The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1997-11-07

              State and tribal judges plot strategy on
jurisdiction, sovereignty
By Gary Blair
The William Mitchell College of
Law in St. Paul, MN hosted a panel
discussion of federal, state and tribal court judges that dealt with jurisdictional issues surrounding their
courts' interaction this week.
Cathy Wurzer, host of KTCA-TV's
Newsnight Minnesota and co-host
of KTCA's Friday evening Almanac
public affairs program served as
moderator for the two hour debate.
Some of the written questions from
the audience were responded to by
panel members during the last half-
hour of the two hour presentation.
The panelists were: Judge
Lawrence Piersol, U.S. District
Court for the District of South
Dakota and Chairman, Eighth
Circuit Judicial Council Committee
on Tribal Justice; Judge Henry M.
Buffalo Jr. of Jacobson, Buffalo,
Schoessler and Magnuson, who also
serves as judge of the Shakopee
Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota)
Community, special projects attorney of the Fond du Lac Band of
Lake Superior Chippewa Indians
and first Executive Director of the
Great Lakes Indian Fish and
Wildlife Commission; justice
Sandra Gardebring of the Minnesota
Supreme Court and chairperson of
the Minnesota Supreme Court's
Committee on State/Tribal Court
Affairs; Judge B.J. Jones, director
of Northern Plains Judicial Institute
at the University of North Dakota
School of Law and chief appellate
judge for the Turtle Mountain Band
of Chippewa Indians Tribal Court;
justice Robert N. Clinton, Wiley B.
Rutledge professor at the University
of Iowa College of Law and associate justice of the Cheyenne River
Sioux Tribal Appellate Court.
Justice Gardebring started the discussion by mentioning the recent
"flap" over traffic issues on the
White Earth and Leech Lake reservations and the long awaited ruling
from the state supreme court. She
cited the problems at the Indian casinos, later making reference to the
Jill Gavle case that involved abuse
of a non-Indian casino employee by
the Mystic Lake Casino manager.
The Gavle case may be heard by the
U.S. Supreme Court:
Jurisdiction cont'd on 6
Senate hearings put on hold, but investigations
Continue Senator Wellstone not responsive to newspaper questions
By Julie A. Shortridge
Sen. Fred Thompson pulled the
plug last week after 32 days of public hearings on campaign fund raising. Hearings had included questioning of former White House
deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes,
former Democratic National
Committee Chairman Don Fowler,
Secretary of the Department of
Interior Bruce Babbitt, and former
lawyer friend of Babbitt's Paul
Eckstein. They were all questioned
regarding the role tribal contributions from some of the nation's richest tribes in Minnesota may have
played in the Department of
Interior's disapproval of a casino at
the Hudson dog track proposed by
three poor Chippewa bands in
Wisconsin.
Thompson said in newspaper
reports that he's tired of the White
House refusing to provide the documents and information necessary to
conduct the hearings.   Included are
seven documents the White House
will not release regarding the
Hudson dog track decision, including memos to and from President
Clinton on the matter. The Hudson
casino issue emerged in the hearings
as the only alleged example of campaign contributions buying a federal
ruling in favor of those giving the
money.
According to the New York Times,
a House committee conducting similar investigations under Rep. Dan
Burton plans extensive hearings
next year, and the Justice
Department's inquiry on the issue
has picked up steam. The Hudson
matter is also being investigated in
at least four lawsuits.
Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone,
who serves on the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee and is in a position of influence on Indian matters,
interceded in Washington D.C. on
behalf of the Minnesota tribal casino
interests. This reporter spoke on the
phone with a person at Sen.
Wellstone's Minneapolis office who
said he would fax my questions to
spokesperson Linda Marson in the
Washington D.C. office that afternoon, and that I should call her the
next morning. I had the following
conversation with Ms. Marson on
Tuesday morning:
(After introducing myself and the
reason for my call...)
Q - What was Sen. Wellstone's role
in talking with the White House,
Democratic National Committee,
and Department of Interior regarding the Hudson proposal?
A - Sen. Wellstone listens to his constituents every day and assists them
in talking with other people in
Washington so their concerns can be
heard all the time. That's nothing
new and there's no big secret here.
Senate cont'd on 3
Former Babbitt aide took money to DNC
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A lobbyist
for an Indian tribe delivered a hefty
donation to the Democratic National
Committee about a year after he left
his post as a chief of staff with the
Interior Department, according to a
deposition obtained by a newspaper.
The donation came from
Minnesota's Shakopee Sioux tribe, a
client of lobbyist Thomas C. Collier
Jr., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
reported today. The Shakopee tribe
was one of the most vehement opponents to an Indian casino planned for
a dog track in Hudson — a project
that has been investigated by
Congress and has been the subject of
federal lawsuits. Republicans have
tried to show that $286,000 eventually donated to the DNC by tribes
opposed to the Wisconsin casino
was a payback for an Interior
Department decision to reject the
casino proposal.
But Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt on Thursday denied politics
played a role in the decision or that
he was ever aware that aides to then-
deputy White House chief of staff
Harold Ickes had asked Interior
Department officials about the status
of the decision. Collier left the
Interior Department about two
weeks before the Four Feathers
Casino plan was rejected, on July
14, 1995, and he began representing
the Shakopee tribe within five
months.
The rejection was unusual because
it was rare for the Interior
Department to overturn a regional
office on an off-reservation gambling land issue. Before he left the
Interior Department, Collier played
a role in the process that led to the
casino rejection.  He said he met
with an anti-Hudson casino lobbyist.
Collier's role in a Shakopee donation was disclosed in a deposition
taken by Senate investigators Sept.
29. Collier told investigators he
arranged a donation several months
before the November 1996 presidential election. The Shakopee tribe
contributed $25,000 on Oct. 7,1996,
and another $25,000 two days later,
records show. Another $50,000 was
contributed through three checks
between June 7, 1996, and Aug. 2,
1996. It is unclear from the Collier
testimony which donation he hand-
delivered to then-DNC chairman
Donald Fowler.
The Shakopee donations account
for about one-third of the money
given to Democrats in 1995 and
1996 by tribes opposed to the casino. Fowler has testified that he met
Babbitt cont'd on 3
Child's death stuns reservation
By Angela K. Brown
Associated Press
MISSION, S.D. (AP) — In her
tiny, drafty trailer on the Rosebud
Sioux Indian Reservation, Elizabeth
Jimerson sat at her kitchen table,
staring at snapshots of her 11-year-
old daughter. Law officers had just
verified that it was her little girl,
Richynda Naomi Roubideaux,
whose partially clothed, decomposing body was found almost a month
earlier near a sewer lagoon.
Federal officials, who say the death
was no accident, had trouble identifying the body and didn't release the
name until Wednesday. "I prayed
and prayed all this time that it wasn't her," Jimerson said Wednesday
afternoon, a tear rolling down her
cheek. "And now they tell me it's
her. Why? Why? Why her?"
Jimerson knows the remote reservation in south central South
Dakota, which ranks among the
poorest areas of the nation, offers little for her six children. But she
chose to stay because she felt safe
from "big-city" crime. Now, as she
buries her daughter Saturday, she
knows major crimes aren't limited
to big cities.
The little girl, known as Richy by
her friends and relatives, was just
learning how to play the clarinet and
wanted to be a singer. When she
wasn't playing with friends, she was
at the library, Jimerson said. She
often told her family she would "be
something" after she graduated.
Even at her young age, Richy
yearned for a better life off the reservation, said her aunt, Lorraine
Roubideaux. "For our family not
having a lot, she was more of a
leader," Roubideaux said. "It's
important for whoever did this to see
her as a person. If they knew what
they took away, it would make them
feel guilty. They took a little girl's
dreams all away."
Child cont'd on 3
Honoring the Earth through music tour
By Winona LaDuke
The beauty of the Honor the Earth
tour is the music and the message.
That is the simple truth. Native
artists like Keith Secola and Ulali
have their music heard before new
audiences in towns like
Poughkeepsie, New York, and
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The
Grammy Award winning folk-rock
duo, Indigo Girls, fan fires of political activism in a new generation.
And some grassroots Native
activists have their voices heard-in
little redneck reservation border-
towns, in their own communities, in
nearby cities - and in Washington,
DC.
The 1997 Honor the Earth Tour is
over.    My    suitcase    is    finally
unpacked and I sit in piles of paper,
unopened mail and huge lists of
things to do. Life may have returned
to some normal level of hecticness,
but something inside me is more
inspired, has seen more terrible and
more beautiful images than I
remember from ever before, and in
my heart, I believe and know that
courageous people make a difference.
This fall's concert tour was the
third Honor the Earth Tour headlined by the Indigo Girls and featuring Native performers such as Ulali,
Keith Secola and his Wild Band of
Indians, John Trudell and Bad Dog,
Jim Boyd and the band Indigenous.
The tour was begun amidst blessing
and traditional Mohawk dancing on
the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation in
upstate New York September 7.
Twenty-one shows and twenty-five
days later, on October 2nd, the tour
ended in Missoula, Montana.
