Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-06-25

              News Tidbits,
P9-3
Smoke Signals
of Upcoming
Events, pg. 7
Commentary:
TERO ordinance
promotes job
resources, pg. 4
Red Lake joins
lawsuit against
tobacco industry,
P9- 1
Four
commentaries
critical of new
proposed MCT
Constitution,
pgs. 1 &4
Commentary: The
more things
change, the more
they stay the
same, pg. 3
Insert: Complete
text of new
proposed MCT
Constitution,
pgs. 5&6
Officials mull options on another treaty
dispute
Voice of the People
web page:   www.press-on.net
_k
Associated Press
What started as a dispute over
American Indian moose hunting in
the far northeastern corner of
Minnesota has mushroomed over
the past decade into a sovereignty
battle between a tribe and the state.
Officials of the Department of
Natural Resources and the Attorney
General' s Office met Thursday to
discuss howto move forward with
thesecondpartofalawsuitinvolving
theFondduLacBand'shuntingand
fishingrights.
"Theoretically, the state could go
for a full-blown challenge of the
system," said tribe attorney Dennis
Peterson. "We don't think it's in
eitherofour best interests forthat to
happen."
The band wants to continue setting
its own harvest limits and enforcing
tribal lawsonaboutfivemillionacres
of land and water near Lake
Superior, as it has for about 10
years. Stateofficialssay theyneedto
havemoreinputtoensurethatanglers
andhunterswillbeabletoenjoythe
area for years to come.
"The court will need to bring
some finality to this," said DNR
legislative director Michelle
Beeman. "We'll need to have a
code that governs treaty harvest."
Harvest levels haven't been a
problem so far, she said.
The band notifies what it intends
to harvest and the state has a right
to object, Peterson said.
That happened only once, about
a decade ago, when state officials
said tribe members shouldn't hunt
moose without a state license.
A district court later ruled that
the Fond du Lac tribe and two
others have the right to fish and
hunt, including moose, on the land.
The second part of the lawsuit—
how those rights are exercised and
how that is determined — had
been postponed until asimilarcase
Dispute/to pg.8
Native
FREE
Press
Ojibwe Hews
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded  in 1988      Volume 11   Issue 37
June 25, 1999
A weekly publication.        Copyright, Native American Press, 1999
1
Red Lake j oins lawsuit against tobacco
industry
By Brad Swenson
Bemidji Pioneer
Red Lake, MN — While the
number of American smokers
continues to decline, tobacco use
on American Indian reservations
remains at an all-time high.
And with the states and federal
government pressing the tobacco
industry to pay for health-related
costs stemming from treating
smoking-related illnesses, Red
Lake Tribal Chairman Bobby
Whitefeather says some of that
money should flow to tribal health
agencies, too.
The Red Lake Band of
Chippewa joined 33 other Indian
tribes Wednesday in filing a lawsuit
which accuses the tobacco industry
of deliberately targeting Indians.
That comes two weeks after 20
tribes filed a $1 billion federal
lawsuit charging they were
excluded from last November's
settlement between states and the
industry.
"We wanted to make sure, as a
sovereign nation, that we have a
place at the table," Whitefeather
said Thursday in an interview.
"Indian tribes have been forgotten
in these settlements."
The Red Lake Band is the only
Minnesota tribe in the lawsuit,
which also includes some tribes
from North and South Dakota and
Wisconsin.
Minnesota won its own lawsuit
against the tobacco industry a year
ago, ensuring more than $6 bill ion
to flow into state coffers over the
next five years. The 1999
Legislature grappled with what to
do with the money, and settled on
establishing three health-related
endowment funds.
But, says Whitefeather, none of
that money was targeted for Indian
tribes. And, according to the
lawsuits, tribes were not included
Bald eagles soar again. The
American bald eagle, once near
extinction, has made such a
comback it will soon be removed
from federal protection, possibly
on the fourth ofJidy. Statewide
bald eagle numbers have
rebounded to about 620
breeding pairs, according to a
1995 Minnesota Department of
Natural Resources survey.
Nationwide, more than 5,000
nesting pairs of bald eagles are
now believed to roam the countryside.
Photo by the Associated Press
Tobacco/to pg 7      Draft MCT Constitution a recipe for
Indian official apologizes to judge in
trust funds case
By Philip Brasher
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, DC—The
Clinton administration's top-
ranking American Indian has asked
a federal judge to let the
government stay in control of $500
million in Indian trust funds that
have been mismanaged for
decades.
Kevin Gover, a Pawnee and
former New Mexico attorney who
has run theBureau oflndian Affairs
for 1112 years, said Friday it would
destroy his agency, and by
extension the government' s special
relationship with tribes, to lose
control of the accounts.
"I deeply believe that not only is
the bureau the right organization to
do this, but it is the only organization
that can do it," he toldU.S. District
Judge Royce Lamberth.
The BIA is responsible for
3 00,000 accounts that handle rent,
royalties and other income from
11 million acres of land owned by
individual Indians, many of them
very poor.
Earlier this year, Lamberth held
Gover, Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt and Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin in contempt for their
failure to turn over records sought
inaclass-actionlawsuitthat seeks
to reform the trust system and
reconcile the accounts.
Gover, a lawyer and Princeton
graduate who is Interior's assistant
secretary for Indian affairs,
apologized "for the failure of my
agency to do what it was told to
do." He was the government's
leadoff witness in a trial of the
lawsuit.
