The Ojibwe News / Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1998-05-15

              Chaos reigns on White Earth wild nee,
HIV, and McArthur censure latest problems to surface
By Gary Blair
Problems at White Earth continue
as new allegations surface that 3,600
lbs of finished wild rice is missing
from Manitok Wild Rice, a business
operated by the reservation in
Calloway, MN.
White Earth residents who live at
the Elder's Lodge in St. Paul, MN,
reported that they received smal 1 bags
of wild rice from a certain campaign
worker just before the reservation's
primary election last month. One of
the incumbent candidates told your
writer last week when he asked about
the use of wild rice to loosen votes,
"What's wrong with giving our elders wild rice'?" However, when asked
how many of the other candidates
could afford to give wild rice, the district representative did not answer.
With the lack of leadership on the
White Earth reservation for many
years, apparently another problem
besides corruption has also arose.
The number of members who have
tested HIV positive for AIDS, has increased. Secretary/Treasurer Erma
Vizenor said on Wednesday, "I suppose we should call the clinic to verify
how many people have it." Another
person asked your writer not to disclose the number of reported cases
that were mentioned at a recent Indian
Public Health conference. "We don't
want to start a panic, but you should
say something about it," the person
said.
A source at the Minnesota Department of Health, who asked that their
name not be used, had this to say when
asked about HIV at White Earth: "Most
ofthe Indians who have tested positive for HIV and AIDS live in Minneapolis. They don't go back and forth to
the reservations very much," they nervously said.
Secretary/treasurerErmaVizenoralso.
said Wednesday that she will set a
date the first part of next week for the
censure hearing of the Reservation's
chairman, Eugene "Bugger"
McArthur. "We have 15 days to hold
the hearing. We received the notice
from the Tribal Executive Committee,
(TEC) of the Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe (MCT) on the 8th of this month."
Vizenor explained.
In a letter dated May 6,1998, Norman
Gary/to
pg. 3
Congress asked to step in as
prosperous tribes buy land
Mdewakanton Sioux has bought in the   pushing legislation that would bar
WASHINGTON - Congress was
pressed Tuesday to make it harder for
cash-rich Indian tribes to buy real
estate outside of their reservations
and take it off local tax rolls. Such land
acquisitions can have enormous
consequences on cities and counties,
and there isn't much states or local
governments can do about them under
current law, said TanjaKozicky, legal
counsel to Minnesota Gov. Arne
Carlson. "It seems like it's a mere
formality," she told the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee.
Carlson is trying to stop the Interior
Department from putting into trust 593
acres that the prosperous Shakopee
city of Shakopee, a Minneapolis
suburb, for a shopping center and
other development not far from the
tribe's booming casino.
Putting land into federal trust status
exempts it from property taxes, zoning
laws and other restrictions. Concerns
about Indian land acquisitions have
surfaced in several states because o\'
the surge in tribal gambling income
over the past decade.
The tribes say they're try ing to rebuild
their ancestral land base and diversify
away from gambling, and they often
agree to make payments in lieu of taxes
on trust land.
But Sen. Joe Lieberman. D-Conn.. is
Casino revenue sharing seen as
unprecedented in U.S.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)-- Wisconsin
is breaking new legal ground by making
revenue sharing a key part of new
gambling agreements with its Indian
tribes, a specialist in tribal law says.
Last Friday, the governor and the
Oneida tribe signed a five-year
agreement to replace a seven-year
-^:npacr due to expiic later this year.
As part of the agreement, the state's 11
tribes are to work out a system by
February 1999 for those with the most
gambling revenue to share with the
tribes with the least.
The Oneida, Ho Chunk, Potawatomi
and St. Croix Chippewa earn more than
70 percent of all the profits from Indian
gaming in Wisconsin. At the other
extreme, the Red Cliff and Bad River
Chippewa bands in northern
Wisconsin are the poorest. "The idea
that the Oneida and Ho Chunk, because
they're successful, would spread
revenues around is revolutionary in
Indian country," said Bruce Greene, a
lawyer based in Boulder, Colo., who
has represented many tribes in
Wisconsin and nationwide.
Greene said the issue of revenue
sharing has come up elsewhere only
when tribes have talked about
establishing off-reservation casinos
that would be owned by numerous
tribes. Revenue sharing provisions
also are included in compact extensions
negotiated earlier this year between
Gov. Tommy Thompson and the Lac
Courte Oreilles and Mole Lake
Chippewa bands.
