Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2000-10-06

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INDEX
News Around Indian Country
News Briefs
Commentary/Editorials/Voices
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events
Classifieds
Commentary
Kennewick Man - a
case for amending
reparation of law
pg4
Arctic pipeline plan
advances with tribal
support, Greenpeace
opposition
pg5
What if?
A letter from a
European rights
activist
pg4
Woman to be evicted
from Meskwaki
settlement because of
gender
Pfl-1
Shakopee
Mdewakanton Dakota
Tribe again seeks
land-trust status
pgi
25th annual Trail of Courage Festival
by Anne M. Dunn
Rochester, Indiana — An early
morning walk through the historic encampments ofthe Sept. 16-17 Living
History Festival of pre-1840 America
took visitors back to a time before
computers, telephones and automobiles.
Encamped along the Tippecanoe
River were representatives ofthe
French and Indian War, the American
Revolution, Western Fur Trade and
Voyageurs. There were also first nation members of Potawatomi, Miami,
Cherokee, Shawnee, Lakota, and
Ojibwe descent.
Each year the Fulton County Historical Society honors descendants ofthe
Trail of Death. The event educates the
public concerning how the
Potawatamie were rounded up and
forcefully removed on September 4,
1838. This year the Jim Thunder family was honored.
Jim's grandfatiier, John Mike (Nole
Mck) was bom in Mexico to Kawsat
(spelled Kau-rawt on the muster roll
ofthe 1838 'emigration' that became
known as the Trail of Death) and
Mike Kwewe. Kawsat's father was
Chief Menomin (sometimes referred
to as Menominee), to whom Indiana
eventually erected a monument located on Peach Road, near Twin
Lakes. It's the only one in Indiana
dedicated to an Indian.
Jim said that his grandfather often
spoke of how his parents had escaped
tlie trail of death by fleeing to Mexico
with some Seminole and Kickapoo.
John Mike had been a small boy
when his people were forced back
from Mexico. Many ofthe captives
were women and children who ended
up in prison at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The elder had vivid-memories of
those experiences and the family retains them as their oral history.
Jim heard the story of how U.S. soldiers went into Mexico to round up
Bodewatmie and brought them back
into the U.S. That same night as the
soldiers celebrated the event, some
Bodewatmie captives escaped and
made their way to Kansas on foot.
Jim's grandfather was with them. He
was only eight or ten then. As an elder
he often spoke of their narrow escapes
from soldiers who were sent to hunt
them down.
Nevertheless, they made their way
FESTIVAL topg. 6
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Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota again seeks
land-trust status
776 acres in Shakopee, Prior Lake would be affected
Founded in 1988
Volume 12 Issue 50
October 6, 2000
Excerpted from John Mueller
Shakopee Valley News
Less than two years after being rejected by the federal Bureau oflndian
Affairs (BIA), the Shakopee
Mdewakanton Dakota Community is
again seeking permission to place land it
owns in trust status.
Late afternoon on Sept. 25, Scott
County was informed the tribe is seeking
trust status on four parcels of land it owns
in Shakopee and Prior Lake totaling 776
acres. The parcels include the 593 acres it
purchased in 1994 and sought to place in
trust previously, located south of County
Road 16 in Shakopee between McKenna
Road and County Road 83. The second
parcel is 77 acres in Shakopee, just
southeast ofthe larger parcel. Tlie tribe
purchased it in April 1996. The third and
fourth parcels are located in Prior Lake.
The larger ofthe two is located south of
County Road 82, just east of its intersection with County Road 83, and totals 104
acres. The fourth is a 2-acre parcel located on the east side of County Road 83
between county roads 42 and 82. The
tribe purchased those two pieces of land
in September 1997 and February of
1998, respectively.
The BIA rejected the tribe's previous
application in Oct. 1998. The tribe did
not appeal that denial. Tlie original application was strongly opposed by the city
of Shakopee and Scott County because it
would take the land off tax rolls and because the city would lose land-use authority. Tlie city and county received the
support of then-Go v. Arne Carison.
Unlike the first application, this current
one contains no reference to commercial
endeavors. The application only addresses the housing and governmental facilities needs ofthe tribe's current and future enrollment. The tribe estimates it
will have 165 voting members (those
over age 18) by 2005. The tribe estimates
that number will grow to 353 by 2050,
according to the application.
