The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1997-02-28

              Two nurses suspended without pay from
Prairie Island Community Health
By Julie A. Shortridge
Irene Zamora, a registered nurse
(RN) and Cheryl, a licensed practicing nurse (LPN), were suspended
without pay from their jobs with Prairie Island Sioux Community Health
Program on February 3, 1997, just
days after the two had sent a letter to
the Prairie Island Tribal Council outlining concerns they have about how
the tribal clinic is run.
Zamora had worked for Prairie Island community health for three
months, Armstrong for a year and a
half. Armstrong had previously
worked in the community center as a
youth coordinator and Zamora had
extensive nursing experience, having
worked for over 12 years at a major
hospital in Minneapolis. Both nurses
were willing to receive less pay in order to work at Prairie Island where
they could serve an Indian community.
Zamora is a Red Laker and Armstrong
is a member of White Earth.
Zamora and Armstrong found the
lack of professional standards at the
Prairie Island tribal clinic impossible
to tolerate. "There is no inventory or
monitoring of medications or equipment," said Zamora. "Anyone could
walk off with anything and no one
would even know."
When Zamora suggested to Kathy
Witzke, the LPN she says ran the
clinic, that the clinic should keep better track of medications, Witzke
brushed it off as an insignificant concern because "it's only band-aids."
Witzke convinced Penny Scheffler,
medical director and clinic administrator, that an inventory system was
unnecessary as well.
"Penny doesn't have a medical background. She has a degree in social service, but not in clinic administration.
She struggles with understanding
medical technology and doesn't understand the medical issues and concerns of patient care at a clinic. There
was no qualified medical personnel to
review complaints regarding medical
procedures or patient care," said
Zamora.
The clinic has apparently been dispensing more than band-aids. Armstrong said that she discovered Valium
was being ordered at the clinic. "When
I asked why our clinic was dispensing Valium and wondered which patients were receiving it, I was basically
told it was none of my concern. That's
when I really started to wonder if the
lack of an inventory system is neglectful or intentional. We asked Penny
Scheffler for an investigation into the
matter, but none was ever conducted."
"I also wonder about the lack of
controls on the handling of prescriptions between the clinic and the local
drug store. On several bills I noticed
that the drug store over-charged. I
would call them on it, but I'm not in a
position to know if connections were
Health cont'd on 5
Nurses suspended without pay from Prairie Island
Father struggles to regain custody of children
Fond du Lac man jailed for challenging state/RBC
Indian's fate in welfare overhaul uncertain
Debate over enrollment criteria for tribes/ pg 8
Voice of the People
\
Father struggles to regain custody of
children after death of 2-year-year old
Native
FREE
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
By Gary Blair
The March 14, 1994 violent death
of 2-year-old Taylor Thompson, on
the St Criox reservation in Wisconsin,
may have been contributed to by
maternal bias and an Indian Child
Welfare Act (ICWA) worker's neglect.
However, the father, after a long battle
with the child welfare system, has
regained custody of his two older
children who have lived for the past
year at his Minneapolis home.
Chad Thompson, a Red Lake
enrollee, first told the PRESS about
his son's death in an August 1995,
article. Thompson says he believes he
has now joined the ranks of a growing
number of Native American males
who are single parents.
"I know of at least three other Indian
guys who are raising their children
and I know that there are a lot more
out there," he said.
Thompson says he had three
children with Renee Mosay and was
living with her when she became
involved with another man who had
been supplying her with drugs just
before his son's death. "I was working
at the St. Criox casino as a security
guard, living on the reservation and
buying a HUD house, when she started
going to parties and not coming home
at night," he said.
Court records indicate that ICWA
social workers were called to the
family's home at St. Criox on three
separate occasions because of child
abuse; however, no attempts were
made fo remove the children from the
home. Thompson says his former
girlfriend is related to the reservation's
tribal chairman, who took her side.
The social workers were thus fearful
of losing their jobs, so nothing was
done to protect his children.
"When I took my children to Red
Founded in 198B
Volume 9  Issue SO
February 28, 1997
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, Native American Press, 1997
Custody cont'd on 3
Fond du Lac man jailed for challenging
state/RBC legal authority
By Jeff Armstrong
In what he says is a blatant violation
of his tribal and constitutional rights,
a Fond du Lac man has been jailed on
minor probation violations since last
Dec. 4, when he attempted to
challenge the state's jurisdiction to
enforce an RBC order barring him
from reservation casinos.
Gary McFatridge, a former casino
employee, said his problems began
last June 30 with an unprovoked attack
by a Blackbear Casino employee with
whom he had long had strained
relations. "The security guard
assaulted me, threw me on the
■ground...He choked me until I almost
passed out," McFatridge said. "I
ended up getting assaulted and thrown
in jail, and I was the one charged."
