AMERICAN INDIAN

Family 'so happy, so relieved' as Biden commutes Leonard Peltier's sentence for 1975 killings

Melissa Van Der Stad — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 17:27:27 GMT

FARGO — Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier will soon be home.

At the eleventh hour of his tenure, President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Peltier on Monday, Jan. 20. The announcement came as Biden attended the inauguration ceremony of incoming President Donald Trump.

With the ruling, Peltier will transition to home confinement in North Dakota in February.

Peltier’s family in Fargo was overcome with emotion when the news of his impending release reached them Monday. They have never given up fighting for his freedom.

Peltier, an 80-year-old member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, has been in federal prison since his conviction for the murder of two FBI agents in 1975 during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest South Dakota.

His incarceration has garnered global attention with questions about the fairness of the trial and the racial tension of the time.

According to Biden's statement, Peltier suffers from severe health ailments. The commutation will not pardon Peltier but will allow him to live his remaining days in comfort, Biden said.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the commutation of Leonard Peltier's sentence

In a statement released by the NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights organization, Peltier said, “It’s finally over — I’m going home.”

'Am I dreaming? Is it real?'

The news came as a shock to Leonard Peltier's sister, 59-year-old Sheila Peltier, who was crying when speaking with The Forum on Monday.

“I just can’t quit crying. I just feel so happy, so relieved, after all these years, I just can’t quite believe it yet,” Sheila Peltier said. “Am I dreaming? Is it real? I can only imagine what he is thinking.”

After decades of barely seeing each other due to Leonard Peltier’s incarceration in a Florida prison, his family is looking forward to reuniting with him, she said.

"I'd like to thank all his supporters," Sheila Peltier said. "Everybody that helped out in whatever way they did to support him ... and for all the (Indigenous) Nations that worked together. Without all that it just wouldn't be possible. He wouldn't be getting out."

He will be home in Belcourt, N.D., soon, Sheila Peltier said, and she plans on being there to welcome him when he arrives.

Sheila Peltier — who spent her teens watching her brother's trial in Fargo — is looking forward to finally having the entire family sit together for a meal at Leonard Peltier's home.

The anticipation of their reunion is almost indescribable, his sisters agree.

"I'm gonna be so, so happy," Betty Ann Peltier Solano said. "It's gonna be one of the happiest days in my life. I'll give him a big hug and a kiss. I don't want to let go. I'm gonna cry. I know I'm gonna cry."

Betty Ann Peltier Solano, 78, spent her early childhood with Leonard Peltier at their grandmother's home in Turtle Mountain.

She remembers when she and Leonard Peltier were taken away by officials as very young children and sent to the Wahpeton Indian ��. Boarding schools were created by the U.S. government to wipe out Indigenous cultures.

"They came one day and took us away," Betty Ann Peltier Solano said. "I can remember my mom and my aunt, they were just crying and crying and begging them not to take us. We were crying, too."

Biden has since apologized to Indigenous people for the traumatic harm that the federal government caused over the decades through the boarding school system.

Leonard Peltier's release can give Indigenous people some "healing from the wrongs that have been done against us," Betty Ann Peltier Solano said. "Most of us have been treated not too good all our lives."

Many members of their family died while waiting all these years for Leonard Peltier to be released, Sheila Peltier said tearfully.

"He's lost family members. Our dad, sisters, brothers, everybody's gone now," she said. "It will be sad for him."

Their father fought for the rest of his life on Leonard Peltier's behalf, she said, and died before seeing his dream of freedom for his son achieved.

"Somebody said 'Oh, they're all looking down from heaven,' " Sheila Peltier said. "It's not the same thing."

Many new generations have joined the family in the decades since his incarceration that Leonard Peltier has yet to meet, like his niece Shannon Cartwright and her young son, Wolf.

"I'm very, very excited" to see him, Shannon Cartwright said.

Cartwright grew up learning about her uncle in school and from her family but was never able to see him in person due to ill-timed prison lockdowns and the distance between North Dakota and Florida.

The family of Leonard Peltier in Fargo waits for his homecoming after nearly 50 years in prison.

Shannon Cartwright, niece of Leonard Peltier, discusses her uncle with her mother Shelia Peltier and aunt Betty Ann Peltier Solano (not pictured) on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, at Peltier Solano's home in south Fargo.

Betty Ann Peltier Solano's home in south Fargo is adorned with artwork created by her brother Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who has been incarcerated since 1977 for aiding and abetting in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. After nearly 50 years, Peltier will be released from prison in February after his sentence was commuted by outgoing President Joe Biden on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.

Betty Ann Peltier Solano discusses her brother Leonard Peltier, who will be released from prison in February after his sentence was commuted by outgoing president Joe Biden, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. When asked what she will do when she sees her brother, Peltier Solano replied, "Give him a big hug and a kiss. I won’t want to let go. It will be one of the happiest days of my life … I can’t be any happier."

Within the past year, Leonard Peltier’s case has brought many tumultuous highs and lows to his family, from recent hope for his parole in June 2024 to the crushing weight of its denial a month later.

Given his age, many thought the denied parole meant Leonard Peltier would never be released from prison.

"I was thinking 'if it doesn't happen now ... he's going to die in there'," Betty Ann Peltier Solano said.

Crimes and concern over release

Leonard Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement — a national organization founded in the 1960s in Minneapolis that fights against police brutality and for tribal rights.

Tensions between the federal government and Indigenous communities were high at the time.

In 1975, Leonard Peltier was convicted following the murders of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. The pair were on the Pine Ridge Reservation when a shootout started.

