The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1997-07-25

              U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate civil
rights abuses by state on reservations
By Jeff Armstrong
U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug's top
prosecutor told members of
Anishinabe Advocates that he would
initiate a criminal civil rights
investigation into alleged abuses
committed by state law enforcement
on the White Earth and Leech Lake
reservations.
Lillehaug could not attend the July
23 press conference due to a prior
engagement, but the U.S. Attorney
agreed to meet within the next two
weeks with the grassroots human
rights group.
First assistant U.S. attorney Todd
Jones received hundreds of pages of
documents involving cases Advocates
members say need to investigated for
rights violations by state and tribal
officials. Jones cautioned, however,
that the U.S. has "limited jurisdiction"
over tribal government actions and
would instead focus on county sheriffs
deputies.
But the two issues cannot be so easily
separated, said Roxanne LaRose. "It's
not only the states and counties that
are violating the rights ofthe people,"
LaRose said. "We've been the victims
of a coup in our government, and it's
being aided and abetted by the
counties. If we went into our tribal
offices in a group this size, we'd be
arrested by county officers for
criminal trespass."
Jones similarly declined to discuss
issues of state infringement on tribal
sovereignty, including by negotiating
jurisdictional "agreements" with
unrepresentative tribal officials in
secret meetings. Marvin Manypenny
said the U.S. should exercise its trust
responsibility to ensure that any such
agreements are subject to the Indian
Civil Rights Act's requirement of
consent by tribal referendum.
"If the state's going to assume more
authority over us, didn't the Indian
Civil Rights Act state that we have a
right to vote on that?" Manypenny
asked.
Anishinabe Advocates founder Dale
Greene said Minnesota Chippewa
Tribal members are tired of being
dictated to by a "fascist" political
system. "What we're saying is we've
got a third world government, like
Manuel Noriega, like Ferdinand
Rights cont'd on 5
U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate civil rights abuses
Fire Cadets face harassment after court orders
Native youths top peers in smoking
Officials accuse Turtle Mt. authorities of mismgnt.
Conferences focus on minority cancer studies/ pg 8
Voice ofthe People
\
Fire Cadets face harassment after court
orders their reinstatement
By Gary Blair
A recent federal court contempt
ruling against the City of Minneapolis
that was in favor of seven minority
firefighter cadets who were fired has
taken another turn—this time things
have become openly hostile.
The seven fire cadets, five African
Americans, one Native American and
one of Middle Eastern ancestry were
terminated last November after they
had supposedly failed two
psychological examinations.
Following their dismissals the fire
cadets filed an appeal with the City's
affirmative action department, whose
director, Larry Blackwell,
recommended that the fire cadets be
reinstated.
That action in turn pressured the City
into an agreement to reinstatethe fire
cadets with pay pending the outcome
ofa full investigation by Blackwell's
office. In January Blackwell
concluded his findings and again
recommend the fire cadets be
reinstated.
In the meantime, the fire cadets
hired the St. Paul law firm of Reinhart
and Anderson, who then removed the
fire cadets case into federal court in
April of this year. On July 11, 1997,
Federal Judge Robert Renner ruled
that the City of Minneapolis was in
violation of his 27-year-old Consent
Decree Order that ordered the city to
integrate its fire department. This
latest action by the federal court
demands that the City of Minneapolis
use a validated psychological testing
process and that they test the fire
cadets again.
The following is a letter from Legal
Aid Society of Minneapolis attorney
Rick Macpherson to Minneapolis City
attorney James A. Moore, discussing
the latest events. According to
Macpherson's letter, whites on the
city's fire department have now
decided that they have the right to step
in and remove the unwanted fire
cadets for their boss, Minneapolis fire
chief Thomas Dickinson. Their efforts
are apparently an attempt to
accomplish what Dickinson was not
able to do himself.
The following is Macpherson's July
23,1997 letter to Moore, printed here
in its entirety. "Dear Mr. Moore: I
am writing to advise you about two
incidents that occurred on Friday, July
18th, that indicate a disturbing pattern
Cadets cont'd on 8
Fifty Cents
OJibWi
New
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 19BB
Volume 9   Issue 41
July es. 1997
I
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1997
Native youths top peers in smoking
By Gary Blair
The Minnesota Department of
Human Services, Chemical
Dependency Division, Research News
letter reported in October 1996 that
Native American youth have a higher
percentage of tobacco use than other
statewide racial/ethnic peer groups.
The report says Minnesota leads the
nation in adolescent smokers who are
also more likely to use drugs.
