By Jeff Armstrong - April 18, 2003
Exploiting the 1883 Supreme Court finding in Ex Parte Crow Dog that
the U.S. government lacked legal authority to prosecute murder charges
against Indians within reservation boundaries, the BIA took just
two more years to fulfill its “decade-long campaign to get
Congress to extend jurisdiction over Indian Country...More
By Patrick Sweeney, St. Paul Pioneer Press - April 18, 2003
A bill to establish a state-operated casino at the Canterbury Park
racetrack — once the longest of long-shots to win passage in
the Minnesota Legislature this year — was approved Tuesday
by a third committee, and the proposal now is headed toward a House
floor vote...More
By Bill Lawrence - April 18, 2003
Despite seeing his bill to establish a state/tribal casino in the
metro area suffer its third defeat within a week, House author Bill
Haas, R-Champlin, told the media during a break in the hearing that,
“he was disappointed in the votes” but will “look
for other opportunities” to revive it in the remaining four
weeks of the legislative session. Two of those votes came on Tuesday
evening in the House Ways and Means Committee 13-7 against the bill
and the House Finance Committees 6-5 to delete it as an amendment
to a finance bill. The third occurred last week in the House Governmental
Operations and Veterans Affairs Committee by a vote of 10-8...More
By Erica Werner - April 11, 2003
PHOENIX (AP) — Indian leaders said Tuesday that tribal sovereignty
is being threatened and tribes must stick together to defend it.
“Make no mistake my friends, we are at war. Our sovereignty
is under attack,” Anthony Pico, chairman of the Viejas Band
of Kumeyaay Indians in San Diego County, told the National Indian
Gaming Association...More
April 11, 2003
Paul DeMain, editor of News From Indian Country, a twice-monthly
newspaper published at the Lac Courtes Oreilles reservation in northwest
Wisconsin, is among the winners of the fourth annual Payne Awards
for Ethics in Journalism.
DeMain was cited "for doggedly pursuing the truth, taking
a courageous stand and acting with integrity in the face of political
pressures" in his coverage of the case of Leonard Peltier,
convicted of killing two FBI agents during the standoff at Wounded
Knee in 1973, and the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, whose body was
found on the Oglala reservation in 1976. DeMain had gathered enough
information to write "Peltier Exposed," which used grand
jury testimony and background information from informants concerning
Peltier's actions at the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970s...More
By Jeff Armstrong - April 11, 2003
Three Leech Lake RBC district representatives met secretly Wednesday
in an attempt to revive a recall petition against secretary treasury
Archie LaRose, scheduling an April 25 public hearing on the charges
in the absence of the two constitutional officers.
The three RBC members acted without approval from—or even
notice to—chairman Pete White, who had dismissed the petition
March 30 under a constitutional requirement that the RBC act within
15 days of LaRose’s March 13 withdrawal of his tribal court
lawsuit...More
April 11, 2003
TAMA, Iowa (AP) — Two banks have frozen accounts of the Meskwaki
Casino at Tama and the casino could be temporarily closed as a result
of a power struggle between two factions claiming to be the Indian
tribe’s leaders.
Tama County Sheriff Dennis Kucera said his deputies have been called
to the settlement twice and asked to stand by and keep the peace...More
By Jeff Armstrong - April 11, 2003
Speaking at Bemidji State University’s annual scholarship conference
Wednesday, BSU student Victor WhiteHorse of Red Lake said non-Native
education has a long way to go if it is to accommodate the alternate
reality of the past and present indigenous experience.
“Apparently, Native Americans don’t belong to history
at all,” said WhiteHorse. “History is written by the winners.
We like to think we were all winners in the end, but if you go up
to the rez, it’s not so clear”...More
By Jodi R. Rave - April 11, 2003
Take a quick look around the newsroom. Do you sit next to a
Black? Asian? Hispanic? Probably not. The American Society of Newspaper
Editors' (ASNE) statistics reveal that many newsrooms employ few,
or no, persons of color at all. Also among the missing: Native journalists...More
By Jeff Armstrong - April 4, 2003
A young Duluth man shot multiple times by city police says he is
recovering well from the incident and expects to be released from
St. Luke's Hospital next week.
