The company that wants to export coal to Asia through ports in Washington and Oregon has an agreement with the Crow Tribe that would supply more coal than is consumed in the U.S. each year.
BILLINGS, Mont. — The U.S. government approved plans by a Montana Indian tribe to lease an estimated 1.4 billion tons of coal to a Wyoming company that’s moving aggressively to increase coal exports to Asia, the company and tribe announced Thursday.
The deal between Cloud Peak Energy and the Crow Tribe involves more coal than the U.S. consumes annually.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) approval allows Cloud Peak to begin exploration work on the Crow reservation.
Cloud Peak has pending agreements to ship more than 20 million tons of coal annually through three proposed ports in Washington and Oregon. Officials in both states oppose the port projects on environmental grounds, but federal officials said earlier this week they planned only limited environmental reviews of the projects.
Cloud Peak CEO Colin Marshall said preliminary work on the so-called Big Metal coal project — named after a legendary Crow figure — has begun. The company says it could take five years to develop a mine that would produce up to 10 million tons of coal annually, and other mines are possible in the leased areas.
The Crow Tribe’s coal reserves are within the Powder River Basin, which accounts for about 40 percent of U.S. coal production. Cloud Peak paid the tribe $1.5 million upon Thursday’s BIA approval, bringing its total payments to the tribe so far to $3.75 million.
Future payments during an initial five-year option period could total up to $10 million. Cloud Peak would pay royalties on any coal extracted and has agreed to give tribal members hiring preference for mining jobs.
The company also will provide $75,000 a year in scholarships for the tribe.
Crow Chairman Darrin Old Coyote said in a statement that the project is a high priority for the impoverished tribe’s 13,000 members. It revives longstanding efforts by the Crow to expand coal mining.
A $7 billion coal-to-liquids plant proposed in 2008 by an Australian company never came to fruition.
The three members of Montana’s congressional delegation — Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, and Republican Rep. Steve Daines — issued statements supporting the new agreement. They said it offers a chance to increase job opportunities on the 2.2-million-acre reservation along the Montana-Wyoming border.
Aboriginal peoples are a growing percentage of Canada’s population, but the poverty rate for children is being called ‘staggering.’ (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
Amber Hildebrandt, CBC News
Half of status First Nations children in Canada live in poverty, a troubling figure that jumps to nearly two-thirds in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, says a newly released report.
“The poverty rate is staggering. A 50 per cent poverty rate is unlike any other poverty rate for any other disadvantaged group in the country, by a long shot the worst,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and co-author of the report.
The study released late Tuesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Save the Children Canada found that the poverty rate of status First Nations children living on reserves was triple that of non-indigenous children.
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 62 and 64 per cent of status First Nations children were living below the poverty line, compared with 15 and 16 per cent among non-indigenous children in the provinces.
Poverty rates among status First Nations children are consistently higher across the country.
Co-author Daniel Wilson cautions that for many of them, “the depth of the poverty … is actually greater than the numbers themselves tell you.”
“Imagine any typical First Nations child living on a reserve,” said Wilson, a former diplomat and policy consultant on indigenous issues. “They’re waking up in an overcrowded home that may have asbestos, probably has mould, is likely in need of major repair, that does not have drinking water and they have no school to go to.”
The study is based on the 2006 census, the most recent data to provide a detailed portrait of poverty among all Canadians, at least until more of the 2011 census is released. The annual survey of labour and income dynamics typically used to assess poverty rates excludes those living on reserves.
The report notes that on-reserve First Nations children who are under federal jurisdiction fare far worse compared with indigenous children — Métis, Inuit and non-status First Nations — under provincial jurisdiction. For the latter group, the rate of poverty was 27 per cent, twice that of their non-indigenous counterparts.
That figure aligns closely with the poverty rate experienced by first-generation immigrant and refugee children, which sits at 33 per cent, as well as by visible minorities, which is at 22 per cent.
“Some of these differences in child poverty appear to be a matter of jurisdiction,” the report notes.
Provinces provide social services to Métis, Inuit and non-reserve First Nations, while Ottawa is responsible for funding social services on reserves.
Funding outpaced by population growth
But as the report notes, transfer payments from the federal government to reserves have been capped at a two per cent increase since 1996, making no allowances for the growth of population or needs.
