Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2006-06-09

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Reader Calls for
Debate Between
Rov, Jourdain
page 5
Luke Must Be Doing
Something Right
page 4
Leech Lake Voters
Wake Up, Help
Save Leech Lake
Reservation
page 4
Red Lake Needs
New Leadership
page 4
Comments on
Wind Affair,
Anti-Jourdain
Letter to Editor
page 4
Alvin John Wind Sentenced to two years probation
VOICE      OF      THE       PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
Wednesday, June 7,2006, Judge
John Roue of the 9th Judicial District Court in Crookston, presided
over the sentencing at Walker,
Minn, of John Wind, Leech
Lake Tribal Assistant Police
Chief. The Judge sentenced him
to two years supervised probation and fined him $1000, plus
court costs, as a result of a plea
agreement between the court,the
plaintiff and the defendant.
Earlier this year, Wind accepted an Alford Plea, a unique
devise that allows the defendant
to avoid a trial, but wherein the
defendant admits there is sufficient evidence that a guilty
verdict might be possible.
In January 2004 Wind was
charged with 4th and 5th degree sexual assault. The initial
investigation, hearings, the plea
agreement, and the sentencing
have gone on for a period of 18
months. During that time Wind
maintained his position as Assistant Police Chief.
Alvin John Wind
Prior to the sentencing, Wind was
ordered to undergo addiction evaluation. The terms of his probation
prohibit his use of any alcohol or
drugs, visits to bars, possession or
viewing of pornographic material,
or any contact with the victim.
Wind will be subject to random searches and he is ordered
to provide the court with a DNA
sample.
He was given credit for the
time he served in custody, a
twelve-day period in May, for
breaching the terms of his presentence probation.
Wind stood and addressed the
court. He apologized for consuming alcohol and violating the
terms of his pre-sentence release.
He also apologized to his family,
his children, grandchildren and
friends. He did not apologize to
the victim, nor did he indicate he
felt any remorse for his actions.
He said the case has been a drain
on him and his family and said he
would learn from his mistakes
Earl Maus, Cass County Attorney, stood and made the remark
that the matter had also been a
strain on the victim, who was not
present at the sentencing.
Judge Roue admonish him
before the court for making false
statements in an attempt to get out
of jail earher. He told Wind he
would not tolerate even a small
infraction of any ofthe terms and
would revoke probation should
that occur.
web page: www.press-on.net
Red Lake salary advances at an all-time high,
exceeding a quarter of a million $$
By Bill Lawrence
The Red Lake Tribal Council
held a special meeting this past
Friday, 6/2/06. The agenda, normally limited to one or a few items
for Special Meetings, was lengthy
with 13 items. The meeting itself
was lengthy, lasting until well into
the late afternoonand was called
by Chairman Jourdain ostensibly
to consider amending the tribal
election ordinance. Some urban
tribal members were present.
They complained about problems
with the existing ordinance during
the May election. This activity
took up a considerable amount of
the meeting time. A great deal of
discussion occurred, but no action
took place until much later in the
day. A change in operating hours
at the Minneapolis polling place
and the method of handling ballots were two election concerns
that were addressed.
Another agenda item was the ratification of a resolution rescinding
the authority of the Tribal Council
to issue salary advances and to
maintain the suspension until a
new policy could be formulated
and approved.
Treasurer Darrell Seki, Sr. initiated the step because the amount
currently extended on salary
advances had not been budgeted,
and the tribe's cash flow was being adversely affected.
The Tribal Council had approved Resolution 44-90 in Feb
ruary of 1990 allowing salary advances under certain conditions.
The advance could be issued only
for "extreme emergency circumstances." It was contingent on the
employee's agreeing to repayment
by payroll deduction. The amount
was limited to two month's net
pay and further advances were
not permitted if an individual had
a current outstanding debt for an
earlier advance.
The Resolution was amended in
June of 1991, adding the provision
that any salary advances made to
elected officials must be repaid prior
to the end of their term in office.
