Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-03-05

              Concerns over
integration of
reservation and
county law
enforcement
continue to grow
UN treaty study
urges inclusive
negotiations on
indigenous
political status
Red Lake man
indicted on federal
drug, firearms
charges
Red Lake man
indicted on federal
drug, firearms
charges
Commentary:
Taking care of
ourselves, pg. 3
Leech Lake
enrolled tribal
members feel
discrimination,
P9-4
Concerns over integration of reservation and
county law enforcement continue to grow
By Gary Blair
Concerns about integrating a reservation police department with county
law-enforcement agencies continues
to grow for White Earth and Leech Lake
residents, who say such agreements
are illegal without a vote ofthe people.
This week the White Earth business
committee used theiruncertifled police
force to post fliers around the reservation announcing they would review
the signatures of anyone signing petitions that asked for their removal. The
petitions need 373 signatures (or 20%
of the eligible voters on the reservation) in order to be submitted for action
to the Tribal Executive Committee (TEC)
of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
Apparently, the posters were an effort
to intimidate White Earthmembers into
fearing the loss of theirjobs ifthey sign
the petitions.
The fliers also carried remarks about
former White Earth chairman, Darrell
"Chip" Wadena, who was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for corruption.
Activists at White Earth say the petitions will go directly to the TEC and
not be submitted to the reservation's
business committee for initial review.
ActivistMarvin ManyPenny said three
weeks ago, "That is what happened
before when we signed petitions
against (Darrell) "Chip" (Wadena). He
fired the people who signed and the
peti tion never went any place. We don' t
want a repeat of that, those petitions,
when completed, are going directly to
the TEC."
Reports say over 400 White Earth
residents already signed the petitions
when they attended a welcome home
party last week for Wadena.
White Earth's rumor mill says,
Wadena isn't planning to seek office
at this time if new elections are granted
by the TEC. Reports say, the people
who signed the petitions view the
present reservation business committee in a worse I ight than they do Wadena
who they knowstolemillions from them.
Sources at White Earth say, the flyers and monitoring plan was promoted
Concerns/to pg. 5
Babbitt wants to clean up funds that got
him in trouble with judge
WASHINGTON (AP) -Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is pledging to
clean up $3 billion in Indian trust funds
and cooperate in a lawsuit that landed
him in trouble with a federal judge.
A U.S. districtjudge found Babbitt
and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin
in contempt of court over their delay in
producing documents sought by Indian account holders who are suing the
governmentoveritsadmitted mismanagement ofthe funds.
"You'll be thejudge. I will do my
best" to fix the funds, Babbitt said at a
Senate hearing today.
Babbitt agreed to appear at the hearing after the Senate Indian Affairs Com-
mittee threatened last week to subpoena him. Republicans, who say
they've lost confidence in the
government's ability to manage the
funds, suggested turning over the
money to outside banking professionals.
"There are no excuses. There should
be no excuses," said Sen. Larry Craig,
R-Idaho. "Why can't we be smart
enough to hire the right people to do
the job?"
In issuing the contempt ruling last
week, U.S. District Judge Royce
Lamberth said he was fed up with bureaucratic foot dragging and "outright
false statements" in connection with
the lawsuit.
The government has been under pressure for years to reconcile the funds.
They include 300,000 accounts held by
individual Indians, subjects ofthe lawsuit, and an additional 1,600 tribal accounts worth $2.5 billion. The money
includes lease revenue, royalties and
court settlements.
The official in charge ofthe cleanup
effort, Paul Homan, abruptly resigned
Babbitt/to pg. 3
Tribal leader offended by Ventura's
remarks
ST. PAUL (AP) - Add Marge Anderson, chief executive ofthe Mille Lacs
Band ofChippewa Indians, to the list of
those offended by Gov. Jesse Ventura's
remarks.
Anderson was offended by Ventura's
recent criticism oflndian sovereignty
and treaty rights. "It seems American
Indians have joined working single
mothers and struggling students as
the latest targets for your verbal body
slam," she wrote to the governor Tuesday.
Anderson was referring to controversial comments he made last month
in a confrontation with students at a
financial aid rally. In a 11 /2-page letter,
she told the governor that his "harsh
words opened old wounds."
