Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2006-04-07

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Keystone cops
cases show lack of
ethical conduct
page 4
Questions for current
Leech Lake, RTC,
candidates
page 4
Primary election
over - Surrender
Lake
page 4
LaRose thanks
Leech Lake voters
for their support
page 4
Individual involvement
- the mission link in
controlling reservation
drug traffice
page 4
Two charged in connection with theft of prescription
drugs at RLIH
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By BUI Lawrence
Ronald Lee Thunder and Cody
Labeau Spears (also known as
Cody Labeau Bartlett), both
employees of the Pubhc Health
Indian Hospital at Red Lake, were
charged 3-29-06 in U.S. District
Court for the State of Minnesota
with knowingly or intentionally
obtaining possession of a schedule
in controlled substance. Investigations over a five month period
allegedly discovered how the two
had stolen the medication Hydro-
codone/Acetaminophen from the
Indian Hospital Pharmacy.
Diversion Investigator Steven
Holdren ofthe Drug Enforcement
Administration filed the complaint against Thunder and Spears.
In his affidavit he stated that the
story began in October 2005 when
an informed source at the Pubhc
Health Service Indian Hospital
had contacted the Minneapolis/
St.Paul DEA office regarding a
diversion from the Indian Hospital
pharmacy of a substantial number
of dosage units of Hydrocodone/
Acetaminophen. The diversion
had occurred over the time period of early May to mid October
2005.
Then in Mid January 2006, the
source reported to the DEA that
he suspected that a pharmacy staff
member was stealing the drug directly out of a prescription filling
machine. The robotic machine,
known as a ScriptPro 200, automates dispensing of prescriptions
and interfaces with the pharmacy,
computers to deliver, fill and label
prescriptions. The machine also
prints and applies labels and delivers vial of medication to a control
center where they are inspected.
The ScriptPro is generally operated by a pharmacy technician
and produces two labels for each
prescription. One is affixed to the
medication being dispensed, and
the other is used by staff to check
that the order is correct.
In the case of filling a controlled substance prescription,
pharmacy policy dictates that a
technician verify the drug count
manually and initial the second
label which is not affixed to the
vial of medicine. This assures that
the drug has been double counted
during the filling process.
The informant suspected a
staff member was stealing the
drug direcdy out of the ScriptPro
200 by "a process of prescription
interruption." This can occur
either by "a manipulation of the
control center and/or when the
ScriptPro200 doors are open during the filling of a prescription.
When the interruption occurs, it
is beheved that the ScriptPro 200
will fill two vials, label them with
a barcode and send them out onto
the conveyor belt. However, only
one of the vials has a barcode that
will scan at the control center, thus
leaving the control center operator
with one valid prescription and
one invalid prescription. The
invalid prescription is supposed to
be returned to the appropriate cell.
A credit would then be reflected
in the [machine's] transactions
reports."
A March 14,2006 report documenting the number of times
a prescription interruption is
believed to have occurred was
given to Investigator Holdren by
the Indian Hospital insider. Since
October 2005, the reports show
THEFT to page 7
Minnesota
Chippewa
Tribe Primary
Election Results
CASS LAKE, MN-The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe held a
primary election for the Secretary-Treasurer and District 1
seats at all six Band locations
on Tuesday, April 5, 2006. The
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe
results reported for Bois Fort
(Nett Lake), Fond du Lac,
Grand Portage, Leech Lake,
Mille Lacs and White Earth
are as follows. The two highest
vote getters in each race will
proceed to the General Election
on June 13, 2006.
For more results, please go to
page 5.
BOIS FORTE (NETT LAKE)
Se ere tary-Tre as u re r
Polling
Place
Absentee
Total
%
David Morrison, Sr.
132
237
369
53%
Carol M. Villebrun
45
28
73
11%
J. Kay Davis
18
27
45
7%
Shane G. Drift
78
125
203
29%
TOTAL VOTES CAST:
690
District 1
Committeeman
Polling
Place
Absentee
Total
%
Mark E Drift
94
200
294
58%
Lorna L. Landgren
8
10
18
4%
Troy A. King
27
25
52
10%
Gordon Adams, Jr.