A chart entitled, "Recap of Em-
RESULTS to page 3
Lower Sioux Community shows us the money
By Diane White
BEMIDJI, MN-Under the
Freedom of Information Act,
Press/ON obtained the audited
govenunent financial statements
of the Lower Sioux Indian Community ("the Community") forthe
fiscal period October 1, 2002 to
September 30,2003. These statements are filed annually wih the
U.S. Department ofthe Interior.
The Community legally provides
governmental services to their
tribal members, which include
health and social services, culture-
recreation, public improvements,
educational programs, and general/administrative services.
They also own and operate
several business, which are the
Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel,
Lower Sioux Leasing, Lower
Sioux Convenience Store, Water
& Sewer Utility Fund, Dakotah
Ridge Golf Club, Dakota Inn. As
these businesses area a part of the
Community government, which
is run by Council-Chairman,
they should also be a part of the
government financial statements
in accordance with Government
Accounting Standards Board
(GASB) Statement #34. Also
missing from the statements is
the general long-term debt. The
current- portion of the long-term
debt should be accounted for, but
they are not listed on the financial
statements.
The Certified Pubhc Accountants (CPA) who audited the
Community's Special Revenue
Fund financial statements are
Schechter Dokken Kantor of Minneapolis. They gave the opinion of
unqualified on these statements
which is good. They indicated
these statements do not presept
fairly the Community's financial
position.
The Community received
$2,659,726 in federal grants and
$377,039 in state grants. They
expended $1,624,528 or 61%
of the federal grants and 100%
of the state grants during this
fiscal year. They way the grants
were reported was somewhat
Native Students
Lag Behind
Others
By Jean Pagano
The National Indian Education
Study was recently released by
the U.S. Department of Education. It reports on and analyses
data from Native American/
Alaska Native students from
grades 4 and 8 who took the
2005 National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) in
reading and mathematics. Generally speaking, Native students
lagged behind their non-Native
neighbors in these tests.
In 2005, approximately
325,000 students from grades 4
and 8 participated in the reading
assessment and 334,000 from
grades 4 and 8,took the mathematics assessment. Of this total,
7,200 Native students took the
reading tests and 7,300 Native
students took the mathematics
test. Native students accounted
for approximately 2.2% of the
total number of 4th and 8th graders. The students were from both
public and BIA-run schools.
Nationally, the overall average
for both grades 4 and 8 in reading
were lower than all other students
(non-Native) that took the tests.
Additionally, the percentages of
students who were performing
at or above the classifications of
"Basic" and "Proficient" were
also lower than all other non-Native students.
The National Indian Education Study (NIES) separated the
United States into five regions,
STUDY to page 2
Justice for all
Activist Audrey Thayer's grief fuels her battle against
racism in "Birmingham ofthe North"
Thayer has traveled to Cuba and
Mexico forthe social justice group
Witness for Peace. Courtesy of
Audrey Thayer.
Audrey Thayer's smile is wry and
her brown eyes are warm. She
looks comfortable, familiar and
friendly. Her turquoise bracelet
shines and her shell earrings flash
in her short amber hair.
She doesn't look like the enemy—but some white Minnesotans
see her that way. She doesn't look
like someone to fear—but those
who resist change might find her
fearsome.
Thayer's been an activist all her
adult life, but when her 22-year-old
son died in a tragic fall three years
ago, she walked out of her day job
and ultimately took on a project
with the American Civil Liberties Union that would have many
people quaking in their shoes: she
now works to educate racists and
eradicate racism in northern Minnesota.
The task is enormous, but it's
nothing compared to what she's
already lost, she said. Her son's
death galvanized her and gave
her strength she didn't know she
had. "Women who lose babies—
they're the ones to be fearful of,"
she explained.
By babies, Thayer doesn't mean
just diaper-wearing, inilk-drinking
tots—she means children, teenagers, adults; all of them babies
to mothers whose grief can't be
measured. In northern Minnesota,
they're lost with heartbreaking
regularity: to suicide, to murder,
to abuse, to stupid accidents.
"I could easily be at two to three
funerals a week," said Thayer.
In Thayer's opinion, the root
causes of this tragic pattern are
institutional: economic deprivation
and racism are endemic, and young
Native Americans struggle with
being what she calls "bicultural
citizens of an occupied nation."
