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.
Dec. 30, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
Leech Lake and Red Lake reservation officials have spent disparate amounts of time preparing for the possible Y2K bug, but both agree the reservations should be well prepared come midnight Saturday.
Red Lake Tribal Chairman Bobby Whitefeather said Wednesday he's been assured that Red Lake's government computers are Y2K compliant, and that Red Lake residents have nothing to fear.
"We've upgraded all of the tribe's systems," he said. "I've asked the question two or three times, and (the computer analysts) said, 'We're ready.'"
Whitefeather said no one will be at the tribal headquarters in the village of Red Lake monitoring the computer systems Friday night and Saturday morning because they aren't that concerned about the Y2K bug. He said someone will check the systems on Monday, and that will give the tribe time to fix any problems.
More emergency personnel -- including ambulance, fire department and police staff -- will be on call, Whitefeather said, but that is ordinary for a New Year's weekend.
"We're not concerned about anything out of the ordinary happening because of Y2K," he said. "We're treating it as a normal New Year's holiday weekend."
Whitefeather said the Y2K bug always has been less of a concern for Red Lake than other governments because the tribal government's operations are less computer based than say county or state governments.
Leech Lake Reservation
Some 60 miles southeast of Red Lake, however, the Leech Lake Reservation will be abuzz with activity today and Friday as Y2K preparations are finalized.
Leech Lake officials have used the Y2K situation as an opportunity to update their overall crisis plan, and Friday will be the first trial.
Doug Roberts, who is the reservation's Y2K committee chairman, said each of the 12 recognized communities within Leech Lake's boundaries and the Leech Lake office in Minneapolis will be outfitted for any emergency produced by Y2K.
Leech Lake's 13-person Y2K committee started work several months ago on the advice of President Clinton's committee for Y2K preparedness.
"We wanted to be more proactive. We wanted to make sure everything's there, even if nothing happens," Roberts said Tuesday.
In addition to preparing for Y2K, he said, the new plan will prevent future crises such as a 1998 blizzard that knocked out power to many Leech Lake residents for more than a week.
"God forbid we have one elder die because they didn't have heat," he said. "No one should die because they didn't have electricity."
Leech Lake's new Y2K plan addresses shelter, law enforcement, medical, transportation, communication and many other needs, according to Roberts.
As part of the plan:
More than 30 cords of wood have been distributed to the community centers in each of the 13 recognized Leech Lake communities.
Each center has been equipped with a generator and more than 100 gallons of fuel to operate the generator.
Each center has been equipped with blankets, food, water and a sanitation system.
There will be an operable vehicle, most likely a bus or large van, available in each community.
All Leech Lake vehicles, tribal council members and local Indian councils will be outfitted with a normal telephone, a cellular phone and a two-way radio.
And the tribe's Division of Resource Management building in Cass Lake has been outfitted as a crisis command post.
"We should have the system up and running at 5 p.m. Friday," Roberts said.
If there are Y2K problems, all residents within the boundaries of the Leech Lake Reservation are welcome at the centers, Roberts said. "They're not just for Indians. We're all in this together," he added.
Roberts and other Leech Lake officials will be working as Friday turns into Saturday, monitoring the situation. Regardless of what happens, he said, the tribe plans to hold a post-Y2K meeting to determine how well its plan worked.
"I'm almost kind of hoping this happens so we know what we've done right, and what we have to change," he said.
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