62
80
142
28%
TOTAL VOTES CAST:      506
District 2
Committeeman
Polling
Place
Absentee
Total
%
Kevin A. Strong
27
28
55
29%
James P. Deegan
28
33
61
32%
Christy Running Bear
5
1
•   6
3%
Daniel J. Morrison-
Withdrew
0
0
0
0%
Raymond A. Toutloff
23
44
67
35%
TOTAL VOTES CAST:      189     100%
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe operates in deficit
By Diane White
CASS LAKE, MN-The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, a government and federally recognized
tribe is comprised of six Minnesota Indian Bands (Bois Forte,
Fond du Lac, Grand Portage,
Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, and
White Earth). Each ofthe Band's
Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer make up the Tribal Executive Committee (TEC), which is
considered the "Primary Government," therefore, responsible for
the Tribe's finances.
EideBailly, LLP audited the
Tribe's financial statements in
accordance with generally accepted auditing standards to obtain whether the Tribe's finances
are free of material misstatements. This is required to ensure
the Tribe uses federal and state
funding according to the terms of
each grant contract. In addition,
EideBailly completed auditing
tests on the Tribe's financial records to determine if the Tribe is
in compliance with the terms of
federal and state grants.
EideBailly expressed an unqualified opinion (unqualified means
the Tribe's financial statements
do present fairly the financial
position of the Tribe). EideBai-
ley did not find any instances of
non-compliance within the grant
funded programs. However, they
did find the Tribe to be a high-risk
auditee. This means the Tribe's
internal controls (accounting
policy and procedures) need to
be tighter and more controlled by
management. The auditors want
to provide some level of assurance to the readers ofthe financial
statements that the opinion they
expressed fits the audit.
General and Special Revenue
Funds
The auditors reviewed the
General Fund, Special Revenue
Funds, Proprietary Funds, and
Fiduciary Funds which together
make up the Tribe's financial
statements for the 2003 fiscal year
which begins on October 1,2002
through September 30,2003. The
General Fund includes revenue
from Investment Income, Timber
Sales, Liquor Permits, Equipment
Rental, and Other.
The Tribe receives federal and
state grant funding, which is accounted for in the Special Revenue Fund. The grants received
may not always be for the same
time period as the audit year, and
the Tribe's financial statements
report Deferred Revenue (which
is a liability account -meaning
the Tribe has to provide service
to earn those funds in the next
fiscal year). Also accounted for
in the Special Revenue Funds are
Contracts, Projects, and "Other"
MCT to page 6
Indian Affairs Committee Meets on Methamphetamine Problem:
Near Epidemic in Indian Country Causes Concern
By Jean Pagano
The Committee on Indian Affairs of the U.S. Senate met this
week for an oversight hearing
on the problem of methamphet-
amines in Indian Country. As
reported in the Native American
Press/ Ojibwe News, methamphetamine usage has become a
problem on reservations across
the United States and here in
Minnesota as well. A series of five
speakers presented their cases to
the Senators on the committee.
Chairwoman Kathleen W.
Kitcheyan of the San Carlos
Apache Tribe told about her tribe:
13,000 members, 65% unemployment rate, 69% below the poverty
level. The rapid rise of the methamphetamine problem has taken
the reservation by storm and the
authorities have not been able to
contain the problem. She talked
of young mothers with terribly
deformed children, born with
defects as the result of methamphetamine usage. When babies are
bom and test positive for meth, the
Tribe's Child Protective services
take the baby away. The youngest
meth user found on the reservation was a nine-year old who was
having hallucinations and violent
behavior. She also told the story
of a 22 year-old male who tried
to kill himself with a 10-inch
knife. This person is alive and
the tribe is trying to find counseling for him. However, at a cost
of $7,000 per month per person,
the financial resources needed to
cope with the methamphetamine
problem are staggering. In addition, Kitcheyan stated that it
is difficult to find a facility that
accommodates Apache cultural
and spiritual needs.