“So if you have larger levels of poverty than you did in 1996, there’s no way for you to change the income supplement structure,” said Macdonald. “It’s a major constraint in terms of actually trying to deal with some of these issues.”
Lifting all the indigenous children up to the poverty line would cost $1 billion, while $580 million of that would suffice for 120,000 status First Nations alone, the study says.
“This is a situation that is developing. It has yet to be fully developed, so you’ve got kids that are going through very high levels of poverty, but if we take action now, these are things that could be rectified,” said Macdonald.
Save the Children Canada’s spokeswoman Cicely McWilliam said the organization became interested in studying poverty among indigenous children in Canada because it is currently building programs to work with the communities.
“Save the Children generally speaking works with the most marginalized wherever we work, the kids who need the most help,” said McWilliam.
Currently underway are three programs:
Helping parents establish better bonds with infants, something that has been weakened by residential schools.
Helping reclaim traditional languages that are increasingly being forgotten.
A peer-based model to combat high rates of suicide.
For now, most of the work is being done with the Kenora Chiefs Advisory, which represents seven communities in northern Ontario.
“We’re in the building phase for all of these and we hope to have national programming both for development and for emergencies in the future,” said McWilliam.
About 426,000 indigenous children live in Canada, with most residing in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, B.C. and Ontario. The indigenous population is one of the fastest growing in Canada.
Tribal leaders stood on stage last week in Chicago, where the announcement of first-ever, historic wind energy initiative on Tribal land is expected to bring new life and livlihoods to chronicly impoverished reservations in South Dakota.
Last week at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative, hosted by the City of Chicago, former President Bill Clinton and leaders from six Sioux Indian tribes announced a new wind-power initiative that will harness South Dakota’s greatest natural resource and spur long-term development in the economically depressed region.
Clinton Global Initiative America is an annual event that brings together leaders from the business, foundation and government sectors in an effort to promote economic growth in the United States. The tribes’ initiative comes at a time when renewable energy investment is increasingly a national priority. Through the project, the tribes stand to infuse up to $3 billion directly into the South Dakota economy, an amount roughly equal to the impact of the entire manufacturing sector in South Dakota in a given year.
The planned project could generate 1-2 Gigawatts of power annually. Measured conservatively, that’s more than enough power to electrify the homes in Denver, Colo., for the next 20 years, the typical useful life span of the wind turbines.
The majority of the project’s funding will come through the sale of bonds by a multi-tribal power authority. The bonds are expected to be available to investors in about two years, following a critical planning and preparation stage.
In separate but related news, Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes of the Interior for the Obama administration discussed efforts under way to implement a tribal land buy-back program with reporters on a conference call Tuesday afternoon.
Hayes was joined on the call by Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, who provided details on the next phase of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program or BBP), including launching pilot efforts to establish cooperative agreements with tribal governments.
The buy-back program implements the land consolidation provisions of the $3.4 billion Cobell Settlement, which will funnel $1.9 billion into a trust land consolidation fund to consolidate fractional land interests across American Indian property. Background information from the Department of the Interior (DOI) said allotments of land provided individual American Indians in the 19th and early 20th centuries have grown to hundreds and even thousands of individual owners, which makes leasing or developing the parcels difficult.
The result, as former US Sen. Byron Dorgan of South Dakota confirmed in an exclusive interview with Allvoices following DOI’s earlier announcement, is that highly-fractionated allotments lie idle, unable to be used for any economically beneficial purpose.
As Dorgan, who now co-chairs the Arent Fox Government Relations practice and who helped negotiate the Cobell Settlement said, when one person in 2,000 or even 10,000 people can disagree, thereby killing any hope of affiliating land for purposes of economic development, moving forward is hard.
Hayes, who will be leaving DOI soon and said he was proud of his role in helping settle and implement the Cobell Settlement, told reporters that all legal questions have concluded as of last November and that opening the door to implementation now of the $1.5 billion of settlement funds for the BBP itself will be used to purchase fractionated interest so land is available for tribal use.
Historical problems caused the land to be locked up and unusable, but Hayes said 220,000 individual owners on 150 reservations will be impacted by Tuesday’s announcement. Based on fair compensation on a “willing seller basis,” Hayes said the federal government will turn land back over to the tribal nations.
