Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2006-03-03

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Sea of gray page
fillers: IRA Indian
informed voters?
page 5
We have always been
a group of grumblers
without action
page 4
Wonderful World of
Executive Odors
page 4
The "Buck"
stops here
page 4
Red Lake
Keystone Cops
page 4
Tribal Underworld
Dizzying Rise and Abrupt Fall for
a Reservation Drug Dealer
By Sarah Kershaw
New York Times
LUMJVQ INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. — For a time, Room
246 at the Scottish Lodge Motel,
13 miles south of the Canadian
border, was a Shangri-La for Eugenia Phair.
With its stained carpets, its
stench of vomit and stale cigarette
smoke, its bathroom sink smudged
with burn marks from the crack-
cocaine cooks who had used the
room before, Room 246 was where
her drug smuggling operation
began to take off, she said, the
first headquarters of what would
become a well-organized and
lucrative drug ring on and around
this reservation.
Over the next few years, Ms.
Phair, 26, a Lummi Indian, and her
family grew flush and dizzy with
drug money, as she rocketed to the
top in the ripe and cutthroat world
of Indian drug trafficking, selling
painkillers, she said, to everyone,
including tribal officials and jobless strung-out addicts.
"It was almost an answer to your
prayers," said Ms. Phair, who was
released on Feb. 6 after serving
20 months in state prison. "If you
came from rags and then you had
a chance at riches, wouldn't you
choose riches? If you lived your
whole life in poverty and then
you had a chance to be rich, what
would you do? It's almost impossible. I never had anything ever,
no new clothes, no school-clothes
shopping, no nothing at all. Then
you're able to have your kids go to
a good school and look nice and
fit in. I never fit in."
Ms. Phair was among the scores
of traffickers who flourished in an
exploding drug trade on Indian
lands. They are getting rich on
their own neighbors' addictions,
capitalizing on gripping poverty
or new-found casino wealth and
on the weakness of law enforcement in Indian country, according
to tribal and other officials and to
Ms. Phair, who described her life
as the leader of a drug trafficking
ring in phone calls, letters and
interviews over the past year.
From the earliest days — as
she lived with a boyfriend in one
room of the Scottish Lodge while
her three children stayed with her
father, Eugene, in another — Ms.
Phair learned how easy smuggling was for the coterie of Indian
women who worked as mules for
her.
The women would cross the
border into Canada and buy OxyContin pills on the streets of
Vancouver. They hid the pills in
condoms inside their vaginas,
drove back across the border
and delivered them to Ms. Phair,
who sold them on and around the
reservation for double the buying
price.
The Lummi Nation of 4,000
people is a stark land of crabbers,
clam diggers and salmon fishermen on the shores of Bellingham
Eugenia Phair says the 20 months
she spent in prison for selling drugs
taught her a lesson about material
goods and happiness.
Bay in Northwest Washington. It
is where Ms. Phair grew up, proud
to be Lummi, she said, though the
white children at school called
her Lummi Dummy. As a child,
she was surrounded by addiction,
death and crime, and as she grew
older she broke the law several
times, with felony convictions for
robbery, burglary and possession
of stolen property.
In her drug-dealing heyday,
OxyContin addiction had already
become a scourge across the country, and drugs were beginning to
rival alcohol as the vice of choice
on many reservations. When Ms.
Phair was selling pills, the OxyContin trade was exploding here,
worth $1.5 million in 2003 alone,
tribal officials said, double the
profits that year from the tribe's
Silver Reef Casino and far more
DRUGS to page 6
A Cinderella story with a twist
Bill Lawrence
Publisher
Native American
Press/Ojibwe News
COMMENTARY
By Bill Lawrence
Mixed emotions is the best
way to describe my reaction last
week (and this one) as I read of
nationwide drug trafficking activity on our Indian Reservations.
The New York Times and the
Minneapolis Star Tribune have
both devoted significant space to
discussion of the issues.
The publicity from outside
major media sources surrounding
drug trafficking on reservations
drives home the seriousness of
the situation.
Last week we reprinted an article from the NYT regarding drug
trafficking in Mohawk Country—their reservation straddles
the U.S./Canadian border. In this
issue we are again reprinting an
article from the NYT. It is also
about drug traffic on the U.S./Canadian border.
The articles give an inkling
of how great the problem is.
The world's largest unguarded
border, the U.S./Canadian, has
proven to be the world's largest
boon to drug trafficking. One
undercover agent, while working
the Mexican border, was told by
a drug smuggler that if he wasn't
successful working the southern
border, he'd be "guaranteed to
go through" Canada into the U.S.
through Mohawk land.
This week's NYT story tells of
a Washington state Lummi tribe
woman's success at smuggling
a prescriptive drug across the
border from Vancouver, Canada.
