Newspapers / The Carolina Indian Voice … / June 28, 2001, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of The Carolina Indian Voice (Pembroke, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Way I See It by Dr. Dean Chavers, Native American Scholarship Fund For the past 200 years the federal government has had its way in Indian Country. Despite efforts by the congress to hold the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and the other agencies accountable, there has been no accountability. Consequently, if the Chairman of the Seminole Nation does something the BIA agency head did not like, the Chairman is removed from office, This actually happened in 1982. If a person the BIA does not like, such as the AIM leader Vernon Bellecourt, runs for and wins a tribal office, the BIA simply invalidates the election, which has also happened. if the Chairman of the Wichita Tribe finds a slush fund the BIA has created out of the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) and the Indian Monies from the Proceeds of Labor (1MPL) accounts, and exposes the existence of the slush fund, he is kicked out of office. This actually happened to the late Newton Lamar. (Luckily, Newton had the money to hire an attorney, who promptly sued the BIA in federal court. The judge ordered the BIA to restore Newton to office, and he held this office until his untimely death several years ago.) This is the kind of power the BIA has and uses in Indian Country. They are not afraid to let everyone know who should "win" an election. They have no fear of creating huge slush funds out of monies they manage for individual indians. For the first time, an individual Indian person has sued the federal government for accountability and won. The lawsuit started six years ago. The government's appeal was rejected by a higher court earlier this year. So it looks as if the government will finally be held accountable for many billions of dollars it has mismanaged for Indian people. Recently I met the lady who started and won the lawsuit. Her name is Elouise Cobell and she is from Browning, MT. For 13 years she was the treasurer of the Blackfeet Tribe. In that role she got to know first hand what happened to payments from individual allotments, including her own, at the hands of the BIA. When I told Elouise she was mv hero, she blushed and laughed. "No, it's true," I told her "You have done something no one has ever done before." We talked about how my friend and hero Newton Lamar was treated by the B1A after he exposed the slush fund in the Anadarko Area Office. She knows of many other cases similar to that one. After being treasurer and learning how the Bl A system works (actually, it doesn't work), Elouise felt she had to take some action. She started a letter writing campaign, and wrote to every Congressman trying to get some solutions. Nothing happened. Then she met with Attorney General Janet Reno, and still nothing happened. Finally she got so fed up she filed the lawsuit. She is one claimant in the lawsuit; there are 500.000 other Indians who are parties to the lawsuit, Elouise Peoin Cobell el al vs. Bruce Babbitt el al. It is a class action lawsuit, the largest one ever filed in Indian Country. The case has already been decided in favor of the Indian plaintiffs, appealed by the government, and won by the plaintiffs on appeal. The defendants in the lawsuit are the Secretary of the Interior and the Assistant Secretary of Interior for Indian^ Affairs, as well as the Secretary of the Treasury. At the time the lawsuit was filed. Bruce Babbitt was the Secretary of the Interior and Ada Deer was the Assistant Secretary. Robert Rubin was the Secretary of the Treasury. What is involved is huge in concept. It is the management of Indian lands, what is on the lands, and what is beneath them. Since Indian tribes own about 25% of the nation's reserves of oil, coal, natural gas, geothermal energy, and similar resources, the amount or money involved is staggering. The time period in question is the whole time the BIA and the Treasury has been managing Indian lands- almost a century. At one point, the trial judge, Royce Lamberth, held both the Interior Secretary and the Assistant Secretary in contempt of court for not producing the records he ordered them to produce. They could not, in fact, produce the records because in most cases the records do not exist. The BIA ended up hiring two private companies about five years ago to go through and computerize the millions of records that existed. That work is still underway in Albuquerque. The BIA in its dealing with individual Indians treated them as their vassals and the BIA officials were their kings. In a real sense this was the nature of the relationship. The only problem with that is the USA is supposed to be a democracy, with no kings around. Elouise related to Winona LaDuke on an article in Indigenous Woman magazine last fall how her aunt and the aunt's husband had to wait out side ihe BIA office all day in the cold of winter (the BIA would not let them wait inside) trying to collect their lease money. At the end of the day they were told they had to come back the next day. When they came back the next day they were told the BIA had no money for them. They were told to come back in the Spring. When they came back in the Spring they finally got their lease money. But they had made several