DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 378 028 RC 019 945

AUTHOR Jenkins, Melvin L.

TITLE Race Relations in Western Nebraska.INSTITUTION Nebraska State Advisory Committee to the U.S.

Commission on Civil Rights.

SPONS AGENCY Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C.

PUB DATE Dec 94NOTE 56p.; One appendix contains several pages of broken

type.

PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS American Indians; Civil Rights; *Community Problems;

Dropouts; Elementary Secondary Education; *EthnicDiscrimination; Higher Education; Hispanic Americans;Housing Discrimination; Migrants; *Minority Groups;*Multicultural Education; Police CommunityRelationship; Racial Bias; *Racial Relations

IDENTIFIERS Native Americans; *Nebraska (West); *RacialHarassment

ABSTRACTThis report is derived from a community forum held in

Scottsbluff (Nebraska) on April 28-29, 1993, by the Nebraska AdvisoryCommittee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Views onrace relations in selected areas of western Nebraska were expressed

by concerned citizens; community leaders; government officials(federal, state, and local); educators; law enforcement officials;and persons from the business community. They reported that stepswere being taken to improve race relations in western Nebraska, but

that these were insufficient. Main sections of the report address thefollowing: (1) background information on the area and its population,

minority groups, and poverty; (2) race relations in general,especially pertaining to Hispanics and Native Americans; (3) reported

harassment and racism in the public schools, minority dropout rates,lack of minority group teachers, teacher insensitivity, multiculturaland outreach activities, and minority student recruitment at WesternNebraska Community College; (4) procedures for filing complaints ofhousing discrimination with the Office of Fair Housing and EqualOpportunity; and (5) relationships between local law enforcementagencies and Native Americans and Hispanics. Appendices includenewspaper articles about Native American protests of police action

and the results of Chadron School District's survey of existingmulticultural education. (RAH)

***********************************************************************

Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *

* from the original document. Yr

***********************************************************************

lx

P

I

!./

n11101praska

I

Nebraska Advisory Committee to theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights

BEST COPY AVAILAILC

U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Rompatcn and Improvement

EOU ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

Tins document haS been reproduced asreceived from the Person or Orcianiiiitiononglnating .5

0 M)nor changes have been made to improvereoroduchon cruallty

Points 01 new or opmons siatedn INS CIOCuwent do not necesSanly ,eivesen1 offic.alOE RI p03,1,0n or 001.CY

December 1994

A report of the Nebnag Advisory Committee to thefinitedStc is Commission on Civitg(ights preparelfor ihebtfortnationand consideration of the COMMiSSi011. ?This Iiktort wirbecopsidard by the Corrunisrion and the Commis:4os villme*

,1

pudkrie its reaction ,. , j - ,, I ,-..f: ,'1' . . , , 1 I ; '

. 1 / , 1 . ! , .- 'I

i . \

, I

The United States Commission on Civil RightsThe United States Commission on Civil Rights, first created by the Civil Rights Actof 1957, and reestablished by the United States Commission on Civil Rights Act of1983, is an independent, bipartisan agency of the Federal Government. By the termsof the 1983 act, the Commission is charged with the following duties pertaining todiScrimination or denials of the equal protection of the laws based on race, color,religion, sex, age, handicap, or national origin, Or in the administration of justice:investigation of individual discriminatory denials of the right to vote; study of legaldevelopments with respect to discrimination or. denials of the equal protection of thelaw; appraisal of the laws and policies of the United States with respect to discrimina-tion or denials of equal protection of the law; maintenance of a national clearinghousefor information respecting discrimination or denials of equal p.otection of the law; andinvestigation of patterns, or practices of fraud or discrimination in the conduCt ofFederal elections. The Commission is also required to submit reports to the Presidentand the Congresi at such times as the Commission, the Congress, or the Presidentshall deem desirable.

The State Advisory CommitteesAn Advisory Committee to the United States Commiss,on on Civil Rights has beenestablished in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia pursuant to section105(c) of the Civil Rights Act of1957 and section 6(c) of the United States CoMmissionon Clvil Rights Act of 1983. The Advisory Committees are made up of responsiblepersons who serve without compensation. Their functions under their mandate fromthe Commission are to: advise the Commission of all relevant information concerningtheir respective States on matters within the jurisdiction of the Commission; advisethe Commission on matters of mutual concern in the preparation of reports of theCommission to the President and the Congress; receive reports, suggestions, andrecommendations from individuals, public and private organizations, and publicofficials upon matters pertinent to inquiries conducted by the State Advisory Commit-tee; initiate and forward advice and recommendations to the Commission upon mattersin which the Commission shall request the assistance of the State AdvisoryCommittee; and attend, as observers, any open hearing or conference that theCommission may hold within the State.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

3

>41,16;041

Race Re latio inWestern Neb aska

Nebraska Advisory Committee to theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights

December 1994

A report of the Mbraskg Advisory Committee to the UniteiStatt; Commission on Civil Rights prepared for tie informationand consideration of the Commission. This report will be considered by the Commission and the Commission will mahpublic its reaction.

4

Letter of Transmittal

Nebraska Advisory Committee to theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Members of the CommissionMary Frances Berry, ChairpersonCruz Reynoso, Tice ChairpersonCarl A. AndersonArthur A. FletcherRobert GeorgeConstance HornerRussell G. Redenbaugh

Mary K. Mathews, Staff Director

The Nebraska Advisory Committee submits this summary report, Race Relations in WesternNebraska, to you for your consideration. By a vote of 11 to 0, the Advisory Committee approvedsubmission of this report.

The report stems from a community forum held by the Advisory Committee on April 28-29, 1993,in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, to obtain views on race relations in selected areas of western Nebraska.The Advisory Committee heard from concerned citizens, community leaders, Federal, State, andlocal government officials, educators, law enforcement officials, and persons from the businesscommunity.

It was reported to the Advisory Committee that steps are being taken to improve race relationsin western Nebraska, but there are those who believe that these steps are not enough.

It was pointed out by the acting director of the Nebraska Mexican American Commission thathousing discrimination was the agency's number one priority. The acting director indicated aninterest in having the agency reopen an office in western Nebraska to provide advocacy services forpersons in that area. The chair of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs also indicated thatthe agency should have an office in western Nebraska to provide information and advocacy services.

Educators discussed programs that were implemented to be more responsive to minority stu-dents. Some community representatives discussed their concerns over the high dropout rate forHispanic students and the lack of Hispanic instructors in public schools in Scottsbluff. It was statedby one participant that the Hispanic community must do its part to ensure that children attendschool. It was proposed that a task force be created, composed of community representatives,educators, and business leaders to come up with a solution to reduce the dropout rate. Further, itwas recommended that with the shortage of Hispanic teachers, scholarships for local Hispanics whoare interested in teaching should be created so that they will come back to the community to beinvolved in the education system.

The Advisory Committee is hopeful that race relations will continue to improve in westernNebraska. It believes that continued dialogue is the key to progress.

Respectfully,

Alcurtis Robinson, ChairpersonNebraska Advisory Committee

5

Nebraska Advisory Committee

Alcurtis Robinson, Chairperson Sister Phyllis HunhoffOmaha Lincoln

Duane W. AcklieLincoln

Betty LoudonLincoln

Rosa Elia Cobos Dianne G. MyersScottsbluff Lincoln

James D. FaimonLincoln

Art Hill*Omaha

Gary HillLincoln

Ella OchoaNorth Platte

Hoa Trong TranLincoln

Mimi WaldbaumOmaha

* No longer a member of the Advisory Committee

AcknowledgmentsThe Nebraska Advisory Committee wishes to thank the staff of the Commission's CentralRegional Office for its help in the preparation of this report. The project was the principalassignment of Ascension Hernandez with support from Jo Ann Daniels. The report was writtenby Melvin L. Jenkins. Editorial assistance and preparation of the report for publication wereprovided by Gloria Hong Izumi. The project was carried out under the overall supervision ofMelvin L. Jenkins, Director, Central Regional Office.

6

Contents

Introduction 1Background 1Population 1

Historical Western Nebraska 2Population Profile and Poverty in Western Nebraska 3

General Race Relations 6

Education 10Higher Education Perspective 15

Housing 17

Administration of Justice 19

Summary 22

TablesTable 1. Profile of Minority Group Population in Selected Cities in

Western Nebraska 1

Table 2. Percent of Population by Ethnicity, Poverty in Selected NebraskaCounties 4

Table 3. Regression Analysis of Ethnicity by Poverty 5

Appendices 23

Introduction

BackgroundOn April 3, 1992, the Nebraska AdvisoryCommittee met in Lincoln to discussproject activities. After much discussion

the Advisory Committee decided to focus itsattention on civil rights activities in westernNebraska. The Advisory Committee directedstaff of the Commission's Central RegionalOffice to gather background information inpreparation for a community forum to be heldin Scottsbluff.'

The Advisory Committee invited represen-tatives of Federal, State, and local govern-ments, community leaders, and representa-tives of community organizations to providean overview of civil rights issues in westernNebraska at a forum held on April 28.-29,1993.

PopulationWestern Nebraska cities that have a sub-

stantial minority group population includeScottsbluff, Alliance, Chadron, and Gordon. Abrief profile of the cities is shown in table 1.

Nebraska's Hispanic population grew 31.9percent (from 28,025 to 36,969) between 1980and 1990 and today is 2.3 percent of theState's population of 1,578,385. After whitesand blacks, Hispanics are the third largestpopulation group. Hispanics are over 10 per-cent of the population in rural places likeScottsbluff (19.8), McGrew (19.2), Mitchell(17.4), Bayard (15.1), Gering (11.9), Bridge-port (10.6), Lyman (43.6), Terrytown (29.9)and Cushings (20.0).2

According to 1990 census figures, AmericanIndians represent 1.6 percent of the popula-tion in Scotts Bluff County. There are 12,410American Indians, Eskimos, or Aleuts in theState of Nebraska.3

TABLE 1e of Minority GrOup Population in Selected Cities in Western Nebraska

Total Amer.City population Whit. Black Indian Asian HispanicScottsbluff 36,025 32,822 70 662 180 5,237Alliance 13,130 12,501 49 302 57 722Chadron 9,021 8,492 55 355 75 142Gordon 6,750 6,200 3 524 16 68

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Census ofPopulation and Housing Characteristics, Nebraska.

2

3

Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Meeting Minutes, Apr. 3, 1992.

Midwest-Northeast Voter Registration Education Project, May 1991, Chicago.

Ibid.

C 1

Historical Western NebraskaWestern Nebraska was mostly a wilderness

some 150 to 200 years ago. Rivers born of thesnows in the Rocky Mountains stretchedacross the plains to the east. One, the PlatteRiver, became the main route for westernexpansion. Pioneers in search of land, gold,and religious freedom all followed the GreatPlatte River Road. It was better known as theOregon, Mormon, and California Trails.Later, the Pony Express, the first transconti-nental telegraph line, and the first transcon-tinental railroad also followed the river road.Today, highways have replaced the "wagon-ruts," but nevertheless, the Platte River isprobably the most influential single factor inthe development of western Nebraska, pastand present.4

For thousands of years ancient man inhab-ited the land of western Nebraska. There isarchaeological evidence which indicates thatAsiatic wanderers who ranged the area 10,000years ago were the ancestors of the AmericanIndians living in this region when tl':e firstwhite man came.5 The Sioux and Cheyennetribes came to western Nebraska in the 1770sfrom the Great Lake area. They were hunterswho followed the migrating buffalo herds thatgrazed on the abundance of short stemgrasses. The first white man known to havebeen through the area was Robert Stuart,with some Astorion fur traders from the Co-lumbia River in Oregon. They traveled fromwest to east, journeying to St. Louis in 1812-1813. They descended the continental dividevia the Sweetwater and North Platte Riversto winter in present-day Henry, Nebraska.Their jo'.rney blazed the route destined tobecome the Oregon Trails

More than a quarter million travelers dur-ing a 20-year span of time proved the westernterrain, climate, and Indians posed no insur-mountable obstacle to travel. When the Indi-ans became sensitive to the hordes of invad-ers, a general treaty council to ensure safetyof travel over the Oregon Trail was held inSeptember 1851 near Lyman, Nebraska. Thelargest gathering of Plains tribes ever assem-bled, some 10,000 Indians met with Indianagent Thomas Fitzpatrick and the superin-tendent of Indian affairs, David D. Mitchell.The treaty established tribal boundaries,specified peaceful relations among tribes, andauthorized the laying out of roads and theconstl action of military posts in Indian terri-tory.7

As the German-Russians immigrantsmoved to western Nebraska and prospered,there was a need for an additional source oflabor to work in the beet fields. Restrictionson the importation of Mexican workers werelifted by the Federal Government. In 1917 theGreat Western Sugar Company encouragedMexican nationals to work in the beet fields.8The rapid increase in Mexican immigrationgave rise to new, distinct, social and economicproblems. After the harvest, many Mexicansreturned to Mexico. Those who stayed in theNorth Platte Valley did not assimilate into thecommunities readily because of social preju-dice. Mexicans found it difficult to leave farmsand to move up the economic ladder. Theirdifficulty in understanding English led tosome exploitation by the local merchants andfarmers. Sometimes Mexicans were chargeddouble for purchases of food and clothing. Thenumber of beet acres worked was sometimesfalsely represented or growers failed to honor

4 Western Nebraska, official publication of the Western Nebraska United Chamber of Commerce, Grand Island, NE,1992.

5 Jane Barbour, Ramsey, The Bluff Called MA-A-PA-TE, Meadow Circle Publication, Estes Park, 1990.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

2

their signed contracts with the Mexican labor-ers, thus paying them lower wages for theirwork.9

In 1920, when the head tax and literacyrequirements were lifted by the U.S. Govern-ment, the Great Western Sugar Company be-came a more active recruiter of Mexican laborin south Texas. Labor trains brought theworkers north to Denver and, eventually, alabor camp was established at Fort Lupton tohouse and feed Mexican laborers before theirmove to Nebraska worksites. This labor re-cruitment met with competitors from Texasgrowers who were determined to retain theMexican laborers to work in the cotton fields.

