Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Concerned Red Lake members meet in Minneapolis

By Clara NiiSka - November 9, 2001
Red Lake members in the Twin Cities area have been meeting in Minneapolis to discuss the petition to recall tribal treasurer Dan King and to address their concerns about the tribal treasurer’s handling of tribal funds, including the burgeoning debt load incurred by Red Lake gambling enterprises, and other tribal enterprises’ financial losses. There was also community concern about apparently irresponsible expenditures of tribal funds to purchase properties about inflated properties—and about the possible misuse of settlement funds to pay off casino debt. Community members also discussed other issues involving tribal government. Press/ON covered the November 1 meeting, which about 35-40 Red Lakers attended.

There was another meeting held on November 7th at the American Indian OIC in Minneapolis. At that meeting, community members discussed the need to get the petitions to recall Dan King compiled and up to Red Lake before the next tribal council meeting. The members also continued to discuss the ineffectiveness of the Red Lake urban office, and the need of urban Red Lakers to be strongly represented through monthly community meetings addressing current concerns with our economic situation at Red Lake. “All of the other hot topics” of ongoing concern to urban Red Lakers were also raised at the meeting.

Particularly in view of the tribal elections coming up next spring and the continuing financial problems at Red Lake, the group organizing the meetings would like to continue to meet at least every other week. The next urban meeting is scheduled for November 15th at 7:00 p.m. at the American Indian OIC, 1845 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis. Also, on November 29th there will be a workshop training for urban Red Lakers on the basics of community organizing, facilitated by Keith Lowmaster and Tharen Stillday. People interested in attending these meetings should contact Keith Lowmaster at 612-341-3358, extension 120.

Documents relating to Red Lake casino finances, including the Fiscal Year 2001 financial report analyzed by Bill Lawrence in an article published in the November 2 issue of Press/ON, were scrutinized and discussed. Some of the members present expressed real concern about the “tremendous debt” incurred with the casino, motel and water park expansion—and about the deceptively optimistic financial reports being presented to Red Lake members by tribal council treasurer Dan King. As one person put it, “they make it sound like it is all good. Why are they trying to bullshit?”

Part of Dan King’s “job is to report to the people,” said another community member, but in the reports he’s provided, “he’s just patronizing the people like we are stupid.”

There were questions and discussion about the pending per capita payments from the Indian claims settlement, including concerns about the amount: “Roger Jourdain had said that $400 million was not enough,” and that, “what is really sad about the whole ordeal is the elders that have been waiting their whole life, told about it since they were young,” and what kind of paltry settlement are they going to get? “The tribal council still has control of what they give us.”

There was also discussion of the problems that urban Indians face, voting in tribal council elections, as well as a broader discussion of the present tribal council structure at Red Lake. Some of the people present at the November 1 meeting voiced strong dissatisfaction with the present Red Lake tribal council’s urban liason office. One of the organizers told Press/ON that he hoped that the meetings would establish better communication with the reseveration communities: about the issues as well as about the petition to recall Dan King, as well as in preparation for the tribal elections next Spring.

Some of the community members present advocated amendment of the constitution to provide for representation of urban residents—who continue to see Red Lake as their real home. As one person put it, “my home is Red Lake and it will always be that way.” Others pressed for thorough reconsideration of the “tribal council system—which is just another B.I.A. thing, the B.I.A. put it forth” and imposed it on the people at Red Lake. “That kind of system sets up corruption.”

Among the remedies suggested was returning to the old government of “clans and chiefs, the legislative body that we governed ourselves” with for generations. “The BIA threw it all out, left the government up to a bunch of people that do not talk to the people.” One of the people at the meeting described having seen ‘traditional’ forms of government operating among the “Ho-Chunk, and the Menominee … legislative bodies that are responsible” to the people. “It is time that we as a people take a good look at changing the government.”

Addressing more immediate concerns, copies of the petition to recall tribal council treasurer Dan King are being distributed both in the Twin Cities and on the reservation. An up-to-date count of signatures in the Cities was not available at press time. According to a recent report, there were 1,126 signatures to the petition on Red Lake reservation alone—despite pressure against people, including intimidation and threats. One of the elders at the November 1 meeting voiced the concerns affecting Red Lakers both on and off the reservation: “what will happen to my relatives on the reservation if I sign this petition?”

“We are standing together,” another person at the meeting responded, hundreds of people have signed the petition. There is strength in numbers, and we are doing nothing more than expressing our rights under the constitution. “Nothing bad will happen” to those who sign the petition.

Organizers of the petition drive say, “we are aiming at 1,800 signatures,” to be presented to the tribal council. “We will be totaling up the signatures early next week, and if the numbers are there, we will present the petitions to the tribal council next Tuesday, November 13.”

Click here for the petition http://www.press-on.net/petition.htm.