From “government to government” is how Hayes phrased the new relationship between the US government and the six Native American tribes covered by the settlement, a level of respect tribal leaders have waited a long time to realize.
It will take 10 years to spend down the $1.9 billion in settlement funds, Hayes said, adding that it’s his expectation to initiate purchase offers by end of the year. Within the next three years or by the end of the Obama presidency, Hayes believes the BBP will be well on its way to spending down and returning millions of acres of land to tribal control.
The lawsuit and its settlement resolves claims that the federal government violated its trust duties to individual Indian trust beneficiaries, including not providing a proper historical accounting relating to IIM accounts and other trust assets, mismanaging individual Indian trust funds and violating its trust responsibilities for management of land, oil, natural gas, mineral, timber, grazing, and other resources.
Agreements with tribes for program administration has already begun, he said, adding that “we have heard Indian county and we must have support for tribal leaders” as we formalize agreements tribe by tribe. Part of the checks and balances system is providing an oversight board for the BBP to be chaired by DOI Secretary Sally Jewell, who Obama appointed to guide the agency during his second term.
Jewell replaces Ken Salazar, a former US Senator from Colorado, who guided DOI during Obama’s first term starting in 2009.
Hayes said regular meetings at the highest levels can be expected.
A feature of the Cobell Settlement was directed toward higher education scholarships. The settlement authorizes up to $60 million in scholarships for Indian students, to be administered by The American Indian College Fund. The money can be used at tribal colleges, vocational institutions and public and private universities. Twenty percent of the annual scholarships can be used for graduate studies.
The Cobell Settlement requires a board of trustees to oversee the scholarship fund. The Interior Department and the Cobell plaintiffs will each choose two members. The American Indian College Fund will choose one member.
Washburn said that if the systems are set up right from the beginning, there will be upfront advantages from advance planning and behind-the-scenes computer programs that will enable the effort to “move out methodically through a number of reservations.”
Giving a taste of the flavor, he said, shows how the program is gearing for the BBP. Washburn said staffing is up and that outside experts have been retained to assure we have the best program of appraising property as the basis for an offer. Third party groups, he said, are reviewing methodologies and making valid recommendations.
“Were a bunch of suits in Washington,” Washburn said. “We need tribal leaders” to engage when negotiating different agreement with each tribe to factor in their needs. He looked to having 10-12 tribes “on board, moving out from the train station” by the end of the year. Washburn likened the tribes to guinea pigs as sovereignty is returned the tribal nations.
Dorgan, who chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, believes that while the wind energy project is not dependent on Tuesday’s announcement, it can only help it along.
He said in a phone conversation with Allvoices that it’s not needed for the Sioux Tribes of South Dakota’s wind power initiative. Helping to negotiate the Cobell Settlement, Dorgan said that while there is enough Tribal land available for the wind power initiative, the real resource of value isn’t buried below the ground, but blows above it.
“The government may own the minerals below the land, but the wind above it belongs to the tribes,” he said.
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“You eat from one bowl,” said Ivan M. Ivan, 67, a tribal leader in Akiak, quoting the Yup’ik Eskimo cultural adage about sharing resources, in good times and bad. “That didn’t happen.”
Kirk Johnson and Lee Van Der Voo, The New York Times
AKIAK, Alaska — The humble pollock, great cash fish of the north, conquered the world through the flaky bland hegemony of a fish stick. At more than $1 billion a year, there is no bigger fishery for human consumption on the planet.
But pollock was also meant to be a savior, part of a Washington-backed antipoverty plan aimed at residents here on Alaska’s mostly undeveloped west coast. A generation ago, organizers envisioned federally guaranteed shares of the pollock catch that would create a rising tide of funds to lift up poor, isolated villages where jobs and hope are scarce.
Pollock did succeed, wildly. The dollars that flowed into the Community Development Quota Program, as the catch-share system was called, created a hydra-headed nonprofit money machine. Six nonprofit groups arose on the Bering Sea shore, and they have invested mightily in ships, real estate and processing plants. Over two decades, the groups amassed a combined net worth of $785 million.
