The Ojibwe News / Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1998-04-17

              No free press on tribal land? Reporter seeks
dismissal of state trespass charges
byJulieShortridge
A Milaca District Court judge will
soon decide if the criminal trespass
charge against Jeff Armstrong, reporter
for this newspaper, should go to trial
or be dismissed.
Mille Lacs tribal police arrested,
handcuffed, and hauled Armstrong to
Mille Lacs County jail where he was
detained for four hours for trying to
attend a meeting of the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe (MCT) at Grand
CasinoMilleLacsonOctober22,1997.
The state, which has an agreement
with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to
operate their law enforcement program
under state law, including cross-
deputization and full recognition of
tribal police actions, is charging
Armstrong with criminal trespass, a
misdemeanor. ThearrestofArmstrong
was ordered by Marge Anderson, Chief
Executive ofthe Mille Lacs Band and
member ofthe MCT tribal executive
committee.
At issue is whether state, court shou Id
decide who has the right to be at a tribal
meeting, and whether the law
enforcement agreement between the
state and the Band is itself lawful.
"The Band never complied with at
least two ofthe four conditions laid
out in the state statute allowing the
Band to establish theirpolice force. In
particular, they did not waive their
sovereign immunity, making the state
liable forany tribal police misconduct,"
said Bill Lawrence, publisherofPrass/
CW, for whom Armstrong works. "Nor
was the law enforcement agreement
with the state ever approved by the
Band through tribal resolution or vote
of the membership. It appears to be a
situation of fraud or ignorance on the
part ofthe Mi I le Lacs Band government
and Mille Lacs County that they have
moved ahead and implemented a tribal
police force, which has resulted in
people being incarcerated in state-
sanctioned jails, without the Band
being in compliance with the state
statute," said Lawrence.   Lawrence
also expressed doubts about whether
the Band has authority under the MCT
Constitution to enter into such an
agreement with the state without
approval ofthe Secretary of Interioror
Congress.
According to Assistant Attorney
General Scott Strand, the state AG's
office would get involved only if the
County complained that the Band was
not complying with the State statute.
The County has made no such
complaint. Strand said the tribal police
action and the County action against
Armstrong would be illegal if the Band
is not complying with the provisions
of the statute.
When this reporter asked Mille Lacs
County Attorney Jennifer Fahey in a
phone conversation the day after the
hearing whether the County is going
to continue to recognize tribal police
actions even though they have not
waived their sovereign immunity as
required in the state statute, Fahey
Free Press/to Pg. 6
Mille Lacs v. Free Press, pg. 1
Fewsurprises in MCT primary election results,pg. 8
American Indian Equal Justice Act, pg. 3,4
Diary ofan Anishinabe hungerstriker, pg. 3
Foreign reporters get biased view of reservations, pg. 1,4
Voice ofthe People
1
e-mail: presson@bji.net
Fifty Cents
Ojibwe
News
Native
American
Candidates allege unfair election practices
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
By Gary Blair
White Earth, MN — Unsuccessful
candidates at White Earth say this
year's April 14 primary elections were
conducted similarly to those of the
former government of Darrell "Chip"
Wadena.
"Kitchen stoves and refrigerators
were delivered just before the election.
Many of the people who finally received those appliances had,waited
for years to get them. They also controlled the eligible voters list that not
all the candidates had equal access
too." This is what your writer heard
after Tuesday's election.
Jim Jackson, one ofthe unsuccessful
candidates for Secretary/Treasurer,
said Wednesday, "White Earth people
don't want any change, they've been
conditioned to corruption and unfair
elections for too many years."
Additional sources, asking that their
names not be used, say absentee ballots were even sent to deceased enrollees. Apparently, Darwin "Darb"
McArthur, a candidate for Secretary/
Treasurer, was too busy to verify the
absentee ballots that his camp sent
out.
An enrollee on the Leech Lake Reservation reported that a Comanche Indian woman they spoke with on the
Internet says she received an absentee ballot from candidate McArthur.
The woman's only connection to
White Earth has been her subscription
to the Reservation's newspaper.
In June of 1996, former White Earth
chairman Chip Wadena, Secretary/
Treasurer, Jerry Rawley and district
representative, Rickie Clark were con
victed on federal corruption charges.
Rawley and Clark were also convicted
of vote fraud in connection to the
1992-94 elections at White Earth.
Shortly before the "Wadena gang's"
trial, The Fargo Forum newspaper carried headlines that read, "Votes from
the Grave." Soon, other Indians from
different reservations were quick to
develop humor befitting White Earth's
continuing problems. An elder from
the Ho Chunk nation in Wisconsin
asked your writer the other day if it was
true that White Earth Indians still get
to vote after they are dead.
