Tribal fishing battles loom in Minnesota

Tribal fishing battles loom in Minnesota

DENNIS ANDERSON, Star Tribune [ danderson@startribune.com ]

LEECH LAKE RESERVATION -- The stage is set for an off-reservation treaty rights battle to begin Friday in Bemidji that ultimately could engulf much of northern Minnesota. Some Leech Lake Chippewa band members say they'll set nets in Lake Bemidji the day before Minnesota's walleye and northern pike seasons begin.

The Indians are gambling they'll be busted for violating state angling rules, sparking a legal battle not only over northern Minnesota fish but also its wildlife and perhaps its timber, minerals and other resources.

Citing a treaty more than 150 years old, the Chippewa say most state fish and wildlife rules don't apply to them across a large section of northern Minnesota -- generally north of Interstate 94 -- that they ceded to the federal government in 1855.

The stakes are high for everyone. The Leech Lake Chippewa, and those of the White Earth band about an hour away, risk backlashes that could cut into their casino profits and fracture relations with nonband members that in some instances are already tenuous.

And while the state has signaled it will hold fast to its contention that the bands have no off-reservation hunting, fishing and gathering rights, its costly defeat in the U.S. Supreme Court to the Mille Lacs and other Chippewa bands over similar treaty claims in 1999 hasn't been forgotten.

"We need to exercise our rights or our sovereignty is just a thought,'' said Renée Jones-Judkins, 52, of Cass Lake, who with her four sons will net Lake Bemidji on Friday. She was one of about 125 Leech Lake members (out of a tribal enrollment of 9,400) who attended a tribal treaty rights meeting Friday at the band's Palace Casino in Cass Lake.

The White Earth and Leech Lake tribal councils aren't sanctioning the protests. Instead, they will sponsor a public forum on Friday in Bemidji to inform nonband members about rights the Chippewa say they hold.

The councils want to adopt a conservation code governing off-reservation resource use before advocating regional fishing by band members. "We want to have a code so they [the state] can't prosecute in state court; it will go to tribal court instead,'' tribal attorney Frank Bibeau said.

This latest push for treaty rights was first reported two weeks ago. But the minutes of a Leech Lake and White Earth treaty rights committee meeting in March indicate that a decision to demand off-reservation rights by some band members and Chippewa leaders, including Leech Lake tribal chairman Arthur LaRose, was made months ago.

"If the state does not comply [with the band's demands], our next step would be to do the fish-off on May 14th, but only in public places, and in daylight hours,'' the minutes say. "We will need some nonviolence training and some legal witnesses. Get 20-30 lawyers to be legal observers. We could do this at the south end of [Lake] Bemidji, where we will have the press and they can see how many people are exercising their rights. We will need people with video cameras so it does not get violent, because it is a possibility.''

Bibeau acknowledges a long treaty rights legal battle with the state would be costly. But he said he believes the federal government will pick up the tab if the bands and the state face off in court. "If the state doesn't respond, we'll ask the Department of Justice to come in,'' Bibeau said.

Meanwhile, Audrey Thayer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Bemidji, has said her group's lawyers likely will defend any Chippewa cited by the state for illegal fishing.

Tribe members split

The bands' treaty rights claim has further split an already divided Leech Lake tribal council, just weeks ahead of a June 8 election whose outcome could affect how quickly the band pushes its demands.

LaRose, 38, is a life-long reservation resident. Now midway in his first four-year term, he is campaigning to unseat the band's secretary-treasurer and fellow council member, Mike Bongo.

"Four of six [Chippewa] reservations in Minnesota already exercise their treaty rights,'' LaRose said. "It makes sense for Leech Lake and White Earth to do the same.''

Bongo, 53, who was born on the reservation and worked for 20 years in various corporate positions in the Twin Cities before returning in 2003, agrees treaty rights are important. But so are the band's pressing economic and social issues, he said, such as widespread poverty and its need for a new hospital and high school.
"Among Indians, the issue [treaty rights] is so emotional, it can be difficult to make the decision that is best for the band unless we think it through carefully,'' Bongo said. "We should get more legal opinions and historians' expert opinions about how winnable our case is, then make a decision.''

Bongo said most band members knew nothing about the treaty rights issue until recently. "We were blindsided,'' he said.

On a reservation where some say nepotism and cronyism have long been part of the political fabric, dissension among council members is common -- as are firings and rehirings.

Bibeau, for example, was fired about 10 days ago at a special council meeting held by Bongo and council members Robbie Howe and Lyman Losh, after Bibeau publicly advocated for a treaty rights protest.

As quickly, LaRose voided the firing, saying the meeting was illegal.

Said council member Howe, 38: "This is like being in the movie 'The Departed.' It's chaos. This is a new day. We have to find a new way to express ourselves. We're not going back to 1855.''

Treaty history long

Treaties with the Chippewa, also known as the Anishinabe, predate Minnesota's founding and form the backbone of the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Mille Lacs case.

Federal court decisions in the 1980s granted Wisconsin Chippewa similar rights and awarded them as much as half the harvestable fish, game and other resources across most of the northern part of that state.

But whether those rights exist for the Leech Lake and White Earth bands isn't clear.
Unlike the government's 1854 treaty on which the Wisconsin treaty rights case turned and the 1837 treaty that supported the Mille Lacs band's claims, the 1855 treaty affecting Leech Lake and White Earth is silent about hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the ceded territory.

"They [the bands] are making a different kind of argument here, and it's more challenging,'' said Bruce White, a St. Paul historical anthropologist who was among the Mille Lacs band's expert witnesses in their successful U.S. Supreme Court petition.

"In the Mille Lacs case, the 1855 treaty came up because there was no explicit termination of hunting, fishing and gathering rights in it. That meant the rights still existed. I'm not saying [the Leech Lake and White Earth treaty case] is impossible. But it's challenging.''

