Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1999-07-16

              -::=:-.•■ -    -
■■■I
m
Readers
concerned
about
corruption on
White Earth &
Leech Lake
reservations,
pgs. 1 &4
Commentary:
Student test
results cause
for serious
concern, pg. 4
News from
around
Native
Country,
P9-2
Commentary:
Where are Indian
attorneys on new
proposed MCT
Constitution?
pg.4
Settling White
Earth
Reservation
land claims
proving to be
arduous task,
PST- 1	
Mille Lacs
Band
expected to
seek $4
million from
state, pg. 1
White  Earth casino manager
appears under investigation
Voice ofthe People
J
web page:   www.press-on.net
By Gary Blair
(Note: Because of the fear of
reprisal and intimidation presently
faced by tribal members who live
on the White Earth reservation,
your writer has promised not to
reveal the names of sources used
for this article.)
Sources at White Earth say the
National Indian Gaming
Commission (NIGC) is
investigating the reservation's
Shooting Star Casino manager
Raymond Brenny. Sources who
work at the casino say a NIGC
investigator from St. Paul, MN
has been at the casino a number of
times this year and has scheduled
another visit to the troubled
reservation for later this month.
"I think one of the things Brenny
is being investigated about is, the
reservation business committee's
purchase of that place in Fargo,
North Dakota—they bought for
gambling. The RBCnever informed
NIGC when they boughttheplace
and Brenny promoted that deal,"
your writer was told this week.
employees when he's been here
about Brenny," the source added.
Brenny became the Shooting
Star Casino's manager shortly after
the conviction of the "Chip"
Wadena gang andthereservation's
1996 elections that brought a new
group into office who promised
reform. Brenny'shiringas White
Earth's casino manager was
followed by complaint's that he
was an outsider and that he had
been let go as a middle level
manager   at   a   Ho-Chunk
Native
American
Press
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Founded in 1988      Volume 11   Issue 40
July 16, 1999
'This investigator has been talking
secretly to a lot of casino  Investigation/to pg. 5      A weekly publication.        Copyright, Native American Press, 1999
\
Settling White Earth Reservation land
claims proving to be arduous task
By Nathan Bowe
Detroit Lakes Tribune
PONSFORD, MN - Who'd
havethought it would be so difficult
to give somebody money?
Somewhere out there is a man
who has more than $100,000
coming to him through the White
Earth ReservationLand Settlement
Act.
Last contacted in Chicago, the
man was tracked from a mental
hospital to a prison. His whereabouts now are unknown.
He is an especially frustrating case
for' 'diligent search'' workers at the
WELSA office inPonsford.
They contacted him several times,
toldriimhehadmoneycoming-they
aren't allowed to say how much -
and requested his current address.
Now he must be tracked down
again, said Linda Butcher, one of
two search experts whose job is to
find hundreds ofpeople who are
owed anywhere from 20 cents to
several thousand dollars.
' 'One guy in Oklahoma has about
$50,000 coming,' 'she said. But most
people don't get that much.
Historical twists
How much they get depends on
history: Thepayments are thefederal
governments wayofrightingwrongs
in land sales that occurred on White
Earth around the rum of the century.
"There were so many rip-offs in
the early 1900s that the WELSA
Act was estab 1 i shed to attempt to
rectify the situation," said Dianne
ZuelowGiffen, who has worked for
Claims/to pg. 6
Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa expected
to seek $4 million from state
Photo by  Bill Lawrence.
Five voung essiban scampered on a lake-home deck in Bemidji, MN last week. They stayed, as pictured
here, for nearly an hour. Lights in the house, people talking, TV going and a Pekingnese dog barking did
not dissuade them from hanging around, even dozing off periodically. Eventually the sound of a popcorn
popper seemed more than they could tolerate and they left, singlefile, down the stairs, probably to try their
hand with some garbage cans.
Robert Whereatt
Star Tribune
July 15,1999
The Mille Lacs Band of
Chippewa is expected to ask a
federal court next week to order
the state ofMinnesotato pay more
than $4 million in legal fees that the
band incurred during its nine-year
court fight over treaty rights.
Gov. Jesse Ventura and
legislative leaders were briefed
Tuesday on the expected court
petition by Department ofNatural
Resources (DNR) Commissioner
Allen Garber and a lawyer from
the state attorney general' s office.
"This is not in any way a surprise,"
said Deputy DNR Commissioner
Steve Morse, a former state
senator who sought to settle the
legal dispute out of court in 1993.
"I had many times said on the floor
ofthe Senate that we will get hit
with legal fees once this is over."
Including the state' s legal costs,
the taxpayers' tab for the court
case could top $6 mi 11 ion, Morse
said.
Senate Minority Leader Dick Day,
R-Owatonna, who was among
those briefed, said he thinks the
state is obligated to pay the band's
legal fees, but he' s not happy about
it
"I personally think it's a rip-off,"
Day said. "They take us to court
and then we have to pay their fees?
Thafs ridiculous."
But Morse said a 1983 federal
law allows for winning parties to
recover legal fees in this kind of
case.
