Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2000-04-06

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INDEX
News Around Indian Country 2
News Tidbits 3
Commentary/Editorials/Voices 4
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events 5
Classifieds 6-7
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Commentary
Hunt, Fairbanks,
Pemberton ALL
unfit to serve
pg4
Commentary
Minnesota ChippewaTribe
Constitution violated, not
only at election time
pg4
American Indian
baby featured on
Gerber cereal
pgs
Listing of all Minnesota
ChippewaTribe candidates
for April 18 primary election
pgi
Commentaries
on Census tribal
affiliation
confusion
pg4
Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe candidates for
April 18th primary
By Julie Shortridge
The following is a comprehensive
list ofall 83 certified candidates for
chairman and district representative
seats up for election this year in the
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT)
bands - Bois Forte (Nett Lake),
Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech
Lake, Mille Lacs and White Earth.
All positions are 4-year temis,
with elections staggered every two
years. The two winners ofthe
MCT's April 18th Primary Election
for each category will go on to June
13 General Election.
Red Lake, which is not part ofthe
MCT, will have elections this spring
and summer as well, with their candidate certification process in May.
Fond du Lac Band
• Chairman: Kevin Dupuis, Sr., Robert Martineau, Les Northrup, Jim
Northrup, Robert "Sonny" Peacock,
Don E. Wissen
« District 1. (Cloquet) Representative:
Carl "Jr." Abramowski, Ernest W.
Diver, Keith Diver Sr, Julia "Bunny"
Jankola, Albert Joe Martineau,
Cynthia (Cindy) McCloskey, Patty
Petite, Clifton A. Rabideaux, Bernard Roy
• District HI (Brookston) Representative: George Dupuis, Roger A.
Higbee, Bryan Jon Mackwaki, Dawn
LaPrairie Sutten
Grand Portage Band
• Chairman: Norman W. Deschampe,
June K. Evans
• Committee member Darlene
LeGarde. Wallace M. Deschampe,
Lawrence T.P. Bushman, Kenneth A.
Sherer, Donna J. Anderson, Dana R.
Logan, Allan Deschampe
Leech Lake Band
• Chairman: Guy G. Cloud, Alfred
W. Fairbanks, Jr., George Goggleye,
Jr.. Ton}' "Skin" Hare, Eli Hunt,
Bibsy Kingbird, David Chief Mor-
gan, Walter "Frank" Reese, Jerry
"Otto' Reyes, Martin Robinson,
Bonnie J. Rock Lenee D. Ross
• District 111 Representative: Robert
J. Budreau, Sr., Emmanuel
Headbird, Fred K. Jackson. Jr.,
Delmer Jones (Junior), Arthur
"Archie" LaRose, Sally M.
Morrison, Richard Robinson, Jr.
Mille Lacs Band
• ChiefExecutive: Marjorie (Marge)
Anderson, Melanie A. Banjamin,
Clifford K. Churchill, Timothy A.
Jackson, Mushkooub, Joseph L.
Nayquonabe, Larry Nickaboine,
Herb Weyaus
• District 1 Representative: Sandra L.
Blake, Reginald Garbow, Suzanne
Merrill, Arlene R. Weous, Kenneth
G. Weyaus Sr., Eloise B. Wind
Nett Lake (Bois Forte) Band
• Chairman: Donald Chosa, Jr., Gary
W. Donald, Mark E. Drift, Sr., Doris
Isham, Kevin Leecy
• District 1 Representative: Shane G.
Drift, E. Curt Goodsky, Rosemary
King, Wendy Morrison, Ray E.
Villebrun, Sr.
White Earth Band
• Chairman: Albert A. Bellecourt,
John B. Buckanaga, Doyle Turner,
Darrel "Boone" Wadena, Dean "Per
Cap" Van Wert
• District 111 representative: Ivy J.
Ailport, Harold O. Annette, Sr., Kenneth "Gus" Bevins, Albert L.
Brunner, Ralph "Bucky" Goodman,
Edward J. Miller, Sr., Marilyn E.
Smith, Elmer "Gene" Tibbetts
St. Paul Elder's Lodge turns
things around
Voice     o
he     People
Elder's Lodge in St. Paul
By Gary Blair
When Ron Schwartz, a Leech lake
enrollee, was asked to join the Elder's
Lodge board of directors in October
1999, the place was in financial ruin,
the management company was pulling out, and tenant unrest was creat
ing upheaval.