Apology/to pg. 3
Behind Indians5  glitzy casino is
growing pharmaceutical company
repression
Commentary
By Jeff Armstrong
While constitutional civil rights provisions are often
recklessly violated by governments throughout the
world, the draft constitution of the six-reservation
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) may be unique
in its failure to express any aspirations to guarantee
individual rights.
Indeed, the governing document put forth by MCT
officials would eliminate existing constitutional rights
which have already proved woefully inadequate to
remedy years of secretive, autocratic rule.
Organized under Section 16 of the 1934 U.S.
Indian Reorganization Act, the draft constitution
paradoxical ly asserts that "The powers, privileges
and immunities of theMinnesota Chippewa Tribe
derive from the inherent sovereignty of the six
constituent Bands, whose sovereign governmental
powers predate and preexist the formation of
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the State ofMinnesota,
and United States of America."
Virtually all sovereign powers in the proposed
documentwouldthusbevestedinreservationofficials,
subject only to applicable federal law, while tribal
members' rights would essentially be limited to
reservation voting. Even Article XIII of the MCT
Constitution, whose modest and unenforced
provisions articulate the rights of members, has been
stripped from the draft revision.
The controversial political structure of the MCT
would largely remain intact. A Tribal Executive
Committee would continue to be composed of the
chairman (to be renamed chief executive) and the
secretary treasurer (to be dubbed chief legislative
officer) of each of the six reservations, but any tribal
ordinance would require a unanimous vote.
Reservation Business Committees would be known
as Band Governing Bodies and granted the authority
to define their own powers under Articles of
Organization, which would require ratification by
reservation voters. However, the TEC would have
exclusive authority' 'To interpret this Constitution by
such means as it sees fit."
The Band Governing Body would assume sole
Draft Constitution/to pg. i
By Brigitte Greenberg
Associated Press Writer
MASHANTUCKET, CT—An
Indian tribe that has made a fortune
from casino gambling has quietly
builtaprofitablesidelinebusinessin
mail-orderprescriptiondmgs, taking
advantageoffederal rules to undercut
HMOs and pharmacy chains.
As gamblers feed quarters into the
slot machines at the Foxwoods
Resort Casino, a half-dozen
pharmacists in white coats work
nearbyfortheMashantucketPequot
Indian tribe, fillingpill bottles bound
for patients all over the country.
Under federal regulations, Indian
tribes recognizedby the government
canbuyprescriptiondrugsatadeep
discount and resel 1 them.
Started 10 years ago as a small
health service for members of the
tribe and their employees, thePequot
Pharmaceutical Network today is a
$15 million business, handling
250,000prescriptions annually.
About2 million peopleare enrolled
in the network, and its customers
include General Dynamics,
Connecticut College, AAA
Connecticut Motor Club and about
40 other Indian tribes around the
country.
Even the state of Connecticut,
looking to cut its pharmaceutical
expenditures for 85,000 elderly and
disabled Medicaid patients, is
considering becoming a customer.
"When we met with the Pequots,
they described their purchasing
power,'' said Michael Starkowski,
deputy commissioner of the
Department of Social Services.
"They described to us a pricing
schedule that would be 40 to 50
percentlessthanwhatwewouldbe
paying otherwise."
The Pequots refused to disclose
profit figures and insisted they are
not looking to put independent
pharmacies or national chains like
WalgreenorRiteAidoutofbusiness.
Yetindustryexecutivesarejittery.
Mark Grayson, a spokesman for
the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America, said
his organization fears the
government has given the Pequots
an unfair advantage.
"We don't believe that the
federal supply schedule can be
utilized in this way,'' he said.
Shelly Carter, spokeswoman for
Growing/to Pg. 10
Chippewa rule raises new divisive issue
Associated Press Theordinancerequiresthatpeople, apply to less expensive projects.
businessesorgovemmentsthathire The ordinance doesn't apply to
Leech Lake Reservation, building contractors within the band or its business entities,
MN—Unemployment here is at reservation boundaries give including casinos,
about 45 percent and anew tribal preference to Indian-owned firms. "Historically, contractors that
ordinance requires certain        Contractors doing work on comeonthereservationjustdon't
businesses operating on the reservations must have work hire tribal members, I'm sure it's
reservation to hire some Indian crews at least 50 percent Indian, lessthan 1 percent," said Eli Hunt,
workers. except in special circumstances,
So why is the new Tribal and the law assesses fees on
Employment Rights Ordinance construction projects to fund a
creating a major uproar that TERO compliance staff and train
TERO's opponents call abrazen Indians in construction trades,
power grab that will repel business, Fines fornoncompliancecanrange population centers, was 88 percent
violatetheirrightsasU.S. citizens from $500 to $5,000 per day. whiteand 11 percent Indian when
andreducejobs for everyone?           A 3 percent fee is tacked onto the 1990 census was taken.
Theordinance, passed last winter any contracted building project Most people became aware of
bytheLeechLakeTribalCouncil, over $200,000 and a 2 percent TERO when the tribe told Cass
wentmostlyunnoticeduntilthetribe fee on projects between $ 10,000
tried to use it last month. and $200,000. Smaller, flat fees Rule/to pg. 3
chairman of the Leech Lake Band
ofChippewa.
Cass County, which contains
most of the Leech Lake
Reservation's land and Indian