News from IncJten Country
Page 8 SpilyayTymoo hmyQ, 2004
Businessmanappointedtotopposition
Famous Dave to
EDINA, Minn. (AP) - Dave
Anderson said he just kept cook
ing ribs while awaiting confirma
tion to head the Bureau of In
dian Affairs.
It took months, but now the
man behind Famous Dave's res
taurants is eager to drop the
apron and head to Washington.
Among his goals: resolving a
long-running lawsuit over the
government's mismanagement
of an Indian trust fund, and
gaining the trust of the nation's
tribes.
Anderson is the first to say
he was surprised that the Bush
administration called on him to
take over the BIA, which is re
sponsible for managing almost
56 million acres of land held in
trust for American Indians.
"I'm not a tribal leader. I'm
not a bureaucrat. I'm not a his
torian or an attorney. I've pretty
much been in business my
whole life," said Anderson, a
Choctaw and Chippewa and an
enrolled member of the Lac
Courte Oreilles Lake Superior
Band of Ojibwa.
Many people have ques
tioned why he would want to
oversee the much-criticized
agency, Anderson said. He says
he considers it an obligation,
after his own success following
bankruptcies, alcoholism and
substance abuse.
In an interview with The As
Sioux hope to coordinate events
Millions of
tourists expected
to trace history
in coming year
MARTY, S.D. (AP) - The
Yankton Sioux Tribe and area
communities are trying to coop
erate on events tied to the bi
centennial anniversary of the
Lewis and Clark expedition in
the next three years.
"We would like a cooperative
effort and not just have each
tribe or community do this piece
by piece," said Robert
Lands obtained for monument
EADS, Colo. (AP) - A casino
management company has given
to the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes
of Oklahoma the deed to what
will become the heart of the
Sand Creek Massacre National
Historic Site.
However it will take another
act of Congress, and perhaps the
purchase of more land, before
the monument becomes a real
ity on the land 180 miles south
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sociated Press at his Edina
home, where he sat amid bric-a-brac
that included a giant Elvis
figurine and a large collection of
rock-and-roll memorabilia,
Anderson was thoughtful and
deliberate in fielding questions
about his new role.
The trust fund lawsuit, which
alleges the Interior Department
mismanaged billions of dollars
owed to more than 300,000
American Indians, is an oppor
tunity to establish trust between
tribes and the government,
Anderson said.
"That is something that does
need to be settled, and I'm hope
ful we can get that done during
this administration because we
really need to address the re
sponsibility the BIA has so that
this never happens again," he
said.
Anderson would not discuss
another lawsuit - calling it a
policy question - that seeks $25
billion from the federal govern
ment on behalf of perhaps
thousands of Indian students
allegedly abused at BIA board
ing schools around the country.
Yet when asked if he thought
abuse occurred, Anderson said
yes. His own father, he said, was
whipped as a child with switches
for speaking his language at a
BIA boarding school in
Lawrence, Kan.
Anderson has been in busi
Cournoyer, chairman of the
Yankton Sioux Tribal Tourism
Association (YSTTA). "There
will be millions of people trav
eling the Lewis and Clark Trail.
If we can capture just a small
percentage of them, it will be a
boon," Cournoyer said.
The YSTTA is working with
the National Park Service on
projects, said John Beheler, a
YSTTA member who serves as
Marty High School principal.
"Tourism is not new to the
tribal nature. We are teachers
and story tellers, so this is noth
ing new as far as tourism goes.
east of Denver, National Park
Service spokesman Rick Frost
said Monday.
Congress has authorized the
creation of the monument, but
another act is required to place
the deeded land in trust before
the Park Service may legally
manage it with tribes and the
Colorado Historical Society.
"We are working hard to
make sure this site is online soon
9". fT.ns V"""pssr",ri
t?3
- 12 1k.
head BIA team
ness since he was 18, including
selling wholesale plants to flo
rists in Chicago and traveling the
powwow circuit selling home
made jewelry alongside his
mother's fry bread stand. From
those beginnings, he went on to
serve as chief executive for his
Lac Courte Oreilles Band and
co-founded Grand Casinos Inc.,
the former casino management
company for the Mille Lacs
Band of Ojibwe in central Min
nesota. But he thinks Washington will
be one of his biggest challenges.
"I'm a business person and
I'm used to getting things done,"
Anderson said. "It remains to be
seen how much the political at
mosphere in Washington, DC,
will let me get things done."
Anderson says he'll bring a
team approach to the BIA, vis
iting tribes to ask for their input
and support for his agency.
"As an organization we need
to be spending more time with
our constituents. We need to
establish better lines of commu
nication," he said. "The BIA
would not exist if it wasn't for
Indian tribes and I think we need
to understand that."
