Representatives from ten states and twenty-five organizations attended our fall
meeting in St. Paul hosted by David Price. CERF had just been granted its
501(C)3 tax exempt status so we continued working on organizational structure.
Frank
Courteau, organizational coordinator, explained the background and reasoning for
the CERA/CERF mission statement and objectives.
Representatives
of each organization present gave presentations about how Federal Indian Policy
was creating havoc in their states. Once again the saddest stories come from tribal members living on
reservations, who have absolutely no rights to protect themselves from tribal
governments.
Randy
Thompson, from the Minneapolis law firm that represented the landowners
involved in the Mille Lacs Treaty case, talked to the group. He told us about
different cases that have set precedents and what type of case we should begin
planning to carry to the Supreme Court.
CERF
will now pay for publication of our newspaper and the website. Lisa Morris will
take over the membership database. Howard Hanson will become CERA Treasurer.
Curt Knoke reported that his work updating the membership database was close to
completion.
The
second day of the conference was spent organizing and formalizing the committees
we had formed in Washington D.C. in May.