In 1965 the labor policy changed. No moreMexican nationals could be hired. Great West-ern began to contract Mexican Americans liv-ing in Texas for work in the beet fields, and asmany as 6,000 laborers were hired. Today,some Texas migrant workers still come to thevalley co harvest the beets. However, since1950 mechanization has increased and themajority of acres are now thinned by ma-chine. I°

Population Profile and Poverty inWestern Nebraska

John Allen, a rural sociologist at the Uni-versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, spoke to the Ad-visory Committee regarding the compositionof the population in western Nebraska and itsrelationship to the poverty level. He said thatthe 1990 census data classified a family of fouras living in poverty if its income fell below$12,067 per year."

9 Ibid.

to Ibid.

Dr. Allen noted that in the United Statesthere was a 53 percent increase in the numberof persons of Hispanic origin from 1980 to1990 (see table 1). From 1980 to 1990, table 2shows an increase of 27.7 percent for theAmerican Indian, Eskimo and Aleut popula-tion in the United States. In Nebraska, duringthe same period of time, the increase was 35.3percent for the American Indian, Eskimo andthe Aleut population and 30.8 percent for theHispanic population.I2

Dr. Allen further stated:

When we examine the demographic composition ofthe white population between 1980-1990 at thenational level, there was a 5.6 percent increase inthe number of people identified as white; yet inNebraska, there was a decrease of 1.1 percent. Sowhile the Hispanic population grew by 8,070 peopleand the American Indian, Eskimo and Aleut popu-lation grew by 3,057, the white population declinedby 16,615 people statewide between 1980 and1990.13

In an examination of the population byspecific counties within the western Nebraskaregion, Dr. Allen noted:

Scotts Bluff County has the highest percentage ofHispanic members: 14.5 percent of the populationof Scotts Bluff County were identified as Hispanicin 1990, while Sheridan County had only 1.0 percent of its population identified as Hispanic. On theother hand, the Native American population madeup 7.3 percent of the population in SheridanCounty while in Garden County no Native Ameri-cans were reported in the 1990 census (see table 2).

11 Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Community Forum on Race Relations inWestern Nebraska, Scottsbluff, NE, Apr. 28-29, 1994, vol. 1, p. 7 (hereafter cited as Transcript).

12 John Allen, Ph.D., Profile of Minority Populations in the Panhandle Areas of Northwestern Nebraska, presented tothe U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Factfinding Meeting on Race Relations in Western Nebraska, Apr. 28, 1993(heieafter cited as Allen Paper).

13 Ibid., p. 2; see also table 1.

IC3

TABLE gPercent of Population by Ethnicity, Poverty, and Selected Nebraska Counties

Area% Whites

(non-Hispanic)% Hispanic

origin% NativeAmerican

% Belowpoverty level

Nebraska 92.5 2.3 0.7 11.1Banner 97.3 2.2 0.4 21.8Box Butte 91.6 5.5 2.1 11.7Cheyenne 95.7 3.3 0.7 10.2Dawes 93.2 1.6 0.7 22.3Dewel 94.7 4.6 0.4 12.2Garden 99.4 0.6 0.0 15.1Kimball 96.1 3.6 0.2 11.5Morril 91.3 8.0 0.5 14.8Scotts Bluff 83.1 14.5 1.6 15.5Sheridan 91.4 1.0 7.3 18.1Sioux 96.9 2.8 0.1 16.4

Source: U.S. census Bureau 1990; compiled byDr. John Allen.

Poverty among residents was also analyzed andindicates Dawes County had 22.3 percent of itspopulation living below the poverty level (see table2). In 1989, the year for which poverty was mea-sured by the decennial census, a family of four wasclassified as living in poverty if their income fellbelow $12,067. This compares with a NebraskaState average of 11.1 percent.

Regression analysis can be used to examine therelationship between ethnicity and poverty. In thewestern Nebraska region of the State, there is nota relationship between living in poverty and beingHispanic. Although the findings are not statisti-cally significant, the correlations do indicate a neg-ative relationship exists between Hispanic and liv-ing below the poverty level. In regard to the NativeAmerican population, there is a positive relation-

14 Ibid., p. 3; see also tables 2 and 3.

16 Ibid., p. 4.

4

ship between living below the poverty level andbeing identified as Native American within thewestern Nebraska region (see table 3). It should benoted that these relationships are weak and thatthe possibility of the findings being due to errorexists.14

In conclusion Dr. Allen said:

As these findings indicate, the population of His-panics is growing in the western Nebraska regionof the State. There is not a relationship betweenbeing Hispanic and living below the poverty level.Although not statistically significant, this analysisindicates that a slight relationship may exist be-tween being a Native American and having anincome below the poverty leve1.15

11.

TABLE 3Regression Analysis of Ethnicity by Poverty

WhiteConviations

Hispanic Native Amer. PovertyWhite 1.000 -0.838 -0.348 -0.020Hispanic -0.838 1.000 -0.213 -0.241Native Amer. -0.348 -0.213 1.000 0.409Poverty -0.020 -0.241 0.409 1.000

Adjusted R Square -.03888.Analysis done by Dr. John Allen.

12

5

General Race Relations

teve Janis, a paralegal for Western Ne-Obraska Legal Services, provided the Advi-

sory Committee some insight as to thestate of race relations in the area. He said thatover the years there have been numerous in-cidents of alleged mis. reatment of AmericanIndians by police autlli cities in the Panhan-dle.' In general, Mr. Jar. is noted a dual stan-dard of justice not only in police-communityrelations but in housing discrimination, thelack of health programs, and the lack of edu-cation programs.'

Connie Stairs of Alliance, Nebraska, and amember of the American Indian Council, Inc.,also provided the Advisory Committee withsome general comments regarding race rela-tions. She said:

I sat for a couple of nights trying to write everythingthat's been going on in Alliance, and living in thispart of the country for 40 years. . . . I know there'sprejudice and I see it every day.... I'm here becauseI'm a mother. I have seven children that I'm rais-ing, [and] they are going through the same thingthat I went through when I was in school. I didn'tget to finish school because I was fighting the whitekids all the time. You know, being called dirtynames, "squaw," you know. That was one reasonwhy I quit school, and that's why I'm here nowbecause of the prejudice that we do have in Alli-ance.3

In concluding her remarks on the general racerelations, Ms. Stairs said:

In Alliance you see it [prejudice] everywhere. Yougo into a store in Alliance, they see you walk in, thefirst thing they do is start watching you. They havesomebody follow you to make sure you're not goingto steal. These are the things that go on.4

Susan Esparza, executive director of theNative American Center in Chadron, Ne-braska, told the Advisory Committee thateven today American Indians are called"squaw" or told, "Dirty Indian, go back to yourtepees." She related several alleged incidentsof police abuse of outhority of American In-dian children and persons in homeless shel-ters. Ms. Esparza concluded by stating, "Thetreatment of our people is unfair. It is blindjustice."5

Cecilia Huerta, the acting director of theNebraska Mexican American Commission, re-ported that the commission is charged withthe responsibility of collecting facts and sta-tistics and making special studies of condi-tions and problems affecting the general wel-fare of Hispanics in the State.6 She noted that:

In 1985prior to 1985, the Commission had anoffice here in western Nebraska. During the Kerryadministration the State experienced a budget cri-sis and the office in Scottsbluff was closed, alongwith the office in Lincoln. It was reopened, in Lin-coln only, in 1986 and with a staff cf one, and wenow have a staff of three. Anytime the State ofNebraska has a budget crunch, the commissions,the advocacy commissions are challenged to justify

Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Community Forum on Race Relations inWestern Nebraska, Scottsbluff, NE, Apr. 28-29,1994, vol. 1, pp. 56-60 (hereafter cited as Transcript).

2 Ibid., p. 54.

3 Ibid., pp. 74-75.

4 Ibid., p. 81.

5 Ibid., p. 92.

6 Ibid., pp. 99-100.

136

their existence. This year again the Commission onthe Status of Women, the Mexican American Com-mission, and the Commission on Indian Affairs hashad to appear before the Nebraska legislative ap-propriations committee to justify their existence.And so far this year we have done that.7

Ms. Huerta told the Advisory Committee thatthe Commission has sponsored educationalseminars on civil wages, wages equity, em-ployment discrimination, and parental in-volvement in the education system.8 She saidthat the commission was:

Instrumental in assisting the community of Lex-ington to contract with the U.S. Department ofJustice and have someone come out and do commu-nity relations work, and that was after a Hispanicyoung man was shot and killed by police officers inthe Gothenberg area. That case want before agrand jury and the two police officers were exoner-ated of any wrongdoing in that case .9

Ms. Huerta also reported:

Things that have come to the attention of the Mex-ican American Commission from this particulararea in the areas of housing, housing discrimina-tion, police brutality, employer discrimination, andan issue of speaking Spanish on the jobwhetheror not one employee can speak Spanish to anotheremployee on the job and whether or not the em-ployer has the right to go ahead and indicate thatthere is no Spanish to be spoken on the job at all.

We have also encountered differences in sentencingtrends. Differences in violations and how thoseviolations are taken care of. Further, health careseems to be an issue. Inadequate health care ornonavailability of health care and insurance care.Also nonavailability of emergency room services tomigrant workers. Inadequate translations within

7 Ibid., pp. 101-02.

8 Ibid., p. 102.

9 Ibid., p. 103.

10 Ibid., pp. 102-03.

11 Ibid., p. 106.

12 Ibid., p. 107.

the court system seems to be a problem. There isalso a problem, a couple of instances of harassmentand brutality, inequity of sentencing in the Alliancearea also.