Meanwhile at Leech Lake Reservation, speculation abounds surround-
Candidate/to Pg. 3
in 1988
Volume 10 Issue 27
Aprl 17,1888
j
Boycott keeps Cherokee council from
quorum
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) - A
boycott by six members of the Cherokee
Nation's legislative body kept it from
meeting quorum on a vote to transfer
child welfare cases to federal
authorities.
Only eight members ofthe 15-member
Tribal Council attended Monday's
meeting. A seventh councilor's
absence had nothing to do with the
boycott, officials said.
The six absentee councilors sought
to block passage of legislation that
would removechildwelfarecases from
the tribal courts, giving jurisdiction to
theU.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. They
say the transfer is unconstitutional.
But fellow councilor Bill John Baker
accused the group of delaying tribal
business and cheating Cherokees out
of representation. "They basically have
taken the stance that they can freeze
and paralyze the council of the
Cherokee Nation... and it's wrong," he
said.
Government ofthe Cherokee Nation
has been severely split since February
1997 over investigations into alleged
misappropriations by the tribe.
Seven members of the Tribal Council
have generally sided against Principal
Chief Joe Byrd during the fray.
Councilors who boycotted say they
have exhausted all avenues of working
with Byrd's executive branch. "The
only means left is to slow down or halt
certain actions of the government,"
they said in a news release. "We will do
what is necessary to achieve this end
to save the Nation and will continue to
be advocates for our Cherb-k«<?
constituents by exercising our
responsibilities to restore sanity to
our government."
A council committee had already
passed the child welfare resolution.
Opponents say the Cherokees would
lose some sovereignty if theBIA Court
of Indian Offenses was to take
jurisdiction from the Cherokee courts.
Baker said the boycott prevents the
council from acting on several time-
sensitive tasks, including an
application for a $450,000 grant from
the Environmental Protection Agency.
"We're going to miss the deadline
because of these folks taking the ball
and going home," he said.
Former Choctaw   chief   faces 11 years
behind bars
MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) ~ Former
Choctaw Nation Chief Hoi lis Roberts
received more than 11 years in prison
Monday for sexually abusing two
female employees.
U.S. District Judge Frank Seay
sentenced Roberts to 135 months in
prison and three years supervised
release for attempted aggravated sexual
abuse and 36 months in prison and one
year of supervised release on each of
two counts of abusive sexual contact.
The sentences were ordered served
concurrently.
Roberts has been behind bars since
his June 6 conviction. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Sheldon Sperling had urged
Seay to consider "twb decades of
sexual predation" by Roberts, a former
state legislator, in deciding a sentence.
"The district court sustained the
government's contention that the
defendant both used physical force
and abused his position of public trust
- the office of chief of the Choctaw
Nation of Oklahoma incommitting the
charged offenses," Sperling said
Monday.
He said he was not certain if the
sentence included the time Roberts
has spent behind bars awaiting
sentencing. A prison will be chosen
within the next 30 days, he said.
Prosecutors had described Roberts
as one of the most powerful men in
southeastern Oklahoma, and said he
used the power to force himself on
female employees.
Ten former employees testified to
incidents of unwanted groping, kissing
and other sexual contact dating to the
1970s at tribal headquarters in Durant,
where Roberts had served as chief
since 1978.
"The evidence established that the
Man allegedly dumped in snowsues St. Paul
ST. PAUL (AP) - A Minneapolis
man who claims he was Maced, called
a "drunken Indian" and left in a
snowbank by St. Paul police officers
has filed a lawsuit against the officers
and the city in U.S. District Court.
Michael Greenleaf, 37, a member of
the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, said
he was abandoned the night of Nov.
15, when the temperature was about 21
degrees. "All I was wearing was a T-
shirt and a hooded sweat shirt and
jeans," he said. "It was cold."
The lawsuit names officers Tony
Pangal and Reino Rantila, who picked
Greenleaf up the night ofthe incident
after receiving a cal I about a domestic
disturbance.
Greenleaf is seeking "appropriate"
compensatory and punitive damages,
with amounts to be set later, said his
attorney, Larry Leventhal. "If
witnesses had not come to his
assistance, Mr. Greenleaf could have
frozen to death or suffered severe
frostbite," Leventhal said. "This was a
violation of his human rights and a
violation ofhis humanity."
Phil Byrne, deputy city attorney, said
his office has not seen the lawsuit and
complaint yet and had no comment.
Published reports have said that
Pangal was fired and Rantila
suspended for 30 days. Police refused
Friday to confirm that, citing provisions
ofthe state Data Practices Act barring
comment on personnel matters until a
final disposition of cases. Pangal and
Rantila could not be reached for
comment Saturday.
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press, 1888
PRESS/ON Photo by L. A.
Emery Jenkins, of Cass Lake, was at the Leech Lake Reservation Tribal Council office casting his vote for District
Ill's Secretary/Treasurer. Johnston and Reese go to the general election in June.
