News from Indian Country
P^ge 10
Spilyay Tymoo
October12, 2006
Dispute over tribal casino is back in Michigan court
L A N SIN G , Mich. (AP)— A
long-standing legal fight over the
way state g o v e rn m e n t and
American Indian tribes negoti
ate to open casinos is back be
fore the M ich igan Su p rem e
Court.
The justices will hear argu
m ents T h ursd ay on w hether
Gov. Jennifer Granholm can re
negotiate a profit-sharing deal
and let another tribal casino
open without getting the changes
approved by state lawmakers.
The case directly involves
one northern Michigan tribe, the
Little Traverse Bay Bands o f
Odawa Indians, but may have
implications for future attempts
to change other tribal agree
ments known as compacts.
The dispute centers around
c o m p a c ts in 1998 betw een
A m erican In dian tribes and
then-Gov. John Engler, which
legislators endorsed in a resolu
tion, an easie‘r task than passing
a bill. The compacts included a
provision allowing M ichigan’s
govern or to negotiate future
amendments on behalf o f the
state.
During 2003 talks with the
Odawa tribe, which runs a ca
sino in Petoskey, G ran h o lm
agreed to let it build another one
Sculpture returned
to Canadian tribe
SEA T T LE
(A P )— A
sculpture depicting what tribal
lore says was a Canadian In
dian tribe’s first male ances
tor is being returned to Brit
ish Columbia. The sculpture
has spent a century at the
University o f Washington’s
Burke Museum.
T h e 4 -fo o t-ta ll gran ite
sculpture depicts the medi
cine man T ’xweltse (Til-wil-
aht-sah), who was turned to
stone thousands o f years ago,
according to the Chilliwack
Tribe’s history.
It w as taken fro m the
tribe in 1892 and displayed
for a time at a dim e-store
museum. It was donated to
the Burke Museum in 1904.
The Chilliwacks, part o f
the Stolo Nation o f Canada,
enlisted the help o f Washing
ton state’s N ooksack Tribe to
claim the stone under the
Native American Graves Re
patriation Act.
Cherokee Indians
subject of new book
R A LEIG H , N.C. (AP) -
“ Cold M ountain” author
Charles Frazier said the Chero
kee Indians were a natural sub
ject for his second novel be
cause their history surrounded
him as a youth.
At a reading that opened
his 15-city book tour to pro
m o te “ T h irteen M o o n s,”
F raz ie r exp lain ed that he
grew up in Andrews in far
w estern N orth Carolina, a
region that was once part o f
the tribe’s homeland.
“It was impossible to live in
that place and not know that
other people had owned that
land or occupied that land,” he
said.
T h e title, “ T h irteen
M o o n s,” co m es fro m the
Cherokee calendar and tells
the reader that “ even som e
thing as basic, to our way o f
thinking, as a year divided
into 12 segments is out the
window,” he said.
T h e a p p e a ran ce w as a
homecoming o f sorts for the
5 5 -y ear-o ld F ra z ie r, w ho
lived nearby before quitting
his teach ing job at N orth
Carolina State University to
finish his first book, the best
selling “ Cold Mountain.”
It to o k F ra z ie r sev en
years to finish that book. Fol
lowing its 1997 release, the
h ard co v er and p ap erb ack
editions logged a combined
94 weeks on the N ew York
Tim es best-seller list. Four
million copies were sold. The
novel also won a N ational
B ook Award and became a
big-budget Hollywood movie
that featured an A cadem y
Award-winning performance
by Renee Zellweger.
T h e su c c e ss p ro m p te d
R a n d o m H o u se to g iv e
F raz ie r an $8 m illion a d
van ce
fo r
“ T h irte e n
M oons.”
It also sparked much an
ticipation am ong his fans,
who waited anxiously Tuesday
evening to pick up copies o f
“ T h irte e n
M o o n s”
at
M eredith College, the first
\ U
l
stop on the tour. Some sat on
the steps o f the auditorium,
reading the first few pages.
A m ong them was Cindy
Farrar, a lab technician from
Wilmington, who took two
days o ff from work to de
v ote her atten tion to the
novel. She even got up Tues
day m orning to buy a C D
version o f the book, so she
could listen to the tale as she
made the two-hour drive to
Raleigh.
“ I ’ve been looking fo r
ward to this for months,” she
said.
The novel tells the story
o f Will Cooper, an orphaned
white boy who runs a trading
p o st on the edge o f the
Cherokee nation.
A Cherokee elder adopts
Cooper, who eventually be
co m e s a tribal ch ief. H e
meets his true love, Claire,
when he wins her in a card
game at age 12, then finds
her again decades later.