I also was raised in this area. [I] was gone from thisare[a] for a while and then returned for a short timeof about 10 years. During the time that I returned,I could see that the racism and discrimination hadnot been overcome. Migrants and Hispanic peoplewho are not of high income are treated poorly andlooked upon as a low class type of people. TheEuropean American people here are very judg-mental, using racial slurs and equating that every-one must have the behavioral standard that theyequate as the norm. Things have not changed overthe years, and I believe that there is a communityrelations and a sensitivity training that needs to beconducted in this area.10

Ms. Huerta was questioned by the AdvisoryCommittee as to the prospect of reopening acommission office in western Nebraska and asto the effectiveness of the former office. Sheindicated that by not having a commissionoffice in this portion of the State, persons feelthat their issues have been forgotten. Whenthe commission had an office in the area,"there were issues that were being dealt withand there was some progress."11 Ms. Huertawas not very optimistic about reopening acommission office in Scottsbluff.'4

When asked to prioritize problems faced byHispanics in western Nebraska, Ms. Huertasaid that the number one priority is housingdiscrimination. This was followed by the lackof health care, employment, and education.She also indicated to the Advisory Committeethat if her agency were not facing budget

7

restrictions, she would recommend reopeningan office in western Nebraska to assist whenproblems arise." Ms. Huerta added:

To do an adequate job in representing the people ofthis area, I believe we would need to l- lye a repre-sentative in the north Lexington area and also inthe Scottsbluff area. The Scottsbluff area would.cover Chadron and Alliance. Lexington would coverNorth Platte, McCook, and Holdridge.14

Reaves Nahwooks, chair of the NebraskaCommission on Indian Affairs, shared his con-cerns on the state of race relations in westernNebraska with the Advisory Committee. Hesaid that in the past the commission has ad-vocated for an office in western Nebraska toprovide assistance in regard to discriminatorypractices.15 Mr. Nahwooks said:

So many of the tensions that we've dealt withresulted from deaths which have occurred causingconflict among the Native American Indian lit zensand others in their different communities. In thosecases, we have tried to work to bring about someunderstanding to all citizens.16

To deal with the question of race relationsMr. Nahwooks said that the Indian affairscommission has developed a 5-year plan toinclude health problems, education, employ-ment, Indian civil and human rights, eco-nomic development, and the structure of thecommission .17

Mayor Donald Overman of Scottsbluff toldthe Advisory Committee:

Through the years, I've really had very little indi-cation that we have great problems. Certainly wehave about 20 percent Hispanic population here.They've been here for as long as most everybodyelse has been here. We have about one-half of 1percent Native Americana. And, overall, I think therelationship between those parts of our communityand the other parts of our community, in general,is quite good. Certainly you will hear some prob-lems, because everybody has problems. But overall,I think we get along very well together, and that'scertainly always been my analysis and it's been mygoal in that if we have problems we need to addressthose problems and try to solve them, for the bestinterest of everybody that lives together.18

Steve Sexton, superintendent of the Chad-ron School District, told the Advisory Commit-tee that race relations in his community ismoving in a positive direction. He added:

And I also know that perceptions differ. There areindividuals who believe that you can change per-ceptions overnight, and we found that quick fixesdon't work. We believe that our best shot at makingthings better is to work with little kids that becomebig kids, and not to give up on the big kids... . Butmy feeling is that since the mid-seventies and per-haps even early eighties that things are moving ina positive direction.19

Alan M% 'len, assistant city manager ofScottsbluff, told the Advisory Committee that,in reference to race relations in Scottsbluff:

Like anywhere, there's discrimination here, there'sbias here. But in my opinion, it's no greater herethan I've seen in any of the other places that I'velived. And, you know, bias is an unfortunate fact,unfortunately. I think in that regard someone

13 Ibid., p. 110.

14 Ibid., p. 112.

15 Ibid., p. 285.

16 Ibid., p. 286.

17 Ibud., pp. 290-91.

18 Ibid., pp. 146-47.

19 Ibid., p. 256; see also comments of Ronald Sylvester, Transcript, pp. 272-72.

8

coming to Scottsbluff is not going to see somethingdramatically different than they are going to se, n.other places.2°

Hod Kosman, preside,it of the FirsTierBank in Scottsbluff and Gering, noted somecommunity programs that his institution isinvolved in. He said:

20 Ibid., pp. 479-80.

21 Ibid., pp. 484-85.

And as a prominent financial institution in the areaI believe that we must be a leader in developingproducts and programs that serve our entire com-munity, and that we must take the lead in support-ing economic development, education, and housinginitiatives.21

I C

9

Education

During its 2-day community forum, theAdvisory Committee heard allegationsthat some of the personnel in some of the

public schools in western Nebraska were in-sensitive to American Indians and Hispanics.School administrators and teachers did notpunish white children who used insensitivelanguage in describing minorities. ConnieStairs told the Advisory Committee that herschool-aged children, ". . are going throughthe same thing that I went through when Iwas in school."'

Susan Esparza, executive director of theNative American Center in Chadron, said:

I'm here on behalf of the Native American childrenthat are in Dawes County school system. Our chil-dren are being harassed, degraded in every way.There is a lot of racism, discrimination against ourchildren. We had a count of 120 Native Americanchildren, which has now dropped to about 69 in theschool system, because of this. They were con-stantly being called names, "Dirty Indian," "Canni-bal Indians," "Go back where you came from. Yourkind is not wanted here."2

Ms. Esparza reported an incident to theAdvisory Committee whereby a young Amer-ican Indian girl in the seventh grade was toldthat the reason Crazy Horse Malt Liquor wasnamed so was because American Indians aredrunks. The matter was taken up with aschool official but to no avail.' She added:

They want an education without being callednames. "You Indian people, all you have is commod-ities." I believe that the school systems need to beeducated. It's the schools that need to be educated.Teachers need to learn the culture. They need to gothrough sensitivity training, and i feel that theyshould be investigated. This needs to be investi-gated because our children are suffering. And Iasked the parents to give me statements that I canpresent tonight and these parents told me that theywere afraid to. They were afraid of retaliation fromthe schools; they were afraid of retaliation from thepolice; they were afraid that when things got backthat they would be harassed; they would be cut offof any services that they receive, so I told them Iwould still come and speak in behalf of the NativeAmericans in Dawes County.4

Ms. Esparza was asked whether or not par-ents have addressed their concerns of differ-ent incident; of discrimination to the localschool district. Specifically she was queried:"Is there a complaint system within the localschool district?"5 Ms. Esparza responded:

Well, usually is [a complaint] just runs from thestudent to the principal and then the principallooks into it, and then if nothing is done then theparent takes it to the superintendent. From thesuperintendent, it goes to the school board.6

However, Ms. Esparza did not know if anyparents had filed complaints with the localschool board.?

Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Community Forum on Race Relations inWestern Nebraska, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Apr. 28-2 1993, p. 76 (hereafter cited as Transcript).

2 Ibid., p. 87.

3 Ibid., p. 88.

4 Ibid., p. 89.

5 Ibid., p. 97.

6 Ibid.

1(10

Cecilia Huerta, the acting director of theNebraska Mexican American Commission,shared her concerns about the Scottsbluffschool district. She said:

The dropout rate in Scottsbluff is higher than inany other part of the State. There are more Hispan-ics. A lot of justification is given to why the dropoutrate is so high; that migrant )ming through foronly a short time are counter n that, and there'scontroversy as to whether or not they should becounted as dropouts or as just leave outs. And mostof all the dropout problem, there's discrimination.There is a lack of counseling for Hispanics. Hispan-ics were not allowed to participate in sports pro-grams the way that other European and Americandescendent children are allowed to. . . . 8

Raymond Gonzalez, of Scottsbluff and amember of the governing board of WesternNebraska Community College, spoke to theAdvisory Committee about Hispanic dropoutsand the lack of Hispanic instructors in publicschools in Scottsbluff. Although he did notpresent dropout statistics to the AdvisoryCommittee, Mr. Gonzalez was concernedabout how dropouts were defined by the schooldistrict. He said that:

.... as wasexplained to me, you may have a studentthat starts the academic year and drops out mid-way through the year or drops out in the firstsemester but re-enters in the second semester. Itwas explained that those figures are taken by aca-demic year so that a student may be back in schoolin the second semester but still considered a drop-out. And then you get into the figures, the interpre-tation of figures. Is it from 7th grade to 12th grade?Is it from 9th grade to 12th grade?9

7 Ibid., p. 98.

8 Ibid.. p. 108.

9 Ibid., p. 175.

10 Ibid., p. 177.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., P. 172.

Mr. Gonzalez noted that there is enoughdata on the dropout problem, but that publicschool officials need to take stronger action todeal with the issue. He added:

.... the Hispanic community must be held account-able as well. They must do their part to ensure thatchildren attend school and that their opinions andtheir concerns are voiced by Hispanic leaders,themselves.19

He proposed:

. . . . the creation of a task force made up of publicofficials, from school boards, from community andcollege boards, and business, because business isdirectly impacted by this dropout rate. 'believe thistask force, in a joint effort of all school officials andpolicymakers, is best suited to solve this problem.School officials can foster, can oversee and provideinput, but policymakers are those in the best placeto make these decisions that will impact this drop-out rate.11

The second issue that Mr. Gonzalez raisedwith the Advisory Committee was his concernover the lack of Hispanic teachers in theScottsbluff school system. He indicated thathe was told by some in the education field thatthere are very few Hispanic educators. Thosethat come out of college with a degree go wherethey can get top dollar for their degree.' How-ever, Mr. Gonzalez recommended:

I believe that we can grow our own instructors whowill come back to teach those that really have aninterestHispanics that really have an interestin seeing a reversal of s dropout rate, by address-ing this in the same way that a shortage of doctorsis being addressed. Creating Fulbright Scholar-ships for teachers, for students who will go on to get

'C11

their teaching certificates and then come back toteach, paying their tuition from end to end with anagreement that they will be back, and I believesome of that is beginning to be implemerited.13

The Advisory Committee asked Mr. Gonza-lez to discuss, in general, race relations prob-lems in the local school district. He respondedby saying that he did not think it is a racerelations problem but one of insensitivity. Mr.Gonzalez said, "I think it is just a misunder-standing of the culture."14

In an attempt to obtain a fuller view of racerelations within the public schools, the Advi-sory Committee invited Steve Sexton, super-intendent of the Chadron School District, andRonald Reichardt, superintendent of theScottsbluff School District.

Dr. Sexton reported that, as of the AdvisoryCommittee meeting, the Chadron School Dis-trict had a student population of 1,065. Of thattotal, 11.5 percent were minorities, withAmerican Indians making up the greatestwith 9.2 percent.16 The school district em-ployed 127.65 persons, and of that figure 49are classified, including 7 males, 42 females.There are four minorities employed in classi-fied positions. There are 78.65 certified indi-viduals, including 6 administrators, 5 malesand 1 female. There are 17 male faculty mem-bers, including 2 minorities.16

Dr. Sexton reported to the Advisory Com-mittee the disciplinary actions that weretaken during the 1992-93 school year:

.. seven students dropped out of school; six werewhite and one was Native American. There werefive out-of-school suspensions, three of which werewhite r.tales, two were Native American males.There were 43 students assigned in-school suspen-

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid., p. 177.

is Ibid., p. 234.

16 Ibid., p. 235.

17 Ibid., pp. 235-36.

18 Ibid., p. 239; see also app. B.

12

sions; 2 were at the high school; 3 were elementary;and 38 were middle school students. Of the total of38 middle schools students, 32 were white, 2 wereHispanic, 9 were Native American. Thus, 74.4 per-cent were white, 5 percent were Hispanic, and 20.9percent were Native American.

During the first semester of 1992-93 there were 14instances of unsatisfactory behavior reported to theprincipal at Kenwood. Kenwood is one of our ele-mentaries. Five of those students were white, onewas Native American, one was black. All repeatoffenders were white students.