When it ended, three men were dead: Williams, Coler and 23-year-old American Indian Movement member Joseph Bedell Stuntz, a citizen of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

The families of Williams and Coler have fought against Leonard Peltier’s release for years, as has the FBI.

“Leonard Peltier brutally murdered two FBI agents, and commuting his sentence is yet another reckless and irresponsible move by President Biden on his way out of office,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., in a statement provided to Forum News Service.

Likewise, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said that Biden's decision flew in the face of decades of judicial decisions that reaffirmed Leonard Peltier's conviction for the "cold-blooded murders" of Williams and Coler.

“The Attorney General’s Office strongly opposes this action and has in recent months argued against any change in the defendant’s sentence," Jackley said.

Over the decades, Leonard Peltier has remained insistent that he is not guilty of the deaths of Williams and Coler, and activists around the world have echoed him.

Since his conviction, a long list of people, tribes and organizations have called for Peltier’s release, including the former prosecutor in the case, members of Congress, Amnesty International USA, Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, the National Congress of American Indians and dozens of tribal nations — including his own.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out thanked Biden for listening to "countless" Tribal Nations and granting clemency to Leonard Peltier in a Monday release.

"The facts underlying Mr. Peltier's case and the admitted prosecutorial misconduct among those involved in the prosecution and judicial review of his case has come to symbolize the injustice we, in Indian County, all too frequently experience in the United States' criminal justice system," Star Comes Out said.

Leonard Peltier is a "true warrior" for "civil rights," Star Comes Out said, and his release marks a moment of healing from the mistreatment that this "grave injustice" brought to Indigenous communities.

Former FBI Director Christopher Wray and the "No Parole Peltier Association" have spoken out against President Joe Biden's decision to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, claiming the president may not fully understand the complexities of the case.

ABC News reported that before leaving office, Wray sent a letter to Biden urging him not to pardon or reduce Peltier's sentence.

WDAY News has reached out to the FBI for comment but has not received a response.

'Huge sign of hope for the future'

Monday was full of emotion for the people who have been fighting for Leonard Peltier’s release for decades.

Ruth Buffalo, a former representative in the North Dakota House, was also in tears while on the phone with The Forum on Monday.

“I’m so happy for him, his family, the many who died advocating for his freedom (and) the countless volunteers who have been pushing for his freedom all these years, all these decades,” Buffalo said.

Peltier has a home waiting for him on the land of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Buffalo said, and there will be many celebrations about his freedom in the days and weeks to come.

“Maacagíraac,” to Biden, Buffalo said, which means "thank you" in Hidatsa.

She extended that thank you to everyone who worked on his case, including generations of “survivors from those times who never gave up and kept fighting for Leonard's freedom.”

“It’s a huge sign of hope for the future,” Buffalo said. “I’m just happy to be able to witness it.”

The release of Leonard Peltier is a huge victory for Indigenous communities, Nick Tilsen, CEO of NDN Collective, wrote in a release on Monday.

Three generations of Indigenous activists have worked for this day, he said.

“Leonard Peltier’s liberation is our liberation," Tilsen said. "We will honor him by bringing him back to his homelands to live out the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting with his land and culture."

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Biden formally apologizes over Native American boarding schools

Gabriella Borter and Kanishka Singh / Reuters — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 19:50:27 GMT

LAVEEN VILLAGE, Arizona — President Joe Biden formally apologized on Friday for the U.S. government's role in running abusive Native American boarding schools for more than 150 years, and was heckled at the event over his support for Israel's war in Gaza.

"This to me is one of the most consequential things I've ever had an opportunity to do in my whole career," Biden said in his apology at an outdoor football and track field in Laveen Village, Arizona, near Phoenix.

"It's a sin on our soul. ... I formally apologize."

Several hundred people attended, many of them in traditional tribal dress. They cheered as Biden apologized for the generational trauma faced by the Native American community due to the boarding schools across the country.

Biden faced a brief interruption when a pro-Palestinian protester shouted: "How can you apologize for a genocide while committing a genocide in Palestine?"

The president replied, "There is a lot of innocent people being killed and it has to stop."

U.S. support for Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel has led to months of demonstrations across the United States. Rights advocates have demanded an arms embargo against Israel as tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the region, and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have grappled with hunger and disease.

Israel and Washington deny genocide allegations brought against Israel at the World Court in relation to Gaza, and Washington has maintained its support for its ally.

Friday's trip marked Biden's first time visiting Indian Country while in office and is part of his effort to cement his legacy in his final months in the White House.

Arizona is also one of the seven battleground states in a tight race for the Nov. 5 U.S. election in which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to be a cabinet secretary, had launched an investigation to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Native American boarding school policies.

An Interior Department investigative report released in July found that at least 973 children died in these schools. Haaland's family members were among the children forced into the boarding schools.

From 1819 through the 1970s, the United States implemented policies establishing and supporting hundreds of American Indian boarding schools across the U.S. Their purpose was to culturally assimilate Native Americans by forcibly removing them from their families, communities, religions and cultural beliefs.

Like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have in recent years reviewed past abuse toward Indigenous communities, including children in schools.

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Prairie Island to open first recreational cannabis dispensary in Southeast Minnesota

Sara Guymon — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 21:11:54 GMT

PRAIRIE ISLAND, Minn. — The Prairie Island Indian Community is planning to open a cannabis dispensary later this year.

PIIC has launched a new business venture, Island Peži, a Native Cannabis Company to be located near Treasure Island Resort and Casino next to the Dakota Station convenience store in Welch.

Island Peži, pay-zhee, meaning grass in the Dakota language, hopes to open a dispensary to serve the recently legalized adult-use recreational cannabis market. They still need to obtain the proper Tribal licensing but are hopeful for a summer opening, according to a press release announcing the dispensary.