"I was shot in the head, shot in the back," said Preston
Freeman, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Freeman says he
had complied with police orders to drop a broken pellet gun in his
possession before officers Ann Seavey, Mike Erickson, Rod Wilson
and Andy Mickus fired upon him, hitting him with six shots...More
By Diane E. White - April 4, 2003
In a stunning blow to the 503 petitioners who requested the removal
of Arthur "Archie" LaRose from his elected post; newly-elected
Chairman Peter White invalidated the removal Petition based upon
a technicality. In accordance with the MCT Constitution, a Reservation
Business Committee (“RBC”) has 15 days to respond to petition
requests. In this case, LaRose stopped the petition process by requesting
and being granted a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”)
from the Tribal Court in December...More
By Clara NiiSka - April 4, 2003
On Tuesday, April 1, a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court
of Appeals ruled that most of the information in Indian casino audits,
which Minnesota state-tribal gambling compacts require the tribes
to provide to the state on request, is public information under
the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA).
The ruling by the appellate court reverses the decision made by
Ramsey County District Court Judge Louise Bjorkman, who on April
23, 2002 issued a summary judgment that the audits are “trade
secret” information and therefore non-public...More
By Bill Lawrence - April 4, 2003
On Tuesday April 1, by a 10-8 vote, the House Governmental Operation
and Veterans Affairs Committee defeated a proposal to allow the
Red Lake and White Earth Bands of Chippewa to partner with the State
of Minnesota to build and operate a non-reservation casino. The
bill, House File 1020, would have established a northern Twin Cities
casino where the two tribes would build and own it and the Minnesota
Lottery would own the slot machines. Besides addressing specific
needs of both parties, profits would be spit nearly equally between
the state and tribes...More
By Patrick Sweeney, St. Paul Pioneer Press - April 4, 2003
A bill authorizing a state-operated casino at Canterbury Park racetrack
in Shakopee squeaked through the Minnesota House Tax Committee on
Wednesday on a 13-11 vote.
The vote came after the bill was amended so the Canterbury casino
would yield more money for the state — $100 million —
during the state's upcoming budget cycle by borrowing from its revenues
over the next two years...More
Associated Press - April 4, 2003
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — In a case that has haunted Indian Country
for nearly 30 years, police have arrested a Denver man in the slaying
of an American Indian Movement member whose frozen body was found
on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1976. Authorities said Arlo Looking
Cloud, 49, was arrested in Denver last week. He pleaded not guilty
Monday to a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Anna Mae
Pictou-Aquash, U.S. Attorney James McMahon said Wednesday in Sioux
Falls. McMahon said he could not comment on the case or say whether
more arrests are possible. The indictment of Looking Cloud remained
sealed...More
Arlo Looking Cloud
By Deborah Mendez (AP) - April 4, 2003
DENVER (AP) - The slaying of American Indian Movement activist Anna
Mae Pictou-Aquash has gone unsolved for nearly 30 years, frustrating
local and federal investigators. But now, with a suspect in custody
and another being sought, they say the pieces may be coming together....More
John Graham, also known as John Boy Patton
By Jeff Armstrong - March 28, 2003
The Anishinabe Peace and Justice Coalition has scheduled a public
hearing in Bemidji April 2 to address what the group claims is a
growing list of grievances over the treatment of Natives in the
Beltrami County judicial and corrections systems. Hearing testimony
at the meeting, to be held 1-5pm at 505 Bemidji Av., will be county
law enforcement and corrections officials...More
By Don Davis, Bemidji Pioneer - March 28, 2003
ST. PAUL -- White Earth and Red Lake American Indians say they have
waited a long time for equity, and now have to wait a few more days.
A House committee Wednesday delayed voting on a bill to allow those
two bands to run a northern Twin Cities casino because too many
questions remained unanswered. Leaders of the two bands say the
casino would give them equity with tribes that already have Twin
Cities-area casinos...More
Ernst & Young Report in Cobell states that only $61
is missing in Individual Indian Money case
By Jean Pagano - March 28, 2003
A bill signed into law last month by President Bush requires that
an Ernst and Young accounting report on the Individual Indian Money
(IIM) accounts of four of the five plaintiffs in the Cobell v. Secretary
of the Interior, be released. The report was released on March 25th...More
March 21, 2003
Legislation that, according to the bill’s advocates, seeks
“to bring equity and economic opportunity to native tribes
throughout Minnesota” has been introduced in the Minnesota
legislature. The chief authors are Bill Haas (R – Champlain)
and Sandy Pappas (DFL – St. Paul).
The Minnesota Gaming Equity Act (MGEA) proposes a new entertainment
and gaming complex to be built in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
This will create equity encompassing the state’s two largest
tribes, the Red Lake Band and White Earth Band of Chippewa Indians,
whose members live in poverty...More
Congress compensates Department of Interior attorneys better
than court officers
By Jean Pagano - March 21, 2003
According to a Notice of Supplemental Information filed by the plaintiffs
in Cobell v. Secretary of Interior (Cobell), a recently passed Congressional
Resolution unfairly favors the attorneys employed to defend the
Secretary of Interior and other contemnors in the Cobell case while
authorizing a less than fair compensation for the court appointed
Special Master and Special Master-Monitor. The Special Master and
Special Master-Monitor were previously appointed by Judge Royce
C. Lamberth to assist with various duties relating to the Cobell
litigation...More
By Clara NiiSka - March 21, 2003
Minnesota Legislature — On Monday, March 17th, the House Committee
on Education policy recommended that HF 509 be passed and re-referred
to the higher education services office.