Six months later, most ofthe tenants
are getting along, the Wilder Foundation that manages the 43 unit senior
housing complex for Native Americans is staying on, and the
organization's financial problems are
ELDER'S LODGE to pg. 6
New Pine Point school passes
first hurdle
Excerpted from Nathan Bowe
Detmit Lakes Tribune
White Earth officials are batting .500
in their efforts to win legislative funding for a new K-8 school at Pine Point.
The Minnesota Senate included $4.1
million for a new Ponsford school in a
supplemental education spending bill it
passed March 22. *
Now tribal officials will focus their
lobbying efforts on the Minnesota
House. Pine Point School Administrator Neil Trottier said he and Secretary-
Treasurer Erma Vizenor will travel to
the Twin Cities to speak to legislators
and attend a school administrators conference.
Trottier said it's time to replace die
Pine Point School, which was built in
1936 and expanded in 1956 and 1978.
The school has no gymnasium, no
science lab, no industrial arts lab, and
its library is small and in need of updated materials.
The building doesn't meet requirements ofthe Americans with Disabilities Act, doesn't meet state fire codes
and has a flooded basement much of
the year, Trottier said.
The Pine Point School District is the
smallest in the state geographically,
and since it has no tax base, the only
way to pay for improvements is
through state funding.
With 55 students currently attending
Pine Point School, there is plenty of
room for an enrollment increase,
Trottier said.
And the new school - estimated to   .
be 41,500-square-feet - will help attract students. There are 22 K-8 students in the Ponsford area who now
attend school in Park Rapids or Detroit
Lakes through the state's open enrollment plan.
Credit card misuse alleged in BIA
By Matt Kelley
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C —Bureau of
Indian Affairs officials acknowledged
April 4 die agency has a "department-
wide problem" with employees misusing and failing to pay bills for their
government credit cards.
BIA managers say they have fired
some employees, disciplined others
and sought criminal charges against a
few.
"There is a problem, and it' s one
that we will not tolerate from the employees," BIA head Kevin Gover told a
Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
Gover said he did not know how
many ofthe BIA's more than 9, 000
employees were issued cards and
which misused them. He said he would
give that infonnation to the Senate
panel later.
The Billings Gazette reported April 3
that 13 BIA employees in Montana
and Wyoming have been disciplined,
and one indicted, for misusing the
cards. It also quoted the No. 2 official
in the Montana-Wyoming office as
saying "virtually everyone'! got a
card.
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), expressed disappointment at the latest
problem to befall BIA, which has been
plagued by management lapses and
has acknowledged mishandling S3 billion in Indian trust funds.
Gover said the agency got credit
cards in employees' names to help
them pay for travel expenses and office
supplies. Paying with a credit card
means vendors get their money more
quickly, he said.
Employees are supposed to pay their
credit card bills with reimbursements
from the BIA. Charges for personal
items are not allowed, Gover said.
The Office of Special Tmstee. a semi-
independent subset ofthe BIA which
oversees Indian tnist fund reform efforts, has fired some workers for misusing their credit cards, Acting Special
Tmstee Tommy Thompson told the
Senate panel.
Gover said the BIA changed its
regulations April 3 to allow the government credit card debts to be deducted
from workers' paychecks.
"Ifthey leave the government, our option is to sue them to get it back,"
Gover said.
The BIA said Leroy J. Headdress, a
civil engineering technician working
on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana, was arraigned last
month on federal charges accusing him
of nearly $8,000 in unauthorized
charges, much of in the fonn of cash
advances. Headdress has been fired.
Other BIA employees accused of
abusing their cards received suspensions and were ordered to pay unauthorized charges.
Indian recognition focused on cultural ties
instead of genealogy
Associated Press
NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. -
The Bureau oflndian Affairs' decision
to recommend federal recognition to
two Indian tribes did not focus on
whether their 19th-century ancestors
were actually Pequots, a review ofthe
documents shows.
Instead, die agency focused on the
tribal members' social, cultural, political
and economic ties to the reservatioa
The Day of New London reported, after
reviewing the agency's findings.
Information to support the claims of
the Eastern Pequot and Paucatuck East-
em Pequots came from reports of overseers on the tribes' reservation, census
data and petitions to the state.
"While some documents identified
the persons on the records ofthe overseers of the Eastern Pequot reservation
as Pequot, or as Indian, others identified
the ethnicity as non-Indian," the BIA
says in its report. "The BIA does not
evaluate descent from the historic tribe
by means ofa scorecard."
Town leaders who oppose the tribes'
federal recognition criticize the BIA's
methodology.
They say that while some ofthe
tribes' ancestors were included on such
documents, that does not mean they
were tribal members.
