The Ojibwe News / Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1998-08-28

              RBC poised to slash White Earth jobs
after election, sources say
By Gary Blair
In spite of closed council meetings
and employees being threatened with
termination for leaking information,
sources say the White Earth
Reservation is broke and that a massive
layoff will take place next month.
The bulk of personnel cutbacks are
reportedly planned shortly after the
reservation's special election for
chairman at the end of next month. A
source aligned with the tribal council
reports that Diana King, the
reservation's recently appointed
executive director, will be among the
first to go. Hired last June, King is
believed to be earning about $60,000
annually.
It is not known at this ti me if any ofthe
White Earth tribal council members
plan to voluntarily reduce theirsalaries
to allow more employees to remain at
theirjobs. The tribal council's salaries
are said to range from $70,000 to $90,000
per year. In addition, each ofthe five
counci 1 members drive personal leased
cars, which they recently upgraded to
a later model Chrysler.
White Earth is one of the most
impoverished Indian reservations in
the United States.
On Wednesday, tribal council member
Irene Turney's personal secretary
denied that the reservation was having
financial problems and that an
extensive layoff would occur.
"Those are just rumors. I work here
every day. I know what is going on,"
responded the scheduling secretary
indignantly. "Who are the people
telling you these things?"
Turney's secretary continued: "Yes,
we are going to have our own
newspaper again and it will be a real
newspaper, not like that one (referring
to Press/ON). "I better not see my
name in that paper either," she
White Earth braces for massive layoffs
Mille Lacs activist assaulted
Wadena ruling could force U.S. civil rights enforcement, pg. 3
Clinton policy undermines Freedom of Information Act, pg. 4
An exchange on tribal censorship and media bias, pg. 4
Will tribes say yes to union organizing drives?, pg. 4
Violations of Dineh human rights, self-determination, pg. 5
Voice ofthe People
-mail: presson@paulbunyan.net
RBC/to pg. 5
Viejas   Indians   sign   unprecedented
agreement to let union organize
LOS ANGELES (AP) -Just weeks
after reluctantly signing a gaming
compact with Gov. Pete Wilson, the
Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians on
Tuesday announced an unprecedented agreement to let a labor union
organize at one of California's largest
Indian casinos.
The agreement with the Communications Workers of America marks the
first time a labor union has received
permission to talk to workers atone of
the many American Indian casinos in
California and comes amid a heated
statewide debate over tribal gaming.
Although the majority of tribal casino workers are non-Indians, Indian
sovereignty exempts tribes from labor
laws that require other businesses to
allow union organization.
"The Voluntary Election Agreement
reached between the Viejas Band and
CWA is similar to the National Labor
Relations Act and is a prototype of
how tribal governments and unions
can work together in mutual trust and
respect," said Anthony R. Pico, Viejas
Band tribal chairman.
The agreement, finalized Monday,
gives the CWA District9, which is part
of the AFL-CIO, the opportunity to
organize and bargain collectively for
thecasino's food and beverage, housekeeping and maintenance workers on
wages, hours and other conditions of
employment, said Micheal J. Hartigan,
executive vice president ofthe CWA,
District 9.
If 30 percent of casino service employees sign union authorization cards,
the CWA will hold an election so all of
the workers can decide if they want the
union to be their "exclusive bargaining
agent," Hartigan said. "It's our feeling
that the Wilson compact was very
restrictive to the Indian nations," he
said. "We felt we should support them
so they can prosper."
Eleven tribes have recently signed
compacts with Wilson, as required
under the 1988 Indian Gaming and
Regulatory Act. and are waiting to
have the compacts ratified. A coalition
of tribes, including the Viejas, has written a propbsition that would legalize
outlawed forms of gaming and would
presumably nullify the existing compacts viewed as too restrictive.
A cadre of unions has come out
against the November proposition
because it contains no specific provision forunion organization. The Viejas
opposed a clause in the Wilson compact, which was modeled after one
signed by the Pala Indians, that required the tribes to stay neutral if ca-
Viejas/topg.3
American
Ojibwe
News
Wo Support Equal Opportunity For All
Volume 10 Issue 46
August 20
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A weekly publication.
Copyright, Native American Press. 1006
BIA head says tribal members, government
failing Indian children
TAOS, N.M. (AP) - The crisis among
Indian children is the single most
important issue facing Indian
communities today, says Kevin Gover,
assistant secretary of the Interior for
Indian Affairs. "Many, many, perhaps
most, of our kids really live a lifetime
of abuse in their childhoods." Gover
said Tuesday. "Alcoholism, substance
abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence
are part of their lives."
Speaking at the opening ofthe Four
Corners Indian Country Conference,
Gover said Indian communities are
failing their children miserably, and
pretending not to notice the problems.
Crimes committed by juveniles are
on the rise on Indian reservations as
they are nationwide, and the focus of
this year's conference isjuvenile crime.