IAt Eastwood Elementary School there were 70instances of unsatisfactory behavior reported in-volving 38 individuals. Of those individuals in-volved, 30 were white, 1 was Hispanic, 5 wereNative Americans, 2 were Asian. For the entireelementary level, 7 percent then were NativeAmerican, 1 percent were Hispanic, 1 percent wereblack, 2 percent were Asian, and 89 percent werewhite.17

Dr. Sexton also discussed with the AdvisoryCommittee efforts to address multiculturaleducation. The school district has providedfaculty in-service training; faculty and stu-dent presentations; and has sought assistancein developing multicultural curriculum andmaterials. Further, effo its have been made toimprove contacts among American Indianparents in the school district. Dr. Sexton indi-cated that an American Indian home-schoolliaison person was hired to increase contactswith parents.18

Dr. Sexton concluded his prepared remarksby stating:

1 C

Clearly, we do not live in a perfect world. We areaware of the possibility of divergence of perceptionsand reality. It is our intent, as evidenced by ourefforts, to reduce differences between perceptionand reality. We do not intend to allow perceptions,nor the fact that Chadron has limited financialresources, to stand in the way of providing a qualityeducation program; and one in which equity is morenearly achieved.19

In response to questions from the AdvisoryCommittee regarding allegations that someschool district teachers were insensitive toAmerican Indian students and allowed namecalling, Dr. Sexton said:

I would challenge the accuracy of that statement. Ihave no knowledge that there is an accurate state-ment. I believe that, certainly, as I indicated in myclosing remark, that I believe there are percep-tions, all kinds of perceptions of what is and is nothappening. I've attended meetings w" ere chargeshave been made of one kind and ar,other, and whenand where those are made directly to me with anykind of definition at all, I follow up on them todetermine their validity. One of the problems thatyou run into is when a charge like that is made ifthere isn't anything really to substantiate it orfollow up on it, it's very difficult to run down. Oneof the things that we were interested in, that wewanted to know for our own purposes, was whatwere the incidences of student behavior and misbe-havior at the elementary level, and this all per-tained to the issue of conflict resolution. Most of thedifficulties we found are kid-kid kinds ofstudent-student kinds of problems. And the fact is that mostof those difficulties were with white students. Wefeel the incidences of those with the Native Amer-ican students either being accused of being in trou-ble or being sent to the office, whatever, were small.So, insofar as those comments being made by fac-ulty, we challenge that. Whether or not they arebeing made by students of various belief systems, Ihave no way of responding to that. I can tell you,

though, that the belief systems of students is anarea that we are very committed to addressing.And, in fact, I think the record will show that we'vetried to move in that direction 20

Dr. Sexton was also asked to explain his planof action to improve race relations in theschools. He responded:

The plan that we have developed over the last 18months certainly is targeted in improving relationsamong all students, and would include the NativeAmerican community. So far as involvement ofstudents in school life we, you know, in looking atit, I guess it's just like aa student community isjust like, I think, the unstudent community. Youhave students who involve themselves in activities;students who don'tinvolve themselves in activities.I know we're going to continue to try to improvehow students relate to each other, all students. Itwas interesting to me to note, and I was pleased tofind, that 70 percent of our Native American stu-dents in high school are involved in some kind ofactivities in addition to school. The fact that theyare in those activities and they continue in themsuggests to me that they feel comfortable in thatsetting or they wouldn't do it.21

Ronald Reichardt, superintendent ofScottsbluff Public Schools, and Ronald Sylves-ter, director of Student Services, provided anoverview of activities within the school dis-trict. It was noted that the school district isthe largist in western Nebraska with a stu-dent enrollment of 3,158 (67 percent white, 6percent Asian American, 27 percent Hispanic,5 percent American Indian, and .03 percentblack). The district employed 347 persons; 219were certified employees and 128 were non-certified. There were 238 females and 109males. Further, there were 6 Hispanic certi-fied teachers and 20 Hispanic noncertified

19 Steve Sexton, Ph.D., prepared remarks presented to the Nebraska Advisory Committee, U.S. Commission on CivilRights, Scottsbluff, NE, Apr. 29, 1993.

20 Ibid., pp. 246-47.

21 Ibid., pp. 248-49.

13

employees. The district had only one Ameri-can Indian employee who served as a home-school liaison person.'

Mr. Sylvester reported the following re-garding school dropouts:

Last year in grades 9 through 12, which are thegrades where students most often drop out, we had40 students drop out of our school system; 21 ofthose were females and 19 were males; 21 werewhite, 17 Hispanic, and 2 Native American. Now,if you'd like to do some quick math, I didn't do it foryou there. You can come up with a very alarmingfigure. You can say that 42 percent of all the His-panics in the Scottsbluff schools drop out everyyear, and that's what the media most often quoteswhen they have the opportunity.

If you really take a look at the actual facts, therewere 189 Hispanic students enrolled at the begin-ning of the school year and with 17 of f' se stu-dents dropping out during the year, we have anactual dropout rate of 9 percent of the studentsenrolled in the beginning of the school year. Of the26 Native American students who enrolled, 2 diddrop out, for an actual figure of 7 percent. I alwayshave difficulties with dropout rates because youcan do anything you want to with those dropoutrates, and, in fact, I do many times when writing agrant, I make them just as alarming as I canbecause we get more money that way. But I knowI hate. to have the whole school judged on a dropoutrate, and that's usually the very first thing thatthey talk about when they talk about schools.23

Mr. Sylvester related further:

Our completer rate I think is a better sort of thingto look at. In the class of '92 there were 172 stu-dents; 31 of those students were Hispanic or 18percent; 2 of those students were Native American.

22 Ibid., pp. 257-58.

23 Ibid., pp. 259-60.

24 Ibid., pp. 260-61.

25 Ibid., p. 265.

26 Ibid., p. 270.

14

The projection for this year's class, and I just talkedto the high school principal this morning andchanged these figures a bit because things aremoving along here as we get towards graduationdate. We will have 191 seniors; of that group, 42 ofthe students are Hispanic and 7 students are Na-tive American. An interesting class this year is thateight students are tied with a 4.0 grade point aver-age and will serve as co-valedictorians. Two ofthose students are Hispanic. We have seven NativeAmerican students graduating. This is the largestnumber in the 20 years that I have kep', records onit. The interesting thing about that, four of thosestudents started in kindergarten here in our schoolsystem and are finishing. We're extremely proud ofthat and we give a lot of credit for that to our title5 grant and our parent committee that we'veworked with.24

MT. Sylvester told the Adviscry Committeeabout numerous programs that the school dis-trict has put in place, including cultural andtransitional language classes. He said that thetransitional language class was instituted be-cause Hispanic parents did not want bilingualeducation but that they wanted their children"to learn to speak English, read English andwrite English."25 Further, Mr. Sylvester notedthat American Indian students have organ-ized several dance clubs, "and this has done agreat deal for the kids' esteem. "26 He alsorelated that American Indian students haveshared their life experiences with students ofanother school district that did not haveAmerican Indian students.

In responding to a query regarding theschool district's working relationship with theHispanic and American Indian communities,Mr. Sylvester said:

21

I have probably this spring written two or threeletters of support to various kinds of activities thatthey are doing through the Indian Center that willprofit the kids and the school. The Indian commu-nity divides and subdivides; that's an ongoing thingthat we just have to deal with. It's interesting aswe work with these two communities. The Hispaniccommunity has all kinds of wonderful ideas and allId-1" of things they are working on, and little or nore.. _es. The Native American community has allkinds of resourcesdollars, title 5, Johnson-O'Malley, everything elsebut has difficulty or-ganizing and working and taking full advantage ofall those. That's what I say, there's a lot of JOMmoney that has not been utilized as it should havebeen in the community.27

During the course of the AdvisoryCommittee's review of information prior to thecommunity forum, the Advisory Committeefound that some Hispanic parents were con-cerned that their children were missing toomany days from school because of disciplinarysuspensions. Mr. Sylvester was asked to com-ment about the district's school suspensionpolicy. He indicated that as a first step, de-pending upon the nature of the offense, thedistrict provides for an in-school suspensionprogram whereby a suspension supervisorworks with the student in completing classassignments. He noted that, "when offensesget greater, then you would have an out-of-school suspension."'

Higher Education PerspectiveThe Advisory Committee was concerned

with what the local community college wasdoing to attract minority students graduatingfrom the various high schools in western Ne-braska. Jim Hunter, vice president for Stu-dent Services, Western Nebraska CommunityCollege, shared with the Advisory Committeesome of the programs and activities that have

27 Ibid., p. 277.

28 Ibid., p. 280.

29 Ibid., p. 156.

been instituted at the local community col-lege. In the spring of 1993, Western NebraskaCommunity College enrolled 600 full-timestudents and approximately 1,500 part-timestudents. Hispanic enrollment rose from 97students in 1987 to 151 in the spring of 1992.In the same period, American Indian enroll-ment went from 25 to 38.29

Dr. Hunter told the Advisory Committeethat, in 1987, the college established HispanicAdvisory Committee to provide input on vari-ous programs and activities that should beoffered to recruit and maintain Hispanic stu-dents. He noted that:

And one of the things that came out of our advisorycommittee was the need to look at what are thebarriers to a student's success and then how can weovercome those barriers. So we set about to do astudy. The study has been completed. We've iden-tified those barriers and we have set together anaction plan to attempt to work out, resolve, andremediate those barriers. Some of the barriers thatwere perceived were lack of participation and senseof belonging; low self-esteem; no sense of culturalidentity or ethnicity; lack of parental involvementand support; poor and no motivation; lack of oppor-tunity awareness; lack of self-awareness. So thecollege has put together, through the MulticulturalAssistance Plan, a series of activities, an actionplan, to help alleviate those barriers.

The college's action plan included utilizinga consultant to work with the Hispanic Advi-sory Committee to discuss cultural infusioninto the college's course offerings, cross-cul-tural communication, and culture in the class-room. The college is also developing an orien-tation course through its minority assistanceprogram to help students improve their suc-cess in college. Dr. Hunter also mentioned acultural fair that about 450 persons attended,a program focusing on minority role models,

r4. 4

15

and a peer mentoring project.3° These activi-ties were developed to bring about a multi-cultural environment.

Dr. Hunter also pointed out that the collegewas in the process of forming an AmericanIndian Advisory Committee to identify bar-riers to recruiting and retaining AmericanIndian students. In response to an AdvisoryCommittee inquiry as to a factor that makesit difficult for American Indians to make thetransition from a school dropout to a schoolgraduate, Dr. Hunter said:

ao Ibid., pp. 160-61.

31 Ibid., pp. 164-65.

16

One of the things, we met with some representa-tives of the Native American community and one ofthe items that they presented was the primarycause was the disease of alcoholism. And we'reseriously looking at the impact of alcoholism on thestudents' persistence and how we might offer somesupport, both in terms ofin a variety of ways, ifthat is indeed thebut right now we're still lookingat that, is that, indeed, the primary cause or one ofthe primary causes. We have not factored it out,though, specifically beyond that at this time.31

04

Housing

As a part of its information sharing processof the community forum, the AdvisoryCommittee invited representatives of the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban De-velopment, Office of Fair Housing and EqualOpportunity (FHEO), to provide an overviewof filing complaints of housing discriminationwith FHEO and other related information.Aaron Levine and Stella Alejos representedFHEO.

Mr. Levine said his office investigates alle-gations of housing discrimination on the basisof race, color, national origin, religion, sex,familial status, or handicap.' He noted thatthe Fair Housing Act, as amended,2 prohibitsdiscrimination in the sale or rental of a dwell-ing, including the negotiation of terms, condi-tions, or privileges, and in the provision ofservices or facilities. It also prohibits discrim-ination in advertising that shows any prefer-ence or limitation or makes the premises un-available for showing, blockbusting andcoercion or other interference in a protectedindividual's rights, and discrimination in fi-nancing of housing.3

Mr. Levine said that persons who feel thatthey have been discriminated against shouldfile their complaints immediately after thediscriminatory act has occurred. FHEO is re-quired by law, unless it is impossible to do so,to conduct its investigation within 100 days.4

In outlining the procedure for filing a Federalcomplaint of housing discrimination, Mr.Levine said:

What is the procedure for filing a complaint andwho may file? The people who can file are aggrievedpersons, and those are people who believe theyhave been treated in a different way, in a differentdiscriminatory way from people who are not of theirparticular protected class or group. So, if you'reHispanic, you might allege that a non-Hispanic wastreated more favorably or that you were treatedless favorably when you were looking for housing,when yOu applied for a loan.5

After a complaint of discrimination has beenfiled, Mr. Levine continued:

We [FHEO] investigate the complaint. We willattempt conciliation. The first thing when you filethe complaint we establish jurisdiction. We maynot have jurisdiction. There's some complaints thatwe will not have jurisdiction for. But once we'veestablished jurisdiction we will contact the com-plainant and the respondent and send them initialletters notifying them that the complaint has beenfiled. They have the opportunity to respond. Every-body can have an attorney. All parties can have anattorney present, and the department is required,under title 8, to attempt conciliation throughoutthe process of the investigation. So we will period-ically attempt conciliation, try to resolve the com-plaint. Conciliation is a voluntary process. It doesnot go into the investigation, into our final in-vestigative report, which is the report that's

1 Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Community Forum on Race Relations inWestern Nebraska, Scottsbluff, NE, Apr. 28-29, 1993, p. 203 (hereafter cited as Transcript).

2 42 USC §13601-3619, 3621 (1988).

3 Transcript, pp. 203-12; see also, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Prospects and Impact of Losing State and LocalAgencies from the Federal Fair Housing System, p. 3, September 1992.

4 Ibid., 205.

Ibid., p. 203.

17

prepared at the end of the investigative process. Sowe do the investigation. We attempt to resolve it.If we can't resolve it, and conciliation is voluntaryand the people conciliating all would sign theagreement and then HUD would enforce compli-ance with the agreement.

