Wotanin wowapi 1988-11-23

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"Serving the Fort Peck Reservation'*
VOL. 19 NO. 46
NOVEMBER 23, W88
Petition for per cap
POPLAR � A petition with almost 1000 signatures asking the Tribal Board for a $200 per capita for Christmas was referred to the Tribal Executive Board meeting on Monday, Nov. 28.
Petition spokesperson Linda Melbourne presented the signatures to the Reservation Safety Committee yesterday, and told the board that according to her research, the payment would cost the Tribes $1,800,000, and that would still leave $5 million for the Tribes for next year. She said her research shows the Tribes have $6 million in reserve.
Reservation Safety Committee chairman Arlyn Headdress said the Finance Committee deals with the tribal budget and finances, and all of the board members sat through the Tribes' budget process and they are not aware of any "pot of gold" for the payment.
Councilman Ray Eder explained that the Tribes had $5.8 million beginning October 1 of this year and approved of a $5 million tribal budget, with $6 million as revenue they are projecting will come in, and that's probably where the figures were derived. However, the projections are just on paper until money is actually paid in and this amount could be lower or higher.
The petition states that the undersigned individuals being 18 years and being enrolled members of the Fort Peck Tribes hereby request that a per capita payment in the amount of $200 be made to all tribal members; that the payment date be established as Dec. 21, 1988 in order for people to receive their checks in time for Christmas; that a cut-off date for enrollment be set on Dec. 5, 1988 at which time the Tribal Board should meet in special session to act on the Tribal Enrollment Committee recommendations; that the Tribal 1989 budget be modified for this request; and that "we know it is not too late for this to happen because of Resolution 1592-82-11 is very similar to the dates specified and we know the tribal ending fund balance is in excess of $6,875,630, for fiscal year 1988.
Councilman Merle Lucas said there-would be a problem with the BIA processing the checks as it usually takes them 30 to 60 days to prepare for a per capita payment to be made.
Headdress agreed, stating there was a "humongeous" amount of people to be put on the tribal rolls yet and in the past when the BIA appeared to have made a tribal per capita payment on short notice, it was preplanned and the
Continue on page 7
Man charged with murder
GREAT FALLS (AP) � The FBI has jailed a New York man in Great Falls on a charge of murdering a Poplar man last summer Dy staging an automobile crash and making it appear an accident.
Federal agents jailed Carlos Combs, 25, late Wednesday in connection with the death last Aug. 3 of Edward "Boy" Jones, 36, of Poplar.
An FBI affidavit submitted to the U.S. attorney says witnesses have told FBI agents that Jones was passed out in the back seat of the car and that Combs and another man conspired to stage the crash.
The other man, apparently also a reservation resident, is identified in the affidavit only as Kenneth Devereaux.
The affidavit says Devereaux told an FBI agent that he suggested Combs overturn the car.
Jones was found dead beneath the overturned vehicle alongside a county road just west of Poplar early on the morning of Aug. 3.
The FBI in Butte said a complaint was filed against Combs on Nov. 3 and he was arrested that day in Wolf Point.
The complaint on file in Great Falls alleges that Combs, "also known as John Combs, a non-Indian person, did unlawfully and with malice aforethought and by means of a motor vehicle, murder Edward 'Boy' Jones, who was an Indian person."
(Billings Gazette)
Bingo to go under tribal, fed regs
Almira Jackson, a Wadopana, meaning Canoe Paddlers. All Assiniboine are called this, even those from Ft. Belknap, but hardly anyone knows this, she said. Holding a recently completed headdress called a Wapesn. she is one of two women on the Ft. Peck Reservation who knows and actively practices this traditional art form very necessary for male dancers' outfits.
As we enter this Thanksgiving season, let us that are Assiniboine and Sioux be thankful that we have tribal elders still living amongst us today who carry some of the old traditional ways of doing things, and who are willing to pass on this knowledge.
We should especially be thankful for this, after losing 8 elderly tribal members this month alone.
For these reasons, the Wotanin interviewed a tribal elder from the west end of the reservation, an Assiniboine who is carrying on a tradition now being held by only one other woman. And we will continue talking with our tribal elders in hopes of keeping and sharing their ways through stories about them.
Sharing a Life
WOLF POINT � Imagine creating hundreds of star quilts, in many colors, with many star designs, and having them displayed all over the world and in magazines. Imagine making trie \wa peh sai (headdress), and being only one of two women today who carry this knowledge. And, imagine spending your days making Indian dresses, capes, vests, ribbon shirts, pillows, bags and wall hangings - a,i enjoyment that brings in an income.
Such is the life of Almira Cox Jackson, 72, an Assiniboine of the Red Bottom Clan who was born in Frazer and raised in Wiota, on the west end of the reservation.
Born to Isaac Cox, a medicine man who was part white, and Running Woman, a full blooded Assiniboine, Almira led a good, fun childhood with many good memories, growing up with 12 brothers and sisters.
Although she grew up speaking the Assiniboine language, this was forbidden when she began school. "They punished us by cutting off our hair, and brainwashed us and I forgot my language," she told this reporter recently.