Conference participants hope to
form strategies for prosecuting
juvenile criminals and dealing with the
aftereffects of their crimes. But Gover,
head ofthe Bureau oflndian Affairs,
and former Idaho Attorney General
Larry EchoHawk asked them to look
more deeply: at how generations of
unresolved pain have created broken
families and broken communities that
are raising broken children and not
taking responsibility for the outcome.
EchoHawk, alsoaformer legislator and
prosecutor and now a law professor at
Brigham Young University, said the
nation's problems with dropouts, teen
pregnancy, teen suicide, drugs and
alcohol are magnified on Indian
reservations.
He said today's problems can be
traced to government policies in the
19th century that took Indians from
their homelands, decimated their
numbers and relocated them to small
reservations where they became
dependent on government services.
"As communities, we have not
recovered from what happened to us a
century or two centuries ago," said
Gover. He said nothing that tribal
members and their governments do in
the areas of sovereignty, land rights or
other important tribal issues matters if
another generation continues to suffer
and fail.
Tribes have survived, Gover said,
on the strength of theircommunity and
family bonds. He said tribal
governments should put other issues
on the back burners and turn their full
attention to families and children.
"I really believe that if enough of us
work hard enough that we an really
turn these communities around and rid
them of these scourges that our people
suffer," said Gover, himself a
recovering alcoholic.
Several hundred federal prosecutors,
federal and tribal police officers.
BIA/topg.3
Surgeon General focusing on health
problems on reservation
BISMARCK,N.D. (AP) -Surgeon
General David Satcher says he wants
to focus more attention on health
problems facing American Indians as
part of a push to cut ethnic health
disparities.
At a conference on Indian aging
Sunday, Satcher said American Indians
suffer from striking disparities in health
concerns such as diabetes. "The
Hispanic community also has very
serious problems. Theblack community
does too, but I think there is a special
kind of problem among Native
Americans as relates to diabetes,"
Satcher said in an interview after the
speech.
Suicide and alcoholism also appear
to be having a growing impact on
Indian reservations compared toother
parts of the country, he said. While
those are problems throughout the
country, Satcher said the reservations
•are important places to concentrate on
making improvements. "It's just that if
we can really focus on them in these
communities it's going to help us with
our whole system," Satcher said.
That, he said, is what happened when
health officials concentrated on
improving immunization among
children of minorities. "We had to find
a way to reach children that we have
never reached before, and we did,"
Satcher said. "And in the process we
improved oursystem of immunization.
Our public health system was
enhanced."
The Clinton administration earlier
this year pledged to end all ethnic
health disparities by 2010. Satchersaid
Ancient custom helps communities change
offenders
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -Communities
from Hastings in southeastern
Minnesota to Whitehorse in Canada's
Yukon Territory are digging deep into
the past to find a remedy for recurring
criminal behavior. Faced with
persistent crimes ranging from drug
deal ing to vandalism, the communities
are returning to ancient tribal customs
that bring people together to unearth
the root causes of misconduct.
It's called circle sentencing. It begins
with an offender pleading guilty in
court and agreeing to accept a
community-imposed sentence.
Opening with a prayerful appeal to
seek the common good, victims,
offenders and their supporters gather
in a circle with other interested
community members to discuss the
crime's impact.
Once they choose a sentence, circle
members stay involved with,even
mentor, the offender to ensure
compliance.
Experts say Minnesota is the first
state in the nation to use circle
sentencing. Its goals include making
the community safer, satisfying
victims' needs and giving offenders
the skills to escape the cycle of crime
and punishment.
Circle sentencing uses crime "as an
opportunity to strengthen the
community, to reweave the community
David Price, an inventor and
Woodbury businessman who
recently wrote a book entitled
The Second Civil War:
Examining the Indian Demand
for Ethnic Sovereignty; was
one of the keynote speakers
at an August 15 meeting in
Isle, MN ofthe Lake Mille Lacs
Association, Inc., a group of
landowners in the Lake Mille
Lacs area formed to protect
the interests of the lake,
watershed and landowners.
Assault by Mille Lacs official's spouse
may test fairness of reservation police
By Jeff Armstrong
A community activist from Mille Lacs
says she was assaulted Monday at
Grand Casino Mille Lacs by the wife
of reservation natural resources
commissioner Don Wedll.
Irene Wade Benjamin said Joyce
Wedll pushed her through a back door
of the casino and punched her
videotape but would only release it by
court order—and then only with the
approval of the casino's corporate
commission.
"I said, 'basically what you're saying
is if they don't want to let it go, this
whole thing can be covered up.'" said
Benjamin.
The security guard who witnessed
the incident is named in a Grand Casino
report as Rusty Simons, though the
increased attention to Indian health
matters is an important part of that
goal. "They're one ofthe groups most
affected by racial and ethnic
disparities," Satcher said. "So when it
comes to our commitment to eliminate
disparities, the Native Americans are a
very important group."