"Island Peži’s entry into the cannabis industry hopes to create another avenue of economic diversification for PIIC and develop opportunities for the Tribe's members for generations to come," the release said.

As a sovereign nation, PIIC has enacted its own cannabis regulatory ordinance, which allows a comprehensive licensing and regulatory system to regulate cannabis within its jurisdiction. The Tribe says it is committed to the highest standards of operation through its cannabis regulatory commission. It is similar to the state’s licensing and regulatory system function for the broader Minnesota market, which should open in early 2025.

On Aug. 23, 2023, Minnesota became the 23rd state in the United States to legalize cannabis use for people 21 and older.

The dispensary would be the first south of the Twin Cities and just the third in Minnesota. The state's first recreational dispensary opened in the Red Lake Nation — located in north central Minnesota — last year. The Bemidji Pioneer reported in February that Red Lake's dispensary, NativeCare, would be operated as a stand-alone business instead of tribal council control after allegations of theft.

Another marijuana dispensary opened in the White Earth Nation. White Earth Nation is located in west-central Minnesota, just north of Detroit Lakes.

Island Peži will open next to Dakota Station, the Tribe’s convenience store and gas station. The Tribe is excited by the prospects of the cannabis industry for Indian Country and specifically what it will mean for Prairie Island, the release noted.

“Island Peži is a step forward in our efforts to diversify our economy and strengthen our Tribe's long-term financial sovereignty,” Grant Johnson, Prairie Island Tribal Council president, said in the press release. “We’re excited to be among the first to enter the cannabis market and create new opportunities for the future of our Tribe.”

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Minnesota tribes reject use of bison as Rochester school mascot, but provide little context

Jordan Shearer — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 12:37:00 GMT

ROCHESTER — The tribal nations that rejected Rochester Public ��s’ exemption request that would have allowed Dakota Middle �� to keep its bison mascot provided little context for doing so.

The school recently announced it would have to change its mascot under new state legislation that prohibits schools from using American Indian imagery for such purposes.

The legislation, however, allows schools to continue using American Indian-focused imagery if they receive an exemption from the state’s tribal communities. The school district received responses from four tribes, as well as the Tribal Nations Education Committee.

“The Tribal Nations Education Committee has reviewed your request,” the committee told RPS in its brief response. “The TNEC denies your exemption request for the Bison name and mascot.”

There are 11 tribal nations in Minnesota. According to the state legislation, an exemption request would have to be approved by all of them. If even one tribe objected to the use of a school’s mascot, the exemption request would be denied.

In addition to the TNEC, the Lower Sioux Indian Community and White Earth Reservation opposed RPS’ exemption request.

The other two tribal nations that responded declined taking a stance on the matter. Grand Portage Reservation said it was deferring the decision to Prairie Island Indian Community, since that is the closest American Indian community to Rochester Public ��s.

Similarly, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community also deferred deciding on the matter. However, that community was the one to elaborate most on the situation.

“While we support the intent of the statute, we believe our tribal government should not decide nor dictate your school’s decision-making authority, especially if another tribe in your community is already working with you on this issue,” the tribe said in its response. “Native American’s unauthorized depiction used as mascots is hurtful and unjust, and we believe in and support historically accurate reflections of Indigenous peoples. Still, we respect the other 10 tribal sovereign nations in Minnesota and their decision in regard to grand permission for school districts in their area to use images, names or symbols that reflect the traditions of their tribe.”

The tribal community closest to Rochester, Prairie Island, didn’t provide a formal response to the district’s exemption request. However, Prairie Island did respond briefly to a request for comment from the Post Bulletin, saying it would not comment on "any actions taken by the TNEC."

As part of its request for exemption, RPS included an image of the mascot, which is of a bison surrounded by a handful of stars. The district’s request also explained it had coordinated with the Prairie Island Indian Community, which is located in Red Wing, and that the mascot was selected by the district’s American Indian Parent Advisory Committee. The district's request for exemption also clarified it worked with an American Indian artist to design the mascot.

The Post Bulletin reached out to Dakota Middle �� and the district representatives for additional comment. RPS responded it would not provide any additional commentary until after the issue is discussed with the Rochester �� Board.

��s and districts within a tribal reservation in Minnesota that have 95% of American Indian students are exempt from the legislation, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.

"Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) acknowledges that transitioning mascots may be difficult. Districts and schools affected by this legislation will be assisted through the change," the MDE website states.

Dakota Middle �� is not the only school that was denied an exemption.

District leaders in Benson, Minnesota, said they will be waiting until the 2024 legislative session ends before they change the school’s Braves mascot and logo, the West Central Tribune reported earlier this year. The district estimates rebranding efforts will cost nearly $1 million.

In northwest Minnesota, it seems Warroad will be able to keep its Warrior nickname and logo after the district received no objection from any of the 11 tribal governments in mid-December deadline.

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US Supreme Court rejects race-based challenge to Native American adoption law

Andrew Chung / Reuters — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 19:54:16 GMT

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld decades-old federal standards that give preferences to Native Americans and tribal members in the adoption or foster care placements of Native American children, rejecting a challenge that claimed that parts of the law were racially biased against non-Native Americans.

The 7-2 ruling threw out a lower court's decision that had struck down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law a requirement that "other Indian families" receive preference in adoption and foster care after members of a child's extended family or tribe members.

The justices found that the plaintiffs - the Republican-governed state of Texas and three non-Native American families - lacked the necessary legal standing to bring the case. The justices also rejected some specific challenges to the law, known as the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, on other grounds.

The decision came a week after the court ruled against a challenge to another federal law aimed at protecting racial minorities, with the justices rejecting a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama found to dilute the clout of Black voters.

Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act to end a longstanding practice in the United States of removing many Native American children from their families and placing them with non-Native Americans. At the time the law was passed, 25% to 35% of Native American children were removed in states with large Native American populations, according to court papers.

The "bottom line," conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in Thursday's ruling, "is that we reject all of petitioners' challenges to the statute, some on the merits and others for lack of standing." Conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

President Joe Biden, whose administration defended the law, said the decision keeps in place a vital protection for tribal sovereignty and Native American children.

"Our Nation's painful history looms large over today's decision," Biden said in a statement. "In the not-so-distant past, Native children were stolen from the arms of the people who loved them. They were sent to boarding schools or to be raised by non-Indian families - all with the aim of erasing who they are as Native people and tribal citizens. These were acts of unspeakable cruelty that affected generations of Native children and threatened the very survival of Tribal Nations."

'Overcome with joy'

Native American groups cheered the decision.

"We are overcome with joy," a coalition of organizations including the Indian Child Welfare Association and the National Congress of American Indians said in a statement.

"One thing is certain: ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) is crucial for the safety and well-being of Native children and families and the future of Native peoples and Tribal Nations," the coalition said.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2017, was brought against the U.S. Interior Department and federal officials by Texas and the three families who sought to adopt or foster Native American children. They included Texas couple Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, who in 2018 adopted a child whose mother is a member of the Navajo Nation.

Among other claims, the plaintiffs said the statute violated the Constitution both by racially discriminating against non-Native Americans and by having the federal government direct the actions of state agencies in adoption matters.

A judge ruled favor of the challengers on both claims in 2018. In 2021, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the judge's ruling but affirmed the invalidation of certain parts of the law.

Barrett said the Supreme Court could not decide the merits of the race claims in the case. Suing the U.S. government would not remedy the alleged racial discrimination "because state courts apply the placement preferences, and state agencies carry out the court-ordered placements," Barrett wrote.

The ruling also found that Congress had the power to enact the law, a conclusion Thomas and Alito disputed.

During arguments in the case in November, conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said it would be impermissible for Congress to give white parents preferences for adopting white children or Latino parents preferences for Latino children.

Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion on Thursday, emphasized that "serious" racial discrimination claims made in the case remained undecided but might properly be brought in a future lawsuit by a "prospective foster or adoptive parent or child in a case arising out of a state-court foster care or adoption proceeding."

Matthew McGill, a lawyer for the families, said his main concern is what the decision means for the Brackeens' effort to adopt the sibling to their adopted child, a 5-year-old girl referred to in court papers as "Y.R.J."

"As Justice Kavanaugh observed today, that equal protection claim is 'serious,' and we will ask the state court to address it in the Brackeens' upcoming trial to adopt Y.R.J.," McGill said.

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Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe seeks to increase number of foster families

Kirsti Marohn / MPR News — Sun, 07 May 2023 17:08:01 GMT

ONAMIA, Minn. --Five years ago, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe had more than 70 licensed foster homes.

Today, that number has fallen to about 40. Most are already caring for children, or are licensed only to care for relatives.

That means some kids are being sent to non-Native foster homes or facilities outside the community – a problem rooted in historical trauma, Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin said during her annual State of the Band speech in January.

“For our oldest generation of band members living today, there were boarding schools that stripped our children of their culture, identity and caused generational trauma,” Benjamin said. “Today, our youngest generation face a similar loss of culture when they are sent to foster homes outside of the band.”

The need for foster families comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide on a challenge to a federal law that aims to keep Native children within their community and culture.

Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, in 1978 as a response to what was called a crisis of Native children being removed from their families by social service agencies.

ICWA’s goal was to help keep Native children in tribal communities. As tribes began exercising their sovereign rights, it became important that Native children were raised within tribal communities, said Samuel Moose, the Mille Lacs Band's commissioner of administration.

“Indian children are one of our most sacred assets,” he said. “We felt that it's necessary to protect them to make sure they grew up in an identity that is theirs, so that they understand where they come from.”

Cultural ties important

Tribal leaders say ICWA has been largely successful. Minnesota lawmakers also recently voted to strengthen state protections for Native children.

But the laws only work if there are homes willing to take them, Benjamin said. She's launched an effort to encourage more Mille Lacs Band families to consider fostering children, and sharing cultural ties she says are important for them to thrive.

“Our elders tell us, we were placed on this earth as Anishinaabe, and so we have all these responsibilities that come with us from a cultural, a religious, a traditional way of life,” Benjamin said.

When kids are removed from that environment, they don't get the kind of nurturing necessary for their self esteem and growth, “for all of the things they need to move forward in life in a positive way,” she said.

‘Walk in both worlds’

Mille Lacs County has one of the highest rates of children placed outside the home in Minnesota, most often due to drug abuse by parents, according to a 2020 report by the Department of Human Services. Native children make up the largest racial group by far.

Benjamin said the Mille Lacs Band has struggled with a rise in drug addiction, in part due to a law enforcement dispute with Mille Lacs County that she says created an opportunity for drug dealers.

“When you get hooked, a lot of things happen,” she said. “You lose your job, you may lose your home. And ultimately, if you lose your home, you lose your kids as well.”

As a result, some Mille Lacs Band members have stepped up to care for other family members' children.

Christine Pewaush has raised her grandson since he was an infant, because of his parents' drug abuse. He's now 8.

“I didn't want him being bounced around from foster home to foster home, (not knowing) where he's at,” she said. “That's the greatest fear for us.”

It was important to Pewaush that her grandson grow up in her large family, learning their traditions and culture.

