Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2001-08-10

              INDEX
News Around Indian Country 2
Commentary/Editorials/Voices 4
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events 5
Classifieds 6-7
Indigenous rights:
an argument for
independence as a
necessity for
development
pg4
Benjamin testifies
before Senate
Committe on Indian
Affairs
pg4
"Sunshine laws" at
Minnesota's Indian
casinos?
pgi
Commentary
Conduct
unbecoming
pg4
Jawnie Hough:
Mother challenges state
enforcement of tribal
court order
pg 1
Mother
challenges state
enforcement of
tribal court order
Order l$d to
seizure of child,
kidnapping charges
By JeffArmstrong
Leech Lake mother of two
Jawnie Hough, whose 4-year-old
child was seized by state police
enforcing a Red Lake court order
last March, appeared in Beltrami
County Court Tuesday to petition
Judge Terrance Holter to rescind
his prior decision recognizing the
tribal court order.
Representing Hough,
Anishinaabe attorney Frank
Bibeau said legal misconduct and
blatant disregard for the parental
rights ofhis client in the case put
resen'ation courts into disrepute
and complicated efforts to negotiate a procedure for mutual recognition oftribal and state court orders.
"This case, the way it's turned
out, is one ofthe cases they'll
look at to see it never happens
again," said Bibeau. "It's a form
of abduction that's occurred."
Divorced in 1999 from an abusive relationship with Donald
Brun, Jr., Jawnie Hough lost custody of her daughter Meghan
Brun when her former in-laws
failed to return the girl from a
visit to their Red Lake home in
March of last year, instead suing
for custody in tribal court. Hough
maintains that she was never notified ofthe May 9,2000 Red Lake
hearing or informed ofthe outcome. Tribal judge Dan
Chamoski awarded custody to
Geraldine and Donald Brun, Sr.
and the child's father on May 22,
based on testimony that Hough
"was aware ofthe hearing and
had also called [Brun] and wished
HOUGH topg. 3
"Sunshine laws"
at Minnesota's
Indian casinos?
Public comments on DPS application to
reclassify State-held casino audits as "private data
by Clara NiiSka
The Minnesota Department of
Administration invited public
comment on its pending ruling on
the Department of Public Safety's
(DPS) June 27 request to classify
tribal gambling enterprise audits
as nonpublic information. The
thirty-day period lor public comment closed on August 3, and
Press/ONhas obtained copies of
the public comments. The Commissioner of Administration has
fifteen days from the close of
public comment on August 3, until he must issue his Opinion.
Bill Lawrence's letter to Administration Commissioner
David Fisher was published in
Praw/CWonAugust3. Additional comments were filed by attorneys Mark Anfinson on behalf
ofthe Minneapolis Star Tribune;
Julie Ann Fishel on behalf of the
Prairie Island Indian Community;
Joseph Plummer, tribal attorney
for the Leech Lake Band of
Ojibwe; and Greg S. Paulson on
behalf of the Grand Portage Band
of Chippewa and the Shakopee
Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota)
Community.
The Star Tribune's objections
to proposed classification of casino audits, submitted in a two-
page letter dated July 2, were
concise and to the point. As
Anfinson, the Star Tribune's attorney put it, the DPS's "request
lacks any credible foundation. In
effect, it does little more than reargue the position that [Commissioner Fisher] recently rejected
when you issued Advisory Opinion #01 -051, dealing with the audit of Red Lake's gaming enterprise."
"The letter submitted to
[Fisher] by Commissioner
Weaver in support ofthe classification request contains virtually
nothing that was not already addressed" in the Department of
Administration's Advisory Opinion, continued Anfinson., He discussed each ofthe issues, countering the claims made by
Weaver.
Anfinson wrote that although
Minnesota Statute §13.06 "gives
the Commissioner of Administration up to 45 days to rule on a
temporary classification request,"
on behalf of the Star Tribune he
urged Commissioner Fisher to
"decide much sooner than that."
Anfinson explained that an "important component ofthe Data
Practices Act's guarantee of public access is that access be reasonably prompt. If agencies subject to the Act can delay access
for up to several additional weeks
after receiving an adverse advisory opinion simply by submitting a temporary data classification request, the guarantee in
many instances will ring hollow."
Timely access to public information is important in the newspaper business: if state agencies can
delay tlieir compliance with the
law by filing specious classification requests, they can cast a dark
LAWS topg. 5
1993 Report on Indian Gaming Compacts
reveals genesis of present problems
By Jean Pagano
September of 1993 saw a report to former Governor Arne
Carlson on Indian gaming compacts fvm the Tribal-State Compact Negotiating Committee.
