Dakota Beacon

By Jove, I think she’s got it!”  -- Prof. Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) expresses surprise and delight in the movie “My Fair Lady” when Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) finally overcomes her dreadful Cockney accent and responds in perfect English.  

A Bismarck Tribune editorial produces a similar breakthrough moment.  The editorial is headed “UND takes nickname to Frozen Four” and asks why the proponents of the Fighting Sioux nickname “feel as they do?”  Why are so many in ND bonded to the Fighting Sioux name?  The Tribune answers: The Sioux hold seven national hockey championships and have a shot at another.  It is that success, “where small-school North Dakota outskated giants and drove Big 10 and Ivy League programs into the boards.  It fits our underdog mystique.  It’s a proud tradition.”

A GF Herald editorial picks up some of the same thought: “What’s the best way to boost the odds that the NCAA will accept the state’s case?”  Answer: “Present a united front of state and university officials to make the pro-nickname case.”

When the ND Legislature passed a bill to retain the Fighting Sioux nickname, Herald columnist Lloyd Omdahl (a former lieutenant governor) called the bill an “unconstitutional invasion into the jurisdiction of the board (of Higher Education).”  Omdahl quoted a section of the constitution that says the board has “full authority over the institutions under its control.”  

The Fighting Sioux nickname is often cast in narrow terms as a sports brand, but Mick Wagner of Troutdale, Ore. (a former Jamestown resident) says, “It’s a long-held identity . . . for the entire state of North Dakota.”  Wagner contends that Omdahl’s position is foolish because the nickname and logo are “more than a matter of internal university operations” -- they are “instead a matter of legitimate concern for the entire state,” thus justifying the involvement of the state Legislature.  These opposing views may soon go to court.

Are members of the Little Shell Pembina Band professional scammers or victims of a 120-year-old land fraud?  In 2003, the ND Insurance Commissioner came down on the band for allegedly selling memberships and insurance to non-indians.  In 2007, the band was doing it again, this time selling memberships and drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.  The Little Shell Band is not federally recognized and is thought to have been absorbed into the Turtle Mt. Band of Chippewa.  The Little Shell claim they still own a large part of ND, including the Turtle Mt. and Ft. Berthold reservations.  They propose to tidy things up by exchanging their “holdings” for 4 percent of the oil proceeds of all Bakken oil.  Spokesman ”Doc” Johannesson observed, “That’s not asking for much in a vast oil field that we own.”

At times it is hard to tell if the Indian Health Service hospital in Belcourt on the Turtle Mt. Reservation is a serious medical facility, a tribal pork barrel, or worse, a nest of criminality.  Former U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan’s committee found the IHS area which includes ND to be in a “chronic state of crisis” and the Belcourt hospital to be one of its most troublesome spots.  Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, national director of IHS, responded weakly to the Senate report saying, “Area Director Ms. Red Thunder and her leadership team have not always been perfect.”  Although problems have continued and in some ways worsened, Roubideaux upgraded Red Thunder’s evaluation to “she is meeting expectations in addressing internal problems.”

The chairman of the Turtle Mt. Band buys none of it -- Merle St. Claire was quoted by the GF Herald as saying he isn’t convinced Roubideaux had even read the full Senate report.  He says “all I‘ve gotten from her is a lot of verbal double-talk.”  At St. Claire’s request, Sen. Kent Conrad met with Dr. Roubideaux and “put her on notice” that 34,000 ND Indians “deserve better” care than they are receiving from the IHS.  Conrad found “The findings in the report . . . were shocking and unacceptable.”  Both Roubideaux and Red Thunder are members of Sioux tribes in South Dakota.

The GF Herald has watched events at the Turtle Mt. Reservation, concluding they are symptomatic of deep and abiding problems on the reservations.  What should be done?  Opinion Page Editor Tom Dennis suggests that lack of an independent press may be part of the problem.  There are no “watchdogs,” only tribal media beholden to tribal leaders for jobs and funding.  Dennis encourages a generous outside party, such as the Gates Foundation, to help build institutions of free tribal press.

The “EZ Breezy Weight Loss and Wellness” business in E. Grand Forks was closed down when owner Breezetta Etienne, 33, was found to be illegally dispensing prescription drugs -- she sold more Phentermine pills than all pharmacies in the county where she lived.  “EZ Breezy” has pleaded guilty, but will serve no extra time for that crime, because her sentence will be concurrent with a 12-year sentence for attempting to murder her two young daughters.  But her notoriety does not end there.  She said her illegal drug business was a way to raise defense money for her brother, Moe Gibbs, one of the most shocking criminals in ND history.

Gibbs was convicted in 2007 of the stabbing murder of Valley State coed Mindy Morgenstern.  He also pleaded guilty to a 2004 rape in Fargo and sexual assaults on women jail prisoners in Valley City.  Gibbs is the father of at least seven children by seven different mothers.  Gibbs was at the top of ND news nearly every month during 2007 -- today, he is serving a life sentence in the ND prison in Bismarck.

“Here’s perhaps the greatest short-term benefit of all: no more letters to the editor from Valley City resident Richard Betting as he will be too busy sandbagging” -- Cory Christofferson of Hamar citing a side benefit of allowing Devils Lake to flow naturally into the Sheyenne River.  Christofferson is a rancher near the lake; Betting is an inveterate letter writer who blames much of Devils Lake flooding on farmers who drain wetlands.  Cory is the brother of Carla Christofferson, Miss North Dakota 1989 and now a celebrity attorney in Los Angeles. 

What is the cost of lost agricultural production in the Devils Lake Basin due to rising water levels?  The Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at NDSU has attempted to determine the cost for 2011 -- their estimate: almost $200 million.  The Department began by estimating the value of lost production, then tracing its impact on other sectors of the region.

DAKTOIDS: In 2009, Lutheran Social Services resettled 200 refugees in ND from Bhutan -- a small country squeezed between India and China.  More than 650 Bhutanese refugees live in the state . . . The majority of the counties on the Great Plains lost population in the last decade.  A U.S. census map shows a broad vertical stripe running from North Dakota to western Texas in which most of the counties lost population . . . An online contest sponsored by the Weather Channel picked Fargo as America's Toughest Weather City.  Fargo was selected by 55,000 voters over worthies such as Juneau, Alaska and International Falls, Minnesota.