Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2000-09-01

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■  •■
INDEX
News Around Indian Country 2
News Briefs 3
Commentary/Editorials/Voices 4
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events 5
Commentary
Sen. Gorton defends
rights, and funding to
tribal schools
ft» wke ot the
GfMt Sf Irtl Ii hwd
\n UKwripptina of
mighty water, and the
sweet breathing of nwasri.
Classifieds
6,7     pg 4
Native American billboards
unveiled
pg3
Excerpt from
Gerald Vizenor's
new novel about
repatriation
pg4
Oberstar cited for
possible political
influence with casino
pgi
White Earth Police opposes
policy banning take-home cars
pgi
Hudson wants more study   j Oberstar cited for
of casino's possible impact   I possible political influence
AssociatedPress
HUDSON, Wis. — City officials told the federal government it needs to conduct a more detailed study ofa proposed
casino's impact on the surrounding community.
A report that included the city's environmental assessment
ofthe proposed casino was sent to the U.S. Interior Department on Aug. 30, the final day ofa month-long public comment period.
A partnership involving the Red Cliff, Sokaogon and Lac
Courte Oreilles Chippewa bands wants to develop a casino at
the St. Croix Meadows Greyhound Racing Park near
Hudson, which is just minutes from the lucrative Twin Cities
area gambling market in Minnesota.
hi 1995, the Interior Department rejected the tribes' application for the project, but the agency agreed to reconsider it
in settling a federal lawsuit alleging that it acted improperly
the first time.
Casino developers already sent the department a report
saying the casino would increase traffic but would not adversely affect the community.
The city's environmental assessment criticizes tliat conclusion, saying the developers underestimated the number of
customers the casino would attract.
In a letter accompanying the report, the city asked the Interior Department what state and local laws regarding fire
HUDSON topg. 5
Greg Gordon
Star Tribune
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Minnesota Rep. Jim
Oberstar's role in opposing a proposed tribal casino in
Hudson, Wis., drew the attention of federal investigators
looking into alleged political interference in the 1995
decision, according to an independent counsel's investigative report.
Oberstar, a Democrat, blames misunderstandings and
faulty memories by two ofhis aides for some ofthe
questions he faced from FBI agents about his contacts
with the Interior Department.
Independent counsel Carol EJlder Bruce's report on
her 18-month investigation, made public last week, focused on allegations that the White House influenced
the decision to reject the casino in return for campaign
donations from 10 Minnesota and Wisconsin tribes worried about competition for their own gambling operations. The report found no official corruption.
The accounts about Oberstar emerged as FBI agents
interviewed several members ofthe Minnesota congressional delegation and a number of their assistants.
One Oberstar aide, who was not identified, told the
agents she recalled sitting in a car during a Minnesota
OBERSTAR to pg. 5
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Volume 12 Issue 45
September 1, 2000
Court allows      1 Opponents voice concerns on
prosecution of     MAC plan to buy Camp Coldwater
Indian in
traffic case
AssociatedPress
ST. PAUL, Minn. - A divided Minnesota Supreme Court gave state prosecutors the go-ahead to try an American Indian for traffic violations he allegedly committed on another tribe's
reservation.
Tlie 4-3 decision that tribal sovereignty laws do not apply means the
Forest County, Wis., Potawatomi
Community member can be prosecuted for driving without a license
and speeding on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Becker County.
He was 15 years old at the time.
In two cases last August, the court
COURT topg. 5\
By Cheryl Lewis Fields
At a contentious public meeting the
evening of Aug. 28, citizens critical of
the sale ofthe Camp Coldwater Bureau
of Mines (BOM) research campus near
the Mississippi River and Fort Snelling
to the Metropolitan Airport Commission
(MAC) for a landing strip and parking
lot gained the upper hand, although government officials gave the impression
the sale is already a done deal and the
public hearing but an official formality.
More than 100 people crowded into
the un-airconditioned room at the Henry
B. Whipple Federal Building to air their
concerns, thwarting attempts by officials
to divide the group which opponents of
the sale referred to as "crowd control."
In the past, government officials have
organized such public meetings on related issues as break-out groups rather
than larger public meetings which pre
vents the entire group from hearing the
concerns others raise and also keeps
comments from the public record.
The purpose ofthe meeting was to
discuss the historic and cultural preservation ofthe 27-acre under consideration for the airport expansion, as required by Section 106 of tlie National
Historic Preservation Act when there is
a transfer of federal property. Tlie Camp
Coldwater property is already located
partially within a National Registry of
Historic Sites area, partly because the
BOM compound itself was used for
Cold War research although the structure is only 50 years old.
Linda Marie Brown of tlie Mendota
Mdewakanton Dakota Community
(MMDC) stated that all 27 acres ofthe
Camp Coldwater area should be under
the National Historic Registry - seven
acres have been excluded-for a possible
COLDWATER to pg. 6
Musical updates interpretation
of Chief Sitting Bull
Tribal board reverses disenrollment action
Associated Press
FLANDREAU, S.D. - The governing body ofthe Flandreau Santee
Sioux Tribe has voted not to remove
Monya Miyasato from the tribal
rolls, said Jenny Fyten, a lawyer for
the tribe.