Not until she was 18 years old and married did Almira come to know the Indian ways, learning along with her husband, the late Theodore "Teddy" Jackson, who was also an Assiniboine.
When she was two months olds, she was in a wagon accident in which she was told she died, but her great-grandmother breathed into her mouth, and brought her back to life. She was told she cried for months and never walked until she was four years old due to a shattered hip and ribs. This caused her to start late in school, when she was 9 years old. She stayed for one year at the Poplar Indian Boarding School, her first year of school. She then went to the Wiota School for 3 years, another year at Poplar, 3 years at Ft. Lapwai School in Idaho, then one-half year at the Frazer Public School before she quit when she was an eighth grader at 16 years old.
After spending a couple years with her brother and his family, she got married at eighteen. It was at about this same time that she got very sick and her uncle doctored her and told her to begin dancing Indian. From there, she started.
She also began teaching herself to make the \ wa peh sa. and other projects to supplement their income once married. "I am doing good now, I have orders all the time for these things," she said.
Since the 1920's, after teaching herself and working together with her husband, Almira began making the wa peh cas, using porcupine hair and deer tail. She said she has no problem getting these items as family, relatives and friends know sne uses these in her work and provide them to her. After sorting out the hair from the short and long ones, which she says is monotoneous but important, she uses a loom and heavy thread and ties on the hair on strongly, using five threads. Her relatives know that she also uses yarn in her work and always give her that. "They know I use these things, so they all help'   me out."
Almira also knows all kinds of little tricks, such as rubbing lotion on the hair of the headdress and combing it to keep it from static electricity. When a headdress is new, she said, it must be handled good, and it must always be kept wrapped tightly to hold it's shape.
Almira says she is trying to pass on the knowledge of making the wa peh cas, but no one wants to learn. She is one of two women left on the reservation who make them. She does not have a set price, but goes by the way she feels the person can pay and afford. "A lot of people are poor around here, but want and need these things, so I don't charge a lot," she said.
"Young people today are not interested in learning anything. They don't want to learn, and they can't be bothered with it. Maybe they think they'll never use it, and maybe they're right," she said, "They're getting too modern, with too much whiteman ways."
When she was young, she could make one in one day. That was in the 1940's, she said, when everyone was dancing that year. Today, it takes 3 to 4 days to make one, she said, "You slow down with age."
When she was young, her mother let her play with the sewing machine, making doll quilts and clothes. She took up quilting earnestly at age 18 years old during her married life, and has since made too many to count. She said her husband once told her that if they put all her stitches she ever sewed together, it would go around the world three times.
(Elder �Page 2)
POPLAR � The Tribal Executive Board made a final review of the Tribal Gaming Ordinance last week, and this comes at a time when President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, to regulate Indian gaming operations such as bingo.
The new law requires tribes with any type of gaming to have an approved tribal gaming ordinance and sets up other regulations concerning Indian bingo and other types of gaming.
The act sets up three classes of gaming that are covered in the Tribes and the Federal Law-Class I, traditional games left within tribal jurisdiction to regulate; Class II, bingo lotto, pull tabs, tip jars, punch boards and certain card games which would be left within tribal jurisdiction but subject to oversight regulations by a 3-member federal commission; and Class III, all gaming not included in Class I and II such as slot and video machines, horse and dog racing, and would be regulated by a state-tribal compact.
WPCO Casino would come under Class II and the Tribes draft ordinance classifies celebration committee bingos as traditional, thus coming under tribal regulation. However that is up to the commission, who must approve all tribal ordinances.
The Tribal Executive Board, attorney Reid Chambers and WPCO casino board of directors reviewed the Tribes draft ordinance on Nov. 14 during the day, again in the evening, and on Nov. 15. According to the new federal legislation, the chairman
of a 3-member National Indian Gaming Commission, to be appointed by the President would nave to approve of the tribes' gaming ordinance.
In order to be approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission, a tribal ordinance must contain certain elements, including that the tribe would have to be the sole owner of the games; that net revenues from games be used only to fund tribal operations or programs; to promote the general welfare of the tribe ancT its members; to promote tribal economic development; to donate to charitable organizations; and to help fund operations to local government agencies. Annual outside audits would have to be obtained by the tribe on each gaming. The tribe would also have to establish a system for background checks on primary management employees.
Church bingos would have to go under state law, it was stated, and tribal entities and subdivisions of the Tribes would be able operate Class II gaming under the federal legislation and tribal ordinance.
The act states that games operated by the Tribes and tribal entities, such as social and charitable organizations, are to be treated as tribal games, and this opens the way for games not actually owned and operated by tribes to continue to operate in much their current form.
Under the Tribes draft ordinance, games owned by "tribal subdivisions" would be lawful just as tribal games would be, and this woula include community organizations, tribal school boards and nonprofit entities raising money and operating programs promoting health and welfare of tribal members, and/or to organize and operate ceremonies celebrations, and pow wows.