But the results on the ground, in rural community and economic development, have been deeply uneven, and nonexistent for many people who still gaze out to the blinking lights of the factory ships and wonder what happened.
“You eat from one bowl,” said Ivan M. Ivan, 67, chief of the native community here in Akiak, quoting the Yup’ik Eskimo cultural adage about shared resources. “That didn’t happen.”
Collectively, the groups created tens of thousands of jobs and scholarships in one of the poorest regions of the nation. But critics say that community development, over time, got lost in a push toward institutional sustainability — and in some cases lavish salaries for leaders. Deregulation became self-regulation with a board of overseers appointed by the groups themselves the only real watchdog in recent years.
Meanwhile, a lopsided division of spoils among the groups has festered into a conflict that some Alaskans fear could unravel the catch-share project itself, which has done much good, they say, despite its flaws. In 2011, according to the most recent figures, one group with a small population got nearly 22 times more revenue per resident than another, larger group, based on allocation formulas locked in by Congress in 2006.
The fate of places like Akiak, a village of 350 people about 400 miles west of Anchorage, was dictated by a political compromise two decades ago, when a line was drawn 50 miles from the Bering Sea. Villages inside the line got pollock money. Akiak’s rutted dirt roads and 80 percent unemployment rate, residents said, bespeak its outsider status, 20 miles from that border.
Residents of Napaskiak, by contrast, a village of similar size 24 miles away, get scholarships, free firewood, free tax assistance and subsidized boat motors, all courtesy of the local catch-share group, the Coastal Villages Region Fund, which also buys halibut and herring from local fishermen.
The rules were hard but necessary, said Dick Tremaine, an economist who was a consultant to the state in the early 1990s. “This was a social engineering experiment that had not yet existed,” he said.
But even communities within the line have seen uneven development.
The federal health clinic in the village of Teller, for example, in Alaska’s northwest corner, went months without toilets last year after its septic system failed. Doctors and patients used five-gallon buckets instead, then stacked them in the street. Worse still, there were often not enough buckets to go around. Cardboard boxes, lined with plastic bags, then had to suffice.
Teller is not unique: 10 of 15 villages dotting the tundra along the Bering Sea outside of Nome — all within the catch-share system — do not have complete sewer service or running water.
“I can understand how C.D.Q.’s, in the early years, focused on the development of businesses,” said Ed Backus, vice president for fisheries at Ecotrust, an economic development group in Portland, Ore., that works in Alaska, referring to the Community Development Quota Program. “But over time as those revenue streams really bulked up, which they have, I think it’s important to remember the main mission of C.D.Q.’s is to really improve life in the villages.”
Spokesmen for the nonprofit groups agreed that not every village has seen the same benefits.
Part of the problem is geography, said Simon Kinneen, vice president and chief operating officer of the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation, which covers the northern corner of the catch-share region, including Teller. “Developing fisheries and economies in our member communities that do not have reasonable access to commercially viable fish species is difficult at best,” he said in an e-mail.
A spokesman for the Coastal Villages Region Fund, Dawson Hoover, conceded that much more work should be done.
Under that guise, Coastal Villages, the largest of the groups by population, with about 9,300 residents, began an effort last year to get Congress to change how pollock and other fish are apportioned in western Alaska — to a formula based on population.
The shift would greatly increase Coastal’s clout and income, and the effort is creating sharp conflict with other groups that could get less. “The groups with the largest amount of people receive less fish per person,” Mr. Hoover said. “It’s just not fair.”
Many native subsistence fishermen, meanwhile, say the pollock trawlers inadvertently catch too many salmon. Dozens were cited by state game wardens last summer — and faced emotional legal proceedings this spring — for setting their nets on the Kuskokwim River in violation of an emergency fishing ban.
Joe Garnie, a former mayor of Teller, and a board member of the Norton Sound group, said fairness depends on where you look. Imagine what might happen, he said, if a lack of plumbing had led to similar unsanitary conditions in a clinic in, say, Detroit. “In 15 minutes there would be a federal investigation,” he said. “Why isn’t there one here?”
Part of the answer to Mr. Garnie’s question, is that the program grew up without a yardstick, according to people who were involved in its early years. And as each nonprofit group went its way, one-size-fits all measurements no longer applied.