The 29-year-old reservation member
was further notified on July 3 that "the
Board of Directors of Fond du Lac
Management, Inc. has voted to bar you
from all business establishments
owned by the Fond du Lac Band for a
period of one year." FDL Management
Inc.'s board is composed, like that of
every other reservation institution, of
the five RBC members.
Dale Greene, a former casino
security supervisor and founder of
Anishinabe Advocates, said the
legitimate use of physical force by
casino personnel is strictly limited to
extreme situations. "Nowhere in our
contracts did it say we could restrain
anyone or wrestle anyone to the
ground," said Greene. "The only legal
authority we had to use force was if
we got punched or thought there was
an immediate threat of grave physical
harm."
But to Greene, the underlying dispute
is over whether Reservation Business
Committees can authorize state law
enforcement to impose otherwise
inapplicable state laws or
unconstitutional tribal ordinances on
reservation members without their
consent.
"Our political struggle has brought
us into state court to find out how they
established authority over us, but it's
a political struggle that belongs in
Fond du Lac. Who has the right to
deny band members the right to use
trust property?" of which all members
are part-owners, said Greene.
"Article ^III of our (MCT)
constitution says they (RBC members)
don't have that right," says
McFatridge. "All these years they've
been assuming that they have all the
power and the people have nothing.
And people believed them. I don't
think we should have to fear them."
According to Greene, "Gary was
Jailed cont'd on 3
Photo by Julie Shortridge
Women victims carry signs at capitol (L). Larry Kitto and associate watch intently at press conference of
Tribal Accountability Legal Rights Fund held on February 18, at the State Capitol in St. Paul, MN.
Who does Kitto think he's kidding?
by Julie Shortridge
At last week's kick-off press
conference and rally for the newly-
formed Tribal Accountability Legal
Rights Fund, Bill Lawrence, publisher
of this paper and president of the new
organization, gave a speech about how
tribal governments and casinos need
to be held accountable for their illegal
and irresponsible acts. The speech was
published in this paper's February 21,
1997 editorial.
The Tribal Accountability Fund
complains that when a grievance goes
to tribal court, the tribe claims they
are immune from lawsuits due to
sovereignty. So the grievance is
transferred to state district court,
where the state says they can't hear
the case because tribal sovereignty
requires that the case be heard in tribal
court. As a result, no court will hear
cases of complaints against tribal
governments and their casinos.
Dozens of people have encountered
this situation, and hundreds more
haven't bothered trying to bring
lawsuits against tribes, knowing the
run-around they will get.
Larry Kitto, who identified himself
as "a spokesman for tribes," seems to
disagree. In media interviews on the
Capitol steps following the Tribal
Accountability Legal Rights Fund's
press conference, Kitto said:
KittO cont'd on 3
Indian's fate in welfare overhaul uncertain
Court: State can enforce its laws in original
DO U n d a ri eS    . Yankton ruling conflicts with federal court decision
By Chet Brokaw
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ The state can
enforce its laws within the original
boundaries of the Yankton Sioux
Reservation, the state Supreme Court
said Thursday in a ruling that conflicts
with a recent federal court decision.
An 1892 agreement with the tribe
and an 1894 federal law that opened
part of the reservation in south-central
South Dakota to white settlers
diminished the reservation, the high
court said in a unanimous agreement.
The ruling directly conflicts with an
October decision by the 8th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, which said
the law opening the area to white
settlement did not reduce or wipe out
the reservation.
The federal appeals court's decision
would greatly expand the tribe's law
enforcement authority in the area,
while the state Supreme Court decision
wouldpreservethestate'sjurisdiction.
The state is appealing the federal
court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The conflicting decisions increase
the chance that the nation's highest
court will accept the appeal in order to
settle the issue, said state Chief Deputy
Attorney General Larry Long.
The South Dakota Supreme Court
and the federal appeals court reached
opposite conclusions after considering
identical facts, Long said.
"When you have that many
experienced upper level judiciary who
are obviously split on the issue, these
are the issues you truly want the
Supreme Court to hear and get
resolved," Long said.
Thursday's ruling involved an appeal
filed by a member of the Yankton
Sioux Tribe who was convicted of
aggravated assault in state court.
Fred Greger argued that the state
court system had no jurisdiction to
handle his case because he was charged
with committing a crime in Wagner,
which is within the original boundary
of the Yankton Sioux reservation.
But the Supreme Court upheld
Greger's conviction and  10-year
sentence, saying the state has legal
jurisdiction in the area.
The recent federal court decision, if
Enforce cont'd on 6
By Beth Silver
MAHNOMEN, Minn. (AP) _ For
nearly a year, Lorraine DeGroat and
her nine children survived on the tips
she made waitressing at the Shooting
Star Casino.
