The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1997-01-31

              State auditor confirms investigation of MCT
Home Loan Program underway
By Gary Blair
The director of special
Investigations with the Office of the
State Auditor reaffirmed this week that
the Minnesota Office of the
Legislative Auditor is conducting an
investigation into alleged misuse of
funds that involve the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe Home Loan Program.
In a letter dated Jan. 27, 1997, Julie
G. Rose, wrote, "Dear Mr. Blair: The
Office of the State Auditor (hereinafter
'OSA') has reviewed the information
you provided, as well as the
information provided by other
government agencies, regarding the
alleged misuse of funds in the
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Home
Loan Program.
"The mission of the  Special
Investigations Division is to review
allegations of malfeasance,
misfeasance, or nonfeasance by local
government employees or officers.
Since the Division is a fact-finding
entity and has no prosecutorial
powers, its role is to evaluate
allegations brought to this Office's
attention, and when appropriate,
provide specialized auditing
techniques, initiate an independent
investigation, or refer the matter to
appropriate oversight authorities.
"The OSA's jurisdiction is generally
limited by law to matters involving the
financial affairs of local government
units and situations in which funds
pass through local government units.
In the case of the Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe Home Loan Program, it appears
that state and federal funds are
disbursed  from   the  Minnesota
Housing Finance Agency directly to
the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
Because no local government unit or
local government dollars are at issue,
the OSA does not have the necessary
jurisdiction to review the matter.
"As you know, the OSA has been
in contact with the United States
Department of the Interior, the United
States Department of Housing and
Urban Development, and the Office
of the Legislative Auditor has
jurisdiction to review this case and is
commencing an investigation.
"Because the OSA has no
jurisdiction to review the matter, our
office now considers this file to be
closed. However, because you have
given your permission, the OSA will
forward, to any state or federal
Home cont'd on 3
Business as usual for the TEC
By Jeff Armstrong
With more than a dozen armed
officers from Red Lake and Bois Forte
watching over an exceedingly polite
group of tribal members, the MCT's
Tribal Executive Committee met Jan.
30 at the Fortune Bay Casino in Tower
in an apparent attempt to return to
business as usual after several
contentious meetings led to minor
reforms.
Dale Greene of Fond du Lac began
the public comment period on a
conciliatory note, apologizing to TEC
members for calling them "crooks" at
a previous session. Greene then asked
the Committee to reciprocate by
apologizing for the corruption and
abuses of the past twenty years, when
convicted former president Darrell
Wadena dominated the Tribe.
"I wonder if we're ever going to get
an official apology or condemnation,"
said Greene. "I don't see any of the
tribal reform that's being talked about
happening. I still see complacency
and complicity with the actions of the
convicted felons."
Greene's modest request was greeted
with silence, but the TEC agreed to
meet next week with former Wadena
allies hoping to remove his White Earth
successors from office. Robert Durant,
a party to the Interior Department
appeal which lifted federal recognition
of the reservation's interim council,
asked the TEC to reverse its swearing-
in of RBC chair Eugene McArthur.
"There's been a lot of civil rights that
have been'violated here," said Durant.
The activist is seeking to be installed
on the TEC along with Rev. Doyle
Turner on the basis of a September
vote which was not sanctioned by the
Tribe.
Former TEC member and current
Leech Lake General Council chair
Hartley White asked for the same
consideration, insisting that the
Committee take action on the removal
petitions against three Leech Lake
RBC district representatives. BIA
superintendent Joel Smith recently
requested a TEC interpretation on
whether to set a recall election in
accordance with the Tribal
constitution.
"I sat on that body 12 years, and I
was always told by our attorneys that
only [the TEC] can interpret the
constitution," said White. "Those
people that signed the petition are
being harassed. Are the district reps,
the only ones who aren't bound by the
constitution? They've violated every
human right, every civil right on the
Leech Lake Reservation."
White's request was shrugged off by
president Norman Deschampe and
ignored by the other TEC members.
Judge backs tribal fishing claims
Chippewa allowed to exert treaty rights as state plans appeal
By Pat Doyle
Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Writer
A federal judge on Wednesday gave
Minnesota and Wisconsin Chippewa
the authority to go ahead with plans
to net and spear large numbers of
walleye this spring from Lake Mille
Lacs over the objections of the state,
counties and landowners.
In a strong victory for tribes, U.S.
District Judge Michael Davis of St,
Paul also gave Indians the authority
to shine lights at deer while hunting
in December and to use gill nets on
eight lakes smaller than 1,000 acres
in east-central Minnesota. And he
rejected a key argument of the
opposition: that casino profits reduce
the need for tribes to take large
quantities of natural resources.
