Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-02-19

              "^"^MIBIilPfM
Tribe banishes
Turmoil strikes
International
Minnesota tribes
The Justice
Commentary:
non-Indian from
Minneapolis AIOIC
human rights
put their money
survey, crime and
Re-establish
reservation
organization to
into state elections
victimization in the
control by
address Duluth
Indian community,
re-establishing
activists
P9-4
family and
community, pg. 4
Tribe banishes non-Indian from
reservation She challenged tribal judge
Domestic abuse counseling center and shelter shut down
Voice ofthe People
1
b-mail ppesson@paulliunyan.net
by Julie Shortridge
The Banishment
On Friday, July 24,1998, at approximately 2:00 PM, Margaret (Maggie)
Penn, who worked fora domestic abuse
counseling center and shelter called
Tender Hearts Against Family Violence, Inc. in Fort Yates, South Dakota,
was ordered to leave the Standing Rock
Sioux Reservation. The order was
served by Sioux County Sheriff Frank
Landis, and John Vettleson who is
Captain of Law Enforcement for the
Bureau oflndian Affairs and supervising officer of the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribal Police.
"I was a non-tribal member living and
working on state land, not tribal or trust
land," said Penn. "If the tribe can
banish me, they can banish anybody."
Penn is 1 /8 Turtle Mountain Chippewa.
Thousands of non-member Indians
and non-Indians like herself own prop
erty, live and work within the boundaries of the Standing Rock Reservation.
Sheriff Landis and Captain Vettleson
told Penn that she had to immediately
leave Tender Hearts, where she was
the only staff person on duty. They
followed Penn as she drove from Fort
Yates to her home in Selfridge, North
Dakota, where both men helped her
load a few personal possessions into
her car. Sheriff Landis and Captain
- Vettleson, in the Sheriff s vehicle, then
followed Penn as she left her home in
Selfridge, which she rented from a non-
Indian rancher on non-tribal land, and
drove the approx imately 30 mi les to the
exterior boundary ofthe Standing Rock
Sioux Indian Reservation, where they
made a U-turn and drove off as Penn
continued.
Penn had been removed from her
home and place of employment within
two hours of being issued the banishment order.   Captain Vettleson told
Penn that if she returned to the Reservation, he would be obligated to arrest
her.
"I was a non-tribal member living and working
on state land, not tribal
or trust land. If the tribe
could banish me, they
could banish anybody."
- Maggie Penn
On September 14,1998,51 days after
Penn was banished from the Reservation, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal
Council filed a motion with the Standing Rock Tribal Court to vacate the
banishment, at which time Judge Dog
Eagle stated that Penn's "presence on
the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation
shall be permitted." But by then, Penn
had lost her home and her job.
Native
American
FREE
Press
Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 1988
Volume 11  Issue 19
February 18,1988
\
A weekly publication.
Copyright Native American Press, 1899
Penn/to pg. 3
Turmoil strikes Minneapolis AIOIC
By Gary Blair
Another round of turmoil has broken-out at the American Indian Opportunity Industry Center (AIOIC), ajob
training program located at the intersection of Franklin and Cedar Avenues
in south Minneapolis.
Reports say 10 AIOIC staff have either resigned or been forced to leave
early, including20-yearemployees. Allegations being made by present and
former AIOIC staff include fraud, mismanagement and nepotism.
Jenny Lightfoot, the program's director, said Thursday that she is Hbt
aware of any problems the organiza
tion may be experiencing.
"We just received an achievement
award from the City (of Minneapolis)
and funding from the McKnight Foundation to upgrade our computers,"
Lightfoot announced during a phone
interview from her residence.
Sources requesting anonymity, citing fear of retaliation from AIOIC board
chairman Clyde Bellecourt, say the
nearly 30-year-old organization's recent troubles started about five months
ago. "23 AIOIC staff have signed a
petition that asks for her (Lightfoot's)
removal as the organization's director.
They submitted the petition to Clyde
Bellecourt for board action."
An AIOIC source continued, "The
morale is low, you can just feel the
stress around here, people are scared
of losing theirjobs. She (Lightfoot) is
seldom at work. She (Lightfoot) has
been farming out some of her work to
one of her daughters."
When your writer advised the AIOIC
informant that I had just spoken with
Lightfoot at her home, they responded,
"Oh, she just came to work."
Your writer had spoken with Lightfoot
at about 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon
of this week. "I work about sixteen
hours a day," Lightfoot remarked during the interview.
