THE $48.9 MILLION SALAZAR TRUST SETTLEMENT ISSUED TO ENROLLED MEMBERS LIVING ON THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE RESERVATION WHILE OFF-RESERVATION MEMBERSHIP WAITS TO HEAR IF THEY WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE SETTLEMENT DISTRIBUTION
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT IN THE WORKS
RECALL ELECTIONS ARE NULLIFIED AND DECLARED VOID BY SRST ELECTION SUPERVISOR ELLIOT RHOADES AND SRST - ACTT PREPARES TO FILE A WRIT OF MANDAMUS IN SRST TRIBAL COURT
STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE - ACTIVE CITIZENS FOR TRIBAL TRUTH (ACTT) MEET WITH SRST CHAIRMAN CHARLES MURPHY
10-16-12
L TO R...FRONT: SHARON KARY, KATHY DANCING BULL-BUFFALO BOY, DIANE GATES; BACK: BOB GATES, VALERIE WOLF NECKLACE, CHAIRMAN OF SRST, CHARLES MURPHY, ARCHIE FOOL BEAR, AND RHEA MARTINEZ ARCHAMBAULT
PHOTO CREDITS: DEBORAH LAVALLIE
By Deborah LaVallie
The $48.9 million Salazar Trust Settlement awarded to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for U.S. Government mismanagement of their lands and resources spanning over a 100 year period was distributed by the reservation districts during the past week to on-reservation tribal members in varying amounts, and while some received $10,000 per capita payments, others received lessor amounts, causing controversy and dissension among tribal members. Off-reservation membership are still waiting to hear if they will be included in the per capita distribution, and many have been told it is highly unlikely.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe - Active Citizens for Tribal Truth, SRST - ACTT members met with Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Charles Murphy in his office at tribal headquarters on Monday morning, October 8, regarding the Recall petitions of three SRST Council members, Avis Little Eagle, Phyllis Young and Jay Taken Alive, and the way that the tribal election supervisor, Elliot Rhoades has handled the Recall election and hearing, including the intimidation and verbal abuse of petitioner, Rhea Martinez Archambault. Other Recall petitions are also in the works with signatures being gathered for Council members Duane Claymore, Sharon Two Bears, Ron White and Ron Brown Otter.
That same morning the ACTT group along with their attorney had been to Tribal Court prepared to file their response to Associate Judge B.J. Jones' Denial of the Preliminary Injunction they had filed freezing the $48.9 million Salazar Trust Settlement, only to find out their names hadn't been put on the Court Docket. Their attorney, Don Bruce has since filed their response also requesting that Associate Judge B.J. Jones recuse himself from the case on the grounds that he is prejudiced or bias in favor of the Defendants, the SRST Tribal Council, as they are his employer. The group is still waiting to hear back from the Court.
Archie Fool Bear, spokesman for the SRST - ACTT for on reservation members stated, "This is going to end up being a class action lawsuit, due to the discrimination of the off reservation membership. This was a 'special' settlement, and all enrolled members should have been included, a one time settlement that everybody could have enjoyed a 'share of', and, is different from the gaming revenues and JTAC. The Judge 'allowed' the tribal council to discriminate, here." He stated that even though the Recall election has been declared null and void the issue is not 'moot'. "We filed our response to the SRST Tribal Council's Motion to Dismiss, and also a Motion for a Stay, and for Judge B.J. Jones to recuse himself from the case." He said, "As for the Recalls, Elliot Rhoades made a decision on his own, and has produced a poorly written statement at that. Our attorney is preparing to file a Writ of Mandamus with the Tribal Court that will direct the tribal election office to do their job." "The issues that Rhoades based his nullification on have already been addressed and the next step will be a hearing," he said. "Allegations of threats made by Rhoades in his statement are completely unfounded. No actual threats were made, documented or filed anywhere."
