Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2001-06-29

              INDEX
News Around Indian Country 2
Commentary/Editorials/vbices 4
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events 5
Classifieds 7
Supreme Court decision
severely limits exercise
of sovereign power
within territorial
boundaries
pg4
NiiSka appeals to MN
Supreme Court in spirit
of deceased husband
pgi
Lawrence files
"Motion to
dismiss for lack
of jurisdiction"
in Mille Lacs
tribal court
by Clara NiiSka
On October 22,1997, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe held a public
meeting in a hotel meeting room at
the Grand Casino complex in Mille
Lacs. Press/ON reporter Jeff
Armstrong was assigned to cover
the meeting, but he was arrested
shortly before it was scheduled to
begin. He was escorted out ofthe
meeting room by tribal police officer Marc Garbinger, who publicly
frisked and handcuffed Armstrong
in tlie hotel lobby, then drove him
to the Mille Lacs County Sheriff's
Department thirty-four miles away
in Milaca, Minnesota. Armstrong
was detained in the Mille Lacs
County Jail until the meeting was
over, then he was released from
custody and charged with criminal
trespass under Minnesota Statutes.
The trespass charges against
Armstrong were dismissed six
months later by an Order ofthe
Mille Lacs County District Court.
JeffArmstrong and Press/ON
publisher Bill Lawrence then instituted a civil suit in Federal Court,
for false arrest, lalse imprisonment,
defamation, and deprivation of
rights secured by the First, Fourth,
Eighth, and Fourteen amendments
to the Constitution ofthe United
States.
On August 2,2000, the U.S.
Magistrate Judge hearing the case,
Raymond L. Erickson, ordered federal court proceedings stayed until
the Mille Lacs tribal court was
given an opportunity to determine
whether or not it had jurisdiction
over the dispute. Armstrong and
Lawrence, representing themselves
("pro se"), are both arguing that the
Mille Lacs tribal court does not
have jurisdiction over the case.
Bifl Lawrence's "Motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction" and
"Memorandum" in support ofhis
motion are reproduced in this
week's issue oiPr-ess/ON, beginning on page 6. JeffArmstrong
filed a separate Motion to Dismiss
with the Mille Lacs tribal court on
May 24. Oral arguments on the
Motions to Dismiss are scheduled
for August 23,2001, at 9:00 a.m., at
the Mille Lacs tribal court, located
at the Mille Lacs Tribal Headquarters on the Mille Lacs reservation.
Dept. of Public Safety caves in
to tribal gambling interests
COMMISSIONER CHARUE WEAVER APPUES FOR TEMPORARY CLASSIFICATION
OF GAMBLING AUDITS AS"PRIVATE"0N JUNE 27,2001
by Clara NiiSka
Charlie Weaver, Commissioner
of Public Safety (DPS), filed a
"temporary classification request"
with Minnesota Department of Administration on Wednesday, June
27, requesting that audits of tribal
gambling enterprises be classified
as "private data" Weaver had previously argued that the Red Lake
gambling audits should be classified as "nonpublic." The sole Red
Lake gambling audit held by the
DPS—for 1997—was obtained by
Press/ON under the Data Practices
Act after a ruling by the Commissioner of Administration. Press/ON
published excerpts from that audit
on June 15.
Tlie June 27 ruling was hand-delivered to Press/ON by Frank Ball,
Director ofthe Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division ofthe
(AGED) ofthe DPS. Ball read
from a prepared statement: "Today,
June 27,2001, the Department of
Public Safety has submitted an application to the Commissioner of
Administration to temporarily classify tribal gaming audit data under
MNStat. 1306. The effect of submitting this classification protects
the audits as they would be classified if the application is successfiil,
as protected non-public data ..."
Weaver's temporary classification request is based on Minnesota
Indian tribal governments having
"unanimously" opposed the release
ofthe gambling audits. In his request, Weaver argues that "release
ofthe [gambling audit] data to the
public would have a detrimental effect on each tribe's willingness to
provide audit information under the
tribal-state compacts to Public
Safety."
The compacts, signed by the
tribal government as well as the
state, require the Indian tribal governments to provide the annual audits whenever the State requests
them in writing. For example, the
Red Lake Tribal-State Compact
control ling video slot machines
reads, §6.11, "The Band shall...
make copies ofthe audit and all
current internal accounting and audit procedures available to the State
upon written request. The Band
shall permit the State to consult
with tlie auditors..." Tribes with
gambling operations are required to
WEAVER to pg. 7
Minnesota hate crime reports
reveal some surprises
By JeffArmstrong
According to the Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension's annual
state crime report, white Minnesotans constitute the only racial group
with more offenders than victims of
bias-related offenses, while Native
and African Americans are over-
represented among both groups.
State Hate Crimes statutes provide
for enhanced criminal penalties for
crimes which the victim or the arresting officer allege were motivated by racial or other bias.