The tribe's seven-member executive committee voted Aug. 25 to rescind a resolution that authorized
Miyasato's disenrollment, Fyten
said. The action will become official
when the minutes ofthe vote are approved Aug. 29, she said.
"This will be sweet if the
disenrollment policy is deleted," said
Miyasato, 56.
Two years ago, the tribe changed
its membership laws. Some observers said it was to clamp down on
people claiming tribal membership
to get profits from the Royal River
Casino.
Adults living on Flandreau tribal
land get $600 a month. Their children receive a smaller amount that
goes into a trust. Members living off
tlie reservation get an average of
about S200 every three months.
Last 'fall, the tribe said there were
no general council minutes from the
mid-1940s when Miyasato says she
was voted into the tribe as an
adopted daughter of the Alex
Wakeman family.
But Miyasato said the minutes are
simply missing or were never properly taken. A lack of minutes does
not fall under the "clear and convincing evidence" tribal mandate necessary to disenroll her, she said.
A three-member tribal panel ruled
against her in March. The decision
was upheld a month later by the
tribe's governing body.
On Aug. 24, a tribal meeting
failed to produce a quorum ofthe
211 members necessary to vote on
Miyasato's request. Tribal leaders
wanted to let eligible members vote
on her request next month.
Miyasato and her lawyer planned
to go to court to stop that vote. But
Friday's executive committee decision made such a fight moot.
Twelve members have been removed from the enrollment list in
the past year, and about nine more
face disenrollment.
"I can't be happy for myself when
I think about the other nine members coming up and the other members after that," Miyasato said.
Miyasato.said the Aug. 25 vote
means the tribe is healing. "It makes
me want to fight equally as hard"
for the other members facing
disenrollment, she said.
White Earth tribal police oppose policy
banning take-home cars
Photo credit: Carol Rosegg
Joe Hart as "Charlie Davenport", Larry Storch as "Chief Sitting Bull" and George McDaniel as
"Buffalo Bill" in theTony Award-winning production of Irving Berlin's Annie GetYour Gun.
By Cheryl Lewis Fields
The new more politically correct
version ofthe musical Annie GetYour
Gun will blow onto center stage at
The Historic Orpheum Theater in
Minneapolis, September 5-10. Winner
ofthe 1999 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, Irving Berlin's legendary musical stars Marilu Henner, with
Larry Storch (formerly of TV's F
Troop) as Chief Sitting Bull.
According to production consultant
Jennifer Larson, Public Relations
Manager for SFX Theatrical Group,
"The show has been revived and updated to avoid the
Native American foibles of its original
script and score."
Loosely based on the life and romance of sharpshooter Phoebe Anne
Oakley Moses who blasted the boundaries of 188()'s social norms with her
proclivity for guns, Annie became the
star of Buffalo Bill Cody's traveling
show. In 1885, following forced surrender to the reservation, Sitting Bull
was persuaded to join die tour for four
months for $50 week plus bonuses -
allowing him to temporarily leave the
reservation. It is believed Sitting
Bull's actual intent was the hope of
meeting with President Grover Cleveland to discuss the fate ofhis people.
It was.Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Shows and such exposition sideshows
from which European-Americans of
the era derived their beliefs about Native Americans and it was such shows
that popularized "cowboys and Indians" as entertainment. The original
script and score for Annie GetYour
Gun, first produced on stage in 1946
and in film in 1950, perpetrated romanticized Indian myths and stereotypes.
In the new stage production, "I'm
an Indian Too" has been entirely cut
and there have been some new score
additions. According to a review by
The New Yorker, some "purists who
wanted to see the show performed as
it was originally written" were debunked when the show's award winning librettist Peter Stone asked "how
they'd like to hear somebody onstage
sing 'I'm a Hebrew/A Jew—ooo—
ooo.'"
And where Native Americans were
once the butt ofthe show's jokes
they're supposedly now the agents of
them.
In a telephone interview from
Pittsburgh where the troupe was on
tour. Storch says he portrays Sitting
Bull "as a Redman who looks with
disdain to the White intruder".
While some lines have been
changed to make the script funnier,
"it's basically the same dialogue as
the original" with some obvious updating. The biggest laugh, says
Storch, is Sitting Bull's reply to
Buffalo Bill about what he wants to
do with his money ... "Invest in a
gambling hall on my reservation."
Storch who describes himself as a
"dialect comedian" has portrayed a
broad diversity of characters - the
German in "Arsenic and Old Lace",
a Russian spy, a French Candienne
trapper - transforming the phone interview into a conference line. "I
was lucky to have many dialects as
a very young boy," says Storch
whose mother was from Minsk and
father from the Lodz ghetto in Poland. "I have a mixture ofthe Jewish faith", a background which may
contribute to understanding the dignity of Sitting Bull's character and a
MUSICAL to pg. 8
Tribes' bank to finance
Indian projects
AP Photo
Cars from the White Earth tribal police force are lined up outside the tribal headquarters in White Earth, Minn. A new
rule that doesn't allow officers to take home their vehicles after their shifts is causing dissent on the force.