trips to the agency on horseback before it happened. "I remember saying to myself that one of these days when I get smart enough I am going to try and fix that," Elouise said. One thing that really bothered Elouise was that the oil companies that were producing on Bl'ackfeet lands went over ten years without making a royalty payment to the tribe or to individual Indians. "The BIA doesn't have an Accounts Receivable System," Elouise told Winona. "That is why the oil companies can get away with not paying." "Not only had the Bureau grossly undercharged for many of the leased interests (i.e. grazing rights at five cents an acre versus S20 and acre or so), the Bureau had no idea what had happened to the money. We don't know how much should be in the IIM money. But at least $500 million runs through these accounts annually, meaning a minimum of $10 billion is owed to the Indians." When the. truth is known, some of the BIA folk may go to jail. They used the IIM. IMPL, and tribal trust funds for illegal and unauthorized purposes- things only they know about now. But since the Cobell lawsuit has been upheld at every appeal level short of the Supreme court, in ( time the BIA wjll at last be held accountable. Attention ^#?9 Diabetic Patientsz^^Q^^ you hava Modlcara or PrWata Inturanca, You may ba allglblaWfl to raealva your jjrgar Cost To Free 1-888-466-2678 Oiabatlc Supply Program Ino HMO patlanti, piaata.) (|j^)MESTEAj^) Ainrricci Rr??denruJ Mon<afc Source ] Ginger B. Waltman Loan Officer 5511 Capita] Center Drive Suite 104 Raleigh, NC 27606 Office 919.816.9394 Fa* 919 816.939! Pager 800.290.5199 Toll Free 877.816.9394 rfome Office 919.550.6367 4811 F&yetteville Rd. (910) 739-3323 Lumberton, MC 28358 ? ? OnOMCINC Y CAP?C KT R. John I. Adams, O.D. Katharine S. Harris, O.D. Charles L. Clark, O.D. Carolyn Marks, Licensed Optician Family Practice and Contact Lenses ''^Medicine Shopped David Hester, R.Ph. 1C2 N. Patterson St. Maxton, NC 28364 On the corner of Patterson and Martin Luther King (910) 844-3100 The Pharmacy That's All About Your Health*4 BAD, BAD CREDIT? Credit Problems? Bad Credit Record? I can help you... Call SMITH SPECIALTIES 803-494-4477 r?? Purnell Swett I Sales Associate C^, Dorothy Essey & Associates f 113 South Howe Street Southpon.NC 28461 Business (910) 454-2896 Fax (910) 4571102 Toll Free 1-877-410-2121 ,g_ Home (910) 8454)637 l??' Email: pumell(a>t2 lesscy tom EachOffice IndependentlyOwncdandOperated _______ Ho ftCtlce Ihjur /id On H&oi S/mzcc 521-2226 0-. contc btf t6c (?,<xioiuuz indian 0.'-.:x (?,oCicqc T^Ca^a. T^cndi-xoKe >j Trophies Are Us - Chftj for every occasion * Wadding Annivenaiy Baby Sbowtn And much mora. ^V, O n arl ^ i T> , 11 -1 v/wllff. wC*TlCw DrOwii Union Chapel Rd, Pembroke, NC (910)521-022$ Trophic* * Ptaqoet * Engraviap Robeson Family Practice Associates Herman Chavis, M.D. * Kenneth E. Locklear, M.D. Myra D. Hall, M.D. * Rajesh Sakala, M.D. Barbara Graham, PAC 1002-C East 4th Avenue. Red Springs, NC 28377 Telephone 843-3311 OFFICE HOURS (Monday thttr Triday ;8:00 am u?til-5:00 pm SAaf? Ann SK^noi, CKonager Casuflfggrf^ 0i thtlofl Owarf (Pofttf 1?1 ' i&? ciVwfcrofc*. <JC 28372 ^s>< si ' ' ? ' 9Pft?Wi <910)521^*22 " ' * v . >Drr?s?. SWrl Qmtt. g??ni, Afrf i <KJ/i Cfo'K*? ' ' "<C' ' :=: ' * "Telamon Corporation" Employment & Training Empleo & Entrenamiento Suite F Margie Atkinson 220 Wintergreen Dr. Regional Manager Lumberton, N.C. 28358 YouolsDetialist OFFICE: 910-671-0504 Youth Specialist 910-671-0518 Maria M. Trejo FAX: 910-671-0190 Field Service Clerk Work: 738-5530 Home: 739-1314 Greg Bell Attorney at Law 431 N. Elm Street Lumberton, NC 28358 (Located directly across from the Courthouse) E^IRST AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS The Carolina Indian Voice Newspaper HHH Connee Brayboy 3 P.O. Box 1075 Pembroke. N.C. 20372 (919)521-2826 (919)521-4611 Oflice Home ^ tlamt "simet c tot/liny "?oa HARLEY DAVIDSON TOMMY HILFIGER LADIES DRESSES & PANTS SUITS REG. A PLUS SIZES 206 UNION CHAPEL RD. PEMBROKE 521-6516 Native American Sprinklers Installing Lawn ^Sprinklers at Reasonable Rates Call (910) 521-4611 or (910) 827-0327 Collins and Sons Milling Co., Inc. 4083 Old Red Springs Road Maxton, NC 28364 Owners: James Harold Collins Larry Collins Phone: 843-4084 Pembroke Family Practice Center Martina Dockery Belfield, MD Denis Ricard, PA-C Maxine Blue, FNP 410-D South Jones Street, Pembroke 910-521-4462 .Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 7 pm CHARLENE'S CUTTING EDGE HAIR SALON 703 West Third St. Pembroke, N.C. 28372 (910) 521-7888 Owner: Charlene Bledsole tND CAP CLUTTER- < With Our Cap Racks ,?-?i 10 Cap Rack *2" H '1?? (?6h) , on* ?3" .V^HF 1 -888-568-2039 o?5L. < CALVIN'S CAP RACKS 1902? Road 168 >; Strath mora. CA 93682 D?41?' I Inquiries /MourWao S>tt?wwwy?to-p*e**-p*e.ct? WtlOOrne ? f?W1?rd S?4\tm Vie. ??e?ory) Need Dirt? U Haul We Load! Sand and Clay $3.00 per yard! Call: 734-9307 or 734-1345 Parkton Family Medical Center Herman Chavis, M.D. William Sanderson, M.D. Kenneth E. Locklear, M.D. Arnold Kinley, P.A. 15 West 3rd Street Parkton, North Carolina 28371 m Telephone 858-3913 OFFICE HOURS: ; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 8 a m. - 5 p.m. * Thursday 8 am -1 pm %
The Carolina Indian Voice (Pembroke, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 28, 2001, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75