Foreign journalists take  a  look at
reservation life
Pat Doyle / Star Tribune
REDWING,MINN.-It'sbilledasthe
American Indian Press Tour, a five-
day trip to six reservations by mostly
foreign journalists who are traveling
around the nation on a jet chartered by
tribes.
Tribes are hoping the tour will help
shape public opinion on Indian issues
before Congress.
On Tuesday the two dozen reporters
and photographers who work out of
bureaus in Washington, D.C, were
bused around the Prairie Island
Mdewakanton Dakota Community,
accompanied by tribal officials and
five public-relations specialists. Most
of them let the tribes pick up the $2,000
tab for the trip.
They got off the bus to snap photos
of grazing buffalo and to visit a
community center. And they heard
about Prairie Island's efforts to push
Congress to remove nuclear waste from
a Northern States Power Co. storage
site next to the reservation.
Tribal officials told journalists they
fear that radiation from the waste,
defendant used his power against many
women on many occasions, over many
years, to sexually assault women who
were under his authority," Sperling
said. "The defendant used his power
to hurt."
Roberts, who won more than 80
percent ofthe vote just a month after
being indicted in 1995, has denied the
charges. At the trial, his defense
portrayed him as the target of political
opponents who sought his downfall.
The jury acquitted Roberts on four
counts, three of them involving one
former employee who had accused the
chief of raping her behind his closed
office door.
The aggravated sexual abuse count
carried the possibility ofalife term, but
a presentence report recommended
Roberts receive 11 to 14yearsinprison.
His lawyer had suggested that six to
seven years would be more appropriate.
Indians take 3,800 pounds
treaty harvest
ST. PAUL (AP) - Three bands of
Chippewa have speared and netted
3,800 pounds of walleyes from east-
central Minnesota lakes in the first
nine days ofthe treaty harvest, says
the state Department of Natural
Resources.
The harvest has started with only one
incident between band members and
those opposed to Indian spearing and
netting.
As of Friday, the bulk ofthe harvest
has been conducted by the Mille Lacs
and Fond du Lac bands from
Minnesota. The Bad River band is the
only Wisconsin band to participate,
spearing on Little Elk and Green lakes
in Isanti County.
Since 1994, the courts have said the
tribes have the right to hunt and fish in
an area in east-central Minnesota
without state regulation, but this is the
first year that significant fish harvest
stored in steel casks, or the nearby
nuclear power plant may be causing
increased cancer rates on the
reservation.
But Minnesota state health officials
say there's no evidence of abnormal
radiation from the nuclear site or
increased cancer, or risk of cancer,
among tribal members or other people
in the area.
"We know how much radiation it
takes to present a measurable risk,''
said Allan Williams, an epidemiologist
Foreign/to pg. 3
of walleye in
could occur.
Last fall, a federal appeals court
affirmed the rights and allowed the
bands to begin exercising them. This
year's season began April 1.
Minnesotaauthorities have issued 159
permits for 11 lakes. Permits are
allocated nightly to those who wish to
spear and net. The harvest is monitored
by tribal and state authorities.
Walleye/to pg. 3
Ruling boosts odds for video gambling
machines at tribal casinos
SEATTLE (AP) ~ Reels spin on the
video screen. Lights flash, music plays
and, if three matching symbols line up,
the player is a winner. The two dozen
"Tab Force" machines at Seven Cedars
Casino near Sequim look like slot
machines, but they're not. Rather than
money, players insert a card purchased
from a cashier for $5, $10 or $20. The
symbols on the screen are determined
by a bar code on the card. Thus, "Tab
Force" is considered a legal pull-tab
reader, rather than an illegal slot
machine. Moreover, instead of coins
clattering into a pan, winners get a
printed voucher to take to a cashier.
Nor are there "progressive" jackpots
reaching into millions of dollars from
electronically linked machines. "I play
these because it's the closest thing
they have to slots," Barbara Robison
of Bainbridge Island said last week.
She said she'd come more often if there
were real slot machines. That's the
rub, says Jerry Allen, vice president of
the Northwest Alliance of Gaming
Tribes and assistant general manager
ofthe Seven Cedars Casino operated
by the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. The
stainless steel cabinets containing the
$6,000 "Tab Force" machines could
easily be converted for slot machines
if the state gave permission. "These
help some," Allen said, "but everyone
knows what the tribes ultimately want
full electronic gaming to really
complete our mix." Gambling in
Washington is a $2 billion-a-year
industry, about half geneiated by
tribal casinos and bingo and the rest
by the state lottery, horse, racing,
cardrooms, pull-tabs, punenboards and
nontribal bingo. "Peopleare concerned
about the amount of gambling and
how it appears to be completely out of
hand," said state Sen. Margarita
Prentice. D-Seattle and ex-officio
member of the state Gambling
Ruling/to pg. 5