Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2005-11-18

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Cass Lake
residents seek to
stem violence
page 3
Organized Cheating in
Secretarial Election
page 5
I Declare Peace
page 5
Vote NO, Twice! Then
sign petition to revoke
MCT Constitution
page 4
Vote NO on
both MCT
Constitutional
Amendments
page 4
Rosa Parks
Revisited
MCT Style
MCT members to decide on two
constitutional amendments Nov. 22
By Bill Lawrence
Next Wednesday, November
23,2005, the oral arguments for
Buddie Greene vs Commissioner
of the Minnesota Department of
Human Services and Aitkin
County Health and Human Services will be heard at 2:30 PM at
the Aitkin County Courthouse.
"This case is about my being
told to get to the back of the bus
just like Rosa Parks" according
to Ms. Buddie Greene, single
mother of 5-year-old Misty.
Buddie said, "Because I am
an Indian I have been told that
I can only use MF1P required
employment services from the
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
(MCT). I asked to use the Aitkin
County Social Service's employment services program like any
other taxpayer citizen but I was
denied."
Greene was then financially
sanctioned 30 % of her monthly
benefits for not using the state's
required employment service
provider, the MCT. Greene
appealed her sanctions because
she did not think it was fair she
could not use the regular citizen's
public services.
According to Frank Bibeau, attorney for Buddie Greene, "this
present court case involves an
equal protection violation where
Buddie Greene is being treated
differently by state government because she is an Indian."
MCT to page 4
By Bill Lawrence
November 22, members of
the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
(MCT) will decide whether to
add two new amendments to the
MCT constitution.
The election is scheduled for
November 22, 2005; polls will
be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at
Bois Forte, Fond Du Lac, Grand
Portage, Leech Lake, White Earth,
Mille Lacs, Duluth and Minneapolis. The polling stations are
listed in a schedule that appears
elsewhere in this issue. Voters enrolled in any one of the six bands
of the MCT may vote at any
polling place. Voter registration
on site on election day is permitted; absentee voting is permitted.
Contract Gary Frazer of the MCT
for details.
Two amendments, both to Article
IV Tribal Elections of the MCT
constitution, will be on the ballot.
Proposed Amendment "A"
would require all candidates to reside on their home reservation for
one year prior to the election. This
residency requirement has been in
existence, having been established
by ordinance. The proposed
amendment adds this residency
requirement to the constitution.
Section two, the residency requirement, would read:
Section 2. A candidate for
Chairman, Secretary-Treasurer
and Committeeman must be an
enrolled member of the Tribe and
reside on the reservation of his or
her enrollment for one year before
the date of election. No member
of the Tribe shall be eligible to
hold office, either as a Committeeman or Officer, until he or she
has reached his or her twenty-first
(21) birthday on or before the date
of election.
Proposed Amendment "B"
would prohibit anyone who had
ever been a felon from running
for office. The proposed text of
Amendment "B" follows:
Section 4. No member of the
Tribe shall be ehgible to hold office, either as a Committeeman or
Officer, if he or she has ever been
convicted of a felony of any kind;
or of a lesser crime involving theft,
misappropriation, or embezzlement of money, funds, assets, or
property of an Indian tribe or a
tribal organization.
There is currently nothing in
the MCT constitution that would
prohibit a convicted felon from
running for tribal office.
The proposed amendments were
incorporated in MCT Resolution
70-05, approved by the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribal Executive Committee February 17,2005 and were
forwarded to the BIA along with
the request for the Secretarial Election in July of 2005. The Executive Committee is the governing
body ofthe MCT; it consists ofthe
chairmen and Secretary/Treasurers
of six member reservations.
The proposed amendments
alter the existing Tribal Election
criteria, which included membership, residence on the reservation
of enrollment (by ordinance only)
and being a minimum of 21 years
MCT to page 6
Community Violence Meeting
By Wallace Storbakken
Cass Lake, MN A group of
about 70 people met to talk about
the escalating violence in the Cass
Lake area. The meeting took place
at the Leech Lake Tribal College
on Tuesday, November 15, at 12
noon. The attendance was good
considering there was not much
publicity informing the public of
the event. This writer arrived late
not having heard about the meeting until earlier that morning.
As I walked into the meeting
room I was addressed by the
moderator and asked if I had anything to say. I responded that I had
just heard about the meeting and
wasn't prepared to say anything.
The meeting was being run in
a kind of talking-circle format
with each person given time to
contribute to the dialogue. I had
walked into the room just as it was
time for the people by the door to
speak.
There was some heart-rending
testimony given by many of the
speakers. I witnessed one gentleman, Louis Boyd, in tears as he
talked about the loss of his son, to ,
suicide, because of alcoholic depression. Mr. Boyd had some profound insights into the causes of
the despair and violence endured
by the people of the reservation.