Thompson insists on the revenue
sharing provision in an attempt to
narrow the gap between rich and poor
tribes, said Kevin Keane, a spokesman
Oneida, State sign casino compact
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Brian
Deremo put away the tables on which
his American Indian tribe had just
signed a deal to pay the state millions
of dollars for permission to continue
operating a prosperous casino. His job
as a building maintenance worker for
the Oneida now seemed more secure
because of the five-year compact,
Deremo, 25, said. "At least we know we
got five years to look forward to right
now. I think almost everybody is happy
it was signed. It relieves everybody,"
he said.
The seven-year compacts under
which Indians operate Wisconsin
casinos are expiring. Gov. Tommy
Thompson has said he will not sign
replacement compacts unless the tribes
agree to share their gambling profits
with the state.
The Oneida casino west of Green
Bay is one of the state's wealthiest.
The tribe, whose existing compact
expires Nov. 8, agreed to pay
Wisconsin nearly $5 mill ion a year for
the five-year renewal. The agreement
also encourages the Oneida to help
poorer tribes, limits slot machines to
four of its reservation convenience
stores and raises the gambling age in
the casino from 18 to 21.
The casino in suburban
Ashwaubenon has about 2,700 slot
and video-poker machines, 96
blackjack tables and 1,400 employees,
nearly half ofthe tribe's total workforce.
It is the Green Bay area's second-
largest employer behind paper-
manufacturer Fort James Corp.
Tourism surveys list the casino as
the area's No. 6 visitor attraction
behind the Green Bay Packers.
Lambeau Field, two other Packers-
oriented attractions, and shopping.
A ceremony to sign the compact was
held Friday at tribal police headquarters
in a 2-year-old building constructed
with gambling profits.
Tribal Chairwoman Debbie Doxtator
said the agreement helps long-term
economic plans. "It is really going to
help us reach out to the next seven
generations," she said. "It is a historic
agreement and probably one of the
best that has been reached between a
tribe and a state across the nation."
Besides annual payments to the state
of about $4.9 million, the tribe will give
$550,000 a year to local governments
Oneida/to pg. 5
Chaos reigns on White Earth, pg. 1
Petitions to require BIA to hold McArthur recall election, pg. 1
Bringing the Bill of Rights to Indian Country, pg. 4
Col. Johnson responds to Hopi attempt for recall, pg. 8
LL election fraud shielded by secrecy, pg. 3
Members turn backs on IRA elections, pg. 5
Casino revenue sharing seen as unprecedented in U.S., pg. 1
Voice ofthe People
1
email, presson@bji.net
tribes that are economically self-
sufficient from putting real estate into
trust with the government unless il is
on their reservation or will be used for
noncommercial purposes.
"The land-in-trust process should
remain available to achieve its oiigina!
goals of helping tribes obtain land
which to live as a community and gain
economic self-sufficiency," said
Lieberman. "It should not be used by
wealthy landowners to serve their own
commercial interests."
Connecticut's Mashantucket Pequot
tribe owns over 3,500 acres outside its
Congress/to pg. 3
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
Mews
American
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded ii
Volume 10 Issue 31
May 15,1088
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press, 1008
for the governor. "It's important to
have some equity among tribes."
Keane said. "There-are some tribes
that can't be as successful for a variety
of reasons, location being one of them."
The Oneida agreed to the revenue
sharing plan because the tribe wants
to maintain a strong working
relationship with all the state's tril
Oneida Chairwoman Debbi'
said. The Oneida compact spells out
the rules for running the Oneida Casino
in Ashwaubenon.
The casino offers about 2,700 slots
and video poker machines and about
96 blackjack tables. The compact calls
forthe tribe to pay the state $5.4 million
a year for the right to operate its casino.
The tribe will receive a$550,000 annual
credit because of service agreements
with local governments.
PRESS ON Pholo by LA.
With the Red Lake Nation election next Wednesday, May 20,1998, Gerald "Butch" Brun said on Wednesday
at the Bemidji home of former Red Lake Chair Roger Jourdain, "It's an honor to accept the endorsement for
Chairman from a man who served in that capacity for 31 years, a man who is one of, if not the most knowledgeable,
in the history ofthe Red Lake Nation and has always had the best wishesfor the Red Lake Band at heart." Jourdain
has personally endorsed Brun for Red Lake Nation Tribal Chairman in the upcoming Red Lake primary election.
to require BIA to hold
McArthur recall election
By Jeff Armstrong
Petitions signed by more than 500
White Earth tribal members were
submitted to die Bureau of Indian
Affairs this week in an effort to compel
the U.S. Interior Department to
schedule a recall election on whether
Eugene (Bugger) McArthur should
remain in office.