Thayer, who still has two children and four of her nine grandchildren at home, is doing what
she can to change things. "I have
to," she said. "I can't turn my back.
I just can't. After I saw my son in
that coffin, at the young age of 22,
who never had an opportunity in
life, from a poor Native [American] family... if I can just make an
impression on one person, when I
die and lay in that coffin, I've done
what I'm supposed to do."
A restless spirit
Thayer was born in 1951 in
Joliet, DI, to Gladys Emery, an
Ojibwe woman from the White
'Earth Reservation, and Gail Vernon
Schultz, a farmer and labor activist
whose parents had immigrated to
Canada from Germany. She grew
up in Wisconsin, surrounded by
nearly 30 first cousins and sharing a home on and off throughout
her childhood with the aunts and
uncles on her mother's side.
Thayer first got involved in the
civil rights movement in 1968, at
the all-black high school she attended in Milwaukee. She had the
THAYER to page 8
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2006
Founded in 1988
Volume 18 Issue 50
June 9, 2006
Chimmook Police Officers Brutalize Anishinabe at
Little Earth Housing in South Minneapolis
confusing. In the Statement of
Revenue, Expenses and Change
in Fund Balance (which is most
like an income statement), the
Community entered the amount;
expended by the program in the
revenue section. They should
have reported the total amount
of revenue received during that
fiscal year. In some cases, the
dollar amount shown there was
more than the grant monies received according to the Federal
Schedule of Disbursements. This
created for the Community, a
statement that appeared to spend
every penny it received. However,
in some cases the Community
greatly underspent its funding or
overspent its funding. There may
be a good reason for this type of
reporting, but it was not listed in
the notes.
One reason could be that grants
pretty much never follow the fiscal year ofthe grant recipient (the
Community, in this case). There-
MONEY to page 8
(l-r): Police Chief Nolen, Bill Ziegler (Director of Little Earth), Lorri Ellis (Little Earth Managerial)
Stacey Mooney (Head of Little Earth Security), Deputy Police Chief Sharon Lubinski.
By Vincent Hill
Minneapolis - According to
Native American Press/Ojibwe
News (NAP) sources,... dogs are
..cd better (more humane) by
MPD (Mpis Pohce Dept.) police
officers than are American Indians, or Anishinabeg.Indeed! had
a dog been locked up in a non-
running closed police vehicle
at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you
better believe the animal human
society, environmentalists and
chimook feminists would have
closed ranks-screaming all the
way to Washington, D. C!
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
did submit a report of the alleged
brutality incident on Tuesday,
June 7, 2006. To reiterate, coupled with some NAP source info
provided me by residents at the
Media Press Release conference,
held yesterday at Little Earth:
After a fight in the Little Earth
Housing complex, a young
anishinabe male was arrested
on May 26, 2006. The arrestee/
victim was put into an MPD
squad car with closed windows.
The day was extremely hot, and
NAP sources claim the motor
was shut off, or at least the air
conditioning was not on.
v The arrestee/victim pounded
on the windows, apparently due
to the killing heat inside. The arresting officers, Lt. Rick Thomas,
and Lt. Mike Fossum appealed to
have beehived into the Little Earth
security office to view camera
tapes, of all things. It is ironic that
these police officers, and their actions in the Little Earth Housing
parking lot were on camera tape.
The arrestee/victim in the meantime had passed out from the heat
in the non-running closed MPD
vehicle. Fortunately the girlfriend
of the arrestee/victim was on
hand, and ran into the Little Earth
security office to basically plead
for the life of her boyfriend. He
was taken out of the vehicle and
treated; he is ok at this time.
The aforementioned arresting
police officers are currently on
paid administrative leave. Police
Chief Dolen was noncommittal
in providing any information on
this alleged brutality case, citing the matter was under MPD
internal affairs investigation. Bill
Ziegler, Executive Director ofthe
Little Earth United Tribes (Little
Earth Housing Project) was, also,
refusing to provide any details
on the case. Bill Ziegler met for
some time before, and after the
Media Press conference that,
had been scheduled for 10 a.m.
yesterday.