HF 509, and its identically worded companion bill in the state
Senate, SF 258, will, if adopted by the Legislature and signed by
the governor, transfer the Indian scholarship program from the Department
of Children, Families and Learning (CF&L), and mandate that
program offices be re-located back to Bemidji...More
By Diane E. White - March 21, 2003
On Thursday, March 13, Arthur “Archie” LaRose, Secretary-Treasurer
vs. District Representatives, Richard Robinson, Lyman Losh and Burton
Wilson Tribal Court Trial began with B.J. Jones serving as Judge.
Last week’s Native American Press reported this case. Since
the Trial was so limited in scope members of the Election Board
wanted to be heard. In addition, Richard Jones plead the “5th”
to whether certain Petition Validation Committee / Election Board
members received political payola for their service. As for this
story, Richard Jones is still taking the “5th”...More
By Diane E. White - March 14, 2003
On Thursday, March 13, Leech Lake’s Secretary-Treasurer, Arthur
“Archie” LaRose got his day in court to prove due process
was not provided to him by the Petition Validation Committee. Some
of the Validation Committee Members signed the petition against
LaRose in a petition attempt to oust him from office. However, the
court would not consider as evidence of bias against LaRose as Judge
B. J. Jones acknowledged the Reservation Business Committee by Constitutional
law could put together this committee in any fashion they wished...More
By Robert Gehrke, AP Writer - March 14, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Monday blocked a proposal
by private utility companies to store high-level nuclear waste on
an Indian reservation in Utah’s west desert, citing the dangers
posed by a nearby Air Force training range.
Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of electric utilities, had sought
to build a temporary storage facility on the Skull Valley Goshute
reservation, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, until a permanent
storage facility could be built at Yucca Mountain in Nevada...More
By Jeff Armstrong - March 14, 2003
A bipartisan bill to extend state recognition to the Sandy Lake
Reservation has been referred to the Minnesota House of Representatives
committee on Governmental Operations and Veterans’ Affairs
Policy.
Sponsored by Rep. Doug Fuller and Rep. Irv Anderson, House File
455 would grant what Fuller concedes would amount to symbolic support
for Sandy Lake’s effort to achieve federal recognition of its
status independent of Mille Lacs and the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe...More
By Jeff Armstrong - March 14, 2003
Leech Lake tribal members packed a stuffy judicial hearing room
for a lengthy and often repetitive March 13 hearing on the petition
to remove secretary treasurer Archie LaRose from office early in
his term.
Stressing that the court’s role was to review the decision-making
process, rather than the conclusions, of a sharply divided Petition
Validation Committee which certified the recall effort last December,
Judge B.J. Jones sought in vain to limit arguments to those originally
presented to the committee...More
Department of Justice officials may be referred to disciplinary
panel
By Jean Pagano - March 14, 2003
U.S. Federal Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, presiding over the landmark
trust case Cobell v. Secretary of the Interior, recently ruled the
Department of Interior’s recent motion for a protective order
regarding documents requested by Special Master Monitor Joseph S.
Kiefer, was ‘frivolous’ and thereby denied...More
‘Patterns of deceit’ by Interior cited
By Jean Pagano - March 14, 2003
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled on Tuesday March
11th on a motion from the plaintiffs in Cobell v. Secretary of the
Interior (Cobell) for sanctions and a contempt filing relating to
an affidavit filed in the defendants third motion for summary judgment.
The judge found that the defendants should pay reasonable expenses
for the time wasted by the plaintiffs and the court, but stopped
short of again finding the Department of Interior (“Interior”)
in contempt...More
By Bill Lawrence - March 14, 2003
The week before the July 1998 tribal election and desperate for
votes, former Red Lake tribal chairman Bobby Whitefeather announced
with great fanfare, the issuance of $4 million of tax exempt bonds
to construct a modular home manufacturing plant on the Red Lake
reservation. The bonds carry a net interest of 6.21 percent with
a repayment period of 15 years...More
Orders further consideration, community input, study of possible
reciprocity compact
By Clara NiiSka - March 7, 2003
In an order dated Wednesday, March 5 and signed by Chief Justice
Kathleen Blatz, the Minnesota Supreme Court finally ruled on the
rule of court proposed by the Tribal Court/State Court Forum, which
would have granted full faith and credit to tribal court orders,
judgments, and other tribal court actions in Minnesota...More
By Diane E. White - March 7, 2003
On Monday, February 24, newly elected Chairman Peter D. White opened
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation Business Committee (RBC) meetings
to the public. He promised this at his swearing in ceremony on Friday,
February 21 along with his desire to create a unified Leech Lake
Band void of political dissention.
