Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2007-10-15

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INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY
NEWS BRIEFS
pnnMCMTADV/cnrrnDiAi <?
2
3
4
7
What you should know
about Profiling, Traffic
Stops
LuMMtlMIAKY/tUllUKIALo
CLASSIFIEDS
page 5
Leech Lake enrollees
afraid; government
leaders get fair warning
page 5
Old "Indian" Do Not Take
photographs Complaints to
respectfully displayed [Leech Lake]
in new book Police
page 4
page 4
League of Minnesota
Human Rights
Commissions
Conference hijacked by
Mille Lacs Band
page 4
Mille Lacs Band/County Law Enforcement
Agreement victim of another agenda
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By Bill Lawrence
By now anyone who's
interested in the matter knows
there is a major dispute over the
Mutual Aid Law Enforcement
Agreement between the Mille
Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Mille
Lacs County officials. Each entity
has released a press release,
neither of which tells anyone
very much. They both seem to
be saying the same thing, and
that is that the other side won't
abide by formerly agreed upon
points. In an August 8, 2007
meeting, both sides felt they had
reached a mutually agreed upon
understanding.
The Mille Lacs Band says they
sent a proposal to the County on
August 20, outlining their view
of the points of agreement from
the August 8 meeting. They say
the County, in its September 6
counterproposal, did not honor
the understanding that had
been reached August 8 among
all parties.
The County did not make
explicit comment in its press
release as to the content of its
September 6 correspondence to
the Band.
In requesting a copy of the
County's counterproposal,
we were told by the County
that their document was not
available for review by outsiders
at this time.
Next we called the contact
person for the Mille Lacs Band's
press release, Patty Dunn. We
found that she's an employee
of Gross & Howard, a St. Paul
Public Relations Firm. The
contact person was unavailable
but another individual offered
to see if she could get us a copy.
This person left a message at
4:21 Friday afternoon saying
she had not been able to trace
it down.
In the absence of what was
actually exchanged between the
County and the Band, the public
remains in the dark about the
controversy.
What is clear is this. There is
a serious relationship problem
between the Band and the
County.
The very existence of the Mille
Lacs police force, made up almost
exclusively by non-Indians, may
be in jeopardy. The County said,
"The state statute that allowed
Band law enforcement officers
to become licensed state police
officers requires Band officers to
enforce state law and to report all
their law enforcement activities to
the County Attorney for possible
prosecution."
It is also clear that the matter
is not simply confined to who
should get law enforcement
activity reports.
We had copies of both press
releases as well as Chief Executive
Melanie Benjamin's letter to
Mille Lacs members. All three
documents referenced the 1855
treaty reservation.
The County states, "The tribal
government's position may force
the issue of whether the former
61,000 acre 1855 reservation still
exists."
One can only speculate as to
what the real agenda is here.
White Earth
teacher earns
star by U.S.
Department of
Education
By Pippi Mayfield
Reprinted with Permission
- Becker Record
The stars aligned in WE this
week. Circle of Life teacher
Wendy Harstad was awarded the
MN No Child Left Behind 2007
American Star of Teaching.
"Just watching students come
in (to the gymnasium), I could
notice a sense of community,"
Tracy Mulvenon said. She
traveled from Washington D.C.,
as a representative from the U.S.
Department of Education to
award Harstad the honor.
Only one teacher from every
state is being given the honor,
and Harstad represents MN. She
teaches third grade at Circle
of Life.
Superintendent and principal
Mitch Vogt nominated Harstad
for the award, which was a
surprise to Harstad.
In a press release from the
Department of Education,
colleagues described Harstad
as "a model teacher; mentor and
'highly qualified in every sense of
the word,' AtCircleof Life, where
area unemployment exceeds
50 percent, she successfully
implements teaching strategies
in an environment with high
rates of poverty, abuse and
crime, creating challenging
students that enter school, in
the words of one administrator,
"carrying a lot of baggage."
"Teacher in the classroom
is everything," Mulvenon
said Tuesday afternoon at the
presentation.
A committee of former
teachers at the U.S. Department
of Education selected the
TEACHER to page 6
Mutual Aid Agreement - what
happened?
By Dawn Slade
Mille Laics County Times
Whatwas apparently atentative
agreement in August between the
Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and
Mille Lacs County has turned into
the band's decision to revoke the
agreement.
The agreement is the
cooperative law enforcement
agreement between the band and
the county, better known as the
Mutual Aid Agreement
The agreement, which has
been in place since 1998, was
working well until February of
this year.
The county has one version of
what happened and the band has
another.
Don Wedll, Mille Lacs Band
Long Range Planner said, "It all
started with the county's attorney
stating the band's police officers
had to send all of their complaints
to the county. She would then
determine which complaints she
would prosecute or not prosecute
and the solicitor general for
the band couldn't review these
citations."
However, it was the band's new
solicitor general, RJay Brunkow,
who gave a directive in February
that all law enforcement
complaints were to go through
him before being sent to the Mille
Lacs County Attorney.
County attorney Jan Kolb said
the band Was not complying with
the Mutual Aid Agreement and
her office was not receiving all
the complaints.