Peter Erlinder, a William Mitchell Law School professor, said he believes the bands can win a treaty case. Erlinder is an Indian-rights activist whose recently completed legal treatise forms virtually the sole opinion on which the Leech Lake and White Earth bands base their treaty assertions. Erlinder also believes the state might owe the bands $350 million or more for failing to recognize their off-reservation rights.

Leech Lake and White Earth would have joined the Mille Lacs and Wisconsin cases, some band members say. But the bands were broke at the time, those band members say, and their governments corrupt.

Said Jones-Judkins, the Leech Lake member who will net Lake Bemidji on Friday: "If the state of Minnesota owes us $350 million for not exercising our rights, then why the heck shouldn't I fish? Those are my resources.''

danderson@startribune.com



Leech Lake Reservation at a glance

Last update: May 10, 2010 - 8:27 PM

• The Leech Lake Reservation measures
about 680,000 acres and encompasses three
of Minnesota's largest and best fishing lakes:
Leech, Cass and Winnibigoshish.

The lakes' surface area covers about a third
of the reservation. Of the remaining 465,000
acres, other governments own 332,000
acres.

• About 5,000 of 9,400 band members live
on the reservation, about a third of whom
live below the nation's poverty level,
according to the band.

• Government is by a five-member
Reservation Business Committee. Its two
officers, chairman Arthur LaRose and
secretary-treasurer Mike Bongo, are elected
at-large. The other three represent specific
districts.

• The reservation has a tribal K-12 school,
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig; a hospital and satellite
health clinics, and a two-year tribal college.

• A 1972 agreement with the state allows
nonband anglers to fish on the reservation in
exchange for up to $7 million annually to the
band.

• Leech Lake band members can net lakes
within the reservation to feed themselves and
their families. Few nets are set. Sometimes
nets are illegally destroyed by nonband
inhabitants.

• The band owns three casinos, with gross
annual revenue of about $100 million and a
profit of about $15 million, according to the
band. The casinos have 1,269 employees,
768 of whom are Leech Lake Chippewa or
other natives.

• Nonband members of the Leech Lake
Fishing Task Force, a community group that
helps stock walleyes, say the band and its
casinos have been invaluable in supporting
their efforts. Last summer, 650 band and
nonband members attended a walleye fry and
gathering. "Whatever we talk about, whatever
we do here [in Walker] and on Leech Lake, it's
the Indian and non-Indian community
working together,'' said Terry Holly of
Walker, a task force member who does not
belong to the band.

DENNIS ANDERSON

(Note: The "poverty level" referred to is a shamefully low figure used by politicians to hide and conceal the real poverty statistics and designed to conceal institutionalized racism and the fact that the more than 700 Native American Indians employed in the three casinos referenced ALL receive poverty wages. In fact, over 70% of the people are living in poverty on the reservation when using the more accurate data of the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics which calculates based upon cost of living factors.

Another fact not mentioned is that there is no accountability for any of the money--- profits or otherwise--- from the casino businesses. Actual gross revenues and "profits" are at least four to five times more because of the skimming operation and the fact that less than 15% of the real profits are ever seen by the Leech Lake Band because the mobsters who own the slot machines skim 30% to 60% right off the top for which there is no accounting. Archie LaRose and Frank Bibeau are nothing but corrupt politicians forcing hundreds of casino workers to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights. It is amazing how every single reporter for the mainstream media and even those writing for the "alternative" media refuse to mention the issues involving casino workers even though when mentioning "poverty" they never mention the fact that these casino workers receive poverty wages from their own Band governments operating these casinos and fronting for a bunch of mobsters who own the slot machines. Alan L. Maki)

In fact, this article is part of the institutionalized racism responsible for the continued poverty resulting from racist unemployment and racist poverty wages which the Star Tribune and this reporter, Dennis Anderson have never reported on with the living and working conditions of casino workers and the fact that affirmative action has not been enforced on the planning, construction and staffing of the Bemidji Regional Event Center because Archie LaRose and Frank Bibeau would rather Native American Indians work for poverty wages at tribally owned businesses whose only profiteers are rich white people in the fishing and casino industries.

Maybe if this reporter would report the salaries of Archie LaRose, Frank Bibeau and the guy pulling their strings, John McCarthy of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association who lives like an old feudal lord in a multi-million dollar mansion raking in the profits of these industries we would get a better picture of why poverty exists in the first place amidst the generation of so much wealth. Mr. Anderson might want to ask the Beltrami County DFL who it pays for the walleye served at its fund-raising dinners.

What is John McCarthy's role in the commercial and tourist fishing industry on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.

John McCarthy hands out millions of dollars in bribes to Minnesota's politicians only to take this money back in through the business he purchased: Tony Doom, Inc. where the politicians spend their campaign contributions on everything from pens to yard signs and leaflets. If John McCarthy is involved in this kind of unethical money-making while bribing politicians, one has to wonder if John McCarthy doesn't have his dirty, corrupt little racist fingers stuck in the fishing industry since Beltrami County Democrats purchase their walleye from McCarthy.

What is the role of John McCarthy in all of this? Is he looking to exploit Native American Indian fishers like he does casino workers.

The corrupt Frank Bibeau does John McCarthy's dirty work in trying to keep workers from having a union at the three tribally owned casinos and everyone knows that Archie LaRose is nothing but a worthless crook.

And Audrey Thayer and the American Civil Liberties Union have spent over $800,000.00 in less than five years on an office in northern Minnesota that has done absolutely nothing and now she is saying the ACLU is going to fight for the Treaty Rights of Leech Lake Band members to fish... when, in fact, the only thing being fought for is to use Leech Lake Band members as a source of cheap labor to harvest these fish... just like is being done right now with the Red Lake fishers who work hard harvesting the fish only to be paid a pittance for their catches from a white-owned processing operation getting rich which is trying to destroy the Canadian Freshwater Fishing Marketing Corporation in Manitoba which assures commercial fishers real living incomes for their catches.