At that time, the state placed welfare
clients, some of mixed African and Indian heritage, on the Lantern Hill reservation. The town claims some of those
residents were included on the overseers' reports along with tribal members.
"They have thrown out die genealogical aspects, which have always been die
basis of decisions," said Nicholas
Mullane, first selectman ofNorth
Stonington. "It is the biggest stretch
they have used to date to recognize
tribes."
Leaders of odier Indian groups said
the decision is important for East Coast
Indians whose genealogy is weaker because diey were among the first to come
in contact with Europeans.
"It's about time that the federal government recognized diat Indian tribes be
judged on their social and political ties
rather dian on their edinic ties," said
Melissa Fawcett, the Mohegans' historian.
The Bureau oflndian Affairs concluded diat die key 19th-century ancestors claimed by both tribes were members of die Eastern Pequot tribe in die
1800s.
GENEALOGY to pg. 6
web page: www.press-on.net
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Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2000
Founded in 1988
Volume 12 Issue 25
April 6, 2000
Sen. Moe kills Sandy
Lake Band's state
recoonition Ml
By Julie Shortridge
A bill to give state recognition to the
Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi
Chippewa has stalled in the Senate
Rules Committee, chaired by Senate
Majority Leader Sen. Roger Moe (D-
Erskine) who in 1997 was bestowed
with the title of "Chief Gi-neu" by die
Red Lake Tribal Council.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Bob
Lessard (D-International Falls) in the
Minnesota Senate, passed through the
Senate Government Operations and
Veterans Committee, which then sent it
to Rules. The House version ofthe bill,
sponsored by Rep. Irv Anderson (D-
Intemational Falls), also passed
through the House Government Operations and Veterans Affairs Committee
with no opposition, and is waiting to
Be heard on the House floor. But according to Rep. Anderson, "There's no
sense in the House spending time voting on it if the Senate won't allow it to
be heard on their floor."
A bill has to pass in both the Senate
and the House before it can become
law.
"We just want to retain our tribal
identity and history as the Sandy Lake
Band of Ojibwe, which is our right,"
said Monroe Skinaway, Sandy Lake
Band member who has been pushing
the bill. "We want our 177 acre reservation that rightfully belongs to the
Sandy Lake people," he said in a
phone interview. The historic Sandy
Lake reservation is located north of
McGregor, Minnesota.
State recognition would be a symbolic gesture. Only federal recognition
would carry legal weight to re-establish Sandy Lake among Minnesota's
Ojibwe bands:
Rep. Anderson expressed frustration
with Sen. Moe's actions. "I would
hope the senator recognizes the importance of this bill and the right ofthe
Sandy Lake people," said Rep. Anderson in a phone interview.
Sen. Lessard said that he talked to Sen.
Moe's office on April 5 suggesting a
compromise. "I suggested that if he
won't pass it as a statute out ofhis
committee, that we instead pass a resolution as a way to send a message to
Congress that they should take a look
at die Sandy Lake situation. But Sen.
Moe wouldn't budge," said Lessard.
"All 1 know is Sen. Moe refuses to let it
out ofhis committee. Any questions as
to why will have to be directed to
him."
"Everyone we talk to in the House is
Sen. Roger Moe (a.k.a.
"Chief Gi-Neu")
supportive once
they know the history and die facts,"
said Skinaway.
"The big problem
in Sen. Moe. He's
under the armpit
ofthe Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe," said Skinaway. who
claims the recognition of Sandy Lake
has a lot of support among Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe (MCT) members.
"I'm sure Sen. Moe looks at the
money the MCT and Mille Lacs has to
offer, and that makes him not interested in what the facts are," said
Skinaway, who asserts that Sen. Moe's
decision to kill the measure "all comes
down to money, politics, greed and
corruption."
Here's what Vic Moore of Sen.
Moe's oilice had to say about why the
bill is dead: "There's a dispute on the
bill because the chair of the Local
Government Committee asked to review the bill but Government Operations didn't send it there, so Chair
Vickerman objected on die floor to get
it sent to his committee. The bill went
to the Bill Referral Subcommittee of
the Rules Committee, but they couldn't
agree on if the Local Government
Committee should hear the bill or not.
Now the budget is taking up the
Senate's time, so it's not likely to be
resolved."
In other words, rather than going on
record voting against recognizing a
historic Minnesota band, Sen. Moe
found fit to let the bill languish in committee. As with all tribally-related Senate matters, Sen. Moe calls the shots.