San Carlos statistics tell the
story ofthe meth problem: out of
101 suicide attempts on the reservation, 8 out of 10 ofthe individuals were meth users. One-quarter
of the babies were born to tribal
members that were addicted to
meth and 25% of pregnant women
tested positive for meth. Out ofthe
500 cases of child neglect and/or
abuse reported, 80% of the cases
involved alcohol or drug use by a
parent. Over the last 12 months,
the San Carlos Wellness Center
has received 150 referrals or self-
referrals for meth treatment.
To combat the problem, San
Carlos has taken decisive action
by holding a Meth Forum with
mandatory attendance by all tribal
programs. A Methamphetamine
Prevention Coalition was created,
composed of community members, tribal leaders, and providers/
agencies located on the Reservation. The Tribe also launched a
media campaign to educate the
community through local newspapers, radio, and cable to increase
awareness in the community. A
meth outreach program has also
been implemented in an effort to
educate tribal employees and to
ask them to take the message to
others. Current employees that
test positive for meth are immediately terminated from employment, referred to treatment, and
told that they must be substance
free for a year before they can
apply for future employment with
the tribe.
Law enforcement has also
become involved in a greater
way with meth eradication. The
increase of meth has also brought
about an increase in gangs, guns,
and crime. Tribal law enforcement, along with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona has
begun an aggressive campaign
to stop trafficking and arrest
violators. A zero tolerance pohcy
for drug dealers and the U.S.
Attorney's office will prosecute
if there is sufficient evidence and
a significant impact on the community. The San Carlos Police
CONCERN to page 3
web page: www.press-on.net
Native #» sz.
American
Press
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2006
Founded in 1988
Volume 18 Issue 41
April 7, 2006
Leech Lake Election Strategies, Tactics and Results
On April 4, 2006, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe held a primary election throughout all six Bands.
Frank Bibeau, a White Earth enrollee and attorney who has lived on the Leech Lake Reservation for
many years snapped this photo ofthe Leech Lake District 1 Representative Burton "Luke" Wilson's
RV and the Director of Legal Services at Leech Lake, Michael Garbow's Dodge Durango. Press/ON
received several reports of Wilson handing out money for votes at the Cass Lake rest stop. One other
candidate, Donnie Headbird was also reported to the Press/ON to be buying votes as well.
By Frank Bibeau
Two years ago Luke Wilson
filed a lawsuit in Leech Lake
Tribal Court alleging vote buying and other misapplication
of tribal funds by then candidate for re-election, Chairman
Peter White. At the hearing a
couple weeks following the
June 2004 Elections, Wilson
and the LL Legal Department
Director, Michael Garbow,
asked the court accept that an
inch thick stack of papers as
"secret evidence" collected in
an investigation, that they did
not want to publicly disclose
and told the court more evidence of election tampering
and vote buying would be
forthcoming.
To date no evidence has
been provided, nor results
of that LLRBC investigation.
However, the LLRBC used the
resulting court order to deprive
and deny the duly elected Secretary-Treasurer, Archie LaRose,
access to the financial information and operations of the LLBO.
The LLRBC continues to deny
LaRose today and has yet to put
LaRose's name on LLBO checks
since his re-election a year ago.
When they deny an elected member, especially the duly elected
Secretary-Treasurer, then they
are in fact denying ALL of the
majority voters' who elected the
official, plus all those voters who
did not.
Many tribal members don't like
how this LLRBC "blames and
hides" without ever producing
any information, documentation
or final reports. At Tuesday's pri
mary LaRose received 46% ofthe
primary vote, nearly meeting the
50% plus one vote for an outright
win in the primary. Wilson, who
served as a District Representative
for the past 5 years, came in second with 24%. The tribal voters
are definitely sending a message
to the LLRBC hiding behind the
surveillance security system at the
new RBC HQ.
I was contacted by several individuals on Tuesday who reported
that Wilson's RV was at the Cass
Lake Rest Area off US Highway
2 passing out voting incentives.
I brought my camera with me to
Cass Lake, however when we got
there, there was not a RV at the
rest area. When I visited with
various LL voters and told then I
did not find the RV, I was told the
RESULTS to page 6
Tribes face
cut-off date
for gaming
applications
Indianz.Com
With curbs on off-reservation
gaming looming, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs is expecting tribes
to submit a number of applications in the next two weeks, a
senior agency official said on
Wednesday.