Wedll said they had already
been sending reports to the
solicitor general first before
sending them to the county
attorney.
Then why the new directive by
the solicitor general?
'There were new officers and
there were some items that were
being sent to the county that
shouldn't be sent there, because
they were civil regulatory," Wedll
said. "It was basically to prevent
things that shouldn't go to the
county from going there."
A press release from the county
states, "The state statute that
allowed band law enforcement
officers to become licensed state
police officers requires band
officers to enforce state law and to
report all their law enforcement
activities to the county attorney
for possible prosecution."
The two entities met in June
and August to attempt to find a
solution. The county proposed
the reports be sent to the county
attorney and the band's solicitor
general simultaneously, however
the band did not accept that
proposal.
In August, it appeared
there would be compromise
and a tentative agreement was
reached.
However, on Oct. 3, the band
notified the county that it was
revoking the agreement effective
Nov. 2.
Wedll said of the last meeting
between the two entities, "We felt
we had worked through those
items. It was explained what we
all agreed to and didn't agree to
and we were asked to prepare and
draft a working agreement."
According to Wedll it was sent
to the county, but he said, "They
rewrote the whole thing and put
back basically the band would not
be able to review any citations
issued by tribal law enforcement
and all of this stuff would be
litigated out with any disputes
that arrive and those would bind
the band in the future.
"We never talked about any of
that kind of stuff.
Where we were at the end of
the negotiations and what we got
in the proposal was so far apart.
AID to page 8
Sharing life's many lessons
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig's Ellen Adams receives honor
By Daniel LeClaire
Reprinted with Permission-Cass
Lake Times
When Ellen Adams was learning
to be a teacher, the emphasis for
the youngest charges of the
school was on play. Now, 30 years
later, many things have changed
but significantly enough not the
important things.
"I listen to their conversations,"
the kindergarten teacher said
in the office at the Bug-O-
Nay-Ge-Shig elementary last
week. "Little kids shouldn't be
pushed."
The Minnesota Indian
Education Administration
(MIEA) gave their stamp of
approval to Adams' teaching
methods which have evolved
over the past 27 years by naming
her the Outstanding Native
American Teacher of the Year.
Her whole teaching career has
been dedicated to one school,
though her own education drew
from many sources of wisdom.
The award is a milestone on
a long and winding path that
has combined many lessons
learned traditionally growing
up at Nett Lake on the Bois
Forte reservation and more
formally on her way to a Masters
degree in elementary education.
Adams left high school after the
10th grade, feeling unable to
participate in the normal high
schooler's experience because
of financial reasons.
"I couldn't afford all the stuff
they do," she said in reference
to the class rings, school jackets
and the like that typified the
high school experience. Still,
something inside her wouldn't
let Adams quit.
A recurring dream of finishing
school and receiving her diploma
dogged her in her sleep until
finally she set herself to earning
her GED. After that, the dream
never came back.
She took to working at the Head
Start and for 11 years learned
the skills she needed by doing
the work that needed to be done.
That method wasn't so different
from how she had learned at
home with her parents doing the
work of living, from gathering
wood and water as a family to
setting'net—everything that was
needed to survive. Work and play
combined naturally.
"You learn from play, but
you're still learning," Adams
reflected. "Our parents taught
us a lot. They taught me how
to survive."
Adams expressed heartfelt
gratitude to her parents for
conveying to her the invaluable
gifts of language and culture.
With those tools deeply imbedded
inside of her, she was able to
approach the challenges of her
life from a solid foundation.
Although Adams she her
parents were alcoholic, there
wasn't a recognition of what
that meant like there is today.
So much more information is
available now to warn people
of the debilitating effects of
drinking. She recognizes the
resources available to families
and students today as valuable
allies in the struggles they face.
While the power of those
addictions are not lost on Adams,
she knew even as a younger
woman that she needed to decide
for herself how to life her life
and that there was no power in
laying blame for obstacles that
would cross her path.
"I realized I gotta do something
for myself," Adams said, "I'm
the one that had to choose for
myself."
In her late 30s, she found
out that her Head Start work
experience was worth 42 hours
credit toward a BS degree in
childhood education at Bemidji
State University.
"They told me three years
straight, including summers and
I'd be done," Adams recalled.
There were lessons to be learned
in college, too, about budgeting
money and managing time. 'You
have to be save-y," Adams said
nothing the difficulty in making
TRIBE to page 3
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A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2007
Founded in 1988
Volume 19 Issue 39
October 15, 2007
Bellecourt, Vernon: AIM spokesman
passes away at 75
■
American Indian Movement leader Vernon Bellecourt, right, addresses people gathered to commemorate
the 30th anniversary of the AIM standoff, Thursday, Feb. 27,2003, at the gravesite in Wounded Knee,
S.D. Bellecourt, a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement who fought against the use of
American Indian nicknames for sports teams, died Saturday. He was 75. Bellecourt was an international
spokesman for the AIM Grand Governing Council based in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Doug Dreyer)
Vernon Bellecourt, the key
media flack man for AIM, and
who most recently fought
against the use of Indian
nicknames for sports teams
as a longtime leader of the
American Indian Movement,
has passed away at age 75.
