The Ojibwe News / Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1998-02-27

              Minneapolis native fire fighter to challenge
recruiting restrictions
by Gary Blair
Minneapolis personnel director Ann
Ellbracht says the city will not recruit
Native Americans from reservations
to serve on the Minneapolis Fire
Department, citing a 1971 federal court
ruling she says allows for only city
residents.
"We can't do that; the court order
requires the city to recruit from its
residents. The court felt that their were
enoughqualifiedapplicantswitliinthe
city," Ellbracht said on Tuesay as she
responded to questions about the
city's newest efforts to hire more
American I ndians for that department.
Minneapolis firefighter, Mike
Beaulieu, who chairs the city's
American Indian firefighters
association said on Wednesday that
his group supports the recruitment of
Indians from reservations.   "Maybe
they'll find some real Indians if they go
to our reservations," Beaulieu added,
"We fully support that."
According to documentation
obtained by NAP/ON, Minneapolis'
track rccordof hiring Native Americans
has not been good, despite the awards
that some of our so-called leaders have
receivedfromvarious city departments.
It would seem these honors were given
to individuals in return fortheir silence,
or in exchange for city grants offered
by the mayor just before the last
election.
Minutes ofa Nov. 11,1996 meeting of
the Firefighter Advisory Steering
Committee, a group court-ordered to
oversee the integration of the
Minneapolis fire department, indicate
that Native American firefighter
Leonard Thompson told the group the
following: "Mr. Thompson wished to
state for the record the Native American
community has been shut out for the
past 20 some years; what is the plan to
recruit them? How many will we look
for, how many will be hired? He aJso
wished to state for the record that
there should be 75 to 100 Native
Americans on the job instead of just
28."
The following is a memorandum dated
May 26, 1994, which was sent by the
city's Human Resources Affirmative
Action director, Larry Blackwell, to
Surell Brady, Minneapolis City
Attorney. "Subject: Racial
Identification - Our office was asked
by the American Indian Fire Fighters
Organization to verify the American
Indian Status of current City Fire
Captains. There maybe a difference of
opinion on this issue. We request
your opinion.
Firefighters/to pg 5
Leech Lake Chippewas,
before Supreme Court
Cass Co. argue
Sharon Schmickle
Star Tribune
WASHINGTON, D.C. - How far
American Indian bands should be able
to go in taking property off local tax
rolls was the central question U.S.
Supreme Court justices posed to
Minnesota lawyers Tuesday during
arguments over Cass County's
attempt to tax land owned by the Leech
Lake Band of Chippewa.
"What would prevent an Indian tribe
from buying five acres of downtown
Minneapolis and setting up some
hotels . . . and casinos and saying,
'We are exempt from taxation?' "
Justice Stephen Breyer asked.
Such questions and dozens of briefs
filed by states, counties and tribes
reflect the nationwide interest in the
case. It comes before the court at a
time when Indian bands, using casino
profits to buy long-lost reservation
land, increasingly find themselves at
odds with state and local governments
that resist losing tax revenues and
legal jurisdiction on land that has been
held for decades by non-Indians.
"We arc hoping that they will realize
that this case is solely about the
reservation," Minneapolis attorney
James Schoessler, who argued on
behalf of the band. "It's not about
Minneapolis, It's not about St. Paul.
It's simply about whether tribal
governments can rebuild their
reservations. ... It's also about
whether one government can tax
another government."
But justices challenged the argument
that a ruling in the band's favor
wouldn't apply off the reservation.
which is 200 miles north ofthe Twin
Cities.
Cass County Attorney Earl Maus
urged the justices to establish a
"bright line rule" that Indian-held land
should be considered taxable if it can
be sold. Much of the land on
reservations is held in trust for tribe's
and cannot be sold without federal
government approval.
That land could remain tax-exempt.
Maus said, as could property tribes
place in tnisl in the future. The Interior
Department considers the impact on
local governments in deciding whether
to give land-trust status.
The band argued that placing land in
trust is a cumbersome process that can
take years and. in the meantime, it
shouldn't be subject to taxes. A
Leech/to pg 3
Editor replacement put on hold
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) -
Navajo officials haw put on hold &
plan to reassign the editor of the
tribally owned newspaper, the Navajo
Times.
Ferdinand Notah, director of
economic development for the Navajo
Nation, notified Tom Arviso Jr. last
Friday morning that he was being
demoted to an administrative position.
