Native American Press/Ojibwe News

A debatable debate

Whitefeather appears in Minneapolis on July 10th

By Clara NiiSka - July 12, 2002
About sixty Red Lakers showed up at the Minneapolis American Indian Women’s Resource Center on Wednesday evening, July 10th for an event advertised by the Committee to Re-elect Whitefether as a “Debate … featuring Bobby Whitefeather & Butch Brun.” Brun and Whitefeather are contending for the Red Lake tribal chairman’s seat in the July 17th Red Lake run-off elections.

According to Gerald “Butch” Brun, whose supporters handed out a written statement at the meeting, Brun received no invitation to the forum. “Bobby Whitefeather’s campaign committee never had the courtesy to contact me. I had to read about this forum in the newspaper,” Brun wrote. “I will not dignify this forum set up by Whitefeather and his committee.”

Brun also pointed out, “I was the person who initiated the Red Lake Urban Office in the metro area. And I would appreciate any support that the urban Tribal members can provide in this important election on July 17th” – absentee voters can cast their ballots in Minneapolis on July 15th at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. Brun continued, “I will be available if you wish to contact me. My home phone number is 1-218-679-3069.”

Whitefeather told the crowd at the meeting that his campaign committee had not “formally invited” him to the ‘debate,’ either.

Elders John Smith (son of Harry Smith and Isabelle Weise), Ona Raincloud, and Alberta Norris spoke of their concerns about conditions at Red Lake while Whitefeather stood on the sidelines, then Smith moderated a discussion with the crowd.

The Red Lakers at the Women’s Resource Center on the evening of July 10th expressed concerns about Red Lake finances, constitutional reform, deterioration of the environment, blood quantum, reservation economics, violence and crime on the reservation, adequate representation of urban Indians’ interests, and lack of access to health care for Indians living outside the Indian Health Services’ geographical service limits, etc., etc. …

As one member of the audience who spoke fervently about blood quantum problems – he called the BIA’s blood-quantum legacy “mathematical genocide” – noted, many of the problems faced by Indians both on the reservation and in urban areas are strongly affected by government policies, and problems with I.R.A. constitutions, separation of powers, depressed reservation economies, etc., are pan-Indian problems.

Whitefeather spoke at some length in Chippewa, and responded to some of the questions and concerns expressed by the audience. He explained that constitutional reform had been a part of his campaign platform eight years ago, but that once in office, he hadn’t believed that the ‘time was right’ to begin addressing the issue.

Many in the crowd at the Women’s Resource Center had strongly-held concerns. John Smith unobtrusively demonstrated his skill as a moderator, several times defusing arguments between people in the audience, and twice suggesting, “if you want to fight, go outside.”

Newspaper publishers and writers are not usually the target of heated discussion at political debates. During the latter part July 10th meeting, however, Native American Press/Ojibwe News publisher Bill Lawrence was vigorously lambasted by a handful of Whitefeather supporters. The main issue was Red Lake finances, and the public scrutiny to which the Whitefeather administration had been subjected in the wake of this newspaper’s publication of several articles about questionable financial practices.