"One ofthe community's most important governmental responsibilities is to
provide on-reservation land that community members can use for housing," the
tribe wrote in its application. "Currently
the community cannot meet its immedi
ate and long-term housing needs utilizing
only its current reservation land base."
The tribe stated in its application that
the land it has purchased for housing
uses is well-suited for residential purposes, in part because of their proximity
to other residential developments but also
to existing and planned infrastructure.
The application stresses a need for
members to live on tribal land held in
trust by the federal government. Tribal
community law, the application states, requires members to live on tribal land in
order to vote in general council meetings.
Holding tribal office and a seat on tlie
board of Little Six Inc., the tribe's gaming authority, is also restricted to those residing on tribal oust land.
Perhaps most important the
Mdewakanton people have always maintained their cultural tradition of requiring
residency as a prerequisite of participation in government decisions, and this
tradition is central to the manner in
which the community defines the rights
and benefits accruing from member-
SHAKOPEE topg. 6
Leech Lake Band and counties to sign historic
law enforcement agreement
Troubadour
Larry Long
holds CD
release
concert
By Cheryl Lewis Fields
In a rare hometown concert, troubadour Larry Long will celebrate
Smithsonian Folkways release ofhis
solo CD "Well May the World Go" at
the Cedar Cultural Centre in Minneapolis, Nov. 10 at 8pm.
A tapestry of global song, Well
May the World Go weaves the stories
ofpeople Long has met on his journey into a wondrous reflection of humanity and, as can be expected of
Long, tlie strand ofthe First Nations
is beautifully woven into the mix.
"The intent of my work is to honor
the life stories ofpeople who have
made a difference to those around
them," says Long. The cut "Some
Things Are Not for Sale" - which be-
I pins, "My name is Melvin Jones/
By Devlyn Brooks
Bemidji Pioneer
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and
six area law enforcement agencies will
sign a historic cooperative law enforcement agreement October 5, allowing for
county officers to arrest tribal members
and vice versa.
Although the entities have been negotiating for about two years and the original
goal was to complete the agreement in
April, the parties involved say it is better
to have an agreement late than never.
"Tlie bottom line is there should be
more officers, more patrols in the neighborhoods," Beltrami County Sheriff
Keith Winger said. "The response times
(to incidents reported) should be shorter.
Although many details need to be
clarified the agreement basically allows
for concurrent jurisdiction of criminal
and regulatory laws on the reservation by
all police officers. That includes Leech
Lake and Cass Lake police officers,
Beltrami, Hubbard, Itasca and Cass
county sheriff's deputies, and State Patrol
troopers.
The agreement purposely is designed
so that it works tlie same in every county
in which Leech Lake Reservation lies.
There are situations in Minnesota, such
as at the White Earth Reservation, where
the tribe has a different agreement for
each county they cooperate with. The
area sheriffs and tribal leaders wanted to
prevent that in the Leech Lake agreement.
Once the agreement is signed, any officers essentially can stop someone for
any offense within the reservation
boundaries. For instance, a Beltrami
County deputy now can stop a Leech
Lake Band member for speeding. Previously, only the Leech Lake police department could enforce regulatory laws -
such as driving violations - broken by
band members on the reservation. The
tribal police, however, could not make arrests in criminal matters such as drunk
drivers.
Because it is so complicated for either
agency to distinguish between cases
where they did have jurisdiction and
where they didn't the law enforcement
on the reservation was less consistent, according to tlie sheriffs.
Those problems, according to Cass
County Sheriff Randy Fisher, hopefully
will diminish.
"It benefits everyone to eliminate these
problems. I think consistency is something we really want to develop as we
work through the early weeks ofthe
agreement," Fisher said. "We all just
need to concentrate on what the purpose
of this is: to begin providing the people
we are supposed to be serving with the
best law enforcement service we can."
Devil's in the details
The Oct. 5th 11 a.m. signing ceremony at the Palace Casino Hotel west
of Cass Lake will be the starting point of
the agencies' cooperation but there still is
much work to be done.
As with any agreement the devil is in
the details, and according to Winger,
there are plenty of details to iron out. For
AGREEMENT to pg. 6
Woman to be evicted from Meskwaki
settlement because of her gender
Associated Press
TAMA, Iowa - A woman is being
evicted from her new Meskwaki tribal
house built by gambling profits because
she is a Meskwaki woman.
Eloise Lasley Iron Shell could stay if
she were a Meskwaki man.