“ It’s a life story,” Frazier
said. “ I wanted this book to
be a lot o f things, and part
o f it is Will’s connection to
another culture and his sense
o f beholdeness to another
culture. Another is a sense o f
America in the 19th century
and the really grand goals we
had as a nation.”
R eview s
have
been
mixed. In a starred review,
P u b lish e r’s W eekly said ,
“ Frazier’s storytelling prow
ess d o e s n ’t falter in this
sophom ore effort, a boun
tiful literary panoram a again
se t p rim a rily in N o r th
C a r o lin a ’s G r e a t S m o k y
M ountains.”
But The Associated Press
said “ Frazier is constantly
overwriting, ladling on far
too many side plots and em
barrassing everyone with love
scen es in w hich Will and
Claire go ‘at each other with
incandescent yearning, all the
bleak hopefulness o f youth
m anifested in our grasping
and clashing.’”
in Mackinaw City in exchange
for the tribe giving a higher per
centage o f its revenue to the
state. The second casino has not
opened.
T h e c o m p a c t also w as
changed so the tribal payments
would be sent to the state “ as
directed by the governor” in
stead o f g o in g to the u sual
source: a state fund for business
development.
An anti-gambling group that
in 1999 challenged the validity
o f the original deals, which have
since been O K ’d by the state Su
preme Court, also is opposing
the amendments. Critics say not
getting legislative approval o f
the am endm ents violates the
separation o f powers doctrine
in the state constitution.
But Eugene Driker, a lawyer
re p re se n tin g the state , said
W ednesday that the original
compacts gave the governor au
thority to act on the state’s be
half.
“ I f the L egislatu re d id n ’t
want to permit the governor to
negotiate amendments, presum
ably it wouldn’t have ratified the
compacts,” he said.
A lawyer for Taxpayers o f
Michigan Against Casinos said
the group vail not comment on
the case until after the Supreme
Court issues a ruling, which is
expected by August 2007.
L ast year, a state Court o f
A ppeals panel ruled 2-1 that
Granholm should not have been
allowed to renegotiate the deal
without lawmakers’ approval.
The tribal gaming dispute is
not new to the high court.
It ruled in 2004 that it was
O K for the Legislature to have
approved the 1998 compacts by
resolution rather than a bill be
cause they are contracts. A reso
lution only needs the approval
o f the majority o f lawmakers
present. A formal bill is harder
to pass because it requires a ma
jority o f all lawmakers.
The Supreme Court did not
rule on the constitutionality o f
letting the governor amend the
compacts.
Richard McLellan, an attor
ney for the Odawa tribe, said
the c o u r t’s p rio r re a so n in g
should also apply to Granholm’s
amendments because the sepa
ration o f powers does not ap
ply to agreements between two
sovereign entities.
Michigan has 20 casinos, in
cluding 17 run by American In
dian tribes and three Detroit ca
sinos.
Alaskan Indian tribes deployed to Iraq
JA C K SO N , Miss. (AP)— A f
ter spending the summer getting
used to sweltering temperatures,
hundreds o f Alaskan soldiers are
getting ready to head to Iraq in
that state’s largest deployment
o f National Guard troops since
World War II.
Camp Shelby was to host a
send o ff bash Tuesday for nearly
600 soldiers from the 3rd Bat
talion, 297th Infantry, represent
ing 81 different comm unities
and m ore than a h alf dozen
cultures— E sk im o s, T lin gits,
H aid as, A leuts, A th abascan s
and others.
“ I t ’s fascin atin g w atching
this group come together and
get ready to go to war,” said
Gen. Craig E . Campbell, adju
tan t g e n e ra l o f the A la sk a
N ational Guard.
T h e so ld ie rs have sp e n t
much o f their time in “ theater
immersion” training.
That type o f training uses
Arabic role players and mock
Middle Eastern communities to
simulate what the troops will en
counter in hot spots overseas.
. Lt. Col. D u ff Mitchell, bat
talion co m m an d er, said the
h ot su m m er co n d itio n s the
soldiers have endured in south
M is s is s ip p i h e lp e d p re p a re
them for the scorch ing heat
they will face in Iraq.
“ T he physical and m ental
demands placed on our soldiers
during training were at times
stressful,” Mitchell said.
He added, “ But they perse
vered and are now ready to
p erfo rm their duties p ro fe s
sionally. Alaskans can be proud
o f their soldiers.”
Other soldiers from Alaska
currently in Iraq include mem
bers o f the Fort Wainwright-
based 172nd Stryker Brigade,
whose deployment was recently
extended four more months.