He said tribes need to take
advantage of Indian gambling
and invest casino profits in di
versifying tribal enterprises and
providing education for tribal
members. Tribes that have be
We are always trying to sell a
vision," he said.
Indians have become the fo
cal point of South Dakota's sig
nature event, making the effort
unique in the nation, said Cindy
Tryon of the South Dakota
Office of Tourism.
"Other states have planned
and then invited tribes to be part
of their events. But in South
Dakota, the tribes have orga
nized our Signature Event and
have made it their event," she
said. Indians must be prepared
for travelers who don't under
stand their culture or traditions,
because it tells a part of our
national story that people really
need to hear," Frost said.
On Nov. 29, 1864, about
700 Colorado militiamen killed
more than 163 Cheyenne and
Arapaho Indians in a raid on
their camp at the site. Most of
the victims were women, chil
dren and elderly men, and Con
gress determined the attack was
unprovoked.
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come highly successful, he said,
are the ones that took action to
be self-governing and created
economic infrastructures that
put a high priority on education.
"There are the other tribes
who are still looking for people
to do things for them," Ander
son said.
On a personal level, Ander
son takes pride in his LifeSkills
Center for Leadership, a center
he started for at-risk Indian
youth, which was recently rec
ognized on Oprah Winfrey's
show. A framed letter from
Winfrey sits on Anderson's
kitchen counter.
Anderson, an avid fan of
motivational speaker Zig Ziglar,
recently finished his own self
help book, "Famous Dave's
LifeSkills For Success." Ander
son said he would work hard
and be positive.
"I really feel that the major
problem that we have in Indian
Country, which is one of the
major reasons why we have high
unemployment, a high suicide
rate, a high dropout rate is be
cause we have young people
growing up without any hope,"
he said.
"They don't believe they can
be successful in this environ
ment. And I'm hoping that my
life story of being able to over
come the challenges that I've
had will serve as a role model."
particularly around sacred sites,
and many well-meaning visitors
will ask ignorant questions, she
said. One of the Indian sites,
Spirit Mound north of Vermil
lion, will remain an important
part of the Lewis and Clark
commemoration, said Vermil
lion Mayor Roger Kozak.
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non-inaians
SYRACUSE, N.Y(AP)-New
York state could have collected
up to $388 million in excise
taxes and an estimated $48 mil
lion in sales taxes on cigarette
sales by Indian vendors in 2002,
a newspaper has concluded.
The Post-Standard of Syra
cuse, which obtained sales fig
ures recently under a Freedom
of Information Law request,
said Native American stores
sold nearly 28 million cartons of
tax-free cigarettes last year.
According to the state De
partment of Taxation and Fi
nance figures, businesses on In
dian territories in New York
have sold 168 million cartons of
untaxed cigarettes since 1996,
when Gov. George Pataki first
proposed taxing Indian tobacco
sales to non-natives.
The figures also show that
tax-free cigarette sales by Na
tive American stores accounted
for approximately 30 percent of
the cigarettes sold in New York
in 2002.
And in the first nine months
of 2003, Native American stores
sold 26.2 million cartons of tax
free cigarettes, putting them on
a pace to sell 35 million cartons
this year.
The Seneca Nation in west
ern New York, where indepen
dently owned businesses sell
cigarettes in retail shops and
over the Internet, sold 14.5 mil
lion cartons of tax-free ciga
rettes in 2002, more than every
other Indian nation combined.
But tax department spokesman
Tom Bergin said state officials
believe a "majority" of the In
dian cigarette sales gets shipped
out of state. '
The state Legislature in May
passed a bill requiring Pataki to
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begin taxing cigarette and gaso
line sales by Native American
businesses to non-Indian cus
tomers. Distributors would pay
the taxes upfront before the
products reach the reservations.
The state has been under
pressure from the New York
Association of Convenience
Stores to tax cigarette sales by
Native American stores to tax
the Indian sales. The Legislature
has also been casting around for
untapped sources of state rev
enue in the wake of the reces
sion and economic losses from
Sept. 11, 2001.
The Pataki administration
dropped a 1996 attempt to col
lect the taxes after violence
started to flare up on Indian
lands.
Then, as now, Indian nations
have complained that the tax
collection regulation - which
would take effect after March
1 - violates their sovereignty.
They also claim the plan would
be financially devastating to
their reservations, since non
Indians would have no incentive
to patronize their businesses.
In 1994, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that New York
could tax cigarette sales by Na
tive American stores to non-native
customers.
On Monday, a federal ap
peals court made much the
same ruling in a case involving
Rhode Island's attempts to col
lect state tobacco taxes from its
Indian vendors.
Non-Indian stores generally
charge $15 to $25 more per car
ton of cigarettes than stores on
Indian territories.
The state excise tax has been
$15 per carton since April 3,
2002.
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