The governor's office declined
to comment on the briefing and its
impact. "It's a legal situation and
we would defer to the attorney
general's office," said John
Chippewa/to pg. 8
Whiteclay protesters demand
human rights investigation
Need high, money scarce for Indian housing
By George Tibbits
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) _ Demand for
better housing is high on Indian
reservations, but money to buy
houses is hard to come by, officials
ofthe National American Indian
Housing Council said Monday.
"It is a fact that Indian housing is
the most substandard housing of
any group' s in the country," said
Chester Carl, NAIHC chairman
and executive director of the
Navajo Housing Authority. "We
are often compared to Third World
conditions."
The council, an advocacy group
fortribal housing organizations in
the United States, estimates there
is an immediate demand for
200,000 housing units on
reservations_apotential market
worth$200 billion, Carl said.
The problem, he said, is linking
people who want to buy houses
with institutions willing to lend
money.
According to the congressional
General Accounting Office, just
91 conventional loans to buy
houses on tribal trust lands were
granted from 1992 to 1996, Carl
Need/to pg. 8
By Jeff Armstrong
A smal 1P ine R idge Reservation
border town which was the scene
of a riot last month over the
unsolved murder of two Oglala
Lakota men, is now being
peacefully occupied by a group
whose name and demands should
be familiar to Minnesota
Anishinabeg.
Calling themselves Camp
Justice, grassroots Oglalaactivists
and supporters have organized a
traditional encampment in the town
ofWhiteclay, Nebraskato highlight
their demands for an investigation
into human rights and land disputes
with the state.
The demonstrators are seeking
the dismissal of Sheridan County
sheriff Terry Robbins, a public
inquiry into human and civil rights
violations, creation of a permanent
body to investigate future
complaints, and the return of a 50-
square-mile section ofNebraska
to the reservation.
The conflict began with the June
8 discovery ofthe slain bodies of
Wilson Black Elk Jr. and Ronald
Hard Heart just outside of
Whiteclay.
A June 26 march on the town by
2,000 Lakota ended in a standoff
between state and tribal police
and a group of protesters who
vandalized and burned a grocery
store in thetownof22. Responding
to a protest march the following
week, Nebraska officials
evacuated the town and met the
march with a force of 100 state
patrol officers, who arrested nine
demonstrators attemptingto cross
police lines.
Last weekend, about 80
demonstrators again marched on
the town and ordered the four
liquor stores in Whiteclay, located
two miles from the alcohol-free
reservation, to shut their doors.
The stores sell an estimated $3
million worth of alcohol a year,
mostly to reservation residents.
Whiteclay/to pg. 3
State's no-tax policy on Indian
sales affirmed
By Michael Hill
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)_ Losing
around in their battle to force New
York to collect taxes on
reservation sales of cigarettes and
gasoline to non-Indians,
convenience store owners vowed
to press on.
Acting state Supreme Court
Justice Conrad Lang ruled
Monday that the Pataki
administration's no-tax policy
regarding the booming Indian
cigarette and gas trade was legal.
Groups representing convenience
store operators, who claim they
can'tcompete with untaxed Indian
competitors, said they would
appeal.
"This decision carries amessage
that should shock every fair-
minded, tax-payingNew Yorker:
It's OKfor the executive branch,
if it comes up with enough excuses,
to selectively enforce the tax law,"
said Jim Calvin, executive director
ofthe New York Association of
Convenience Stores.
At issue are the proliferation of
NO-tax/to pg. 5
Indian
activist
dies
Associated Press
ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) -
Larry Kitto, an Indian lobbyist
who was a powerful force for
Minnesota's tribes at the state
Capitol, has died.
Kitto, 52, died Friday at
Methodist Hospital of abacterial
infection that attacked his internal
organs. He had been ill for three
years and was seeking treatment
at the Mayo Clinic.
Wearing his signature Stetson
hat _ which he refused to call a
Activist/to pg. 6
Mpls. man fatally shot
at boat landing
Associated Press
RED WING, Minn. (AP) _ A
17-year-old Welch boy was
charged Monday in the fatal
shooting of a 22-year-old
Minneapolis man at aboat landing
near Sturgeon Lake.
Michael David Demo was shot
justafter5 a.m. Sunday, saidRick
Rabenort, Red Wingpublic safety
director. The suspectturned himself
in to Red Wing police at about 9
p.m. that night.
The teen was charged in juvenile
court with first-degree attempted
murder. He was scheduled to
appear next week at a detention
hearing. It was not immediately
clear why prosecutors chose that
charge. The Goodhue County
attorney didnotimmediatelyretum
aphonecall.
According to police reports,
Demo was shot multiple times in a
wooded area. Both Demo and the
suspect were reportedly attending
a large party near the boat access.
The party apparently started after
midnight and the conclusion ofthe
Prairie Island Tribal Community's
powwow. It was being monitored
by police officers.
"Sometime after the party ended,
a group of individuals went to the
boat access and apparently
proceeded to have a party,"
Rabenort said. "It appears when
Fatally/to pg. 3