The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1997-04-04

              Federal officials look into allegations of
brutality by Minneapolis Police Department
By Gary Blair
The Minnesota office of the U.S.
Attorney is conducting a federal
Grand Jury investigation into police
brutality in the city of Minneapolis.
More than 25 police officers-most of
them from the third precinct—have
been subpoenaed to give testimony.
U.S. Attorney David Lilliehaug said
Tuesday that he cannot comment on
anything that his office may or may
not be doing in this regard.
The PRESS, however, obtained a
copy of former Minneapolis police
officer Anthony Michael Barragan's
Mar. 10, 1997 plea agreement.
Barragan was charged with assaulting
two Minneapolis men that he had
taken into custody.
The former officer was caught on a
homeless shelter's video camera
hitting and kicking Stonewall Jackson
Drain, an African American who he
had arrested and handcuffed on
suspicion of rape on Nov. 24, 1995.
The charges against Drain were later
dropped.
Barragan was also charged with
violating the civil rights of Raul Vera
on Nov. 7, 1995, when he injured
Vera, who was seated in the back seat
of a Minneapolis police car. The
charges against Barragan in the latter
case were dropped in exchange for
Barragan's cooperation with the U.S.
Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division probe into police brutality in
Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Police Chief Robert
Olson told the PRESS Tuesday that
Lillehaug had told him that, so far,
they had not gained anything from the
(Barragan's) testimony.
Chief Olson said he was similarly
barred from discussing details of the
case. "I really can't comment on this
any further, but Barragan is trying to
get a downward departure from the 24
months he may spend in prison,"
Olson said. "You know it only takes
a few bad officers to make the others
look bad."
PRESS sources say the federal
investigation into police brutality in
Minneapolis is focusing on the
possibility that death squads may be
Police cont'd on 8
Feds off icials look into brutality by Minneapolis Police
Two defendants in conspiracy likely to go unpunished
Mpls. not in compliance with firefighter certification
Supr. Ct. to hear appeal ruling for traffic jurisdiction
Bands will consider harvesting fewer walleye
Voice of the People
Final two defendants in tribal civil rights
conspiracy likely to go unpunished
By Jeff Armstrong
Two Minnesota Chippewa Tribal
members indicted in 1995 formisusing
their state notary public seals to certify
fraudulent ballots in 1994 White Earth
elections have yet to be sentenced, and
neither is likely to see the inside ofa
prison cell.
In fact, one of the two is
commissioned as a Minnesota notary
until the year 2000.
Henry Harper and Peter Pequette, Jr.,
who between them rubber-stamped
nearly 200 phony votes—including
several cast on behalf of deceased
tribal members-were indicted on six
federal  counts  each,  including
conspiracy to violate the civil rights
of White Earth citizens and mail fraud.
According to tribal election records,
Harper notarized more than 100
ballots purportedly cast in his presence
by voters in cities across the United
States on June 10, 1994, and Pequette
falsely certified 72 such absentee
ballots on a single day in May of that
year. State and tribal laws require such
certification of official documents to
be done in the presence of the
individual.
Citing alleged health problems.
Harper was granted a request to be
tried separately from then-RBC
members Darrell Wadena, Jerry
Rawley and Rick Clark, who were
subsequently convicted last June on
dozens of felony fraud charges.
Harper signed a plea agreement on
January 24, 1997, in which he admits
to making false statements to a federal
investigator.
The agreement stipulates that the
presumed "federal sentencing range is
0-6 months," and that the government
will not object to a sentence of
probation, unless it discovers
additional criminal history. No-
sentencing date has been scl for
Harper, pending a presentence
investigation.
U.S. criminal charges of conspiring
against civil or constitutional rights
carries a maximum penalty of ten
Tribal cont'd on 5
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded   in \ 988
Volume 9    Issue 25
April 4, 1 997
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A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe Mews, 1 997
City of Minneapolis not in compliance
with firefighter certification process
By Gary Blair
The City of Minneapolis still does
not require Native American
employment applicants to be certified
before they are hired. Recently, two
fire cadets who claimed Native
American employment status were
hired without tribal enrollment or
ancestral lineage verification.
This has occurred only five months
after Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton,
assured the Minneapolis Indian
community that the certifications
would take place in the future. "Our
Indian Allison, Valerie Sheehan will
do the certifying," Mayor Belton told
those who attended a firefighter's
advsory steering committee meeting
in Nov. 1996. However, the PRESS
has learned that Sheehan was never
told to certify the two Native
Americans who were recently hired by
the city's fire department.
