Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-05-07

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State Appeals
Guest Editorial
MNDOTsays
Released felons
Time to refocus
News Tidbits, pg.
Court upholds
By Lt. Gov. Mae
study turns up
seek to regain
schools on
3
conviction of
Schunk on
nothing to stop
power at White
educating our
Smoke Signals of
Leech Lake
education, pg. 4
Highway 55
Earth
children
upcoming events,
women for
reroute
Leave "culture" for after-
P9- 5
resisting arrest
school, community and family,
P9-4
Released felons seek to regain power at
White Earth
They've yet to pay restitution to the Tribe
Voice ofthe People
1
web page:   www.press-on.net
FREE
By Gary Blair
The political rumor mill on the
troubled White Earth reservation
is already heating up for the May
2000 primary elections when two
ofthe five reservation business
committee (RBC) seats will be
open forcompetition.
Former reservation chairman
Darrell "Chip" Wadena recently
announced his candidacy for chairman in next year's elections.
Wadena served 18 months ofan
original 51 -monthfederal sentence
stemming from his felony convictions involving the theft of millions
of dollars from the White Earth
people. Wadena was released
from federal prison December 24,
1998, after an appeal's court reduced his earlier sentence.
Wadena is now telling listeners
that he was falsely charged and
convicted.
Wadena was convicted along
with formerreservation secretary/
treasurer Jerry Rawley and district
one representative Rickie Clark
forbid-rigging and other offenses.
Rawley and Clark were also convicted of voter fraud. Names of
deceased tribal members and those
who had not voted in the 1992-94
reservation elections had been used
by the pair to stuff the ballot box.
According to Federal Court
records as of May 3,1999, court
ordered fines and restitution payments, that are supposed to be
made by the Wadena gang in the
amount ofhundreds of thousands
of dollars, are as follows: Wadena
so far has paid special assessments of $25 and restitution $ 150.
Rawley has paid special assessments of $360 and restitution of
$50. Clark has paid special assessments $ 10,478 and restitution
of$50.
Reports now coming from
Clark's relatives say he has recently purchased from the U.S.
Marshals, for $30,000 and with
permission from the U.S.
Attorney'soffice in Minneapolis,
all ofhis "big boy toys" that he
once owned: boats, skidoos,
seadoos, motorcycles, Suburbans,
a pick-up and a Corvette-, which
had been seized from his property
by federal authorities after his 1996
conviction.
Additional reports say Clark purchased a backhoe since his release from federal prison earlier
Felons/to pg. 5
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AimriGan
rlBSSImwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 1988      Volume 11  Issue 30
May 7, 1999
A weekly publication.        Copyright, Native American Press, 1999
1
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Court gives federal courts jurisdiction
in nuclear activities
By Laurie Asseo
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -Federal courts, not Indian tribal courts,
get to decide whether federal limits apply to claims that nuclear-
industry activities caused harm on
Indian land, the Supreme Court
said today. Ruling unanimously in
acaseinvolvinguraniumminingon
the Navajo reservation in Arizona,
the court said federal law preempts tribal courts from ruling on
such cases.
The case involves the 1988
Price-Anderson Act, which limits
the liability of companies involved
in the nuclear industry. When companies are sued in state court, they
are allowed to have the case moved
to federal court. "Congress thus
expressed an unmistakable preference for a federal forum, at the
behest ofthe defending party,'' for
deciding such cases, Justice Dav id
H. Souter wrote for the court.
The law does not mention a right
to move similar cases from tribal
courts, Souter said. "We are at a
loss to think of any reason that
Congress would have favored"
having such cases handled in tribal
courts first, he added. "Inadvertence seems the most likely" explanation why tribal courts were not
mentioned, Souter wrote. Since
there are no nuclear reactors or
testing laboratories on Indian territory, Congressmayhavethought i
such cases would not arise, he '
said.
Ordinarily, federal Indian law
gives tribal courts the authority to
handle lawsuits against non-Indians over events occurring on Indian land. However, the government argued that the Price-Ander-
Nuclear/topg.5
Submitted  Photograph
The Rug O Nay Ge Shig School 2nd grade performed at the Leech Lake Head Start on Tuesday, April 20th. All of the children had a
great linn singing their songs together. Gil Applebee. music teacher, brought his 2nd grade students to the Head Start classes so they
could slum- their musical talent and he role models for the younger children.
State Appeals Court upholds conviction
of Leech Lake women for resisting arrest
Angry landowners descend on Albany
with message for lawmakers
By Doug Johnson
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - It
looked like the Fourth of July had
arrived about two months early
outside the state Capitol. American flags flapped atop car antennas, hand-painted signs reading
"Proud to be an American" were
paraded around the steps by young
and old, and a John Philip Sousa
march blared from loudspeakers.
But the patriotic group wasn't here
to thank Uncle Sam. And the signs
reading "Don't Tread on Me"
weren't meant forthe British.
This convoy of angry residents
made their way across upstate
New York to the Ail-American
City on Saturday to demand that
federal and state lawmakers protect them and all landowners from
American Indian land claims.