Members ofthe Committee included Harry Baltzer, Senator
Charles Berg, Senator Patrick
McGowan, Representative Gil
Gufknecht, and George Anderson. The following article is a review of that document. -JP
Minnesota became one ofthe
first states in the nation to enter
into compacts with the various
tribes for gaming in 1989. At that
time, and still to this date, 11
Minnesota tribes operate 17 casinos throughout the state. Gambling consists of blackjack and
video games of chance.
Indian gaming has had a major
impact on the state's economy,
tourism, and tribal welfare. While
many people believe that the
state ofMinnesota regulates Indian gambling, it in fact does not.
The slate's role is limited to a
monitoring function. Each tribal
government is ultimately responsible for its own gambling operations.
Many direct and indirect costs
are incurred by the State ofMinnesota relative to gambling on
reservations. Some of these costs
are quite significant. The Department of Public Safety, Gambling
Enforcement Division (Gambling
Enforcement) is responsible for
background checks and criminal
investigations for lawful gambling, lottery, horse racing, and
Indian gambling. Approximately
14,000 background checks are
performed each year to support
the Indian gambling enterprise.
There is no mechanism in place
for the reimbursement to the
Gambling Enforcement group for
the funds expended in doing
background checks. For the sake
of comparison, the state of Washington collects a S150 certification fee for each background
search for each employee. If the
costs exceed this amount, the applicant is assessed the fee during
the investigation process. No such
mechanism exists in Minnesota.
If, for example, the state ofMinnesota collected a similar fee, the
state would accumulate
$2,100,000 to cover its costs.
The Committee recommended
that dedicated funding for Indian
gambling be set up by the legislature without having to reduce the
current funding for Gambling Enforcement.
The Attorney Generals office
uses its existing staff to provide
legal counsel for the Compact
Committee and other state agencies involved with Indian gambling. Similar to the situation with
Gambling Enforcement, the Committee also recommended that the
legislature provide relief for the
Attorney General's office.
Many other units of government are affected by gambling on
Indian lands. The institution of
gambling places certain burdens
on the infrastructure ofthe state
ofMinnesota, from roads to utili-
REPORT to pg. 5
Indigenous activists prepare for
South Africa racism summit
By JeffArmstrong
August 9 marked the little known
and less heralded International Day
ofthe World's Indigenous People,
proclaimed by the United Nations
to be celebrated each year ofthe
UN's 1995-2004 indigenous decade. On July 28,2000, aboriginal
organizations for the first time succeeded in establishing a UN Permanent Forum with equal indigenous representation to address
grievances agaiast nation states on
a broad range of issues including
economics, education and the environment, as well as human rights.
Indigenous movement activists
are currently gearing up to expand
recognition of their international
status and self-detennination rights
at the upcoming World Conference
Against Racism in Durban, South
Africa at the end of this month. Indigenous Environmental Network
(IEN) director Tom Goldtooth says
any serious attempt to address racism must begin with its roots in
colonization.
"There is a strong correlation between racism and colonization,"
said Goldtooth. "Globalization is
the new fonn of colonization."
According to Goldtooth, the continued oppression and invisibility of
aboriginal peoples on the world
stage is a legacy of colonialism perpetuated by racism. Goldtooth said
former British colonies such as the
U.S. and Canada have been instrumental in blocking international
acknowledgement of indigenous
groups as peoples, instead semanti-
cally dehumanizing them with the
generic terms "people" or "populations."
"That's' really means so much
for our self-detennination rights,"
said Goldtooth.
Goldtooth said the IEN will be
focusing at the Durban summit on
the inclusion of strong language
against environmental racism. He
pointed to the absence in the U.S.
debate over oil drilling in the
Alaska National Wildlife refuge of
any discussion of tlie indigenous
Gwiichin residents, whose cultural
and physical survival would be seriously threatened by such a development.
"We've been trying to push this
issue in Alaska as a human rights issue," Goldtooth said. "But we're
dealing with Americans who don't
want to look at indigenous peoples
as human beings. They're more
concerned with the caribou and
wildlife—at least that's the white
enviro spin."
The IEN director admitted that
the international indigenous movement is distant from its grassroots
SUMMIT to pg. 3
Indian
leaders want
legislator to
quit council
By Debra O'Connor
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Leaders of six Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota called for the
resignation ofa legislator newly
appointed to the Minnesota Indian
Affairs Council this week because
they consider Rep. Sandra
Erickson "anti-Indian," Gary
Frazer, executive director of tlie
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, said
Friday.