Conspicuously absent from the swearing in ceremony were the Peace
& Justice campaign committee and the De-Bah-Ji-Mon’s photographers
and writing staff, previously closely linked to each other and the
campaign for Dee Fairbanks and Eli O. Hunt...More
By Jeff Armstrong - March 7, 2003
Fresh from its successful crusade against Muslim rule in 1492, the
Spanish monarchy extended the ideology and force of its holy war
against “heathens and infidels” to the shores of the New
World. Backed by the Spanish monarchs, Columbus embarked on his
voyage on the assumption that he could claim for the Spanish Crown
by right of “discovery” any lands occupied by non-Christian
peoples, an assumption later supported by Papal edicts and incorporated
to some extent into early U.S. federal Indian law cases. Indigenous
lands were considered Terra Nullius, existing in their original
natural state and therefore subject to annexation by superior Christian
civilizations...More
By Bill Lawrence - March 7, 2003
At a special meeting on Thursday February 27, the Red Lake Tribal
Council (RLTC) considered and adopted budgets for the tribal general
and indirect cost funds for calendar year 2003. The amounts adopted
were: for the general fund $4,824,111; and for indirect costs $2,195,703.
These amounts are significantly lower than the $8,681,305 and the
$2,532,000 approved by the former Whitefeather/King Administration
for the general and indirect cost funds respectively for calendar
year 2002...More
By Brad Swenson, Bemidji Pioneer - March 7, 2003
A measure asking Beltrami County support of a metro area casino
jointly run by the state and area American Indian tribes failed
in a 3-2 vote Tuesday night.
“The state will get into gaming, so we’d rather join
them than fight them,” Beltrami County Board Chairman Quentin
Fairbanks said Tuesday in asking for the board’s support...More
By Clara NiiSka - February 28, 2003
The Executive Council of the National Congress of American Indians
(NCAI) met in Washington, D.C. on February 23-27. The theme of this
year’s meeting, “Defining Our Agenda – Reflect, Refocus,
Renew,” reflects NCAI’s “desire to engage tribal
representatives in shaping a concrete agenda for … the 108th
Congress,” according to the group’s printed agenda for
the meeting...More
By Richard MacPhie - February 28, 2003
WCCO-TV in the Twin Cities recently investigated the Mdewakanton
and learned that, despite the tribe’s incredible wealth, they
still line up for free government handouts. Mystic Lake Casino is
one of the most profitable Indian casinos in the country. The Shakopee
Mdewakanton tribe owns the casino. There are approximately 200 adult
tribal members pulling in about a million dollars a year. The Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) says that the Shakopee Mdewankaton Sioux
total of $177,000 federal aid and annual aid to the Shakopee Mdewakanton
has increased thirty-six percent over the past five years...More
By Hannah Allam, St. Paul Pioneer Press - February 28, 2003
An American Indian family filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against
several Minneapolis police officers, alleging excessive force was
used during a September raid of the family's home in the Little
Earth housing development.
Six relatives and two friends who were in the home at the time
claim that their race and location in one of Minnesota's roughest
neighborhoods led police officers to mistreat them. The plaintiffs
say the incident included kicks, hits with a rifle butt, pointed
guns and lewd comments...More
By Jeff Armstrong - February 28, 2003
Federal environmental officials say the EPA will begin checking
soil samples from the St. Regis superfund site in Cass Lake for
dioxin contamination as soon as the ground is sufficiently thawed.
Preliminary screening revealed the presence of dioxins in whitefish
and soil which "indicate potential long-term health risks,"
according to an EPA fact sheet...More
$141,041 contributed during last 2 weeks
By Bill Lawrence - February 21, 2003
According to the final election year 2002 reports which were required
to be filed with the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board
by January 31, 2003, Minnesota Indian Political Action Committee's
(PAC's) contributed $721,136 to legislative candidates and political
party units of their choice during the 2001/2002 biennium...More
By Jeff Armstrong - February 21, 2003
Bemidji State University professor Karen Branden said the Anishinaabe
effort to end the genetic manipulation of wild rice is a conflict
with enduring spiritual, historical, political, economic and cultural
implications.