"We wanted to tell people in
Albany that we mean business.
We are not going to sit by while
our land gets bargained away,"
said William Bortiatynski, athird
generation land owner from Rome,
N.Y.
This protest was the latest move
by a grassroots organization to
protect 20,000 property owners
in Madison and Oneida counties
from losing their land in a claim
brought by the Oneida Indian
Nation.
The Oneidas, with the support
ofthe U.S. Justice Department,
are suing the two counties forthe
return of 250,000 acres of ances-
Albany/to pg. 3
By Jeff Armstrong
In an unpublished May 4 opinion, the Minnesota Court of Appeals let stand the conviction in
Cass County of two Anishinabe
women who claimed they were illegally stopped on the Leech Lake
Reservation and subsequently
abused by county deputies.
Paula Wilson was found guilty
last year of fifth degree assault and
convicted along with co-defendant
Renee Judkins on charges the
women forcibly ressisted arrest by
Cass County deputy Robert
Karbowski. Judkins was found
not guilty of assaulting the officer.
In the June 21, 1997 incident,
Karbowski maced and allegedly
struck Judkins with a flashlight after she verbally challenged the
officer's jurisdiction to enforce
state traffic laws on the reservation. The arresting officer, however, claimed that upon being
stopped, Judkins and Wilson exited their vehicle and commenced
hitting and kicking the officer as
their young children looked on.
For many Anishinabe activists,
the case served as as a symbol of
perceived retaliation by state law
Conviction/to pg. 8
Judge dumps state attempt to block
water authority of Chippewa band
George Morrison named first master
artist in new program
The Associated Press
GRAND PORTAGE, Minn.
(AP) — Artist George Morrison
has been named the first master
artist in anew grant and exhibition
program honoring American Indian artists. Sponsored by the
Eiteljorg Museum of American
Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, theprogram will distribute
$500,000 in biennial fellowships
of $20,000 each to Indian artists
during the next decade.
The program also honors "master artists," who do not receive
cash awards but whose work will
be featured in an Eiteljorg show
and publication. Themoney comes
in part from the Lilly Endowment
Inc., a foundation in Indianapolis.
"I'm flattered, of course, because it's kind ofan honor," said
Morrison, 79, who lives in a studio-home overlooking Lake Superior, on the Grand Portage
Ojibwe Reservation. Museum
spokeswoman Cindy Dashnaw
said the fellowship program is designed to reward and spotlight the
country's best Indian fine artists.
"We wanted to communicate
the level of artists we are going to
have in the fellowship program,
and having a master artist does
that," Dashnaw said. "George
Morrison' s name was the first that
everyone mentioned." A committee of artists, curators and art historians will name a master artist
and pick five Eitelj org Fellowship
winners every two years.
The museum, which has an annual budget of $3.4 million, plans
to stagebiennial exhibitionsofwin-
ners' art, publish catalogs, produce educational events and buy
art from grant-winners. Indian artists may applyforthe 1999 fellowships through June 7; winners will
be announced later that month.
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) - A
Chippewa leader welcomed a
judge's dismissal ofa state attempt to block his tribe from setting water qual ity rules on its reservation, near a proposed underground mine site at Crandon.
The ruling by U. S. District Judge
Charles N. Clevert affirmed the
rights of the Mole Lake, or
Sokaogon, Chippewa to assume
water regulation authority on the
reservation in Forest County, as
approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in September 1995.
The state challenged the so-
called "treatment as a state" status
granted by the EPA, contending
that the state, not the tribe, has
sovereignty over all navigable wa
ters in Wisconsin. Inlastweek's
ruling, Clevert dismissed thestate's
motion for summary judgment
against the EPA in the case.
Congress in 1987 gave the EPA
authority to allow tribes to administer the Clean Water Act on their
lands, should they meet conditions
set out in the law. The Mole Lake
Chippewa applied for the status in
Judge/to pg. 5
MNDOT says study turns up nothing to
stop Highway 55 reroute
By John Nemo
Associated Press Writer
ST. PAUL (AP)- Citing the
results of a yearlong study, state
transportationofficials said they can
find nothing to validate claims that
reroutingasouth Minneapolis highway will disturb sacred ground.
"There is no evidence to support
claims thathumanburialor(Ameri-
can Indian) sacred sites lay in the
path of this project," Elwyn
Tinklenberg, commissionerofthe
Minnesota Department of Transportation, said Thursday of Highway 5 5 construction.
The study — which included archaeological andhistorical research
—also showed that the reroute wil 1
not hurt the Fort Snelling area,
Coldwater Spring or the Camp
Coldwater historic property,
Tinklenberg said. Four oak trees in
the area that are believed by some   |\/|fSjDOT/tODq 3
American Indians to be sacred are
too young to have been used for
burial orother sacred ceremonies,
the study said.
Leo Ronneng, vice chairman of
the Mendota Mdewakanton Da-
kotaCommunity,saidafterthenews
conference that the study was deceiving. It was conducted for
MnDOT by a New Jersey-based
consultingfirm.' WhatMnDOThas