Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2005-07-01

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Top 10 Reasons to come
to quarterly meeting at
Leech Lake Reservation
on Friday, July 1
page 4
Petitioners meet
to initiate MCT-
wide Constitution
Referendum
page 4
Red Alert letter to
the People
page 4
Reaffirming the
Declaration of
Independence
page 4
'Chappy
4THOF
JULY
NEXT ISSUE:
JULY 15
Leech Lake quarterly meeting agenda avoids issues
By Bill Lawrence
Notice of the Leech Lake
Quarterly Meeting has been well
publicized. The agenda is printed
adjacent to this article. Press/ON
urges all Leech Lake members to
attend and to participate in the
discussion.
A review of the agenda tells
more about the state of the reservation by its omissions than by its
content. After opening formalities, the first order of business is
the approval of the April 1 minutes. These minutes will not have
been prepared by the duly elected
Leech Lake Secretary/Treasurer.
The Tribal Council (TC) stripped
this duty, and most every other
one as well, from Arthur "Archie"
LaRose.
The financial report follows
the Chairman's report. Again the
at-large, tribally elected constitutional officer responsible for this
duty is not lined up to give the information. This fact should raise
A review of the agenda
tells more about the
state of the reservation
by its omissions than
by its content.
a few eyebrows and hackles.
I note that the OPEN FORUM
is scheduled to come after formal
adjournment of the meeting. This
is an important parliamentary
detail. It means that anything
that comes up in the forum, open
to the public, will not be part of
the official record of the quarterly
meeting. This also should be a
cause for concern.
There are a number of issues of
importance to Leech Lakers that
we want to bring up. These issues
are not mentioned on the agenda
and, unless the Chairman reports
on them, will not be given any official attention.
First is the matter of the three
petitions initiated for the recall of
Chairman Goggleye and District
Representatives Finn and Wilson.
This is of great interest to a number
of Leech Lakers. The stability of
tribal governance is at stake in a
recall effort.
The Department of Interior
(DOI) has notified the Petitioners
that an order for a recall election
would be premature at this time
since the Council in fact did act on
the petitions when it rejected them
since they had not been presented
with the original petitions. It is a
lamentable state of affairs that the
Council is validated by the DOI in
rejecting the petition copies when
It should be of
concern to the 900
some members who
voted for LaRose that.
.. he does not have
any responsibilities at
the meeting...
they used the same type of document that is copies of ihe petitions,
against Archie LaRose. The whole
matter of the rights of the petitioners, the safety of the originals in
the hands of those who it seeks
to remove need to be aired. It is
appropriate that some agenda time
should be allocated to a discussion
of this matter.
It should be of concern to the
900 some members who voted for
LaRose that, even though he is the
duly and enthusiastically elected
Secretary/Treasurer, he does not
have any responsibilities at this
meeting since the TC stripped
him of most of the constitutionally
defined duties and responsibilities
of the office. This action by the TC
raises the question as to the legitimacy of the financial reports since
it is done outside the authority of
AGENDA to page 3
Leech Lake Cass County joint meeting at Northern
Lights Casino
The purpose of the open meeting law is to prohibit actions being
taken in a secret meeting where it
is impossible for interested members ofthe public to become fully
informed or participate.
By Diane White
WALKER, MN-On June 13,
2005, a two-hour meeting between
the Cass County Commissioners
and the Leech Lake Tribal Council
without Secretary-Treasurer Arthur "Archie" LaRose took place
at the Northern Lights Casino. Prior to that a joint meeting was held
between the Leech Lake Tribal
Council (without LaRose) and the
Beltrami County Commissioners
at the Band's Headquarters. The
Band's efforts to meet and improve
the relationship between them and
the neighboring counties is a positive step for the Leech Lake Band
of Ojibwe (LLBO).
LaRose stated he was not informed of any of the county meetings, nor was he informed of the
Tribal Council meeting with the
Cass Lake City Council on Friday
June 17, 2005. He also stated the
Tribal Council did not provide any
pubhc notice of the meetings.
However, both the County
Boards and City Councils must
abide by the State's open meeting
law (See Exhibit 1: Minnesota
Open Meeting Law). The Minnesota Open Meeting Law (MN
STAT 471.705) requires that all
meetings of any governmental
body of a county, city, town or
other public entity in coinmittee,
subcommittee, board, department
or commission thereof be open to
the public. The Minnesota open
meeting law applies to all governmental meetings.
Cass County officials did notify the local newspapers of the
meeting, however, the Press was
not on file with the County Administrator's office and therefore,
was not notified of the meeting.
The Pilot Independent, a weekly
newspaper publication in Walker,
Minn., covered the story and
authorized the Native American
Press/Ojibwe News to reprint Pilot Reporter, Gail DeBoer's article
"Cass Board, Tribe address topics
at joint meeting," dated June 22,
2005 in which DeBoer reports on
the meeting.
The Cass Lake Times reported
on the joint tribal meeting in their
June 23, 2005 edition. Public notice was not provided.