Some of the suggestions made
were simple ones such as building more playgrounds for the
children. Others, like Mr. Boyd's,
made reference to the breakup of
the Anishinabeg as being at the
root of the problem. We do not
treat each other with the respect
that we used to and instead break
up into little cliques of small family groups and political allies. The
concept of extended family, and
responsibility towards others, as
part of the people, does not exist
any longer.
On Monday, November 14,
the Minneapolis Star Tribune
published an article on page Bl
titled: "Violence ripples across
Cass Lake." Leech Lake Chairman George Goggleye was
quoted extensively. Goggleye has
"declared war" on the so-called
thugs and is arranging a meeting
with Minnesota Attorney General
Mike Hatch.
There were no elected tribal officials present at the meeting, but
State Representative Frank Moe
did attend. Some of the meeting
attendees expressed disappoints
ment at the lack of attendance
by tribal officials. However,
this might have been a positive
development for the meeting
since the participants would not
be intimidated and could feel free
to express their opinions.
As Frank Moe was leaving the
meeting I asked him how he had
heard about the meeting. He said
that he had been informed of the
meeting by Cass Lake Mayor,
MEETING to page 3
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
High school student develops program to stem violence
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY- A program developed by a teenager
that discourages domestic violence has expanded to 10 schools
in southeastern Oklahoma.
Now in its second year, Project Falummichechi_ the word
means "to reclaim" in Choctaw
_ was the brainchild of Claire
Richard, an 18-year-old at the
private Casady School. She has
received state and national hon- >
ors, including the $2,000 Gloria
Barron Prize for Young Heroes
and a Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Oklahoma Champions of Health
award.
Richard, an Oklahoma City
resident, was 16 two summers
ago when she walked into a meeting with Choctaw Nation leaders.
They thought she had driven to
Durant with her mother to do
volunteer work in an existing
program.
Instead, the self-confident red
head with Choctaw blood pulled
out a neatly typed proposal for a
program to tackle domestic violence. Her idea was to train high
school students to spread the message among elementary smdents
that "hitting is not cool."
"I was astounded," said Joyce
Wells, director of the Choctaw
Nation Healthy Lifestyles Program. "I was thinking, 'Why did
some of us not think of this?'"
Richard became interested
in domestic violence in middle
school when a friend got involved
in an abusive relationship.
"He was shouting at her and
throwing her against a locker. As
friends, we didn't know what to
do to stop it," Richard recalled.
"That has never really left me _
that feeling of not knowing what
to do."
More recently, she learned
that Indian women are more than
twice as likely as any other racial
or ethnic group to be victims of
domestic violence. Eager to learn
more about her Choctaw heritage,
she began daydreaming about a
summer volunteer project on the
subject.
"I came up with a huge, intricate program that really wasn't
plausible," she said. "It slowly
got sliced down to be more manageable."
Richard's central idea was that
if young children could be taught
nonviolent means to resolve conflicts, they would be less likely
to become abusers as adults. In
addition, children exposed to domestic violence at home would
get new ideas about the respect
everyone deserves.
"If I reach the girls at an early
enough age with the message
that that's not how you should
be treated, that would stay with
them maybe," Richard said.
The simplicity of the idea is
VIOLENCE to page 3
Buffalo hair makes elegant and functional clothing
By April Wilkerson
Shawnee News-Star
WYNNEWOOD, Okla. - An
Oklahoma woman has created
the world's only buffalo hair processing plant, where she designs
everything from buffalo hats and
gloves to coats and pillows.
It's an endeavor that's been
years in the making, but it has
grown to have worldwide implications, Ruth Huffman said.
"I never imagined the scope of
this," Huffman said. "We've had
shops in Amsterdam and Scandinavia wanting to carry our yarn.
Buffalo is an elegant, wonderful
fiber, but it's very down-to-earth.
You don't have to treat it like
something that's going to break.
You can wash it in the washing
machine and dry it in the dryer."
Huffman, who once studied
chemistry and history at Oklahoma Baptist University in
Shawnee, started her journey
as a buffalo hair entrepreneur in
1994, when she read a National
Geographic article about the rise
in buffalo herds. She had always
designed clothes, without a pat
tern, but had taken up knitting
then, she said.
She said she learned that most
everything could be spun into
BUFFALO to page 3
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We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2005
Founded in 1988
Volume 18 Issue 22
November 18, 2005
By Dan Elliot
Associated Press
DENVER - Vine Deloria
Jr., a groundbreaking author
and an influential advocate of
American Indian rights, has
died, family members said. He
was 72.
Deloria, a Sioux Indian, died
Sunday of complications from
an aortic aneurysm, said his son,
Phil Deloria.
