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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2011)
n News from Indian Country P^ge 9 Spily^y Tymoo October 5, 2011 Red Cliff band bets on new casino BAYFIELD, Wis. (AP) - For get Las Vegas glitz. The new Legendary Waters Resort & Casino three miles north of Bayfield is designed to fit into the scenic South Shore, not to stand out like a neon sign. Picturesque, the expansive two- to three-story $23.5 million complex sits on the shore of Lake Superior on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation with a view of the Aposde Islands. Built with an earth-friendly approach and designed to be welcoming, it opened quietly before its grand opening. It replaced the Red C liff band’s former casino, Isle Vista Casino, a small, dated, sorry- looking casino directly across Wisconsin Highway 13. The old casino closed Aug. 3, with its fate yet to be d ecid ed; the new 78,000-square-foot com plex opened Aug. 9. “T here’s no com parison,” said Jim Bard, who manages the new casino’s gift shop and 47- slip marina. “This is state of the art, top of the fine,” said Bard, a Red C liff band m em ber who re- cendy returned to the area. “This is a growing business. We want to make things as nice for our customers as possible.” With a modern North Woods motif many tourists hanker for, Legendary Waters is poised to be a boon for the Red C liff Band o f Lake Su perior Chippewa, which owns and op erates it. With the switch to the new casino-resort, its staff has been boosted from 95 to 217 em ployees, with 80 percent of them band members, said Jeff Gordon, Legendary Waters' gen eral manager. Attendance is up. Revenues are up. And occupancy of the hotel's nearly 50 rooms has been at least 70 percent full since it opened, thanks to an in creasin g num ber o f tour groups, he said. The rooms, all with lake views, are going for $79 or $99 per night; premier suites are $179 a night. The casino is open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., but eventually it will go to 24 hours. And that means hiring even more em ployees. While there is no per capita payment to band members out of the casino profits, its success means jobs and needed eco nomic development on the res ervation, including a new health clinic, Gordon said. The economic impact of the new casino and resort is expected to extend to the surrounding communities. T hat’s because Legendary Waters is a destina tion resort with amenities that go beyond gambling to include dining, lodging, a marina for sea sonal and transient boaters, cam pgrounds, nearby trails, pool and showers and lockers for cam pers, kayakers snowmobilers and boaters. It also offers shuttle services to and from Bayfield and surround ing communities. “This is a legitimate destina tion resort where a family or group of people can take a one- or two-hour drive and really enjoy themselves,” Gordon said. “It truly is a resort.” To get there, visitors have to travel through neighboring com munities. And they’re going to be stopping som ew here for lunch, rest stops and to get gas, noted Rachael Lamkin, the ca sino and resort's marketing man ager. Cari Obst, executive director o f the B ayfield Cham ber of Commerce, agreed. It will bring more people to the area, give B ayfield more exposure and provide another activity for people, she said. “It is absolutely beautiful on a beautiful piece of land,” she said. “They have built something so appealing that it will have a major economic impact.” M oreover, it w ill be open year-round, continuing to draw people after the traditional tour ist season ends, she said. Sentence reduced in *75 slaying SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A D enver man convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 1975 shooting death of an American Indian Movement activist has had his federal prison sentence reduced from life to 20 years. In February 2004, a federal jury in Rapid City, S.D., con victed Arlo Looking Cloud in the slaying of fellow AIM activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a 30- year-o ld m em ber o f the Mi’kmaq tribe of Nova Scotia. Bill alters criteria for Navajo N ation justices FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - A Navajo Nation legislator is pushing to raise the quali fications for tribal Supreme Court justices, prom pting concern that tribal sover eignty would diminish and applicants would be less fo cused on Navajo law if the proposal is approved. Russell Begaye has spon sored legislation to require justices on the country’s larg est American Indian reserva tion to have a law degree and be licensed by the state bar association. Tribal law now calls for a bachelor’s degree and membership in the Na vajo Nation Bar Association. Begaye said the changes would produce more well- rounded justices and position the Navajo Nation to adopt a