Coastal Villages became a vertically integrated seafood company. The Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, another catch-share group, developed a separate economic plan for each village. In Norton Sound, benefits were delivered mostly in the form of community grants and scholarships, sending hundreds of Alaskans to college every year and helping villages operate.
Federal rules are loose, requiring only that the groups spend 80 percent of their money in fisheries. And in 2006, Congress stepped back even further, allowing the groups to regulate themselves, with reviews from Washington every decade. But in the first 10-year review, even the self-regulating catch-share oversight board in Alaska said the data measuring changes in poverty and quality of life in the villages was not meaningful.
But there is no doubt that guaranteed pollock shares — later extended to include, crab, pacific cod, halibut and other fish — created a new empire. Coastal Villages now owns an entire fishing fleet based in Seattle and Alaska. The Bristol Bay group owns half of the seafood giant Ocean Beauty. The Glacier Fish Company, based in Seattle, is partly owned by fish-quota groups. Four groups also invested in publicly traded securities, totaling $134 million in 2011, or 28.8 percent of their net assets. Salaries for top executives, meanwhile, have ranged in recent years from $69,503 to $832,367.
The oversight board said in a recent report that in its first 19 years, the program distributed $521 million in wages, training and benefits. But the region’s troubles drag on. Of 65 communities within the 50-mile boundary, including Teller, 38 are still listed as “distressed” at the Denali Commission, a federal agency that focuses on Alaska’s remote communities.
Joel Neimeyer, co-chairman of the Denali Commission, said it would be impossible for one program to solve Alaska’s rural problems. The process of giving people training for jobs, for example can, in a perverse way, create a brain drain that leaves communities ever more locked in struggle. People leave and get a taste of the outside world. “A lot of them just never go back,” Mr. Neimeyer said.
This article was written in cooperation with InvestigateWest, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in Seattle that covers the Pacific Northwest.
Dan Pelle photo Buy this photo Strandberg shaved her head to support her sister, Marisa Lowe.
There was no doubt in Melanie Strandberg’s mind when her sister was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer. She had to shave her head.
She’d already done it once. Marisa Lowe, now 24, was first diagnosed with cancer in February 2012, and Strandberg shaved her hair to support the sister she calls her best friend.
This time, when 25-year-old Strandberg’s employer told her she had to hide her bald head with a wig, there was no doubt in her mind what she had to do: She resigned.
In a move that rapidly went viral, Strandberg quit her job as a salon supervisor at La Rive Spa at Northern Quest Resort and Casino last Thursday. She said a spa director expressed concern that she would offend the customers and that she wouldn’t be able to convincingly sell hair products without hair herself.
The sisters appeared on the “Today” show Monday morning, prompting public outcry on Northern Quest Casino’s Facebook page.
“It was a really tough decision, but in the end, my family is going to be there for the rest of my life,” Strandberg said.
Northern Quest denied how the events were characterized and in a statement on Tuesday the casino said her treatment is “inconsistent with our values, culture and past practices and it’s unacceptable.” The spa director who allegedly told Strandberg she couldn’t work without hair is on administrative leave.
Strandberg, who had worked at the spa since December, said she felt pressured by her supervisors to quit. Strandberg was told on several occasions to come back with a wig. When she went to human resources representatives to complain, they told her to follow her supervisors’ instructors.
“I didn’t do it to cover up,” she said. “I did it to support her all the time, and I wanted to show that and I took pride in it.”
Northern Quest initially said Strandberg hadn’t contacted its human resources department to complain about her treatment, but retracted that statement after an internal investigation.
Strandberg said that when she was contacted by HR the day after she quit, she was told not to come back to work those final two weeks and to turn in her badge and uniform.
According to Northern Quest, managers have repeatedly attempted to call Strandberg to offer her job back. Strandberg said that isn’t true. She said she received one email from HR the day after she resigned acknowledging her termination, and one phone call after she told her story on “Today.”
And besides, Strandberg said, she doesn’t want her job back.
“When somebody makes a negative comment in regards to how you look when you’re used to looking differently, it’s hurtful,” she said.
She has hired former Spokane County Prosecutor James Sweetser to represent her.