According to survey data compiled
from 9th grade students, 54.7 percent
of Native American youth reported
that they had smoked in the past 30
days. That's compared to Hispanic
youth at 44.7 percent; mixed race
youth at 38.5 percent; White youth at
30.3 percent; African American youth
at 25.5 percent and Asian American
youth at 24.8 percent. The survey
focused on 9th graders, because they
are usually still in school, whereas
heavier tobacco and substance users
may have already dropped out of
school.
"National and local studies of
adolescent smoking and other
substance use are conducted regularly.
National surveys such as Monitoring
the Future and state surveys such as
the Minnesota Student Survey gather
substance use and other information
from students themselves. Across the
country and in Minnesota, cigarette
smoking among adolescents is
increasing. One comparison measure
of cigarette smoking is the proportion
of students  who  have  smoked
Submitted Photo
Niki Goodwin riding the thoroughbred race horse "Private Faith" after winning the $60,000 Goss L.
Stryker Stakes at the Laurel Park horse-racing track just outside of Baltimore, Maryland.
Officials accuse Turtle Mountain authorities
of mismanagement
smoking cont'd on 3 White Earth Native Niki Goodwin having
banner year as professional horse racer
MINOT, N.D. (AP) _ Federal
officials are keeping $ 1.1 million from
the Turtle Mountain Indian
Reservation Housing Authority until
problems of favoritism and
mismanagement are resolved.
Instead of cash, Housing and Urban
Development officials sent an 11-page
letter dated June 23, listing problems
found during a routine February
evaluation. The letter said some tribal
members were moved up on a waiting
list for houses, even if they make too
much or too little money.
"There have been problems there,
but we're trying to work together to
help (the housing authority) correct
them," Lois Tressler, spokeswoman
for HUD's northern plains office of
Native American programs, told the
Minot Daily News.
"We want to make sure this housing
program keeps running out there,"
Tressler said. "These are deficiencies
we think the housing authority there is
fully capable of correcting."
Among the names of people accused
of getting preferential treatment is
Tribal Chairman Raphael DeCoteau.
Decoteau said HUD's letter
contained "a lot of lies and false
statements." He said HUD officials
accepted "unfounded complaints"
from an unsatisfied housing applicant.
"If I am eligible and everything is in
order... of course I'd accept a house,"
DeCoteau said. "But if it's going to
hurt any program, there's no way I'd
take it. I wouldn't sacrifice our whole
budget or any program just because I
want a house."
He said he's applied for the program
the past nine years and has never been
awarded a home.
Federal programs provide housing
Turtle cont'd on 3
By Larry Adams
Growing up around horses all his
life was 21 year-old Niki Goodwin's
impetus to start riding as a professional
horse racing jockey.
Taking characteristics from his name
"Ga-Shing," which means "Little One"
in Ojibwe, Goodwin weighs around
111 pounds before he puts all the
horse-riding gear known as "tack" on.
Raising horses runs in the Goodwin
family, with Goodwin's father, Duane,
who trains horses, his grandfather, Pat,
who also raises horse, his sister,
Chamisa, who rides in the U. S. and
another sister, Neah, who has just
qualified to become a trainer.
Goodwin, an Anishinabe from the
White Earth Nation in northwestern
Minnesota, has been riding
professionally as a horse racing jockey
for the past five years ever since he
graduated from Bemidji High School in
1994 as an honor student.
A former wrestler for Bemidji High
School, Goodwin went to the Minnesota
State Wrestling championships in high
school. Because of Goodwin's
diminutive stature, he decided that horse
racing was what he wanted to do.
Then in 1995, Goodwin was riding
as Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg,
Manitoba. "I was riding in Pimlico and
was second in the (jockey) standings
in '95. Then, on May 5th, my horse
went down in a race and down I came.
It happened so quick I really didn't
have time to get scared. One second,
you're goin' along; another second,
you're on the ground. I crawled off the
track and thought I was going to be
fine. I guess when the adrenaline's
Goodwin cont'd on 3
Cherokee judges seek injunction against BIA
Chief Joseph Battlefield becomes ranger's
lifelong obsession
By Kelly Kurt
TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Three
Cherokee Nation justices believe
Principal Chief Joe Byrd is stalling
attempts to bring an end to an ongoing
tribal dispute and have pressed ahead
with their own court action.
The judges filed a motion in federal
court in Washington, D.C, on Friday
to speed up an effort aimed at forcing
the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
withdraw from policing the tribe.
Their request for a preliminary
injunction against the agency requires
a hearing within 20 days. The BIA
later filed a motion to have the case
heard in federal court in Oklahoma's
eastern district "in the interest ofjustice
and for the convenience ofthe parties."
Justice Philip Viles said the Judicial
Appeals Tribunal judges cannot wait
on Byrd and U. S. Attorney John Raley
to finish discussions aimed at ending
months of fighting within the tribe.