The ACTT Appeal is based on the belief that there were many factual and procedural errors made during the hearing of September 21, when the Court 'fast tracked' and consolidated the Wolf Necklace case with the Fool Bear - Dancing Bull- Buffalo Boy case. On Appeal they argue that they were not afforded due process and the matter was 'fast tracked' to accommodate the tribal council's immediate need to spend the Salazar Settlement funds and this sort of accommodation raises suspicions of a bias or prejudice on the part of the Judge. They also allege that council members met with the Special Judge in a closed-door session just days prior to the hearing. The Appellants allege the Legislative process of approving budgets was not followed, that there were significant misstatements made, possibly perjury, depriving all enrolled tribal members an opportunity for true participation in the budgetary process and denying the membership basic due process rights and that denial of the temporary injunction in favor of the Council spending the Salazar settlement funds goes against the spirit of the SRST Constitution. The checks and balances of the SRST Constitution dictates that a court should error on the side of the people when interpreting constitutional provisions limiting governmental powers. Finally, the Appeal will challenge the concept and interpretation of separation of powers. Fool Bear stated, "It is the SRST Council that has violated the separation of powers principle by preventing the Tribal Court from performing its constitutional duties. How can there be a 'true' separation of powers when the Council is the Judge's employer and issues his paycheck?"
After the Tribal Council meeting on Wednesday, September 10, the issue of distribution was passed back to the districts, and Fool Bear believes that by doing this the Council escaped their responsibility to the people. "They took a monkey off their backs and now the districts will be following Title 20 which states that you have to be a resident of the district for 30 days minimum. By using the districts to make that decision, the Council through the districts discriminated against their own people, the off-reservation members."
SRST - ACTT leader and organizer, Sharon Kary, also a former SRST Tribal Judge and tribal court administrator stated, "Judge B.J. Jones should have put a Stay on the monies, instead he denied the injunction. It was his job to interpret what the laws were according to the tribal code. He erred and according to the tribal code he should have erred on the side of the people, instead of the tribal council. They failed to prove that they took the 'actual' budget out to the people. He just believed what the Council said, stating in his decision that it was a 'political question' that should be resolved at the ballot box."
Kary said that the Recall Election will be the first time in tribal history that a Recall has ever happened at Standing Rock. "Nobody has ever stood up to the tribal council before." She encourages the people to speak out now, that if they don't they are part of the problem. "ACTT has support on the reservation and enormous support of thousands of tribal membership who live off the reservation. When the petitions were taken out, Valerie Wolf Necklace went to Minneapolis and spent a week there sometimes sitting on the streets gathering 153 signatures that week. Besides a chapter in Minneapolis, chapters have started up in Denver, Portland, Rapid City and Montana and Texas."
Kary also believes that when talk of the Salazar Settlement first started, the issues should have been taken out to the people for discussion instead of some secretive Council plan, and that it was the people's right to know in the first place the impact this settlement would have on the tribe as a whole. This did not happen. Other tribes are holding back on deciding how to distribute their settlements, waiting to see how the distribution issue is settled at Standing Rock.
Kathy Dancing Bull-Buffalo Boy questions, "When the council accepted Salazar, what did they actually give up? We as a Tribe can't sue anymore for the government's mismanagement of our lands and resources. It was not the people's choice. The Council didn't take it out to the people for discussion and it was just those people on the tribal council that made the decision." She said, "The Council did not inform the people what the Salazar Settlement was all about and many confused it with the Cobell Settlement. This Settlement was about our land, resources, and our leases and U.S. Government mismanagement."
As an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and an organizer for SRST-ACTT Active Citizens for Tribal Truth Minneapolis branch, Velma Little Eagle Balderas feels the exclusion of non reservation members from receiving the distribution of the $48.9 million Salazar Trust Settlement is not only discrimination, but also an illegal distribution of the funds that should have been equally and fairly distributed to all members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "I personally feel this generation, has no real Lakota traditions, values and virtues. This is why we were left out. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council has no idea of what our lives are like, off the reservation. Nor do they understand the Lakota kinship system. We have a strong traditional belief, "Mitakuye Oyasin", meaning "All my Relatives".