On the settlement west of Tama, only
Meskwaki males can live in a tribal
house with a spouse or partner ofa different tribe or race. Women living with a
spouse or partner other than a Meskwaki
must live elsewhere, a tribal ordinance
states.
"Of course it's dsmmination," Iron
Shell, 40, said Sept. 27. "We deserve the
house as much as a man."
Ordered out Sept. 21 in a letter from
Tribal Council Chairman Talbert Davenport Sr., Iron Shell said she isn't budging.
If not out by Oct. 22, Iron Shell faces
law-enforcement action, tlie eviction notice says.
Larry Lasley, tribal executive director,
declined comment.
The eviction of both husband and wife
from their tribal house is a second approach tlie tribal leaders ae taking
agaiast Iron Shell.
This summer they persuaded the Tama
County attorney to file a criminal trespass charge against Iron Shell's husband,
James, for living illegally on Meskwaki
property.
Tribal leaders, though, didn't show up
for the trial in July, and tlie charge
against Iron Shell's husband was dismissed.
"What we have wanted to
show the country is that this
type of discrimination is ongoing, it's prevalent, it's alive,
it's modern day, Year 2000,
United States of America,"
James Iron Shell said.
Eloise Lasley was allowed in 1997 to
move into her new tribal house built behind a house she built herself on tribal
land because she was not yet married to
Iron Shell, a Rosebud Sioux Indian.
Even
then, she
said, the
tribal
housing
director
tried to
stop the
move
because
she was
pregnant
with Iron
Shell's
child.
Changing tribal leadership and her
marriage to Iron Shell have prompted the
eviction effort
The housing disparity embraces a
founding principle ofthe settlement that
allows only fathers to enroll children as
tribal members.
Under that principle, the children ofa
Meskwaki man and a Caucasian woman
are enrolled as Meskwakis, while children ofa Meskwaki woman and a non-
Meskwaki American Indian man, for instance, can never be enrolled
Iron Shell and her husband say the enrollment law is too entrenched in
Meskwaki life to be changed by referendum any time soon. Their mission is to
change the housing discrimination.
They are looking to federal gaming
commission statutes that they say require
a tribe to distribute the profits from casino gaming equally among all tribal
members.
Iron Shell, as an enrolled female tribal
member, receives a monthly
stipend from casino profits
equal to the stipend enrolled
male tribal members receive.
In the same way, the hundreds of new houses being
built by the tribe, all from casino profits, also should be distributed equally to tribal members regardless of gender, she
and her husband argue.
James Iron Shell said not
one civil rights organization,
attorney or agency has stepped
forward to help his wife.
"What we have wanted to show the
country is that this type of discrimination
is ongoing, it's prevalent, it's alive, it's
modem day, Year 2000, United States of
America," he said
Support for the Iron Shells on the
settlement is quiet at best Women, he
said are afraid to stand up for themselves, and the men have forgotten their
past.
"When Indian men were warriors,
their primary principle was to protect the
women and children ofthe tribe because
they were the future," he said.
Giving Meskwaki men special access
to houses violates that history, James Iron
Shell said.
From the Red Lake Reservation/
From the Bear Clan/Of the
Anishinabe Nation" - honors the Red
Lake elders' foresight to have placed
the land in trust.
Like many of Long's songs that
grow out of interviews, most are in
the first person. Long believes "reconciliation is bom of active understanding... created when the experience of others becomes part of one's
own heart."
Each cut, a collaborative work, is
culturally distinct and orchestratively
unique, each introducing a different
musical instrument including the me-
lodc sounds ofthe many languages
we speak. Some Things Are Not for
Sale segues into a solo Healing Song
by John Morrow accompanied on a
traditional Anishinabe big drum.
Twenty-one years of age, Morrow
who performs both nationally and internationally is from the Lac Courte
Oreilles Reservation, the Wildcat
Clan, and the song is based upon a
story told by Anne M. Dunn, an
Anishinabe grandmother and storyteller who lives in Wilkinson township on the Leech Lake Reservation
[Who also contributes stories to this
newspaper].
While this is Long's first solo CD
with Smithsonian, the label has also
produced two other CD's of songs
Long wrote and performed with
schoolchildren. Other recordings by
Long include his acclaimed Run for
Freedom/Sweet Thunder, re-released
as a double CD on tlie Flying Fish la-
Troubadour Larry Long
bel, which proclaims the Sacred Black
Hills and includes his anthem Anna
Mae, celebrating the life and honoring
the death of activist Anna Mae Aquash.
