Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2005-03-18

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Poison operation
Divided and
conquered
page 4
Leech Laker discontented
with leadership and
conditions on reservation
page 4
No one mentions
Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe anymore
page 4
Top 10 Reasons Leech
Lake RBC may call you
a terrorist
page 4
Pawlenty's flim-flam
casino plan
page 4
Cass County court dismisses LaRoSe trespass case;
transfers to Leech Lake Tribal Court
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
On Friday, March 11, 2005,
Frank Bibeau represented Archie LaRose on the matter of the
Secretary/Treasurer's being issued
a citation for trespassing at the Palace Casino on 2/25/05, (State vs.
Arthur LaRose).
Judge John P. Smith presided.
Cass County attorney Earl Maus
appeared and raised the question
that the recent election changed
things. The Judge acknowledged
that the election appeared to
have resulted in a different set of
circumstances and suggested the
issue could best be interpreted by
the Leech Lake Tribal Court since
tlie situation seemed to involve internal tribal matters and policy.
Attorney Maus requested the
case be transferred to Tribal Court.
Mr. Bibeau did not object, saying.
Mr. LaRose was a Tribal Council
member as well as a member of
the Gaming Board and as such his
presence in the casino after the
election should not be regarded
as a violation.
Judge Smith made the ruling,
sending the matter to the Leech
Lake Tribal Court.
Mike Garbow, Tribal attorney
for the Leech Lake Band, filed a
Motion to Deny Transfer to Tribal
Court on March 14, to return the
case to the County Court. No date
lias been set for another hearing.
web page: www.press-on.net
Restraining order against Secretary/Treasurer
LaRose to remain in force
By Bill Lawrence
At a hearing 3-11-05 before
Cass County Judge John B.
Smith, attorney Frank Bibeau,
representing Leech Lake Band of
Ojibwe Secretary/Treasurer Arthur "Archie" LaRose, requested
the temporary restraining order
against his client be withdrawn
or dismissed. The order prohibits
any contact widi District Representative Burton "Luke" Wilson
by Mr. LaRose. The existing order
expires in May 2005.
Bibeau stated that the restraining order was being used in a
manner that was contrary to what
the Judge described in issuing the
order, namely that it should not
be used to prevent the Secretary/
Treasurer from doing his job.
He further stated that the restraining order was politically
inspired and was based on false
allegations.
District Representative Wilson
appeared in support of maintaining the restraining order that he
had filed against LaRose. In response to Judge Smith's question
as to what his reaction was to Mr.
Bibeau's request, Representative
Wilson said he has asked that
Secretary/Treasurer LaRose be
housed in an office odier than the
one occupied by die Reservation
Business Committee (RBC). He
said he was concerned for his
personal safety and was also concerned for the safety of die RBC
staff. He requested the restraining
Archie LaRose
order be continued and indicated
he was considering a continuance
of tlie restraining order for a year.
Representative Wilson appeared
widiout counsel saying he was
representing himself. However,
Tribal attorney Mike Garbow was
in attendance and Representative
Donald "Mick" Finn and Leech
Lake Pohce Cliief Steve Day also
accompanied Wilson.
Mr. Bibeau countered with infonnation to die effect that staff
allegations against Mr. LaRose
were unsigned and unsubstantiated. The allegations were dated
within a week or two of LaRose's
taking office both times following
both elections and appeared to be
the work of a single individual.
Bibeau stated that he had also
. been the target of such allegations.
He charged that Representative
Wilson and the entire RBC had
provoked LaRose and it appeared
to him that these provocations were
deliberate, done with the intent of
creating harm for die Secretary/
Treasurer. He further stated that
he believed die restraining order
was being used as a shield to
keep LaRose separate from the
other council members and to bully
LaRose. This action is die exact
opposite of what die restraining
order had provided for.
Judge Smith opted to continue
the restraining order until it expired in May but pointed out it
was intended merely to provide
for specific relief, that is, there
be no contact initiated by LaRose
against Wilson. He stated the
scope of the order was very limited
and asked that it be perfectiy clear
diat LaRose should be able to go
to die tribal offices and attend to
bis employment.
