The Native American Press (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1992-03-06

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White Earth's new gaming casino operating in violation of federal law
By Susan Stanich
The White Earth Reservation's
new round-the-clock gambling
casino is being managed by a
compnay that doesn't have a
federally approved contract, in
violation of federal law.
The controversial Shooting
Star Casino in Mahnomen
County is managed by Gaming
World International, an Elmwood
city, Pensylvania-based
company.
Under the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act, if tribes don't
manage their own casinos, they
must have federal approval of
management contracts.
A contract between Gaming
World and White Earth chairman
Darrell "Chip" Wadena has no
such federal approval, officials
said, but Gaming World does
operate the Shooting Star Casino
in northwestern Minnesota. The
24-hour casino offers blackjack,
keno, slot machines, alcohol and
food.
In January, a federal judge in
Wisconsin ordered a management
company to vacate the
Winnebago tribal casino after
finding that the company has no
federally approved management
contract.
Shooting Star, which is still
under construction, is the subject
of continuing protests because
both its financing and its
management arrangements were
done by Wadena behind closed
doors and with no bidding
process.
Wadena has refused to release
information about where he got
the money to build the $10
milllion enterprise, and hasn't
explained why he accepted a
contract with an eastern
company, rather than one with an
established Minnesota company
that offered a better payback to
the tribe.
Gaming World is owned by
two Easterners who claim to
have experience in casino
management. Records show that
President Angelo Medure of
Pennsylvania has worked only in
his asphalt-highway construction
business, contrary to claims by
Vice President Robert Colaluca
of New Jersey, the Nevada
Control Board said Colaluca
never has worked in a
gambling capacity at Las
Vegas casinos.
Last week, Wadena went to
Washington in the hopes that
the central Bureau of Indian
Affairs office would OK the
contract, bureau officials said.
But the contract is still in the
hands of Earl Barlow, the'
bureau's Minneapolis  area
director, and he hasn't approved
it, Department of Interior Field
Solicitor Marina Shulstad said
Tuesday.
The Gaming World contract
requires Gaming World to invest
nothing in building the casino, but
the company will get 40 percent
of the profits. Except in special
circumstances, federal law
requires that casino managers not
get more than 30 percent of tribal
casino profits.
[Reprinted with permission
from the Duluth News-Tribune,
March 4, 1992.]
By and for the Native American Community
The
free
native
American
Press
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Copyright, The native American Press, 1992
^tt!":*   . ■- '
Volume 1 Issue 13
March 6, 1992
Heart of the Earth Survival School Celebrates 20th Anniversary
Student art works lining a hallway
is evidence that students at the Heart
of The Earth Survival School
(HOTESS) have given serious
thought to the controversial Indian
mascots issue. The second graders
have come up with several
alternative names for the NFL's
Washington Redskins. One student
suggests the Redskins call
themselves the "Redhawks" while
another thinks the Washington
"Redroses" would be a good name.
The students' artwork illustrates
one form of racism that Native
Americans' confront daily in the
larger society and points to the
reasons why alternative schools such
as HOTESS and The Red School
House in St. Paul were organized in
the 70's, and why, in 1992, the
school remains a vital educational
resource and cultural survival tool
for native students.
The school celebrates its 20th
anniversary this year. Special
recognition will be giyen to both
HOTESS and the Red School House
at the 7th Annual Contest Pow-wow
to be held March 27-29 at the
Minneapolis Convention Center.
The event is co-sponsored by the
American Indian OIC.
When the school was started in
1972 by the American
IndianMovement, thirty-five
students enrolled.For years the
school did not have a permanent
site. Students were taught i
storefron buildings, basements, am
condemned buildings. Today the
school is located at 4th St. SE, in the
Dinkytown area.In recent years the
student enrollment has increased to
an average of 225 students, with an
almost 100 percent native student
body. All of the basic subjects are
atught at the school, and all but one
of the teaching staff is state certified.
HOTESS is accredited through the
North Central Association of
Colleges and Schools.
Twenty years ago local .Indian
leaders and parents believed the
public school system was not
meeting the educational needs of
Indian youth. "We heard the
repeated complaints about teacher
insensitivity, peer-group hostility,
irrelevant curriculum,..." wrote the
school's founders. The school
dropout rate for native students at
that time was at approximately 40
percent.
"The school is more stable now ...
when it started it was for the
dropouts... the kids that couldn't
make it through the Minneapolis
School systems. Nowthe students
are regular students that want to
keep some of their culture, they
want to hear about Indians from
Indians," said one HOTESS staffer.
"I know a lot of our students here
are staying in school, I stick by
them...help them as much as I can,"
said Johnny Smith, a cultural teacher
and member of the Red Lake Band..
Smithis well known for his singing
and drum club expertise, "I teach
them about their background, their
songs, their dances. This belongs to
them... this is what no one can take
from them."
In addition to Drum Club, students
are taught the Ojibwe language and
the traditional ways of harvesting
wild rice and making maple suger as
part of the cultural curriculum.
Smith and others agree that
students attending HOTESS must
also learn to cope with the larger
society.
"I think what they are learning
from us will help them mature. Not
only do I teach them the Indian
ways, but I teach them about how
hard it is going to be out there in
society, it's important that they are
prepared...."
In fact, in some ways, Heart of the
Earth may be ahead of its public
school counterpart. The average
class size is between 15 and 20
students. In some subject areas there
are two instructors per class.