Natives in Minnesota were nearly
twice as likely to be targets as perpetrators of discriminatory abuses,
accounting for 50 victims and 27
offenders between 1995-1999.
Over tliat five-year period. Natives
made up 3.4% of reported hate
crime victims and 2.5% of suspects,
in contrast to their estimated statewide population of 1.3%. In 1998
and 1999, the difference was more
pronounced, with Native victims
outnumbering offenders by a 3-1
margin. In 1996, there were slightly
more reported Native American of
fenders than victims of hate crimes
in the state.
A wider discrepancy was found
among African Americans, estimated at3.1%of Minnesota's
populace in 1995 but accounting
for 37% of reported victims and
19.6% of bias offenders in 1999.
Whites made up a slight majority
(54%) of alleged hate crime victims
in 1999 and nearly three-fourths
(77%) of reported perpetrators.
A sizable majority of those
charged with crimes of bias in 1998
and 1999 were less than 20 years of
age, including nearly 2% aged 10
or less.
Tlie plurality of reported hate
crimes involved verbal abuse and
graffiti, but there were six reported
arsons, 8 cross burnings, 46 aggravated assaults and 20 placements of
swastika emblems in the state from
1997-99.
More than a quarter of bias related crimes occurred in Minneapolis, by far the largest total of any
REPORTS to pg. 5
NiiSka appeals to MN Supreme Court in spirit
of deceased husband
By JeffArmstrong
Press/ON reporter Clara NiiSka
has filed a petition to the Minnesota Supreme Court to review
lower court holdings tliat her marriage to deceased writer Wub-e-
ke-niew (a.k.a. Francis Blake) was
invalid under state and tribal laws
she says do not apply.
Although the two were wed in a
traditional ceremony on the Red
Lake reservation in 1984, district
judge Paul Benshoof ruled that the
marriage failed to comply with a
subsequent 1990 reservation code
or a seemingly expired 1947 resolution ofthe reservation General
Council—a body which ceased to
exist upon adoption ofthe 1958
Indian Reorganization Act constitution.
On appeal, a three-judge panel
concluded that Minnesota statute
517.01 stipulates that '"lawful
marriage may be contracted***
only when a license has been obtained' and abolishes common law
marriages. This court cannot override the legislature in this context,"
the Court of Appeals wrote.
NiiSka argues that Red Lake is
Wub-e-ke-niew (1928 -1997)
beyond the civil jurisdiction ofthe
state ofMinnesota, whose courts
had no constitutional authority to
apply on a retroactive basis a 1990
tribal ordinance or the resolution
ofa defunct council.
"Legal questions ofjurisdiction
involving Red Lake are sufficiently confusing that, for example, the Court of Appeals mled
that petitioner Clara NiiSka's and
the deceased Wub-e-ke-niew's
1984 Ahnishinahbeojibway Mide
marriage there was
w 'not valid' under
> three separate and
f mutually exclusive
w sets of laws—none
S of which
» apply... Without chili ing any grounds for
| £ doing so, and in dis-
zj regard of Federal
I "5 law, an extensive
'■* I" body of case law,
15 the evidence and arcs 8 guments before the
So Court,andimpor-
°- °- tant documentation:
the Court of Appeals responded by
asserting Minnesota Civil Jurisdiction within the external boundaries
ofthe Red Lake reservation and
adjudicating the marriage 'as if
Minnesota jurisdiction pertained,"
wrote NiiSka in her petition to the
supreme court.
The state court decisions were
apparently predicated in part on a
Red Lake Indian Probate Court
ruling which refused to recognize
COURTS to pg. 5
COPS: Community Oriented
Policing Services at Red Lake
By Jean Pagano
The Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, is.a program administered by the United
States Department of Justice. One
ofthe programs offered through
COPS is the Universal Hiring Program. This particular program provides grants of up to 75% ofthe
salary and benefits of each officer
over a three-year period. The Federal share of monies decreases on a
year-by-year basis unless a waiver
of matching local funds is granted.
Grant recipients must provide the
Department of Justice with a written plan to retain the positions created by the COPS grants once the
federal funding period has ended.
On 2 February 1999, the Red
Lake Band of Chippewa Indians requested an additional three officers
under the COPS program. At tlie
time ofthe application, Red Lake
had a sworn force, according to
their application (obtained by
Press/ON under foe Freedom Of
Information Act) of 19 officers. The
Band's goal was to add the three
positions by the ls1 of August of
1999. The Band additionally sought
to waive the local match requirement, which is based upon severe
financial hardship.
The three officers requested by
Red Lake would each have a base
salary of $20,000, with modest annual increases allowed for each of
the subsequent two years. Addition-
COPS to pg. 3
Court rules
Miami Nation
is no longer a
tribe
By Tom Coyne
AssociatedPress
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana is
not a tribe and the federal government does not have to recognize it,
a federal appeals court has ruled.