Bibeau mentioned diat because
die original order had been issued
in default, none of die allegations
had been proven. He requested a
munial restraining order, diat is an
order restraining Wdson from initiating contact with LaRose as well.
The Judge responded that he
couldn't address that request as
no petition had been filed. He
said this matter sounded to him
like a personality conflict and did
not amount to harassment. He restated that restraining order would
remain in place.
Gaming Fairness Act is unfair to tribes
By Bill Lawrence
Discussion of die Gaming Fairness Partnership, i.e. the state/tribal
casino bdl, has become a non-stop
maradion. The bdl has only just
been introduced yet the number
of words invested in the topic has
probably already hit an all-time
high. The actual details seem to
be changing on a daily basis. The
latest change is the addition of a
'compelling needs' clause.
Governor Pawlenty's advisors
evidendy felt the law frowned on
the state's getting involved injudiciously in a partnership that singles
out a particular entity for special
consideration, for instance the
newly formed "tribal entity" diat
is made up of die Red Lake, the
Leech Lake and die White Earth
bands of Ojibwe. Tlie suggested
remedy was the addition of "compelling needs," meaning any tribe
that aspired to partner widi the state
in a casino deal would be required
to show diey were too poor to meet
basic needs for tribal members.
It also appears that die effect of
the compelling needs clause would
be to prohibit participation in the
state/tribal casino by the wealdiier
tribes—the Mdewakanton Sioux,
Prairie Islanders, and, possibly,
Mdle Lacs.
Press/ON has made several attempts to obtain die most current
copy of the actual bill in order
to give our readers an overview
of some of die more interesting
aspects of the legislation. We did
get Draft 2-23 and our discussion
of the bill flows from details contained in that version.
Our reading of the bdl is not
intended to be comprehensive or
our interpretation conclusive. It
seems to us diat the bdl is heavily
weighted in favor of die state, starting with die $200 milhon licensing
fee die tribes wdl be required to pay
upfront. The tribes will be financing die costs of land acquisition and
construction as well as die costs of
operating die casino. The tribes
have to divvy up about a third of
aU revenues to the state. The bill
requires further that the tribes pay a
percentage to die Human Services
Commissioner for treatment of
compulsive gambling and another
percentage, estimated to be about
$ 10 mdlion a year, to the host community and county.
The tribes pay for investigations and background checks for
officials and employees. They are
required to pay employee licensing fees, upon start up, as well as
annual renewal fees. The tribes,
at dieir expense, must conduct
annual audits. The Commissioner
may also conduct audits with the
tribes picking up the costs. A gam
ing transaction fee is also payable
by the tribes. The information
contained in the audits will be
forwarded to die state but will be
held as "non-public" information.
The tribal entities will be required to waive tribal sovereignty
in matters concerning "disputes
arising out of die location contract
or die construction, management
or operation of the gaming facility." Furthermore, the tribes "must
submit to the jurisdiction of state
court. . . relating to disputes arising out of the location contract or
the construction, management or
operation of die gaming facility."
Any tribe interested in participating in the partnership must file a
resolution in support of such action
by April 15,2005, (a probably too
short deadline).
Limitations are placed on the
amount of liquidated damages
die tribes could sue for in regard
to recovery of investments "in the
event die state through legislation or constitutional amendment
revokes all or substantially all of
die forms of gambling authorized
imder this section." Damages are
limited to the "unpaid balance of
any debt incurred. . . after the location contract has been executed
[signed] and is limited to the debt
ACT to page 5
Department of Interior Discusses Cobell
Differences Highlighted to Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
By Jean Pagano
Associate Deputy Secretary of
the Interior James Cason, along
with Ross Swimmer, Special
Trustee for American Indians,
recendy testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
chaired by Senator John McCain
(R-AZ). Tlie topic of the discussion was trust reform and the
ongoing Cobell v. Secretary of
Interior litigation. The Department of Interior (DOI) has been
fighting the Cobell case for almost
9 years.
Interior has collected approximately $200 million per year for
245,000 open Individual Indian
Money (IIM) accounts. An additional $414 million was collected
in 1,400 tribal accounts for 300
Indian tribes. Furthermore, DOI
manages $3.0 billion in tribal
funds and $400 million in individual Indian funds. At the heart
of die Cobell litigation is the claim
diat the Department of Interior lias
mismanaged IIM accounts since
dieir inception in 1887.
