Background:


December 1990: Wub-e-ke-niew renounces his Indian enrollment and "Indian identity"; notifies Department of the Interior that he has done so. 

January 9, 1991: Wub-e--ke-niew's letter published in the Native American Press / Ojibwe News

June 25, 1995: Wub-e-ke-niew injured in auto accident.

Summer 1995: "We Have The Right To Exist" - interview with Wub-e-ke-niew about his recently-published book - broadcast on Northern Minnesota Public TV.

December 13, 1995: Wub-e-ke-niew writes one of several letters to Susan M. Elfstrom Law Offices, requesting reimbursement for mileage and other expenses of treating his injuries.  Wub-e-ke-niew dies without learning that Elfstrom also represents the at-fault driver; reimbursement for expenses is slow and erratic, and Wub-e-ke-niew does not consistently get the medical treatment that he needs.

October 15, 1997:  Wub-e-ke-niew dies at home.

October 16, 1997: Clara NiiSka 'cuts' an exam at the University and comes home a day earlier than planned because Wub-e-ke-niew has not answered the phone on the night of October 15th or on the 16th.  She finds him dead on their bed.  She telephones chiropractor Dr. Cindy Bates, who guides her through a thorough exam, making absolutely certain that he is dead and not just in a coma.  She notifies Wub-e-ke-niew's son Francis Jr., Val Blake, and others in Minneapolis - Val requests that she not inform Wub-e-ke-niew's relatives on the reservation that he has died because, Val says, she 'doesn't want a circus.'  Mary Harding drives from Bemidji to 'sit with' Clara and her deceased husband through the night.

October 17, 1997:  Clara telephones Dr. Heidi Heap-Chester, M.D., who - after consulting with the Beltrami County Coroner and Cease Funeral Home in Bemidji - agrees to help file a death certificate.  Cease Funeral Home is not otherwise involvedwith mortuary, funeral or burial arrangements, and declines pay when Clara NiiSka offers it.
        Dr. Heap-Chester and Dr. Bates (who had been treating Wub-e-ke-niew for back injuries) come to Wub-e-ke-niew and Clara's home to examine Wub-e-ke-niew's remains.   Dr. Heap-Chester and Clara sit at the kitchen table and Dr. Heap-Chester and writes a draft of the death certificate.   Clara - who has examined thousands of death records in the context of genealogical research - prints out copies of the proposed entries and gives them to other family members, intending to get consensus about how Wub-e-ke-niew will be officially recorded for posterity.  Val Blake starts screaming, and refuses to discuss the death certificate.
        Wub-e-ke-niew is buried - as he had requested - at home and in "the old way."  Val Blake and others are present for Dr. Heap-Chester's post-mortem exam, preparation of Wub-e-ke-niew's body, grave-digging and burial, then Val and family return to their homes in Minneapolis.

October 17-21, 1997: Clara NiiSka at home keeping funeral fire for Wub-e-ke-niew.  Sometime during that week, Clara telephones Norby Blake - who is, as Wub-e-ke-niew put it, the "Clan Mother" of her children in Minneapolis - intending to ask for her mediation in resolving the differences with (Norby's daughter) Val.  Norby tells Clara, "We intend to leave you with nothing but memories."  Clara does not call back.

October 22, 1997: Clara NiiSka forcibly removed from her home.  She leaves with the clothes she was wearing and the book bag she dropped by the door a week earlier, when she came home to find her husband dead.  Val Blake demands that Clara give her the blank death certificate and the printouts of proposed entries, so Clara does.  She drives away from the house that she and her husband built together in a Mitsubishi she bought for $30.  Val Blake takes possession of everything at Clara and Wub-e-ke-niew's home - including both Wub-e-ke-niew's and Clara NiiSka's personal property.

November 23, 1997: Valerie Blake filles out "Official Mail Forwarding Change of Address Form" for Francis George Blake [no 'Junior'].

October 24, 1997: The Ojibwe News publishes a page 1 article, "Final Reflections on the life of Wub-e-ke-niew,"  noting Wub-e-ke-niew's passing.

Week of October 23-27, 1997: Dr. Heap-Chester tries to resolve disagreement about death certificate; Val Blake tells her that she will have Wub-e-ke-niew exhumed if Clara NiiSka's name is on it.
     Deposition of Dr. Heap-Chester: page 24 ... page 25 ... page 26 ... page 27 ... [cover]
   
October 27, 1997: Dr. Heidi Heap-Chester completes "cause of death" on the bottom part of death certificate, and signs it.  Top part (personal information about the decased) is still blank.

October 29, 1997:  Val Blake provides Cease Funeral Home with information for  top part of death certificate and Kevin Cease signs it.

October 31,1997: Death Certificate filed in Beltrami County

November 20, 1997: Apparently in response to Clara's comments to Beltrami County Courthouse staff that the death certificate had Wub-e-ke-niew's son's name on it, the version of the death certificate issued by Beltrami County is in the name "Francis George Blake" [without the "Junior"].  Officially amended and re-amended in Minneapolis, it is still in the name "Francis George Blake" [no "Junior"] on February 23, 200.

Late fall, 1997: Ground freezes in the northcountry (making it more difficult to exhume Wub-e-ke-niew without professional excavating equipment).

December 2, 1997: Clara NiiSka talks with Cease Funeral Home about amending the death certificate.  Angela Torgerson advises her to go to the Minnesota Department of Health in Minneapolis.

