Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-03-26

              :   -SilSf ;
Tribal activists
plan to challenge
state legislation
Cass to appeal
BIA decision on
parcels
Programs help
control costs in
juvenile out-of-
home placement,
Cass officials say
NOTICE:
The first article in the series on Indian education has been delayed one
week due to the breaking news ofthe U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the
Mille Lacs Treaty case.
Tribal activists plan to challenge state
legislation
By Gary Blair
Tribal activists say they plan to challenge proposed state legislation that
would give Minnesota reservation's
entity (recognition) status and allow
tribes to license police officers through
the Minnesota Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Board.
On March 19,1999, White Earth activist Dale Hanks told the House of
Representative's crime prevention
committee that state entity status already granted to the Mille Lacs, Fond
du Lac and Lower Sioux reservations is
illegal. Hesaid, State POST agreements
at Mille Lacs and Fond du Lac violate
the Minnesota ChippewaTribe's con
stitution and all three agreements vio-
lateexistingFederal Indian Law. Hanks
and other activists testified last week
at the state capitol in opposition to the
proposed law.
Activist Marvin Manypenny who
also testified, plans tosend copies of
the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision
(400 U.S. 423) and the Indian Civil
Rights Act of 1968, that forbid State
encroachmentonU.S. Indian reservations without proper permission, to
concerned legislators for distribution.
Commenting on the recent signing of
the Mahnomen County cross-
deputization agreement with White
Earth that waived sovereign immunity
(liability) for the state, Manypenny
said, "The White Earth RTC (Reserva
tion Tribal Council) is trying to sell us
out. John (Buckanaga chairman) and
Erma (Vizenor, secretary/treasurer)
know they are supposed to call for a
referendum (vote) on issues of state
involvement, police and tribal courts
and all waivers of our sovereignty."
"I had to "hock" one of my paintings
and borrow a car to get down here,"
Hank's told oneofthecommittee members who asked to meet with him outside ofthe hearing room. "While Ema
Vizenor and the RTC s attorney, Zenas
Baer and the rest of them stayed in a
fancy hotel room last night," Hank's
added. Hanks had asked your writer
and Manypenny tojoin his discussion
Activists/to pg. 3
Audit: Tribe misspent $2.5 million
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A Chippewa
Indian tribe misspent a $2.5 million
grant to build a school addition that
has sat empty for nearly two years
because the tribe ran out of money to
finish it, a federal audit released Monday said.
The Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa
tribe lent grant money meant for the
addition to a business that sold close-
out goods such as televisions and
furniture, according to one ofthe findings of the U.S. Department of the
Interior's inspector general.
The audit also found $450,922 in
questionable expenses from the grant,
which the tribe may have to return to
the Bureau oflndian Affairs.
The tribe received the grant after the
bureau in May 1996 condemned several leaky, rat-infested portable tribal
classrooms housing elementary school
students. The bureau signed off on an
addition that was supposed to be 17,300
square feet, but the tribe ended up
attemptingto build an addition of41,300
square feet.
A tribal attorney said Monday the
addition is expected to be completed
April 26. The tribe is issuing bonds to
pay for the rest of construction. Audi
tors recommended the tribeeithercomplete the school or give back the $2.5
million grant, and also establish a formal procurement system that complies
with federal regulations.
Larry Leventhal, an attorney for the
Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa, said the
tribe is not going to give back the
money. Leventhal said the tribe decided to build a larger addition than it
had money for because federal regulations required that a tribal school built
to serve more than 400 students Iimv^
ihan41.000 square feet.
Supreme Court upholds Chippewa treaties
WASHINGTON (AP) - Eight bands
ofChippewa Indians can continue to
hunt and fish on 13 million acres of
public land inMinnesotawithoutstate
regulation, the Supreme Court ruled
today in a case that attracted the attention of tribes nationwide.
By a 5-4 vote, the court said that
neither an 1850 presidential order nor
Minnesota's statehood in 1858
stripped the Chippewas ofthe hunting
and fishing privilege they received in
an 1837 treaty.
"After an examination ofthe historical record, we conclude that the
Chippewa retain the ... rights guaranteed to them under the 1837 treaty,"
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote
for the court.
