Transcripts

JACQUELINE ESTES: Former Shakopee Mdewakanton community tribal chairman Leonard Prescott says the dispute is about the power to determine who receives dividends from the casino revenues of the tribe. He says the current leadership of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota is allowing non-Indians and people who don't meet the original blood quantum requirement into the tribe to build a power base for them, their friends and their descendants. Prescott says the intent of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was not to dilute, but to help strengthen tribes.

LEONARD PRESCOTT: Determining who your membership is step one in establishing a foundation, a strong foundation. And also, I think establishing your land base and who is allowed to be on the property, on the land itself, who is entitled to those treaty rights, those are the issues we're working on.

JACQUELINE ESTES: The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community sent a newly adopted ordinance, changing its enrollment procedures, to the Minneapolis Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in January 1995. The BIA area director okayed it February 17. The tribe is operating under the new enrollment procedures, even though Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada Deer, last week, rescinded the BIA's approval because the area director's office missed a 10-day deadline to approve the ordinance. Plus, the Department of Interior says the ordinance changes the role of the tribal court, a change that requires a 3/4 majority vote. The vote adopting the enrollment ordinance wasn't a 3/4 majority. Tribal attorney Kurt Bluedog says the tribe disputes the Department of Interior's decision.

KURT BLUEDOG: The tribe then corresponded with the Interior Department's central office to indicate that this was a very narrow and technical ground, and objecting to how this was handled. And in fact, the proper procedures were not followed by the department.

JACQUELINE ESTES: Bluedog says the new enrollment ordinance simply incorporates some procedural changes. And the recent decision of the Department of Interior is also a technical and procedural matter. But an attorney for a group of individuals fighting the tribe's interpretation of its constitution and enrollment procedures disagrees. Jim Cohen says the enrollment process is at the heart of deciding who belongs to the tribe.

JIM COHEN: What this enrollment ordinance would have done was to preclude any judicial review of a determination on a popularity vote by the members of the general council of the tribe.

JACQUELINE ESTES: The tribe is protesting the Department of Interior's action. Other options are to sue the US government over its decision or to fix and re-adopt the ordinance. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community is also waiting for Interior Department approval of a newly adopted constitution, which also loosens the requirements for tribal membership. For the FM news station, I'm Jacqueline Estes.