“As Anishinaabe people, we have to learn how to walk in both worlds – one that's not ours, but we had to adapt to it,” she said. “And one that is ours, our traditional ways.”

Foster homes needed

Social workers look first to extended family members to take in a foster child, but they're not always available. Tribal leaders hope other Mille Lacs Band members will consider opening their homes to a child who's not a relative.

“We're really kind of pushing and promoting folks to step up and to apply for their foster care license, ask questions, and we'll walk them through that step,” said Nicole Anderson, the band's health and human services commissioner.

Anderson said they're trying to eliminate barriers that might keep families from applying for a foster license. That includes a distrust of government that's common in Native communities, she said.

“Sometimes it can be kind of a scary thing saying, ‘OK, I'm going to go to family services and ask questions,’” Anderson said. “So it's breaking down the stigma and the fear, and just really kind of coming together so that we can support each other.”

Preserving families

The Mille Lacs Band's larger goal is to help keep families healthy and intact, reducing the need for foster care. The band has created programs to provide support, reduce poverty and treat addiction.

One example is the Family Healing to Wellness Court, an alternative to the child protection court system that's grounded in traditional beliefs. Instead of stigmatizing families, the goal is to provide tools they need to be successful, Anderson said.

"We're wrapping around that family,” she said. “We're throwing all the resources at them that we can, and we're walking them through every step of the way.”

Still, at least in the short term, the need for more foster families remains. So far, Benjamin’s urging has not led to an increase in foster care applications.

Right now, Pewaush is concentrating on raising her grandson. But she said in the future, she’d consider taking in another child who's not as fortunate.

“Like we say, it doesn't take just us two parents to take care of the child,” Pewaush said. “It does take the whole tribe to take care of a child.”

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In the 1920s, a lawman in North Dakota had a dark secret — He was Al Capone’s brother

Tracy Briggs — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 16:32:56 GMT

Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part special report on “The Capones in North Dakota.”

Can you imagine the stress on poor old Vincenzo Capone as he tried to hide his real identity? What would his fellow prohibition agent friends think if they found out the man they knew as “Richard Hart” — a guy fighting corruption and crime just like they were — actually shared a last name with the most notorious gangster of the era: “Capone.”

And it wasn’t just a shared last name, they shared parents. “Richard Hart” was Al Capone’s older brother.

It all sounds too unbelievable to be true. How could Richard Hart/Vincenzo Capone have plotted such a different path for his life than his gangster brothers, Al “Scarface” Capone, Ralph “Bottles” Capone and Frank Capone? But he did.

The story of this unlikely family dynamic starts across the Atlantic ocean.

The cowboy Capone

Vincenzo Capone was born near Salerno, Italy, in 1892. When he was just a toddler he immigrated to the United States with his parents, Gabriele Capone, a barber, and Teresa Raiola, a seamstress. The couple eventually had eight more children, including Al, who was fourth in the birth order.

All of the Capone children were given Italian names, but as they grew up in Brooklyn, New York, they chose to Americanize them, so Vincenzo went by “James” and Alphonse became “Al,” Raffael was “Ralph,” Salvatore was “Frank” and so on.

Unlike some of his younger brothers, Vincenzo avoided getting into street fights and gangs, instead choosing to spend time at area horse stables where he could act out his dreams of living in the wild west as a gun-slinging cowboy.

‘He avoided the life of the hoodlums and went across the bay to Staten Island where the homes and shops were separated by grassy fields and woods where he could wander and forget the crowded metropolis from which he came,’ writes author Jeff McArthur in his 2015 book about the eldest Capone, titled “Two Gun Hart: Law Man, Cowboy and Long-Lost Brother of Al Capone.”

Vincenzo left home unexpectedly at 16, most likely with one of the traveling wild west shows that came through New York. (He wrote home later that he had joined the circus). McArthur writes that 8-year-old Al saw him off on the ferry that day and Vincenzo had to tell him he had to stay in New York. When World War I broke out, Vincenzo enlisted and was stationed in France.

He sent the occasional postcard home, but for the most part was looking to distance himself from his life in Brooklyn and his Italian heritage. According to a story by Curt Eriksmoen in 2019, “He believed that being Italian would hinder him from finding meaningful employment, so he changed his name to ‘Richard Hart’ and claimed he was darker-skinned because he was part Native American.”

He chose the name “Richard Hart” in honor of his idol William Hart, a silent movie cowboy of the era. He was even given William Hart’s nickname “Two-Gun” after he took part in successful shootouts against bootleggers.

A Capone sent to North Dakota

Following the passage of the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors, the federal government authorized the hiring of federal prohibition agents. Hart applied to become an agent and was hired in the summer of 1920.

Five years later, Hart was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to try to keep alcohol off of the reservations. He was sent to the Dakotas, and used the Standing Rock Reservation as his base of operation.

Eriksmoen points out the irony of that particular year.

“The year 1925 was also the same time that his younger brother, Al Capone, became the head of the violent Torrio crime organization in Chicago. This organization became the country’s largest trafficker of illegal liquor under Capone’s leadership.”

Because prohibition was largely unpopular and the alcoholism rate on the reservations was estimated to be close to 45%, Hart and his fellow agents were in for a fight, but Two-Gun was up for the challenge. According to McArthur, within a year he had become “the most feared name among bootleggers in the Midwest.”

'A most crafty enforcement officer'

Ashley Thronson of the State Historical Society of North Dakota noted in a blog post, that in January of 1926 the Sioux County Pioneer reported on the success of a series of raids on the reservation that netted, “many victims beside a lot of evidence and other paraphernalia.”

One such raid resulted in the removal of 25 gallons of alcohol. Hart was declared by the paper as “a most crafty enforcement officer.”

