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Tribal leaders restrict reporters' movements
      They say they're trying to 'defuse' situation

      BY JENNIFER BJORHUS
      Pioneer Press

      Reporters flocking to Red Lake to cover the deadly high school shooting are getting a fast U.S. civics lesson: the country's powerful First Amendment doesn't necessarily work the same way on reservation land.

      Invoking their rights as a "closed reservation," leaders of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians on Tuesday announced that media would be confined to the parking lot of Red Lake's new jail on the edge of town, and not allowed to travel the Red Lake Indian Reservation to talk to people about the tragedy. About 5,100 people live on the reservation, which has its own civil and criminal justice system.

      Bureau of Indian Affairs officers in squad cars later arrived to stand outside the town's criminal justice complex while frustrated reporters milled about the parking lot. They were allowed to use the bathroom at a convenience store a half mile down the road. By evening there were dozens of media camped in the parking lot and seven television satellite dishes pointed south.

      Pat Mills, director of public safety for the Red Lake Band, said a decision was made to prohibit reporters from roaming throughout the reservation to conduct interviews.

      He said reporters were confined to a parking lot "to defuse the situation," and to "not get people riled up."

      Reporters found straying risked being kicked off the reservation.

      A woman staffing the FBI contact line in Red Lake said that "a couple" of media organizations were asked to leave the reservation Tuesday, but had no details. The local police department was not accepting calls. The Minneapolis FBI couldn't be reached for comment.

      A woman at tribal headquarters in Red Lake, who asked not to be named, said the restrictions made sense because tribal members were grieving and feeling violated. She herself felt overwhelmed, she said, by the calls pouring in from as far away as Germany and New Zealand.

      Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va., described the situation as unusual and couldn't recall anything similar. As a sovereign nation, the tribe has autonomy and the First Amendment doesn't apply the same way on Indian land, he said.

      Bemidji, meanwhile, is filling up with news media. U.S. reporters accustomed to knocking on doors will no doubt find the new restrictions on the Red Lake Indian Reservation a serious crimp in news gathering. Hotels in Bemidji, which is about 35 miles south of Red Lake and the nearest larger city, are booked with local, national and international media arriving to report the Red Lake story.

      "CNN is coming in tonight and so is MTV news," said Kevin Francis, front desk manager at the Hampton Inn in Bemidji. The 100-room hotel is booked, Francis said. It's the same story at other hotels across town.

      "I would say most of Bemidji is full," said Matt Latourelle, guest service representative at the Best Western.

      Mara Gottfried and Jim Ragsdale contributed to this story. Jennifer Bjorhus can be reached at jbjorhus@pioneer press.com or 651-228-2146.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/special_packages/red_lake/11205039.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp<http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/special_packages/red_lake/11205039.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp>

      Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005

© 2005 St. Paul Pioneer Press and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.twincities.com<http://www.twincities.com/>

Minnesotans convey message of strength, unity
      Many at a loss for explanation of numbing tragedy

      BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
      Pioneer Press

      With keening drum songs, prayers and tears, hundreds of Minnesotans - Indian and non-Indian alike - gathered at the state Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to bid strength and healing to the Red Lake nation.

      During the two-hour gathering, cleansed by herbs and blessed by three eagles soaring overhead, speakers and audience members used words and traditional ceremonies to grapple with Monday's tragedy on the northern reservation.

      "My grandpas were my mentors and they told me, 'Sometimes times are going to be so hard you are not going to understand.' This is one of those days that I can't understand," said Herb Sam, a traditional native healer who addressed the crowd in English and in Anishinabe. He said he could not imagine anything worse. "Someday, we will know what the good that came of it is."

      Sam, like representatives from other Minnesota tribes, lit a sacred pipe. In native ceremonies, the billowing smoke carries the prayers and messages of those on Earth up to the Great Creator.

      Although they gathered in sorrow, they also exhorted each other to remain strong.

      "Once again, our nation has been hit by troublesome activity. But our people are strong. The Red Lake nation is strong," said Ona Kingbird, a member of the Red Lake band. "I just want to tell my people be strong. Help each other."

      After Monday's tragedy, all Minnesotans were one people, several speakers said.

      "Grief wipes away the artificial boundaries that are put between us," Gov. Tim Pawlenty told the crowd, which slowly shrank during the two-hour ceremony.

      Former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, a staunch advocate for American Indian tribes during his time in the Senate, attended the service Tuesday and said he believed the tragedy bound Minnesotans as one people. He urged everyone to hold their children a little tighter and remember to love them dearly.

      "This is a tragedy we all share. We will pull together," he said.

      In the ceremony Tuesday, women blessed and shared water designed to replenish the water lost to tears.

      "Water is life," said Lisa Bellanger, of the White Earth band. "We ask for healing and we ask for strength."

      But despite the words of strength and togetherness, many at the Capitol - like many across Minnesota - struggled to find an explanation for the "numbing tragedy" of Red Lake.

      "There are no satisfactory answers to all the big 'why' questions," said Pawlenty.

      Melvin Jones, a transportation worker from Red Lake who came to the Twin Cities on Monday for a doctor's appointment, thanked those who came to pray and remember the victims and his people.

      "This is not supposed to be in Indian Country," said Jones, referring to the tragedy. "And yet it is."

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