The Ojibwe News / Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1998-06-12

              New elections, investigations likely in
White Earth turmoil
By Gary Blair
An attempt to stop this years election at White Earth occurred on Sunday, June 7, when supporters of
former chairman, Darrell "Chip"
Wadena took over the reservation's
administration building and 745 absentee ballots were stolen.
The move also involved supporters
of Eugene "Bugger" McArthur, who
was recently removed from office for
violating the reservation's election
ordinance when he took office too
early after replacing Wadena in the
1996 election. Wadena and two other
council members were convicted of
numerous federal corruption charges
shortly after that election. Both sides
had been bitter enemies.
The headquarters was recovered
about 4 a.m. on Tuesday after a small
group that included incumbent, Secretary/Treasurer, Erma Vizenor, interim chairman, John Buckanaga and
incumbent council person, Irene
Turney surprised a handful of occupiers. Reports say at least two ofthe
council members had been drinking
and some of their supporters who
stormed the building with them were
teenagers who had also been drinking. The incident was caught on vid
eotape.
The recovery of the building was
seen as a victory; nonetheless, the
election was compromised and a new
election will most likely be called for.
A plan to hold up the absentee ballot count for three weeks so new
ballots can be reissued was proposed by Gary Frazer, executive director of the Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe (MCT) who visited the reservation on Tuesday.
Voter turnout was down at most
polling places on the reservation , as
members were told not to vote. At
Investigations/to pg.5
MCT Election results, pg. 8
Text of Kiowa v. Mfg. Tech. case, pg. 3
SupremeCourt upholds Cass Cty. tax on Indian property, pg. 1
Mille Lacs MCT members demand police reform, pg. 1
New elections, investigations likely in White Earth turmoil, pg. 1
Voice ofthe People
1
e-mail: presson@bji.nBt
Fifty Cents
Elections intensify political crisis on
White Earth Reservation
By Jeff Armstrong
While speaking publicly of reconciliation and healing, the embattled
White Earth RBC this week cracked
down on their opponents in a series
of moves unlikely to soothe any rifts
on this increasingly faclionalized reservation.
In the early hours of last Tuesday
morning, about 70 supporters of Erma
Vizenor, John Buckanaga and Irene
Auginaush Turney stormed into the
RBC building in White Earth without
resistance from a group of about 30
tribal members who had occupied the
facility since Sunday afternoon.
"There will be an election tomorrow,"
a triumphant Turney told Vizenor by
phone after opening the RBC office
around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The occupation of the tribal center
was an effort to prevent Tuesday's
elections, which protesters said were
an illegal attempt to breathe new life
into an unconstitutional
administration. Protesters said the RBC
supporters were recruited with $50
payments from the Shooting Star
casino, and one woman claimed to
have direct knowledge that Vizenor
and Buckanaga funded the operation
with a $2,600 cash withdrawal from the
casino check cashing service.
With less than 38% of on-reservation
voters casting ballots, two ofthe three
incumbents were outpolled by
challengers. Vizenorpromptly sought
to throw out the elections she had
struggled to push forward-after she
lostoffice by one vote. The incumbent
secretary treasurer appealed to TE(
Elections/to pg. 3
HaOve
American
Press
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Volume 10 Issue35
June 12,1888
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press, 1888
Supreme Court upholds Cass County tax
on Indian property
Robert Franklin
Minneapolis Star Tribune
In a Minnesota case with national
implications, the U.S. Supreme Court
made it harder Monday for tribal governments to avoid paying local property taxes as they buy land to rebuild
their reservations. The court ruled
unanimously that Cass County acted
properly in levying $64,000 in property taxes on eight parcels of real
estate that were repurchased by the
Leech Lake Band of Chippewa from
private owners. The case reached the
court as many American Indian tribes
have been using casino profits to
repurchase reservation land or expand their holdings and then win
tax-exempt status by placing that land
in trust with the federal government.
Meanwhile, many local governments
have opposed losing tax base and
legal jurisdiction oversuch property.
Some government officials have worried that tribes might try to extend
tax-exempt privileges to buying up
land in urban areas and developing
it for hotels and casinos. Supreme
Court justices alluded to those concerns when they heard oral arguments in the Cass County case in
February. Since the Cass County
taxes were levied in 1993. the eight
parcels have been put into federal
trust status and now are off the tax
rolls. But trust status has become
increasingly difficult and time-consuming for tribes to achieve for newly
purchased land. The Leech Lake
Band paid the taxes under prou
then sued to recover the money. In
an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court said Monday that Congress removed tax-exempt protection in 1889 by allowing
the sale of reservation land to non-
Indians, and subsequent repurchases do not change that status.
