16 June 1996
Pete Morin, owner of the Guardian Angels, a security company hired by the
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, offered to pay a former employee to conduct
a drive-by shooting of members of Fight For Justice, a group of KBIC
members who have occupied the former tribal center for the past ten months
in a voting rights dispute. An audio and videotape were recently released
by FFJ of two different interviews with Terence Moore, a former Guardian
Angel who has since left the state with his wife and children pending the
involvement of federal investigators.
According to Moore, "I was approached by Pete Morin and he told me if I shot
up the tribal center, it was a hundred dollars per bullet. There was a five
hundred dollar bonus if a bullet hit somebody - man, woman or child, he
didn't care. He said to make it like a drive-by." In a second incident,
Morin put "his gun out the window, pointing it at all the kids who were
coming off the hill, (saying) I'm gonna shoot you. I'll kill all you
mother-fuckers." Moore also claims Morin offered him money to shoot up
Tribal Chair Fred Dakota's car, and to make it look as though FFJ was
responsible. "He (Morin) said "I need someone... who will shoot into Fred
Dakota's car and hit anybody, or the car. Except Fred Dakota cannot be hit,
cause he's the one who signs our paychecks and then we won't make the
money. There's ten thousand dollars up front and after the job's done
there's a guaranteed twenty-five thousand each year. That's fifty thousand
within two years."
The take-over occurred last August, after Dakota decided to strip over 200
members of their voting and membership rights, and to cancel the results of
the 1994 election which undermined his hold on power. FFJ has claimed from
the beginning that most, if not all, the acts of violence that have
occurred since the dispute began have come from the Guardian Angels hired
by Fred Dakota and his council. As Pete Morin recently acknowledged in
_The Daily Mining Gazette_ "We're here for one reason only and that is to
protect tribal interests." (14 June 1996) Were Dakota and his council
aware of and complicit in these acts of violence by Morin? One would expect
them to put some distance between themselves and him, to disassociate KBIC
from the Guardian Angels, if they were not. Yet they have not done this. To
the contrary, Tim Shanahan, an aide to Dakota, informed _The Milwaukee
Sentinel_ that the Guardian Angels have the full support of the tribal
council. The conclusion to which this leads is obvious.
It is entirely consistent with Dakota's strategy to have violence occur and
then to blame it on FFJ. Recently, in response to calls for peaceful
negotiations, Fred Dakota has said that "if it takes a body, there will be
a body" and "the only thing that is negotiable is the length of the rope."
We call upon all thoughtful persons to condemn this violence and to urge
peaceful negotiations. Register your protest by calling or faxing the
following numbers:
Fred Dakota KBIC Tribal Police
Phone: 906-353-6623 Phone: 906-353-6626
Fax: 906-353-7540 Fax: 906-353-6838
FFJ can be reached at 906-353-6836 or 906-353-7099, or by fax at
906-353-6800. Our address is Rte. 1, Box 47, Baraga, MI 49908.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED HERE ARE THOSE OF THE MEMBERS OF FIGHT FOR JUSTICE.