"Probably by 1940 and certainly
by 1992, the Miami Nation had
ceased to be a tribe in any reasonable sense," a three-judge panel of
the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals said
in a ruling issued June 15.
MIAMI to pg. 3
Lawrence files "Motion
to dismiss for lack of
jurisdiction" in Mille
Lacs Tribal Court
PEH
Commentary
City Pages, DPS
and Mille Lacs
tribal court
pg4
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A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2001
Founded in 1988
Volume 13 Issue 32
June 29,2001
Kemimila Homer, author of "Life's Little Details"
Kemimila Homer, a member
ofthe urban Indian community
and originally from Yankton,
South Dakota was recently
nominated by the International
Society of Poets for their 2001
World Champion Amateur Poet
prize, to be awarded on August
17,2001 during the Society's
convention in Washington, D.C.
Her prizewinning poem is re
printed in this edition, on page 5.
She was surprised by the award,
and says that "out ofall the years
that I have been writing, I never
thought that I would get this much
from one poem."
When asked about her accomplishment, Ms. Homer told Press/
ON, "For a lot of young Native
Americans today, 1 would have to
say - no matter ifyou are good at
something, ifyou dowhatyoii feel
you are good at follow your
dreams, it will come true."
Ms. Homer also credits her
mother, Gertnide Godoy. "My
mom has been there for me.  ...
It's hard being a teenager, there are
a lot of things going on, and my
mom has helped me out a lot."
States may enter reservations to investigate,
prosecute off-reservation violations
By Brendan Riley
AssociatedPress
CARSON CITY, Nev. - States
can regulate activities of American
Indians on tribal land when state interests outside the reservation are
involved, the U.S. Supreme Court
held Monday.
Overtuniing a 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals ruling, the high court favored foe state of Nevada in a dispute over its claim of immunity
from being sued in the Fallon
Paiute-Shoshone Tribal Court.
"Our cases make clear that the
Indians' right to make their own
laws and be governed by them does
not exclude all state regulatory authority on the reservation," Justice
Antonin Scalia wrote.
While states can't exert the same
regulatory authority within a reservation as diey do on the outside,
"State authority does not end at a
reservation's border," Scalia said.
"Nothing in the federal statutory
scheme prescribes, or even remotely suggests, that state officers
cannot enter a reservation to investigate or prosecute violations of
state law occurring off tlie reservation."
The case stems from Fallon tribal
member Floyd Hicks' suit against
three Nevada game wardens and
the head ofthe state Department of
Wildlife for allegedly violating his
civil rights when executing two
separate search warrants on his
property.
The game wardens argued they
were immune from being sued in
tribal court over seizure of bighorn
sheep head trophies from Hicks'
home, on a tribal reservation near
Reno in western Nevada.
hi August 1990, a Nevada game
warden got a warrant from state and
tribal courts to search Hicks' property for evidence ofthe killing of
California bighorn sheep. Killing
the sheep is a misdemeanor under
state law.
A tribal judge limited the search
to "exterior premises and any vehicles." The game warden and a
tribal police officer took a mounted
RULING topg. 5
METIS GRAVEYARD:
PATIENT THE SPIRITS
By Jean Pagano
In 1893, the State Legislature
ofNorth Dakota passed an appropriation of S500 "to purchase and
maintain the site". While the appropriation
was a
fine gesture by
the then
State
Legislature, the
$500 was
never set
aside to
buy the
land. The
There has been much discussion overtime as to the disposition
ofthe land. The Moris family, current owners and fanners ofthe land,
maintain that all ofthe bodies have
been moved. They also do not want
passage
of time
has finally yielded some movement in a   to talk about it without legal coun
Graveyard outline superimposed over plowed field.
positive direction. The North Dakota State Senate, in keeping with
the intent ofthe 1893 State Legislature, has unanimously passed a bill
to provide $15,000 to reimburse
Pembina County for the upkeep of
the Metis Cemetary. The bill will
now be considered in the North Dakota House.
sel. The accompanying photograph
to this article shows the relative position of tlie graveyard superimposed upon the cemetary's current
status as a ploughed field. Beneath
this hallowed and disced earth the
spirits wait.
METIS to pg. 3
Brokaw
speaks at
graduation
ceremony
AssociatedPress
KYLE, S.D. -American Indian
members ofthe "greatest generation" did their
part to preserve
freedom, NBC
Nightly News
anchor Tom
Brokaw said
Sunday during
graduation ceremonies at
Oglala lakota
College.
Brokaw, a South Dakota native,
also toured the college and met
with many South Dakota and tribal
leaders attending the graduation.
"I'm here today to salute you," he
told the 140 graduates, then shifting
his attention to tlieir ancestors.
Brokaw's best-selling book, "The
Greatest Generation," chronicled
Americans who grew up during the
Depression and fought in World
War II.
BROKAW to pg. 3
Tom Brokaw