I find it very interesting that the American Civil Liberties Union has never stood up for casino workers nor fought for the enforcement of affirmative action... but, here comes Audrey Thayer and the ACLU supporting one more poverty wage paying industry under the guise of defending sovereignty and Treaty Rights.

Make no mistake, Native Americans have the right to fish under their treaties which the racist Minnesota government refuses to respect; however, those like Archie LaRose, Frank Bibeau, John McCarthy and Audrey Thayer will only fight to enforce these treaties to the extent that white people will continue to profit from the poverty of Indian people, the majority of whom are working class and who will be stuck with nothing but more poverty wage jobs and the Star Tribune and its white reporter will never report on the poverty of the people forced to work in these poverty wage jobs... talk about institutionalized racism... here it is--- and why those reporting on this important struggle to protect the Treaty Rights of Indian people for the "alternative" media like Monthly Review end up tailing the reporters of the mainstream media instead of looking beneath the surface for ALL the facts is of concern.

Come on, we have the right to know... will Audrey Thayer and the ACLU fight for the rights of Leech Lake fishers for real living wages from their catches while protected under state or federal labor laws?

I find it very interesting that Frank Bibeau and his attorney friends will run to the federal government for the funds to fight for Treaty Rights under the guise of sovereignty will let his own people languish at poverty wage jobs without any rights under state or federal labor laws.

At what point do workers' rights and their livelihoods figure into all of this when it comes to sovereignty and Treaty Rights?

Tribal fishing battles loom in Minnesota--- along with a whole lot of hypocrisy.

Alan L. Maki

Ballot case delayed: Mack will take 10 days to decide Warriors for Justice case

Check out this article in today's (June 9, 2010) Bemidji Pioneer Press, the largest daily newspaper in northern Minnesota... it didn't mention that the "small group of protesters" were standing out in the rain for five hours. Nor does it mention that this public official, Kay Mack decided the petitions were not valid even though she doesn't even know the law. Many people on Indian Reservations are registered to vote using their P.O. Box number and now these racist public officials are going to go through the petitions with a fine tooth comb to come up with something else because THEIR FIRST CHALLENGE wasn't based on the law... in fact, in addition to this being a vile act of racism in trying to deny the Warriors for Justice ballot status... it further goes to prove how these vile acts of racism by these public officials is an attack on the most fundamental and basic democratic and constitutional right we have as American citizens: the right to vote for candidates of our choice--- and the right not to vote for a bunch of worthless Republicans and Democrats who do nothing to help solve the problems of the people and then they come around at election time wanting our money and our votes.

Here is the article from the Bemidji Pioneer about our small demonstration--- no mention of what our signs said:

* Bemidji, Minnesota; most racist city in America

* Boycott Bemidji

* End Institutionalized Racism

* Enforce Affirmative Action


Ballot case delayed: Mack will take 10 days to decide Warriors for Justice case

A final decision on whether two Warriors for Justice candidates may gain access to the Nov. 2 ballot will run its full course.

By: Brad Swenson, Bemidji Pioneer

A final decision on whether two Warriors for Justice candidates may gain access to the Nov. 2 ballot will run its full course.

Beltrami County Auditor-Treasurer Kay Mack said Monday that on advise of the Secretary of State’s Office, she will take the full 10 days as prescribed by law to decide on the Warriors for Justice case.

She had said last week that a decision would be made on Monday.

Nicole Beaulieu and Greg Paquin had hoped to start a new political party, Warriors for Justice, and run under that banner on Nov. 2.

Beaulieu seeks the House 4A seat held by Rep. John Persell, DFL-Bemidji, and Paquin seeks the Senate 4 post held by Sen. Mary Olson, DFL-Bemidji.

Mack made an initial decision after filing closed June 1 that Beaulieu and Paquin didn’t have the required 500 signatures on a petition to gain the November. At issue were more than 100 signatures of people showing post office box numbers as their residence.

Under Minnesota election law, petition signers must include their physical residence, including a street and house number.

Beaulieu and Paquin allege they were told by someone in the Secretary of State’s Office that they could use P.O. Box numbers.

“We’re going to use the extra time to go through all the signatures on the petition,” Mack said Monday. “We know that not only are there a lot of P.O. Box addresses, there are also some with no addresses and others with addresses outside the district, which also don’t count.”

A final decision should be made by Friday.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Beaulieu, Paquin and a small group of supports protested at several locations on the Beltrami County campus.

They said they visited with American Civil Liberties Union staff, who have sent a letter to Mack stating their belief that state law allows P.O. box addresses on American Indian reservations.

Both Beaulieu and Paquin have decided to stay in the race as write-in candidates should Mack declare their petitions invalid.

Warriors for Justice hopes to create awareness of what it believes is institutional racism in Bemidji. Paquin has used the lack of a affirmative action policies in the construction of the Bemidji Regional Event Center as his centerpiece.

A lawsuit he filed to contest the lack of affirmative action policies against the city and contractor was dismissed. Paquin, however, plans to appeal the ruling to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

bswenson@bemidjipioneer.com

Justice, from Bhopal to Rwanda

This “sentence” is an outrage. (see article at very bottom)

After all this time this is all that is done to punish these corporate criminals.

Where is the outrage of the peoples of the world?

I find it very interesting how “justice” works.

Peter Erlinder sits in a prison cell in Rwanda and these Union Carbide criminals get a little slap on the wrist while the CEO of British Petroleum isn’t even fired and continues to receive his huge salary and bonuses and Native American Indians are facing stiffer penalties for exercising their Treaty Rights for fishing in Lake Bemidji and I am banned from Canada for life for writing an article against racism and for the rights of working people.