As far as if the case does not conciliate what hap-pens then? Well, we do either a reason for cause ora no reason for cause determination, and we wouldrepresent the complainant in a reason for causedetermination either before an administrative lawjudge or in Federal district court.6

Ms. Alejos told the Advisory Committeethat from October 1991 to April 1993, HUDhad received 139 complaints of housing dis-crimination throughout the State. Of those, 59were investigated by HUD and 80 were inves-tigated under a work sharing agreement bythe Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commis-sion.7 As an example she said that 66 of thetotal complaints filed were administrative clo-sures. Ms. Alejos explained administrativeclosures as:

a failure to cooperate where the complainantandI'm referring to the complainants that filed theircomplaints, they just lost interest in their case, forwhatever reason, or we were not able to locatethem. They had moved and not notified us of achange of address, or maybe they withdrew theircomplaints. Sometimes, not always do complain-ants withdraw the complaints because they changetheir minds; but also maybe it's because they some-how settled with the respondent and that is whothe complaint is against, the name of the person isthe respondent. And so that way they may justwithdraw for that reason. So it varies for whateverreason they withdrew their complaints.8

6 Ibid., pp. 209-10:

7 Ibid., p. 212.

a Ibid., pp. 214-15.

9 Ibid., p. 216.

10 Ibid., p. 220.

Ibid., pp. 231-32.

18

Ms. Alejos noted that abort 45 cases wereconciliated, meaning that the parties agreedto settle the complaint. She said that in someof the conciliated capes, there may have beena cause finding against the person being com-plained of, but the parties agree to settle thecomplaint.9

One of the overriding concerns expressedby Advisory Committee members dealt withHUD's outreach efforts to provide informationconcerning housing discrimination to personsin western Nebraska. Mr. Levine said thatHUD provides brochures for that purpose.These brochures are made available to com-munity groups, real estate firms, or interestedpersons. These materials are written in En-glish and other languages.° When pressedfurther on HUD's outreach efforts Mr. Levinesaid:

We have not had people from headquarters comeout to the regions to see what the regional concernsare until this Secretary has been appointed and hassent out headquarters staff to eac' of the 10 re-gional offices in the country to get input and feed-back from employees, and it appears like headquar-ters may be more receptive possibly than it hasbeen in the past to suggestions from the regionaloffices. Sometimes what will happen is we willagree with you, you know, ye,s, it's very difficult toget through on this 1-800 number, and it's inade-quate and maybe we need more 1-800 numbers, ormore advertising, advertising on TV, whatever.And we might make that suggestion to headquar-ters, and whether or not they take action on it, youknow, .different reasons, will have different input.And they have to make the call at headquarters asto what they can do wivain the budget. But, youknow, call us collect. Call us direct. However, we'llbe out here after we talk today to take any ques-tions from anyone who would like."

25

Administration of Justice

Reaves Nahwooks, chair of the NebraskaCommission on Indian Affairs, generallyspeaking on the issues of race relations,

said that laws have been designed to makeAmerican Indians conform and accept waysthat are not consistent with their practicesand thinking.' He further related that somany community tensions that his agency hasdealt with resulted from deaths that haveoccurred which caused conflict among Ameri-can Indians and others.2

Mr. Nahwooks is concerned that:

Native American Indian people in Nebraska makeup eight-tenths of a percent of the State's popula-tion, and yet average 4.7 of the State's State prisonadmissions. Of the 56 Native American Indianssent to prison in 1991, 9 or 16 percent came from acounty with only six-tenths of a percent ofNebraska's population, and only 4 percent of theentire Native American Indian population in Ne-braska. The figures demonstrate four to six timesgreater numbers of Native Americans being sent toprison then might naturally occur.3

With those concerns of Mr. Nahwooks andthose expressed to the Advisory Committee asbackground informat'on, persons represent-ing the law enforcement arena were invited toparticipate in the community forum.

Ron Ehlers, the chief of police of Gordon,Nebraska, told the Advisory Committee thathe has five full-time positions for police offi-cers for a city population of 1,803 persons,including 222 American Indians and 40 His-panics. At the present time, the police depart-ment was operating with only four officers,including one American Indian, and reserveofficer.4

In 1992 police officers made 207 arrests,which included 66 white males, 104 AmericanIndian males, 4 Hispanic males, 10 white fe-males, and 23 American Indian females.5 Ofthe 207 arrests made, 156 of these involvedalcohol.6

The chief said:

One of the things that I do notice when we'redealing with the Native American population isthat the biggest share of our complaints come fromthe Native American community, and I would saythat the largemore than 75 percentI do nothave the exact figures, more than 75 percent ofthose calls are involved with alcohol. We work realclose with the NEPSAC, which is Northeast Pan-handle Substance Abuse Counsel, trying to do somediversion activities and get people involved in sit-uations where they can turn themselves aroundand avoid these situations in the future. A lot ofthese situations involve domestic disturbances andthings of that nature?

1 Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Community Forum on Race Relations inWestern Nebraska, Scottsbluff, NE, Apr. 28-29,1993, p. 285 (hereafter cited as Transcript).

Ibid., p. 286.2

3

4

5

6

7

Ibid., pp. 286-87.

Ibid., pp. 310-13.

Ibid., p. 312.

Ibid.

Ibid., 314-15.

2C

19

With respect to his department's relationswith the American Indian community of Gor-don, Chief Ehlers said that sometimes theyare better than others.8 He further stated:

The Indian community in Gordon does not seem tobe very well-organized in having any one or groupof persons that can speak for the Indian communityitself and come and talk to us. We usually deal withthem on a one-to-one basis and, if there's any ques-tions, we'll take the time to talk to them about whatwe can do and what we can't do. They understandsome of our limitations and, for the most part, theofficers get along well with the Indian community.There may be some problems, but usually we tryand iron them out, work them out, talk them out,make them understand why we're doing what we'redoing?9

Chief Ehlers said that if persons want to filecomplaints against the city's police officers,they can do so with the department, city man-ager, the mayor, or with the local humanrights commission.10 He said that over thepast 2 years there have been only about sixcomplaints filed against the police depart-ment. All complaints are investigated and thecomplainants are advised as to what, if any,action is taken against the police officers.11

Ted Vastine, the chief of police of Chadron,said that he has 12 sworn officers to police acity of 6,000. He said that the population is 90percent white and 10 percent of other ori-gin s.12 Overall, Chief Vastine believes that hehas a good relationship with the AmericanIndian residents. He said:

8 Ibid., p. 319.

9 Ibid., pp. 320-21.

10 Ibid., p. 332.

11 Ibid., pp. 329-30.

12 Ibid., pp. 337-38.

13 Ibid., pp. 345-48.

14 Ibid., pp. 339-40.

20

I feel that it's good myself, and I try to instill in myofficers that we treat everybody the same. We treatthem as human beings. We treat everybodyequally. We treat people the way we want to betreated in like circumstances. And, over the years,I've had several Native Americans come in and visitwith me about perception problems, things likethat. Nothing that they really want to make aformal complaint on, just wondering why this hap-pened, or why that happened. I try to sit down andtalk with them on that myself, plus there's thishuman relations council that we've established isanother place that they can air things out. I feel it'sgood. If it's not, and there's some problem, I'd beglad to sit down and talk with anybody and air outwhatever they feel isn't well within the police com-munity.13

With respect to citizen complaints of policeabuse, Chief Vastine said:

People can make complaints to myself'. I will havemy administrative assistant or my lieutenant dothe investigation. Since I have to make the deci-sion, I don't do the investigation. Whatever I rec-ommend, whatever comes down has to go to theCivil Service Board and they review that. We havea human relations council that meets once a month,so complaints could be aired there. They can go toany member of the city council. They can go to thecity attorney. They can go to the county attorney,so they don't really necessarily have to comethrough the police department. And the commu-nity being small enough, if you've got an officerthat's way out of line, it doesn't take too long forsomebody to really let you know about it, that youhave an individual Rambo-type style, if you wantto refer to it that way. We try to work closely."

2r

The Advisory Committee, however, raiseda concern that some American Indians believethat the Chadron Police Department targetsthem in terms of driving under the influenceof alcohol. Chief Vastine said, "I don't know ofwhat you're saying of any officer that's target-ing any individual. We may get one DWI ar-rest, one or two a month."15 He further relatedthat he does not allow his police officers tostake out bars to arrest persons for DWI.16

The Advisory Committee also expressedconcern that there have been allegations thatsome American Indians were harassed by thepolice in the local homeless shelters and thatAmerican Indian children were being threat-ened with guns by police because these chil-dren were on the street at dusk or dawn. ChiefVastine said that there may have been com-plaints due to a person's length of stay at theshelter, but that should be resolved when an-other agency takes over the management ofthe shelter. With respect to children beingthreatened, he said that he did not think hisofficers were involved in such incidents.17

Robert E. Jatczak, chief of the Alliance Po-lice Department, appeared before the Advi-sory Committee. He said that the city has apopulation of 9,765 of whom 5 percent are

15 Ibid., p. 351.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid., pp. 356-57.

18 Ibid., p. 360.

19 Ibid., pp. 360, 368.

20 Ibid., p. 371.

21 Ibid., p. 366.

22 Ibid., p. 367.

23 Ibid., p. 369.

24 Ibid., p. 372.

Hispanic, and 3 percent are American Indi-ans.18 The city is policed by a department of20 officers, including 2 females. All the officersare white.18

In 1992 the department made 1,043 non-traffic arrests, of which 638 were whites, 270American Indians, 103 Hispanics, 29 blacks,and 3 Asian Americans." Chief Jatczak saidthat in 1992 the department received severalwritten complaints against the departmentfrom the American Indian community. As aresult of the complaints, representatives ofthe American Indian community met with thecity manager, the chief of police, and some citycouncilpersons.21 During the course of themeeting it was suggested that the police de-partment conduct more training for its offi-cers. Several outside persons were brought inby the department to provide racial diversitytraining."

The American Indian community also sug-gested that the department increase its effortsto hire more minorities. Chief Jatczak saidthat his attempts to hire American Indianswere unsuccessful,' but he will continue towork with the community in his attempt tohire an American Indian police officer.24

2

21

Sunimary

T ike any area of the United States, racelirelations in western Nebraska can be im-

proved. As noted by some speakers at theAdvisory Committee forum, some steps arebeing taken by various agencies to be moresensitive to issues regarding race. By thesame token, there is the perception by somethat race relations are not good.

Cecilia. Huerta, the acting director of theNebraska Mexican American Commission,noted that housing discrimination was theagency's number one priority. She indicatedan interest in having her agency open an officein western Nebraska to represent the peopleof the area.

Reaves Nahwooks, chair of the NebraskaCommission on Indian Affairs said that todeal with race relations, his agency has devel-oped a 5-year plan to include health problems,education, employment, Indian civil andhuman rights, economic development, and thestructure of his agency is the agency's numberone priority. In an attempt to deal with hous-ing discrimination and other civil rights con-cerns, Mr. Nahwooks noted that the agencyshould have an office in western Nebraska toprovide information and advocacy services.

Some participants discussed the high drop-out rate of students in public schools and thelack of minority teachers. One participant pro-posed the creation of a task force of businessand civic leaders and educators to develop aplan to counter the high dropout rate.

Educators discussed programs that havebeen implemented to be more responsive tominority students. These include hiring ofAmerican Indian home-school liaison persons.Raymond Gonzalez of Scottsbluff was con-cerned about the dropout rate for Hispanics inpublic schools and the lack of Hispanic in-structors in public schools in Scottsbluff. Hesaid that the Hispanic community must do itspart to ensure that children attend schools.Mr. Gonzalez also proposed the creation of atask force to come up with a solution to reduce

22

the dropout rate. With respect to the shortageof Hispanic teachers, Mr. Gonzalez recom-mended the creation of scholarships for localHispanics who are interested in teaching sothat they would come back to the communityto be involved in the education system.

Steve Sexton, superintendent of the Chad-ron School District, described his efforts tobetter race relations. He indicated that anAmerican Indian home-school liaison personwas hired to increase contacts with parents.

Representatives of the Scottsbluff PublicSchools spoke of cultural and transitional lan-guage classes. They also reported that Amer-ican Indian students within the school districthave shared their life experiences with stu-dents of a school district that did not haveAmerican Indian students.

Jim Hunter, vice president for Student Ser-vices, Western Nebraska Community College,spoke of the school's work with a HispanicAdvisory Committee to infuse cultural activi-ties into the college's course offerings. He alsopointed out that the college was in the processof forming an American Indian advisory com-mittee to identify barriers to recruiting andretaining American Indian students.

Representatives of the U.S. Department ofHousing and Urban Development providedinformation on filing housing discriminationcomplaints. The Advisory Committee haslisted in appendix C agencies to contact to filevarious discrimination complaints.

In the area of administration of justice,representatives of various police departmentsin western Nebraska discussed procedures forfiling complaints of alleged police abuse.