Eugenia Phair, mother of four
small children, was recently
released from Washington state
prison after serving a 20-month
sentence for selling OxyContin,
a pain reliever.
"It [drug trafficking] was almost an answer to your prayers,"
said Ms..Phair. She continued,
"If you came from rags and
then you had a chance at riches,
wouldn't you choose riches? If
you lived your whole life in poverty and then you had a chance to
be rich, what would you do? It's
almost impossible. I never had
anything ever, no new clothes,
no school-clothes shopping, no
nothing at all. Then you're able
to have your kids go to a good
school and look nice and fit in.
I never fit in."
She revealed she had grown up
"surrounded by addiction, death
and crime." She acknowledged
her decision to sell drugs created
many more victims. "I have
more victims than anybody here
[Washington state prison]. My
victims are the children whose
parents were using the drugs I
sold."
Both Phair's father and her
grandmother worked in her successful drug network and eventually served time in jail for selling
OxyContin.
She began what was described
as a "well-organized and lucrative drug ring," by exchanging
an initial investment of $300 for
25 OxyContin tablets acquired
on the streets of Vancouver, B.C.
She smuggled the pills back
across the border and sold them
all in one day on her reservation,
for $750, more than double her-
investment.
At the height of her success,
Phair was using 12-15 women as
mules to carry the drugs back into
the U.S. and bringing in as much
as $30,000 in a single day.
She used income from her illicit drug operation to buy $200
outfits and expensive toys for her
cliildren.
Phair contends she sold illegal
drugs to tribal governmental
officials. The current Lummi
chairman, Darrel Hillaire, expressed doubt as to whether she
had sold drugs to any high level
tribal officials. He did however
acknowledge that OxyContin and
other drugs were "ravaging" the
Lummi Nation populace.
Upon her release, Ms. Phair
has pledged to stay out of the
drug business. She concedes it
will be difficult to return to the
TWIST to page 5
Tribe fights to keep video bingo
State challenges legality of White Earth Band's games
By Patrick Sweeney
Pioneer Press
Minnesota authorities are questioning the legality of video bingo
machines that the White Earth
Band of Ojibwe has placed in bars
and private clubs in Mahnomen
and other reservation communities.
The machines closely resemble
slot machines, which state law
allows only in Indian-run casinos
operated under compacts with the
state. But tribal leaders and the
federal commission that regulates
Indian gaming throughout the
United States say the video bingo
machines are fundamentally different from slots and are legal on
reservations across the country,
with or without state approval.
"We're trying to find out what's
legal and what's not legal," said
Minnesota Pubhc Safety Commissioner Michael Campion, who this
week met with White Earth leaders
and state and federal gambling officials to discuss the machines.
Campion, whose department
oversees gambling enforcement,
said he had not concluded whether
the Legislature and Gov. Tim
Pawlenty have power to regulate
the machines or even whether they
should try to do so.
"White Earth is not acting in bad
faith," he said. "They are acting
under the National Indian Gaming
Commission's advisory opinion."
Erma Vizenor, the White Earth
tribal chairwoman, said: "These
are bingo machines. We are in
compliance with all the regula
tions ofthe Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."
Philip Hogen, the top federal
regulator of Indian gaming, sided
with the tribe in the meeting with
Campion, according to Vizenor
and a spokesman for Hogen.
The issue of the bingo machines
is complicated.
It involves a distinction federal
law makes between ordinary slot
machines, which are labeled Class
HI games and pit an individual
gambler against the mathematical odds programmed into the
machine, and Class J3 games or
machines that are based on bingo,
which involve multiple gamblers
playing against one another and
often are slower than slot machines.
The issue also involves federal
law's definition of a reservation
and the approval it seems to offer
for White Earth and other tribes
to offer Class II gambling on
privately owned land within the
reservation's original boundaries.
In White Earth's case, reservation boundaries encompass all of
Mahnomen County and parts of
Becker and Clearwater counties.
Over the past two years, the
tribe has placed about 100 bingo
machines in seven private clubs
and bars - including municipal
liquor stores in Mahnomen, Calloway and Ogema - across the
reservation, according to Vizenor
and tribal officials.
"Anybody on the reservation
can have them, and most of them
do," said Bruce Dormer, manager
of Mahnomen's municipal hquor
operations.
Gamblers in those locations
and bettors at the tribe's Shooting Star casino in Mahnomen
compete against one another in an
electronically linked network.
Dormer said the six machines in
his establishment are clearly designated as bingo games, but they
offer reels that spin and have the
overall appearance of traditional
slot machines. When a bettor wins
the bingo game, his or her reels
line up, just as they would on slot
machine. Gamblers can wager up
to $2 a game, and winners receive
coupons that can be redeemed at
the bar hosting the machines or at
the casino, Donner said.