In a Feb. 13 presentation at BSU, Dr. Branden said past negotiations
between White Earth tribal members and University of Minnesota officials
over the latter’s genetic research practices made no progress
towards a solution which would protect the integrity of the state’s
indigenous wild rice. Branden said many Anishinaabeg have legitimate
fears that genetically-engineered paddy rice will infiltrate and
alter naturally-growing rice, to which the Anishinaabeg trace their
history in the region...More
AP Wire Service - February 21, 2003
The state’s request for an injunction related to a voter fraud
case was rejected in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, but a change
of heart by tribal officials means the state’s case can be
revived.
Attorney General Larry Long had temporarily dismissed 19 counts
against Rebecca Red Earth-Villeda of Flandreau because tribal officials
wouldn’t let his office serve subpoenas on the Crow Creek Indian
Reservation.
Red Earth-Villeda had been accused of forging absentee ballot applications
for the state Democratic Party...More
By Gary Padrta, White Earth tribal newspaper 'Anishinabe Today'
- February 21, 2003
White Earth and Red Lake Nations continue to seek legislative support
for a proposed "Urban Entertainment and Gaming Complex"
to be located in the metropolitan area.
Each of the 11 Minnesota Indian Reservations have been invited
to join the efforts in a hope to revive a bill that was defeated
last year in a House committee. With the high unemployment rates,
State deficit and more layoffs announced weekly, it is hoped lawmakers
may consider the gaming proposal during the current legislative
session...More
Emphasizes ‘No Child Left Behind’ Program
By Jean Pagano - February 28, 2003
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige spoke this week to the Executive
Council Winter Session of the National Congress of American Indians
(NCAI) in Washington. Paige began by recalling Sitting Bull’s
invitation “Let us put our minds together to see what we can
build for our children.” He also noted that the new board chairman
of the presidential advisory board on tribal colleges and universities,
Rod McNeil, is Sitting Bull’s great, great grandson...More
By Jeff Armstrong - February 28, 2003
Describing himself as “a leader that is radical and wanting
to make a change,” Leech Lake chairman-elect Pete White vowed
to break down the walls between reservation officials and constituents
at his Feb. 21 swearing-in ceremony. White was sworn in by his father,
Donald...More
By Clara NiiSka - February 21, 2003
On July 24, 1998, Maggie Penn was banished from Standing Rock reservation
on an ex parte order signed by tribal court associate judge Isaac
Dog Eagle. Dog Eagle issued the banishment order based on allegations
made by Standing Rock enrollee Faith Taken Alive. Penn was not notified
of the banishment proceedings until she was served the order of
banishment.
The banishment order was served on Penn while she was at work at
the Tender Hearts battered women’s shelter – a non-profit
organization located on fee-patent land – by BIA police captain
Don Vettleson and Sioux County Sheriff Frank Landeis. According
to court records, Landeis told Penn that he would arrest her if
she did not comply with the banishment order...More
Secretary Norton Blames Trust For Budget Cuts
By Jean Pagano - February 14, 2003
The new 2004 budget request for the Department of Interior currently
sits at a record high $10.7 billion. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) budget request also increases from $2.34 billion in 2003 to
$2.40 billion in FY2004. While the overall numbers have increased
in the budget requests, there are still cuts looming for several
programs...More
Jason Lawrence, Donovan Wind fired by tribal council after administrative
saga
By Clara NiiSka - February 14, 2003
The four-month saga of Red Lake criminal investigators Jason Lawrence
and Donovan Wind may have ended at the tribal council meeting on
Tuesday, February 11th, when both men were terminated by tribal
council resolution...More
By Dennis Lien, St. Paul Pioneer Press - February 21, 2003
The Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota told state lawmakers Wednesday
they can't give Xcel Energy more nuclear-waste storage capacity
at its Prairie Island nuclear power plant without allowing tribal
concerns to be addressed first.
In testimony before House and Senate committees, Tribal Council
President Audrey Bennett said a 1994 contract gave the tribe authority
to enforce a legislative agreement limiting Xcel, then Northern
States Power Co., to 17 casks of spent fuel at the plant next to
the reservation...More
By Kevin Orland (AP) - February 21, 2003
The Oneida Tribe of Indians would pay the state $58 million over
three years starting in 2004 in exchange for a permanent gambling
compact that gives it more games and removes its betting limits,
the tribe said Wednesday.