These corporate criminals ply the world in quest of maximum corporate profits as they engage in these criminal activities destroying lives, families, entire communities along with our living environments and democracy as they use all kinds of racist, ethnic and cultural differences to drum up hate between peoples to keep people divided so cannot unify to put an end to this corporate exploitation of people and the rape of their lands--- and the injustices go on and on--- once again we see in this Bhopal “judgment” how there is one set of laws for the rich and powerful and another set of laws for working people.

I wonder why the corporate attorneys who defended Union Carbide are not sitting in a prison cell like Peter Erlinder? A question you might want to ponder while sitting around the dinner table tonight.

Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell Phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Please check out my blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/



From: Working_Class_Study_and_Action@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 7:35 AM
To: Working_Class_Study_and_Action@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Working_Class_Study_and_Action] Bhopal Judgment Sends Wrong Message


Bhopal judgement sends 'wrong message' to business community

Updated June 9, 2010 19:30:15

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/stories/201006/s2922990.htm

There has been outrage in India at this week's two-year prison terms meted out to local managers of Union Carbide, the company blamed for the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster that killed three thousand people. In the world's worst industrial accident, the lethal cyanide gas leak also maimed an estimated 25,000 people. Indian government statistics put the chronically sick at another 100,000 in 1994. Victims say they have been treated with contempt by the courts and the Indian government.

Oberstar launches campaign for 19th term

There has been no response to my questions... 

Oberstar launches campaign for 19th term and he is still ignoring the problems of the people.

From: Alan L. Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 4:35 PM
To: bswenson@bemidjipioneer.com
Subject: Questions about this article you wrote...

Brad Swenson,

Could you identify those you cited merely as “…and representatives of tribal government?”

Also, is there a reason why Congressman Oberstar wasn’t asked by you about the enforcement of affirmative action on all the projects he was so instrumental in securing stimulus funding for. Certainly no one can argue Executive Order #11246 should not have kicked in on these projects.  

I also noticed you didn’t question Oberstar about the peat mining operation in the Big Bog and why he helped a Canadian corporation get the permit. How many members of the Operating Engineers have been working on this project?

Also, Oberstar supported the Enbridge pipeline project. How many employees from the Leech Lake Tribal Construction Company got jobs on this pipeline project; was there an affirmative action policy in place?

Of the 10,700 construction jobs the stimulus funding has created in Minnesota… how many Native American Indians were employed? How many total man/woman hours have been worked? How many Native American man/woman hours have been logged?

It is nice to see that after being in the U.S. Congress for thirty years, Oberstar was able to turn out 30 people for his campaign rally in a city the size of Bemidji. Seems to me people might not be all that thrilled with Oberstar.

Oh, yes, did Oberstar happen to mention what he thinks of racist and undemocratic attempts being made to deny the Warriors for Justice their right to ballot status?

I don’t imagine you asked Oberstar how much allowing smoking in these Indian Gaming Casinos is costing workers in terms of ill health or tax-payers in terms of tax-dollars? Did you happen to ask Mr. Oberstar what he thinks of 41,000 Minnesotans being forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws under conditions much worse than people are employed in South Korea where BP’s off-shore rig was built?

Say, Brad… did any of Oberstar’s thirty supporters happen to suggest that it might be most cost effective and create a few jobs to have a plant built on one of the Indian Reservations to build these off-shore oil rigs using Minnesota iron ore processed in a mill built on an Indian Reservation and fabricated in a plant on an Indian Reservation? What’s with these partnerships with the Chinese in mining operations; jobs to South Korea using Chinese produced Steel.

Oh, Brad; you didn’t happen to ask Jim Oberstar to see some documentation proving the steel pipes used on water lines in Bemidji actually were made with Iron Range ore, did you?

Say, wasn’t Oberstar this big union man nominated to run in a non-union, smoke-filled casino where workers have no rights?

Really, has Oberstar been listening to any people outside of these 30 hand-picked boosters at his campaign rally that couldn’t even fill the little Cabin Coffeehouse owned by a racist?

You know, Brad; I hate to dump too many questions on you, but, did you ask Congressman Oberstar why he is supporting the construction of 700 new military bases in Afghanistan instead of building 700 community-based public healthcare centers right here in the United States? And, speaking of healthcare; a very big and important issue with Congressman Oberstar, you didn’t happen to ask him why the Indian Health Service is so underfunded, did you? Or, why VA isn’t adequately funded to serve the vets here in northern Minnesota who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan as nutcases and paraplegics when they aren’t coming back in body bags. Which brings up one last question--- Congressman Oberstar is claiming all the credit for insisting on proper safety and inspections now that the BP oil rig has collapsed and tax-payers are going to get stuck with one hell of a tab for damages and clean-up; kind of reminds me that Congressman Oberstar had the exact same response when the I-35 Bridge collapsed--- how come this guy has never been such a forceful advocate before these disasters take place on his watch while under his “leadership.”

I notice you didn’t suggest to Congressman Oberstar that he might accompany you on a tour of the Leech Lake Indian Reservation so he could get a better understanding of racist poverty.

Gees, one last question; did you happen to ask Congressman Oberstar how it came to be under his leadership that racist redistricting took place which served to divide the votes of Native American Indians on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation? It seems from your article here that Congressman Oberstar presented you the perfect opportunity to ask this question.

Alan L. Maki

Published June 06 2010

Oberstar launches campaign for 19th term

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar told a story Saturday of helping find federal financing for a new community/business center for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe after the band was turned down by two Republicans.

By: Brad Swenson, Bemidji Pioneer 

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar told a story Saturday of helping find federal financing for a new community/business center for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe after the band was turned down by two Republicans.

“That’s what I do — economic development,” Oberstar said he told the late Tribal Chairman Hartley White in the early 1980s. “Tell me what your project is.”

Oberstar said he secured U.S. Economic Development Administration funding for the $1.2 million project, and saw that the tribe’s construction company was qualified to do the job.

At that time, the Leech Lake Reservation wasn’t even in the Democrat’s 8th District.