They also had a subsidized home
andfood stamps, but it was the closest
to independence she had been in most
of her 34 years.
Then her car broke down. The
divorced mother had no way to get to
the casino 21 miles across the White
Earth Reservation and was back on
$1,000 a month in government
assistance.
DeGroat says she desperately wants
to get off welfare but is not sure how to
do it. Her mother was on welfare, and
now her 17-year-old daughter is six
months pregnant. Who ultimately
changes the system _ the state or her
tribal government _ makes no
difference, she says.
The new federal welfare law that
requires states to take over public
assistance programs also allows tribal
governments to take on welfare reform
for themselves. But will they?
The challenge of overhauling
welfare may be even more daunting
on sprawling, isolated reservations
with few jobs for poor tribal members
with little education and no
transportation or child care.
And there are risks. Tribes would be
required to meet the same federal
guidelines as the state or face financial
sanctions.
"Given our rate of unemployment,
it's going to be very, very difficult, if
not impossible, to put people to work
as they exhaust their benefits from the-
welfare program," said Bobby
Whitefeather, chairman of the Red
Lake Band of Chippewa.
So far, no tribal governments in
Minnesota have decided whether to
develop their own welfare plans. The
state has to submit a plan by July 1;
tribes can jump in at any time.
"For the life of me, I can't think of
too many advantages (to tribes that
administer welfare themselves)," said
Sen. Don Samuelson, DFL-Brainerd,
author of one of the welfare bills before
the Legislature.
If they do, part of the federal grant
that would have gone to the state would
Welfare cont'd on 8
Ada Deer to oversee nation's Indian casinos
Anti-gambling group: unfair to keep
Minnesota Indian off commission
By Philip Brasher
WASHINGTON (AP)_ A few days
ago, an American Indian lawyer from
Minnesota was expected to receive a
prestigious White House appointment
to a commission that will study the
social and economic impact of
gambling.
Now Tadd Johnson's appointment
is in doubt, apparently because his
cl ients include tribes that have casinos.
But an anti-gambling group says it
would be unfair to exclude Johnson or
another Indian from the panel.
President Clinton has three
appointments to make to the nine-
member commission. One of them is
likely to be William Bible, chairman
of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Bible has the support of the American
Gaming Associatio{n. Opponents
view him as pro-gambling.
"We agree that this panel must be
balanced and we will scream bloody
murder if it is not balanced," said
Bernie Horn, political director for the
National Coalition Against Legalized
Gambling.
"But it's not right to balance the
panel by cutting out the Native
American when Las Vegas is the one
that is over-represented," Horn said
Thursday.
Appointing both Bible and an Indian
to the commission would tilt it in favor
of pro-gambling interests, Horn said.
The six appointments already made
by congressional leaders are
considered to be evenly divided
between gambling and anti-gambling
interests.
Unfair cont'd on 6
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A federal
commission that regulates the 274
casinos and other gaming operations
on the nation's Indian reservations
will be headed by Wisconsin native
Ada Deer.
Deer, the current assistant Interior
secretary who heads the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, has been named by
President Clinton to also serve as the
interim chairwoman of the National
Indian Gaming Commission.
Last month Deer announced her
resignation as BIA chief but agreed to
stay on the job until Clinton names her
successor.
At the commission, Deer replaces
Harold Monteau, 43, the first
American Indian to head a U.S.
regulatory commission. He resigned
at the end of January after a federal
lawmaker criticized him for acting
more like a cheerleader than a
regulator.
The commission, which has 36 staff
members and an annual budget of $2.5
million, is responsible for oversight of
all Indian gambling operations. The
operations are located on 182 Indian
reservations in 28 states.
The commission estimates that Indian
gaminggenerates$4.4billioneachyear.
"It has provided a tremendous
economic boost, reduced
unemployment, reduced welfare and
increased the incomes of employees,"
Deer said of Indian gaming.
The commission was created by the
1988 federal law that permits tribes,
with state approval, to conduct any
form of gambling already allowed in
the state in which they are located.
As the  chairwoman  of the
commission, Deer will have the power
to approve casino contracts. Two other
commissioners, appointed by the
Interior secretary, serve as advisers to
the chairman.
Deer, 61, a Menominee Indian from
Keshena, is the first woman to head
the BIA.
One serious problem the commission
faced was a lack of money and staff to
perform its responsibilities, she said.
Its primary job is to ensure that
tribal gaming operations comply with
the 1988 law. A recent report by the
commission found violations of the
law at 229 of the 274 Indian gaming
establishments throughout the country.
The problems included background
checks on employees, whether state
approval had been obtained for
gambling activities, and whether
appropriate fees had been paicwjhe
gaming commission.