaining a long-
term stake in it, according to a
NIGC to page 7
monopoly on casino gaming,
repeated some of that criticism
Tuesday.
"They own the Legislature,"
Day said of the tribes.
But Day, a big supporter of
putting a casino at Canterbury,
said the Indian donations were
not so different from the Canterbury owners and employees, who
have been seeking since 1997 to
persuade lawmakers to approve-a
so-called "racino" at the Shakopee track.
"Canterbury has given, I guess,
to people who want racino," Day
said. "And tlie Native Americans
have given to people who want
to stop racino and keep their monopoly."
Among the 73 legislators or
legislative candidates who got
donations from one or more
tribes, all but eight were Democrats. Contributions to the eight
Republicans totaled $3,600.
Tribal donations to the 65 DFL
candidates totaled $34,500.
Together, tlie tribes donated
$207,000 to the House DFL campaign committee, 9 percent of the
committee's total receipts.
House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, called tlie
House DFL campaign committee
DONATIONS to page 6
Competing
Indian gaming
initiatives
were costly
$107 million spent on
losing measures
By James P. Sweeney
Copley News Service
SACRAMENTO - Indian
casinos, racetracks, card clubs,
unions and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger burned tlirough more
than $107 million last year in a
fight over rival gambling expansion measures, both of wliich
were crashed at tlie polls.
Advertisement The lavish
spending appeared to set a national record for competing initiatives on the same subject, but
did not come close to the record
$88.7 milhon spent on a single
ballot measure, anotiier Indian
gambling initiative, Proposition 5
in 1998.
"Nobody anywhere else
spends that kind of money on initiatives," said Samantha Sanchez
of the National Instimte on Money in State Politics. "It is without
a doubt a national record. No one
else is in tlie ballpark."
That's probably not what supporters of Propositions 68 and 70
had in mind at the outset, but it may
be peihaps all that they accomplished, according to closing campaign statements filed yesterday.
Proposition 68 would have
given slot machines to 16 urban
racetracks and cardrooms if all
Indian casinos refused to increase
the amount they pay the state to
25 percent of gambling revenues.
The measure received just 16.2
percent of the vote.
Proposition 70 offered unlimited gaining to tribes that agreed to
INITIATIVE to page 7
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Founded in 1988
Volume 17 Issue 33
February 4, 2005
Shiloh Edsitty, left, receives a hand-carved Cherokee walking stick from Steve Rainbolt after a memorial service for his mother, Teresa Tilden, at Central Christian Church in Henderson, Nev., Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005. The
13-year-old Navajo boy stabbed and orphaned in a knife attack is awaiting a court decision on whether he'll
be raised by a university professor in upstate New York or on a reservation in Arizona. Edsitty was hospitalized during his mother's funeral. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Sun, Ethan Miller) See story on page 6.
Anderson leaves BIA after one year
By Jean Pagano
Famous DaveAnderson, the
successful restaurant entrepreneur tunied Assistant Secretary
of Indian Affairs, has resigned
his post at the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA). Anderson leaves
liis post at BIA after serving
just one year following his appointment by President Bush in
late 2003.
Anderson inherited an organization beset by troubles and
notoriety stemming from tlie
landmark Cobell V. Secretary of
Interior case and the departure
of his predecessor, Neal McCaleb. Famous Dave, a member of
the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of
Ojibwe from Wisconsin, is well
known for his successful chain
of barbeque restaurants named
'Famous Dave's".'
Assistant Secretary Anderson
took tlie helm and found an
organization in disarray: tlie
Cobell v. Secretary of Interior
lawsuit, now nine years old,
was a prime reason for the departure of Iris predecessor, Neal
McCaleb; the BIA computer
system, long viewed as a security risk for the trust accounting
system, had been disconnected
from tlie internet for almost 3
years; tlie health care system on
reservations was under funded
and overwhelmed with numerous people waiting long periods
of time for health care. Many of
the staff members that Ander
son found at BIA remained from
tlie McCaleb tenure and were
not supportive. As a man with no
government experience, Anderson
was surely at a disadvantage in a
city where bureaucrats reign supreme.
