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By Bill Lawrence - February 22, 2002
According to audited financial statements dated January 10th 2002 for
fiscal year 2001 (October 1, 2000 – September 30, 2001) prepared by the
independent auditing firm of Miller, McDonald, Erickson, and Moeller of
Bemidji, Minnesota, Red Lake Gaming Enterprises had a net income of
$4,262,733. This is significant because Red Lake Gaming Enterprises
management had reported on October 22, 2001 that Red Lake Gaming had a
net income for fiscal year 2001 of $6,504,789.
Norton again demonstrates “total inability to understand
role of trustee”
From Indiantrust.com - February 8, 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal judge sharply criticized Interior
Secretary Gale Norton today for a “totally improper” attempt to
circumvent a court order sealing the personal financial data of Indians
who are challenging Norton in court over mismanagement of the
Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust.
By Jeff Armstrong - February 8, 2002
The mother of a 9-year-old Cass Lake Elementary School student is
rethinking her choice of educational venues after school officials
attempted to impose an unusual discipline on the third grader.
By Clara NiiSka - February 8, 2002
Marcella Blue Stone, age 78, was born at Prairie Island when it was
still Strom’s Crossing whistle-stop. She is the daughter of Walter
Jesse Leith, the first I.R.A. tribal chairman of Prairie Island, and
Cora Lawrence Leith. She is listed, #325, on the “Prairie Island base
rolls”—the B.I.A.’s Indian Census Roll of April 1, 1934 of the
“Purchased land reservation of the Pipestone, Minnesota
jurisdiction”—as 5/8 Mdewakanton Sioux, residing on-reservation.
Marcella’s full brother, Chris Leith, is a widely-known ‘spiritual
leader’ at Prairie Island.
Internal financial statements reveal net loss of
$2,337,656 in three months
By Bill Lawrence - February 8, 2002
According to un-audited financial statements provided to Press/ON by an
anonymous source, the Red Lake Gaming Enterprises had a reported net
income of $1,176,219 for the three months period ending December 31,
2001. This is $1,339,460 less than budgeted by Red Lake gaming.
Surprisingly, these two amounts were not mentioned in the cover memo to
the financial statements dated January 19, 2001 from Veldon Baird, Red
Lake gaming accountant, to Roy Ferris, Red Lake gaming C.O.O. and
presented to the Red Lake Gaming Board at the board meeting on January
30, 2002. The Red Lake Gaming Board is comprised of the eleven members
Red Lake Tribal Council.
By Paul Shukovsky (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) -
February 1, 2002
QUIL, CEDA – Construction work on a large business park that includes a
casino, mini-malls, amusement parks and a shopping center likely will
have to stop as a result of a federal court ruling. The Quil Ceda
Village, a 495-acre development on Interstate 5 just north of
Marysville, is owned and operated by the Tulalip Tribes. It’s a bold
experiment in capitalism aimed at bringing about “total
self-governance, total self-determination: of the Tulalip people.
Associated Press - February 1, 2002
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes want to charge news
organizations $150 a year for reservation access. Newspapers and
broadcasters reject the idea. Tribal leaders say they will enforce a
1992 tribal law that requires any organization doing business on the
reservation to purchase an annual business license, Tribal Council
member Wesley Edmo said.
Do the Crushing Social Costs Justify the Arguments
Concerning Casinos?
By Jean Pagano - February 1, 2002
Earl L. Grinols and David B. Mustard explain in their recent study:
Business Profitability versus Social Profitability: Evaluating
Industries with Externalities, The Case of Casinos, that casinos cause
crime (Casino, crime, and community costs, PRESS/ON January 25, 2002 by
Clara Niiska). There are, however, a number of other social costs
relating to casinos, other than crime. Of all the social costs, the
link between crime and casinos has been studied more than any other.
Yet, it is important to briefly examine the remaining eight social
costs.