Sponsored by the Seventh
Generation Fund, the Indigenous
Women's Network and the
Indigenous Environmental Network,
Honor the Earth is an ongoing effort
to raise public awareness and financial support for grassroots Native
environmental initiatives. This years
tour did that and more. "Honor the
Earth was the most rigorous and
demanding tour of our career," said
Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls,
Earth cont'd on 3
State, tribal judges plot strategy
Senate hearing on hold, investigations continue
New standards for Indian casinos
U.S. Supreme Court to hear Leech Lake land case pc
Navojo reject gambling again pg. 6
Voice ofthe People
1
E-mail: pressan@bji.net
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Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity Far All People
Founded in 19BB
Volume 10   Issue 4 November 7, 1997
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Copyright, The Ojibwe News, 1 997
An excellent artwork rendition by Minneapolis's Frank Big Bear is depicted in "Shaman,'
a 1993 original creation that was done with prisma color pencil on paper.
Dakota associate sentenced to three years
prison for conspiracy, bribery
MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) -- A    surrender later so he could prepare
New Jersey businessman convicted
of bribing former tribal chairman
Fred Dakota was sentenced Tuesday
to three years in federal prison and
fined $60,000. Jerrold Polinsky, 66,
of Atlantic City, N.J., was found
guilty in June of conspiracy and
bribing an agent of an Indian tribal
government.
Dakota, who resigned in July as
chairman of the Keweenaw Bay
Indian Community in the western
Upper Peninsula, was convicted of
taking bribes and tax evasion. He is
scheduled for sentencing Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes
Bell sentenced Polinsky, saying he
would be on probation for three
years after serving time. He also was
ordered to have no contact with anyone in the gambling industry.
Bell denied Polinsky's request to
his defense against other charges
pending in Minnesota and
Louisiana. Federal marshals took
him into custody immediately after
the sentencing hearing.
A grand jury indicated Polinsky in
June 1996 on 25 counts of bribing
Dakota. During the trial, prosecutors
said he paid $127,000 in kickbacks
from 1991-93. At that time his company, International . Gaming
Management Inc., was providing
200 slot machines to the Keweenaw
tribe's Ojibwa Casino in Baraga.
Polinsky's attorney, Thomas
Casselman, asked for a lighter sentence, saying his client had accepted
responsibility for his crime. He said
Polinsky should not be penalized for
"purportedly, allegedly, not telling
the truth" to the jury. Polinsky apologized to his family "for the embar
rassment I've caused them." He
added, "I've been a good citizen. ...
I've made an error in judgment."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Judd
Spray, who prosecuted the case, said
the Keweenaw tribe was more
deserving of an apology than
Polinsky's family. "He may be sorry
for something, but he's not sorry for
the crimes he committed," Spray
said.
Bell said Polinsky clearly attempted to mislead the jury with his testimony, and that the defendant still
was not taking responsibility for his
actions. "You just don't get it," Bell
said. "This is an issue of bribing ... a
public official and it goes to the
heart of the democratic process."
Polinsky said he wanted to appeal,
but Bell said he probably would not
succeed.
New federal standards sought for Indian
casinos
By Philip Brasher
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tribal
casinos will become more vulnerable to organized crime unless the
federal government tightens regulation of them, says the author of a
proposed overhaul of Indian gambling laws.
"The absence of federal standards
has allowed a void to develop which
will become more and more attractive to criminal elements," Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., said Wednesday.
McCain's legislation would expand
the powers of the National Indian
Gaming Commission and set minimum standards for casino operations, including the licensing of key
employees and managers. Similar
legislation died in Congress last year
and still faces stiff opposition from
tribes, which don't want to pay for
the tougher federal enforcement and
argue that it isn't necessary.:
"Indian gaming is the most regulat
ed gaming in the United States, if
not the world," Rick Hill, president
of the National Indian Gaming
Association, told the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee.
States also oppose the bill because
they fear it would give tribes the
upper hand in negotiating gambling
agreements. Lawmakers also criticized the Justice Department on
Wednesday for allowing Indian
tribes to operate casinos in
California and other states without
state approval.
"It's beyond my comprehension
how the federal government is
acknowledging massive illegal gambling and doing nothing," Sen.
Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.
Sen. Frank Murkowksi, R-Alaska,
said Attorney General Janet Reno
tion Indian casinos. Such agreements determine how large the operations can be and how they will be
regulated.
California Gov. Pete Wilson has
been negotiating an agreement with
a tribe that wants to open a casino in
San Diego County, but he refuses to
talk with the tribes that are running
illegal operations.
The Justice Department is waiting
to see whether that agreement can
serve as a framework for negotiating
deals that would legalize the existing casinos, said Kevin DiGregory, a
deputy assistant attorney general.
Some casinos in Florida and a few
other states have been allowed tb
continue to operate while tribal and
state officials argue over whether
.they should be permitted. Nevada's
should appoint a special counsel to ^senators, who have been the most
close down the casinos. More than
30 tribes in California have been
operating video gambling without
the state-tribal compacts that are
required under federal law to sane-
vocal critics of Indian gambling,
said the Justice Department's inaction encourages tribes to open illegal
casinos.