In 1999, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S District Court
ruled that the government had
breached its fiduciary responsibility to die plaintiffs in Cobell.
In 2001, die U.S. AppeUate Court
affirmed that ruling. Since that
time, Interior has come under
increased pressure to perform a
complete historical accounting
for all IIM accounts back to the
time of die Dawes Act of 1887. On
September 23, 2003, Judge Lamberth, via a Structural Injunction,
ordered Interior to undertake a
complete historical accounting
and to conclude it widun 5 years.
Congress passed Public Law
108-108 in reaction to die Structural Injunction and delayed die
historical accounting deadline
until December 31, 2004. Once
the December date had passed,
die District Court was once again
able to impose the Structural
Injunction, which it recendy did
(Structural Injunction for Cobell
Returns - Press/ON, February 25,
2005).
Associate Deputy Secretary Cason presented to die committee his
contrasting views on what Interior
recommends for trust reform and
what the District Court is requiring. According to Cason, Interior's
estimate for historical accounting
will cost $335 million, as opposed to die Structural Injunction
proposed cost (as estimated by
the Department of Interior) of
$10 to $12 bdlion. The DOI plan
will take 5 years to execute while
die Court's plan is scheduled to
complete in 3 years.
The verification methodology proposed by die DOI would
validate all transactions over
$5000.00 by reviewing supporting documentation whereas all
transactions under the $5000.00
direshold would be verified by
statistical sampling. The Court is
requiring all transactions be verified by supporting documentation.
Trust Asset Accounting under die
DOI plan would entail describing
trust assets owned by each IPM account holder as of December 31,
2000. The Court is requiring diat
all assets ever owned by current
ITM holders or dieir predecessors
be authenticated back to 1887.
' COBELL to page 5
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2004
Founded in 1988
Volume 17 Issue 39
March 18,2005
A pair of Buffalo nickels are displayed in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005. Watch out for the stampede!
Millions of American buffalo are headed to cash registers near you. Sixty-seven years after the government minted
its last buffalo nickel, the symbol of the American West is returning to the five-cent piece. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Pawlenty's gambling push might be a budget quick fix, but it will cost in tfie long run
Indecent Proposals
by Mike Mosedale
citypages.com
If you click on a link at the
website of the Minnesota Indian
Gaming Association, you will
quickly discover something you
probably wouldn't expect from
an organization diat represents
Minnesota's biggest and most
powerful casino interests-a litany of statistics illustrating the
many evils casinos rain down
upon dieir host communities.
The no-holds-barred assault
makes its case with rotating
flash graphics and some fairly
astonishing assertions. Las Vegas has die highest suicide rate
in the nation. About 50 percent
of all gambling revenues come
from compulsive gamblers.
Gambling will soon surpass
drug use as the country's number one youdi problem. After a
few more clicks, you arrive at
the big dollars-and-cents argument. Casinos don't merely
wreak havoc on die lives of less
prudent customers and their families, they fuel crime and constitute
a serious drain on die economy.
This message does not come
directly from Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which
represents nine of Minnesota's
eleven Indian tribes, including
die operators of Mystic Lake, the
state's biggest casino. Rather, the
warnings are part of a campaign by
a group called Minnesota Citizens
Against Gambling Expansion, or
MnCAGE. As its name suggests,
MnCAGE is stepping into the opposition role in what promises to
be the most contentious issue before die legislature diis year: Gov.
Tim Pawlenty's push for the state
to get into die casino business via
a partnership with die White Earth,
Leech Lake, and Red Lake bands
of Ojibwe.
Beyond the odd alliance between the self-interested MIGA
(which has a long history of
touting the economic benefits of
gaming) and the antigambling
folk at MnCAGE, there is the
case of Pawlenty's own rather
dramatic flip-flop. Two years ago,
Pawlenty placed himself squarely
in die antigambling camp, saying,
"If the objective is to get money,
aren't there better ways to get
money than engage in an activity that destroys lots of people's
hves?" Now, facing that option or
breaking his no-new-taxes pledge,
Pawlenty has contorted himself
into an egregious two-for-one:
a regressive tax that promises to
destroy plenty of hves.