The Oneida reached the agreement just minutes before Gov. Jim Doyle
delivered his budget address Tuesday night. Tribal officials disclosed
details at a news conference Wednesday morning. Doyle’s budget
calls for $237 million in additional payments to the state from
all tribal compacts to help balance Wisconsin’s $3.2 billion
budget deficit for the period through June 30, 2005...More
By Molly Miron, Bemidji Pioneer - February 14, 2003
Peter D. White was elected chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
in balloting Tuesday, according to unofficial results.
Results for the special election, which came in shortly after 9
p.m., had White of Inger receiving 785 votes while Deanna L. “Dee”
Fairbanks received 562 votes...More
By Fritz Busch, New Ulm Journal - February 14, 200
Lower Sioux member Sheldon Peters Wolfchild has appeared in a variety
of movies, television shows and commercials over the past few decades.
Among his movie credits are Sioux Warrior #2 in Dances With Wolves
which won many Academy Awards. His biggest and most important production
may be yet to come -- he wants to create a movie depicting the 1862
U.S.-Dakota conflict...More
February 14, 2003
A treaty conference relevant to the Mdewakanton and other Sioux Indian
treaties at Jackpot Junction Hotel was held on February 5-7, 2003...Attendants
at the conference received information on the Louisiana Purchase of
1803, copies of Sioux treaties dating back as far as 1805 and those
of 1837, 1851 and 1858. Handouts were available on the Dakota Conflict
trials of 1862 and tribal and indigenous sovereignty issues of the
1800s...More
By Clara NiiSka - February 7, 2003
At the January 29th press conference and community gathering in
response to allegations that Minneapolis police brutalized Ronald
Lee Johnson and mistreated the woman accompanying him, Johnson’s
attorney Larry Leventhal told the crowd that “we have evidence”
supporting claims that the police had urinated on Johnson’s
“upper torso and head.” Longtime activist Clyde Bellecourt
said that “DNA evidence” would convict the cops..More
By Bill Lawrence - February 7, 2003
A special election will be held at Leech Lake on Tuesday, February
11th to fill the chairman’s seat that was vacated by the recall
of Eli Hunt in an October 11th recall election. 527 eligible Leech
Lake resident voters had signed a petition calling for Hunt’s
removal and charging him with three violations of the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe constitution, as well as seventeen specific charges.
Hunt was removed by 56% of the 1453 votes cast in last October’s
recall election...More
Ventura Village leader forms company to build carriage houses,
is now poised to take advantage of public subsidies for neighborhood
program
By Gregory D. Luce, North Phillips Press - February 7, 2003
On the surface, the Ventura Village Carriage House grant program
promises to deliver affordable housing to North Phillips residents
by building new apartments above alleyway garages. It is the neighborhood’s
“highest priority.” Hennepin County Commissioner Peter
McLaughlin and City of Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak have praised the
program as “innovative” and are vocal in saying that the
program should receive funding. The Metropolitan Council has provided
$250,000 in funds to help develop the program, and Ventura Village
has set aside at least one million more in public money to help
residents build the new housing...More
By Clara NiiSka - February 7, 2003
In the context of discussing personnel issues at their regular December
2002 meeting, the Red Lake tribal council decided that the present
organization of Red Lake tribal government is not working effectively,
and that tribal government “needed an overhaul,” according
to Press/ON publisher Bill Lawrence, who attended the meeting. “The
tribal council has to cope with the chaos remaining from [former
treasurer Dan] King’s mismanagement and the legacy of the ‘fab
four’s’ administration,” he said...Mor
Mille
Lacs defendants reply to Press/ON federal appeal
January 31, 20023
Mille Lacs reservation attorney John Arum has submitted a response
to Press/ON publisher Bill Lawrence and reporter Jeff Armstrong
in their appeal of a U.S. district court ruling dismissing a civil
rights suit over Armstrong’s 1997 arrest by a tribal officer
at a Tribal Executive Committee meeting.