He said the municipal liquor
store gets 40 percent of the net
revenue from the games.
Donner said he has heard no
complaints about the machines
and that some of his customers
say they prefer to gamble in the
city-owned bar, rather than at the
nearby casino.
White Earth is the only Minnesota tribe putting the bingo machines in private bars and clubs,
said John McCarthy, executive
director of the Minnesota Indian
Gaming Association.
McCarthy said the association, which represents nine of
Minnesota's 11 tribes - it does not
represent White Earth or the Red
Lake Band of Chippewa - has
not taken a position on the White
Earth bingo machines.
But he said the association's
member tribes in the past have
fought efforts to legalize slot
BINGO to page 5
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Volume 18 Issue 3$^
March 3, 2006
Junior Indian Spy Boy J'wan Boudreaux, 9, leads the Golden Eagles tribe down Freret
St. while grandfather and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, right, follows during Mardi Gras
day in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006. African-American Indian tribes have celebrated Mardi Gras since at least 1884. (AP Photo/David Quinn)
BIA sets Red Lake Tribal secretary announces
timetable for candidacy for chairmanship
new gaming
regulations
Indianz.com
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
is moving quickly to develop
new regulations for gaming-related land acquisitions, a senior
official said on Tuesday.
George Skibine, the director
of the Office of Indian Gaming
Management, said he is planning
to send a letter to tribal leaders
announcing the new rules. The
BIA will then hold consultation
sessions in March and April,
publish a draft in the Federal
Register by late May or June and
finalize the proposal sometime in
the summer, he said.
Skibine hoped to send "Dear
Tribal Leader" letter out as early
as yesterday but he said associate deputy secretary Jim Cason
is still reviewing the document.
"My boss," Skibine said, "is
going over the draft with a microscope."
"At this point we hope to have
the letter out at the end of this
week," he added.
Officially, the timeline for the
implementation of the regulations is being disclosed in a
letter to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. At a hearing
last month, the panel pressed
Interior Secretary Gale Norton
to finalize the rules, which have
been on hold for more than four
years. Norton's response will be
delivered Friday, Skibine said.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ari-
zona), the chairman of the committee, said the regulations were
long overdue. He pointed out
that it's been 17 years since the
passage of the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act.
The law generally bars gaming on land acquired after 1988.
BIA to page 3
Associated Press
RED LAKE, Minn. - Red Lake
tribal secretary, Judy Roy, has announced'that she will run for the
tribal chairman position.
Roy, who has been the tribal secretary since 1994, said she wants
to run to become the chairwoman
so she can help grow the economy
on the reservation, build a shared
vision and unite tribal members.
"One reason I want to run for
the chairmanship is to let young
women know that there are no
limits to their place in the governance of our tribe," she said in a
written release.
The tribal chairman, secretary
and treasurer positions are all
open for the 2006 election on May
17. Filing for candidacy begins on
March 3 and closes on March 18.
Red Lake's relative isolation
from the rest of the world came
to an abrupt end on March 21,
2005, when 16-year-old Jeff
Weise killed his grandfather and
the man's girlfriend, then went
to Red Lake High School and
killed seven people and himself
in the worst school shooting since
Columbine in 1999. Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain's 17-year-old
son, Louis, was the only person
prosecuted in the case.
Former employees say leaks
hampering drug investigations
Associated Press
RED LAKE, Minn. - Internal
leaks of sting operations are
hampering drug investigations on
the Red Lake Indian Reservation,
former tribal police investigators
say.
The allegations come as federal
authorities launch an offensive at
northern Minnesota reservations
against drug trade with ties to the
Twin Cities. But Red Lake pulled
out of the FBI-led investigative
task force last year.
Red Lake Tribal Chairman
Floyd Jourdain Jr. said he withdrew from the task force to protect
tribal sovereignty.
According to former employees
and federal auditors, tribal police
fighting drug trafficking on the
Red Lake Reservation have been
undermined by weak leadership,
sloppy procedures, suspected corruption and leaks of sting operations.
The Star Tribune reviewed a
Bureau of Indian Affairs audit of
the Red Lake Police Department
that was issued two years ago and
stamped "Tor official use only."
The report found problems with
missing investigative files, negligent handling of evidence, poor
training and a lack of leadership in
the then-36-person department.
Tim Savior, recently fired as the
reservation's pohce director, said
that last year he turned over three
cases of suspected corruption in
the department to federal authorities. He said in one case, a police
safe with at least $13,000 in cash
went missing. Federal officials
declined to say whether they are
investigating.
Two former pohce investigators
say Red Lake police also have
suspected for at least two years
that one or more people in the
department or tribal court may be
disclosing confidential information to drug traffickers.
Clifford Martell, a former investigator who was fired in July, said
that in late 2003 and 2004 about
DRUG to page 3