For background on this situation, please consult earlier postings to Native-L
at http://bioc09.uthscsa.edu/natnet/archive/nl/keweenaw-bay.html
Detailed information, including a chronology of events, can be found at
http://www.edwards1.com/rose/native/ffj/ffj.htm
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IMPEACHMENT HEARING HEADED BY DAKOTA'S ASSISTANT
by VANESSA DIETZ
BARAGA - Those concerned about charges of "gross neglect of duty and
improper conduct" against Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Councilman Gary
Loonsfoot Sr. will have two weeks to make written comments to be included
in the KBIC Impeachment Committee report.
The committee will give the report to the tribal council within 30 days.
The comments are to be sent to Loonsfoot or Rick Geroux, KBIC Enrollment
Committee chairman, who presented the charges and the 53-signature
complaint against Loonsfoot at a Wednesday impeachment hearing in KBIC
Tribal Court.
The impeachment committee is made up of five tribal members, independent of
the tribal council, who will collect information about the charges and
submit a report to the tribal council.
The council then will decide Loonsfoot's fate.
Tribal Chairman Fred Dakota's personal assistant Tim Shanahan chairs the
committee. Donald Funke announced at the proceeding that he was a committee
member after former councilwoman Myrtle Tolonen asked him point-blank to
identify himself. Other members are said to be Joan DesRochers, Art Gerard
and Clarence "Buck" Chosa, who is KBIC councilwoman Amy St. Arnold's
father.
Shanahan and Geroux identified themselves as "Friends of Fred," in an
invitation to a fundraiser for the chairman's defense fund.
Committee members were reportedly reluctant to discolse their identity at
the proceeding: others were asked and declined to answer. Both Loonsfoot
and his attorney Alan Clarke previously requested the names of the panel
members.
In addition, Loonsfoot and CLarke have both requested a copy of the
petition against Loonsfoot, but have yet to see it.
Loonsfoot heard allegations against him during the first hour of the
hearing, at which time a two-hour recess was called to allow him time to
prepare his defense. The court readjourned from 1-2:15 p.m.
Following the proceeding, Clarke told The Gazette, "Gary defended himself.
He was good. He was strong. He's a leader."
The issues were addressed point-by-point, including additional accusations
that stemmed from a Feb. 1 letter Loonsfoot sent to tribal members. He
questioned the necessity of putting up a defense against allegations that
are not part of the original charges against him. The committee said it
accepted anything brought forward even if it did not relate to the original
charges, Loonsfoot told The Gazette.
KBIC attorney Joseph O'Leary was not in tribal court Wednesday, but stated
in a letter presented to the committee that Loonsfoot aasked him to
represent him "against the rest of the tribal council in order to take
legal steps to correct the 'unfair' treatment...I refused to sign the
contract and tried to explain to Mr. Loonsfoot that my client was the
tribal council of the KBIC, not any individual members of the tribal
council. I also pointed out to Mr. Loonsfoot that the accusations and legal
positions of an organization such as the tribal council are dictated by the
majority of the council members, not the beliefs of any one council
member."
O'Leary also alleged that Loonsfoot supplied a confidential memo of
O'Leary's to Fight For Justice, the dissident group that protests
governemental policies.
Tribal member Chris Swartz testified he found the memo in his mailbox when
he was a tribal police officer. Swartz said he called O'Leary to ask him
how it got there. Swartz said O'Leary told him he could do whatever he
wanted with it and that O'Leary thought FFJ had a copy of it. Swartz said
he gave his uncle, FFJ spoekesman Jerry Lee Curtis, a copy of the memo.
Loonsfoot said he asked O'Leary to ask the other tribal council members to
inform him of meetings, information he said he often did not receive.
Clarke called the contents of O'Leary's letter a "distorted view," adding
if he were cross-examined it would have been apparent.
"Even though I did not feel I had to respond to the frivolous additional
charges, I did so anyway out of respect for the committee and a desire to
vindicate myself," Loonsfoot told The Gazette this morning.
Following the proceedings, FFJ reported KBIC Tribal Police, accompanied by
tribal construction's front-end loader, again closed the road to the former
tribal center and the adjacent church land to allow two additional people
to videotape at the center.
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TRIBE SELECTIVELY LIMITS MEDIA ACCESS TO HEARING
By VANESSA DIETZ
BARAGA - The Gazette was excluded from Wednesday's Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community public hearing on the impeachment of Tribal Councilman Gary
Loonsfoot Sr.
That couldn't legally happen in most instances here. But the tribe is a
special case.
Lisa Mikalonis, an attorney with the Michigan Press Association, noted that
the tribes are sovereign nations, immune to state sunshine laws which
permit the media to observe public meetings and hearings in order to inform
the public.
"The laws provide a method of observing government activities, the
activities of elected officials," Mikalonis explained.
There is nothing illegal about picking and choosing media permitted to
observe tribal proceedings, but the issue is troublesome in another
respect, the attorney said.
"The tribe's exclusion of media that serve a Native American community that
is represented by a tribal council, represents a disservice to the people.
To shut out any media is to shut out its readership, including the tribal
members represented by the tribal council," Mikalonis said.
In an apparent response to The Gazette's repeated requests for
clarification about media access, KBIC spokesman Rich Rossway, a former TV6
employee, issued a press release Monday, stating, "The KBIC Tribal Council
has instructed the review committee to allow certain members of the media
into the hearing concerning complaints filed against councilman Gary
Loonsfoot.
"Due to limited space in tribal court, logistics dictate that not all
members of the press will be able to be accommodated. We understand the
interest, and encourage the press to allow the constitutional process to
take its rightful course.
"The KBIC will make available to the press that information deemed
appropriate as soon as possible," Rossway concluded.
The Gazette unsuccessfully attempted to attend the Wednesday tribal court
proceeding. It has on many other occasions been present in the court.
A tribal court employee said three press organizations were given passes to
the event: TV6 News of Marquette; Paul Peterson, a local news stringer
previously employed by the tribe, and the L'Anse Sentinel.
Although a man offered his seat to The Gazetter reporter, the court
representative said he had his orders and they included not allowing any
other press except the three already permitted entry.