American Indian firefighters Mike
Beaulieu and Leonard Thompson say
without that certification the city will
still be able to hire employees who
claim they are Native Americans just
so they can get the jobs that are
suppose to go to Indians. "This
practice by the city has kept the real
Native Americans who deserve and
need those jobs, from being hired and
that's the discrimination we will
continue to fight to change,"
firefighter Beaulieu said.
In Oct. of 1994, then Minnesota
Department of Human Rights
(MDHR) Commissioner, David
Beaulieu, filed a commissioners
charge against The City of
Minneapolis that alleged the city's
hiring practice of Native Americans
was discriminatory. Within months
after commissioner Beaulieu filed the
charge, it was reported, that, he
(Beaulieu) was going to be replaced
by Delores Frig, then an employee
with the Minneapolis civil rights
department. Frig is reported to be a
family friend of Minneapolis Mayor
Sharon Sayles Belton.
When asked at that time if he was
going to be replaced, Beaulieu
responded, "The Governor has
assured me that I will serve for another
four years as this department's
commissioner," Beaulieu told the
PRESS.
Mayor Belton has recently been
accused of trying to get attorney
Carolyn Chalmers, chairman of the
Process cont'd on 8
Bushed sugar bushers, from the Fond du Lac Ojibwe School, board the bus after a day in the woods.
Sugar Bushing in Full Swing
Photo by Julie Shortridge
State Supreme Court to hear MN appeal of
ruling for tribal traffic jurisdiction
By Jeff Armstrong
In a decision dated March 18, the
Minnesota Supreme Court agreed to
review lower court findings that the
state lacks authority to enforce traffic
ordinances inside reservation borders
against members of federally
recognized tribes. The appeals court
ruling in State v. Stone et. al did not
address jurisdiction over non-Natives,
since the nine defendants in the case
were members of the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe.
The state Court of Appeals last
December upheld a Mahnomen
district court ruling dismissing state
charges against nine tribal members
ranging from driving without state
license, insurance, or registration, to
speeding and failure to wear a seat belt
or provide a child restraint seat.
Mahnomen County, situated entirely
within the boundaries of the White
Earth Reservation, challenged the
ruling in the appeals court and lost.
Minnesota attorney general Skip
Humphrey's office then intervened in
the case, petitioning for a supreme
court hearing in hopes of overturning
the decision.
Representing the state, assistant
attorney general Peter Marker said the
higher court's decision to review the
case puts the effect of the appeals
court ruling on hold. Marker
acknowledged, however, that staying
the Stone ruling does not grant
jurisdiction to the state.
"It's a cloudy issue; nothings very
clear," said Marker. "The law
currently says that the state doesn't
have authority to enforce these traffic
laws on the reservation. Now, the rules
of court also say that that decision is
stayed until the Supreme Court rules
on the case," he said. "It's our position
right now that it's in limbo."
Although Marker, assistant attorney
general for the state Department of
Public Safety, denied any role in
directing counties on the issue, he said
the attorney general's office advocates
enforcement of traffic laws on
reservations without regard to tribal
membership.
"What our office has advised,"
Marker said, "is until the supreme
court rules, we encourage law
enforcement, because the court of
appeals decision is stayed." If the high
court upholds Stone, he said, the state
will be bound to comply with the
Ruling cont'd on 6
By Julie Shortridge
The sap is flowing this week, so
Spring must finally be reaching the
north country. Driving along rez roads
on Fond du Lac near Cloquet,
Minnesota, you can sec metal buckets,
plastic milk jugs, and blue heavy-duty
plastic bags hanging on the sides of
trees, collecting the sweet, slow drip
of the rising sap.
"You never know how long the sap
will mn, whether it will be one week
or four. It depends on the weather,
how warm it gets and whether it stays
warm.   But no matter how long the
maple syrup season lasts, in the end,
it seems you always get about the same
amount of sap. It's just a matter of how
fast you get it," said Roxanne
Martineau, a member of the Bad River
Band of Chippewa who grew up in
Milwaukee and now lives on the Fond
du Lac Reservation with her husband
Joe Martineau.
Roxanne's mother, June Goodrich,
remembers that in the old days nearly
every reservation family claimed their
own sugar bush, where they carriped-
out during the sugar bushing season.
"When the sap was running, you'd
work from dawn to dusk. You'd have
to haul the sap, boil it down, cut wood
to keep the fires going. One family
could tap a hundred or more trees,
depending on the size of their work
force. The fun part I remember most
is when we'd go around visiting all the
other camps to gossip and see how
much syrup they were getting. We'd
make cakes and bread out of the
syrup."