Notah said Arviso was being replaced
primarily because he did not move
quickly enough to turn the paper into
an independent, for-profit enterprise.
But later Friday, after an emergency
meeting of the tribal council's
Economic Development Committee,
Notah told Arviso that instead, he was
being suspended for 14 days.
On Tuesday, Notah s spokeswoman,
Roberta John, said no action has been
taken. "He's evaluating the situation
and any possible action is being
reviewed," she said. Arviso could not
be reached for comment Tuesday.
The newspaper's second-in-
command, advertising director
Eugene Tapahe, said Notah told him
Tuesday to return to "business as
usual." "I don't know what business
as usual is," Tapahe said, "i don't
know what's going on. Nobody does "
Steven Boos, attorney for the Navaji
Nation Council, said he unci
for the Navajo Department of Justice
told Notah during the emergency
meeting that personnel rules did not
allow demoting an employee for
"neglect of duty" on a first offense.
Arviso had never been disciplined
for job performance. "One of the
concepts that is embodied in the
personnel code is this concept of
progressive discipline," Boos said He
said Notah "had the mistaken notion
Editor/to Pg 5
Governor, Mole Lake Chippewa reach
compact agreement
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Chippewa
Indian band that is burdened by
months of political and legal troubles
has agreed to give the state $1.29
million to operate casinos over the next
five years.
The Sokaogon Chippewa also agree
to work on problems that led federal
authorities to close two casinos at the
Mole Lake Reservation in northern
Wisconsin near Crandon. If the
casinos do not re-open, the band need
not pay, a state official said. Gov.
Tommy Thompson's office said
Friday the deal calls for the band to
seek agreements with local
governments to reimburse them for
services like police protection and
roads.
The agreements were included
because reservations, being federal
entities, are immune from taxes that
pay for county and municipal services,
Thompson's chief of staff John
Matthews said. The agreement with
the Sokaogon is the second among 11
Indian tribes and bands that have
compacts with the state allowing
commercial gambling on reservations.
Governor/to pg.5
Debate over returning tax on tribal coal
reaches high court
HELENA, MT (AP) - An estimated
$300 million is at stake in a legal debate
between Montana and the Crow Tribe,
a debate that goes before the U.S.
Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The arguments culminate a 20-year
battle over the state's taxation of coal
mined on a portion of Crow
Reservation land. The question to be
decided by the high court is whether
Montana should have to pay to the
tribe taxes illegally collected by the
state and Big Horn County from
Westmoreland Resources, the
company that mined the tribal coal.
Although the actual taxes amount to
$58.2 million, the case has greater
significance because interest on that
money could push the total amount
of a judgment against the state much
higher.
No one knows how big the number
may be - that depends on the length
of time interest accrues and the
interest rate applied - but most
estimates are around $300 million.
In 1996, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said the tribe was entitled to
the taxes. The state appealed to the
Supreme Court. The focus is on legal
issues, but the potential financial
impact on the state should it lose is a
concern to Budget Director Dave
Debate/to pg. 3
Panel OKs bill to help Red Lake
Funds would be used for economic development project
BYJOHNSUNDVOR
Capitol Reporter
ST. PAUL, MN - A request for $2.6
million in state bonds to spawn
economic development on the Red
Lake Reservation was approved by
the Senate Higher Education Budget
Division Wednesday.
The bill, carried by Senate Majority
Leader Roger Moe, DFL-Erskine, was
forwarded to the budget division of
the Economic Development
Committee.
Moe is asking the Senate to approve
the issuance of general obligation
bonds to help the band build a
combination training-education facility
and quarters for Anderson Fabrics to
expand onto the reservation.
Moe called the plan "an historic first"
for an area ofthe state that suffers from
chronic poverty and an unemployment
rate that hovers between 50 percent
and 65 percent.
Ron Anderson, president of the
Blackduck-based company, told the
subcommittee his business has been
booming. But he has been unable to
find enough workers to staff the
expansion.
To offset the labor shortage,
Anderson wants to move the window
shade division of his company onto
Red Lake/to page 3
Moe's Red Lake proposal deserved critical look, pg. 4
LL Chippewas, Cass Co. argue before Supreme Court, pg.
One family's history at Wounded Knee, pg. 5
LL tackles traffic laws, pg. 3
Voice ofthe People
mmmwi mm
email.rprBsson@bji.net
The
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
Malm
American
Press
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.