Because of his collaboration with tribal police in fighting poverty and alcoholism on the reservation, many tribal elders respected and admired Hart and even gave him a teasing nickname, translated from Lakota to mean “Big Hairy Thing.” They might have also trusted him because of his claim to be part Native American (and not Italian).

In a promotional video for McArthur’s book, Hart’s grandson Jeff said his grandfather connected with the native people, learning to speak a couple of native languages in addition to English and the Italian he learned at home in Brooklyn.

It’s fortuitous that Hart was on the reservation the same time as photographer Frank Fiske, who was there to document everyday life at Fort Yates and Standing Rock. The end result was a series of photographs showing Hart standing together with Native American agents and the liquor they confiscated. Fiske also shot cowboy portraits of Hart that probably satisfied his desire to be a Wild West Star

It’s pretty clear Hart was proud of the work he did as a Prohibition agent in North Dakota. Thronson said, “according to records in Fiske’s business ledger, Hart purchased 12 postcards of these photographs of him for a total of $5.00.”

Did Al Capone know about Richard Hart?

It appears that he did. Newspaper reports suggest the two men had been seen together, even at the height of Prohibition.

According to McArthur, a Chicago photographer named Tony Berardi claimed to have met Hart and Capone together in 1924 – when the gangster introduced his eldest sibling as a Prohibition officer in Nebraska.

“Apparently proud of his brother, Al revealed no animosity toward him, and was, in fact, showing him off," McArthur writes. “Richard, on the other hand, seemed in awe of the situation. Where he was living, bootleggers had to hide. Here, his brother and his gang walked openly in the street…Not only was Al not having to hide, he was a local celebrity.”

McArthur said the two brothers basically agreed to stay out of each other’s territories.

The Capones reconnect

By 1928, Hart left North Dakota and was transferred to the Spokane Indian Reservation to continue his work. But as Prohibition ended and The Great Depression took hold, work was hard to come by.

Hart apparently swallowed his pride and sought help from his famous family. He still kept his identity secret, but reportedly would leave his home in Homer, Nebraska, where he continued to work in law enforcement, only to come back a few days later in a nice suit carrying cash. At this time, he told his wife Kathleen, who he had met in Nebraska, and their four sons his true identity.

It become public knowledge in 1951 when Hart was called to testify at his brother Ralph Capone’s tax evasion trial. Ralph had apparently written down Hart’s name as the real owner of a home Ralph owned in Wisconsin. Hart actually testified on Ralph’s behalf. (He insisted he be allowed to wear his 10-gallon-cowboy hat while doing so). Some historians believe by testifying the way he did, Hart probably perjured himself. But McArthur believes Hart was trying to pay back his family for helping him through the Great Depression.

Richard Hart/AKA Vincenzo Capone died a year later. According to his obituary in the Lincoln Star, on Oct. 2, 1952, the former lawman had been nearly blind for almost two years following a gunfight in Sioux City, Iowa. But the cause of death was a heart ailment. He was 60 years old.

He is buried in a cemetery in Homer, Nebraska with a tombstone that reads simply:

Richard J. Hart

1892 -1952

The name "Vincenzo Capone" is no where to be found.

Next week

—

part two of "The Capones in North Dakota," Did Al Capone come to visit his brother in North Dakota? Maybe. Two waitresses at a cafe in Petersburg, North Dakota say they served him a steak.
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No-smudging rule at North Dakota school's powwow prompts backlash

C.S. Hagen — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 10:15:00 GMT

BISMARCK — Signs barring the Native American practice of smudging at the University of Mary's weekend powwow created an online stir, with some saying the policy was a violation of religious freedom.

The University of Mary's policy of no-smudging indoors was a longstanding one because of concerns about fire alarms being set off by smudging, said Carmelita Lamb, associate dean of the university’s Liffrig Family �� of Education and Behavioral Sciences.

“It is a little heartbreaking that something as small as a sign would make everyone feel so badly. We do have some smudging on campus, but a powwow is a social event and not a ceremonial event,” Lamb said.

Smudging is practiced by a variety of Indigenous groups. It generally involves the burning of sacred herbs, sometimes to cleanse a person or place.

The no-smudging signs were posted at the university’s annual Mid-Winter Powwow, an event that took place Sunday, Jan. 15, in partnership with the United Tribes Technical College.

Lamb said the Mid-Winter Powwow was a time for people to break out of winter isolation, see friends, listen to music, put their regalia on and dance. “It was just a matter of safety because of fire alarms being sensitive. We don’t allow any vaping or cigarettes or any of that, with a risk of setting off alarms,” she said.

Tom Plenty Chief, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation and president of Medicine Butte, a nonprofit group at Fort Berthold, said the news that smudging was not allowed during the powwow disturbed him.

“I would think in this day and age with religious freedom and equality and the Freedom of Religion Act of 1978, I would think an institution of higher learning that is funded by federal dollars would recognize the fact that Native people or any people have their own culture and their own ways of prayer, so it should be nondiscriminatory,” Plenty Chief said.

Leander “Russ” McDonald, president of United Tribes Technical College, said he attended the powwow, but didn’t see the no-smudging signs. After the event, someone shared an online post with him about the no-smudging policy.

“We could probably visit about that and see if there are any opportunities to work with this in the future. A lot of us Natives want to do that because it puts us in the right frame of mind. It’s a spiritual lock and helps everything go good,” McDonald said.

The University of Mary does allow smudging in certain spaces on campus, and as a Native American herself, Lamb encourages the practice.

“In the future as we move forward with powwows, we will make a special effort to participants that if they wish to smudge we will provide them an environment they can do that. We embrace that,” Lamb said.