By Clara NiiSka - February 1, 2002
Press/ON publisher Bill Lawrence went to court on Monday, January 28th,
representing himself and this newspaper in the legal cases Mille Lacs
Band of Ojibwe Indians v. State, et al., and Prairie Island Indian
Community v. Department of Public Safety, et al. The two cases were
heard jointly by Judge Louise Bjorkman in Ramsey County District Court.
Also appearing before Judge Bjorkman were John Garry, of the Office of
the Attorney General and representing the State of Minnesota, Mille
Lacs Band lawyer Wallace G. Hilke of the Minneapolis law firm Lindquist
and Vennum, and Prairie Island Indian Community lawyer Julie Ann
Fishel, of the St. Paul law firm Winthrop and Weinstine. Attorney Mark
Anfinson, representing the Minneapolis Star Tribune, had previously
sought to participate as an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”).
By Jean Pagano - January 25, 2002
The 2000 census lists 32,029 Minnesota children as American Indian. Of
this number, 20,607 were listed as only American Indian whereas the
remaining 11,422 were listed as American Indian and one or more other
races. These are the raw facts presented in Minnesota KIDS COUNT,
provided by the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota. The fact of the
matter is that Native American children struggle to maintain
equilibrium in the multiracial melting pot that is Minnesota.
By Jeff Armstrong - January 25, 2002
The 8-day suspension of a 12th grade wrestler for allegedly assaulting
and breaking the arm of a 7th grade Native student at Blackduck High
School drew protests from an unlikely source.
By Tom Kizzia (Anchorage Daily News) - January 25,
2002
The handful of Alaska tribes seeking federal recognition for
high-stakes gambling has been dealt another setback in federal court. A
federal judge in Washington, D.C., has upheld the National Indian
Gaming Commission's decision to deny a permit to the Native Village of
Barrow for a pulltab operation that violates state gambling limits.
By Clara NiiSka - January 25, 2002
Seven gambling bills are pending in the Minnesota Legislature,
including Sen. Doug Johnson’s SF 1841 to establish a Twin Cities casino
operated by the Minnesota State Lottery and splitting the profits with
Minnesota Indian tribes.
Press Release - January 25, 2002
The Red Lake School District came out the winner Monday, January 12th,
even though it got less than half what it requested from Gov. Jesse
Ventura in his 2002 capital bonding bill.
Press Release - January 25, 2002
The 1837 Ceded Territory Fisheries Technical Committee (CTFTC),
composed of tribal and state biologists, agreed on quotas for the
upcoming 2002 fishing season in Minnesota's Mille Lacs Lake. The
committee met Jan. 16-17 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Center in
Minneapolis.
By Jean Pagano - January 18, 2002
Two years ago, this newspaper presented an article that detailed how
Indian control and increased spending were not helping the overall
graduation rates among Indian children. While the number of Indian
children in public schools increased over the last two years, the
percentage of students actually graduating from grade 12 is lower today
that it was twenty years ago.
By Bill Lawrence - January 18, 2002
Before a packed council chamber on the afternoon of Saturday January
12, the Red Lake Tribal Council (RLTC) voted 6-3 to accept the recall
petition of treasurer Dan King.
By Clara NiiSka - January 11, 2002
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has a policy of dismissing
charges of human rights violations against Indian casinos and other
tribal entities when the Indian defendant responds to the human rights
complaint with a defense of “sovereign immunity.” Although the State
asserts jurisdiction, and human rights complaints against Indian
casinos and other tribal entities may be filed with the State
Department of Human Rights, those charges are routinely dismissed.
By Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin
January 8, 2002
I. Introduction
My fellow Band members, our People lived through attempted genocide,
disease, despair and poverty. Our ancestors fought battles against
smallpox, the encroachment of timber companies, and the county burning
their homes. And we are the survivors.