She was responding to comments
Ventura made Feb. 20 while in Washington, D.C, for a national governor's
conference. "On theone hand," he told
reporters, "they want to be a sovereign
nation, and on the other hand, they
don't. Can you have it both ways?
They seem to.... "I guess I'd look at it
and say, 'Are you your own sovereign
nation?' Because if you're your own
sovereign nation, then take care of
yourself, and it shouldn't even fall on
us."
The Bureau of Indian Affairs describes the concept of tribal sovereignty this way: "Tribes enjoy a direct
government-to-government relationship with the U.S. government wherein
no decisions about their lands and
people are made without their consent."
Anderson wrote Ventura. "A sovereign nation has the authority to govern
its own territory and its own affairs.
Sovereignty has helped the Mille Lacs
Band do exactly what you say we should
do — take care of our own. We have
provided homes, education, health care,
and opportunities to our People. "Please
understand that sovereignty is not a
gift from the federal government, and it
is certainly not a gift from the state of
Minnesota," continued Anderson.
"Sovereignty is the inherent right of
every American Indian tribal govern-
Remarks/to pg.5
Welfare reform coming slowly to state's
Indian reservations
SIOUX FALLS, S .D. (AP) - Welfare
reform has come and gone for thousands of South Dakotans who have
been weaned from the federal program
since changes were made four years
ago. But for those living on American
Indian reservations — where jobless
rates are high and economic opportunities scarce — the transformation is
only beginning.
South Dakota had 3,545 families on
welfare at the end of last year, down
from6,129 families before thereforms in
1995. In areas where the economy is
good and jobs are plentiful, the state
has pared welfare rolls to practically
nothing. Led by a strong job market in
Sioux Falls, state figures show
Minnehaha County has thinned its
cases to 107. And the Pennington
County and Rapid City area had 223
families on welfare in December 1998.
But on impoverished Indian reservations, where welfare has been a way of
life for generations, welfare reform has
come more slowly. At the end-of last
year, 2,339, or 66 percent, of all the
state's welfare families lived on reservations. Before the changes in 1995,
6,129 families were on welfare in South
Dakota and about half of them, or3,064
families, were Indian.
"A lot of that is attributed to a lack of
employment on reservations," said
Judy Thompson, the state's program
administrator for Temporary Assistance forNeedy Families, or TANF, the
new name forthe main federal welfare
program.
The Pine Ridge reservation, for example, is one ofthe poorest areas ofthe
nation. Many people there don't have
basic necessities such as telephones
or automobiles much less jobs that can
Welfare/to pg. 3
Red Lake Tribal Chairman hopes
Ventura will visit with Indian leaders
By Brad Swenson
Political Editor/Bemidji Pioneer
REDLAKE ~ That Gov. Jess Ventura
speaks his mind doesn't bother Red
Lake Tribal Chairman Bobby
Whitefeather. But the message he
gives to others does.
Ventura, in remarks to reporters last
month in Washington, D.C,
questioned the reason for federal
assistance to American Indian tribes
which also claim to be sovereign
nations. He also disparaged hunting
and fishing rights claimed by the Mille
Lacs Band ofChippewa in a case now
pending before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
"I don't even offer an opinion on
what the governor says, until maybe
the reality sets in and he understands
that what you (as governor) say
sometimes is (perceived as) what the
government thinks," Whitefeather
said Wednesay during an interview on
a range of issues affecting the Red
Lake Band ofChippewa.
In recent weeks, Ventura joked on a
late-night television show about the
streets of St. Paul being designed by
drunken Irishmen, told a single mother
that the government is not responsible
for her choices, and confronted
Voice ofthe People
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"Sugarbush " a painting by Slats Fairbanks is on display at Premo Artworks, Grand Casino
Hinckley Hotel.
UN treaty study urges inclusive
negotiations on indigenous political status
By Jeff Armstrong
A United Nations study of treaties
with indigenous peoples has upheld
the validity of such agreements under
past and present international law,
recommending the creation of
independent national bodies to
resolve inevitable disputes arising
from widely differing interpretations
of the treaties. The report, by U.N.