The petition is based in large part on
the denial of tribal members' MCT
constitutional right to attend and
participate in the RBC'scensure hearing
on McArthur's assumption of power
in violation of the tribal election
ordinance. At the January 23 hearing
on McArthur's censure by the TEC, 14
White Earth members were barred by
armed county deputies from entering
the meeting.
In a letter to Erma Vizenor, TEC
president Norman Deschampe said the
executive committee believed that the
censure hearing "was not 'open' in
acordance with the Constitution...The
action of banning certain members, and
not providing any alternative means
presenting testimony, is heavy handed
and inconsistent with our tribe's laws
and traditions."
Petition spokesperson Marvin
Manypenny, himself one of the 14
barred members, termed the TEC's
opinion "a breath of fresh air."
Manypenny said the lettershould clear
up any doubt that the charges filed
with the BIA are "substantial," thus
requiringasecretarial recall voteunder
the MCT Constitution which would
allow the Bureau to correct its own
error.
"The Secretary of the Interior has
been responsible for allowing this
situation to occur within the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe, and there can be no
doubt that he now has an obligation
under the MCT Constitution to act on
this petition," said Manypenny.
McArthur swore himself in as RBC
chairman of White Earth one day after
the June 24,1996 conviction of three of
the five incumbent RBC members on
federal felony charges. Although the
move was initially recognized by the
BIA on June 26, an administrative law
judge reversed the decision on Dec.
11,1996.
Interior Board of Indian Appeals
judge Kathryn Lynn specifically struck
down the BIA opinion's recognition
ofa three-member interim RBC and
other extra-constitutional provisions.
"Accordingly, the Board reverses the
June 26 decision's recognition ofan
interim tribal council consisting of
Petition/to pg. 3
Indian band leader meets
with DNR officials
Ted Turner declines college's
honorary degree following protest
ST. PAUL (AP) - Indian tribal leaders
and state Department of Natural
Resources officials met Tuesday to
discuss a DNR employee accused of
shooting in the direction of two Indians
netting sturgeon in the Rainy River.
DNR Commissioner Rod Sando said
after the meeting that he wanted to
assure the Rainy River First Nations
tribe of Canada that a DNR
investigation is under way. "I was
anxious to meet with the First Nations
leadership to convey ourconcern over
this unfortunate incident and to begin
to build an atmosphere where we can
share information about the Rainy
River, a resource important to both of
us," Sando said.
Rainy River First Nations Chief Jim
Leonard called the meeting "very
positive." Leonard said the state of
Minnesota and the province of Ontario
must recognize the band's role in
managing the fishing resources ofthe
border river.
The DNR employee, Thomas
Crumpton, was off-duty at the time.
DNR officials have stressed that he
was not acting as a DNR employee
during the April 29 incident near
International Falls. Crumpton was
charged last week with second-degree
felony assault and misdemeanor
reckless discharge of a weapon.
ST. PAUL (AP) - CNN founder Ted
Turner declined an honorary degree
Wednesday from MacalesterCollege,
following students' accusations of
racism because ofthe mascot for his
team, the Atlanta Braves, and the
club's "tomahawk chop."
Students said they were not trying to
block Turner from speaking at the May
17 commencement. About 125
students and members ofthe American
Indian Movement gathered Tuesday
to use Turner's scheduled appearance
to ask administrators to add an
American Indian speaker to the
ceremony, allow future seniors to vote
on graduation speakers and start an
American Indian studies program.
"We can't sit by and let this happen,"
said seniorEricLehto of Grand Rapids,
Minn. "At Mac there are three pillars:
internationalism, multiculturalism and
community service. We need to uphold
those."
Also being awarded an honorary
degree at the commencement is U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan, a 1961
Macalester graduate and former college
trustee. "It has come to my attention
that my selection has generated
controversy on campus, and I do not
want to detract from the recognition
your institution will bestow on the
Secretary-General. Therefore, it is
appropriate for me to decline your
invitation at this time," Turner wrote to
the college Wednesday.
In his defense. Turner wrote that
Turner Broadcasting has created "a
Turner/to pg. 8
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