Davis said casinos didn't diminish
rights tribes have under 19th-century
treaties to fish, hunt and gather wild
rice in parts of 12 Minnesota counties
outside their reservations and without
regard to state regulations.
The judge ruled against the
Chippewa in one instance: They
cannot exercise tribal hunting rights
on private land open to hunting under
state rules.
The ruling permits the Mille Lacs
State to defy, appeal ruling that traffic laws
don't apply on reservations
MN Appeals Court decision receives national attention
By Tracey A. Reeves
Duiuth News Tribune staff writer
WASHINGTON - Peter Charette, a
Chippewa Indian, says he's been
stopped by police three times for allegedly violating traffic laws on the
White Earth Indian Reservation where
he lives. Each time, he says, he's been
ticketed and, after some back talk,
thrown in jail.
Charette, 58, maintains the non-Indian police have no right to stop him.
The cops ignored him. But the Minnesota Court of Appeals says he's
right.
Last month, the appeals court ruled
that non-Indian law-enforcement officers cannot ticket tribal members on
reservations for violating certain traffic laws, such as speeding or driving
without a license or insurance. That
"regulatory" role, said the court, belongs to the tribe as part of its sovereign status. The decision doesn't affect the authority of non-Indian police
to make arrests for criminal violations
including reckless driving and driving
while intoxicated.
The ruling is being watched closely
by tribes nationwide and the law enforcement communities closest to
them.
Minnesota officials plan to appeal to
By Pat Doyle
Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Writer
The case began typically enough.
A woman believed that she lost her
job because of age discrimination.
Unable to reach a settlement, she sued
her former employer.
But Sally Matsch learned that her
former employer wasn't typical. She
had worked in the Treasure Island
Casino in Red Wing, Minn., beyond
the protection of state and federal
civil-rights laws
Her experience reflects a larger reality: Indian tribes that have decried
discrimination own casinos where
15,000 Minnesotans work without the
civil-rights guarantees that Americans
take for granted. Others relinquish
state and federal civil-rights protection wheneyer they walk into tribal
casinos to plug slot machines or eat at
a buffet.
Matsch learned that the Prairie Island Dakota Tribe, which owns Treasure Island, has its own court. And she
needed to exhaust remedies there before she could pursue her case in the
state system.
So a tribal court hearing was held
in a meeting room of the casino, within
earshot of ringing slot machines. A
tribal judge listened as a tribal lawyer
argued that the Prairie Island Dakota
community couldn't be sued because
it is a semisovereign nation. A year
later, the tribal judge dismissed the
case.
The tribe hadn't given Matsch permission to sue it, he said.
"There is no tribal court," Matsch,
58, of Hastings, concluded afterward.
As more people work in and visit
casinos, the tribal court system has
essentially become the only forum for
customers or employees with civil-
State auditor confirms investigation of MCT housing
Business as usual for the TEC
Judge backs tribal fishing claims
State to defy, appeal traffic laws on reservations
Junge proposes to keep alcohol away from youths
Voice of the People
1
and Fond du Lac bands of Minnesota
Chippewa and several Wisconsin
bands to net or spear as much as 9
percent of the expected walleye catch
this year in Lake Mille Lacs, a prime
spot for sports anglers. The Indians
will be able to take more fish in later
years, catching up to 22 percent of
walleyes captured in 2001, assuming
the fish population remains about the
same. It's great news ... we're finally
getting to the point where band
members can exercise rights they've
been denied for years," said Jim
Genia, an attorney for the Mille Lacs
Claims cont'd on 8
the state Supreme Court, arguing that
the safety of all residents - Indians and
non-Indians - is at stake. White Earth
members have no police or strict set
of traffic laws, and no way of patrolling themselves.
"This ruling is not a question of Indian versus non-Indian," said Richard
Rooney, sheriff of Mahnomen County,
where White Earth is located. "It's a
question of keeping all motorists safe.
The tribe has no law enforcement."
Closer to home, the Cloquet police,
Carlton County and St Louis County
sheriffs departments each patrol the
Appeal cont'd on 8
Stalled case shows odds run against suing
a tribe Casinos and civil rights
Fifty Cents
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded   in 1988 Volume 9    Issue 1B        January 31,1997
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1997
Photo by Jim Ortiz
A voter casts his vote at the, RBC office, Cass Lake district in Tuesday's election. Election board members
pictured are (1-r) Loretta Budreau, Helen Cummings, and H. Tom White. Not pictured was Don Staples.
Johnston wins Leech Lake vote
Election selects new secretary-treasurer
By Nate Bowe
Bemidji Pioneer Staff Writer
Linda Johnston of Cass Lake was
elected secretary-treasurer of the
Leech Lake Reservation Tuesday. She
defeated Walter "Frank" Reese of
Onigum 783-608, according to results
released Wednesday.