Some Indian law experts had said the
court's decision could affect the security of other Indian treaty rights. The
Chippewas were supported in friend-
of-the-court briefs submitted by the
National Congress of American Indians, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest
Indians and 32 individual tribes.
The Mille Lacs Band ofChippewa sued
the state in 1990, challenging its authority to impose hunting and fishing
regulations on tribal members. The
federal government and seven other
Chippewa bands in Minnesota and
Wisconsin joined the lawsuit. Nine
counties and eight private landowners
intervened on the state's side.
A federal trial judge ruled in 1994 that
the package of rights guaranteed by
the Chippewas' 1837 treaty with the
United States "continues to exist,"
and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
Today, the nation's highest court
said those courts were correct.
The 1837 treaty gave the Chippewa
Indians the rights to hunt and fish
"during the pleasure ofthe president''
on 13 million acres it ceded to the
United States.
Minnesota's lawyers contended that
an order President Zachary Taylor
signed 13 years later took those rights
away and ordered the Chippewas removed from the previously ceded lands.
The Chippewas opposed the removal
order, and the federal government never
enforced it. The bands continued to
hunt and fish in the ceded territories —
an expanse of land in central Minne-
Supreme/to pg. 3
Programs help control costs in juvenile
out-of-home placement, Cass officials say
ByMONlCALUNDQUIST
Cass County Correspondent
WALKER— Without family counseling and court diversion programs,
the cost and number of children placed
outside their own homes would be
rising even faster than it is.
This is the perspective Children Services Supervisor Susan Ault and Probation Officers Reno Wells and Jim
Schneider brought to the Cass County
Board Tuesday.
Wells presented a Minnesota Department of Corrections 1997 report
showing Cass is 10th highest of the
state's 87 counties for number of juveniles per 1,000 population who are on
probation.
There were 75 juveniles per 1,000
people here on probation in 1997, according to that report. Watonwan
County had the highest number, 163
juveniles. Crow Wing County had 54
juveniles on probation per 1,000 population and Beltrami, 55.
The state-wide median is 43 juveniles per 1,000 population.
In February this year, Cass had placed
109juvenilesoutsidetheirown homes.
Their care cost the county $230,598
that month, about $ 100,000 more than
the county spent for out-of-home
placements in February 1998.
Some children are placed-outside
their own homes for their own safety.
Others are placed to protect thei r family and/or the community from actions
thejuvenilemight take to compromise
public safety, Ault explained.
Health and Human Services social
workers, probation officers, judges and
other court representatives try to meet
regularly to find alternative ways to
deal with theseproblemsbeforeaplace-
ment is considered, Ault added.
In-home counseling services are provided when appropriate, she said.
These services may be offered by
Northern Pines Mental Health Service,
social workers or a probation department worker.
Cass employees also work with Leech
Lake Fam i ly Services in the Leech Lake
Reservation government and plan to
work with the newly expanding tribal
court to try to find alternatives for
specific cases before out-of-home
placement becomes a last resort, Ault
and Wells explained.
A new on-reservation program has
been started, Ault said. Community
members form a truancy support circle
forjuveniles, using atraditional Indian
concept for healing circles. Ault said
this approach seems to work.
Cass Lake Community Family Center
also has started a program to provide
a youth and family support worker to
help families whose child otherwise
would go into placement or whose
child is returning from placement.
Increased parental financial contributions when parents are not indigent
are being sought to defray county cost
for placing children outside their own
homes, according to Ault.
A new plan will be tried to place
children on house arrest in the electronic monitoring program. Ault said
house arrest has not worked without
monitoring, because children often
leave the house at night after their
parents are asleep.
She said the main focus will continue
to be trying to tailor programs to fit
individual needs, so best possible outcomes can be achieved. (Reprinted
with permission from the 03/1719"
Brainerd Dispatch.)
Lower test scores
for Indian students
are only tip of
iceberg, WHA
school board
learns, pg. 3
U.S. Supreme Court says
1837 Treaty still in effect,
pgs. 1,4& 9-12
Voice ofthe People
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Approximately 500 high school and college students from around Minnesota visited the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus for
the Minnesota TRIO Day and Student Leadership Conference.
Initiated   by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965,  TRIO programs such as Upward Bound. Educational Talent Search and Head
Start address the barriers lo college attendance caused by class, culture, educational preparation and disability.    This year's
conference theme was  "Education:    Emancipating the Human Spirit."