Within the article, Chairman
Goggleye requested the County
to provide greater support in getting the County's District Court to
more aggressively prosecute cases
of criminal trespass at the Band's
casinos. The Press previously
reported on the criminal trespass
charges against Arthur "Archie"
LaRose and tribal member Wallace
Storbakken on April 1,2005.
Sources from the County Administrators office affirmed that
the County government operates
in accordance with all state and
federal laws including separation
TABLE 1: LEECH LAKE GAMING COMMISSION:
CASINO EXCLUSION LIST, JUNE 7,2005
Reason
9
Drugs
85
Theft
43
Dmnk
18
Disorderly Conduct
11
Contributing to Minors
I
Underage Drinking
1
Terroristic Threats
/
Harassment
3
Assault/Fighting
7
Weapon
1
Employee/BlackJackScam
b
Employee Misconduct
t
Illegal Gambling
1
Damage to Machines
6
Hotel damage/theft
6
Suspicious Activity
1
Unknown
1
Self-Exclusion
l\
of powers and civil rights laws.
The County Board of Commissioners cannot and will not tell
the District Court or the County
Attorney how to prosecute cases.
According to the source, during
the meeting former County Sheriff
and current County Commissioner
Jim Dowson responded to Goggleye's request for more aggressive
prosecution of criminal trespass
cases by suggesting a meeting take
place to discuss the issue further
with all law enforcement, court,
and prosecutorial officials. The
source also stated Dowson did not
suggest the County Commissioners be involved in such a meeting.
When this meeting takes place it
LIST to page 6
Cass Board, Leech Lake Tribal Council address
variety of topics at joint meeting
By Gail DeBoer
Staff writer, Pilot Independent
[Reprinted with permission]
Walker, MN-The Cass County
Board and Leech Lake Tribal
Council discussed a wide range
of issues during a two-hour joint
meeting June 13 at Northern
Lights Event Center near Walker.
From cormorants to trust lands,
social programs to law enforcement agreements, the five county
commissioners and four tribal
council members gave updates on
past issues, shared new information and occasionally agreed to
disagree.
(Tribal secretary-treasurer Ar
chie LaRose did not attend the
meeting.)
Leech Lake Band Attorney Mike
Garbow wanted to know if Cass
County intends to continue opposing Leech Lake's efforts to place
more lands in tribal trust status.
Currently four applications
are still pending with the federal government, and no new ones
have been submitted, County
Attorney Earl Maus said. Tribal
trust requests nationwide seem
to be on hold. Because this may
evolve "into a national issue,"
Maus wants to wait to see if the
feds give counties some idea of
whether they will be more lenient
or stricter on trust applications.
"This leaves lots of tribes like
Leech that are trying to establish
bigger land bases, just hanging,"
Goggleye stated. Currently the
band owns only 4 percent of
the land base within reservation
boundaries, which crimps housing and commercial possibilities.
County Administrator Robert
Yochum reviewed that Cass opposes transfer of more tribal land
from fee to trust status because
then the county can't tax it. Both
the county and reservation include large tracts of public land
TOPICS to page 5
Appeals court
tosses out $248
million award
to tribe in
New York
By William Kates
Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A federal
court on Tuesday tossed out a $248
million award to the Cayuga Indians
as compensation for land taken from
them in illegal treaties. Lawyers for
the tribe said they would appeal.
In a 2-1 decision, the 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals cited the
Supreme Court's recent ruling in a
tax case involving the Oneida Indians and the upstate New York city
of Sherrill. In that case, the nation's
high court said too many years had
AWARD to page 3
GOP sweetens health care offer
as shutdown looms
By Brian Bakst
Associated Press
ST. PAUL - State leaders
chipped away Tuesday at their
budget logjam, with Republicans
offering to retain government-
sponsored health care for more
Minnesotans.
But Republicans, who control
the House and the governor's office, are still counting on proceeds
from a new casino to pay for some
state spending. DFLers have said
the state shouldn't balance its
books using gambling revenue.
Pawlenty also risked alienating
his last remaining tribal ally on the
gambling front, as a lobbyist for
the White Earth Band of Ojibwe
said tribal leaders most likely
wouldn't want any participation
in the racino at Canterbury Park,
a key component of the latest Re
publican offer.
Still, leaders remained hopeful
they will reach a compromise
before a partial government shutdown, which will begin Friday
in the absence of some kind of
budget agreement.
Senate Majority Leader Dean
Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said people with camping reservations for
state parks this weekend shouldn't
cancel them yet.
"We're trying every which way,
in a reasonable way, to avoid a
shutdown," he said.
Johnson and House Democratic
Leader Matt Entenza of St. Paul
didn't accept the Republican offer
during the latest talks at the governor's mansion Tuesday morning,
but the two agreed to resume ne-
GOP to page 5
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
web page: www.press-on.net
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2005
Founded in 1988
Volume 18 Issue 3
July 1,2005
Desiree Deschenie, 16, left, a student at Piedra Vista High School, in Farmington, N.M., who has Navajo
and Hopi ancestry, and Victoria Lane, 17, right, a student at Page High School, in Page, Ariz., who has
Navajo ancestry, attend the College Horizons program, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.,
Sunday, June 26, 2005. The two participated in the program designed to help American Indian students
through the college admissions process. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds). Go to article on page 3.