By Jeff Armstrong - January 11, 2002
A police videotape obtained by Press/ON of the Aug. 31 arrest of Lowell
Bellanger by White Earth and Mahnomen County officers tends to support
the tribal activist’s account of the incident, which resulted in
Bellanger facing charges of fleeing a peace officer and obstructing
legal process with force.
By Jeff Armstrong - January 11, 2002
The Minnesota Court of Appeals this week ruled that police holding a
juvenile suspect must attempt to have the youth's parents present
during questioning. The appeals court struck down a Hennepin County
district court decision upholding the delinquency adjudication of a
14-year-old, referred to as D.B.X, who confessed to stealing a car
during a law enforcement interrogation.
January 11, 2002
State wildlife officials said they're pleased but need to take a closer
look at a proposal by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and six other
Chippewa bands to take 100,000 pounds of walleyes a year out of Lake
Mille Lacs between 2003 and 2007.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is
expressing concern about an element of commercialization included in
the plan, which was submitted to the agency in the past week.
Associated Press, January 11, 2001
Calling county officials the biggest threat to sovereignty and identity
of the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa, Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin
said the tribe is unmovable and willing to fight.
“Against our will, we are being forced to fight for our
survival,” Benjamin said Tuesday in her annual State of the Band
address.
By Jeff Armstrong - January 4, 2002
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week reinstated the federal
indictment of a non-Native for resisting the legal authority of a BIA
police officer to enforce state law on the Fort Berthold Reservation.
By Clara NiiSka - December 21, 2001
The Department of the Interior met with tribal officials at the
Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington on Thursday, December 20th. The meeting
is the second in a series with tribal leaders. It was called after
Interior Secretary Gale Norton, “the latest Interior secretary to try
to straighten out the trust-funds mess … proposed a massive
restructuring of the BIA.” She reportedly “angered tribal leaders” by
not consulting with them prior to unveiling her $300 million plan to
restructure the BIA, according to St. Paul Pioneer staffwriter Nancy
Ngo.
By Jean Pagano - December 21, 2001
Pursuant to the Red Lake Tribal Council’s October 9th ordinance
providing for the recall of tribal council members, the petition to
recall Treasurer Dan King was turned in to tribal Secretary Judy Roy at
9:30 p.m. on December 16th at the police station. The petition had been
previously circulated and was turned in to tribal Secretary Roy on
December 5th, 2001, but was returned to cure defects when it was found
that nearly 500 of the signatures lacked the complete address needed.
By Jeff Armstrong - December 21, 2001
A White Earth youth ticketed for underage drinking is challenging the
constitutionality of Minnesota laws allowing counties to enter into
reservation law enforcement agreements without the formal consent of
tribal members.
By Bill Lawrence (reprinted from Press/ON, April 14,
2000)
According to numerous sources, who prefer to remain anonymous, Press/ON
has learned that a federal investigation into an alleged embezzlement
of funds at the Red Lake tribally-owned and operated River Road Casino
is currently underway.
By Clara NiiSka - December 14, 2001
At the Red Lake tribal council meeting on Tuesday, December 11,
treasurer Dan King did his best to avoid facing Red Lake voters in a
potential recall election—by trying to revoke the recall ordinance
enacted by a split Red Lake tribal council on October 9th.
By Jeff Armstrong - December 14, 2001
In a petition for a writ of certiorari, Clara NiiSka has asked the
highest court in the United States to do what no other court
can--review more than a century of the contradictory hodgepodge of case
law, legislative acts and bilateral treaties known collectively as
Indian Law.
Since the 1997 death of her husband, columnist and
author Wub-e-ke-niew (a.k.a. Francis Blake), NiiSka has submitted
thousands of pages of legal and historical documentation to various
courts in support of the deceptively simple proposition that her
traditional 1984 Mide marriage on Red Lake was legally valid under
tribal, state and federal law of questionable applicability.