Officials said the 297th is the
only activated Army unit with a
N a tiv e A m erican lan gu age
motto: Yuh Yek, which means,
“ Be on watch. Ready to fire.”
The 297th will provide secu
rity for coalition forces in Iraq,
according to a statement from
Cam p Shelby spokesm an Lt.
Col. Doril Sanders.
“ Our duties include convoy
security, control point searches
o f vehicles and people, and se
curity for Forward O perating
Bases,” Mitchell said.
Officials lift suspension of Navajo Head Start
W INDOW R O C K , Ariz.
(AP)— Federal officials have
lifted the suspension o f fund
ing for the Navajo N ation’s
troubled Head Start program,
and it is expected to resume
Oct. 23.
“That’s good news for our
parents out there who have
children who were attending
school when the funds were
suspended,” Navajo President
Jo e Shirley Jr. said Wednes
day. “ N ow we are back in o p
eration.”
The tribe’s Head Start and
Early H ead Start program s
were suspended in May after
the federal Administration for
Children and Fam ilies found
local officials had failed to per
fo rm backgroun d checks on
hundreds o f employees. An in
vestigation turned up dozens o f
employees with criminal records.
The suspension was lifted that
same month for the Early Head
Start program , and the tribe
began submitting proposals to
the federal government seeking
the partial lifting o f funding for
the Head Start program.
Federal H ead Start bureau
director Channell Wilkins visited
the Head Start program in early
S e p te m b e r and d eterm in ed
“ there is no longer a threat to
the health and safety o f chil
Authorities search for serial rapist
on the Fort Apache reservation
W H IT E R IV E R ,
A riz.
(A P )— A t least 10 girls and
women have been raped on the
Fort Apache Reservation by a
man who poses as a police of
ficer, federal authorities said.
Since March, nine girls and
one young woman— all Ameri
can Indian— have been attacked
on a trail between two housing
projects between 10 p.m. and 2
a.m., said officials with the Bu
reau o f Indian Affairs.
The attacks began in March,
but the bureau became aware
o f them only in August. The
agency formed a task force o f
10 agents to investigate.
“ Once they saw it was involv
ing someone posing as law en
forcement, the BIA made this a
high priority,” said B IA agent
Warren Youngman.
Bureau officials said Wednes
day they had identified the four
new est victim s after the task
force canvassed the neighbor
h oo d w here the attacks o c
curred.
The panel found victims who
did not come forward because
they thought their attacker was
a police officer, Youngman said.
“ It has created an a tm o
sphere o f fear,” Youngman said.
“ When we did our neighbor
hood canvassing, we had people
afraid o f our officers.”
The attacker is believed to be
A m erican In dian , 20 to 40-
years-old and o f medium height
and build.
According to victims, the at
tacker wears a dark shirt and a
dark baseball cap, both bearing
“police.” White Mountain tribal
police officers’ uniforms do in
clude black shirts, but the shirts
should show a badge above the
left breast pocket and a U.S. flag
above the right breast pocket,
Youngman said.
dren.”
“ We have determ ined that
Navajo Nation has sustained its
burden to show cause why the
suspension o f funding for its
Head Start program should be
rescinded,” Wilkins wrote in a
letter to Shirley.
The tribe also received $8.8
million in federal funding M on
day, completing its $24 million
b u d ge t fo r the sch o o l year.
George Hardeen, a spokesman
for Shirley, said the money will
be used to pay vendors.
The tribe has developed poli
cies that require potential em
ployees to undergo background
checks and assessments before
being hired and even7 three
years thereafter as a condi
tion o f em ploym ent. E m
ployment applications also in
clude fingerprint authoriza
tions and revised declaration
forms that ask potential em
ployees about any criminal
history.
Shirley said the tribe will
work closely with federal o f
ficials on the program and
vowed it would be “ totally dif
ferent.”
“ I don’t see it ever hap
pening again, Washington sus
pending our funds for the
Head Start program,” he said.
Court declines Indian tax case
N E W L O N D O N , C on n .
(AP)— The U.S. Supreme Court
will not review a case involving
a member o f the Mashantucket
Pequots who had claimed she
does not have to pay state in
come taxes.
The Connecticut Suprem e
Court had ruled last Decem ber
th at Jo -A n n D a rk -E y e s, a
M ash an tu ck et P eq u o t tribal
member who did not live on the
reservation must pay state in
come taxes, a decision hailed as
a victory for state authority. The
nation’s top court, acting without
comment Monday, declined to
review the Connecticut ruling.
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