She states that in the early '70's' when AIM was very strong in getting recognition for Native peoples and their issues, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was recognized as one of the very strongest Treaty Councils, and that the American Indian Movement held their AIM convention at Chief Gall Inn by Mobridge (SD). The Tribal Chairman at the time was Melvin White Eagle and Vice-Chairman, was Pat McLaughlin. "The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation was a very strong tribal nation on human rights and protected all of their Standing Rock tribal members", she said.
Little Eagle Balderas states that the Oyate (people) in the cities have a very high cost of living and that most of the large Tiwahe's ( families) are on fixed incomes. They fall behind in their rent or utilities when they have to buy their children clothes for school or have a family emergency such as a death or illness and have a hard time catching up and because there have been a lot of foreigners moving into the cities, the churches and other resource outlets get depleted of their emergency funds to assist with rent, utilities, food banks and free clothing. "So, we go without. Many of our Oyate have ended up in homeless shelters or on the streets" she said. "The Ojibwes, Mystic Lake and others are now telling us to go to 'your' tribal Nation for help." "We've been told that Standing Rock is the only tribal Nation that they are aware of that is not helping their Oyate." They have said, "Your Tribe has no shame at the way they treat their relatives."
"We off reservation members represent our Standing Rock Tribal Nation with the utmost respect and honor." Little Eagle Balderas was a Lakota language and cultural instructor for 26 years at UND and in Minneapolis and is now retired, putting in her spare time working as an advocate and member of SRST - ACTT for the Standing Rock Tribe off reservation enrollees in the Twin Cities area. "There are more than 1,000 enrolled members of the SRST living in the Minneapolis St. Paul area and about 8,000 members of SRST who live off the reservation, which is about one half of the tribal membership. We really need satellite offices for the Standing Rock off reservation enrollees." She also questions the way the Tribal Council uses each and every enrolled member's name and enrollment number when they solicit federal funding, such as the 638 contracts. "Between the years of 1997-2009 the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe received almost a half a billion dollars in federal funding, not including funds received from the BIA, IHS, SBC, casino revenue and the irrigation project. This is not fair. The off-reservation membership does not benefit from these funds."
Being taught her Lakota language and traditions in the Rock Creek (SD) community on Standing Rock, and also learning about her revered ancestor, Tatanka Iyotaka, Sitting Bull, she believes in the teachings of the 'Old Ones'. "Mitakuye Oyasin - All of my Relatives, means we are related to everything in life. We are related to all Nations, which is why we allowed Columbus to enter our lands and welcomed him. This concept is very crucial to our existence as a tribal nation," stating, "As the Oyate come to the Cities, they look for relatives, so they will have a place to stay, sleep, eat and shower. It is very sad, that our on reservation relatives do not have the same hospitable feelings, and they have publicly shown it by the way they have handled this Salazar Trust Settlement," adding, "Even on the reservation, some of our relatives have been disqualified from receiving the settlement payment as there was an application process that some members weren't aware of, and when they went to apply for the distribution, they were refused."
She said, "I feel real bad for the off reservation Oyate and for my family. We weren't greedy, we were needy. This is really sad and I actually feel sad for the tribal council people turning their backs on their own people. Life is a very sacred circle, like the phrase, 'what goes around, comes back around'. This has affected the future of our Seventh generation, the Wakanyejas - the children. There should have been a plan to put money in the children's IIM accounts to be disbursed when they reach 18 years of age. This tribal council is nothing like the council of the White Eagle days. This tribal council is insensitive, indifferent and couldn't care less about their people. And his Honor, Judge Jones has really hurt our people with his decision when he denied the injunction freezing the settlement funds, until the whole issue was resolved, because everything they did was illegal."
"WE WEREN'T GREEDY....WE WERE NEEDY" VELMA LITTLE EAGLE BALDERAS ...Discussing the off reservation membership of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
The above chart documents the federal funding the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe received from the years 1997-2009, which the SRST Tribal Council manages, also called 638 contracts and doesn't include BIA, IHS, SBC, the revenue of the casinos or other tribally-owned entities such as MRI, SRHA and the irrigation project. These figures are published by the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. For further information click on the above link and type in Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
