In the Sept. 4 issue of the Bemidji Pioneer (the day before ex-Sen.
Finn was sentenced for some of his crimes) was a letter to the editor
titled "Do any one of you have any wisdom?" The writer quotes the serenity
prayer and asks if anyone can get anything out of it or gain anything from
it
First, we must remember our people have been the most brutalized
and oppressed of all and the war of assimilation is still raging strong
against us. Our people are peaceful people who have had the serenity to
accept and make the best of things they were forced into believing they
could not change.
Then there are those of our people, and they are many, who have the
courage to stand up and speak of a change for our people. There are those
of us who believe we can changes things so our children can have a future.
We have gained the wisdom to be who we are.
Our people are not only victims of theft of our monies from Finn
and his gang, but are the victims of an ongoing conspiracy to defraud our
whole nation. This conspiracy includes using the state of Minnesota and
its local county law enforcement to punish the people who the Reservation
Business Committee (RBC) or their administration, including Finn, wanted
harassed, intimidated or punished. For many years Skip Finn knew of the
lack of jurisdiction in many areas of their state laws that are used to
criminalized our people to carry out their war of assimilation.
For years and years ex-Sen. Finn held the Leech Lake public
defender contract, which most tribal members don't even know exist because
of the secrecy in our government. Finn knew of the lack of jurisdiction
and also had the opportunity to provide proper and effective counsel to the
people but chose instead to use this as another tool against the people in
their conspiracy to run a dictatorship government here.
Yes, a lot of our people have been criminalized for actions the
state and counties have no jurisdiction over. A lot of our people are on
parole or probation, especially our youth, a lot of our people have sat in
jails and prisons, had children and elders removed, paid fines, had
property confiscated, lost jobs, home and family because of lack of
effective legal counsel.
The Leech Lake RBC and its program directors have been using the
county law enforcement as their personal prosecuting-persecuting arm for a
long time. How many families have had their children removed because of
Leech Lake Family Services filing charges in county court? Or the Bug
School, or Housing authority, or the the RBC themselves filing charges?
Ironically, the band attorneys, Finn and now Larry Kimball, also
hold the public defender contract. This is not just a Leech Lake issue as
the very same setups exist on other MCT member reservations. This
conspiracy is going on at the Tribal Executive level. In In the last 10
years, Finn has worn many hats, played many roles in tribal government.
U.S. Attorney Lillehaug did not go far enough. Maybe the federal
government does not have the jurisdiction to investigate civil rights
violations within the MCT, but they do have the jurisdiction over county
and state officials and attorneys who violate the Indian Civil Rights Act.
and many other federal laws that were to protect our inherent rights that
the treaties between our nation and the United States guaranteed.
Tribal members have never authorized the TEC or RBC to deal away
our inherent rights of any kind! Tribal members must demand that the TEC
and RBCs immediately stop acting beyond the scope of authority that the
tribal constitution authorizes.
If the federal government can do nothing to stop the civil and
human rights abuses throughout the six-member reservations of our tribe,
then they too are aiding and abetting this conspiracy against our people by
funding these TEC/RBCs.
The people must take action to have a role in our government. All
of the people should be concerned. A council government would give
everyone a voice. The people don't even know that the TEC/RBCs and
attorneys are dealing away to the state of Minnesota our inherent rights to
be who we are. They have no right to do this and subject us to state
courts without proper effective legal counsel.
There is much information that should be public information to the
tribal members, but these meetings and agreements are done in secret
because most of them are written up by these crooked attorneys involved in
running our government. Finn's insurance scam was just a little part of
the conspiracy against our nation. Lillehaug's investigation should have
been tribe-wide. Finn had flow charts for all of us.
Roxanne LaRose
Leech Lake Anishinaabe
Cass Lake, Minn.
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Bernard J. Rock, Sr.
Leech Lake Pillager Band
Spotted Eagle Warrior Society
North Central Minnesota Native American Veterans
Outreach and Resource Center