The ruling resolved conflicting decisions by appeals courts and reversed a 2-1 decision ofthe Eighth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Follows 1992 decision Monday's ruling bolsters property taxing pow
that the Supreme Court recognized*-
under a 1992 decision involving the
County/to Pg. 3
American Indian leaders call housing worst
in country
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - American Indians live in deplorable conditions,
most in 50-year-old government units
or dilapidated, overcrowded houses,
said officials attending a conference
on the problem Monday.
More than 40 percent of the housing on tribal lands is substandard,
compared to 5.9 percent overall in
the United States, said Chris Boesen,
executive director of the National
American Indian Housing Council.
American Indians who want to stay
on reservations face "a combination
of horribly bad housing and terrible
overcrowding," he said. About
30,000 families are on a waiting list
for rental housing.
Housing and American Indian leaders gathered in Tampa Monday for a
three-day National American Indian
Housing Council convention to address the problem and to find solutions.
There are an estimated 2.5 million
American Indians. One-third live on
reservations and another third live
Lac Courte Oreilles school
scrutiny
MILWAUKEE (AP) - A school-
building project on the Lac Courte
Orielles Chippewa reservation is
drawing criticism from a congressman after reports that more than $2.5
million of grant money has produced
only an empty shell.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Sunday that the grant money
was spent starting an addition with
more than twice the square footage
approved by the U.S. Bureau oflndian Affairs, and tribal officials now
want at least $3 million more to finish
the job.
"This is a real mess," said Eugene
Begay, a Lac Courte Oreilles tribal
council member lobbying lawmakers
for the extra money.
"There is $2 million of government
money out there in a building, and
the kids are still going to school in
the hallway, gym and locker room."
U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis„
whose district includes the reservation, has called for an investigation
by the U.S. Department of the
Interior's inspector general.
Obey asked that the investigation
determine exactly how the federal
money was spent, what was expected of the tribe and what oversight the U.S. Bureau oflndian Affairs provided.
The grant came under Vice President Al Gore's program to streamline the federal government.
Norman Suazo, BIA division chief
for planning, design and construction, said the agency was assured
by Donald Wiesen, who was school
on adjacent lands. In the last five
years only 91 conventional mortgages have been made on Indian territory, said Chester Carl, council
chairman and executive director of
the Navajo Housing Authority.
"We estimate that there is an immediate need for as many as 200,000
housing units on Indian reservations
today," Carl said at a news conference.
American Indian home ownership.
Housing/to pg. 5
project under
administrator until mid-1997, that the
tribe would obtain more funding from
private sources, such as a bank or
through a bond issue.
Begay, who was elected to the tribal
council after the grant was received,
said Wiesen also assured the council that financing for the larger school
would be arranged. Wiesen said he
never promised financing would be
obtained. He said he told the BIA
that the tribe would go to Congress
for additional money to complete the
larger school or to pay the financing
costs if the tribe was. able to borrow
money.
Begay said he remains confident
that Congress eventually will provide the additional $3 million. The
Lac Courte Oreilles reservation is
near Hay ward in Sawyer County.
PRESS/ON Pholo by L. A.
The Midnight Riders, left to right, are Dana Bonga, Terry Adams and Ady Omen, at the Wednesday night Jam
Session in the Star of the North dance hall at Cass Lake. They won first place in a Blackduck jam session
recently and will be performing at the Dakota Magic Casino in South Dakota during July 3, 4 and 5,1998.
Mille Lacs MCT members demand police
reform, dismissal of abusive officers
By Jeff Armstrong
The Mille Lacs tribal law enforcement
system is being held up by the state of
Minnesota as a model for reservation
policing, but a growing number of
tribal members say the system is abusive and out of control.
More than 50 Mille Lacs residents
braved reported threats of reprisal by
reservation officials to attend a June 4
meeting to demand the immediate suspension of two tribal police officers
who assaulted a young man in front of
as many as 20-30 witnesses. More than
200 tribal members have signed a petition to discipline the two non-Native
officers. Josh Carter and Bob Borden.
"We've got nothing but white police
here, and they're brutal—physically
and verbally," said Chuck Shingobee.
According to the police report ofthe
May 27 incident, however, it was 25-
year-old Jason Wind who assaulted
and threatened the officers, one of
whom allegedly required hospitalization. Wind was held until this week on
charges of 4th degree felony assault
and obstructing legal process with
force, a gross misdemeanor.