By Jeff Armstrong - December 14, 2001
Citing an economic downturn it attributed to the Sept. 11 attacks on
the eastern United States, the White Earth RBC recently dismissed at
least 15 employees, including the entire emergency dispatch staff.
Senior reservation dispatcher Bev Johnson warned the
latter move was shortsighted and could have dire consequences for White
Earth residents, particularly elders in need of transportation and
critical care.
December 14, 2001
On Wednesday, December 12, the Minneapolis Star Tribune requested the
state court’s permission to file a brief “as amicus curiae in
conjunction with the tribal casino audit litigation” arising from
Press/ON’s Data Practices Act request for Indian casino audits held by
the State. The Star Tribune has also requested the audits.
Star Tribune attorney Mark Anfinson faxed the
newspaper’s request to participate in upcoming hearings as amicus
curaie (“friend of the court”) to Judge Louise Bjorkman, who is the
Ramsey County Judge hearing the lawsuits filed by the Mille Lacs Band
and the Prairie Island Indian Community against the State. Both
lawsuits seek to bar the release of the Indian casino audits. Release
of those audits is mandated under state law, the Data Practices Act,
according to the Attorney General’s September 14th ruling on the issue.
AP Wire Service - December 14, 2001
Movers on Saturday cleaned out the Rapid City office of Indian Country
Today, one day after the Oneida Nation of New York told workers the
newspaper was being moved.
The Oneida Nation bought the newspaper three years ago.
It has operated from Rapid City for 12 years.
By Pat Doyle (Minneapolis Star Tribune) - December
14, 2001
Citing e-mails in which state gambling regulators appeared eager to
please tribal casinos, the Minnesota attorney general's office
Wednesday criticized regulators working with American Indian tribes
fighting to keep casino audits from the public.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Alan Gilbert wrote a judge
that the e-mails demonstrate that the Department of Public Safety,
which regulates gambling, isn't representing state interests in a fight
over whether to release the audits.
By Jeff Armstrong - November 9, 2001
In what may be a precedent-setting case, Mille Lacs County district
judge Steven Ruble will decide by the end of the year whether there is
adequate evidence to proceed with criminal assault charges against
former Mille Lacs Tribal Police sergeant Marc Gabiger.
By Bill Lawrence - November 9, 2001
Under the threat of a recall petition and battling for his reservation
political life, Red Lake tribal council treasurer Dan King released
another edition of his “Financial Times” last week. This most recent
edition, called the October 1, 2001 “Seven Clans Casino Gaming Times,”
is in addition to King’s October 2001 “Red Lake Nation Tribal Times,”
which was released approximately three weeks ago.
By Jeff Armstrong - November 2, 2001
A White Earth family which won a precedent-setting federal judgment
last year against the reservation's Circle of Life school for
educational discrimination took a first step toward recovering the
significant legal expenses they have incurred.
By Jeff Armstrong - November 2, 2001
The credibility of the White Earth police department is likely to be
tested in two state criminal cases in which the individuals charged
allege they were victims of harassment and excessive force.
By Jean Pagano - November 2, 2001
On Tuesday October 23rd, four police officers arrived at the Indian
Health Board (IHB) in Minneapolis and escorted Lydia Carlos, a
physician at the clinic, from the building. Carlos’ forced departure
from the building was the result of a meeting between Carlos and
executive director Yvonne Bushyhead on the 19th of October and Carlos’
subsequent letter to the staff concerning the meeting.
By Robert Gehrke (Associated Press) - November 2, 2001
WASHINGTON -- An exasperated federal judge berated the
Interior Department on Tuesday for repeatedly failing to fix a system
that manages billions of dollars of Indian money. He said the
dereliction seems to be clear grounds to hold Interior Secretary Gale
Norton and others in contempt of court.
By Bill Lawrence - November 2, 2001
A Fiscal Year 2001 financial report prepared by Red Lake gaming
management reveals that the River Road motel and water park have lost
$71,986 since the nearly $40 million dollar facilities’ grand opening
slightly more than four months ago, on May 25.
