The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1997-01-10

              State investigation of MCT Home Loan
Program may lead to criminal charges
By Gary Blair
An investigator at the Minnesota
Legislative Auditor's Office, who
wishes to remain anonymous, said this
week that the department will examine
the state-funded Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe's (MCT's) Home Loan
Program, after receiving a formal
complaint of alleged fraud.
The source said an initial inquiry
of the program is underway. A
decision to expand the probe will
likely follow, necessitating a written
report   which   could   include   a
recommendation for criminal charges.
An investigator at the State
Auditor's office says only the
Minnesota Legislative Auditor has the
power to investigate matters of this
type on Indian reservations. The State
Auditor's office only has authority to
investigate funds that go to individual
state municipalities.
As far back as five years ago,
allegations surfaced on the Leech
Lake reservation—headquarters of the
six-reservation MCT—that fraud was
being committed with the Home Loan
program. Just over two years ago,
those accusations came to a head and
centered on the program's former
director Larry Glass and MCT
executive director Gary Frazer.
Allegations that kickbacks were being
paid also included the name of
Sandstone Federal Prison inmate and
former MCT chairman Darrell "Chip"
Wadena.
Glass was then fired as a result of
letters sent by Home Loan employee
Terry Michaud to members of the
Tribal Executive Committee (TEC).
Sources say Frazer was protected by
Wadena and thus retained his present
Housing cont'd on 3
By Jeff Armstrong
In the midst of a constitutional crisis
heightened by the Tribal Executive
Committee's failure to enforce or
comply with its governing document,
MCT executive director Gary Frazer
said this week that the TEC will not
honor its Nov. 9 resolution to meet
with tribal members on Constitutional
Interpretation 1-80.
According to many MCT members,
1-80's claim to grant the executive
committee sole right to interpret the
tribal   constitution   renders   its
protections against such arbitrary
authority meaningless.
And while the 12-member TEC says
1 -80 is necessary to prevent the federal
government from imposing its
definitions on the Tribe, both the BIA
and non-Native attorneys have
regularly interpreted the constitution
without TEC approval, or even in
opposition to its purported
interpretations. As a result, attempts
by the people to utilize constitutional
provisions regarding petitions for
removal of RBC officials and for
referendum on "any enacted or
proposed resolution or ordinance"
Scott County asks Carlson to negotiate with
tribe     Seeking compensation for increased costs and services
By Pat Doyle
Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Writer
Scott County has asked Gov. Ame
Carlson and the Legislature to reopen
negotiations with an Indian tribe to
gain compensation for increased costs
of law enforcement and other services
related to Mystic Lake Casino.
Saying its efforts to reach a deal
with the Shakopee Mdewakanton
Dakota have failed, the county asked
Carlson on Tuesday to reconsider the
gambling agreements signed between
the state, and tribe in 1989 and 1991.
Those deals established regulations
and required the tribe to pay the
Department of Public safety $ 13,600
a year to enforce gambling laws
The county says it needs money to
cover about $ 15.9 million in expenses
expected over the next 15 years to
replace roads serving the casino. But
it's uncertain that the state has power
to force a tribe to agree to a new
gambling agreement or compact.
In a letter to Carlson and legislative
leaders, the county commissioners
cited a provision in state law that says
the governor and Legislature can
"request" that the gambling compacts
be renegotiated or replaced.
The compacts were signed by
governors Rudy Perpich and Carlson
and the U.S. Interior Department. The
Minnesota compacts contain no
expiration dates that would force new
negotiations.
The county commissioners said in
their letter that the tribe rebuifed
opportunities to negotiate and ignored
demonstrated costs of the casino to the
county.
Tribal attorney Willie Hardacker
denied that the tribe was unwilling to
negotiate with the county but said it
wasn't prepared to give the county
$2.3 million a year. That's what Scott
County says Mystic Lake costs
taxpayers. He said the tribe already
gives Prior Lake, a city in the county,
$250,000 a year and pays Shakopee
for specific items.
Effort underway again to oust president
BARABOO, Wis. (AP) _ The
president of the Ho-Chunk Nation,
faced with a possible ouster by the
Nation's Legislature at a special
meeting scheduled for this weekend,
denies any wrongdoing.
A dispute between the General
Council Planning Committee, which
would handle logistics of the meeting,
and the Legislature may prevent the
meeting from taking place.
Ho-Chunk president Chloris Lowe
Jr. said the committee was threatened
last week with major budget cuts by
the Nation's Legislature. The
committee indicated in a letter on
Thursday that it will not be able to get
together during the week to set up a
General Council session, Lowe said.