Happy Birthday
Native America
-Huh?
By Diane White
It's that time of year again
to celebrate the birthday of
America. Fireworks, hot dogs,
apple pie, and baseball ...or
maybe some fry bread, wild
rice, a fish fry and a powwow!
The American Indian. The Native American. Or if you prefer
Ojibwe, Lakota, and so on. But
how does a person officially
become an enrolled Indian and
what are the benefits'? The Bureau of Indian Affairs has a website that you can use to leam how
to become "official," "federally
recognized," "enrolled" and
become one of us! Here's how:
Go to the http://www.doi.gov/
ancestry.html website.
When establishing descent
from an Indian tribe for
membership and enrollment
purposes, the individual
must provide genealogical
documentation. The
documentation must prove
that the individual lineally
descends from an ancestor who
was a member of the federally
recognized tribe from which the
individual claims descent.
When people believe they may
be of American Indian ancestry,
they immediately write or
telephone the nearest Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) office
for infonnation. Many people
think that the BIA retrieves
genealogical information from a
massive national Indian registry
or comprehensive computer
database. This is not true.
Most BIA offices, particularly
the central (headquarters,
Washington, DC) and area
(field) offices do not keep
individual Indian records and
the BIA does not maintain
a national registry. The BIA
does not conduct genealogical
research for the public.
Start your genealogical
research with yourself. Do not
begin genealogical research in
Indian records for this can most
often be the wrong approach.
Instead, begin research in
current, rather than historic
records. If an individual is
not currently a member of a
federally recognized tribe, band
or group research should begin
in non-Indian records or other
public records such as those
records   maintained   by   state
BIRTHDAY to page 7
McCain takes aim at
off-reservation gambling
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Congress
never intended for Indians to
build Nevada-style casinos away
from their resenations, and tribes
risk a backlash by pursuing the
trend, Sen. John McCain said
Tuesday.
"None of us ever anticipated
that there would be casinos in the
Catskills," McCain, chainnan of
the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, told a tribal leader from
New York who's pursuing such
a project.
"We're seeing casinos in
downtown Oakland and downtown Denver. ... If we have
enough off-reservation casinos
set up in America we're going
to see a backlash against Indian
gaming, because that was not die
intent of the law," said McCain,
R-Ariz.
The projects near Oakland and
on the outskirts of Denver have
not been approved, but several
tribes have succeeded in establishing off-reservation casinos,
and many more are pursuing
them.
The trend has surfaced as In-,
dian gambling has transformed
in recent years from a relatively
small industry into a huge one,
generating an Estimated $18.5
billion in 2004, nearly double
the take from Nevada's gambling
industry.
Not all tribes have benefited.
Those with reservations near
populated areas have been able to
cash in, wliile those with remote
reservations have often straggled.
Some of diose have sought to lay
claim to better-situated land and
build casinos tiiere.
Underthe 1988 Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act, off-reservation
gambling is allowed only imder
a narrow set of exceptions, but
tribes are increasingly pursuing
those options or finding other
ways. In the Oakland case, a tribe
got a friendly lawmaker to insert
language into a federal spending
bill designating special federal
MCCAIN to page 7
Scientists to begin study of ancient
skeleton over Indian protest
By Wdliam Mccall
Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. - After
nearly a decade of court battles,
scientists plan to begin studying the 9300-year-old skeleton
known as Kennewick Man next
week.
A team of scientists plans to examine the bones at the University
of Washington's Burke Museum
in Seatde beginning July 6, according to their attorney, Alan
Schneider.
Four Northwest Indian tribes
had opposed the study, claiming
the skeleton could be an ancestor
who should be buried. The Interior Department and die Army
Corps of Engineers had sided
with the tribes.
But a federal judge in Pordand,
backed by the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, ruled that die
researchers could study the bones
to determine how dre man died
and to find clues to prehistoric
life in North America.
"What they're getting is absolutely essential baseline infonnation diat has never been obtained
for this skeleton," Schneider said
Tuesday.
The bones quickly attracted at
tention from scientists after they
were foimd in 1996 on a Columbia River bank near Kennewick,
Wash.
The skeleton is one of the oldest and most complete skeletons
ever found on the continent. The
long, narrow shape of the skull
shows characteristics unlike
modem American Indians, raising questions that researchers
hope to answer with extensive
study.
"Understanding human
variation is really critical," said
Cleone Hawkinson, Portland
anthropologist who founded
Friends of America's Past to
support scientific access to the
ancient remains. "We can't close
off an entire chapter in history."
She noted the eight anthropologists who filed the original lawsuit seeking access had to pay for
dieir legal costs and the research,
or seek funding for it. No government money was involved.
"It's all coming out of the
scientists' pockets," Hawkinson
said.
The researchers plan to do
what is called a "taphonomic"
examination of the skeleton,
PROTEST to page 3