“Being representative means that you represent people – to do that you have to listen to them and hear what their needs are and concerns are,” says Oberstar. “You then translate those into legislative action or changing of the attitudes of bureaucracies, and make government work for people.”

And Oberstar want to work for people in a 19th term, as he kicked off his re-election campaign Saturday in North Branch, Duluth, Bemidji and Brainerd.

In Bemidji, he was met by about 30 people late Saturday afternoon at the Cabin Coffeehouse. Also there were Sen. Mary Olson, DFL-Bemidji, and Reps. John Persell, DFL-Bemidji, and Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids.

He spoke of building relationships through the years, such as with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Such partnerships have been good for northeast Minnesota, he said.

He also laid out progress under the federal economic stimulus measure, which he said has created 1.3 million jobs in 15 months, including 10,700 construction jobs in Minnesota.

The hiring of 1.3 million Americans has provided $489 million in federal income revenue, and prevented $383 million from being spent on unemployment compensation.

“It has made a difference in people’s lives,” Oberstar said, telling about a visit he made to Bemidji last summer and saw sewer and water pipe replaced along Irvine Avenue – a federal stimulus project.

“Old rusted pipes 75 years old out of the ground and new pipe to go into the ground that the Operating Engineers (Local 49ers) were installing,” he said. “I get excited about things like that, to see people working. I know that the new pipe going in was made from iron ore pellets produced on the Iron Range and went to lower (Great) Lakes steel mills that made the steel to produce the pipe that went into the ground and put people to work here.”

He called a circle that benefits all.

A report card shows the economic stimulus package reconstructed 34,434 lane miles of highway, including 534 lane miles in Minnesota. It paid for 12,062 bridge replacements or repairs, 120 in Minnesota.

Seniors were given a $250 check, and the third phase of a minimum wage law hike went into effect. Congress also passed and Obama signed a pay equity bill.

“Children’s health insurance — we passed it, Obama signed it, 4 million children have it,” Oberstar said.

Congress also approved and Obama signed a health care reform bill, something that had been on the table since the days of President Harry S Truman, he said.

One Republican voted for Social Security in 1935 and only one Republican voted to bring Medicare to the House floor in 1965, Oberstar said. No Republicans supported the current health care bill.

“They’re consistent,” he said. “They haven’t been for it in 70 years. But what does it do for you? You can’t be denied coverage, you can’t be capped, you can’t lose your health care, there is no lifetime limit, there are no limits annually on your coverage, your children will be covered t age 26, free preventive care for seniors under Medicare.”

People won’t be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition, he said. “They can’t drop you when you get sick. There’s temporary insurance for early retirees. There are tax credits for small businesses.

“That is health insurance — that is good government — that is an investment in the future well-being of this nation,” Oberstar said.

Oberstar was introduced by a number of people, including the three legislators, and representatives of tribal government, labor and education.

Gina Bernard, Bemidji High School teacher and vice president of the Bemidji Education Association, said the economic stimulus package provided $1 billion to Minnesota, including $4 million to Bemidji.

“The vast majority of this money went to education, almost half of it to keep money flowing to local school districts,” Bernard said. Bemidji received $1.2 million for special education and about $800,000 for the district’s Title I program.

“Without this stimulus money, the damage to our schools and student education would have been much greater,” Bernard said. “We know there’s still financial trouble ahead. It’s good to know that Rep. Oberstar’s at our back.”

Olson said Oberstar on many occasions has come to the State Capitol to chastise legislators and Gov. Tim Pawlenty for turning down federal funds by not providing matching funds.

“Congressman Oberstar has seen us pass up hundreds of millions of dollars that could be putting working Minnesotans to work right now,” she said.

“He’s also been a very strong advocate locally in making sure that we had some road projects that have kept people working through this very difficult time,” Olson said.

“This election is about the future,” Oberstar said. “This is about America’s future. This is about our well-being.”

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell Phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Please check out my blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

The struggle to end racist injustices in employment uncovers a web of institutionalized racism in every part of the social, political and economic structure of northern Minnesota...

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100019393

Published June 05 2010

Warriors for Justice candidates: Petitions likely to be denied

Warriors for Justice candidates Nicole Beaulieu and Greg Paquin likely will have their petitions to gain the Nov. 2 ballot denied on Monday. 

By: Brad Swenson, Bemidji Pioneer

Warriors for Justice candidates Nicole Beaulieu and Greg Paquin likely will have their petitions to gain the Nov. 2 ballot denied on Monday.

Beaulieu is seeking the House 4A seat held by Rep. John Persell, DFL-Bemidji, and Paquin is seeking the Senate 4 seat held by Sen. Mary Olson, DFL-Bemidji.

A petition of 500 signatures is needed to gain the Nov. 2 ballot under their new party, Warriors for Justice, and both candidates had more than 550 signatures each.

But the number of signatures with just post office box numbers give each candidate insufficient valid signatures to certify the petitions, Beltrami County Auditor-Treasurer Kay Mack said Friday.

Mack said she plans to issue a final ruling Monday after consulting with County Attorney Tim Faver.

“We’re very confident that we’re not going to be able to use the people who just signed using their P.O. box,” she said. “And that’s with advisement from the Secretary of State’s Office, and why I feel really confident, not only because it’s the same kind of rules and laws for voter registration, but under advisement of the secretary of state it has to be a physical address.”

Beaulieu said she called the Secretary of State’s Office in May and was assured P.O. boxes would be enough. She’s talked to the American Civil Liberties Union and may file a lawsuit against the county.

Her petition had 580 signatures, she said Friday. The petition was submitted to Mack Tuesday afternoon. Mack called her minutes later to say it could not be accepted as more than 100 signatures had P.O. boxes rather than physical addresses.

Mack also said a number of signatures had no addresses and others were clearly from out of the 4A district.
“On May 19 Greg Paquin and I contacted the Secretary of State’s Office … in the Elections department to verify these P.O. boxes were going to be considered valid and he told us that they were,” Beaulieu said in an interview.