It should be noted that Bill
Ziegler in other meetings has
commented on his lack of knowing the tumultuous history ofthe
Little Earth Housing Project, not
excluding the adjacent Anishinabeg community nearby still very
much a part of Little Earth, with
family/clan ties. The Ojibwe are
also inextricably tied to their individual Ojibwe bands in central
and northern Minnesota. The
Dakota bands from the Dakota,
s are a more recent migration
influx, spanning a period of 15-
20 years. The Dakota's are still
considered the most racist (Anti-
Indian) states in the country.
It is poignantiy significant to
know the recent history of the
Little Earth Housing complex,
because the radical aging AIM
(American Indian Movement)
leader, Clyde Bellecourt, will
not let go of his recruitment efforts for his defunct ATM organization within, and surrounding
Little Earth.
POLICE to page 3
Development
running into
Minnesota's
Indian burial
mounds
By Tim Post
Minnesota Pubhc Radio
PILLAGER, Minn. - John and
Bob Lee stuff firewood into the
top of an old cast iron stove as
they try to warm up their hunting
shack on a chilly spring day. The
Lee brothers' one-room hunting
cabin is tucked among the pines
west of Brainerd, in the middle of
their retirement nest egg.
They bought 400 acres back in
the late 1970s, mainly to have a
place to hunt deer. But they also
wanted to develop a few acres
near a highway to provide some
income. Their plans changed
soon after they started working to
obtain the proper permits.
"To our surprise, we discovered
that when we put our money down
for the permits, it came back and
was canceled due to possible Indian burial," John Lee said.
After more research, the Lee
brothers found the land they
purchased contained dozens of
burial mounds. Covered with
prairie grass, the 10-acre site has
no visible signs of mounds. But
they're documented on century old
maps, and they show up in aerial
LAND to page 2
Video shows disputed incident
By David Chanen, Terry Collins
Star Tribune
A sought-after surveillance videotape released Wednesday shows
a Minneapolis police lieutenant
bumping into the shoulder of a
handcuffed suspect before placing
him in a squad car.
While two heated news conferences have been held since the
May 26 incident, few details have
been made public. The videotape
was released by the head of Little
Earth of United Tribes.
Lt. Mike Fossum leaned his
left shoulder and hip into Juan T.
Vasquez, the videotape shows.
Vasquez slumped down, and his
momentum knocked Lt. Rick
Thomas off the sidewalk before
the three walked away.
The tape also shows that Vasquez
was in the squad car for at least 13
minutes with the windows shut.
The outside temperature was
81 degrees at the time, and two
sources with knowledge of the
incident said the air conditioning
wasn't turned on.
Thomas called for an ambulance at the request of Vasquez's
girlfriend, but paramedics said
he didn't need hospitalization, the
sources said. Vasquez was jailed
on drug and domestic assault
charges.
The video doesn't show the
entire incident and has no audio.
After seeing the video, Vasquez's
father, Juan A. Vasquez, said he
thinks it's pretty clear that there
was misconduct. "My son got
bumped for no reason," he said.
"He was in handcuffs. It was
wrong."
Thomas and Fossum were
placed on paid administrative
leave Monday. The Pohce Department's internal investigation will
determine if Fossum intentionally
used force while Vasquez was
handcuffed and if the squad car
was excessively hot, interim Chief
Tim Dolan said.
Dolan wouldn't discuss the
videotape, but said he will meet
Tuesday with the city and county
attorney's offices as well as the
FBI to review the department's
preliminary investigation and the
videotape.
Officers responded to a fight call
The incident started when Fossum and Thomas were patrolling
the Little Earth area, between
18th and Cedar Avenues S. They
responded to a fight call involving
Vasquez and another man. The
videotape shows the fight.
The younger Vasquez was at
Little Earth to visit his father and to
see his girlfriend, Jeannie White,
28, and their 6-year-old son when
he got into a fight with another
man, an alleged gang member,
according to the elder Vasquez.
The father said the fight between
his son and the man occurred after
they had exchanged words two
days before.
Thomas knew of the men who
were fighting and told them to
VIDEO to page 2