December 3, 1997: Staff at the Department of Vital Statistics tell Clara that amdmendments are to be done with an affidavit from the mortician who signed the death certificate.  She faxes requested amendments to Cease Funeral Home from Minneapolis.  Clara then goes to New York at the invitation of publisher Hollis Melton and the Naraya.
         Fax to Cease Funeral Home: fax receipt ... cover letter ... requested amendments

December 8, 1997: Affidavit for Correction of Death Certificate received by Department of Vital Statistics; amendments requested are assesment of Mortician Angela Torgerson - who has handled a number of Midé funerals in Ponemah - of which of the requested amendments the State will accept.

December 8, 1997: Death Certificate amended.

December 22, 1997: Clara returns from New York, spends a couple of days in Minnesota and gets copies of the amended death certificate, and then drives to California to see her elderly father, who has telephoned to tell her that he is dying.  Clara's Mitsubishi is rear-ended and totalled in California, Clara is injured, and she does not return to Minnesota until early February 1998.

January 23, 1998: Ojibwe columnist (and family friend) Maynard Swan, who asked Clara for a copy of the letter she wrote to the Red Lake courts urging them not to accept jurisdiction for an "Indian" probate, faxes the letter to the Native American Press / Ojibwe News.  The newspaper prints it.
       "Even in Death, Red Lake courts have no jurisdiction over Wub-e-ke-niew" ... page 2 ... front page

February 1998: Val Blake - advised by her mother, retired Health Department employee Norby Blake - files complaint with Health Department, Mortuary Science Section, against Cease Funeral Home.

February 9, 1998: Mortuary Science Licensing Inspector Tim Koch reports to State Registrar Barbara Bednarczyk.

February 9, 1998: Health Department investigator Tim Koch interviews Clara NiiSka.  She follows up their conversation with a letter.
       Letter to Tim Koch: page 1 ... page 2

February 11, 1998: Senator Linda Berglin faxes letter to Commissoner of Health Anne Barry.  She writes that re-amending the death certificate "required the cooperation" of the Health Department "and the Attorney General."
       fax cover ... page 1 ... page 2

February 27, 1998: Commissioner of Health Anne Barry sends an informational letter to Senator Linda Berglin.  She writes that she has sent "preliminary information... to the Attorney General's office for review."

March 11, 1998: State Registrar Barbara Bednarczyk mails a letter to Clara NiiSka requesting a copy of a marriage license "properly recorded with the court administrator" and "a legal description of the residence that has been properly recorded with the county recorder."  The letter is incorrectly addressed.
          page 1 ... page 2

March 12, 1998: Commissioner of Health Anne Barry's writes to Senator Linda Berglin and to Val Blake.
          letter to Senator Linda Berglin ... page 1 ... page 2
          letter to Valerie Blake ... page 1 ... page 2

Week of March 16-23, 1998: Because Senator Linda Berglin is cc'd on a the correspondence that she has received, Clara NiiSka goes to Senator Berglin's office.  She explains the situation to Sen. Berglin's aide, Lou Tofte, who assures her that the 'misunderstanding' will be remedied.

March 23, 1998: Clara NiiSka hand-delivers a response to Barbara Bednarczyk's office, in which she explains that her and Wub-e-ke-niew's Ahnishinahbæó^tjibway Midé marriage [within the external boundaries of the diminished Red Lake Indian reservation] was not subject to state jurisdiction.  Similarly, legal descriptions of most Red Lake land 'properly recorded with the county recorder' are nonexistent - because, as Clara wrote, "The state of Minnesota does not have jurisdiction over this land, and it does not seem reasonable to expect that there would be such records."  (The only such land records maintained by Beltrami County are for a few parcels of fee-patent land - legacy of a railroad townsite - in Redby.  In the course of her research with Wub-e-ke-niew, Clara had looked at length for Red Lake land records held by the County, and she knew they were not there.)
       The response included an attached "Affidavit of Circumstances" noting that Val Blake had gained control over the death certificate by coercion, and that there remained several factual errors on the death certificate as filed.
       Clara has made an apointment with Registrar Barbara Bednarczyk to further explain the jurisdictional situation at Red Lake, but when she arrives she is told that Ms. Bednarczyk will not be meeting with her.
            letter to State Registrar Barbara Bednarczk ... page 1 ... page 2
            Affidavit of Circumstances ... page 1 ... page 2 ... page 3 ... page 4
             receipt
             Attached Documentation
                   We Have The Right To Exist

March 30, 1998: State Farm Insurance writes to Wub-e-ke-niew about settling personal injury claim arising from June 25, 1995 auto accident.

April 9, 1998: Clara provides additional evidence to Registrar
             letter ... accompanying Documentation

April 10, 1998: Senator Linda Berglin writes letter to Val Blake, but apparently does nothing to withdraw the political pressure she has put on the Health Department to re-amend the death certificate.

April 10, 1998: Registrar Barbara Bednarczek writes to Clara, informing her that death certificate will be amended, envelope incorrectly addressed

April 14, 1998: Registrar Barbara Bednarczek mails April 10 letter to Clara, envelope incorrectly addressed

April 17, 1998: Death certificate re-amended - without hearing or other due process
            re-amended death certificate ... front ... back of document

on or about April 17, 1998: Val Blake uses re-amended death certificate to file for probate in Red Lake 'tribal court.'
             page 1 | 2 ... notice of probate

May 22, 1998: "Indian" probate convened, Clara files objection, hearing continued

May 26, 1998: Clara removed from courtroom, exiled

June 9, 1998: Senator Linda Berglin writes letter to State Commissioner of Health, mis-representing state law and repeating allegations that Clara's Ph.D. dissertation will be genocidal
            page 1 ... page 2

June 26, 1998: Commissioner Anne Barry

November 28, 1999: Clara objects to allegations of genocide by Senator Berglin.

February 23, 2000: Version of death certificate issued by Beltrami County.