The desperate play for gambling
revenue—the governor is also considering the "racino" proposal at
Canterbury Park-has put Pawlenty at odds with both a majority of
DFL lawmakers and, more tellingly, a number of fonner state
Republican bigwigs. MnCAGE,
PROPOSALS to page 6
Somebody
forgot to bring
the Peace Pipe
by Mke Mosedale
citypages.com
After Arthur "Archie"
LaRose won reelection as
die secretary-treasurer of the
Leech Laketeand of Ojibwe
last month, he vowed do his
best to get along widi his colleagues on the Tribal Council.
LaRose knew some fence
mending was in order. After
all, just last summer his fellow
coimcil members kicked him
out of office.
Even by the rough-and-
tumble standards of reservation
politics, LaRose's campaign
was extremely contentious. His
critics accused the fonner boxer
of everything from squandering
tribal monies to participating in
the anned heist of a Cass Lake
casino a dozen years ago.
None of the charges stuck,
eidier in die courts or widi die
voters. But considering the
lingering ill feelings, LaRose
decided to tape-record his first
meeting widi die old council.
If nothing else, the transcript
of die 18-minute conversation,
printed in its entirety in the
March 4 issue of the Native
American Press/Ojibwe News,
demonstrates that die problems
of effective bipartisanship are
not limited to the Minnesota
Legislamre.
While the tape contains all
maimer of vituperation and recrimination, die opening salvo
pretty much says it all:
Archie LaRose: Good morning there, fellows. Nice to be
back.
Council member Luke Wdson: Fuck you.
IRS probing Seminole casino resort
bonds sold by Panhandle towns
By Bill Kaczor*
Associated Press
GULF BREEZE, Ha. - Two
small Florida Panhandle cities have
been helping odier local governments, most of diem much bigger,
widi more dian $1 bdhon in low-
cost borrowing over die years whde
making money for themselves from
die resulting bond fees.
. Gulf Breeze and Century,
population 6,189 and 1,783, have
sold bonds for such projects as
an airport hotel in Orlando, utilities in neighboring Okaloosa and
Escambia counties, downtown
redevelopment in Boca Raton,
cargo facilities at Fort Lauderdale-
Hollywood International Airport
and rebuilding in Homestead after
Hurricane .Andrew.
Now, however, the Internal
Revenue Service says they' ve gone
too far by selling $345 mdlion in
tax-free municipal bonds to help
finance two "Hard Rock" casino-
resort complexes for die Seminole
Indians in Tampa and Hollywood.
The IRS three months ago sent a
preliminary notice challenging the
bonds' tax-free stams to The Capital Trust Agency, a joint venture of
Gidf Breeze, a Pensacola suburb,
and Century, a former saw mill
town nordi of Pensacola.
Gulf Breeze Mayor Lane Gilchrist said.he isn't losing sleep
over the IRS investigation.
"I don't see that being a threat,"
Gilchrist said, adding that none of
the city's assets are pledged against
die bonds.
Indeed, it would be bondholders
who get the tax bills if the IRS challenge stands, but they then might
sue Capital Trust and the Seminoles
for reimbursement, said Charles
IRS to page 3
Pombo bill would restrict
off-reservation Indian casinos
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A key
House Republican wants to restrict Indian gambling's most controversial trend - tribes moving off
their reservations, sometimes into
urb;ui areas, to build casinos.
Instead, House Resources
Committee Chairman Richard
Pombo, R-Calif, would create
"Indian Economic Opportunity
Zones" where numerous tribes
could build casinos in one area,
potentially creating mini-Las
Vegases around die country.
Tlie ideas are contained in draft
legislation Pombo's committee
circulated Thursday in advance
of a hearing March 17.
Pombo said he is trying to
respond to complaints about the
spread of off-reservation gambling.
"I don't want to take an oppor-
mnity away from someone, but at
the same time I think we need to
have some control over it," he said
in an interview. "The thinking is
if we can collocate a number of
these, it stops some of the conflicts
we have from them trying to locate
in other areas."
Tlie vast majority of the nation's
411 tribal casinos are on reservations, but as Indian gambling
spreads, tribes are increasingly
looking beyond their borders for
better locations. Indian gambling
BILL to page 5