The Ojibwe News / Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1998-12-11

              White Earth members vow to defy controversial law enforcement plan
By Gary Blair
"Is this an open meeting, or a closed
meeting?" White Earth chairman John
Buckanaga asked before the start ofa
meeting at the reservation's
headquarters this week that was
supposedly called to discuss financial
matters. Buckanaga then remarked, "I
don't want anyone here, who is just
here to dig up dirt."
Buckanaga's comments came before
an unannounced meeting on Monday.
When no one responded to his
question, Buckanaga then asked,
"Ken (Litzau) do you want to step
out?" Buckanaga then told your writer,
"Gary would you leave the meeting?"
Your reporter left—Buckanaga had his
body guards located within shouting
distance in the building.
The chairman's comments came this
week as members ofthe Reservation
Business Committee were about to
meet with members ofthe Pine Point
school board and an auditor who was
there to issue his report. Apparently,
Buckanaga is trying to do what former
state senator and Leech Lake
reservation attorney Harold "Skip"
Finn and former White Earth chairman
Darrell "Chip" Wadena were not able
to do. These individuals tried to curtail
Press/ON's reporting about their
thievery and they were not able to.
A source who was present during the
one and one-half hour meeting, said
later, "Erma (Vizenor) said after you
left, 'that (news)paper is so negative.'"
Litzau has been acting as
superintendent for two of the
reservation's schools, the Pine Point
Experimental School near Ponsford
and the Circle of Life School located
in the town of White Earth. Pine Point
school board members are reporting
that funds are missing and not
accounted for at their school.
When this newspaper was busy
exposing the corruption associated
with the reservation's former chairman,
Darrell "Chip" Wadena and his gang,
Buckanaga provided much of the
information that was used by Press/
ON. Erma Vizenor became very
friendly with this newspaper when she
had information that exposed her
opponent during the reservation's
June 1998 election. Vizenor had been
irate only weeks before, after Press/
ON had carried headlines that the
reservation's casino had been secretly
"hocked."
Now that this newspaper's inquires
pertain to their administration, Press/
ON has suddenly become "negative."
Instead, White Earth members are
being asked to read the tribal council's
newsletter that claims there is reform
law/to pg. 5
Mint wants realistic view of Indian maid
for dollar coin
WASHINGTON (AP)- Sacajawea,
the Shoshone teen-ager who
accompanied explorers Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark to the Pacific
Ocean almost two centuries ago, gazes
serenely from a proposed design for
the new dollar coin. She looks over her
shoulder, as if ready to go. Her infant
son sleeps on her back. It's among six
finalists for the gold-colored coin that
Americans will find in their pockets
starting in 2000.
No one knows exactly what 16-year-
old Sacajawea, who joined the Lewis
and Clark expedition in 1804, looked
like. But all the proposals, according to
U.S. Mint Director Philip Diehl, "are
realistic depictions ofNative American
women." "They are attractive, but they
are not romanticized," he said.
Starting today, Americans can see
the designs on the Mint's Internet site
and select their preferences. Also on
display are seven proposals depicting
the American eagle for the reverse
side. Mint officials culled the 13
designs, front and back, from 121
submissions after exhibiting them last
month to more than 300 invited
historians, public officials, artists, coin
collectors and representatives oflndian
organizations. It is accepting public
comment on the finalists with the aim
of presenting three for the front and
three for the back to the U.S, Fine Arts
Commission, which meets Dec. 17.
Diehl said the Mint is aiming for
selection of the winning designs by
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin next
month and will produce coins by
January 2000, when stocks of Susan B.
Anthony dollars are projected to run
out. Unlike the Susan B. Anthony
dollar, the Sacajawea dollar will be
gold-colored and have an edge that
can be readily distinguished from the
quarter's.
Indian officials and historians
who've studied Sacajawea expressed
satisfaction that all ofthe designs still
under consideration depict women
whose features clearly are those ofan
American Indian.
The Indian-head penny minted until
1909 depicted a European-looking a
woman wearing a feather headdress.
Ken Thomasma of Jackson, Wyo.,
author of "The Truth About
Sacajawea," based on the journals of
Lewis and Clark, said he hopes Rubin
selects a model depicting littleBaptiste
as well as his mother. "Every woman
I've told about how she put her 2-
Mint/to pg. 5
State, Potawatomi tribe reach gambling
agreement
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - An
agreement between the state and
Potawatomi Indians allowing the tribe
to add 800 slot machines to its
Milwaukee casino needs approval of
city and county officials.
It would authorize the Potawatomi to
offer blackjack, which currently is
forbidden at the downtown hall, and
would require them to pay the state
$31.9 million overfiveyears.
