============================================================ Thinking about selling your home within the next 5 months? Don't gamble with the biggest transaction of your life! Use HomeGain’s free service to find & compare local Realtors®. http://click.topica.com/caaafvYb1ddNBb2HgmNa/HomeGain ============================================================
http://www.escribe.com/culture/native_news/m24047.html Dear Elders, Sirs, and Madams: I wish to introduce myself. My name is Peter James Nickitas. I am a lawyer in St. Paul, Minnesota. I represent Mr. Michael O'Neill, 57, enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Anishinaabe (Chippewa), in a public accommodations discrimination lawsuit against Applebee's in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin in Madison. Mr. O'Neill has one form of photo identification, his tribal identity card. He does not drive. On the 14th of November, 2000, Mr. O'Neill, his wife, Sarah, and his son's fiancee, Tina Miner, went to the Superior, Wisconsin Applebee's. Mr. O'Neill was sober and well-behaved. Applebee's does not dispute this. Mr. O'Neill ordered a brandy. The served carded him. This was very odd, because he had a 56 year-old face. I need also to say that Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill were wearing Red Lake Band jackets when they walked in. Mr. O'Neill handed his tribal identity card to the server. The card has his name, his picture, his date of birth, his social security number, his enrollment number, the band's logo, height, weight, hair color, and eye color. The server brought the card to the manager. The manager ordered her not to serve Mr. O'Neill, because Applebee's does not honor tribal ID's. She returned the card to Mr. O'Neill and told him he would not be served a brandy. Mr. O'Neill and his party left. They went to another restaurant down the street, Grizzly's. Mr. O'Neill got a brandy there without being carded. Mrs. O'Neill called Applebee's that very day to complain. The employee informed her that Applebee's carded everyone "who looked under 40". Mr. O'Neill came to me the next day, or the 16th. I signed him up as a client, and prepared a discrimination complaint for him for the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division. I filed the complaint. Then I tested Applebee's "card everyone who looks under 40" policy. I sent one blond, blue-eyed Caucasian male, age 44, and one 39 year-old Caucasian male to Applebee's to order drinks. Both look much younger than Mr. O'Neill. Neither one was carded. The Equal Rights Division found probable cause for discrimination. In discovery, I got Applebee's corporate policy on carding. Applebee's accepts driver's licenses, state ID's, U.S. Armed Forces ID's, and passports from any country. The list does not have tribal ID's. Applebee's offered a nuisance settlement. Mr. O'Neill withdrew his request for an administrative hearing, so he could sue the case out in federal court. He sued out the case as a case for both damages and a class action to prohibit Applebee's from refusing to honor tribal ID's at any of its 1286 restaurants -- 285 directly owned and 1,001 franchised. I brought a motion to certify the case as a class action. Applebee's opposed it vigorously. Applebee's opposition is truly sickening -- I sum it up like this "Let them be white". So far, however, Mr. O'Neill's is the only case I have of discrimination against an enrolled member of a First Nation because of his tribal ID card. That is the big weakness of the case. I need to present more instances of discrimination against members of the First Nations, particularly refusals to honor tribal ID's, to make it easier for Judge Crabb to certify the class action. Any instances of discrimination which you know of can help. The wooden statue cases would be very helpful; I find them as offensive as African-American jockeys in front of rich white peoples' clubs and houses. Let me provide a few references who can vouch for what Mr. O'Neill and I are doing -- Kurt Bluedog, Esq., and Andrew Small, Esq., attorneys at Bluedog, Olson, and Small in Minneapolis, 952.893.1813, and Chris Spotted-Eagle, a journalist, [EMAIL PROTECTED], and secretary of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. The story of this case appeared in the Duluth News-Tribune on the 4th of July, 2001, on page 1A. It has also appeared in the Milwaukee Journal and the Superior Daily Telegram. Your assistance I will deeply appreciate. I hope to hear from you again soon. I am cc-ing my client, Mr. Michael O'Neill. Very respectfully yours, Peter James Nickitas 28 Orme Court Saint Paul, Minnesota 55116 651.699.1864 ============================================================ YOU SPEND TOO MUCH ON MONITORS MonitorsDirect saves I.T. managers money by skipping two middlemen. >>> Click here to learn more, and get the free Monitor Field Guide. http://click.topica.com/caaafJvb1ddNBb2HgmNf/MonitorsDirect ============================================================ Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate Clemency for Leonard Peltier. Sign the Petition. http://petitiononline.com/Release/petition.html ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1ddNB.b2HgmN Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