June said that those who broke trail
into the woods would walk sideways
with their snowshoes. "Then you
could walk on the trail without
snowshoes, just like walking on a
sidewalk."   That's a good trick to
Sugar cont'd on 5
Bands say they'll consider harvesting fewer
walleye on some lakes
Tribes   opposing   dog   track  casino
contributed to Democrats
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ Donations
to national Democratic committees
were part ofa lobbying campaign by
Wisconsin Indian tribes to defeat a
proposal to develop a casino at a
Hudson dog track, the Wisconsin State
Journal reports.
The 1995 lobbying effort involved
top White House aides and Democratic
National Committee co-chairman Don
Fowler, the newspaper said Sunday,
citing newly released court documents.
Wisconsin tribes joined Minnesota
tribes in giving at least $273,000 to
key national Democratic committees
in 1996, according to federal campaign
records released last week.
The tribes all operated casinos that
could have been threatened by
competition if the proposed off-
reservation casino were to be
developed by other tribes at the St.
Croix Meadows track at Hudson.
One tribal leader, Lewis Taylor of
the St. Croix Chippewa band, said in
the court documents that donations
were offered to the DNC as a way to
get help in opposing the casino and on
other issues.
"Well, yeah, we support our friends,"
Taylor said, confirming that fund
raising came up in a key April 1995
meeting with Fowler. "St. Croix
supports their friends."
Tens of thousands of dollars more in
donations from individual tribal
members and their lobbyists also went
to help Democratic candidates
opposing the Hudson casino project,
the newspaper's review of campaign
records showed.
One of the top individual recipients
was U.S. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.,
who chose sides among tribes in his
7th Congressional District, the
newspaper said, without saying how
much he received.
Obey sided with the St. Croix, who
contributed to his campaign at a May
13, 1995 fund-raiser in Madison.
Opponents depended on Obey to lobby
the Department of Interior and then-
White House Chief of Staff Leon
Panetta, memos showed.
Track cont'd on 5
By Beth Silver
ST. PAUL (AP)_ Chippewa Indian
bands say they are considering
harvesting fewer walleye in some
Minnesota lakes, prompting the state
to reassess which lakes need more
restrictive regulations for non-band
anglers.
"This is a very positive action by the
bands," Rod Sando, commissioner of
the state Department of Natural
Resources, said Monday. "By
adjusting their harvest slightly on
certain lakes, it appears as though we
can avoid some restriction on non-
band sport anglers."
The change could mean that the state
won't have to impose stricter
regulations on two or more lakes, said
DNR spokeswoman Marcy Dowse.
The department will decide by the end
of the week, she said.
Jim Genia, Mille Lacs band solicitor
general, said the bands are considering
lowering limits on about five lakes at
the DNR's request.
"We are in contact with the state
frequently to discuss management of
the various resources and will be
working with the state to ensure that
the resources are managed properly
and that they are protected for all
users," he said.
Under terms of court-ordered
agreements, eight Chippewa bands
announced earlier this month that they
would exercise treaty rights to net and
spear fish on 29 lakes this spring. In
about 10 instances, maximum treaty
harvest was expected to reach a level
that would require new restrictions on
non-band anglers.
The lakes are among about 150 that
lie in a large area of east-central
Minnesota that was ceded to the U.S.
government under an 1837 treaty. In
exchange, the Indians were given the
right to fish, hunt and gather food off
their reservation in the ceded area.
A federal judge ruled in 1994 that
those rights remain in force, and a
later ruling extended those rights to
the Fond du Lac band of Minnesota
and six Wisconsin Chippewa bands,
which all signed the 1837 treaty.
The DNR has a court-ordered
obligation to ensure that the non-Indian
harvest does not exceed the safe limits
on the lakes, Sando said. Many
Minnesota anglers are concerned that
increased levels of tribal fishing will
deplete the fish population available
for non-Indian sport fishing.
Chief pleads innocent to conspiracy complaint
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) _
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Joe
Byrd pleaded innocent Tuesday to a
conspiracy complaint in tribal court.
Prosecutor Diane Blalock said the
case was set on the April 25 docket.
Byrd was released on his own
recognizance.
Conspiracy complaints were filed
Thursday against Byrd and his director
of human resources, Ervin Rock, who
also pleaded innocent Tuesday.
Defense attorney Bill Bliss did not
immediately return a telephone call
for comment.
Ms. Blalock accuses Byrd and other
administrators of attempting to
interfere with her investigation into
alleged misuse of federal funds.
Also Tuesday, she filed a criminal
complaint accusing a top tribe
administrator with diversion of
$10,023.75.
This complaint says tribal chief of
staff George Thomas in August 1996
authorized the payment of salary to
Bob Powell for the unauthorized job
of interim inspector general. The
money came from the Cherokee Nation
District Court's budget, according to
the complaint.
Complaintcont'don6