In his January 27th resignation
letter, Anderson accentuated tlie
positive accomplished during his
stay at BIA, including: an additional $32.4 milhon funding for
Native schools; a new Replacement School Construction List to
prioritize fimds for Native schools
with critical health and safety
concerns; thousands of safety and
security improvements in Native
detention centers; a new .American
Indian Records Repository to preserve trast records; and a ground
breaking ceremony for a new National Indian Programs Training
Center.
Wliile these accomplishments
provide some bragging rights for
Anderson, the elusive conclusion
of the Cobell litigation never came
close to materializing. On February 25th, 2004, Anderson stated
"A lot has happened because
of Cobell", yet the ensuing 12
months have shown very little lias
taken place to resolve tlie accounting for trust matters that stretches
back to die passage of the Dawes
Act in 1887. Anderson's optimistic statements concerning Cobell
were never shared by the Bush
Administration and the Department of Interior is no closer to
resolution on this matter than they
were on Anderson's arrival.
Anderson's term was beset with
difficulties among senior aides
and those that remained from
the McCaleb tenure. Anderson
received little in the way of recognition or support from tlie Department of Interior and may have
become frustrated by Hie Interior's
tight grip on BIA.
In Secretary Gale Norton's response to Anderson's resignation
letter, she stated "You can take
justifiable pride in your efforts to
improve Indian education, law
enforcement, and trast services.
You have also been a terrific role
model to young people in Indian
Country."
Famous Dave said "I have concluded that I can have the greatest
impact to improve the future of
Indian Country, not by managing
tlie day-to-day operations of BIA
programs, but by focusing my
time on developing private sector
economic opportunities for Indian
entrepreneurs."
Anderson brought a friendly
face and enthusiasm to tlie office of the Assistant Secretary of
Indian Affairs. With his departure,
the Bureau is leaderless, faceless,
and much in the same position as
it was a year ago. Whereas the
Department of Interior instituted
a reorganizational plan for the
BIA, one cannot help but wonder
if Anderson's agenda was a casualty of the same plan.
Ho-Chunk: No plans to pay state $30 million a year
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis.. - The Ho-
Chunk Nation does not plan to
make its payment of $30 milhon a year to the state, citing a
court challenge that found the
governor exceeded liis authority in making a similar gaining
compact with anotiier tribe, a
spokeswoman says.
The development prompted
Republican Rep. Dean
Kaufert, co-chairman of the
Legislature's budget committee, to call on Democratic
Gov. Jim Doyle to do whatever necessary to get the payment or "shut down all the
Ho-Chunk-operated casinos
in tlie state" until the issue is
resolved.
Tracy Littlejohn, public
relations officer for the Ho-
Chunk, told tlie La Cross
Tribune in a story published
Tuesday that the tribe is not
legally obligated to make tlie
payments and would not make
any under tlie terms of tlie compact.
"That's why such a large
amount was offered in the first
place," she said, referring to the
promise of allowing expanded
games and making a deal with
no expiration date.
The payments were required
under the agreement that the Ho-
Chunk made with Doyle as part
of renegotiating compacts with
all of the state's tribes.
Then the state Supreme Court
raled in early 2004 that the
governor exceeded his authority
when he entered into a perpetual
compact with the Potawatomi
tribe that included allowing more
games, such as craps, poker and
roulette, in exchange for a much
higher payment to the state.
Republican leaders unhappy
widi the compacts Doyle nego
tiated with die Ho-Chunk and
other tribes had mounted the
legal challenge in court.
The Supreme Court decision
raised questions about the similar
deals reached individually with
other tribes, and it sent Doyle
and the tribes back to the bargaining table.
The Ho-Chunk were to pay the
state $30 million last June 30 and
another $30 million this coming
June 30.
State fiscal analysts told state
officials last week diat they
shouldn't count on the Ho-
Chunk payments, which some
had hoped would help the state
offset a potential $ 1.3 billion
deficit as officials prepare the
2005-07 state budget
Doyle presents his budget bill
to the Legislature next week.
Other tribes have gone ahead
HO-CHUNK to page 7