The Legislature called the special
General Council meeting for Saturday
to vote on the removal of Lowe. It
charged that he has not attended
meetings of the Legislature since April
27, as required by the Constitution,
and it accused Lowe of illegally signing
a $1 million contract with a
construction company without
authorization by the Legislature.
The Legislature also said he violated
the nepotism policy by retaining his
sister, JoDeen Lowe, who was
appointed by his predecessor Joann
Jones, as attorney general of the Ho-
Chunk Nation.
The same charges were leveled
against him at the start of the annual
General Council meeting on Dec. 14
as tribal members attempted to remove
him from office. Afterarguing that the
attempt violated the Nation's
constitution, Lowe and about  160
Effort cont'd on 6
Ralph vBuckyv Goodman announces run for
secretary treasurer of White Earth
My name is Ralph "Bucky"
Goodman and I would like to
encourage you to vote. It is time to
move our people and reservation
forward. Our future is at stake and we
must stand up and meet the challenges
that are confronting us. We must take
this opportunity to vote for candidates
who will work for the good of all. I
hope that in the short time we have
before the election, I can meet with
many of you and talk about the issues
we face, and some of the goals that
we can obtain by working together. As
someone    who    has    been    in
construction, I know that to build
something strong and lasting we need
a strong foundation. I believe it is time
to start building our future with solid
leadership.
I can only hope that this letter will
give you some idea of the kind of
person I am and how much I care
about the future. I am an honest,
dependable, hardworking individual
and feel I can provide the leadership,
stability and common sense needed to
move us forward. I would like to take
this time to touch on some of the goals
that I have for our people and our
reservation.
I want to see education become a
priority, especially for our children, as
education is the key to our future. We
need to provide financial and moral
support to our people as they move
toward their educational goals. We
need to help our people to realize their
potential, and education is the key to
that realization. Our educational
foundation must be laid now so that
we can compete in the job markets of
the future. We must expand our
Goodman cont'd on 6
Couple hopes ruling will help settle adoption dispute
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)_ A couple
trying to adopt 3-year-old twins of
American Indian descent hope a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling will help them
reach a settlement with the girls'
biological parents.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday
dismissed a California couple' s request
to overturn a lower court ruling that
favored Jim and Colette Rost of
Columbus, who took custody of
Bridget and Lucy shortly after they
were born in 1993.
The girls' biological parents,
Richard and Cindy Adams of
California, have been trying to regain
custody under the federal Indian Child
Welfare Act, which limits adoptions
of American Indians by non-Indian
families.
Adams is 3/16th Porno Indian; Mrs.
Adams is half Yaqui, making the girls
3/32 American Indian.
The couples have fought for custody
in California courts for years. The Los
Angeles Superior Court agreed with
the Adamses, but an appeals court
overturned the ruling, saying the
couple must prove they had a
significant social, cultural or political
affiliation with their tribes before the
girls were born. The California Supreme
Court refused to hear the case.
The case will be returned to the trial
court, where a judge will determine if
the Adamses can prove a tribal
affiliation.
The couple's appeal arguedthat the
appellate ruling was incorrect because
it conflicts with past high court rulings
that gave Congress wide latitude over
Indian affairs.
Rost said Monday he hopes the
Adamses give up their fight before
then.
"Together with them, we would like
to find a way to come to some kind of
settlement," Rost said. "They have
already indicated to us last year they
might be open to that. Hopefully, this
would bring us closer to them wanting
to negotiate that."
Rost said the girls' paternal
grandfather has suggested the Adamses
retain parental rights and the Rosts be
given guardianship. But Rost said that
although he is willing to allow visits,
he wants to adopt the children.
Another appeal is pending. The
Porno tribe has asked the U.S. Supreme
Court to hear the case.
Robert Gerstein, an attorney for the
Adamses, called Monday's ruling
"very unfortunate."
"It is too bad they denied it because
it is an important case dealing with the
right of Indian tribes to define
themselves and their destinies," he
said.
Vote for the candidate of your
choice in the White Earth
primary, January 14, 1997.
Voice of the People
1
BIA rejects Ellis recall VOte Interpretations deny
constitutional rights of MCT tribal members
have been systematically thwarted.
Most recently, the BIA appears to
have accepted a contorted analysis of
the tribal constitution by an attorney
defending Leech Lake RBC member
Myron Ellis against a petition for his
removal. Attorney Thomas Fabel, of
the Lindquist and Vennum firm,
argued that because both the offense
and the conviction occurred prior to
his most recent election, the charges
should be dismissed without hearing.