Acknowledging the jurisdiction of the federal appellate court,
Arum asked the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the district
court’s summary dismissal without hearing oral arguments...More
By Bill Lawrence - January 31, 2003
As part of the audit of the Red Lake Band’s general fund for
the 15 months ending December 31, 2001, the CPA firm of Brady, Martz,
and Associates submitted a management letter dated September 12,
2002 to the Red Lake tribal council. The letter, along with the
audit report of the same date, wasn’t presented to the council
until the regular council meeting on December 10th. The management
letter listed twenty-eight findings of “immaterial instances
of non-compliance with laws and regulations...More
Still silent on ‘full faith and credit’ for tribal
courts
January 31, 2003
On January 28th, the Minnesota Supreme Court completed review of
its Jury Task Force recommended “best practices and court rule
changes for jury management,” and in an order filed January
29th, accepted some of the recommendations and denied others. Among
the changes denied were the Task Force’s recommendations to
“amend the rules of civil and criminal procedure to permit
the submission of questions by jurors … and to appoint a standing
committee to promote and monitor progress toward consideration and
implementation of the Task Force recommendations.” The court
had held a hearing on those recommendations on June 26, 2002...More
By Clara NiiSka - January 31, 2003
On Friday, January 24th, Minneapolis Chief Judge James Rosenbaum
of the 8th District Federal Court heard oral arguments on a “Motion
for Summary Judgment” ...If Judge Rosenbaum grants the Band’s
Motion for Summary Judgment, it would throw the case County
of Mille Lacs v. Melanie Benjamin, et al. out of court before
the merits of the case are heard in court, leaving unanswered the
questions raised by Mille Lacs County when it filed the original
case, including whether or not “the exterior boundaries of
the 1855 Mille Lacs Indian Reservation were disestablished/diminished
by specific federal treaties and statutes, as the United States
Supreme Court has held...More
Department of Interior described as “chaotic”
By Jean Pagano - January 31, 2003
Special Master Alan Balaran, reporting to U.S. District Court Judge
Royce C. Lamberth in Cobell v. Secretary of the Interior (Cobell),
issued a report last week entitled Corrected Report of the Special
Master Regarding the Deletion of Individual Indian Money Information
by Former Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. The report
details a Department of Interior in disarray and a senior Bureau
of Indian Affairs official, namely McCaleb who not only disregarded
policy on the retention of emails, but also then lied to cover up
his involvement...More
By Clara NiiSka - January 31, 2003
In the early afternoon of Wednesday, January 29th, a crowd of about
175 - 200 people gathered in a parking lot on 24th and Ogema Place
in the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis. The parking lot
is a part of the Little Earth public housing project in south Minneapolis,
and the event was publicized as a press conference by Metropolitan
Urban Indian Directors (MUID) leadership and the directors of the
Little Earth of United Tribes Housing Corporation...More
January 17, 2003
...Every year we introduce dignitaries at this event. But keep one
thing in mind, Members of the Mille Lacs Band – you are the
dignitaries at this event. That is why I want to begin by introducing
the people I confer with when I make decisions – the Elderly
Advisory Council. Please hold your applause until all Elders have
been recognized. Will the following people please stand up or wave
if you are here: Raining Boyd, Marene Hedstrom, James Clark, Viola
Hendren, Oliver Benjamin, Elfreda Sam, Lee Staples, Marie Bengston,
Julie Shingobe, Elleraine Weous, Beatrice Taylor, and Ole Nickaboine...More
Bush administration weighs in against racial preference in admission
By Jean Pagano [reporting from Detroit] - January 17, 2003
The specter of Senator Trent Lott’s plummet from the post of
Senate Majority Leader because of racially charged remarks is barely
a month old. The patent ugliness of racial politics has shocked,
reminded, and frightened a whole new generation of Americans. While
the Bush Administration on one hand tries to woo minority voters
to its side of the aisle, it speaks a different story out of the
other side of its mouth...More
By Jeff Armstrong - January 24, 2003
Ruling that Leech Lake secretary treasurer Archie LaRose had established
a likelihood of success in his legal challenge to the validity of
a recall petition against the plaintiff, the reservation court Tuesday
granted LaRose an extension of a temporary restraining order from
RBC action on the petition...More
[Read
text of decision]
13 motions to recuse judge are denied
By Jean Pagano - January 24, 2003
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, presiding over the
6+-year long suit Cobell v. Secretary of the Interior, et al., denied
a combined group of 13 motions seeking the recusal of Judge Lamberth,
Special Master Alan L. Balaran, and Special Master – Monitor
Joseph S. Kieffer, III from the Cobell case. The motions, including
one from former Clinton-era Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt,
sought to have Judge Lamberth and Messrs. Balaran and Kieffer dismissed
for a variety of reasons...More
By Bill Lawrence - January 17, 2003
According to audited financial statements prepared by the CPA from
Brady, Martz, and Associates of Grand Forks, North Dakota for the
15-month period ending December 31, 2001 (October 1, 2000 –
December 31, 2001), the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians are reported
to have overspent the General Revenue Fund by $(4, 631,702), and
the Special Revenue Fund by $ (1,836,369) for a total overexpenditure
$ (6,468,071)...More
By Maxine V. Eidsvig - January 17, 2003
Governor Tim Pawlenty toured the Ancient Traders Market on east
Franklin Avenue, a store that specializes in American Indian arts
and crafts. He followed up the tour with a meeting of American Indian
business owners and tribal leaders at Maria’s Café next
door to the market...More
By Jeff Armstrong - January 17, 2003
Former Green Party vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke says
the 23 reservations on the Great Plains are uniquely positioned
to realize the potential of the region as “the Saudi Arabia
of wind power.”