Human Rights Commission special
rapporteur Miguel Alfonso martinez,
stresses that "such a solution must
be reached with full participation of
the Indigenous party" and questions
the legitimacy of legal and political
structures imposed by colonizing
states.
The UN study further recognizes
indigenous peoples as possessing the
right to determine their own fate and
political status under the United
Nations Charter. "The Special
Rapporteur also harbors no doubts
concerning the much-debated issue of
the right to self-determination.
Indigenous peoples, like all peoples
on  earth,   are  entitlted   to  that
inalienable right," the report states.
While acknowledging that the often
genocidal history of the past five
centures can neither be erased nor
reversed, the report says recognized
nation states have an obligation to
their indigenous counterparts to
negotiate the implementation of new
or existing treaties. According to the
special rapporteur, such an inclusive
dialogue would serve as "the most
suitable way of, not only securing an
effective Indigenous contribution to
any effort toward the eventual
recognition of restitution of their
rights and freedoms, but also of
establishing much needed practical
mechanisms to facilitate the realization
and implemntation of their ancestral
rights and those enshrined in national
and international texts, it is thus the
most appropriate way to approach
conflict-resolution of Indigenous
issues at all levels with Indigenous
free and educated consent."
The Human Rights Commission
report places much of the blame for
past, present and future conflicts on
what the rapporteur terms
"domestication," a process by which
Indigenous cultures were politically
absorbed and "subjected to a new and
totally alien social, economic, and
political-judicial order." At the more
extreme end of the spectrum, the
results of such unilateral legislation
has included the forced relocation in
the 1830's ofthe Cherokee nation and
others by the U.S., which the special
rapporteur describes as the first
recorded case of ethnic cleansing.
According to the rapporteur, states
claiming indigenous consent to their
assumption of authority over them
"should produce unassailable proof
that the Indigenous peoples in
question have expressly and of their
own free will renounced their
sovereign attributes."
Contrary to some U.S. legal opinions,
the report concludes, national and
international human rights laws
adopted by states, "are applicable to
Indigenous peoples and individuals
now living within their border,"
provided they do not conflict 'with
Indigenous    customs,    societal
UN/to pg. 3
students at a financial aid rally.
"My only fear is when he publicly
makes these statements, that others
who have been silent for some time in
the state say, well, it's OK to talk like
that," Whitefeather said. "Let's bash
the Irish; let's bash the Indians; let's
bash the single mom; let's bash the
students..
"That's my only fear," Whitefeather
said.
The state ofMinnesota and Indian
tribes have a long history of
cooperation, he added, and hopes that
the new governor will visit with tribal
Red Lake/to pg. 5
Red Lake man indicted on federal drug,
firearms charges
By Cathy Onstad
Bemidji Pioneer Staff Writer
Roderick Arlyn Sayers Jr. of Redlake
was indicted Wednesday by a grand
jury on federal narcotics and firearms
charges that are related to the apparent
shooting death of a Redby man.
The indictment charges Sayers with
possessing with the intent to distribute about 500 grams of marijuana Feb.
4,theU.S. Attorney'sOfficesaid. John
Dale Schoenborn, 24, of Redby was
found dead from apparent gunshot
wounds to the head in a home about a
mile east of Redlake.
A few days after the shooting Sayers
surrendered himself to federal authorities in Minneapolis on afederal warrant
alleging two drug-related charges, John
Egelhof,FBI agent in Bemidji, said last
month.
Red Lake police responded to a 911
call to the Red Lake home at about 1:45
a.m. Feb. 4. Schoenborn's body was
found inside the house, authorities
said. He suffered gunshot wounds to
the head.
Sayers was also charged with possessing a Mossburg pump action shotgun with an extended tube magazine in
relation to the drug-trafficking offense,
the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
If convicted, Sayers faces amaximum
potential penalty of five years in prison,
a $25,000 fine, or both, on the narcotics
count, and a five-year consecutive term
for possession ofa firearm. Any sentence would be determined by a judge
based on the federal sentencing guidelines.
The case is a result ofan investigation by the FBI and is being prosecuted
by AssistantU.S. Attorney Clifford B.
Wardlaw.