Journalists covering Red Lake shooting find different rules

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/11204312.htm

Posted on Tue, Mar. 22, 2005

Journalists covering Red Lake shooting find different rules

JOSHUA FREED

Associated Press


RED LAKE, Minn. - Police in this Indian reservation town have set strict limits on the journalists trying to cover the nation's deadliest school shooting since 1999, even arresting two photographers - with guns drawn - who police decided had violated their rules for talking to residents.

Reporters and photographers were corraled in the parking lot at the reservation jail on Tuesday. They can leave the reservation, but they have been told not to knock on doors to speak with residents. Indeed, they've been told not to leave Minnesota 1, the main highway through town.

The day after the shooting began with no ground rules from tribal police. With authorities saying little about the killings at the high school, reporters spread out through the town, knocking on doors and looking for people who might be able to shed some light on the shootings.

But on Tuesday afternoon, an Associated Press reporter and photographer who had just visited the home where accused gunman Jeff Weise grew up were pulled over - inside the media parking lot - by a tribal police officer. They were told to stay in the parking lot or else leave town.

Later Tuesday, the band issued written guidelines.

"Exiting this road constitutes trespassing," reporters were told in a flyer handed out by the band. "Repeated attempts to interview witnesses is viewed as interfering with a federal investigation. Under the Authority of the Red Lake Tribal Chairman, you may be removed from the Reservation."

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http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/11204312.htm

the journalists might as well be in another country

I thought a bunch of nazis stuck their head out of a hole for a minute.

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/11204312.htm

In most towns, the First Amendment would keep police from chasing journalists off of public streets. But the Red Lake Nation considers itself a sovereign nation.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Tribal Justice, Indian tribes are considered "domestic dependent nations." While Congress has power over Indian affairs, tribes have sovereign powers over their members and their territory. The Justice Department and other federal agencies consult with tribal leaders when decisions affect sovereignty issues, because the federal government maintains a "government-to-government" relationship with them.

Kevin Washburn, a University of Minnesota law professor who specializes in law on Indian reservations, said the tribe has the power to say who can come onto the reservation. Washburn said though tribes generally can't infringe on First Amendment rights, there's no outside enforcement.

"They could close the reservation down to reporters, basically, and say, 'Sue us in tribal court,'" Washburn said.

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/11204312.htm

"When a s..sovereign means sovereign" (copyright GWBush, R-idiot)

The media are guests on the reservation and they will have to learn some respect.

I think can be very intrustive at times such as this.

domestic dependent nations, from the point of view of us courts

How fun is that! Almost no one understands that entering an Indian reservation is the equivalent of entering a foreign country. There's a warning sign on the edge of many reservations but the most prominent one I've ever seen is at the Hopi reservation -- and apparently it's primary purpose is to warn the surrounding Navajo.

Welcome to the other half of America!

In theory, it sounds right and just that Native Americans be given plots of land to live independently in whatever way they see fit.

But at this point in American history, where has it gotten them? Their self-chosen isolation from the rest of the U.S. apparently has only worsened their never-ending problems of rampant poverty, alcoholism, and high-rate of suicide. This tragedy at Red Lake is a perfect example: average citizens who simply want to help the community are turned away from the reservation by tribal police. I can understand that the Red Lake community would like to show snooping reporters the door, but to rebuff concerned citizens?

people come here to taos pueblo all the time trying to 'help' them. they think the native people live in horrid conditions and so on. it boils down to the natives not living like the white people, and the whites want them to be just like us.

the native society is very different than ours, and we need to respect that.

Wow. Have you studied American history?

Also, if the Red Lake residents don't want help from "concerned citizens," why force it on them? They're the ones who suffered the loss and they should be allowed to deal with it any damn way they choose.

Nowhere in my post did I say anything about "forcing" anything on Red Lake. If they want to continue down the path towards oblivion, then yes, that's their choice. And what was the white-liberal-guilt holier-than-thou point about American history you wanted to make?

doing quite well thank you....Taking the White Man's money at their casinos delights them to no end...

Yes, there are problems on many reservations. But I'm glad they've used their sovereignty to kick out the intrusive media.

"Tell me your feelings about having your son murdered yesterday!"

And they can tell the "concerned citizens" to stay away as well.

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I'll never forget how rude and irresponsible those reporters were, sticking microphones in the face of the kids as they were being evacuated. They had absolutely no respect for the fact that they were traumatized kids, who needed to be with their parents as soon as possible, not make statements to the press.

It is unbelievable how ignorant Americans are on the history and culture of the American Indians.

It may be due to the "out of sight, out of mind," mentality of the public and what is/was taught in American History class's skimmed over or totally ignored the plight of the American Indian and the Black Slave.

Each individual tribe have elected/appointed leaders/spokespersons. They usually have left the reservations to obtain higher educations with the full intent to return and help their Nations/Tribes. The individual tribe members that I have been privileged to meet and interact with are extremely shy, wary of outsiders and unwilling to interact in any way with outsiders who are demanding and forceful.

With this picture in your mind, and with the Columbine type of tragedy repeating itself, you can only imagine the huge Vans, loaded down with communication equipment, reporters arriving microphones in hand....coming from throughout the US and rushing into this rather small Tribal village of 5,000. Imagine being a member of this tribe who rarely if ever leaves the reservation, rarely if ever communicates or interacts with white people, and having someone knock on your door. When you open the door some strange white person, jams a mike up your nose and suddenly starts ranting and raving in a manner that you are unaccustomed to.
Imagine the individual Tribe members feelings, if they also were a family member who had just lost a loved one in the shooting.

Who has not watched and listened to the instant/on-sight performance of the media as they attempt to be the first to gain so-called news. Their pushing the mike into the face of family members and friends who just learned that a loved one had been killed: "Why do you think your son/daughter was selected by the killer?" and I always love this one, "how do you feel?"

What these Tribal officials did was for the good of their tribal members, that is why they were selected/elected by their members. It is not up to the Indian Nations and their members to make White Americans feel better and perform for them.

I just love it that the Indians have used the greed and addictive sense of white America to open casino's to capture the white-mans dollars to invest in the education, housing, and improvements on their reservations. Now if only the Tribes could get Congress to pay them the decades of payments they are owed on corporate leasing agreements to include the use and abuse of their lands.