Announced Friday, it needs approval
of the city's Common Council and
Milwaukee County's Board of
Supervisors.
Mayor John O. Norquist, who
,,ppn-;..;-.     ■\n'<!   ..Vv:    '  ^     r;asiUO    tl CUT]
200 slot machines to 1,000, says he has
six votes among the 17 council
members, enough to prevent the
council from overriding his veto. The
council and board must act on
resolutions within 120 days.
Norquist said the amount of money
the public would get from the deal is
trivial. An expanded casino "will
undermine the moral fiber of thecity,"
he said. "Right now people are lined up
at machines and if there's more
machines, then people will be able to
throw their money away faster,"
Norquist said.
Milwaukee County Executive F.
Thomas Anient said he believes ne can
muster enough votes to approve a
county board resolution.
A casino expansion would bring
thousands of jobs and dollars to the
community, he said. If the agreement
fails to get local approval, the state and
tribe would have 30 days to reach a
new one, Mark Bugher, secretary of
the state Department of
Administration, said.
The requirement for local approval
was included in the compact at the
insistence of Gov. Tommy Thompson,
Bugher said. The agreement also needs
State/to pg. 3
Tribes get temporary reprieve from
federal judge's order
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An emergency
reprieve from the9thU.S. CircuitCourt
of Appeals is keeping slot machines
humming at Indian casinos throughout
Southern California.
The federal appellate court agreed
this week to let tribes temporari ly keep
their slot machines until it can review
a case in which a judge ordered the
machines shut down.
With Proposition 5 tied up in state
court, the earlier removal order by U.S.
District Court Judge J. Spencer Letts
would have gone into effect Friday
were it not for the emergency stay.
The 9th Circuit's two-paragraph
ruling came down Wednesday, the
same day the California Supreme Court
agreed to block implementation of
Proposition 5, the voter-approved
measure designed to let the tribes run
their casinos on their terms without
the state approval required under
current law.
Two separate lawsuits challenging
the new law's constitutionality are
pending before the Supreme Court.
The appellate court has asked the
tribes and the U.S. attorney's office to
submit briefs about Letts' order by
Tuesday, but it is unknown when the
court will hand down a ruling.
Letts issued his order after the U.S.
attorney's office sought to seize the
machines, which prosecutors and Gov.
Pete Wilson claim violate the state's
ban on Las Vegas-style gambling
machines.
Thorn Mrozek, spokesman for the
U.S. attorney's office, said federal
prosecutors had not decided what their
arguments Tuesday would be.
"Without Prop. 5 there are no
compacts, therefore the tribes should
be ordered to shut down immed iately,"
Mrozek said in offering one possible
argument. "On the other side of the
spectrum is (the argument that) there
should be a stay put on the injunction,
and the state and opponents of Prop.
5 should be allowed to litigate that in
state court."
The appellate court decision affects
nine tribes in Southern California
Tribes/to pg. 5
Couple allowed to adopt twins whose
Indian ancestry was debated
COLUMBUS.Ohio(AP)-- Acouple
who fought for years al I the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court to adopt twin girls
who are part American Indian got their
wish on Monday.
Jim and Collette Rost signed adoption
papers for 5-year-olds Bridget and Lucy
in probate court as family and friends
applauded. The signing came one day
short of a year after the girls' birth
family in California signed an
agreement w i th the Rosts al low i ng the
adoption. "I think everyone was just
tired and wanted to get on with their
life." Mrs. Rost said during a party at
her home afterward.
The case prompted debate on Capitol
Hill about whetherchanges are needed
in the federal law invoked by the birth
parents to fight the adoption, the 1978
Indian Child Welfare Act. The law was
written to curb a rise in adoptions of
Indian children by non-Indian parents,
a trend that threatened the survival of
some tribes.
The girls, born before parents Richard
and Cindy Adams of Long Beach were
married, were put up for adoption and
had been raised by the Rosts since
they were 2 weeksold. However, before
the adoption was made final the
Adamses changed their minds. The
birth parents had not initially revealed
their Indian ancestry.
Richard Adams is three-16ths Porno,
a Northern California tribe. Cindy
Adams is half Yaqui, a Southwestern
tribe. After learning ofthe case. Rep.
Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, introduced an
Indian adoption bill seeking to restrict
tribal ability to intervene in adoption
cases involving birth parents whoYiave
no "significant social, cultural or
CoUple/to page 3
White Earth members resist cross-deputization pact
WE members vow to defy law enforcement plan
Indian Country Today sold to New York tribe
Protecting the wolf in ceded territory, pg. 4
Grand Casinos ends mgmt. of Grand Casino Hinckley, pg. 8
Equal protection rights vs. treaty rights, pg. 4
Voice ofthe People
I
e-mail: prium@paulbinyai.iat
Native
American
mess
^
Ojibwe
Ulews
We Support Equal Opportunity For All
Founded in 1988
Volume 11 Issue I
Decemnerll.