By Jean Pagano - October 26, 2001
The United States Supreme Court, in their term ending 28 June 2001,
issued five decisions which affected the issue of tribal sovereignty.
Specifically in the decisions of Nevada v. Hicks and Atkinson Trading
Company v. Shirley, tribal jurisdiction over the conduct of non-Indians
on tribal land has been severely curtailed.
By Clara NiiSka - October 26, 2001
Should the State of Minnesota get into the casino-operations business?
The Minnesota House of Representatives’ Government Operations &
Veterans Affairs Policy (Gov Ops) Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Rhodes
(R-44B), held an “informational” hearing about that issue at St. Cloud
City Hall on Thursday evening, October 18, 2001.
By Clara NiiSka - October 26, 2001
Press/ON publisher Bill Lawrence, acting as his own attorney, filed
Friday as intervenor in the two casino audit lawsuits being heard in
Ramsey County District Court: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians,
Plaintiff, v. State of Minnesota and Charlie Weaver as the Commissioner
of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, and Prairie Island Indian
Community v. Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
By Jeff Armstrong - October 26, 2001
Jawnie
Hough has filed a motion asking Beltrami County district judge
Terrance Holter to set aside his Oct. 3 ruling in favor of Hough's
ex-husband's family, whom she alleges misused tribal and state courts
to legalize the abduction of her four-year-old daughter.
By Bill Lawrence - October 26, 2001
Despite releasing a glowing report on the financial position of the Red
Lake Band of Chippewa Indians two weeks ago, at a tribal gaming board
meeting on October 22, treasurer Dan King pressured lenders for a 12
month waiver of principal payments on the $27 million loan for the
motel waterslide expansion project.
Press/ON report - October 19, 2001
The Red Lake tribal council adopted an ordinance providing for the
recall of tribal council members at its general meeting on Tuesday,
October 9. As Press/ON reported last week, there has been serious
concern about the way that Red Lake treasurer Dan King has been
handling tribal finances and tribal businesses.
By Clara NiiSka - October 19, 2001
During its regularly scheduled October 9, 2001 meeting, the Red Lake
tribal council narrowly enacted an ordinance providing for the recall
of tribal council representatives and officers. As Press/ON reported on
October 12, the #1 concern motivating the recall ordinance was, “the
way that Red Lake treasurer Dan King has handled tribal business.”
By Jean Pagano - October 19, 2001
Author and White Earth enrollee Gerald Vizenor recently received the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the
Americas. Vizenor, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe from White
Earth, is a prolific writer and author of works of fiction, nonfiction,
poetry, essays, textbooks, and a contributor to numerous anthologies.
He has been a professor at Lake Forest College, Bemidji State
University, University of Minnesota, University of Oklahoma, University
of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
By Jeff Armstrong - October 19, 2001
(Press/ON) In a 22-page decision dated Oct. 2, RBC-appointed judge B.J.
Jones ruled that the Mille Lacs Court of Central Jurisdiction has legal
authority to hear a civil rights complaint against reservation
defendants for their role in the 1997 arrest and jailing of a Press/ON
reporter.
Council authorizes $4 million of stumpage funds for
casino construction overruns — now at $12 million
By Bill Lawrence - October 12, 2001
At its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday October 9, a
split Red Lake Tribal Council enacted an ordinance providing for the
recall of tribal council members. The ordinance was passed by a vote of
5-4, after more than an hour of contentious debate and before a packed
council chamber. After council members and hereditary chiefs concluded
their remarks about the proposed ordinance, chairman Whitefeather
opened the floor to tribal members. Francis Brun, Archie King, Bill
Lawrence, and James White spoke in favor of the ordinance and Linda
Bedeau spoke against.
By Janita Poe (Atlanta Journal and Constitution) -
October 12, 2001
Dean Parisian, a Native American money manager in Alpharetta, wants to
network with other Indian business owners in a professional group
similar to those of Asians, Latinos and African-Americans.