federal law that gives tribes increased sentencing author ity if it chooses. A Tribal Council committee he serves on approved the bill Monday. “The argument for not in creasing the qualification is very weak,” he said. “I think it’s time that we raise the bar for these critical positions on our nation.” The tribe’s Judicial Branch has criticized the proposal, saying it has successfully cre ated a unique tribal court sys tem that increasingly relies on traditions and customs, and a nonadversarial way of solv ing disputes. To mandate state bar licenses would turn the focus from being well versed in Navajo language and cul ture to expertise in external laws, said Chief Justice Herb Yazzie. “We oversee a living tribal justice system reflecting the im po rtan ce o f our trib al community, not a borrowed state or federal system in which our culture is merely anthropological speculation,” Yazzie said. Officials in the Judicial Branch want the proposal delayed to give the tribal bar association a chance to sur vey its members and find out how many would meet the qualifications. They’ve also suggested it be amended to require that only two justices on the three-person panel meet the qualifications and to allow two years to obtain state bar membership. The proposal doesn’t ap- . ply to the trib e’s D istrict Court judges. Begaye used the federal Tribal Law and Order Act signed into law last year to support the proposed quali fications. Under the federal law, the sentencing authority for tribes increased from one year to three years for a single crime. But sending people to jail for longer periods means that tribes first must provide public defenders, establish or update criminal codes and have law-trained judges. Yazzie questioned the re liance on the federal law, say ing the drafters of that law abandoned a state-bar licen sure requirement for tribal judges in recognition of tribal bar memberships. The Su preme Court justices also do not sentence convicted of fenders. Rather, they hear ap peals from the district court and issue final decisions in cases. Wyoming tribe uses tradition to combat suicides demic many years earlier. Prayers were said, and offer ings made to the four directions and to the Creator, to purify and restore harmony in a manner consistent with traditional be liefs. Elders Nelson White Sr. and Crawford White said that's when the deaths stopped. Their account is corrobo rated by a scientific review of the incident. In a journal article, Margene Tower o f the Indian H ealth Service referred to a “tradi tional medicine” ceremony that happened at the height of the epidemic. “This ceremony was held fol lowing the ninth suicide,” she wrote. “It was an important cul tural and spiritual event that aided in the resolution of grief and increased cohesiveness in the com m unity. No further deaths occurred after this cer emony was held.” She noted that while suicide attempts remained abnormally high for two months after the ninth deaths, these soon subsided as well. It was the power of commu nity and a people’s prayer that broke the deadly cycle, Nelson White Sr. said: “We belong to the Creator.” What happened among the Northern Arapahos in 1985 has not been forgotten. Efforts to forestall suicides today incorporate ceremonies conducted in the Arapaho lan guage, talking circles, sweat lodges,and involvement of el ders, all woven together in a CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - It be gan inside a jail cell, where a young man hanged himself. What followed was a cascade of death that threatened to en gulf the Wind River Indian Res ervation. During August and Septem ber of 1985, nine young people killed themselves. Most were Northern Arapahos. Four of the victims were be tween the ages of 14 and .19, and five between 23 and 26. Three additional victims, be tween the ages of 18 and 23, had ties to the reservation and to some of the other victims. Eighty-eight verified suicide attempts or threats also were recorded, the majority by young people 13 to 19 years old. Mental health experts from around the nation tried to inter vene. “But it w asn ’t doing any good,” Nelson W hite Sr., an Arapaho elder, recalled. National media descended on the scene, an intrusion many people resented as insensitive and bent on sensationalism. One television crew tried to crash a v ic tim ’s funeral. E ventually, tribal leaders barred the press from Indian land. A lm o st as q u ick ly as it spread, the contagion ended. Alcohol was a direct contrib u tin g facto r in four o f the deaths. But in the absence of concrete answers, larger causes remained matters of conjecture. At the height of the episode, an Arapaho elder remembered that certain cerem onies had been performed during an epi L “The whole tribe’s a fa m ily . One way or another, we ’re related. ” kind of community safety net. Trained suicide interveners watch for