http://www.shawanoleader.com/articles/2010/04/27/news/news3.txt

Shawano County is one of 11 Wisconsin counties receiving money from the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Shawano County last Thursday received $82,500 — and will potentially get that same sum for up to 25 years, under the agreement with the tribe.

The Ho-Chunk Nation’s gaming compact with Wisconsin requires that the Nation make annual payments to the state, with the amount partially based on the earnings from its gambling facilities.

An amendment to that compact, however, allows the Nation to give $1,000 per acre to each Wisconsin county that has tribal trust land.

“The Ho-Chunk Nation always strives to support local communities throughout Wisconsin,” said Ho-Chunk vice president Dan Brown. “During these tough economic times, we hope these payments will help spur economic development, ignite success for many local businesses, and improve neighborhoods.”

The Ho-Chunk Nation potentially will give nearly $2.2 million annually to the 11 counties for at least the next 25 years, which would result in over $55 million to Wisconsin counties.

Three-fourths of the money is going to two counties — Vernon and Jackson — which have by far the most land in tribal trust. Together, those counties received nearly $1.5 million.

Each of the 11 counties have individualized plans on how they will use the additional funds, some projects include: maintenance of roads, highways, parks and bridges, law enforcement patrol, improving electronic communications, funding for human services programs, funding economic development centers, and economic growth.

The money was wired to the counties last Thursday. The Shawano County Board accepted the contribution at its meeting a week ago.

County administrative coordinator Frank Pascarella said the money would be used for capital improvements at Wilson Lake-Voelz Park, which is located two miles west of Wittenberg on Nightingale Road.

Pascarella said the funds will help pay for a new shelter, bathrooms and other improvements at the park, which is near the tracts of land owned by the Ho-Chunk Nation.

“We want to use those funds in an area of visibility, rather than a general purpose,” Pascarella said.

Other counties receiving money are: Adams, Clark, Crawford, Dane, Jackson, Juneau, Monroe, Sauk, Vernon and Wood Counties.

Dan Brown says many community leaders have expressed their excitement about the unexpected funds.

“We’re excited to see how the payments will help improve our local communities,” said Anne Thundercloud, Ho-Chunk public relations officer. “Since the payments will continue for the next 25 years, we expect that everyone in these 11 counties and surrounding communities will benefit in the long run.”

A meeting planned for Tuesday was canceled so Leech Lake and White Earth bands can coordinate their stand on a 1855 treaty.

• http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100426/UPDATES/100426027

The federal Justice Department says it has reached an agreement with South Dakota’s Shannon County to help American Indian voters.

The agreement requires the county to provide election materials and information in Lakota for voters who speak that language, and to have trained bilingual election officials at polling sites.

The agreement also ensures compliance with various other provisions of the Help America Vote Act, which is aimed at helping minority voters in jurisdictions determined by the Census Bureau to have a substantial population of minority-language residents.

Shannon County includes much of the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation. Four of the five county commissioners are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/4140/

Tribe continues fight for federal status

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/543341.html

MARQUETTE – Native American activists were setting up a tent camp at Eagle Rock Saturday, expecting to stay indefinitely peacefully protesting the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company nickel and copper mine on the Yellow Dog Plains.

“I’m here because this is a sacred spot to our people,” said Charlotte Loonsfoot, 37, a Keweenaw Bay Indian Community member from Baraga who organized the stand at the rock. “They’re going to drill underneath that rock. I’ve seen the spot, it’s like feet from the rock and it’s huge – the hole is huge.”

Loonsfoot and Chalsea Smith, 20, another KBIC member from Baraga, arrived Friday as the sun was setting, driving a small car packed with provisions up a dusty Marquette County Road AAA to Eagle Rock.

“We’re going to try to sit here and protect it for as long as possible until maybe we can do something like stop them,” Smith said, referring to Kennecott. “They don’t care about the land or anything that happens. They just want the money. As long as they get the money, who cares? ‘Cuz they don’t live here. They won’t be living here all the time. So they’ll just pack up and leave and go to the next project because they get paid. Money drives people.”

Kennecott officials said they were open to talks with the KBIC.

“The invitation for a cooperative relationship for discussion of issues and working together to address both parties’ interests – that is an open invitation that we hope the tribe will accept,” Deb Muchmore, a Kennecott spokeswoman in Lansing , said Saturday. “We’re looking for solutions.”

Kennecott recently sent a letter to the KBIC informing them construction at the mine site was to begin and stating they wanted to talk with tribal officials about access to Eagle Rock. According to Muchmore, the primary goal for Kennecott is to ensure safety for tribal members while at the site.