So they proceeded to collect signatures, allowing them to list P.O. boxes in the address section, she said.
“I was just as lost as her,” Beaulieu said about phone calls going back and forth Tuesday between her and Mack. “I kept arguing the fact that I had called them (Secretary of State’s Office) and they verified that those were going to be considered valid, and here she’s saying they’re not valid.”

Minnesota election law, Chapter 204B, describes how to obtain nomination petitions and states that, “Immediately after the signature, the signer shall write on the petition the signer’s residence address, including street and number, if any, and mailing address if different from residence address.”

Mack said she held off on making a formal dismissal in order to check out Beaulieu’s claim with the Secretary of State’s Office. “I will give them any benefit of the doubt,” she said, but couldn’t track down without a name anyone in the department that indicated P.O. boxes would be OK.

If the petition is denied, “I guess at that point I’ll be out of the election race,” Beaulieu said. “But as far as the Warriors for Justice we’re still going to be vocal with that.”

Paquin and Beaulieu say Bemidji is ripe with institutionalized racism, using as an example construction of the Bemidji Regional Event Center. They say affirmative action laws dictate that a number of minorities – American Indians – be hired and that the contractor and city are ignoring affirmative action laws.

Paquin filed a district court lawsuit against the city and contractor, alleging just that, which was recently dismissed.

Both first tried to seek the DFL endorsement for the two seats, Denied that, they first thought of forcing Persell and Olson to DFL primaries, but later decided on forming their own political party and seek the general election ballot.

“They were very interested in this,” Beaulieu said of her visit with ACLU staff in Bemidji. “They agreed with my argument that in the more rural areas, P.O. boxes are accepted and are considered valid. It just happens in my district that the majority of the Leech Lake Reservation falls in that district. To me, that’s considered rural.”

A lot of people get their mail delivered through the P.O. box on the reservation, she said. “Due to the poverty and the violence there, a lot of the people I got signatures from don’t have mailboxes on their house so therefore they go to the post office.”

Beaulieu believes there should be an exemption for signatures gained on the reservation.

“I want to do what’s right,” says Mack. “If there was any doubt, we would err on the side of giving them credit for all the hard work they did, but we can’t make rules. It either is or isn’t going to be allowable.”

Beaulieu said she may try again in 2012, or she may run for chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, but no decision will be made for quite some time. She may try a write-in campaign this fall.

“It couldn’t possibly be as hard as running this campaign this time around,” she said. “I just feel they’re targeting the native Americans, and goes back to the way the districts are aligned.”

She hopes that with redistricting, all of the Leech Lake Reservation will be included in one House district rather than two as it is now.

“It’s set up so the native Americans cannot unify the vote,” she said.”We are excluded from decision-making processes.”

She says that “we will continue to speak out against this institutionalized racism. It’s getting ridiculous and it’s getting out of hand.”

“When the laws were drafted, they weren’t drafted with any specific race, with any specific geographical area or person in mind,” Mack said. “Election law just literally wants to be sure that there is one person, one vote, and to precinct them. They have to put them in a physical location for their residence. And that’s consistent across all election law.”

People can’t reside in a P.O. box, Mack said.

Racism, workers' rights and politics in Minnesota

A Posting I made on The Great Lakes Town Hall Forum

Comments

New

The way into the future

Submitted by Alan Maki on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 10:21.

There is a way into the future.

The "red" Finns of the Iron Range took up the struggle for this future many years ago as they successfully took on the mining and forestry bosses to organize unions and establish the network of "red" Finn Co-operatives and Mesaba Co-operative Park while bringing forward an alternative to the two parties of big-business with the pro-people, environmentally friendly, pro-peace, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.

The "red" Finns and their friends were instrumental in electing two socialist governors, Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson, along with the Communist Congressman from Eveleth, John Bernard.

It was a terrible mistake to merge the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party with the Democratic Party because, today, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party is a very corrupt, anti-labor, anti-environmental political party controlled from top to bottom by the very mining and forestry bosses along with the power generating and banking industries that the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party fought for so many years.
Socialism, not capitalism, is the way into the future.

Our country and specifically our state and most especially the Iron Range was plunged into political darkness as first the very corrupt Harold Stassen, and then Joe McCarthy plied their dirty brand of anti-communist politics which hit Minnesota especially hard. If we are going to move into a future where there is a respect for labor and Mother Nature we are going to have to once and for all break free from the darkness of anti-communist politics in Minnesota and get back on track from where Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson and John Bernard left off with democracy being suffocated by the corporations and the politicians they hire to protect their profits.

The Iron Range has been one big "money pit" for the Wall Street coupon clippers and this must end.
Also, no one wants to talk about the fact that a very large portion of the iron ore mined and the taconite being processed has gone, and continues to go, into building up this insane military-financial-industrial complex in militarizing our country and fighting these dirty wars. We need to ask: How much has been taken from these iron ore pits for this senseless killing and destruction which kills and destroys so much as the wealthy few profit? The "red" Finns of the Iron Range had the moral and political courage to ask these questions and so should we.
    
—
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Phone: 218-386-2432

Boycott, Divest, Sanction... Stop the Israeli killing machine!

June 1, 2010

The Elders group of past and present world leaders, including former South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on Monday condemned as “completely inexcusable” the deadly Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza.

At least 10 [and as many as 16] people are reported to have been killed when Israeli commandos raided the boats on Monday in an operation that has drawn international condemnation.

“The Elders have condemned the reported killing by Israeli forces of more than a dozen people who were attempting to deliver relief supplies to the Gaza Strip by sea,” the 12-member group said in a statement issued in Johannesburg, where it met over the weekend.

The group, which was launched by Mr. Mandela on his birthday in 2007 to try to solve some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, called for a “full investigation” of the incident and urged the UN Security Council “to debate the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza Strip.” “This tragic incident should draw the world’s attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, half of whom are children under the age of 18,” the group said.