History
"Sandy Lake was one ofthe first reservations in Minnesota. Our Chief
Hole-in-the-Day signed die treaties
creating Sandy Lake, and our chiefs
were the main signatories to all the
[Chippewa] treaties [in Minnesota],"
said Skinaway. The Sandy Lake
Band's recorded history in Minnesota
dates back to 1794, and President
Woodrow Wilson established a reservation at Sandy Lake in 1915.
But the 1934 Indian Reorganization
Act put Sandy Lake, Lake Lena and
East Lake reservations under Mille
Lacs. A 1980 legal opinion from the
Bureau oflndian Affairs stated: "The
Reorganization Act provided that the
membership ofthe Mille Lacs Band
would consist ofall Chippewa Indians
permanently residing on the Mille
Lacs Lake Reservation and/or near the
Sen. Bob Lessard
villages of Isle, Danbury, East Lake
and Sandy Lake... .Those Chippewa
Indians who reside on the Mille Lacs
reservation, or on any land under the
jurisdiction ofthe Band, will be registered as Mille Lacs Lake Band members."
'The Mille Lacs Band counts us as
their members when it's useful for
them in getting more federal funding.
But then they deny that we're members when it comes to per capitas
from casino profits [S1,000 per year
per member] or providing federally-
funded services," said Skinaway.
Skinaway claims that a May 16,
1996 letter from Mille Lacs tribal attorney Anita Fine Day denied housing
benefits to Sandy Lake members.
This was after the MCT's Tribal Executive Committee passed a resolution Feb. 6, 1996 (resolution # 114-
96) stating, "Now therefore be it resolved that the people of Sandy Lake
are members ofthe Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe and are now and forever will be enrolled as members of
the Mille Lacs Band."
"For Mille Lacs to collect federal
funding for our natural resources and
our tteaty rights amounts to fraud,"
said Skinaway. "White Earth does the
same thing," he added. Skinaway says
Sandy Lake has approximately 250
members, the majority of whom are
enrolled at White Earth "because
that's where the federal government
tried to make one big reservation at
one time." Several other Sandy Lake
members are enrolled in Minnesota's
other Ojibwe bands, including Red
Lake, Leech Lake, Fond du Lac and
Mille Lacs.
The forced union of Sandy Lake
and Mille Lacs has never been comfortable. Going as far back as 1936,
Tom Skinaway of Sandy Lake was
denied membership to Mille Lacs and
not allowed to be part ofthe Mille
Lacs Band's delegation to Washington, D.C.
"This has been an issue for nearly
65 years, and especially since 1979
when my brodier Cliff Skinaway first
SANDY LAKE to pg. 6
Senator seeks end to smoke shop grants
By Libby Quaid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. -As the
government urges people to stop
smoking, the Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) has
given S4.2 million to build Indian-run
smoke shops selling discount cigarettes.
Sen. Christopher Bond proposed a
halt April 4 to the HUD giants and was
quickly seconded by Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, whose agency
previously has sparred with the senator
over the shops.
At issue is S4.2 million in HUD grants
to American Indian smoke shops and
truck stops that sell cheap cigarettes.
Bond, chainnan ofthe spending panel
that controls HUD's budget, argues
that cheaper cigarettes encourage
smoking among minors.
"No matter where it happens, awarding goveniment subsidies to sell cheap
cigarettes is a bad idea," Bond said
April 4 at a news conference with the
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and
the American Lung Association.
"Cheaper cigarettes mean more kids
smoking, and diese grants mean more
cheap cigarettes," said Matthew L.
Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
As the Senate begins a weeklong debate on a $ 1.83 trillion budget for the
coming fiscal year, Bond said he will
introduce an amendment to bar HUD
from using tax dollars for smoke shops
where discount cigarettes are sold.
While the spending resolution isn't legally binding, it sends a powerful political message further reinforced by
Cuomo's support for the idea.
Bond learned last spring ofa 1997
grant to the Reno Sparks Indian
Colony in Verdi, Nevada while HUD
told Bond "only one" smoke shop received such a grant, the senator discovered a half-dozen such grants.
Small Business Committee counsel
John Stoody narrated videotapes April
4 that he took of Oklahoma smoke
shops and their advertising. "Rows and
rows of tobacco products ofall kinds,"
Stoody said. "Contrary to it being
called a convenience store, this is all
cigarettes. Ifyou call them on the
phone, they' 11 answer, 'Thackerville
Smoke Shop.'"
HUD officials have insisted the
agency has no legal authority to ban
sales of tobacco products in stores that
get federal funds. But Cuomo immediately embraced the senator's move
April 4. "This legislation will give
HUD the ability to refuse funding to
tobacco stores in all parts ofthe United
States," he said