The Tribal Executive Board authorized the Tribal Chairman Ray White Tail Feathers to write
to the State Department of Commerce indicating the Fort Peck Tribes interest in looking into a state-tribal compact for Class III gaming for the WPCO Casino. According to a letter from the State director of the Commerce Department, Keith L. Colbo, Governor Schwinden designated them as the lead agency in negotiating a tribal/state compact for Class Til gaming. This is the department responsible for regulation of video gaming machines and horse racing in Montana � the only forms of class III gaming currently legal in the state. Pursuant to the federal legislation, the request should be made before Nov. 17.
The tribal-state compact provision is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the bill. According to the attorneys, many tribes view the bill's approach to Class III games as substantially undermining the victory won by tribes in Cabazon. The bill authorizes tribes to sue a state in federal court if it refuses to enter negotiations for a compact or refuses to negotiate in good faith. The burden would be on the state to disprove the Tribes' claims.
The act would also grandfather in certain existing games. All card games operated by tribes in Michigan, North and South Dakota, and Washington, on or before May 1, 1988, that would otherwise be considered as Class III games under the bill, will be treated as Class II games, according to the attorneys.
Likewise, individually owned Class II games licensed by tribes which were operating on Sept. 1, 1986 would also be grandfathered, and could continue to operate. Other than grandfathered games, individually owned Class II games would be
Continue on page 2
Cheyenne River now opposes Stevens' plan
EAGLE BUTTE � The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council has changed its position two times, but now it stands firm in opposition to California millionaire Phil Stevens, says Wayne Ducheneaux, chairman of the tribe.
On Nov. 3 the council voted eight to three, with three abstentions, to oppose Stevens' plan to seek about $3.1 billion in compensation for loss of land in western South Dakota. Stevens says the tribes should seek the money in addition to land.
Ducheneaux said Saturday he did not think the council would change its position again, although he said some of Stevens' supporters on the reservation were unhappy with the vote.
Asked why the council reversed itself, Ducheneaux said, "I think a lot of them caught hell for what they did (on Oct. 4)."
The Cheyenne River Tribal Council first voted to oppose Stevens' plan last year.
Suspension lifted
POPLAR�Wolf Point tribal judge Violet Hamilton suspended lay counselor Clayton Reum from practicing in tribal court on Oct. 25, however she did not attend the first hearing regarding the suspension before the Appeals Court, and at the second, refused to make any statements regarding her order.
The Appeals Court lifted the suspension and ruled that Reum can practice in any tribal court on the Fort Peck Reservation.
Reum, a licensed lay counselor, was notified by registered mail of Judge Hamilton's order that listed four charges. Two involved Reums alleged actions in two cases before Judge Hamilton's court, a third alleged Reum threatened her and disrupted her court, and a fourth alleged numerous other counts.
Reum contended that his due process rights were violated by Hamilton because he was not afforded a hearing before he was suspended.
In arguments before the court, Reum, represented by attorney Mary Zemyan, stated that the first two allegations are without foun-
(Suspension - Page 5)
But on Oct. 4, the tribal council endorsed Stevens' plan after the proposal finished first among five proposals in a non-binding advisory election among all members of the tribe.
Ducheneaux pointed out that the Stevens plan only win 34.2 percent of the vote. "Two-thirds of them opposed it," he said.
Eight Sioux Tribes already are seeking the return of 1.3 million acres of federal land, most of it in the Black Hills.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that 7.3 million acres had been improperly taken from the tribes in 1877. The court also upheld a cash award for the land, which now amounts to more than $200 million but the tribes have refused the money, saying land also must be part of any settlement.
Under a measure proposed by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) the tribes would get the 1.3 million acres and the $200 million.
Gerald Clifford of Manderson, coordinator of the Black Hills Steering Committee, helped write the Bradley bill. He opposes Stevens plan, which he calls unrealistic.
Like many Sioux leaders, he says trying to win such a large amount ofmoney will draw attention away from their assertion that the Black Hills are sacred to the tribes.
Clifford made a presentation to the Cheyenne River Tribal Council before the council voted. He called the tribe's new position a step toward unifying the Sioux in seeking passage of the Bradley bill, which has died in committee twice.
(Rapid City tournai)
Poplar well to be monitored
FROM: FORT PECK TRIBAL HEALTH �BECAUSE WE CARE
Over the past month, Ft. Peck Tribal Health Department has been receiving complaints on the Spring north of town. Many names have become attached to this water supply i.e...Badger Creek Spring, Jones Well, Cran-dall Lake Spring, and the Spring north of Town.
The people are complaining about the amount of trash that is being left behind by the people who are obtaining their water supply. The Fort Peck Tribal Health Department will be posting a sign "Keep This Area CLEAN" in an effort to curb this problem.
Our estimates are that over 100 people presently are getting their water from this well due to the City Water situation. In order to protect tne general health of the public, the Fort Peck Tribal Health Department will begin monitoring the quality of the water from this well.
When drawing your water from the well, please remember to do the following:
1. Rinse your containers out thoroughly. .
2. Fill your container directly fron\the spout and not from the water trough.
3. Keep the Area CLEAN.