Minnesota tribes put their money into
state elections
By Pat Doyle / Star Tribune
The political arms ofthe Minnesota
American Indian tribes that own the
biggest casinos contributed at least
$186,700 to state parties, political
funds and candidates for state offices
in 1998, the largest amount they have
ever given.
Spending by tribal political action
committees (PACs) on state political
parties and candidates for state offices
in 1998 was 75 percent above spending
in the previous election year, 1996, and
more than double what the PACs
spent in 1994.
An attorney for one of the tribes
said tribal opposition to slot machines
at the Canterbury Park racetrack was
a factor in motivating those
contributions.
Most ofthe money went to the DFL
Party and its candidates.
Indian tribes are among the largest
contributors of Minnesota's 340
PACs. Although rankings for 1998
aren't yet available, four ofthe top 20
PACs in 1997 represented Indian tribes.
Tribal contributions to state
candidates, party units and political
funds were larger in 1998 than were
such contributions to federal
candidates and committees. Spending
by tribal PACs is in addition to
individual contributions by Indians.
Major beneficiaries of tribal PACs
last year included Hubert Humphrey
III, who received $2,000 in campaign
contributions from the Mille Lacs PAC
in his unsuccessful run for governor.
The Prairie Island PAC reported
spending $8,000 to help Mike Hatch,
who was elected to succeed
Humphrey as attorney general.
A PAC for the Mille Lacs Band of
Chippewa, which owns the Grand
Casinos in Hinckley and nearOnamia,
led tribal contributors by spending
$49,750. The Prairie Island Dakota in
Red Wing, owners of Treasure Island
Casino, spent $49,250. The Shakopee
uy otiicmng Studio, Bemidji
1999 Red Lake High School Basketball Team...(front/center) Ronald Kingbird. Team Manager.   (1st row, left to right) Chris
Branchaud, Dave Rosebear. Jon Mountain. Gary Strong. Gary Spears. Clyde Perkins. Nick Garrigan.   (Back row, left to right) Bill
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Datum Walker, Harold Graves. Byron Graves. Doug Desjarlel (Head Coach)   8 X 10 color reprints of this photograph may be
purchased at Scherling Studio.
International human rights organization
to address Duluth activists
Elections/to pg. 5
Tribes reimbursed $11.3 million for
By Jeff Armstrong
A Duluth community empowerment
group will host a Feb. 25-26 workshop
on strategies for utilizing international
human rights law to combat racial
discrimination.
The featured speaker for the event,
sponsored by Low Income People
Organizing for Power (LI-POP), is M.
Douglas Scott of the International
Human Rights Law Group (IHRLG).
According to the IHRLG, social justice
and civil rights organizations need to
establish a presence at the United
Nations in order to document and
challenge racism in the U.S.
Ratified by the U.S. in 1994, the UN
Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
is viewed by the human rights group
as a valuable instrument in challenging
institutional bias.
Citing the need for community
activists to build alliances rooted in
implementing international human
rights law at the grassroots level, the
IHRLG defines the goals ofthe project
as follows: "By assisting groups
combating racial discrimination in the
United States to develop a practical
understanding of the relevance of
international human rights law and
practice, the Law Group hopes to
facilitate the process through which
domestic groups may incorporate this
understanding into their advocacy
work at every level and actively
engage the United Nations structures
in an examination of racism in the U.S."
Among the fundamental obligations
of the CERD is that "States Parties
condemn racial discrimination and
undertake to pursue by all appropriate
means and without delay a policy of
eliminating racial discrimination in all
its forms and promoting
understanding among all races," as
Rights/to pg. 5
cigarette sales
Leech Lake Police Department on duty
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Sales of
cigarettes on American Indian reservations cost the state $1 1.3 million in lost
tax revenue in fiscal year 1998, or 47
percent more than in fiscal 1997, an
anti-smoking group said Monday.
"If the state spent the same amount
on helping people quit instead of subsidizing their habit through cut-rate
taxes, we would see a reduction in
smoking," said David Ahrens, executive director ofthe Tobacco Free Wisconsin Coalition.
The state has been reimbursing the
tribes for a percentage of taxes collected on cigarette sales since 1982.
Sales on reservation property in 1998
represented more than 27 million packs
of cigarettes, the coalition said.