The Tribal Executive Committee
ofthe Minnesota Chippewa Tribe,
consisting ofthe chairpersons and
secretary/treasurers of each reservation, passed a resolution 11-0
Wednesday asking the Princeton
Republican to quit her post, Frazer
said.
There was little conversation
about the move because there was
little disagreement among the
members, Frazer said. The resolution was to be presented at
Friday's meeting ofthe Indian Affairs Council at the Lower Sioux
Community Center, which
COUNCIL to pg. 3
Voice
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Founded in 1988
Volume 13 Issue 37
August 10, 2001
Wally "Wagoosh" Storbakken recently completed his Master's Degree in Public Policy at the
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. This week on page 4,
Press/ON begins the first of a four-part series excerpted from his Master's thesis.
Wallace W. Storbakken is a 46
year old mixed-blood Ojibwe
Anishinabe. He served in the U.S.
Army, in 1972-73, in Frankfurt
Gennany as a pediatric medical
corpsman. In 1991, he completed a
B.A. degree majoring in Political
Science.
Wally has taken the name
Wagosh, which was given to him
by his classmates in Ojibwe language classes during his undergraduate years. Wagosh was married to Debra Harteneck, in 1992,
in the first traditional Ojibwe marriage ceremony to take place on tlie
Leech Lake Reservation in over 50
years. Tlie ceremony was conducted by the late Larry Cloud-
Morgan.
Wagosh has completed his
Master's Degree in Public Policy at
the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute
of Public Aflairs, in 2001. His
Great-grandfather was Thomas
Shingobe, who is buried on a private site in Onamia, Minnesota. His
grandmother was Rose Barstow,
who is buried at Mille Lacs.
Wagosh's best memory is of his
first year at the University ofMinnesota. His scholarship monies had
not come in and he was sleeping on
his uncle's couch. He remembers
tliat while walking to school down
Franklin Avenue, the Indian people
that would ask him if he had
enough money for cigarettes or
bus-fare. They were offering
money that they had panhandled to
support their personal vices. They
are the ones that made it possible
for him to complete his education
and he will always remember them.
Wagosh is enrolled on the Leech
Lake Reservation, which is one of
the six reservations composing the
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
Income tax on
Indians living
off-reservation
upheld
AssociatedPress
ST. PAUL -American Indians
who live olftribal lands are subject
to Minnesota income taxes, the state
Supreme Court decided Thursday in
upholding a lower court's ruling.
Edward and Tina J efferson sought
shelter from paying taxes on income
from Prairie Island Indian
Community's casino. They are
members of tlie tribe, but don't live
on the reservation, which is near Red
Wing. Among other things, the
Jeffersons contended that their equal
protection rights were infringed
upon when the state demanded tax
payments, interest and penalties
from 1991 to 1998. They said it created two classes of Indians, those
who reside on tlie reservation and
those who don't. Tlie Supreme
Court, agreeing with a mling by the
Minnesota Tax Court, rejected that
and all other arguments.
"By taxing Indians who live outside Indian country, the state is not
singling them out based on race, but
is treating them like every other individual within its taxing jurisdiction,"
Justice Alan Page wrote for a unanimous court.
Tracks say no harm meant
to casinos
By Tom Zoellner
The Arizona Republic
TUCSON - The state's racetracks
are now saying they never meant
to hurt Indian casinos, even
though they successfully convinced a federal judge to all but
nullify the legal foundations of
the Indian gaming industry last
month.
The shift in message reflects the
tricky public relations pirouette
the tracks have had to execute
since they won their lawsuit:
avoiding being perceived as anti-
Indian while still claiming victory
against an economic competitor.
"Nothing we have done, including the most recent federal
court decision, threatens the state
oflndian casinos in Arizona,"
Jim Roush, the head ofthe track-
funded Coalition for Fairness in
Gaming, said last month. "We
have not asked that it go away."
In a July 3 ruling, U.S. District
Court Judge Robert Broomfield
granted most ofthe demands
sought by three Arizona dog and
TRACKS topg. 5
Mille Lacs band has
new DNR commissioner
Associated Press
ST. PAUL - Having been on
the job only a month, the Mille
Lacs band's new Department of
Natural Resources commissioner
already faces a flurry of difficult
decisions about one ofthe state's
most treasured fisheries.
Curt Kalk, 38, has been with
the agency only a year, during
which he worked on licensing
and other issues with the
department's other 20 to 25 employees. Before that, he was a
postal worker in the Brainerd
area for 13 years.
Part ofhis new job will be
helping his band and seven other
Chippewa bands develop their
fish harvest plan for the next
five years. The plan is due in
DNR to pg. 6