Associated Press
WHITE EARTH, Minn.- Forthe
two years since the 15-member White
Earth Tribal Police Department was
formed, officers have been taking
home their squad cars after work.
A new cost-cutting policy requires
the officers, many of whom live outside the reservation borders, to drive
their personal cars to a central location
to pick up their squad cars before each
shift.
At least one officer has quit, and others are angry. They say the policy
change cuts both their pay and service
to reservation residents, since tribal police no longer can answer emergency
calls from home when they are off-
duty.
"It's going to be an absolutely detrimental move for that police department to take away take-home cars for
their officers," said Jim Crace, who
spent a year as a sergeant in the department until he left in April to become
police chief of Benson.
"It's just common sense," Crace
added. "Numerous times I was called
from my residence to the reservation
when I was off-duty.... Had I had to go
to the office first it would have been one
and a half or two hours lag time."
The White Earth Reservation is 1,375
square miles and includes all or part of
three counties.
"In an area tliat big you have to run it
like a sheriffs department, you can't
run it like a city police department," said
Bob Borden, who was a captain in the1
department for a year until he left in
May to become a deputy in Montana's
Broadwater County.
Police Chief Rusty Pavey, who lives
in Detroit Lakes, strongly opposes the
new policy, saying it is unfair to officers
and terrible for morale.
"A decision like this basically cripples
us overnight," he said. "When they took
away the squad cars... it's like they took
part ofthe officers' uniform with them."
Warren Rethwisch, chief deputy with
the Becker County Sheriffs Department, said his agency is concerned that
the tribal policy change will hurt law
enforcement efforts on the reservation.
Tribal officers,often are asked to help
deputies in emergencies and when
deputies are tied up elsewhere,
Rethwisch said.
Both Borden and Crace blame tribal
public safety director Ken Badboy for
damaging the department.
"If the department fails, he's responsible," Crace said.
Badboy said he did not initiate the
new policy and would support take-
home squad cars for officers "under certain circumstances, based on how many
people I have to go out into the field....
I don't want to cut short tlie service
we're providing to the public."
The new policy may be temporary, he
said. A task force is working on how
best to handle the tribal fleet of vehicles.
Frank Annette, new tribal executive
director, said the tribe simply is implementing basic internal controls over its
vehicles and purchases.
"We have a lot of vehicles and with
tlie higher gas prices the cost of maintaining those vehicles is skyrocketing,"
POLICE to pg. 6
Excerpted from Paul Zielbauer
New York Times
HARTFORD, Conn. —After two
years of planning, 11 Indian tribes or
tribal corporations from across the
country, including the Mille Lacs Band
of Chippewa in Minnesota, have
agreed to commit $1 million each to
found the nation's largest intertribal
bank.
The Native American National Bank,
which would have its headquarters in
Denver, would be subject to the same
regulations as any other bank in the
United States. It would focus initially
on providing large-scale loans to Indian-owned businesses, though it
would also invest in non-Indian companies, its members said.
Though they already have $11 million in pledges, the tribes are seeking to
raise another $19 million in start-up
capital: $15 million in investments
from large commercial banks and $1
million each from four additional
tribes. And once the money is raised,
the bank will need to attract hundreds
of millions of dollars to invest, banking
experts said. Typically, that investment
capital comes from deposits, and Indian officials estimate that existing
banks hold at least $200 million in de
posits from tribes and their members.
But there is uncertainty about
whether those depositors would turn
their money over to the new bank, and
whether there are enough profitable
loans to be made to Indians and tribes,
experts said.
Native American National Bank expects to submit its federal charter application in October.
If approved, the bank would be
unique in several respects, tribal and
banking industry officials said. With
$30 million in projected start-up capital, it would be the largest financial institution ever created, owned and controlled solely by American Indians, and
the first created specifically to invest
primarily in other tribe-owned businesses.
The bank would also be unusual in
taking on two roles at once: as a community bank serving Indians, and as a
national bank making corporate-sized
loans.
Establishing Native American National Bank is necessary for several
reasons, its members said. Foremost
among them is the dissatisfaction many
tribes have with the federal
government's tight hold on billions that
BANK to pg. 5
(Indictments
allege fraud
| in tribal
programs
l Associated Press
RAPID CITY, SD. - Three Tribal
| Council members and a housing execu-
| five are among nine people charged in
| federal indictments with fraud on Oglala
j Sioux Tribal programs, the US. attorney's
j office said Aug. 24.
The suspects were arrested, and all but
) twohad been freed as of Friday morning,
| said U.S. Attorney Ted McBride. They
j made their first court appearances Aug.
1 24, lie said.
In January, federal agents seized paper
I records and computer files from the
\ Oglala Sioux Housing Authority office on
I the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, just
1 north ofthe Nebraska border.
That action came as some tribal members began occupying tribal headquarters
I in Pine Ridge to press for an investigation
| into what they called financial misman-
^agement.
The indictments were cause for celebra-
| tion among the protesters, who said they
j nevertheless will continue to occupy the
FRAUD to pg. 6