Bellecourt died October 13 at
Abbott Northwestern Hospital
of complications from
pneumonia, said his brother,
Clyde Bellecourt, a founding
member of the militant
American Indian rights group.
Just before he was put on a
respirator, Vernon Bellecourt
joked that the CIA had finally
gotten him, his brother said.
"He was willing to put his butt
on the line to draw attention to
racism in sports," his brother
said.
Amongst journalists and
federal investigators, he was
known as the man that AIM put
BELLECOURT to page 8
Hearing on Prevalence of Violence Against Native
Women: Stories and Possible Solutions
By Jean Pagano
The United States Senate
Indian Affairs Committee held
oversight hearings in later
September on the subject of
the prevalence of violence
against Native women and what
the possible solutions might
include. Schedule speakers were
Ms. Alex Arriaga, of Amnesty
International; Jami Rozell,
a survivor and citizen of the
Cherokee Nation; Tammy M.
Young, Alaska Native Women's
Coalition Against Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault;
and Karen Artichoker, of Sacred
Circle.
According to the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ),
Native women are 2.5 times
more likely to be raped than
other women in America. The
DOJ statistics also point out that
1 out of 3 Native women will
be raped in their lifetimes and
that 86% of the perpetrators of
this crime are non-Native men.
Native women will never get
a police response to their call,
may not have access to a sexual
assault forensic examination, and
due to a complex jurisdictional
situation and a lack of police
resources, the case may never
actually be prosecuted.
Four laws have had a
significant impact of the
handling of serious crimes
on the reservation. They are
the Major Crimes Act (1885),
Public Law 280 (1953), the
Indian civil Rights Act (1968),
and Oliphant v. Suquamish.
The Major Crimes Act gave
federal authorities jurisdiction
over serious crimes, such as
rape and murder, committed
on the reservation. While this
does not prevent tribal courts
from taking up these matters,
it gives them concurrent
jurisdiction. Public Law 280
gave certain states, most notably
California, Minnesota, Nebraska,
Oregon, Wisconsin, and Alaska,
concurrent jurisdiction over
criminal and civil matters
involving Native people on the
reservation. Some additional
states, such as Florida, also
participate in concurrent
jurisdiction. While Congress
passed this law, it did nothing
to provide funding for the state's
dealing on the reservation. The
Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968
limits the sentences that tribal
courts may impose on cases. Due
to the lack of prosecutions on
both the federal and state levels,
tribal courts are beginning
to hear more sexual assault
cases. Oliphant v. Suquamish
limits the tribal courts to only
handle cases involving Natives
on tribal lands. Each of these
laws introduces challenges
into the tribal court system,
especially where sexual assault
is the issue.
Jami Rozell is a member of
the Cherokee nation. When
she was 21 years old, she was
raped by a non-Native man that
she had known since junior
HEARING to page 2
When 'human rights' efforts
threaten free speech
By Joe Fellegy
At a recent Crow Wing County
Board meeting, Don Wedll and
Carol Rose, representing the
Crow Wing County Human
Rights Commission, protested
the rental of a county fair booth to
a Mille Lacs-area "anti-American
Indian group." (Wedll is an
architect of Mille Lacs Ojibwe
government's legal-political
agendas; Rose, a prominent
Brainerd-area DFLer.)
The group Crow Wing human
rights activists would ban is
the Mille Lacs Equal Rights
Foundation (MERF). MERF's sin
is to approach forbidden topics:
federal Indian policy, fee-to-trust
land transfers, treaty' fishing
and hunting issues, and the case
of Jerry Mueller (arrested for
straying into "tribal waters" of
Upper Red Lake). Surely a heinous
human rights violation, MERF
discusses the effort to revive
the three-township original
Mille Lacs Indian Reservation,
unknown in the lifetimes of
today's Chippewas and other
Minnesotans. That's would-be
legal Indian Country, with huge
implications for governments
and citizens, tribal and non-
tribal.
"Anti-Indian" and "racist"
smears unfairly discredit writers
and groups, slur public officials,
and bludgeon communities.
This ruthless tactic stifles
discussion and insulates tribal
governments.
Last year, Mille Lacs Band
government instigated a
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council
resolution aimed at banning
"anti-Indian groups" (as defined
by tribal government speech
police) from public meeting halls.
In the 1990s, they banned the
Mille Lacs Anishinabe Peoples
Party (MAPP)—Band members—
from tribal facilities..
On Sept. 29, I attended the
League of Minnesota Human
SPEECH to page 2
Movie examines
untold history
of tribe that
is Iowa's
namesake
By Henry C. Jackson
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa - You
might say that the latest film
effort from Kelly and Tammy
Rundle is an effort to put a face
with a name.
The name is quite well-known
- Iowa. The face belongs to the far
less heralded Ioway, an American
Indian tribe that long ago left the
state.
"T don't think most people
knew anything about the Ioway
people, and we didn't really
anticipate that," said Tammy
Rundle. "I think that our film,
it's done some real good in that
it's brought out some of that
information."
~Lost Nation: The Ioway"
AWARDS to page 6