“Nobody came to me to ask for smudging. We would have welcomed them and provided them a safe place for that to be done and not trigger smoke alarms,” Lamb said.

Online comments related to the no-smudging policy at the powwow claimed the practice was no different than Catholic priests walking down an aisle swinging incense burners.

“I’ve been to Catholic Mass before and I believe they burn frankincense and that is a variation of smudging. If they don’t allow Native American people to smudge during a Native event, then why allow that during their Mass? It’s something to think about,” Plenty Chief said.

A similar situation at the University of Michigan prompted the university recently to change the smoke-free campus policy to allow smudging, as long as requests were made in advance.

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How a basketball jersey can open pathways for Native opportunities

Robyn Katona and Feven Gerezgiher / MPR News — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 19:03:08 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS -- “Honored to play on Native land.”

Those are the words imprinted on the black and gold warmup jerseys that debuted at the University of Minnesota women’s basketball game against Presbyterian College last Sunday.

The jersey features a combination of loom and beadwork designs reflecting both Dakota and Ojibwe heritage, said Anishinaabe designer Sarah Agaton Howes, who runs a contemporary Ojibwe design brand called Heart Berry. Flowers are framed by geometric shapes representing the “step, step, slide” of an otter track, a culturally significant motion appearing across Ojibwe traditions, including in the movement of jingle dress dancers.

Howes had pitched the suggestion of a new jersey design when the team reached out about doing something for their “Native American Heritage Game.”

“The opportunity to play always means more when it comes attached to something greater than ourselves,” read a statement from the Minnesota women’s basketball program. Days prior, student athletes had met with and learned from Indigenous community leaders.

By honoring Native heritage, the team aims to pass the learning forward. The new design, breaks for land acknowledgments, a Tribal Nations Plaza on campus — these all serve “as an opportunity to educate all visitors to our campus about the unique, historic and ongoing contributions made to the state of Minnesota by the sovereign tribal nations who call Minnesota home," the statement reads.

The game also featured a halftime exhibition of drummers and jingle dress dancers.

“They called us up to do the things that those old Indians did,” smiled emcee Byron Ninham, dressed in a black vest embroidered with bright-colored flowers.

Ninham, Red Lake Ojibwe and an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, said the old popular media depiction of American Indians “needs to just be thrown away.” At the same time, he hopes these “quick exposures” to his heritage will spark conversations for non-Native audiences.

“Maybe people will have some questions after the fact and we can provide some more context and more information and history. But it gets the conversation started, like where you're at and the people that are still here,” he said.

This was not his first time on a basketball court. Earlier this year, Howes, who is also a jingle dress dancer, and former WNBA player Jessie Stomski Seim had coordinated a similar exhibition for an NCAA Final Four match. Beyond expanding familiarity with Native culture, they hope such initiatives will increase opportunities for young Native people on college campuses.

“Although there is a wealth of talent in Indian Country, less than half a percent of all NCAA student athletes are Native American,” said Stomski Seim (Muscogee (Creek) Nation), an attorney who is general counsel for the Prairie Island Indian Community and member of the Indigenous Athletics Advancement Council.

Stomski Seim said there are several reasons Native high school athletes are underrepresented — distance from cities where recruitment-track teams, youth programs and resources are based, for example. But she said “the biggest is that Native people in this country are still invisible. For hundreds of years, for generations, the point was to eradicate Native people and/or make them invisible or assimilated. That's not that long ago. Our grandmothers were raised in boarding school. That's not ancient history. So we're still dealing with that. It was purposeful that there's invisibility.”

To address that, Stomski Seim plans to take college scouts on a tour of Indian Country next summer.

For her part, Howes hopes the new jersey design has a part in making both non-Native and Native students feel welcome on campus.

Howes brought her 12- and 15-year-old children along to the game to watch as she performed in full regalia.

"For both of my kids to come to this university, see Native people invited in, see Native people honored and thanked and clapped for, it is going to transform the way that they think about how they belong in a higher education setting," she said.

Jerseys for social change

The Minnesota Wild debuted their own custom hockey jerseys during a pre-game warmup on Friday to commemorate Native American Heritage Day. Designed in partnership with the Prairie Island Indian Community, the jerseys pay tribute to Minnesota Native American communities with a star-quilt pattern and the Dakota phrase from which Minnesota gets its name — “Mni Sota Makoce.”

“Our tribe is proud to be active and engaged in Minnesota, and giving back is at the core of who we are as Dakota people,” wrote Johnny Johnson, Prairie Island Indian Community Tribal Council President, in a press release. “Our partnership with the Wild gives us a platform to share our story and celebrate our culture with the community, which we are honored to do on this national holiday.”

The warmup jerseys will be auctioned through Dec. 5 with proceeds going to the Minnesota Wild Foundation and Dream of Wild Health, an intertribal nonprofit working to recover “knowledge of and access to healthy Indigenous foods, medicines and lifeways,” according to Minnesota Wild.

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Minnesota Chippewa Tribe members voting on whether to continue blood quantum

Dan Kraker / MPR News — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 14:38:11 GMT

DULUTH, Minnesota — Like a lot of Americans, Sarah Agaton Howes' family is, as she puts it, "mixed from all over the place."

Her mom's family is from Norway. Her dad is a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and so is she. But the 46-year-old also has relatives from the Red Cliff and Bad River Ojibwe bands in Wisconsin, and the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma. Her husband is Filipino.

"And so my kids can't be enrolled here,” she said of the Fond du Lac Band. “And so what that means for them is that even though they're raised here, they grew up in our culture, that they aren't going to be able to vote or feel a part of our community in the same way."