Speaking at a discussion in Park Rapids Sunday on the viability
of environmentally benign forms of energy, LaDuke said Midwestern
reservations could produce as much as half of the current U.S. output
of electricity just by taking advantage of their all-too-abundant
winds. White Earth and Red Lake are particularly well-suited for
such a conversion, she said, though tribal officials have been slow
to consider the possibility of building community-based energy self-sufficiency...More
By Curt Brown, Star Tribune - January 24, 2003
A grandiose plan to build a $905 million casino and hotel in St.
Paul drew a cool response Friday, January 17th, from a meeting of
the city's legislators. The preliminary pitch for an "urban
entertainment and gaming complex" came from Ron Valiant, executive
director of the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council, and St.
Paul coffee shop owner David Glass, at a St. Paul delegation meeting
at the Capitol...More
By Jeff Armstrong - January 10, 2003
A Miqmaq firefighter who fractured her pelvis battling Colorado
wildfires which ravaged the state last year says she has encountered
an equally formidable adversary in the form of the federal bureaucracy.
Working under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Kathy
Kingbird has been waiting for federal workers’ compensation
since she filed for a 45-day continuance of pay on July 2, one day
after breaking her hip on a steep slope in a forest near Colorado
Springs. Six months later, she has collected nothing from her disabling
injury but a growing pile of medical bills and paperwork...More
By Bill Lawrence - January 10, 2003
On Wednesday, January 8th, Leech Lake tribal court chief judge Margaret
Treuer scheduled the hearing of the recall petition of Arthur “Archie”
LaRose for January 16th at 2:00 p.m. at the tribal courtroom at
the Leech Lake facilities center. Treuer also removed herself as
the presiding judge for medical reasons and appointed attorney B.J.
Jones of North Dakota to hear the case.
Jones has been the director of the University of North Dakota-based
Northern Plains Judicial Training Institute for the past several
years. He has also taught Indian Law at the University of North
Dakota law school and has acted as a special tribal court judge
for numerous tribes in the upper Midwest. He is a staunch promoter
of tribal courts...More
LaRose seeks new TRO Hearing
By Bill Lawrence - January 3, 2003
According to court documents Press/ON received just prior to press
time, attorneys for the Leech Lake RBC filed a motion dated January
2, 2003 in Leech Lake Tribal Court to dismiss Arthur “Archie”
LaRose’s request for an emergency Temporary Restraining Order
(TRO) based upon tribal sovereign immunity. The Motion appears to
be in contravention of Leech Lake Tribal ordinance No. 97-01, which
purports to waive sovereign immunity in favor of the Leech Lake
Tribal Court concerning disputes between officers of the Leech Lake
RBC...More
January 3, 2003
On December 18th, the Minnesota Supreme Court notified the Members
of the Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the General
Rules of Practice and others who had requested ongoing notification
of developments from the Court that it has adopted the advisory
committee “recommendations to rules 145 and 522 without change.”
Rule 145 involves “Actions on behalf of minors and incompetent
persons,” and Rule 522 is about “Pleadings in district
court,” mandating that, “The pleadings in conciliation
court shall constitute the pleadings in district court”...More
By Jeff Armstrong - January 3, 2003
In violation of a tribal court order to withhold action on a petition
to remove secretary treasurer Archie LaRose pending a court hearing,
the three Leech Lake RBC district representatives scheduled a Jan.
6 public hearing on the charges, which stem from the secretary treasurer’s
attempts to procure a wide-ranging audit of reservation finances...More
January 3, 2003
On January 3rd, tribal court judge Margaret Treuer asserted the
jurisdiction of the Leech Lake tribal court over the dispute between
Leech Lake secretary/treasurer Arthur “Archie” LaRose
and defendants Burton “Luke” Wilson, Lyman Losh, et al.
over the validity of a number of signatures on a petition to remove
the secretary/treasurer...More
By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times staff reporter - January 3,
2003
A new utility tax levied by the Yakama Nation is taxation without
representation, say non-Indians, who may wind up paying the tax
on everything from electricity to telephone, natural-gas and cable-TV
service — on top of municipal utility taxes.
The tax has raised the ire of the Stand Up Committee, an organization
of residents that says the tribe has no jurisdiction over non-Indians
on the reservation, which lies in Yakima and Klickitat counties...More
January 3, 2003
The pardon gives Means, 63, the chance to pursue a career in politics.
He lost a bid for the presidency of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation last year...More
Return to home page
