Clara NiiSka - portfolio - Native American Press / Ojibwe News

Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists - Peter S. Popovich Freedom of Information award "given by the board of Minnesota SPJ to the person or organization that exemplifies the fight for First Amendment rights" awarded to Native American Press/Ojibwe News publisher Bill Lawrence in 2003, for "pursuit through bureaucratic and legal channels to make the audited financial statements of Indian casinos public information under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act."

Why are the casino audits important?

Beyond the general premise that the 'sunshine' of public access to information helps dispel the potentials for corruption and other abuses, a reasonably comprehensive background as to why access to tribal gaming audits was - and is - important to Indian people would take awhile to write.

Critically important: the balance among U.S. recognition of unextinguished Indigenous people's rights, constitutionally-protected civil rights, and a range of other factors including sometimes extreme imbalance-of-power between 'we, the Indigenous people' and the federally-recognized 'tribal governments.' At least on some reservations these are federally imposed entities, funded and sustained by U.S. federal power, funding, and legal protection from redress by the people whose 'tribe' they are supposed to represent.

In general, the only federally-enforceable civil right that Indian people can assert on Indian reservations as protection against tribal government abuses, is habeas corpus [key legal precedent: Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez]. The 'balance of power' has often been further tilted away from Indian people by 'tribal constitutions' constructed by the B.I.A. under the auspices of the Indian Reorganization Act, and by - in some instances extreme - concentration of economic power in such 'tribal governments' in contexts of deep rural poverty. There are also, at least on some reservations, longstanding problems with capricious and oppressive 'tribal' governments.

In light of clear evidence of government corruption on some reservations, the further concentration of power engendered by tribal council control of casino operations has been a matter of concern to more than a few Indian people in Minnesota (and elsewhere).

At any rate, the Native American Press, after persistently and vainly requesting copies of casino audits from the Red Lake tribal council, decided to use the Minnesota Data Practices Act to gain access to the copies of those audits held by the State of Minnesota under the provisions of the state-tribal casino compacts [blackjack & video games]. That newspaper won access to those audits - in a limited sort of way - in a Minnesota Court of Appeals decision, two years after the initial request was made.

Here's the story as it unfolded...

Dept. of Public Safety caves in to tribal gambling interests: COMMISSIONER CHARLIE WEAVER APPLIES FOR TEMPORARY CLASSIFICATION OF GAMBLING AUDITS AS "PRIVATE" ON JUNE 27,2001 Charlie Weaver, Commissioner ...

Minnesota Indian gambling--unregulated, unaccountable, monopoly with nearly unlimited cash hiding behind sovereign immunity Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety Charlie Weaver expressed a remarkable ...

September of 1993 saw a report to former Governor Arne Carlson on Indian gaming compacts from the Tribal-State Compact Negotiating Committee. Members of the Committee included Harry Baltzer; Senator ...

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 ...

Department of Administration Commissioner David F. Fisher released his August 20, 2001 decision to classify Indian tribal gambling audits as nonpublic information eight days after it became official, ...

Attorney General Mike Hatch's office released a ruling on Friday, September 14th determining Indian casino audits held by the state under the terms of the state-tribal compacts are "public under ...

Press/ON publisher Bill Lawrence went to court on Monday, January 28, representing himself and this newspaper in the legal cases Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians v. State, et al., and Prairie Island ...

Ramsey County District Court Judge Louise Bjorkman's decision in the lawsuits, Prairie Island Indian Community vs. Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Court File No. C5-01-8766, and Mille Lacs Band ...

On Thursday, June 20th, Native American Press/Ojibwe News publisher Bill Lawrence appealed Ramsey County District Court Judge Louise Bjorkman's April 23, 2002 ruling that the Indian casino audit data ...

Publisher appeals casino audit cases (MINNESOTA) -- A federal district judge has rejected two tribes’ arguments that federal law prevents a Minnesota state agency from releasing financial audits of Indian casinos.

U.S. Federal District Court Judge Ann D. Montgomery denied tribal arguments and granted the state's motion for summary judgment in the case Shakopee and Grand Portage v. Mike Hatch, David F. Fisher, and ...

John Garry, attorney for the Minnesota attorney general's office, filed briefs with the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Friday, September 13th, in the consolidated cases Prairie Island Indian Community ...

It was gratifying to learn on Tuesday this week that the Minnesota Court of Appeals threw out a Ramsey County District Court decision which had found that Minnesota tribal casino audited financial statements ...

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 ...