All in all, the Advisory Committee hopesthat race relations will continue to improve inwestern Nebraska. The Advisory Committeebelieves that continued dialogue on race rela-tions is the key to progress. The AdvisoryCommittee will continue to monitor the prog-ress or the lack thereof.

Appendix A

WESTERN NEBRASKA LEGAL SERVICES, INC.

CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE106 S. JEFFERS

NORTH PLATTE. NEBRASKA 69101(306)6344357

Nebraska Wets 1400-662.2907

Roply to Scottsbluff

SorvIalosLegalos Wawoklyo"----

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICESWESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE

NINE EAST 15TH STREET. BOX 1365SCOTTSBLUFF, NEBRASKA 69361

1308) 632-4734

Nebraska Wats 1-800482-5113

July 22, 1992

EASTERN REGIONAL OFFICE207 WEST 3RD, A.O. BOX 1078

GRAND ISLAND. NEBRASKA 68801(306) 381-0517

Nebraska Wets 1-800-652.9800

A United Way Recipient

To Whom it May Concern:

Our group stands committed to resolve the existing problems of this

community. We will work to persuade elected officials to improveexisting laws and to see that any new laws consider the needs of our

community.

As a result of the injustices and unfair treatment of Indian people

by the City of Alliance, Box Butte County, Nebraska, we are forced tofile a list of complaints with the powers that control the Alliance

Police Department.

The following summary of statements of complaints have been taken

from the complaints of this community:

1. Police acting in a threatening manner when there is noevidence of wrong-doing, non-investigation of rumors;

2. No police reports filed at the time of incidents;

3. Unprofessional coruct of Police Officers;

4. Selective enforcement;

5. Lack of interest on response time when called;

6. Police don't run police check on non-Indian when involved atcrime scene;

7. Why is 5gt. Rae Ann Christensen so interested in young Indianpeople;

8. Refusal to take Indian complaints;

9. Harassment of Police Officers;

10. Unprofessional conduct;

11. No response to Indian complaints;

J2. , Unlawful use of force;

13. Police brutality;

3G23

24

Letter of Concern

Page 2 of 2

14. Unlawful arrest;

15. Discrimination of Indian people;

16. Unfair treatment;

17. Failure to render aid to injured person;

18. Unlawful entry of Indian person's property; and

19. No search warrant.

We respectively request that these complaints be investigated andresolved; and that a formal report be made to the Alliance City Counsel,City Manager, and to the appointed representative of the IndianCommunity, Connie Stairs of Alliance, NE.

Signed:

tdrilEI'VAh"-) (4711-2ri

Art'DATESTEVE J 'ATE

TH

E A

LLIA

NC

E

TIM

ES-

HE

RA

LV

OL

. 106

, NO

. 34

AL

LIA

NC

E, N

EB

RA

SKA

FRID

AY

, JU

LY

10,

1992

TH

IRT

Y-F

IVE

CE

NT

S

Pl3

tive

Am

eric

ans

Pro

test

Alli

ance

Pol

ice

Act

ion:

Cou

ncil

Aut

horiz

es S

ales

Tax

Exp

endi

ture

By

TO

M H

UD

DL

ESO

NT

imex

-Har

ald

Man

agin

g E

dito

r

AL

LIA

NC

EO

ver

sixt

y pe

ople

atte

nded

the

the

Alli

ance

City

Cou

n-ci

l mee

ting

Thu

rsda

y ev

enin

g, o

ver-

flow

ing

from

cou

ncil

cnam

bers

into

the

hall

and

nece

ssita

ting

that

som

evi

ew th

e pr

ocee

ding

s on

tele

visi

on in

the

conf

eren

ce r

oom

.O

ver

half

thos

e pr

esen

t wer

e pa

rtof

a d

eleg

atio

n of

Nat

ive

Am

eric

ans

led

Con

nie

Stai

rs, o

n ha

nd to

pro

.te

s.-t

at th

ey a

llege

is s

yste

mat

icha

rass

men

t of

Indi

ans

by th

e A

llian

cePo

lice

Dep

artm

ent.

Ms.

Sta

irs

char

ged

that

"It

's a

l-w

ays

the

Indi

ans

that

are

arr

este

d,"

alle

ging

that

whi

tes

and

Nat

ive

Am

eri-

cans

are

trea

ted

by d

iffe

rent

sta

ndar

dsfo

r th

e sa

me

offe

nses

.Sh

e to

ld th

e co

unci

l tha

t Ind

ians

have

bee

n re

cogn

ized

by

the

Supr

eme

Cow

l as

U.S

. citi

zens

sin

ce 1

952,

and

that

the

Indi

an c

omm

unity

rif

Alli

ance

is n

ot o

nly

a co

mm

unity

, but

con

sid-

ers

itsel

f pa

rt o

f th

e la

rger

com

mun

ityan

d ex

pect

s eq

ual t

reat

men

t.M

s. S

tair

s al

so n

oted

that

som

e of

the

Indi

an f

amili

es in

tow

n ha

ve lo

ng-

stan

ding

feu

ds, a

nd s

he c

harg

ed th

atso

me

of th

e ne

wer

Alli

ance

pol

ice

offi

cers

app

ear

to h

ave

take

n si

des

inth

ese. Sh

e sa

id th

is is

a v

ery

dang

erou

ssi

tuat

ion

and

thos

e pr

esen

t in

ha d

ele-

gatio

n di

dn't

wan

t to

com

e to

the

coun

cil,

but t

hey

felt

it w

as n

eces

sary

to s

how

that

they

wer

e se

riou

s, th

at

they

wan

ted

som

ethi

ng d

one

befo

rdso

meo

ne b

ecom

es b

adly

but

"We

are

mem

bers

of

this

com

mu-

nity

," M

s. S

tair

s sa

id, a

.klin

that

the

grou

p di

dn'tv

antto

go to

then

torn

eyge

nera

rsol

liceo

rthe

U.S

.CK

Rith

isC

omm

issi

on w

ith it

s co

mpl

aint

s."W

e w

ant t

o ge

t som

ethi

ng d

one

thro

ugh

you,

" sh

e to

ld th

e co

unci

l.Sh

e al

so p

rese

nted

a s

heaf

of

wha

tsh

e sa

id w

as d

ocum

enta

tion

of p

olic

eha

rass

men

tT

he d

eleg

atio

n sa

t in

atte

ntiv

e si

-le

nce

thro

ugho

ut M

s. S

tair

's p

rese

n-ta

tion

and

May

or E

va K

nigh

t's r

e-

The

may

orm

ayor

gra

ciou

sly

wel

com

edth

e gr

oup,

not

ing

how

dif

ficu

lt it

Is f

orm

any

citiz

ens

to v

oice

thei

r op

inio

nsin

the

form

al c

ounc

il se

tting

.

"I s

alut

e yo

u fo

r be

ing

here

," s

hesa

id. Mrs

. Kni

ght a

dded

that

the

publ

icha

s a

mis

perc

eptio

n th

at th

e po

lice

depa

rtm

ent i

s di

rect

ly r

espo

nsib

le to

the

city

cou

ncil,

whe

n in

fac

t it i

sre

spon

sibl

e to

the

city

's C

ivil

Serv

ice

Com

mis

sion

.

Arr

ange

men

ts w

ere

mad

e at

this

time

for

Ms.

Sta

irs

to p

rese

nt h

erco

mpl

aint

s an

d ev

iden

ce to

City

Man

ager

Lyl

e L

acy

and

City

Atto

r-ne

y L

eo D

obto

voln

y an

d be

gin

the

form

al C

ivil

Serv

ice

Com

mis

sion

hear

ing

proc

ess.

The

del

egat

ion

left

with

ass

uran

ces

from

the

may

or th

at th

e co

mpl

aint

sw

ould

rec

eive

ser

ious

and

fai

r co

nsid

-er

atio

n.

3B

ES

T C

OP

Y A

VA

ILA

BLE

App

ropr

iate

s S

ales

Tt

Fun

dsT

he c

ounc

il ap

prov

ed, 5

.0, t

hepr

over

554

0,00

0 fr

om th

e D

ebt R

.Fu

nd (

City

Sal

es T

ax)

to c

over

budg

eted

exp

ense

s as

soci

ated

rsp

ecif

icat

ion

chan

ges

man

date

dth

e N

ebra

ska

Solid

Was

te A

ct a

ndU

.S. E

nvir

onm

enta

l Pro

tect

Age

ncy

in c

onne

ctio

n w

ith th

ela

ndfil

l.T

his

carn

e ab

out u

nder

the

of th

e fi

rst r

eadi

ng o

f R

esol

uuun

45, a

war

ding

the

old

land

fill

c/o:

and

the

open

ing

of th

e fi

rst c

ell o

fne

w o

ne to

lam

es E

. Sim

on o

f N

IPl

atte

in th

e am

ount

of

S1,5

42,7

29O

ther

bid

ders

wer

e H

erbe

rt C

stru

ctic

in o

f A

ntri

m, S

1,85

4.50

7,St

rong

Con

stru

ctio

n of

Sot

tshl

51,9

97.9

20.4

0.T

he lo

w a

ccep

ted

bid

wa

sore

ra

mill

ion

high

er th

an th

e °r

igen

gine

er's

est

imat

e, o

win

g to

nst

ring

ent r

equi

rem

ents

mai

nly

Lem

ing

how

muc

h im

perm

eabl

eha

s to

be

used

in c

appi

ng th

ela

ndfi

ll to

ens

ure

agai

nst g

roun

d %

%co

ntam

inat

ion.

The

city

man

ager

had

pre

pare

dse

para

te f

inan

cing

app

roac

hes

to

CD CO

33

26

etpoci-"I'

Mr-Herald, Saturday, July 11, l55 -11A

REGION

Alliance Indians presscharges against police

. .anesent that kr Aillanea's dty laity to prepare an iiiifitional

By MARY MUM .-manager form ofgovernment; the amendment to the budget before

Regional Correspondent . council has no jurisdiction over itsthird reading July 30 to call for

the police' department She cell- the fauna of warrants to supply

ALLIANCE --.... The Alliance rred the =Plaint to the .Ctvil additional funding thr the city's

Native American communitythecommission, represented sin mintooloodall project.

ThpackedursdalCitoti preeCmcileat cliargesthambersof .-1,:geristr97.dfle LIVedbYatrCtrAttoreliaa-erlaltellislaggestcnolledlon4prostelfrsedthe

harassment against the Alliance Leo Dobrovobry. ..Police Department **Stairs told the -Star-Herald eluinglendfill dtheconstructiVetts ar of ee:

Connie Stairs, a member of the Friday that she he made an sp- eie.aere disposal ad, u well asboard for the American .Indian *infarct to meet with Lag sad pram et some wag equip.Council, presented a book of 40written 'complaints to- the; City DannYcatY ThnradaY to annual ment However: additional Ell'

coma. Stairs raid arefors di noloPlainit Alliance Pollen .* vironmental Protection Agency

:net rhfatnak b,adbutn° el,' :requirementto

haveciaddedpreproject.

,

include that police have IdclW charges sat bedown doors without warrants, would review the compiairdemith

the CM Service Commission.'The council asked that finding

made arrests without evidenceand took sides in Indian family In other -icon. the council kw the $540,003 overrun on the

conflicts. ... proved emeedmeou to the city. -landfill improvements come from :

Stairs said she had spoken to budget on second raiding, shay- thecity's

debt service thnd. whichthe chief of police and the county ing sn additional $3,300 trom a. II underwritten by a 1 percentattorney, but received no saris- penditures. The council approved et° sales tan' rather than I°.

diction. increases to support the Box crease collection rates againso

"Something must be done be- Butte Development Center, Al- am'fore someone gets hurt," Stairs rianee clean community 'system, The council awarded the bid for

said. Retired Senior Volunteer Pre- the landfill improvements to

About 83 people, bait of whom pain, softball field improve- James Simon of North Platte dr

were Native Americans, attended meat. city salaries and vehicle $1,542,721 Lacy described the new

the meeting fleets. landfill a: "absolute current state

Mayor Eva Knight said she had They also voted reductions to of the art," while the mayor

not seen the list of complaints, police vehicle requests, golf called the collection system

but she was aware of a problem course equipment and an oper, "wonderfully efficient, but not

between the police department sting fund transfer to the street ver9 accountable

and the Indian community. Sind. She urged citizens to reduce,

Knight told Stairs and those The council also instructed reuse and recycle.