Pictured above, front row, from the left — Nicole Parry, RunningHorse Livingston (staff), Ernest Briggs, Burhan Ali.   Second row.
from the left - Lesley Lilligren (staff). Katy Parry  Lucie Skjefle. Mary Rainey, Cheryl Avina (staff). Linda Lloyd Babcock (staff),
Michelle Roth.   Back row - Jeremy King.
U.S. Supreme Court rules that Chippewa
still have treaty rights in Mille Lacs Case
Summary of Court's decision and dissents
By Julie Shortridge
On Wednesday, March 24, the U.S.
Supreme Court issued its ruling on the
Mille Lacs Treaty Case, stating that
"the Chippewa retain the usufructuary
rights guaranteed to them under the
183 7 Treaty."
But the decision came with strong
opposition from some members ofthe
Court, including Chief Justice William
Rehnquist who wrote:
"The Court's.. .conclusion is simply wrong.... The Court today
invalidates for no principled rea
son a 149-year-old Executive Order, ignores the plain meaning ofa
144-year-old treaty provision, and
overrules...a 103-year-old precedent of this Court. I dissent."
Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin
Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy agreed
with Rehnquist. Thomas also asserts
that the State may be able to impose
State regulations on Tribal hunting
and fishing.
The Mille Lacs Band ofChippewa
sued the State in 1990 claiming rights
to hunt, fish and gather outside of
state regulation in a large area of east
central Minnesota which the Chippewa
sold to theU.S. government in the 1837
treaty. Up to that time, no special
privilege had ever been acknowledged
by the State or federal government, nor
requested by the Band. A settlement
agreement between the State DNR and
Band was voted down by the Legislature in 1993 due to strong publ ic oppo-
sition. Since then, seven other
Chippewa bands and the U.S. government joined the Mille Lacs Band as
plaintiffs, and several counties and
landowners joined the State as defendants. The Federal District Court and
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
Treaty/to pg.5
Cass to appeal BIA decision on parcels
By MONICA LUNDQUIST
Cass County Correspondent
WALKER —- The Cass County
Board voted Tuesday to appeal the
U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau
oflndian Affairs' decisions to accept
nine land parcels into Leech Lake Band
ofChippewa Indian trust status.
This is a new appeal option available to the county.
When the Bureau oflndian Affairs
grants trust status, the land is held in
trust by the U.S. government in behalf
ofan Indian band for that reservation.
As trust land, it no longer is subject to
local government property taxation.
Any land owned by an individual
Indian person or family, however, continues to be taxable as if owned by a
non-Indian person.
Under the new procedure, Leech Lake
Reservation filed in 1996 and 1997 to
have five parcels in Pike Bay Township, and one each in Shingobee,
Wilkinson and Unorganized Town
ship 5 and one in the city of Cass Lake
held in trust.
Those applications were delayed until the bureau established a system to
permit appeals. With that in place, the
bureau notified Cass County in February of this year a decision to approve
had been made. That notice gave the
county 30 days to appeal to the bureau.
County Attorney Earl Maus will make
the written appeal on behalf of the
county. He and the county board will
seek assistance from the Minnesota
attorney general's office and the
governor's office in making the
county's appeal.
Affected townships passed resolutions at their annual meetings earlier
this month to support the county's
appeal, said Chief Deputy Auditor
Larry Wolfe.
The nine approved trust parcels the
county is appealing had a 1998 estimated market value of $210,000. One is
a former downtown Cass Lake department store property.
Leech Lake Reservation tribal government has acquired another six land
parcels and applied for trust status for
these. The estimated 1998 market value
of these parcels is $ 118,700.
The county will provide comment to
the Bureau oflndian Affairs on these
parcels and file notice of intent to
appeal any approval for the additional
six parcels.
Three of these lie in Pike Bay Township. Three are in the city of Cass Lake.
Following a conference call Tuesday between the Cass County Board
and Mahnomen County Board, Mahnomen officials told the Cass board
that county will approve a resolution
of support for Cass' appeal.
White Earth Reservation land overlaps Mahnomen County, meaning
there is a potential that band also could
seek trust status for additional lands
within Mahnomen. (Reprinted with
permissionfrom the 03/17/99 Brainerd
Dispatch.)