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.
Oct. 13, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
CASS LAKE -- The Leech Lake Reservation is a place of many needs, tribal officials told a group of Republican state legislators visiting the reservation Tuesday.
The tour was part of a two-day visit to northern Minnesota by the delegation, which also toured the Red Lake Reservation earlier Tuesday and held a public meeting in Bemidji Monday concerning annexation issues.
"We're in a time where things are changing very rapidly," Tribal Chairman Eli Hunt told the group, which included state Rep. Larry Howes, R-Hackensack; Rep. Peg Larsen, R-Lakeland; Rep. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake; and Rep. Alice Seagren, R-Bloomington. All, except Howes, are members of the House Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs Committee.
After a brief history lesson about the Leech Lake Reservation, Hunt outlined the tribe's future goals for development -- two of which included focusing on the tribe's social problems, such as chemical dependency, and acquiring a larger land base.
Those goals among others, Hunt said, are the result of a yearlong planning effort that will help guide the Leech Lake Tribal Council in its strategic planning.
"I feel confident we are moving in the direction we need to be," Hunt said.
According to the plans, the tribe must first break rampant chemical dependency on the reservation or its other efforts are useless, more than one tribal official told the legislators.
And second, the band needs to add to its land base not only to provide more housing for its members, but also for the tribe to develop more jobs outside the gaming industry.
Hunt said only 4 percent of the land within tribal boundaries is held in federal trust, and without more such land, there just isn't economic development.
A major discussion on education issues included a lack of funding at Leech Lake Tribal College and the tribally operated Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, and the Cass Lake-Bena School District's capital loan request the Legislature will consider next year.
Education needs, Hunt and other Leech Lake officials said, are important because traditionally the education for American Indians has been sub par.
For instance, Leech Lake Tribal College Interim President John Morrow said the school received about an eighth of the funding a mainstream higher education facility receives. That means LLTC receives about $2,900 in funding per year per student, while traditional colleges or universities receive more than $20,000.
The situation is the same at the Bug School, where the tribe does not receive money from the state for any students who attend there. If a student transfers the public Cass Lake-Bena School District to the reservation-run Bug School, the band receives no funding from the state for the student -- unlike students transfers from one public school to another where state dollars follow the student.
That leads to a lack of money for even the basics, including textbooks and teachers, officials said.
Bug School Chairman Gerald White said the school receives about $3,200 in funding a year per student, where the average Minnesota public school receives about $5,800 per student.
Various tribal leaders also discussed tribal elders' needs, future of gaming in Minnesota, natural resources issues and governmental relationships. The meeting, which took place at the Palace Bingo and Casino, lasted about three hours.
Hunt called the meeting important as it laid the groundwork for working with the state Legislature in the upcoming session. Also, it was historic as the first time to his knowledge that a delegation of leading Republicans visited Leech Lake Reservation. And, it opened a lien of communication between the tribe and some legislators, which was sorely needed.
"There traditionally isn't enough communication between tribes and other parties," Hunt said. "I think this gave a lot of awareness of tribal and rural issues to the legislators. It's a beginning ... period."
Howes, who represents the Leech Lake Band, said the session was valuable not only for him but for the other legislators who come from basically metropolitan districts and aren't familiar with the unique aspects of life here.
"It's an eye-opener for them. It's good for metro legislators to see rural Minnesota," Howes said.
He added that he even learned some new things he hadn't known.
"I learned mostly that I need to learn more," he said.
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