The state ordinarily charges a tax of
59 cents a pack. When sold to non-
Indians on reservations, the tax is only
18 cents a pack and prices are $3 to $4
less per carton than off-reservation
retail sales, Ahrens said.
The tribes were reimbursed $7.7 million during the 1996-97 fiscal year, ac
cording to the coalition. The increase
in state subsidies is because ofa higher
cigarette tax and higher sales, said
David Blaska, a spokesman for the
state Department of Revenue.
"It's not like we're rewarding anyone for sell ing cigarettes," Blaska said.
"It's a formula. It's statutory."
During the 1997 fiscal year, the tax
was 44 cents a pack, and sales on
reservation property represented 26.6
million packs of cigarettes.
Study says Indians twice as likely to be
violent crime victims
By Robby Robinson
Cass Lake Times
All the talk ofa reservation police
force and judicial system wasn't just
talk. As of January 18, the Leech Lake
Police Department went on patrol...and
yes, they do issue tickets.
According to Leech Lake Reservation Executive Director Bruce Baird,
officers went on duty last wek and have
already been involved in a high speed
chase and are answering calls or assisting other agencies within the reservation.
The department has four patrol cars
and one car will be patrol during the day
and two cars will be on patrol at night,
said Baird.
Leech Lake officers are not just security guards. They are board certified
officers and the Leech Lake Reservation has the authority to enforce its
laws within the boundaries ofthe reservation.
A traffic code and civil procedures
are in place and a domestic code, truancy, curfew and housing codes will be
in place in just a few weeks, Baird said.
The bottom line is that anyone breaking a traffic code within the reserva
tion, whether or not they are members
ofthe Leech Lake Band, can be pulled
over by Leech Lake police officers and
tickets.
Ifthey fail to pay their ticket, they may
be required to appear in a reservation
court. Ifthey contest their ticket, they
can go to the state and they'll wind up
paying the state or county.
"We decided it best not to force the
officers to sort out who's who on the
street," said Baird. "It's better to let the
courts decide."
The Leech Lake Court has been es-
Police/topg.3
Bones of Kennewick man to be studied
WASHINGTON, D.C. — American
Indians are victims of violent crime at a
rate more than double that ofthe rest of
the U.S. population, according to the
federal government's first comprehensive survey on the subject.
The survey, released Sunday by the
Justice Department, also found that
unlike the situation among whites and
blacks, in which the large majority of
crime victims are the same race as the
perpetrators, 70 percent of those committing crimes against Indians are ofa
different race.
Sixty percent ofthe perpetrators were
whites, according to the victims, while
29 percent were other Indians and 10
percent were described as black, the
report said. By contrast, other studies
have shown that 69 percent of people
who commit violent crimes against
whites are also white and that 81 percent of those who commit them against
blacks are themselves black.
"This highlights what has been going
on out there for 130 years, since the
beginning ofthe reservation system,"
said Sidney Hairing, a professor at the
City University of New York School of
Law and an expert on Indiancrime and
criminal law.
Harring said much of the violence
against Indians by other racial groups
can be attributed to racism and alcohol,
"with Indians being victimized by poor,
drunken whites, people on the margins
hurting each other."
There are still high levels of prejudice
against Indians in the West, where
most live, he said, and there is a culture
that lives on the edges oflndian reservations "that tolerates this violence,"
Victims/to pg. 8
KENNEWICK,Wash.(AP) -Studies that could determine the fate ofthe
9,200-year-old bones of Kennewick
Man have been set for Feb. 24 to March
5.
The analysis to be done at the Burke
Museum in Seattle is intended to establish whether federal law requires
that the bones be given to Indian tribes
forimmediate reburial.
The Justice Department fi led a notice
of study Wednesday in U.S. District
Court in Portland, Ore. After four
months in the warmer, more humid climate of Seattle, the ancient bones are
now ready for research to begin, said
Stephanie Hanna, a spokeswoman for
the Department of the Interior, which is
handling the study.
The agency will release the names of
participating scientists when all contracts are returned, possibly next week,
she said. Leaders from the Yakamas,
Umatillas and Colvilles did not return
calls Thursday about the coming studies.
government for a chance to study the
bones were skeptical of the research
schedule.
"The government has announced numerous plans for resolving this case,
but unfortunately, none of its past
timelines have been met," the scientists'lawyers said in a press statement.
"It can only be hoped that this latest
announcement will not be another cause
for further delays and excuses."
The nearly complete skeleton of
Scientists who have sued the federal    RoneS/tO DQ  8