Johnston was helped by lopsided
victories at voting districts in Cass
Lake, the Mission area, Bena and
Pennington.
Reese dominated in Onigum,
squeaked by in Ball Club and won in
Smokey Point and Squaw Lake.
"I didn't know what to expect, but
1 was feeling a lot of support,"
Johnston said of her election chances.
"I just worked real hard - I was out
there seven days a week, sometimes
until midnight or 1 a.m. in different
communities ... I'd just like to thank
people for believing in me. I intend to
do my best to work hard. I'm excited
about it."
Reese said Wednesday that be was
physically and emotionally drained
after the election. But he remained
upbeat.
"One of us had to come in second,
the people made their choice," he said.
"I don't feel bad about losing to Linda,
she's a capable person.
The important thing, Reese said, is
that "Leech Lake experienced the true
meaning of majority vote. That's a big
step toward the democratic process."
Election cont'd on 3
Chippewa group wins $7.3 million victory
rights complaints. In addition to the
one at Prairie Island, tribal courts elsewhere have authority over cases involving Mystic Lake Casino in Prior
Lake, Jackpot Junction in Morton and
Grand Casinos Mille Lacs and
Hinckley.
"I think it's a serious forum for resolving  disputes,"  said  Curtis
Campbell Sr., president of the Prairie
Island Tribal Council.
Court's other function
But he said his tribe's court serves
another function: sparing the tribe
from paying large damage awards.
If lawsuits were heard in state court,
"We would be paying out a lot more
and our insurance would skyrocket,"
Campbell said. "Everyone knows the
tribes have deep pockets. It would
probably drum us out of business."
That reasoning doesn't stir sympa-
Case cont'd on 5
SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) _ Saying a
previous governing body violated due
process, a tribal council for the
Saginaw Indian Chippewa Tribe has
agreed to pay $7.3 million in
retroactive casino profit-sharing
payments to members who did not
receive the money last year.
In all, 484 members of the tribe did
not receive the payments last year,
after questions arose about their Indian
heritage, The Saginaw News reported
Wednesday.
The decision in April cut off revenue
sharing to nearly 20 percent of the
tribe's 2,600 members and triggered
nine months of strife, culminating with
the ouster of the council and the
election of new leadership.
The new tribal council, elected in
December and certified earlier this
month, agreed to terms of the Tribal
Constitution which states that profit-
sharing payments should go to all
members who are at least one-quarter
Chippewa.
"The Tribal Council felt it was in the
best interest of the membership to
resolve these issues internally rather
than face possible intrusion into tribal
matters by an outside agency or the
federal government," the council said
in a statement.
The possibility of Bureau of Indian
Affairs and U.S. Departmentof Justice
involvement "might jeopardize the
business and financial holding of the
tribe," the council said.
Because the Chippewas operate a
$250 million casino and 1 esort_North
America's second largest outside of
Las Vegas and Atlantic City _ the
Victory cont'd on 3
Indian official says she was forced out
By Philip Brasher
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Ada Deer,
reporting she was ordered to resign as
head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
said the job put her at the crossroads of
conflicts among Congress, tribes and
the White House.
Deer, chairman of the Menominee
Indian Reservation in Wisconsin in
the 1970s, said she was forced out of
the BIA position by Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt and hoped to get another
job with the Clinton administration.
The BIA, criticized by Indians and
some congressmen, is the "Rodney
•Dangerfield of the executive branch,"
getting little respect, she said.
"Unlike the football that Charlie
Brown tried to kick and always misses,
nobody misses a kick at the BIA," she
said in a speech this week to the
National Congress of American
Indians.
Babbitt gave no reason for her
resignation, announced earlier this
month. His office has declined to
comment on it.
"He basically wanted a new team,
which is somewhat understandable,"
Ms. Deer said. "I've been a strong
advocate for American Indian people.
I feel great pride in what we've
accomplished."
Ms. Deer took a leave from the
University of Wisconsin in 1993 to
become BIA head. She was a lecturer
at UW in social work.
She gives the impression of a friendly
schoolteacher, given to making patient
lectures on the history of federal Indian
relations.
As BIA leader, she was sometimes
booed at tribal meetings. Critics in the
Interior Department felt she was not
forceful enough.
After Republicans took control of
Congress in 1995, she was forced to
fight battles on a variety of fronts,
included attempts to slash BIA
funding, curb tribal powers and tax
Indian casinos.
Congressional investigators have
long considered the BIA one of the
worst-run agencies in the government
and resistant to reform.
It has a $1.6 billion budget and
Deer cont'd on 6
fe