George Skibine, the director
of the BIA's Office of Indian
Gaming Management, didn't
have exact figures on the number of off-reservation casino
proposals in the works. But with
tribes facing a deadline in a bill
sponsored by Sen. John McCain
(R-Arizona) that would bar such
applications, he is preparing for
an influx.
The BIA currently has 13
applications pending under the
two-part determination section
of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. "That may increase in
the next few days because ofthe
April 15 deadline that is included in Sen. McCain's legislation,"
Skibine said at a consultation
session in Albuquerque, New
Mexico.
Whether the filings rum into
a "flood" is unknown. Some
gaming opposition groups have
suggested as many as 40 are in
the works. Some tribal groups
— like the United South and
Eastern Tribes, whose members
oppose "reservation shopping"
— say the number is more like a
dozen.
Regardless ofthe figure, McCain warned that he would impose a March 29 cut-off, the date
the Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved the measure, if
he sees more than he likes. "If
there's flood of applications, on
the floor I'll go back to March
DATE to page 7
Games Anishinabeg Play Before
Election Time
By Vincent Hill
The Mille Lacs Lake Band
of Ojibwe, located in central
Minnesota, has made enviable
progress in bringing about grand
scale infrastructure development,
within the last fifteen years.
Up until the late 1980s this
Federal Mille Lacs Lake Chippewa Indian reservation was still
the poorest Indian reservation in
the state of Minnesota. The question can be asked, how did this
miracle, if it can be called that,
come about? Can this Mille Lacs
Lake Chippewa Indian reservation situation be compared to, say,
the United states Marshall Plan
in Germany, after world war II?
Recall that, through the U. S.
Marshall Plan, billions of dollars
were poured into rebuilding war
torn Germany. The price tag was
for Germany to become a democracy. And Germany complied!
Of course, comparing the Anishinabeg plight to the Germans
in Europe might be ludicrous, but
the analogy can be understood in
terms ofthe mighty dollar, which
does strange things. Now, the
term 'democracy' is understood
and not understood, as it were,
by the majority of Anishinabeg
living on and near Federal Indian
reservations in this state. The Urban Anishinabeg here in Mpls-St.
Paul are, also, subject to the same
problem.
Gambling casino dollars are
what transformed the Mille Lacs
Lake Chippewa Indian reservation, along with a public and
private grants economy. Unlike,
however, the country of Germany,
or, Japan for that matter, where
American bucks paid dividends
in developing democratic forms
of government, democracy in
practice, at Mille Lacs has not
really come about! This is equally
true on the geographically large
Chippewa Indian reservations in
northern Minnesota: Red Lake,
White earth and Leech Lake.
According to Anishinabe election information cited by a recently formed Ad Hoc committee of
the White Earth Twin Cities Community Council (WE-TCCC) in
Mpis, the White Earth Chippewa
Indian reservation has, approximately, 24,000 to 25,000 enrolled
tribal members. Ten thousand
(10,000) White Earth enrollees,
purportedly, reside in Mpls-St.
Paul, including throughout the
suburbs.
The WE-TCCC Ad Hoc committee organized a White Earth
Tribal Candidate Forum that, was
held at the Mpis American Indian
Center, on Saturday, March 25,
2006. Kind of late to call this
meeting, but 75 to 100 White
Earth enrollees did show. It should
be noted that, there was an attempt
two years ago at Anishinabeg
election time to form this WE-
TCCC, by the American Indian
Movement (AIM) leaders, Clyde
and Vernon Bellecourt. Vernon
Bellecourt is one of the self-appointed members of the current
WE-TCCC Ad Hoc committee.
The Mille Lacs Lake Chippewa
reservation tribal council has been
remiss, if not deceptive, in not
setting up an election forum for
this primary tribal election. All
eligible voters on the Mille Lacs
Lake reservation, both on and off
the reservation, are allowed to
vote in a tribal primary, because
the Secretary/Treasurer governs
the total reservation, including
the outlying reservation districts;
Mille Lacs tribal enrollees in urban centers, such as Mpls-St.Paul,
can also vote for candidates of
their choice.
I talked to tribal residents,
government and gambling casino employees, tribal government commissioners, and council
GAMES to page 6