3 4

TH

E A

LLIA

NC

E

TIM

ES-

. HE

RA

LD

. Rod.T

HIR

TY

-FIV

E C

EN

TS

The

n Il

scyc

leV

OL

. 106

, NO

. 48

ALL

IAN

CE

. NE

BR

AS

KA

MO

ND

AY

, JU

LY 2

7,19

92

Vat

ive

Am

eric

ans

Unh

appy

With

Inve

stig

atio

iB

y T

OM

RU

DD

LE

SON

Tim

es-i

lent

id A

tam

est &

lbw

AL

LIA

NC

E A

del

egat

ion

from

Alli

ance

's N

ativ

e A

mer

ican

com

mu-

nity

, led

by

Con

nie

Stai

n, c

ame

away

from

a M

onda

y m

omin

g m

eetin

g w

ithC

ity M

anag

er L

yle

Lac

y un

happ

y w

ithhi

s in

vest

igat

ion

of th

eir

com

plai

nts

agai

nst t

he A

llian

ce P

olic

e D

epar

t-m

ent a

nd v

owin

g to

see

k le

gal r

e-co

urse

in a

dif

fere

nt v

enue

.'T

o ge

t som

ethi

ng d

one,

we

need

to g

o ou

t of

tow

n,"

Mrs

. Sta

in s

aid,

addi

ng th

at s

he b

elie

ved

the

grou

p's

lay

wou

ld b

e co

ntac

ting

the

Ne.

...a

Atto

rney

Gen

eral

's o

ffic

e,L

acy

had

been

inve

stig

atin

g co

m-

plai

nts

rust

bro

ught

by

a la

rge

grou

pof

Nat

ive

Am

eric

ans

to th

e I u

ly 9

city

coun

cil m

eetin

g.A

t tha

t tim

e, c

harg

es w

ere

mad

eth

at th

e A

llian

ce P

olic

e D

epar

tmen

tsy

stem

atic

ally

har

asse

d In

dian

s, a

r-re

sted

Ind

ians

and

allo

wed

whi

tes

togo

fre

e w

hen

they

wer

e In

volv

ed I

nlig

hts,

bro

ke d

own

door

s w

ithou

t

war

rant

s an

d w

ire

gene

rally

pre

ju-

dice

d to

war

d In

dian

s.A

t tw

o su

bseq

uent

mee

tings

In

whi

ch L

acy

met

with

Mrs

. Sta

irs

and

c sm

alle

r gr

oup

of I

ndia

ns, L

acy

was

aske

d to

foc

us h

is in

vest

igat

ion

whi

ch w

as to

dec

ide

if th

e ch

arge

sm

erite

d a

full,

for

mal

hea

ring

of

the

Alli

ance

Civ

il Se

rvic

e C

omm

issi

onto

dis

cipl

ine

an o

ffic

er o

r of

fice

rson

the

rela

tions

hip

betw

een

one

offi

-ce

r an

d th

e Sh

elle

y Pi

cket

Pin

flin

tily.

The

off

icer

in q

uest

ion

was

Sgt

.R

ae A

nn C

hris

tens

en, w

hom

the g

roup

char

ged

with

usi

ng h

er p

ositi

on a

s a

polic

e of

fice

r to

inte

rfer

e w

ith a

ndha

rass

the

Pick

et P

in f

amily

.M

onda

y m

orni

ng L

acy

issu

ed a

five

-pag

e "m

emor

andu

m o

f fi

ndin

g,"

base

d on

app

roxi

mat

ely

seve

n ho

urs

of ta

ped

inte

rvie

ws

with

She

lley

Pick

etPi

n, S

gt. C

hris

tens

en, C

hris

Ann

ePi

cket

Pin

, 20,

and

Gre

g Pi

cket

Pin

,15

. The

rep

ort d

etai

led

a fo

rmer

ly c

lose

rela

tions

hip

betw

een

the

Pick

et P

inan

d C

hris

tens

en f

amili

es w

hich

has

For

mer

Alli

ance

Res

iden

tK

ills

Wife

, Tur

ns G

unO

n S

elf

SCO

ITSB

LU

FF,N

eb.(

AP)

A C

ount

y Sh

erif

f's d

eput

ies

and

mnn

eilf

+t h

ue f

a lo

!in

N.,

.1,..

11rt

t,to

rs

3r_

appa

rent

ly r

ecen

tly g

one

sow

.A

ccor

ding

tet L

acy'

* re

port

, Chr

isA

nne

Pick

et P

in a

nd h

er d

augh

ter.

Ash

ley,

res

ided

in th

e C

hris

tens

enho

me

for

abou

t thr

ee I

nced

ts.

Gre

g Pi

cket

Pin

was

als

o a

fre-

quen

t vis

itor

ther

e, r

egul

arly

took

mea

ls th

ere

and

so n

etim

e:4

stay

edov

erni

ght.

Mrs

. Pic

ket P

in a

t one

tim

e ha

d a

clos

e re

latio

nshi

p w

ith S

gt. C

hris

-te

nsen

, hav

ing

a ke

y to

her

hou

se.

borr

owin

g m

oney

fro

m h

er a

nd u

sing

her

phon

e to

rec

eive

col

lect

pho

ne'c

alls

fro

m a

noth

er s

on. D

a vi

& w

ho

BE

ST C

OPY

AV

AIL

AB

LE

was

in p

riso

n.L

acy'

s re

port

not

es, '

The

re is

an

appa

rent

out

stan

ding

pho

ne b

ill o

wed

by S

helle

y to

Chr

iste

nsen

in th

eam

ount

of

$150

. At t

his

poin

t in

time

that

deb

t may

be

a so

urce

of

disa

gree

-m

ent b

etw

een

the

two.

"T

he r

epor

t goe

s on

to s

ay, '

Tw

oev

ents

occ

urre

d in

Apr

il 19

92 th

atap

pear

to b

e in

stru

men

tal a

s a

brea

k-w

ater

inth

e re

latio

nshi

p be

twee

n th

efa

mili

es. O

ne w

as a

n ac

t of

vand

alis

mby

Gre

g in

volv

ing

a dr

a sl

ashi

ng o

nA

pril

3.T

he s

econ

d oc

curr

ed a

wee

kW

ee o

n Fr

iday

. Apr

il 10

, whe

n O

reg,

follo

win

g an

arg

umen

t with

I

mot

her,

file

d a

polic

e co

mpl

aag

ains

t her

for

abu

se. T

he w

eeke

ndth

e co

mpl

aint

for

abu

se, G

reg

vas

sign

ed b

y th

e co

urt r

epre

sent

atto

the

Chr

iste

nsen

hom

e fo

r te

ml

racy

cus

tody

. On

the

follo

win

g M

(da

y, S

helle

y Pi

cket

Pin

pro

test

ed'a

ssig

nmen

t to

Soci

al S

ervi

ces

are

gist

ered

a c

ompW

nt w

ith th

e Po

lC

hief

reg

ardi

ng C

hris

tens

en's

crta

ct w

ith h

er f

amily

...."

The

rep

ort f

urth

er n

otes

that

"II

(Con

tinue

d on

pag

e 10

)

Native Arrericans(Continued from page 1)

peripherally related matter..." ChrisAnne Picket Pin had requested assis-tance from the Alliance Police De-partment regarding a tercristk threatand witness tampering complaintagainst Schuyler Dawn.

Dawn has been present as a mem-her of the Native American delega-tion at all three meetings with Lacy.

Lacy's report is slightly critical ofOfficer Christensen in only one as-pect: "One of Shelley Picket Pin'sspecific complaints was that Chris-tensen had purchased tobacco prod-ucts for Greg who is a minor. BothGreg Picket Pin and Christensenconfirmed that this was true.Christensen's explanation was thatGreg had been smoking since he wasapproximately Wall years old andthat she believed if she did not providehim tobacco products he would se-cure them elsewhere, specifically 'onthe streets,' and would continue to beinvolved in the trouble he had previ-ously experienced. Christensen ad-mined that the decision was poorjudgement but believes it was, fromher perspective, the lesser of twoevils."

Lacy's report concluded with asection entitled "Findings" and an-other entitled "Recommended FutureActions."

The "Findings" states that Sgt.Christensen was motivated by com-passion and caring, and her Involve-ment in this regard was not in hercapacity as an Alliance Police Officerbut as a well meaning friend, neighbor

hatr44 TiEtiatt m-itetatimwozawv

28

and second family for Greg."Lacy's report recommends that a

neutral third party mediate betweenthe Picket P and Christensen familes to"work through those disapee-ments aid resort some degree ofmutual trust. However, it is believedshat no reconciliation will or shouldpermit a return to the circumstances//here Greg spent a good portion ofhis time in the Christensen home."

The report concluded. "A numberof other complaints presented to boththe City Council, at the July 9th meet- .

ing, and in struemaits presented to dreCity Manager warrant full review andinvesdptica and, if founded, appro-prim action. That investigation is ;currently underway."

In the repot and verbally at theMaeda), meeting. Lacy informed thedelegation that an appeal to the fullCivil Sulfite Commission was thenext step if the delegation wanted to

Hesugg thosecomplaintsbe made as specific as possible and ;'bathe group use theservices of Steve tJanis, a Native American paralegalwith Western Nebraska Legal Serv-t-iices.

The meeting Monday was chase- 1wised mostly by stony silence, as the'Native American delegation read 'Lacy's report and that sat withoutsaYint anrhinfr

Mrs. Stairs did the very little talk-ing that was done by the Indians at the

mSitti ng.

cordially and graciouslythanked Lacy for his time and effort,but said the never expected him to befair.

"You are close to your peoplehere..." she said, "...we knew you'dback her up..."

She added that she did not thinkLacy should continue his investiga-don of the dozen or so other corn- tiplaints against the Alliance Police t;Department because she expected theresults would be the sane.

Mrs. Stairs also said that her grouphad been frustrated in trying to file acontributhg to the delinquency of aminor complaint against Sgt. Chris-tensen with the county attorney forbuying tobacco for Greg Picket Pin.

She told the city manager that sheintended to have an outside agencyinvestigate the Native Americans'complaints.

-Nebraskai istoJuly 27

1877 -Custer County was organ-

oofi MI le RI.The NYSE's commit* Wax a at la howl

<worm stocks toss M Ice 2213.71. At e*Arnariesn Stodc Exchavo, to market velaIntan au down 34 at *Lit

Warne on the Big Bawd our. io 77.SAtram shams at own. aoarat 7554 maw attoo woe oont Fader

3 7

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

1111717M

Appendix C

MU 1 t I cu 1 tura"' Curx, I cu 1 um

Chadron School District has identifiedmulticultural education as a district-wide outcomefor outcome-based accreditation. In developingcurriculum scope: concepts: and materials: a surveyof existing applicable eleMents was completed atall grade levels, and within all subject areas.The summary materials from that survey areattached.

3c

29

CHADRON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

3C30

4

GRADE

KINDER-

GARTEN

Ssyer

Clark

AFRICAN AMERICAN

HISFAUtG AMERICAN

M.L. King books Weekly

Resdet discussion

S.I. :Washington

/pictures, stories,

Weekly Reader

Weekly Reader

NATIVE AMERICAN

ASIAN AMERI'

e.g.

MU

SIC

Mexico Unit- -

tapes, films, books,

prints, music,

seasonal

Amigos- -food

Corduroy

Unitfilm, study paper,

books, speakers, food

Speakers

Eskimo Unit

Indian Unit--Thanksgiving

Songs

Dances

FIRST

Gilman

Gramberg

Norse

Zahn'

Clausen

M.L. King looks

African American Rooks- -

video, Basal

G.W. C

- -book,

literature, tradebook

Tubman

Weekly Reader

Jimmy Lee - -Basal pg.150

Trade books

Literature

Foods

books- -trade

Thanksgiving Dinner

Speakers

SECOND

Dierksen

Schumacher

Chaney

Dagen

BasalGloria. pg. 58

jmitge, p8.129

Jamestownbooks, film

strip

M.L. King Book- -work-

sheet, discussion

Choral reading

Weekly Reader

News, looks

Week/4 Reader

BasalJosephint, pg.3j

S:S. Text

Speelter

Jamestown -- books, film-

strip

Weekly Reader

Unit - -Sioux Art

looks

Theme Unit--Scholastic

BE

ST C

OPY

AV

AIL

AR

E

Unit -- Japan. Hawaii

!looks

Chinese New Year

Songs

Dances

Weakly Reader

Basalal Mat, ps.198

looks

41

Songs

Dances

GRADE

THIRD

Reynolds

Stepson

Moody

Nikolas

FOURTH

Ftorke

Fiercy

Schmidt

Brooks

LIBRARY

4 2

AFRICAN AMERICAN

HISPANIC AMERICAN

NATIVE AMERICAN

ASIAN AMERIC

P.E.

