I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
June 22, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
REDLAKE -- Although the 1997 legislative session is long over an he was 250 miles north of St. Paul, state Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, DFL-Erskine, couldn't pass up an opportunity to do a little stumping Friday.
While speaking in the closing session of Friday's Red Lake Nation Economic Development Summit, Moe took jabs at his Republican colleagues about the Minnesota Twins stadium issue, Gov. Arne Carlson's education tax credit plan and welfare reform.
The summit, sponsored by the Tribal Council, was held in order to generate discussion on how the Red Lake Nation can increase employment and privately owned enterprises on the reservation. It attracted nearly 200 economic development officials, business people and politicians from across the state.
"Frankly, it feels great to be away from St. Paul where some of my legislative colleagues have the perverse idea that it's time ... for Minnesota tribes to cough up some of the big dough they are raking in from their casino operations," Moe said, referring to the plan to use casino money to support a new Twins stadium.
He added some legislators view it as a "painless" way to pay for an outdoor baseball stadium, but he said it is ludicrous to think that American Indian gaming is making tribes rich.
"The should come up here for a reality check, or over to White Earth," he said, "or visit any of the tribal communities that are struggling for a brighter future."
However much the stadium issue seemed to digress from the summit's topics, he said it is relevant because most tribes do not think of gaming as the "ultimate or sole road to economic self-sufficiency."
As for education, Moe said it was an absurd thought the "so-called choice and competition" to be fostered among school systems that Carlson's education tax credit plan is supposed to offer helps rural communities.
"For those of us who don't live in the suburbs, it's not a meaningful or realistic idea," he said.
The real challenge for Minnesotans is not how should they support children attending private schools, but how should they support Minnesota's minorities attending public schools, who ranked nationally near the bottom in graduation rates.
"As Minnesota becomes more and more racially diverse, especially in our public school system, we are going to have to do a much better job of making sure the Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans are not left behind," he said. "We aren't doing a good job now. (But) tax dollars for private and religious schools simply isn't going to do it."
However, in alluding to an upcoming Senate counterproposal to be released Monday, Moe said he agreed with Carlson on one fact -- parents make the right choices for their children when they are given the financial resources to do so.
Moe also said the Legislature did as much as it could to cushion the transition from welfare to work -- another challenge facing Red Lake. Additional dollars to go toward training initiatives, food shelves and low-income housing programs designed to combat homelessness will hopefully benefit the reservation, he added.
But now he said is the time when the private sector has to fulfill its role for welfare reform to work. It is obvious the public can only do so much. Most of the new jobs needed must come from the private sector, according to Moe, referring to the goals of the economic summit.
Those participating in the summit "realize the challenges are enormous. It will take time to accomplish self-sufficiency, followed by prosperity, for this community," Moe said of Red Lake's efforts to build a better economy. "The strength to move forward comes from within. It comes from the heart."
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