Israel’s three-year blockade of Gaza was not only “one of the world’s greatest human rights violations” and “illegal” under international law, it was also “counterproductive” because it empowered extremists in the Palestinian territory, they said.

The Elders includes six Nobel peace prize winners — former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Mr. Mandela and Tutu.

Norway’s first female Prime Minister Gro Brundtland; former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former Irish president and ex—UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson; Mozambican social activist Graca Machel; Indian women’s rights activist Ela Bhatt; and Algerian veteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi are the other members.

National Lawyers Guild Demands Immediate Release of Attorney Peter Erlinder Vigorous Legal Advocate Arrested in Rwanda

Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 15:30:40 -0500 (CDT)

From: wamm@mtn.org

Subject: [Women Against Military Madness] Action Alert-Peter Erlinder arrested

National Lawyers Guild Demands Immediate Release of Attorney Peter Erlinder Vigorous Legal Advocate Arrested in Rwanda

For Immediate Release: May 28, 2010   

Contact: David Gespass, 205-566-2530

Heidi Boghosian, 917-239-4999

New York - The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) demands the immediate release of its former president, Professor Peter Erlinder, whom Rwandan Police arrested early today on charges of "genocide ideology." He had traveled to Rwanda's capital, Kigali, on May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Erlinder is reportedly being interrogated at the Rwandan Police Force's Kacyiru headquarters.

Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of Umuhoza. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by his membership and his courageous advocacy," said David Gespass, the Guild's president.

Erlinder traveled to Kigali after attending the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers' Conference in Brussels. Since his arrival in Kigali, the state-sponsored Rwandan media has been highly critical of Erlinder. The Rwandan Parliament adopted the "Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology" (Genocide Ideology Law), on July 23, 2008. It defines genocide ideology broadly, requires no link to any genocidal act, and can be used to include a wide range of legitimate forms of expression, prohibiting speech protected by international conventions such as the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.

Sarah Erlinder, Arizona attorney and NLG member said, "My father has made a career defending unpopular people and unpopular speech - and is now being held because of his representation of unpopular clients and analysis of an historical narrative that the Kagame regime considers inconvenient.

We can help defend his rights now by drawing U.S. government and media attention to his situation and holding the Rwandan government accountable for his well-being."

Before leaving for Brussels and then Kigali, Professor Erlinder notified the U.S. State Department, his Minnesota Congressional Representative Betty McCullom, Representative Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Professor Erlinder is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College of Law. He is a frequent litigator and consultant, often pro bono, in cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, claims of government and police misconduct, and criminal defense of political activists. He is also a frequent news commentator. Erlinder was president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1993-1997, and is a current board member of the NLG Foundation. He has been a defense attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003.

The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state. # # #

Call and demand the immediate release of Professor Peter Erlinder:

Senator Al Franken   (202) 224-5641    Or send an email at

http://franken.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Amy Klobuchar   202-224-3244   Fax: 202-228-2186   Or send an email at

http://klobuchar.senate.gov/emailamy.cfm?contactForm=emailamy&submit=Go

Representative Keith Ellison    202-225-4755    Or send an email at

http://forms.house.gov/ellison/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Representative Betty McCullom    (202) 225-6631   Fax: (202) 225-1968    Or send

an email at http://forms.house.gov/mccollum/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Rwandan police arrest Minnesota lawyer

Arrested for defending human rights.

Tell Obama to intervene: 

Drop the charges!


Photo: Peter Erlinder, a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul

Peter Erlinder, a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul (Raoul Benavides, William Mitchell College)

Rwandan police arrest Minnesota lawyer
by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
May 28, 2010


St. Paul, Minn. — Rwandan police arrested a prominent Twin Cities law professor Friday for allegedly expressing what are considered illegal views on the country's genocide, according to Rwandan news reports.

William Mitchell College of Law professor Peter Erlinder had arrived in the country earlier this week to represent an opposition candidate for president who faces similar charges.

Erlinder has been outspoken in his disagreement with the government's official explanation of the 1994 genocide, said Eric Janus, president and dean of William Mitchell College of Law.

"He felt that there was a strong case to be made for rethinking the nature of the causes of the genocide and who was to blame for it, and that there were many people who were extremely upset with him because of that advocacy," Janus said.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department confirmed the arrest, but declined to comment on any pending charges.

"The decision to arrest Mr. Erlinder was the responsibility of the Rwandan authorities," said State Department spokesman Andy Laine.

Laine said U.S. Embassy officials have been in contact with Erlinder, and have provided him with a list of attorneys to represent him in the Rwandan legal system. Laine said there is no evidence that Erlinder has been mistreated, but said he does not know where the law professor is currently being held.

Sarah Erlinder, the professor's daughter, said she spoke with U.S. State Department officials who confirmed her father's arrest.

Sarah Erlinder said officials told her that the State Department will not interfere with Rwanda's legal process, but will monitor the situation closely. She said she has not been able to speak with her father since his arrest.

Erlinder went to Rwanda to represent Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader running against President Paul Kagame in Aug. 9 elections.

Kagame has been lauded abroad for social and economic reforms and is expected to win another seven-year term. But human rights groups say his administration has an ironclad hold on power and quashes opposing views.

Rwanda's 1994 genocide claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The massacres ended when mostly Tutsi rebels led by Kagame defeated the mostly Hutu extremist perpetrators.

Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda in January to contest elections after 16 years of living abroad. She says she returned to Rwanda because the country needs an open discussion to promote reconciliation.

She immediately visited a memorial to Tutsis killed in the 1994 genocide, and asked why Hutus who also died weren't remembered. She was arrested and freed on bail, but her passport was seized and she cannot leave Kigali. If convicted, Ingabire, 41, could be sentenced to more than two decades in prison.