Basal--Patchwork, pg.42

Basel--Horse, pg.154

Keepers of the Earth

Origami

Guest Speaker

Basal -- Origami, pg.I10

Mufaro, pg.173

Cinco de Mayo

Books

Speakers

Books

Weekly Reader

Library Unit

M.L. King

Books

Weekly Reader

Book Unit

Arts, Music

Yeh Shen. PR.141

Haiku

S.S.--China

Book--Sadako Crane

Basal--M. Anderson, pg)62

BasalClements

Grandparent Daystudy

basal --Estof 3 Year 11,

Justin, pg.441

Unit -- Christmas Around

legends, grandparents,

pg.131

They Lead the Wily--women

the World; La Placed.,

display heritage items

Christmas Around the World

M.L. King--play

71-1Walriood, tasting,

VideoBenny'. Flag,

Story--Year of Boar and

Posters

map, flags); week unit

Alaska

Jackie Robinson

Biographies

Mexican Independence Day

Books

Chinese

Year

Unit--King; books, play,

poetry, week unit

Cinco de Mayo

Nebraska Days

8 week Unit

Plains Indians and legends

Writing styles- -haiku

Origami

Weekly Reader

Food from geographicel are

Books

What's in the News--t.v.

Nebraska Day

Writing

Ditto sheets

Maps, artwork

Food

Nebraska Day

Speakers

Folk Tales

Posters, Xerox materials

Ast

rono

my

Trickster Tales -- all

Trickster Tales -- all

Trickster Tales -- all

Trickster Tales -- all

BE

ST

CO

PY

AV

AIL

AB

LE

MUSIC

A

Songs

Dances

Songs

Dances

Zen C

Weavi

Sand

43

CHADRON MIDDLE SCHOOL

33

:* E. 7 1--a-..t

c.../.44...) r 71-4/

:11.101-CULTURAL INFO

Special Ed:Program on how it feels.to be Lb. CroppDiscuss negatives used ire. our:everyday language.Discuss Indian Holiday's brid-CUstorns as they come up on the calendar.DitcuSs ethnic holidayt as they appear on the calendar.Encourage those of ethnic bickgrounds to share their customs and

culture with the class.

5th Grade:Weekly Reader:The Weekly Reader current events articles often involve multi-cultural awareness and the needs of disabled individuals. In thefifth grade classrooms. we teach one_period a week with the WeeklyReader in either of the subject areas of Science or Social Studies.

Reading:Novels read by the class, House of Dies Drear,, and Roll of Thunder.Hear My Cry, are both stories of black families. They deal withprejudice, segregation, etc. These are discussed in class and arerelated to our minorities in our area and their/our problems withdiscrimination, prejudice, etc.

Books read to the class:Number the Stars about Jews in DenmarkThe Star Fisher Chinese AmericanUnderground Railroad black family noving to Ohio

Language Arts:Native American points of view are discussed as they relate to ourreading and writing of fables, f olklore,etc. Nancy Swiftbird readsand discusses z book, Who Speaks for Wolf, with the class.

Music:Jazz Unit Black American contributions.Negro SpIrituals.

34 4'5

--------

Science:Voyage of the Mimi:The Science 9 Week unit Voyage of the Mini introduces the students

to a crew of seven; one is old, one is young, one is black, one is

Spanish and one is deaf. The students are introduced to sign

language, observe a deaf crew member communicate.With other crew

members; and we visit Gallaudet College,'a liberal arts college for

the deaf, by video.

Heal theChapter 1 of the text covers different races and prejudice.Follow My Leader a blind boy with a seeing.eye dog story.

Social Studies:Unit One deals with American people.Unit Two deals with early explorers, Chinese,Viking, P.ortuguese,

Spanish,.and the Indian tribes in North and South America.

Unit Three and Four Deal with other explorers English, French, Dutch,

and the American Indian.

6th Grade:

Reading:The Read Magazine which is read each week often deals with multi-cultural issues.

Literature:Uses books such as;A Wrinkle in Time emphasizes relations with people who are

"different."Cooperative learning promotes working together regardless of

culture.Discussions stress tolerance, understanding & acceptance of all

cultures.

Social Studies:Constant comparison of the different cultures.we are studying to our

culture arid the ones we've already studied.Most of the units cover the contenents and the people that live there.

4t35

Home Econorrsics:I. Personal Development Unit- individual family heritage.2. Child Development Unit- special needs or disabilities of children

you may babysit for.3. Aids Unit.* Access to a handicap kitchen lab unit

Math:Cooperative learning promotes goad relationships betweenstudents of different cultures.

Science:We incorporate how various-cultures viewed the world and hoWdifferent areas are dealing with the earth's enviornmental problems.

7th Grade:Geography:Each unit deals with a culture other Shan the U.S. covering a widerange of divergent cultures = especially, but not exclusively, those ofthe 3rd world, urban vs. rural, western & eastern etc.Every unit covers a range of cultures.

36

Computers:In computers we discuss using computers to help people withdisabilities. We talk about using computers for communication. Howblind people use computers is discussed. Also we talk about roboticsend disabilities.

English Reading:The students read a variety of multi - cultural novels:About the Bnai Bagels (Jewish)Outsiders (eastern U.S. ganglife)Pigman (N.Y. - probably mentally handicapped man)Number the Stars (Denmark during Nazi occupation)Shiloh (Virginia back - country story)Canyons (New Mexico & Native American Cultures today & in the 19c.The students often read novels that depict people with special needs

4

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

& with a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Math:Maya Math deals with base 20 used by the Maya people.

Science:We cover a 9 week Program Voyage of the Mimi II, in which thestudents are introduced to a black and a Meitigan scientist. They arealso made aware of disabilities with the scuba diver who lost a legto cancer and she shows the students how to put the artificial leg on.The text also introduces in each chapter a new career in which avariety of cultures are represented.We also discuss many famous scientist that are from a variety ofcultures.

Home Economics:I. Food and Nutrition Unit- Italian foods.* Access to a handicap kitchen lab unit

8th Grade:American History:The incorporation of various cultures is brought about through thestudy of each period of U.S. history. Notable individuals arediscussed as they fit into a particular period. The course looks atAmerica as being a diverse country which has gone through changes,

both good bad, with regards to different groups of people. There isa focus on the strength of this country coming from this diversity.There is no "minority group of the week" approach which is a veryinsensitive way of dealing with this topic.

Spanish:Promotes understanding of Hispanic Culture. Also deals withappreciation of citizens of all cultures by emphasizing theimportance of language and social values of different countries.

Home Economics:1. Family Relationship Unit- individual family heritage

4E37

- special needs or disabilities of family members tit how thateffects the family as a whole.

2. Food and Nutrition Unit- Interdisciplinary unit with Mrs. Graywhich

includes preparing tacos from a Spanish recipe.* Access to a handicap kitchen lab unit

Science:In Earth Science we discuss where it is pertinent how the use ofvarious earth materiels are or have been used by other cui-Lures.We incorporate how various processes on Earth have affected areasof the world and played a role in the culture of an area.

Health:Mental HealthTeenageTobaccoAlcoholDrugs

38

4J

CHADRON HIGH SCHOOL

5039

MULTI-CULTICAL AWAAENESS

CHADRON HIGH sm.

DEVELOP

KNOWLEDGE

CF CU-1M.

GROUPS

PROUTE

RECOGNITICN

CF'CLLTURAL

DIVERSITY

PRCVCRE

ATTITUDES

CF ACCEPTANCE

lb/8.AP

ANTI-BIAS

SKILLS AND

BEHAVICRS

GRADE

LEVEL

DESCRIPTION

APPLIED ARTS

XX

XX

X9-12

DISCUSS FOOD CULTURES; RELATIONSHIP

WITH OTHERS; KIRK AREA DISCRIMINATICN

IFE NEED FOR ALL 10 WORK AS A TEAM;

DISCUSS UNDERSTANDING RELATIONSHIPS,

COPMUNICATICN SKILLS, AND PROBLEM SOLVING

.

TECHNIQUES; UNDERSTANDING DIFFERING

BACKGROUNDS; UNDERSTAND JCS INTERVIEW

CUESTICNS CONCERNING RACE, CREED, ETC.;

UNDERSTANDING OVERSEAS JOBS, FOREIGN

'

BUSINESS; AND REALIZING FOREIGN ETICtETTE.

FINE ARTS

XXX

XX

7, 9-12

MUSIC AWARENESS THROUGH VIDEOS,

LECTURES, MJSIC LISTENING

EXAMPLES; ART HISTORY THROUGH

THE EYES CF VARIOUS CULTURES;

GENDER SENSITIVITY; THE CHANGING

RCLES CF CULTURAL ARTISTS.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

XX

XX

9-12

CULTURAL AWARENESS THROUGH NOTES

DISPLAYS, VIDEOS, AUDIOS, TEXTS,

WORKBOOKS, REPORTS, TELEPHONE

CONVERSATIONS, AND ACTIVITIES;

RECOGNIZING AND ACCEPTING

DIVERSITY HY INCREASING KNOWLEDGE.

r kJ

J1B

ES

T C

OP

Y A

VA

ILA

BLE

LAN

GU

AG

E A

RT

Sxx

koc

xx9-

12DISCUSSING FICTIONAL BIASED SITUATIONS

AND APPLYING REAL WORLD SITUATIONS;

UNDERSTANDING BIASED BEHAVIORS;

UNDERSTANDING HCW TO ACT IN AN

ANTI-BIASED MANNER; READING MULTI-

CULTURAL WORKS; RESEARCHING FAMILY

BACKGROUNDS FOR CULTURISM;

DISCUSSING SEXUAL BIASES; TRYING TO

GAIN AN U1DERSTANDING OF MAT IS

REQUIRED IN ANTI-BIASED BEHAVIOR;

WRITING REACTICNS; DEBATING RIGHT

CR WIRCNG IN BIASED BEHAVIORS;

READING, DISCUSSING, AND REACTING TO

WORKS; PROMOTING NON -BIAS ATTITUDES TOdARD

ALL CLASSMATES.

MA

TH

EM

AT

ICS

9-12

AWARENESS CF DIFFERENT CULTURES

THROUGH STORY PROBLEMS; PROMOTING

GENDER ANTI-BIAS IN MATHEMATICS;

ACCEPTANCE CF MINORITIES IN "TYPICAL"

WHITE MALE ROLES; PRCMOTICN CF "ATTITUDES

CF ACCEPTANCE" IN INTERPERSONAL. PEOPLE SKILLS.

SC

IEN

CE

S9-

12PRCMOTICN CF SCIENCES FOR MINORITIES;

AWARENESS CF OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL.

SO

CIA

. ST

UD

IES

9-12

COMPUTER WORK, LECTURES, OUTSIDE

INFORMATION, AND CURRENT EVENTS COVERING

MULTIPLE RELIGIONS, LANGUAGES, ARCHITECTURE,

DIETS, ETC.

SFECIAL EDUCATION

9-12

READ, DRAW, DISCUSS AND RESEARCH VARIOUS

BOOKS, STORIES AND BOARD DISPLAYS.

54J

GUIDE FOR FILING DISCRIMINATIONCOMPLAINTS WITH FEDERAL AGENCIES

REGION VII

1. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)911 Walnut Street, 10th floorKansas City, MO 64106Phone: (816) 426-5773

Areas: Employment/Disabilities/Age/Equal pay

2. U.S. Department of Education/Office of Civil Rights10220 North Executive Hills Blvd.Kansas City, MO 64153Phone: (816) 891-8026

Areas: Education - Elementary, Secondary, Post Secondary

3. U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesOffice of Civil Rights601 East 12th StreetICansas City, MO 64106Phone: (816) 426-7277

Areas: Access to Social Services

4. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentGateway Tower II400 State AvenueKansas City, KS 66101-2406Phone: (913) 551-6993

Areas: Housing, Rentals, Bank Loans

5. U.S. Department of LaborOffice of Federal Contract Compliance911 Walnut StreetKansas City, MO 64106Phone: (816) 426-5384

Areas: Employment, Wage and Hour

U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTSCentral Regional Office911 Walnut Street, Room 3103Kansas City, MO 64106

OFFICIAL BUSINESSPENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE, $300