"We have concluded that the chief
intends to delay the peace process
again," Viles said. "Delay does not
hurt him or his legion of lawyers. The
people being hurt are Cherokee
citizens and loyal Cherokee tribal
employees."
Byrd and Raley met for five hours
Thursday and reported progress but
no agreement. Raley is serving as a
conduit among the various parties
involved in the conflict and met with
Viles and Justice Ralph Keen on Friday
morning.
Viles would not reveal the specifics
ofthe negotiations.
"What we saw largely were things
Chief Byrd could implement by
himself and could have implemented
for some weeks now... We really saw
Judges cont'd on 5
Senate bill backs study of ancient skeleton
By Alan Sorensen
CHINOOK (AP) _ Jim Magera
moved from St. Regis to Northern
Montana College for fall quarter 1963.
He found his room, unpacked his
things, then slipped off to the Chief
Joseph Battlefield about 16 miles south
of Chinook.
"It was real windy, and I was really
shocked how dry it was," Magera said
of his first experience outside the
wetter, windless valleys of western
Montana's Rocky Mountains. "There
was nothing here, but there was
something here, too."
The "something" Magera found at
the site was intangible but powerful.
"It's really a wonderful place," he
said. "There's such a sense of peace
out here. I believe this place really
grabs you and keeps you. We have a
lot of people who keep coming back."
The battlefield covers about 160
acres of Snake Creek bottom and
surrounding hills and coulees. The
bottom is a couple hundred yards wide
and about a quarter-mile long. Today
it is rife, with bushes, but according to
Magera, it was grassy during the 1877
confrontation between Nez-Perce
Indians and U.S. Army troops.
The battle was joined at about 9 a.m.
Sept. 30, 1877, and ended with the
surrender of 417 Nez Perce at about 4
p.m. Oct. 5. Another 3 0 or so survivors
were picked up at the mouth of Clear
Creek.
Thirty Nez Perce men, women and
children died at the battle, and seven
more were killed farther north.
Approximately 200 Nez Perce were
able to make it across the border into
Canada.
"When I go out here, I feel real
good, except in one spot, and that was
where (the soldiers) were using the
12-pound Napoleon cannon to shoot
directly down on the people.
"The rest of the battlefield, I just
feel so at peace."
Ranger cont'd on 8
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A bill
passed by the U.S. Senate calls for
additional scientific study ofa 9,300-
year-old skeleton found on the banks
near Kennewick, Wash., frustrating
Indian attempts to bury the bones.
The bill passed this week calls for
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
make the skeleton _ known as
Kennewick Man _ available to
scientists for studies. Sen. Slade
Gorton, R-Wash., added the
amendment to the Senate' s energy and
water appropriations bill.
The remains were found on Corps-
managed land and the agency had
planned to return them for burial to
Indian tribes, which claimed the bones
as those of an ancestor.
But the corps rescinded its decision
after a group of scientists sued in U.S.
District Court in Portland, Ore., for
the right to study the bones' origins.
"The Kennewick bones are of
monumental importance to the
understanding of American prehistory
and provide invaluable information
about who the earliest Americans were
and where they came from," Gorton
said.
The remains are the oldest and most
complete ever found in Oregon or
Washington. They were discovered
last summer on the banks of the
Columbia River near Kennewick,
Wash. The skeleton, with a spearpoint
in its pelvis, originally was thought to
be that of an early white settler because
of its Caucasoid-like features.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the
skeleton was 9,300 to 9,600 years old.
Final approval of Gorton's
amendment will be decided in a
conference committee, Gorton press
aide Melissa Dollaghan said.
Two defendants go on trial in casino
corruption scandal
BILLINGS (AP) _ Jennifer Marie
Chasing Hawk and Jennifer Lovato
went on trial Monday before U.S.
District Judge Jack Shanstrom on
charges of conspiring to steal money
from the Crow Tribe's Little Bighorn
Casino.
They are the only two of 22 people
named in three federal indictments to
go on trial.
During Monday's testimony, a
former security guard at the casino
testified that when he found employees
tampering with electronic gambling
machines and cashing fake winning
tickets he told tribal officials but
nothing happened.
Sheldon Fitzpatrick, who has not
been indicted in the extensive
corruption scandal, testified that he
also conveyed his suspicions to two
successive casino general managers
but employee thefts  continued
unabated.
Fitzpatrick and other witnesses said
everyone knew what was going on,
including those in management_some
of whom also were stealing money
from the casino.
Attorneys for the two women
maintain that nothing was done to stop
the thefts at the casino because officials
wanted to protect themselves and
members of their families.
BBS