The author was considered
one of the most outspoken
- and persuasive - proponents
of Indian cultural and political
identity.
His best-known book,
"Custer Died for Your Sins: An
Indian Manifesto," attacked the
American Indians' treatment by
settlers and the government.
"I think he opened Americans' eyes to the real history of
Native Americans and the injustice of past federal policies,"
said John Echohawk, executive
director of the Native American
Rights Fund in Boulder.
"Through Vine's leadership,
tribes started to stand on their
treaties and their right to self-determination," he said.
As executive director of the
National Congress of American
Indians in the 1960s, Deloria
helped forge a united, "pan-Indian approach" in dealing with
the federal government, said Patricia Limerick, faculty chair ofthe
Center of the American West at the
University of Colorado.
"His role in getting Indian
people heard in the last half of
the 20th century is unparalleled,"
she said. "(He was able to) get his
message into camps where it had
never been heard."
Deloria was born in 1933 in
Martin, S.D. He earned an undergraduate degree from Iowa State
University and a law degree from
the University of Colorado.
He held a number of teaching
positions during his career, and
retired from the University of
Colorado in 2000.
On the Passing of
Vine Deloria, Jr.
By Richard B. Williams
Vine Deloria was a wonderfully gifted Lakota man who
quite possibly saved Indian
people from extinction. His
writings advanced a strong
positive argument that Indian
people should assert their right
not only to exist, but also to
grow and thrive independently
in a nation whose policy for
Indians was paternalistic
subjugation. Vine's work set
forth the foundation for the development of a modern definition of sovereignty for Indian
nations. Custer Died for Your
Sins opened the nation's eyes
to the wrongs it had wrought
on Indian people.
The prolific nature of his
contribution to altering the
path of this country's history
DELORIA to page 3
White Earth leader sees
victories, setbacks in first year
Associated Press
MAHNOMEN,
Minn.-In her first
year as chairwoman of the White
Earth Band of
Ojibwe, Erma Vizenor has seen her
share of successes
and setbacks.
Vizenor, who in
July 2004 became
the first woman to
lead Minnesota's
largest band of Chippewa,
said disappointments included
a failure to get the Minnesota
Legislature to support a metro-
Erma Vizenor
area casino.
One victory, she said,
was a decision by the
Minnesota Chippewa
Tribal Executive Committee to hold a special
election Nov. 22 on proposed amendments to
the tribe's constitution.
One amendment would
prohibit convicted felons
from running for office;
the other would require
candidates to hve on the
reservation for one year before a
tribal election.
If they pass, Vizenor said, the
VIZENOR to page 5
Appeals court: Indian money
accounting would be impossible
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A federal
appeals court decided Tuesday that it was unreasonable
to require a detailed historical
accounting of money the government has been managing
for American Indians, saying
the bookkeeping chore would
"take 200 years."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia sided
with the government and the
American Indians in their effort
to block a lower court's order for
the tally of money owed them.
The accounting had been
ordered by U.S. District Judge
Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing a class-action lawsuit in
which thousands of American
Indians claim they were cheated
out of more than $100 billion in
oil, gas, grazing, timber and other
royalties overseen by the Interior
Department since 1887.
In their appeals, the government
and the plaintiffs have argued that
the massive historical accounting
Lamberth ordered would cost up
to $ 13 billion _ far more than was
reasonable.
On Tuesday, a three-judge appeals panel agreed, overturning the
accounting and calling Lamberth's
decision "ill-founded" and an
abuse of discretion that was not
favored by either side in the lawsuit.
Appellate Judge Stephen F. Williams wrote that the accounting
ordered by Lamberth "would not
be finished for about 200 years,
BIA to page 5
Appeals court:
Indian money
accounting
would be
impossible
Associated Press
ST. PAUL - Families of the Red
Lake school shootings victims and
other members of the Red Lake
Nation say they are afraid they
may never learn the details of the
shootings.
A day after a federal judge ruled
that the trial of a teen accused in
connection with the March 21
shootings will remain closed to
the public, the father of one victim said he and other families have
hired an attorney to seek access. A
victims' rights group says getting
answers is an important step in the
healing process.
"We have never had access to
any evidence gathered," said Francis Brun, a retired tribal administrator and father of Derrick Brun,
a security guard killed at the high
school shootings. "I would like
to know what exactly happened
and whether people could have
done something to prevent what
happened."
The father said he and other victims' relatives have asked a lawyer
to file a motion seeking permission
for them to attend the trial.
The trial of Louis Jourdain, 17,
the son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr., is expected
to begin in mid-December in federal juvenile court.
He was charged after the shootings at Red Lake High School. He
was a friend of 16-year-old Jeff
COURT to page 5