The RBC, which had previously hired
an auditing firm in an apparently
Recall cont'd on 3
Fifty Cents
Ojibwi
IMetws
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded   in 1 9BB Volume 9    Issue 1 3        January lO, 1997
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe Mews, 1 997
Winter is a good time to remember summer pow wows. Pictured is Amos Crooks, a traditional dancer and
elder from the Mdewakanton Dakota Community. A young fancy dancer (right) watches other dancers.
Photo from WACPI - Pow Wow, by Melissa Gerr
John Garrigan Scholarship to benefit Native
American students at MCAD
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—To honor
the memory and artistic contributions
of John Garrigan, the artist's family
and friends have established The John
Garrigan Scholarship Fund at the
Minneapolis College of Art and
Design (MCAD).
Garrigan, a 1962 graduate of
MCAD, died on October 5, 1996 at
Red Lake Hospital in Redlake,
Minnesota. A resident of Santc Fe,
New Mexico, Garrigan had returned
to his family home in Redlake after
being diagnosed with cancer in
September 1996.
Funds from The John Garrigan
Scholarship Fund will be directed to
Native American students who follow
in Garrigan's footsteps by pursuing an
education in art and design at MCAD.
Founded in 1886, MCAD is an
independent, accredited institution
offering a four-year curriculum
integrating the Liberal Arts into 15
professional BFA degree majors in the
areas of Fine Arts, Media Arts and
Design, and a two-year MFA degree
program in Visual Studies.
Beginning in September 1997,
MCAD will also offer a BS degree
program in Visualization. To date, the
Scholarship Fund has received 23
donations and a total of over $ 15,000.
A member of the Red Lake Chippewa
Band, Garrigan was a distinguished
exhibition and graphic designer whose
Minnesota clients included the Walker
Carrigan cont'd on 3
Legal Aid of Minneapolis educates public
about housing discrimination
Minneapolis, Minn. ~ Here is a true,
and very recent story of housing discrimination in Minnesota!
When an African-American woman
called about a two-bedroom apartment, she was told it was still available. When asked how many children
she had, she told the landlord three.
The landlord's response was, "Oh
that'll work," and he invited the
woman to come look at the apartment.
When the woman arrived with her
daughter, the landlord stood staring at
her for a few seconds without saying
a word. He quickly showed her an
apartment and let her fill out an application. During their conversation, the
landlord indicated he would verify the
application, do a credit check, and
would call the woman the next day to
confirm what day she could move in.
The woman left, feeling the apartment
was hers.
The landlord did not call her back
as promised, and it was a week before
the woman was finally able to reach
him. She asked about the availability
of the apartment and was told, "Well,
I rented to a couple without kids. They
won't use as much water and utilities."
It was later revealed that the couple
was white.
Stories like this are not uncommon
in Minnesota, where a landlord will
use discrimination against families
with children to disguise discrimination based on race. Both types of discrimination arc illegal.
There are steps you can take if
you've been discriminated against.
You can contact the Legal Aid
Society's Housing Discrimination Law
Project at 612-827-3774, if you live
in the Twin Cities metro area and have
a low income.
Otherwise, you can call the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) at 1-800-669-9777, or
the Minnesota Department of Human
Rights at 612-296-5663. There is no
fee at any of these agencies.
Indian School: Visit brings joy, sadness for alum
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) _ "I've
been dreaming about this place,"
Agnes Shattuck Dill says as she
gingerly steps across a field littered
with chips of brick, scraps of concrete
and other signs that someone might
have lived here once.
Someone did live at this large vacant
lot across the street from the Indian
Pueblo Cultural Center. In fact, over
the years, several thousand students
boarded at Albuquerque Indian
School, which stood at the spot. Agnes
Dill, 83, a native of Islcta Pueblo, was
among them.
'I've been dreaming about the
bandstand, which was over there, and
the dining hall, which was across that
way," Ms. Dill says, pointing to an
empty stretch a few hundred yards
from Interstate 40.
"I've been dreaming about the
people I went to school with and the
times we had and how important they
were to me. Now, there's nothing here,
and that's painful."
Albuquerque Indian School, which
moved to this site in 1882, closed its
doors in 1981 because some of its
buildings were nearly falling on top of
students.
During the next 10 years, the place
slowly disappeared, piece by piece,
mostly due to vandalism.
The only time the school makes news
these days is when talk turns to a
proposed gambling casino or hotel on
the school's former home, which may
ormay not happen. Or when neighbors
complain about blowing dirt and weeds
from the fenceless property. Or when
they protest the homeless who build
campfires on the land that once held
the school.
So Agnes Dill, a short, direct woman,
has taken it upon herself to remind
others of the good things the school
provided, of the significant role it
played in so many lives. She has
lectured to local groups a half-dozen
times about the school, which she
School cont'd on 8