But American Indians make up one of the smallest racial
groups in the country, and that makes networking difficult,
particularly in places such as Georgia, where they make up less than 1
percent of the population.
By James P. Sweeney (Copley News Service) - October
12, 2001
Over the past year, 24 states and a number of local governments,
including San Diego County, persuaded the Bush administration to freeze
critical new rules for removing Indian lands from state and local
controls.
The guidelines, pushed through in the waning days of the
Clinton administration, pose profound implications for California,
which is home to 108, or nearly a fifth of the nation's 561 federally
recognized tribes.
By Jeff Armstrong - October 12, 2001
Apparently basing his ruling on contradictory statements by Donald
Brun, Jr., father of four-year-old Meghan Brun, Beltrami County
district judge Terrance Holter refused to rescind his previous decision
to enforce an ex parte Red Lake Tribal Court order revoking state court
custody from the mother, Jawnie
Hough.
By Jeff Armstrong - October 5, 2001
A Sept. 29-30 conference of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe members in Mille
Lacs unanimously rejected proposed amendments to the tribal
constitution, calling instead for meetings on all six reservations to
prepare for a genuine constitutional convention. While the resolution
is not binding upon the governing Tribal Executive Committee, it does
signal the almost certain defeat of any effort to place the amendments
before the tribal electorate through a BIA-administered secretarial
election.
By Clara NiiSka - September 28, 2001
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 the dictates
of state law.” The compacts assign responsibility for monitoring Indian
gambling enterprises’ $3 billion annual monopoly in Minnesota to the
state Department of Public Safety (DPS), and require that audits be
provided to the state upon written request. Recent reports by the
Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer indicate that since
1991 DPS has obtained sixty-five audits from the eleven tribes
operating 18 casinos in the state; in a September 21 article, Star
Tribune staff writer Robert Franklin quoted DPS spokesman Kevin Smith
as saying that DPS has only four audits obtained since 1997.
FROM: Mike Hatch, Attorney General
TO: David F. Fisher, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of
Administration
Dear Commissioner Fisher:
On August 29, 2001, this Office received a copy of your approval,' as
Commissioner of Administration, of the application by the Minnesota
Department of Public Safety (the "Department") for temporary
classification of certain data contained in audits of tribal gaming
enterprises submitted to the Department by eleven tribal governments in
accordance with their respective tribal-state compacts.2 The approval
was submitted to the Attorney General's Office pursuant to the
provisions of Minn. Stat. § 13.06, subd. 5 (2000) which requires
the Office to review the approval as to form and legality.
Based upon a review of the record and applicable law,
the following sets forth the analysis and conclusion of this Office.
By Clara NiiSka - September 21, 2001
In a ruling dated Friday, September 14th, Alan Gilbert, Solicitor
General and Chief Deputy of Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch ruled
that State-held audits of Indian tribal gambling enterprises are public
information. The Attorney General’s Office overturned Commissioner of
Administration David Fisher’s August 29th approval of Commissioner of
Public Safety Charlie Weaver’s request to reclassify the audits as
nonpublic, disapproving both the form and the legal basis of Fisher’s
data reclassification request. The Solicitor General’s September 14th
letter to Commissioner Fisher is published in this issue of Press/ON,
beginning on page 1.
By Jeff Armstrong - September 21, 2001
A minor personal dispute on the White Earth Reservation which escalated
into a confrontation with a tribal police officer may pose the
strongest challenge yet to state-enacted tribal police legislation.
According to a White Earth police report by arresting
officer Chris Benson, he responded to an April 29 call from Linda
Bevins that Kristin Manypenny was "revving the engine and causing a
disturbance" outside of Bevins' home. Benson observes in his report
that Manypenny was driving away from the home when he arrived, but that
she stopped to ask if the officer "had a problem here."
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