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press
"Winter Warrior" a sculpture created by Mankato artist Tom Miller, is one of many sculptures that can be seen in tiny
Reconcilliation Park in downtown Mankato, Minnesota.
White Earth members resist cross-
deputization pact with Mahnomen County
By Jeff Armstrong
As White Earth and Mahnomen
County officials congratulated
themselves on the secretive
conclusion of a joint law enforcement
pact, tribal members vowed to
challenge the unconstitutional
imposition of its terms without their
consent (for agreement, see pg. 3).
"When was this ever brought to the
people ofthe reservation?" asked Lori
Gellings, one of about a dozen White
Earth members who tracked down the
meeting to voice opposition to the
proposal. "The signing of this
agreement would just be another
taking of rights that we didn't even
have a say in."
The "agreement" provides for the
establishment ofa tribal police force
under the joint authority ofthe RBC
and the county sheriff. White Earth
and Mahnomen County officers would
be state certified and cross-deputized
to arrest anyone within county
reservation borders. White Earth
officers would also be required to take
an oath to obey the constitutions of
the United States, the State of
Minnesota and the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe.
Arrests would be prosecuted by
either reservation or county courts
based on respective jurisdictions.
Civil/regulatory laws would be
enforced by White Earth "against
Indians as defined in 25 U.S.C. 1301."
The reference to the latter federal
statute is unclear, as it merely provides
definitions of terms for purposes of
the Indian Civil Rights Act.
Ominously, if a state or reservation
court was found to lack legal authority,
the case would be automatically
transferred to the other jurisdiction.
It is the first law enforcement pact in
Minnesota to be signed by a county
without prior state legislative
authorization. Instead, it cites MN
Statute 471.59, which allows for joint
powers agreements between state or
federal entities but does not mention
tribes.
White Earth agrees to waive
jurisdiction for purposes of civil suits
relating to its officers, while both the
reservation and the county commit to
defending their counterparts from
claims against arising from officers of
one jurisdiction.
Notably absent from the agreement
are any provisions for a human rights
commission, which secretary treasurer
Erma Vizenor had promised since her
appointment to office in June of 1996.
At a Sept. 25,1996 meeting ofthe since
disbanded White Earth Law
Enforcement Task Force, Erma Vizenor
stated: "It won't happen today, but
with your help we can put together a
human rights task force, a human rights
commission...We are committed to
sovereignty and we are committed to
taking care of our people, and we are
committed to building a future."
Ironically, the Dec. 4 signing ofthe
agreement took place within a week of
the 50th anniversary of the UN
Declaration of Human Rights.
At the only known meeting on the
White Earth/to Pg. 3
Indian Country Today sold to New York
tribe
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Indian
Country Today, one of the only
American Indian newspapers financed
independently ofa tribe, has been sold
to a wealthy New York state tribe that
owns a thriving casino. The sale ofthe
weekly paper was announced
Thursday by publisher Tim Giago. The
purchase price was not disclosed.
Giago, a member of the Oglala Sioux
Tribe, started the newspaper as the
Lakota Times in 1981. It was sold at all
reservations in South Dakota. North
Dakota, Nebraska and Montana. The
paper changed its name in 1992. and
later opened bureaus in New Mexico
and Washington state, to reflect its
intent to serve a national tribal
leadership.
Ray Halbritter, chief executive officer
of the Oneida Indian Nation, which
purchased the newspaper, said the
paper's editorial goals will include
addressing the mass media's
stereotypes of American Indians. He
said he hopes it will be a voice for all
American Indians.
His tribe operates the Turning Stone
Casino, a resort near Syracuse, N.Y.,
popular not just for its gambling but
for its many retail shops, restaurants
and 2 85-room luxury hotel. He said the
tribe has set up an independent
corporation to run the paper. "It is
important to keep tribal politics out of
it," Halbritter said. "It is our goal to
maintain it as an objective, credible
newspaper. If it's not perceived as
objective and credible, it cannot
succeed."
However, Linda Kenney,
communications professor at the
University of North Dakota in Grand
Forks, N.D., said the newspaper may
lose its unique voice.
"Tim has had the luxury of scolding
people and talking his mind and saying
whatever he wants," she said. "I don't
think that could happen undera tribally
run paper."
Giago said he would remain with the
paper for six months and as a
consultant for three years. He said the
tribe plans to keep the South Dakota
office but may move the main operation
to New York state next year. The tribe
also plans to reopen its news bureau in
Washington and hire more employees,
he said.