"They're lying," said Anita Sam. who
witnessed the incident. Sam said Wind
was passively complying with his arrest on unspecified charges when the
officers pushed him head first into a
house, knocking him unconscious.
"He was knocked out for about 5-10
minutes." said Sam.
Wind was handcuffed while he lay
unconscious. Sam said, and taken into
the squad car when he awoke. The
Anishinabe man was then brutally
beaten with fists and batons by Carter
and Borden while community members
looked on in horror, she said.
Sam said she pleaded in vain with the
other officers present to intervene to
stop the assault. "They just brushed
me off and told me not to get any
closer—or else. Or else what?"
The 27-year-old Mille Lacs woman
said she then Galled 911 to report the
assault in progress, but no state police were dispatched to the scene. So
Sam and other witnesses marched
down to police headquarters to report
what they viewed as a flagrant civil
rights violation.
Police chief Bruce Lindgren, a former
Mille Lacs County deputy, told the
group he would request an investigation from the state Bureau of Criminal
Apprehension, but now says he will
handle the matter "internally."
Merven (Tiger) Jones said Borden
once pulled a gun on his then 12-year-
old daughter to keep the girl's Rottweiler away from a police dog. "He
talked about how much the dog cost,
but my daughter's expendable," said
Jones. "The more people I talk to, the
more I hear this type of thing happened
to them or someone they know."
Many tribal members at the meeting
also challenged the legitimacy ofthe
Mille Lacs/to Pg. 3
Federal appeals court upholds convictions
of Wadena, Rawley, Clark
Supreme Court to decide on tribal fishing,
hunting rights
Larry Oakes
Northern Minnesota Correspondent
The U.S. Supreme Court announced
Monday that it will decide once and
forall whether Chippewa Indians still
have special privileges to hunt, fish
and gather in an east-central Minnesota region they sold to the government in 1837. A reversal of lower-
court rulings that reaffirmed those
privileges would restore full control
of Mille Lacs — Minnesota's marquee walleye lake — to the state and
could invite Wisconsin to try to undo
controversial Indian fishing privileges granted by the same 1837
treaty. A Supreme Court spokeswoman said she expects the case to
be argued in the fall and decided by
June 1999. Monday's news came as
a blow to eight Chippewa bands and
the federal government, who have
won every round in an eight-year
battle to reaffirm treaty privileges in
Minnesota and who had hoped the
struggle would end with the court's
refusal to hear the case. Conversely,
the announcement — made as is
customary without explanation -
gave hope to sport anglers, resort
owners, landowners and local governments who want Indians and non-
Indians to fish and hunt by the same
rules. "The high court's decision to
hear our case will allow the state of
Supreme/to pg. 3
Pat Doyle
Star Tribune
A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld the convictions of former
White Earth leaders Darrell (Chip)
Wadena, Jerry Rawley and Rick Clark
for rigging construction bids for the
Shooting Star Casino.
The tribal officials had appealed
their 1996 convictions by claiming
that the federal government lacked
authority to prosecute them because
their tribal governments are semi-
sovereign nations. They also asserted trial errors.
But the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals let the convictions stand.
Wadena is serving a 51-month sentence. Clark received a 46-month sentence and Rawley received 37
months.
"We fail to see how tribal interests
are paramount to the federal interests . . . involved here," the court
wrote. "Although the defendants are
Native Americans, and their conduct
took place within Indian country,
tribal interests do not outweigh the
federal interests in prohibiting
mail fraud, money laundering, bribery and conspiracy."
Wadena was chairman, Rawley was
secretary-treasurer and Clark was a
council member ofthe tribe when it
built the casino in Mahnomen in
1991. Clark owned Northern Dry wal 1,
to which the tribal council awarded a
lucrative contract to help build the
casino. Northern Drywall gave
Wadena $428,000 in payments and
$15,000 to Rawley.
"Northern made the payment to
Rawley to secure [his] silence about
Northern's payments to Wadena,
who was Rawley's longtime political
rival," the court noted.
The tribal officials also were convicted of theft for appointing themselves to gambling and fishing commissions that had no essential function but paid them substantial fees
from casino profits and other sources
of income.
The Appeals Court also upheld
Clark's and Rawley's convictions for
election fraud. Wadena was not
charged with that crime.
Clark and Rawley had claimed that
elections are within the exclusive jurisdiction ofthe tribal court. But the
Appeals Court said federal conspiracy statutes could be used to
prosecute election fraud.
As for the merits ofthe vote fraud
charges, "the evidence of their guilt
is overwhelming," the court wrote.
Reprinted with permission from the
06/11/98 Star Tribune