early signs of trouble. Both the Northern Arapahos and the Eastern Shoshones with whom they share the Wind River reservation have suicide preven tion programs. T hese efforts have been largely successful. In 2009, an 18-year-o ld woman shot herself to death in Arapahoe, according to records of the Fremont County coro ner. Before that, a young per son had not died by suicide since 2003, when a 10-year-old Fort Washakie boy killed himself. B etw een 2000 and 2010, 116 people in Fremont County killed themselves. Twenty-seven, or 23 percent, were American Indian. Chaos erupted. A 15-year-old boy threatened to harm himself with a knife; screaming and confusion ensued. The cops wanted to jolt the boy with a Taser gun; nobody wanted him to run. Into this tum ult stepped T elano G roesbeck, only a couple of weeks out of suicide prevention training. “I was scared,” he said. “My heart was pumping.” Would he say the wrong thing and make matters worse? Groesbeck began searching for some thread that would es tab lish a con nectio n. And among the Northern Arapaho, there’s always a connection. “The whole tribe’s a family,” Crawford White said. “One way or another, we’re related.” On this occasion, Groesbeck knew the teenager’s dad, which estab lish ed som e com m on ground. Slowly, a potentially le thal situation was defused. The Northern Arapaho tribe provides within its structure a support network for early inter vention. A distraught young person confides in a friend, who alerts an aunt, who tells Groesbeck, who invites the young person to a talking circle or a youth sweat lodge. Groesbeck said depression and suicidal thoughts often are intertwined with drugs and al cohol abuse. In a sense, such behaviors are a slow motion form of self- destruction: “T hey’re killing themselves doing it,” he said. The roots of destructive be havior can be com plex, but Groesbeck said the pernicious impact of bullying is sometimes missed. A child bullied at school might also be bullied in reser vation housing by the same tor mentors, and so abuse can be unrelenting. “The answer’s always within the kid,” he said. “You have to listen.” Suicide prevention efforts often are high-profile. Harmony Spoonhunter, director of East ern Shoshone Tribal Health, noted that a suicide prevention powwow was held in June. Powwows are major commu nity events. They can be used as an opportunity to share in formation and galvanize com munity action. Suicide prevention programs in schools also are common, and both tribes actively seek to train people in suicide preven tion. George Leonard, suicide pre vention coordinator for the Northern Arapahos, likened the stirring of suicidal thoughts to a wild river. The goal is to res cue a young person at risk be fore he or she reaches the falls. T alking circles and sweat lodges provide young people with opportunities to learn more about their language, their cul ture and traditional spirituality, and therefore themselves, he said. “These kids have it in here,” Leonard said, tapping his heart. At age 14, Daisy Norse was depressed and suicidal. That was two years ago. To day, the Wyoming Indian High School student is making plans for her future. She credits the change to medication and par ticipation in the Tribal Youth Program, which offers sweat lodges for young American In dians. At first, D aisy w asn’t im pressed with the sweat lodges. “I really didn't want to go in,” she said. “It felt like boring to me. It just didn't seem that cool at the time.” But after a while, the tradi tional practice began to resonate. “I found that way I could pray to the Creator about my prob lems,” she said. And not just prayers about her problem s, but also more expansive prayers for her rela tives, cancer victims, starving children, blessings for people facing all manner of difficult circumstances. W ith the help o f m odern medication and traditional prac tice, D aisy found her w ay through the darkness. Suicide prevention efforts on the Wind River reservation have not gone unnoticed. A year ago, N o rth ern A rapaho elders w ere called upon to help stop a suicide out break claim in g the lives o f young people on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. “The way it was done, it was low key. There was no press, no news,” Crawford White said. “It was kept quiet.” At a powwow later in Den ver, a tearfu l L ako ta m an thanked the Northern Arapahos for their help. Even more recently, people at the Crow Creek reservation o f South D akota con tacted Arapaho elders to help them break another cycle of suicides. Nelson White Sr. said news media often pounce on the nega tive, but there are many young people who have walked away from the darkness, hold jobs and have finished school. Traditional ceremonies, com munity,- spiritual wellness—it’s all tied together. “We’re a family. We take care o f each o th er,” Crawford White said. J 1 b