Tribal members have cards that show their Certified Degree of Indian Blood. Howes' is 25 percent. But because her kids' dad is non-Native, they have only one-eighth Minnesota Chippewa Tribe blood. So they can't be enrolled tribal members.

"Our family, our kids have clans, they have names and so I know who they are. And they know who they are,” Howes said. “And the only one that doesn't know who they are, is the enrollment office.”

But that could soon change, pending the outcome of a historic vote that could help determine who is allowed to be an enrolled tribal member.

The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe includes six Chippewa, or Ojibwe bands, in northern Minnesota, including the Fond du Lac Band. Only the Red Lake Band is not included. The Tribe’s constitution requires that a person have 25 percent tribal blood — a requirement known as “blood quantum.”

Tribal officials plan to begin counting ballots Wednesday on an advisory vote that will guide the tribe as it considers reforming its constitution. It’s a contentious issue that divides families. Some tribal members fear that expanding membership would further stretch already scarce resources.

But others argue that if nothing is done, the tribe’s enrollment will drastically decline as members marry non-tribal members.

“I think that we are fulfilling the government's goal of making ourselves extinct if we don't do something to change it.” said Melissa Walls, a descendant of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa who doesn’t qualify for enrollment.

“And it totally flies in the face of Anishinaabe or any indigenous cultural teachings about who belongs.”

‘It isn’t real’

Blood quantum is a relatively new idea, a race-based policy imposed by the federal government.

Beginning in the 1930s the government pressured many tribes into adopting tribal constitutions that included blood quantum to decide membership. In Minnesota, it was used by white settlers to acquire tribal land. Federal law only allowed Native people who had "mixed blood" to sell their land.

But there was no way for federal officials to accurately determine the Native American percentage of an individual’s blood.

“Blood quantum isn't actually a real thing,” said Jill Doerfler, chair of the American Indian Studies department at the University of Minnesota Duluth, who has studied blood quantum for two decades and written a book about it.

“It’s not something that can be carved up into percentages,” she said.

She said agents in Minnesota borrowed what were then cutting edge ideas and techniques from the burgeoning field of anthropology to try to quantify how much Native blood someone had.

"So they did some scratch tests on people's chests," Doerfler said, describing how they would look at the color of someone's skin after they scratched it.

"They took some hair samples, they did some head measurements. And that was the basis for blood quantum and then later, even judges would see people before them and say, ‘Yes, mixed blood, no, full blood.’"

Doerfler said the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe historically had a much more open definition of belonging. But under pressure from the federal government, the tribe adopted the 25 percent blood quantum in the early 1960s.

Since then, the tribe's population has slowly declined, as tribal members married non-tribal members. Doerfler calls it "mathematical termination."

Today, out of a total population of around 40,000 among the six bands, fewer than 20 percent are children.

A study conducted by Wilder Research nearly a decade ago on behalf of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe found that if no changes are made, the tribe’s population would decline 80 percent by the end of the century.

"If something isn't done, tribes will eventually be gone. The population could dwindle to the point of non-existence,” said Cathy Chavers, chairwoman of the Bois Forte Band and the current President of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

In early June the tribe sent out ballots to its roughly 33,000 eligible voters. They asked two questions. Should the tribe eliminate the blood quantum? And should the tribe's six member Bands be allowed to determine their own tribal enrollment criteria?

The vote is only advisory. But it will play a key role in guiding the tribe as it considers reforming its constitution. Chavers said she often hears from tribal members who want their kids and grandkids to also be enrolled.

"They feel like they're native. They want to be native. Their heart says they're native, but then the blood quantum says they're not."

Hard to change

Blood quantum is an artificial concept that the federal government imposed on tribal governments to limit their citizenship. But it’s proven difficult for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe to abandon.

“Some people have latched on to blood quantum,” said Doerfler. “Many people have made deliberate choices to make sure they were producing children that would have the proper blood quantum to be enrolled tribal members. They did the math.”

Some members of bands that distribute casino revenues to tribal citizens through monthly "per capita payments" don't want enrollment expanded, Chavers said.

She said there are also concerns that expanded tribal membership could further stretch already scarce resources, for housing and other services.

“The federal government has never upheld their trust responsibility. We've been underfunded for hundreds of years. If you add more enrollment, yes, more people will be eligible, but the funding won't be there to follow it.”

Doerfler says there’s some truth to that argument. But she said it also saddens her. She said not everyone who’s seeking enrollment is looking to get something. She said many want a validation of their identity, including herself.

Doerfler grew up on the White Earth reservation and went to school there. But she’s not an enrolled member because she doesn’t meet the blood quantum requirement.

“If I were to be enrolled, I would not qualify for any services, nor should I. I would hope that I could make some sort of contribution. And I would like to have the recognition, the legal and political recognition of being Anishinaabe,” she said.

According to Sarah Howes from the Fond du Lac Band, it's a painful argument that divides families.

“What would our ancestors think of us? If they were looking at us? And we're saying, Oh, we don't include these kids, because we're worried about our $400 [per capita payment]. I think they would be ashamed of us."

Howes said she would gladly return her per capita payments if it meant her kids could harvest wild rice, spear fish and exercise treaty rights that her ancestors secured for future generations.

Chavers said it could take a couple days to count the advisory ballots. She said about 7,000 ballots were returned; that’s only about 20 percent of what was sent out.

That concerns her. If the tribe were eventually to vote on eliminating the blood quantum rule, that would require approval from 30 percent of members.

“If we can’t get that threshold,” she said, “there’s no way we’re going to be able to change the constitution.”

It will likely take several months before the Tribe decides how to proceed. Chavers said a constitution reform committee will present a report with the election results at the tribal executive committee’s next meeting in October.

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