ONAMIA, Minn. -- Fed up with a recent spate of chronic lawlessness, tribal lawyers for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe are turning to a tool both new and ancient to rid their community of troublemakers.Four band members were recently banished from the reservation -- excluded for five years based on myriad assaults and weapons violations.Tribes in Canada, Arizona, New York and Washington state also have turned to the old practice in recent years.Such punishment was at one time essentially a death sentence. Those ostracized were either left to the whims of enemy tribes or, more likely, starved or froze alone without the help of their community. The modern-day version, formally called exclusion, is less harsh.For example in the Mille Lacs Band, an excluded member is still entitled to the $7,000 yearly share of Grand Casino gambling profits -- as long as the deposit is done automatically or a relative picks up the checks, because the excluded can't set foot on the reservation and can be held in contempt or charged in state court with trespass for trying.The four newly banished members can request reinstatement in 2013 if they remain law-abiding and can show they've been working regularly."It's an extreme way to deal with a problem and a little bit rare," said Solicitor General Rjay Brunkow, the top lawyer for the Mille Lacs Band of 4,000 members, about 100 miles north of Minneapolis-St. Paul."I think you're going to see it more and more as gangs and criminal elements start to make their way onto the reservations, especially those closer to metro areas."Six of Minnesota's 11 tribal bands have banishment provisions on their books. The Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe on Lake Superior brought back the old practice five years ago. About 40 people met to discuss possible banishments in serious criminal cases recently at the Fond du Lac Reservation in Cloquet. And the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota has banished a few people, including a non-Indian accused of bringing drugs on the reservation in 2003.Banishment laws cover band members and other residents of the lands under tribal jurisdiction, one of the few rights tribes have over non-Indians."Someone has to be a threat to the entire community and if they cross that line and the community says we've had enough, it's a process we can use," Grand Portage Chairman Norman Deschampe said.Several California banishment cases have included stripping members from tribal rolls, often for political reasons, according to David Wilkins, a University of Minnesota professor of American Indian studies.He said the Mille Lacs cases, which allow excluded members a chance to return, is more in keeping with one of the world's oldest constitutions, created by the Iroquois around 1400."If you rectify your ways, it allows you to come back in," Wilkins said.Three of the Mille Lacs members excluded last month -- Patrick Provo Jr., 24; Benjamin Garbow, 27, and Zachary Nayquonabe, 20 -- were accused of stopping cars July 8 and holding drivers at gunpoint."That was the straw that broke the camel's back," Brunkow said.They also are accused of other assaults and weapons violations. Nicholas R. Benjamin, 25, the fourth man banished, is already locked up at the Stillwater state prison for assault, but is due out next year. He's accused of firing a gun at a house in 2006, assaulting a juvenile in 2007 and other offenses. None of the four attended the banishment hearings.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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