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.
Aug. 25, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
CASS LAKE -- Leech Lake Tribal members had much to say Friday about the power struggle that has virtually left their tribal government at a standstill since June.
More than 60 members gathered to elect a new governmental body called the General Council. The newly formed body said under rights they are guaranteed by the Leech Lake constitution the General Council is going to assume all legislative authority to govern the tribe.
Member after member spoke to the council, telling them it was important for the new body to act immediately to fix the broken government created by the struggle between the Tribal Council chairman and the rest of the Tribal Council.
Guy Greene of Sugar Point said the General Council had to act now before the Tribal Council could do any more damage to the Leech Lake people.
"Everybody comes to the meeting and says what they know about government. To hell with the government. Listen to the Leech Lake people," Greene said to the General Council. "Go up to the (tribal office) and throw those hoods out. If the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tribal Executive Council don't recognize you, to hell with them. They've never helped us."
Martin Jennings, a General Council member and recently appointed interim gaming controller, said he was ashamed to be a Leech Lake member because of how the tribal councilors had been acting.
"As the people, we are poor. We don't have the lawyers the councilmen do or the ear of the TEC, either," Jennings said. "We have to take some drastic steps, but they have to be legal steps. We don't want the 'feds' coming in."
Chairman of the General Council Hartley White, a former tribal chairman, said he was mad the Leech Lake people let the four councilmen run their reservation.
"You mean to tell me that four people are going to whip us to death. There should be 4,000 of us against them," he said. "I am doing this for my grandchildren's future. I don't care about it for me. I have a pension. I'll live."
White referred to the movement of the Leech Lake people as a truck that was spinning its tires because there was no weight in the pickup bed.
"You people are the weight we need," he said. "You people need to support this council."
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