Red-lettered signs saying “No Trespassing” had been put up by Kennecott this week after anti-mine activist Cynthia Pryor of Big Bay was arrested Tuesday for trespassing. Pryor, who was freed from jail Thursday on a personal recognizance bond, allegedly stood in the path of a bulldozer, hoping to stop its work. Pryor is scheduled to appear in Marquette County District Court May 6.

Loonsfoot and Smith had been to the site the day after Pryor was arrested.

“We were here before and there was no signs here,” Loonsfoot said.

The bulldozer was preparing the site for erecting a fence and Kennecott beginning to construct surface facilities for the mine this summer. Kennecott is leasing 120 acres from the state. Long swaths had been cleared through the jack pine and stumps.

Loonsfoot and Smith slept in their car near the base of Eagle Rock Friday night. They climbed the tree-covered outcropping Saturday morning to pray. Loonsfoot leading the ceremony, Smith learning the traditional ways of her elders.

Many more people were expected to gather at the site over the weekend. Loonsfoot said she sent e-mail invitations to all tribal members and the tribal council. She also posted word of the gathering on her Facebook page.

“Everybody that I know knows that I’m coming out here,” Loonsfoot said.

Smith said she knew of others who were packing up food or other items and were en route to the rock, which is located within 10 miles southwest of Big Bay.

Loonsfoot said those coming to the site plan to camp and hold ceremonies. A sacred fire is expected to be lit and a tribal medicine man is set to visit the gathering Sunday from Minnesota, offering advice.

“Something will happen,” Loonsfoot said. “I trust the creator’s going to help us because we feel like we’re doing the right thing.”

Kennecott is apparently not planning to try to prevent the gathering.

“They have an interest in expressing their viewpoint on the project,” Muchmore said, “And we’re not going to interfere with that.”

National and Upper Peninsula members of the American Indian Movement in Republic, Trout Creek, Baraga and other places were also invited.

“Most of the big ones are in Arizona and word is out to them and hopefully they’ll be coming up,” Loonsfoot said. “We want people to come and help us if they believe in this and are strong with it.”

In her invitation, Loonsfoot told her fellow Native Americans, “The time is now. We have to go protect what is right and true to our people and our future.”

In addition to tribal rights to visit the site, those Indians gathering are also concerned about potential damage to the environment from the mine, including the Salmon Trout River.

Loonsfoot sighed deeply and turned away from the winds gusting into her face as the sun sank Friday.

“That’s such a beautiful spot and they’re blocking it from us to go and do our fasts, our spiritual ceremonies and everything else that we do up there,” Loonsfoot said. “And I don’t believe that they should be doing that to us because we are connected to the earth. The whole water thing, you know. Women are protectors of the water – and this is our main reason why we’re here.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/apr/25/tribe-county-kerfuffles-real-victim-is-the-public/

A stubborn clash was reignited last week between the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe and Benewah County over tribal police authority. It may look like a routine he-said-she-said standoff, but the evidence convincingly favors the tribe.

The question is, who altered an agreement that was worked out in a short, tense negotiation intended to avoid legislative intervention?

The tribe says Benewah County officials made dozens of substantive changes before finally returning a signed agreement to the tribe, which had signed it right after it was presented a month earlier to the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee. Benewah County Prosecutor Doug Payne contends the tribe made the changes.

Minutes of the committee’s March 17 meeting record that Idaho Sheriff’s Association lawyer Michael Kane told committee members an agreement on cross-deputization had been reached and “will be signed by all elected officials.”

Copies were distributed to the committee; tribal leaders signed within days and sent it to county commissioners, who had it roughly a month with no public complaint about any alterations.

A couple of credible, independent witnesses agree that the document signed by county commissioners was substantially revised. State Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, the committee chairman, is one. Executive Director Vaughn Killeen of the Sheriff’s Association is another.

We can see why the tribe is furious, but the real victim of the dispute is the public, which has the most to lose when law and order are undermined.

The tribal police force once had a cross-deputization agreement that allowed its state-certified, professional officers to enforce the law on that portion of the reservation within Benewah County, regardless of whether a suspect was Indian or non-Indian. (Such a pact is in force in Kootenai County and works fine.)

But Benewah County Sheriff Bob Kirts has canceled the agreement, gutting tribal officers’ authority in areas ranging from boating infractions to domestic violence on the reservation, where six out of seven residents are nonmembers.

It shouldn’t take the Legislature to solve this. It shouldn’t take mediators and arbitrators. It should take nothing more than the same kind of goodwill and respect for public safety that has worked well between the tribe and Kootenai County.

As the minutes from that March 17 legislative committee meeting so hopefully put it, “Bringing the parties together was in everyone’s interest.”

Someone tell that to the Benewah County commissioners.

• http://www.democratherald.com/sports/college/bae3778c-4ff5-11df-a037-001cc4c002e0.html