Her case has become a test of where Rwanda stands in its effort to move past the genocide - and how much freedom the government will allow.

Erlinder is the president of an association of defense lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that is trying the masterminds of the 1994 genocide.

He "has been publicly saying that there was no genocide in Rwanda," said police spokesman Eric Kayiranga.

"It has nothing to do with diplomacy, it is totally a criminal case," said Kayiranga when asked whether the arrest could cause a diplomatic spat with the U.S.

Steve Linders, the spokesman for William Mitchell College of Law, said Erlinder's work in Rwanda was not sponsored by the school, but said William Mitchell professors have a long history of outside legal work for a variety of causes.

A lawyer since 1979, Erlinder, 62, has been on the William Mitchell faculty since 1982. He has worked as a litigator or legal consultant on numerous high-profile cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, alleged government or police misconduct and defense of political activism.

The St. Paul resident assisted in the legal defense of Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a Canadian citizen who in 2009 pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to aiding al-Qaida.

He also represented Sami al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiring to aid terrorists.

Last November, Erlinder traveled to the Netherlands in order to aid in the defense of a Somali man from Minneapolis being held there on U.S. terrorism charges. He also recently advised Ojibwe Indian bands in northern Minnesota in a dispute over treaty fishing rights.

Linders said Erlinder has worked on legal issues involved Rwanda for some time, and had traveled to the country prior to his current trip.

The U.S. State Department said in a March report on Rwanda that citizens' rights to change their government are "effectively restricted" and cited limits on freedoms of speech, press and judicial independence.

Erlinder's family and his colleagues at William Mitchell are consulting with the state's congressional delegation in the hopes of pressuring the Rwandan government to release Erlinder immediately.

(Associated Press writer Edmund Kagire reported from Kigali, Rwanda)

Environmental Activists Arrested in Michigan's Upper Peninsula trying to halt dangerous sulfide mining

Please, if you have a moment, call the Michigan State Police post at (906) 475-9922 and demand to know why Charlotte Loonsfoot and Chris Solsha were arrested today on federally ceded land up at Eagle Rock, near Big Bay, Michigan north of Marquette. This is all in regards to Kennecott and the proposed Eagle Mine...a metallic sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. Insist all charges be dropped.

Get further information from these sites:

http://www.savethewildup.org/

http://www.northwoodswild.org/projects/sulfide-and-uranium-mining

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/kennecott-and-sulfide-mining-in.html


More information:

05/15/2007

At Issue: Upper Peninsula sulfide mine

Let's join voices to protect environment

BY WILLIAM G. MILLIKEN

[Note: William G. Milliken of Traverse City served as Michigan's Republican governor from 1969 to 1983]

No resource is more important to Michigan's future than the Great Lakes. They literally surround us, leading to our identification as the "Great Lakes State.”

Any action that could threaten the quality of the Great Lakes must be approached with extreme caution, particularly by the State of Michigan. That is why all people who care about the future of this state and of the Great Lakes should be very concerned about a proposal now before the state Department of Environmental Quality to blast a nickel mine in the Upper Peninsula under the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River, one of Lake Superior's primary tributaries.

The mine being proposed by the Kennecott Minerals Corp. would be much different from the iron ore mines that now exist and have existed in the U.P. for decades. It would involve blasting into underground sulfide ore deposits that contain nickel being sought by the mining company. Sulfide ores leach acid as soon as they come in contact with water or air.

Underground water seeping into the mine itself would create sulfuric acid, resulting in acid mine drainage of the equivalent of battery acid that would run off into rivers, contaminate groundwaters and end up in Lakes Superior and Michigan.

The top of the proposed mine is level with the aquifer closest to the surface that connects with the Salmon Trout River, which adds to the threat that the river could become contaminated with acid mine drainage.

The material loosed in the blasting process would be hauled out by trucks, with an estimated 80 truckloads per day leaving the mine. Each truckload would spill sulfide ores along its way, creating more acid contamination along its route.

The proposed mine also poses the threat of air pollution, with a ventilation system that would vent air from the mine through a 50-foot tall stack that would have no air pollution controls, releasing an estimated minimum of 20 tons per year of dust containing sulfides and metals only 300 feet from the Salmon Trout River.

Beyond that, geologists say that because of the huge hole that would be created underground by the blasting operations, there is also the real threat that the river would actually collapse into the mine at some point.

The DEQ initially issued a draft decision to permit the mine in January. That was followed by the revelation that a report from a DEQ consultant that was highly critical of the proposed mine was suppressed by DEQ staff during the permitting process. The suppressed report was subsequently made public and the draft permit was revoked.

The area of this proposed sulfide mine is wide open, unpaved and unpowered. It is situated right in the middle of the largest undeveloped tract in all of Michigan. Its rivers and streams feed Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. What a terrible place for a mine. What a terrible threat to the Great Lakes, and all this for a mine that has a projected life of seven to eight years and is projected to create, at the most, 100 jobs. When the mine closed, we would be left with a huge hole in the ground, the potential for severe environmental damage, and no jobs.

If Michigan were to allow this mine to set up shop, we would be carrying out a modern-day equivalent to the Biblical story of Esau selling his birthright for a "mess of Pottage.”

The residents of the area are overwhelmingly opposed to this mine. They do not want their neighborhood despoiled. They have made that opposition very clear and have created their own Web site: "savethewildup.org.”

We made great progress in the latter decades of the 20th century reversing the old mindset of exploiting our natural resources, including the Great Lakes, and then cleaning up the mess at a later time. The lakes became more natural, drinkable, swimmable and fishable.

Unfortunately, the Great Lakes face more threats today than ever before. Let's join all our voices with those of the citizens of the Upper Peninsula who are determined to protect their environment and the Great Lakes. Let's tell the DEQ in no uncertain terms we don't want this mine to despoil our state.

William G. Milliken of Traverse City served as Michigan governor from 1969 to 1983