"That way in tough subjects like
math, I can give more time to
students on an individual basis," said
math teacher Tim Tedautz.
He stated that the average student
that comes from the public school
system is years behind(in math)
from where they should be, but that
by the time his students graduate
they are within a year of the desired
skill level.
Extracurricular activities at
HOTESS include basketball, cross
country track, and volleyball. The
boys basketball team competes at
the state level.
But Heart of the Earth and the Red
Schoolhouse have not been without
their critics; especially opponents of
segregation. Nor have these schools
been without financial problems.
Although HOTESS has been state
and federally funded since 1974
severe funding cuts during the
Reagan Administration forced
HOTESS to close its doors to grades
k-6 for one year.. Today the school
is funded through foundations, state
aisi, federal agencies, and
fundraising events, like the annual
contest pow-wow.
"I think I see changes coming ... I
think we're going to have more
Indian teachers, we need more
Indian teachers," said Johnny Smith.
Currently, about half the teachers at
Heart of the Earth are Native
American.
Vema and Roxanne are taking a smile break. The were dancers
at last year's celebration. HOTESS promotes cultural awareness
among all people by providing a three day gathering for all tribes
in the Twin Cities communities.
Pictures from left to right: Bear Roberts in traditional form at the 1991 Celebration; the Heart of the Earth Survival School in Minneapolis; shawl dancer from lasLyear's Pow wow
By Robert Whereatt
^ Minneapolis, Minn. (AP) -
Casinos have become one of the
top 20 business employers in
Minnesota, with six of the largest
having a larger combined work
force than Burlington Northern
Railroad, United Parcel Service or
Sears Roebuck and Co. have in the
state.
That is the primary conclusion of
a study of economic effects of
casinos that was released
Wednesday by the Minnesota
Indian Gaming Association. It was
commissioned by the association
and conducted by KPMG Peat
Marwick, an international
accounting firm that has offices in
Minneapolis.
The upbeat report generally
confirms a nearly completed state
study that says casino gambling is
gambling hits big casino with state jobs
putting people to work and
redistributing wealth to rural
Minnesota, benefitting local
economies.
Six of the 11 Indian bands and
tribes with casino operations
participated in the study. Lump the
six casinos together, and they are
the 20th largest employer in
Minnesota, with 4,730 employees.
The report was released as
non-Indian business owners were
complaining to a state Senate
committee that the casinos are
hurting their operations.
"The state of Minnesota
legislated gambling in this state,"
said George McCausland, owner of
the Golden Gate supper club near
Cloquet, to the Senate Gaming
Regulation Committee yesterday.
"They lit the match and the fires
are burning ... I can't compete
with gambling when I don't have
it," he said.
The two arguments - that Indian
gambling is beneficial and that it is
hurting non-Indian business - are
colliding this year in the
Legislature as Indians try to
protect their casino monopoly and
non-Indians try to get a piece of
the gambling action.
Yesterday the Minnesota
Licensed Beverage Association
made a plea for a "level playing
field," the authorization of video
gambling machines in bars.
"They (casinos) don't pay taxes
on the gambling proceeds, net or
gross," said John Berglund, the
association's executive director.
"It's taking our customers away
and its negatively affecting
Minnesota."
But the "level playing field"
argument comes a little late,
according to  Myron  Ellis,
chairman of the Minnesota Indian
Gaming Association.
"Indian reservations suffered for
200 years," he said at one of the
news conferences held around the
state to release the Peat Marwick
study. "We never had a level playing
field."
The study, which cost $66,000,
emphasizes that casino benefits are
spilling beyond the boundaries of
the reservations, asserting that:
• Eighty percent of the casino jobs
are held by non-Indians.
• About 5,900 non-casino jobs have
been created because of the casinos.
•'Out-of-state visitors who traveled
to casinos spent about $26 million
on travel-related goods and services
last year.
• Payments under Aid to Families
with Dependent Children in four
nonurban counties that have Indian
casinos decreased by 16 percent
between 1987 and 1991, while
state-wide numbers increased by 15
percent.
• Tribal gaming operations paid
nearly $32 million in salaries,
wages, payroll taxes and benefits to
employees in 1991.
Steve Laible, a partner in the
accounting firm, said the 5,900
indirect jobs have been created
through employee and vendor
spending, visitor spending and
construction.
He estimated that the casinos
grossed $700 million last year. They
netted $143 million after payouts but
hadexpendituresof $89 million,the.
report said.
The $54 million remaining was
used to fund tribal government, to
make per capita payments to tribe
members, to promote economic
development and to help fund local
agency operations, the report said.
The tribal governments
participating in the study were Bois
Forte Chippewa, Lake Vermillion
(Fortune Bay Casino); Leech Lake
Chippewa, Walker (Northern Lights
and Palace Bingo); Lower Sioux ,
Morton (Jackpot Junction); Mille
Lacs Chippewa, near Garrison
(Grand Casino Mille Lacs); Prairie
Island Sioux, near Red Wing
(Treasure Island); and Shakopee
Sioux, Prior Lake (Little 6 Casino).
There is little chance the
Legislature will authorize video
gambling machines outside of
reservations this year. Key
legislators oppose any expansion of
gambling, as does Gov. Arne
Carlson.
But the issue of "level playing
fields" and competition seems likely
to persist as long as casino gambling
enjoys such popularity with the
public.
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