Cataloged by Smithsonian between
Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and
Leadbelly- the greatest in American
folk - Long continues to find his sustenance in working in community with
people from whom folk music comes.
He has dedicated much ofthe past decade working on an intergenerational
oral history project "Elders' Wisdom,
Children's Song", bringing together
community elders who share their life
stories with students and then with
Long transform them into celebrations
of song, transcending barriers of age,
complexion, religion, gender and class.
Long recently returned from a teach-
ing/peifonnance tour in South Africa
and is currently staging twenty celebrations down the Mississippi River in his
continued efforts to clean up the river.
Throughout this year Long also has
been producing a collection of songs in
partnership with the Southern Poverty
Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama,
on teaching tolerance which will be distributed free to every public school in
the United States, hi December Long
will perform for Civil Rights pioneer
Rosa Parks with rural Alabama schoolchildren at the dedication ofthe Rosa
Parks Museum in Montgomery.
"Well May tlie World Go," named after the title cut featuring legendary Pete
Seeger, is a medley of our diverse
struggles to overcome adversity and a
compassionate synthesis of our oneness.
From "No Jobs in Texas" about the life
of migrant Hispanic workers to "Somalia," a gentle song about seeking refuge
in Minneapolis from a war-torn country,
to "Ramona" with its wild violin honoring the Gypsies who perished during
tlie Holocaust, and the rhythmically
catchy "Chicky, Chicky Boom" about
95-year-old Papa Chic and life in the
deep South, along with Melvin Jones
and other voices, "Well May the World
Go" crosses arbitrary cultural boundaries by speaking to the heart and singing to the soul.
Hopis refuting
study that said
Anasazi practiced
cannibalism
AssociatedPress
TUCSON, Ariz, -Arizona Hopis say
they were offended by a study that suggests their ancestors practiced cannibalism, citing it as another example of outsiders misrepresenting their past.
Some Hopi researchers have also offered an alternative interpretation ofthe
findings published this month in the scientific journal Nature.
They believe invading tribes were responsible for the acts of cannibalism attributed to the ancestral puebloans, a
mysterious lost culture that stretched into
present-day Arizona, Colorado, New
Mexico and Utah
"There really isn't enough information
to state conclusively that there was some
level of (cannibalism), or if it was performed by Anasazi or others," said
Hartman Lomawarma, a Hopi who is associate director of tlie Arizona State Museum in Tucson. Lomawarma also studied anthropology at Harvard and
Stanford
ANASAZI to pg. 6
Alaska governor signs order to
recognize 227 tribes, senator complains
By Mary Pemberton
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE - In a move to support tribal sovereignty, Gov. Tony
Knowles signed an administrative order Sept. 29 acknowledging Alaska's
227 federally-recognized tribes.
The order is meant to strengthen
the relationship between the state and
tribes and reaffirm what has already
been recognized by the federal government, Knowles said.
"Our state will be poorer if we suppress diverse traditions and cultures,"
he said. "It is time to move on as
friends."
Knowles said his order superceded
a 1991 order by former Gov. Walter
Hickel that said the state was opposed
to the existence of tribes in Alaska.
Hickel's order had reversed a 1990
order by former Gov. Steve Cowper
acknowledging tribes in Alaska.
Congress in 1994 recognized
Alaska's tribes, the federal courts recognized them a year later, and last fall
the Alaska Supreme Court reversed
its long-standing opposition, Knowles
said.
Several Native leaders at the sign
ing said they hoped the order would
give Natives more control of village
affairs.
"The order recognizes an age-old
reality "that the tribal government has
always provided government structure," said Mike Williams, chairman
of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council.
The order will help build cooperation between the state and tribal governments concerning issues such as
economic development and the decline of subsistence fisheries, as well
as health care, alcohol control and law
enforcement, Williams said
Martha Aiken, an Inupiat from Barrow, said she hoped the order would
result in village-based alternatives to
sending troubled youth to prison or removing children from their villages in
child custody cases.
"Help us keep our way of life, our
traditional way of life," she asked the
crowd gathered for the signing and
celebration that featured Native dancing and singing.
The order has no legal weight, Attorney General Bruce Botelho said.
"It does not legally change any-
ALASKA to pg. 6