In his first trip into Indian country,
Satchertoured a hospital in Fort Yates
Saturday. He met with community
leaders and sounded them out on health
issues. Next week, he plans to met with
Northeastern tribal leaders in Boston.
"It's very clear that we have a lot of
problems that need better access to
health care, but we also have a lot of
problems that need a comprehensive
community approach to prevention,"
Surgeon/to pg. 3
repeatedly, accusing Benjamin of   report is written by another individual,
damaging her vehicle.
"I said Joyce, I don't know what
you're talking about. I don't even
know what kind of car you drive," said
Benjamin. "Just that quick she came
after me. She was punching me, she
had my hair, there was nothing I could
do," she said.
The 50-year-old Anishinabe woman
said the assault aggravated her
existing neck and back injuries.
Benjamin said the incident was
witnessed by a security guard and
recorded on video surveillance, but she
expressed doubts about gaining
access to either one. She said the
director of casino security told her the
casino did capture the "fight" on
A security staff member answering a
call for Simons cryptically stated that
she could not say whether Simons was
working or if he could be contacted
there, lending credence to Benjamin's
suspicions that he would be
terminated.
An outspoken opponent of chairman
Marge Anderson's administration,
Benjamin said she feared the assault
is the latest episode of politically-
motivated harassment and intimidation
she has faced since moving back to
the reservation several years ago.
"It's just beginning to be a pattern to
me," Benjamin said.
Benjamin said casino security staff
failed to take the incident seriously.
"What really hurt is when they were in
there laughing with Joyce." she said.
"They said, 'oh well Joyce it looks like
we're going to have to bar you out of
here,' and she says, 'oh, I've been a
bad girl, ha, ha. ha."'
Casino officials subsequently
informed Benjamin that Wedll has not
been barred from the casino.
Benjamin expressed doubts that
Mille Lacs police will bring charges
against the spouse of an influential
offical, fearing that they would instead
manufacture charges against her. She
said tribal police refused to investigate
gunshots she reported near her house
recently.
But Police Chief Bruce Lindgren said
his force is above the political fray.
"No one is above the law. No one will
interfere with any criminal
investigations," he said.
Lindgren also said allegations of tribal
police brutality in the case of Jason
Wind are under investigation by the
state Bureau of Criminal
Apprehension.
Joyce Wedll declined comment on the
incident, describing it as "a personal
thing."
Tribal Supreme Court reinstates chief,
secretary
fabric," said Kay Pranis, a restorative
justice planner for the state
Department of Corrections.
The Mille Lacs Indian Reservation
was the first place in Minnesota to try
the technique. Almost two years ago,
it started doing circles for nonviolent,
adult, misdemeanor offenders. Mille
Lacs County Attorney Jennifer Fahey
was skeptical at first, especially
because defense attorneys liked the
idea. "I wanted to make sure offenders
were going to be held accountable by
the community," she said. "I was
concerned that maybe friends or fam i ly
members would tend to excuse certain
offenders/to pg. 3
STROUD, Okla. (AP) - The Sac & Fox
Nation plans to ask its Supreme Court
to reconsider a ruling that reinstates
the ousted tribal chief and secretary.
The court ruled Thursday that Dora S.
Young and Mary McCorm ick were not
given due process when they were
thrown out of office nearly 18 months
ago. Ms. Young moved back in to the
chiefs quarters Thursday to complete
the four-year term she won in August
1995. Ms. McCormick's term as
secretary expired last year.
The tribe's General Council ousted
the women March 1,1997, after a tribal
grievance committee found probable
cause for charges that Ms. Young had
denied tribe members freedom of
speech and Ms. McCormick had
neglected her duties. The women, who
are sisters, appealed. The case has
been in the courts ever since. Both
women contended the grievance
committee acted improperly. The court
agreed.
In a 16-page opinion, the justices
wrote that Oma Patrick had signed a
petition seeking the removal of Ms.
Young and Ms. McCormick. Patrick
then became a member ofthe grievance
committee, which recommends
whether tribe members or the
Governing Council should consider
an ouster. The initial petition was
thrown out but a similar one was later
approved.
According to the justices, Ms.
Young and Ms. McCormick were
"fundamentally denied due process
under the constitution ofthe Sac & Fox
Nation." The ruling also nullified a
special election in August'1997 that
filled the vacant posts. Don Abney
won the race for chief in that election.
"It proves that the Sac & Fox court
is a serious court. It's a court of law.
It's not a court of mob rule," said
attorney David Ball of Stroud, who
represents Ms. Young. "It's a great
day for the Sac & Fox Nation because
they're going to follow the ruleof law."
Ball said Friday he was confident the
ruling would stand.
Tribal attorney G. William Rice said
the tribe will ask the court for a
rehearing.
The Sac & Fox Nation has about
2,200 members with headquartersjust
south of Stroud. Ms. Young made Sac
& Fox history in 1973 when she was
elected the tribe's first female principal
chief.