North Dakota tribes create drug treatment center in Bismarck
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota are building a $24.8 million drug treatment center in Bismarck.
The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Drug Treatment Center began construction in December 2016, the Minot Daily News reported.
Randy Lindemann, with Nelson-Tremain Partnership, Architecture and Design, in Minneapolis, said the current work is phase one of the multi-phase project. It consists of creating five buildings.
The second phase will include creating transitional housing.
Tribal Chairman Mark Fox is determined to finish the treatment center and assisted living facilities in Parshall during his time as chairman.
The treatment center will include group therapy, administration and a cafeteria. It will also include a metal storage building, a sweat lodge and an amphitheater
Female and male residents will reside in eight-bed cottages.
Parking will be available for residents, staff and visitors. It will have room for 77 vehicles.
The treatment center has been designed for future expansion. The Three Affiliated Tribes own additional land for future development.
“It's designed for eight beds to start but can be for up to 16 residents each depending on possible federal law changes,'' Lindemann said.
The tribes are financing the entire project. The treatment center is expected to be completed by May 2018.
Judge dismisses most of Title IX lawsuit against Haskell
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed most of a Title IX lawsuit filed against Haskell Indian Nations University by a former student who says she was treated unfairly and ultimately expelled after she reported she was raped in a dormitory three years ago by two football players.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten agreed with attorneys for the university who argued that Title IX doesn't apply to Haskell as it does to other public colleges because the school is a federal agency operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, The Lawrence Journal-World reported.
Marten granted the woman's request to allow a Privacy Act claim to proceed in court. That claim alleges that Haskell administrators illegally released the woman's private records during the court proceedings. However, the judge ruled that the woman, who has been named Jane Doe H. in court filings, would have to use her name to proceed with that claim.
Title IX prohibits gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual violence in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
Haskell's attorneys argued the law doesn't apply to the school because it doesn't receive federal assistance but is actually a federal agency. It is one of only two institutions of higher education operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education. The other is Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Haskell is a unique national institution of higher learning for Native Americans,'' Marten wrote in his July 18 order. “It provides a tuition-free education for members of indigenous Nations, and any federal assistance takes the form of Pell Grants or other assistance for limited expenses.''
The woman's attorney, Dan Curry, of Kansas City, Missouri, said his client was disappointed by the decision.
“The government's position was that the students at Haskell do not have the same rights as the students attending KU, or K-State or UMKC,'' Curry wrote in an email to the Journal-World. “The United States argued that Haskell students should have fewer rights. We disagree and will continue to press the argument.''
Curry said the case would continue under the privacy complaint.
Haskell spokesman Stephen Prue referred all questions to the Bureau of Indian Education. Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said in a statement Wednesday that the bureau “believes the decision speaks for itself.''
One of the men accused of the rape, Jared Wheeler, pleaded no contest to aggravated battery and was sentenced to two months in jail and two years of probation. The second student, Galen Satoe, was acquitted of attempted aggravated sodomy but two juries were unable to reach a verdict on rape and other charges. The Douglas County District Attorney has decided not to pursue a third trial against Satoe.
Liquor sales increase in Nebraska towns near Pine Ridge Rez
WHITECLAY, Neb. (AP) — Some Nebraska communities near a South Dakota Native American reservation where alcohol is banned have seen liquor sales boom since beer stores shuttered at a tiny nearby village that long served as the reservation's watering hole, according to figures from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission.
The agency asked for data from distributors after ordering an end to beer sales in the community of Whiteclay in April. The figures show that overall beer sales in northwestern Nebraska counties have declined, but specific towns have seen liquor sales more than triple between April and June, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
Whiteclay is next to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Rushville, a town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Whiteclay, reported more than 3,700 gallons of beer in April and nearly 13,000 gallons in June.
Whiteclay had drawn criticism for selling alcohol so close to the reservation and for drawing dozens of people a day who drink, pass out and sometimes fight in public. Supporters of closing its beer stores argued that nearby communities with larger populations and the ability to pass local liquor ordinances could better police alcohol sales.
“We haven't heard the complaints'' from those larger communities about the vagrancy, violence and drunken behavior that used to cover Whiteclay, Nebraska Liquor Control Commission Executive Director Hobert Rupe said Thursday.
Opponents of the commission's decision said it hurts the Whiteclay stores' owners and won't help problems with alcohol on the reservation.
“Closing the stores is not ... solving the problem, clearly,'' said Rushville Mayor Chris Heiser. “The good people in Pine Ridge are still going to get their alcohol.''
The liquor store owners in Whiteclay have challenged the closings. The Nebraska Supreme Court has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 29.