Conyrioht Native American Press, 1888
The local pow wow season kicked off February 21 at the Bemidji State High School gymnasium. The pow wow
wassponsorcd by the Bemidji High Indian Education department
White  Earth   group  protests  closed
government, planned RBC-run police force
By Jeff Armstrong
A group of about 30 White Earth
tribal members mounted the first ofa
planned scries of weekly protests
outside the RBC office last Monday.
The demonstration was sparked in
part by the revelation that the RBC
took out a $6 million loan last October
against the reservation's Shooting Star
Casino, but protesters said the casino
mortgage was merely another
symptom of a diseased political
structure unable to withstand public
participation and debate.
"They put our casino in hock, but
they're also putting up our
sovereignty." said White Earth
community council chairman Marvin
Manypenny, condemning the RBC's
secretive negotiations for a state-
tribal law enforcement agreement. "We
need to start exercising self-
determination under international
law," he said.
The RBC refused to authorize the
White Earth communitv council to
host a reservation-wide discussion on
sovereignty last month and has since
blocked the council from holding local
meetings at reservation-owned
buildings. At Monday's rally,
plainclothes security staff identifying
themselves as future White Earth
police officers guarded the locked
doors ofthe reservation headquarters.
"They can't lock us out of the
building. We took it over to change
this system," said Jim Goodwin,
PrOtestS/to pg 3
Supreme Court rules against Alaskan tribe
on issue of Indian country
ANCHORAGE, AK (AP) - American
Indian leaders said everyday life won't
be affected by Wednesday's Supreme
Court ruling that a tribe docs not have
regulatory or taxing powers over 2
million acres ofalaskan wilderness.
The unanimous decision was a big
victory for state officials and a setback
for an Athabascan Indian tribe of 350
people who live in Vcnetie, an Arctic
village in north-central Alaska about
400 miles northeast of Anchorage.
Ricky Frank, a member of the Venetie
village council, said Wednesday that
he wasn't surprised the high court
ruled against them but that "I've been
onthisEarth ever since I wasborn. and
my father before me and his father
before him for 10,000 years. So
nothing's going to change."
The tribe fought to gain authority
over hunting and fishing, law
enforcement and environmental
regulations in an area about the size of
Delaware, if the court ruled in the
tribe's favor, other Alaska tribes also
may have been granted jurisdiction
over tens of thousands of acres.
A1971 federal law, the Alaska Native.
Claims Settlement Act, conveyed 44
million acres of land to more than 200
native villages.
In 1986, the village government sought
to impose a 5 percent business tax on
a contractor building a state-funded
school in Vcnetie.  The tax bill was
$161,000.
When neither the contractor nor the
state would pay the tax, the village
government sought to take the case
before a tribal court. But Alaska
officials turned to a federal judge for
help, contending that the tribe lacked
power to impose a tax.
Writing for the high court. Justice
Supreme/to pg 5
Graves worries about interior proposal on
gambling settlements
WASHINGTON (AP) - Kansas Gov.
Bill Graves objects to a proposal by
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to
step into Indian gambling disputes
between tribes and states. "What the
secretary has proposed is not
acceptable at all," Graves said Monday
during a National Governors'
Association meeting in Washington.
Tribes that want to offer more
gambling than their states allow have
been without recourse since a 1996
Supreme Court ruling that states had
immunity against tribal lawsuits
Under an Interior Department
proposal, the agency could then
attempt to negotiate a settlement and
impose its own if the two sides don't
agree. The agency would not get
involved in a dispute until a judge has
dismissed a tribal lawsuit. "We've
been particularly concerned that
Interior was overly aggressive or
supportive of efforts to establish
residency for a tribe that wc don't
believe is a resident tribe of our state,
and we're litigating that issue as we
speak," Graves said. He was referring
to the Oklahoma Wyandotte tribe's
proposal to build a bingo hall and
casino at the site ofan ancient Indian
cemetery in downtown Kansas City,
Kan.
The Interior Department, which has
jurisdiction over Indian lands, has
declared the site could be used for
gambling. The state, city and several
Kansas tribes have sued to block the
project. Graves said he and other
governors asked the president to
intervene to halt the proposal for
increased Interior Department
authority.
Clinton challenged them to offer an
alternative proposal, Graves said, and
Nevada Gov. Bob Miller is leading that
Graves/to pg.5