Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-05-14

              News Tidbits, pg.
3
Smoke Signals of
Upcoming
Events, pg. 5
Five men charged
with brutal murder
of elderly store
owner
White Earth's
chairman and
Press/ON reporter
spar in letters, pg.
4
When Tribes seek
expanded
authority, tribal
members and
others have real
cause for concern,
pg.4
Lawsuit accuses
White Earth
secretary/treasurer
of defamation
Complaints from
inmate and
responses from
staff about
conditions at Red
Lake jail, pg. 4
Lawsuit accuses White Earth secretary/
treasurer of defamation
c
By Gary Blair
A lawsuit filed last month in MN
State Court by White Earth enrollee Mike LaDue against the
reservation' s secretary/treasurer
Erma Vizenor for defamation, is
being assessed for "Substance
Matter Jurisdiction," which means
ifthereisjurisdiction,Vizenorcould
not claim sovereign immunitypro-
tection for her actions as a member of the reservation business
committee (RBC). If the court
determines there is no jurisdiction,
the suit would be dismissed.
The litigation stems from aMay
1998 Press/On article wrote by
this writer, wherein Vizenor alleged that LaDue, owner ofLaDue
Construction, had received
"sweetheart deals'' from then-reservation chairman Eugene "Bugger" McArthur. Vizenor was
quoted in the article as saying that
the bid increase authorized by
McArthur were bid-rigging and
that the proj ect construction was
shoddy. LaDue alleges that the
remarks made by Vizenor in the
article were untrue.
Five men charged with brutal murder of
elderly store owner
(Reprinted with permission of
the Aitkin Indpendence Age)
It appears she may have lost her
life for some beer and cigarettes.
Evelyn Malin was 84 at the time
she was killed in the late night or
early morning hours of Feb. 24
and 25, 1998. She was the
proprietress of a small grocery
store, the Dollar Lake Store at
Lake Minnewawa near
McGregor, for 54 years. It also
served as her home — a simple
home with no running water.
Five men, three from the
McGregor area, have been
arrested and charged with second
degree murder and first degree
burglary in her death. The men are
Keith Edward Misquadace 19,
McGregor (since he was 17 at the
time,hisarraignmentwasinjuvenile
court); Brian Keith Pippitt, 36,
McGregor; Neil Francis King, 19,
Orr; Raymond Lee Misquadace,
22, Bagley and Donald Duane
Hill, 24, McGregor.
Ray Misquadace and Hill
Tiny tribe caught in web of Indian
gambling laws
By Molly Wood
Associated Press Writer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - To the
Santee Sioux Indian tribe, the tiny
OhiyaCasino and its 23 jobsmean
new life for the small northeast
Nebraska reservation. But to the
state of Nebraska and the U.S.
government, thetinymetalbuilding
and its 68 contraband slot machines
are a symbol of defiance --and
the center of a legal dogfight that
has left both sides bitter and
frustrated.
The casino is operating under a
federal order to close its doors. It
is being fined $3,000 aday --nary
a penny of which has been paid.
Tribal leaders have voted
unanimously to go to jail to keep
Special session awaits concensus on
state-tribal pact
ByBobAnez
Associated Press Writer
HELENA (AP) - Whether the
Legislature meets in special session
next month to act on a proposed
agreement between the state and
Crow Tribe over water and coal is
still unclear, an administration
official said Thursday.
Anastasia Burton, press
secretary for Gov. Marc Racicot,
said the decision will depend on
public support for the compact.
The govemorwill decideon calling
lawmakers back to town only after
a pair of meetings on the tentative
agreement laterthis month.
"We don't know yet if there will
be a special session," she said.
"He wants to see if there is a
consensus among the people who
are going to be at the meetings."
That will indicate whether the
Legislature is likely to ratify the
accord during what would be a
one-day session, tentatively set
for June 16, Burton said. The
meetings will be May 18 at Crow
Agency and in Billings.
The agreement will resolve
lingeringdisputes overwater rights
and coal taxes. The proposal was
ready for the regular session to
consider before it adjourned last
month, but legislative leaders
wantedmoretimeforpublicreview
and comment. The Crows have
said they will withdraw the offer
rather than wait for the 2001
Legislature when term limits will
Concensus/to pg. 8
Hidatsa tribe questions Shoshone claim
to Sacagawea
NEW TOWN, N.D. (AP) -
Three Affiliated Tribes officials
researching Sacagawea as the
bicentennial ofthe Lewis and Clark
expedition approaches are
questioninghistorians' assertion
that the Indian guide was amember
ofthe Lemhi Shoshone tribe.
"It's always been in our tribe
the premise that she was really
Hidatsa," said Marilyn Hudson,
administrator of the Three Tribes
Museum on the Fort Berthold
Reservation. Historians have a
different view -that Sacagawea
was a 12-year-old Lemhi
Shoshone girl captured in Montana
by the Hidatsaliving inearth lodge
villagesontheKnifeRiverinNorth
Dakota.
Sacagawea was at Knife River
before accompanying explorers
Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark to the Pacific nearly 200
years ago.
Historical accounts also say
Sacagawea had a brother who
was a Lemhi Shoshone chief, and
that he was instrumental to the
expedition's success by providing
the explorers with horses near the
headwaters ofthe Missouri River.
The Hidatsa tribe traveled great
distances, and members likely
knew members of other tribes,
Hudson said. "Look at the Indian
kinship," she said.
"Her brother may not be her
(real) brother, or he could be her
adopted brother." The Hidatsa
Chief Bull's Eye said in a 1920s
newspaper story that Sacagawea
was his maternal grandmother,
Hudson said. Some Hidatsa, she
said, believe that Sacagawea lived
Sacagawea/to pg. 3
Voice ofthe People
1
The term "bid-rigging" became
popular on the reservation two
years ago, after the federal convictions of former White Earth
chairman Darrell "Chip" Wadena
and two other RB C members for
stealing millions ofdollars through
theconstructionofthereservation's
casino.
An investigator from the Commercial Insurance Service—the
reservation's insurance carrier—
asked not to be quoted when informed on Wednesday that Press/
LaWSUit/to pg.3
confessed to the crime, according
to County Attorney Brad Rhodes.
An investigator told a television
reporter at the courthouse on Mon.
May 3, that one ofthe men' 'found
Jesus" and that's why he
confessed.
It's speculated that the men may
have been Malin's customers.
Over the years, Malin was robbed
and beaten several times but
wouldn't contact authorities for
fearofretaliation.
Murder/to pg. 6
the casino open. And federal
officials are growing more and more
incensed. "We didn't do this to
pick a fight with anybody,'.' said
Butch Denny, chairman of the
2,500-member Santee tribe.
"We're standing up for what we
feel is our legal and moral
obligation. We're nothere trying
Web/to pg. 8
web page:   www.press-on.net
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Native
American
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Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded  in 1988      Volume 11   Issue 31
May 14, 1999
A weekly publication.        Copyright, Native American Press, 1999
1
f
Frances Graves, the daughter
of Diana & Bruce Graves of
Red Lake, MN recently
competedat the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-
Shigschool's 1999 Annual State
Indian Drum and Dance
Competition. Graves took 1st
place in traditional dance, 2nd
in fancy, and 5th in jingle. She
is currently working with young
students in a dance program at
various Bemdiji elementary
schools. Graves is a senior at
Bemidji High School.
Photo by Sherling Studio
lkJ*d± M!!h*«\
Int'l human rights group documents widespread abuses in U.S. juvenile justice system
By Jeff Armstrong
In a lengthy recent report, Amnesty International called on the
United States government to drastically reform its juvenile justice
system to bring it into compliance
with international human rights
standards.
Citing widespread abuses including solitary confinement, physical
and chemical restraints, mandatory sentencing, application ofthe
death penalty and life imprisonment without parole, the human
rights organization called for national legislation to outlaw such
practices and require independent
monitoring of all juvenile facilities.
"The US federal government
should require state and local governments to establish comprehensive standards for juvenile detention and correctional facilities that
afe consistent with international
human rights standards and monitor the implementation of this requirement," urges the report, entitled Betraying the Young.
Amnesty International proposed
an immediate moratorium on executions for crimes committed by
minors until legislation is passed
outlawing application ofthe death
penalty in such cases, a practice
prohibited by the UN International
Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the Convention on the
Rights ofthe Child. Such a gesture would save the lives of at least
70 people now on death row for
crimes committed before they
turned 18.
Although the U.S. signed the
ICCPR in 1977, it did not ratify
the treaty until 15 years later, and
then only while reserving the right
to execute minors. Similarly, the
U.S. has signed the CRC but
stands alone in the world with Somalia in failing to enact it into law.
Ifthe U.S. were to ratify the convention while maintaining the exception of juvenile executions, it
Human Rights/to pg. 6
Clinton adviser hired to represent
tribes, to meet Davis rep
By Michelle Dearmond
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov.
Gray Davis' point person on
American Indian gamblingplans
to meet next week with a nationally
prominentpolitical insider hired to
represent some 40 California
tribes.
William A. Norris, special
counsel for tribal affairs, told The
Associated Press on Wednesday
he had scheduled a meeting for
May 13 with a tribal committee
represented by Mickey Kantor.
Kantor, a former White House
Cabinetmemberwhoalso advised
President Clinton during the
MonicaLewinsky sex scandal, was
hired this week to advise a large
contingent of tribes in negotiations
with the state over gambling
compacts. "It's in everyone' s best
interest to move expeditiously as
possible toward the completion of
these negotiations so that we can
have compacts executed,"Norris
said.
The California Nations Indian
Gaming Association retained
Kantor to help them finalize a
compact with the governor under
the conditions of Proposition 5, a
ballot initiative that has been tied
up in court since voters
overwhelmingly approved it in
November.
"I have a fair amount of
experience in negotiations,"
Kantor, a former Commerce
Secretary and U.S. Trade
Representative, said in atelephone
interview Wednesday.
The decision to hire the political ly
well-connected attorney came
Tuesday as CNIGA voted to form
the United Tribes Compact
Steering Committee to represent
some 40 gambling and
nongambling tribes who supported
Propositions.
"We are looking forward to a
constructive, substantive and fair
process with the new
administration that will finally
secure protection forthe limited
gaming we now have on our own
tribal lands," said Mark Macarro,
spokesman forthe committee and
Clinton/to pg. 3