“This is an extremely meaningful gesture and she shouldn’t have been made to feel ugly, inadequate and unable to sell her product just because of the length of her hair,” Sweetser said.
Strandberg, a mother of three, was hired by the Glen Dow Academy of Hair Design, where she’ll be owner Martin Dow’s assistant. She hopes to begin teaching at the school.
Lowe is proud of her sister’s actions. Strandberg shaving her head helped show Lowe that she’s not alone, and regardless of La Rive’s actions, she’s happy with how her sister handled herself.
“If there’s anything we’ve learned from cancer,” Lowe said, “it’s that we know that even though you can be told the most terrible thing, it doesn’t mean that the end is anywhere near.”
WASHINGTON – Following extensive consultations with American Indian leaders, the Department of the Interior Tuesday, June 18, made a number of announcements related to the efforts underway for the purchase of fractional interests in American Indian trust lands from willing sellers.
In particular, the Department announced that it has launched efforts to establish cooperative agreements with several tribal nations to facilitate the purchase of individual interests in highly fractionated trust lands for the purpose of consolidating ownership of these acres for the beneficial use of tribal nations.
The Department has also established purchase ceilings to ensure that all qualifying tribes will have the opportunity to participate in the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations. Additional incentives for individual owners to offer their fractionated shares for the benefit of tribal communities also were announced, including minimum payments and Indian scholarship funds.
As part of President Obama’s commitment to help strengthen Indian communities, the Land Buy-Back Program was created to implement the land consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement, which provided a $1.9 billion fund to purchase fractionated interests in trust or restricted land from willing sellers, at fair market value, within a 10 year period.
“With a solid foundation built on government to government consultation, the Department is now prepared to begin working with tribal nations so we can proceed with initial offers by the end of this year,”
said David J. Hayes, Deputy Secretary of the Interior. Hayes, who chairs the oversight board created to ensure accountability within the Interior Department, emphasized that the goal of the Land Buy-Back Program is to unlock the benefit of fractionated lands for tribal communities.
“We need to be smart about managing the available resources of tribal communities and the federal government, while developing flexible processes for each cooperative agreement,”
he said.
As outlined in the Implementation Plan released in December 2012, Department officials have had extensive consultation with tribes across Indian country over the past several months to determine how to move forward with a process that provides an efficient and fair way for individual owners of fractionated interests to participate in the Land Buy-Back Program, maximizes the opportunity for tribal government involvement, and offers the greatest flexibility for each tribal nation to determine what is best for their community.
Today’s announcements are based on these consultations, which will continue to inform next steps. Department personnel have also been hard at work refining valuation methods, updating title systems, and staffing up appraisal teams to accommodate the significant interest in the program.
Pilot Efforts Underway
Interior holds about 56 million acres in trust or restricted status for American Indians. More than 10 million acres are held for individual American Indians and nearly 46 million acres are held for Indian tribes. The Department holds this land in more than 200,000 tracts, of which about 92,000 (on 150 reservations) contain fractional ownership interests available for purchase by the Land Buy-Back Program.
Approximately 90 percent of the fractionated lands available to purchase are in 40 of the 150 locations.
Following its consultations with tribes, the Department of the Interior has identified key criteria that will determine how and when tribal nations will be engaged over the next several years. The Land Buy-Back Program will move forward based on a number of factors, including the severity of fractionation, degree of ownership overlap between tracts, geographic location to maximize efficiency and resources, appraisal complexity, and readiness or availability of resources.
In particular, the Land Buy-Back Program will ensure that all types of tribal communities are participating in all phases of the program – including tribes that do not have large numbers of fractionated lands. Ensuring this type of tribal diversity in the Land Buy-Back Program was an important and frequently raised issue by tribal nations through consultation sessions, and it will be a key consideration in setting priorities.
Using these criteria, the Department will launch pilot efforts with as many as 10 reservations this year, with the opportunity to make adjustments for lessons learned for future implementation. Land research, valuation work, and outreach efforts are underway at several locations, including the Pine Ridge, Crow, Makah, and Sisseton-Wahpeton reservations.
Cooperative Agreement Development
As tribal communities are identified for implementation, the Department will enter into cooperative agreements that are flexible and responsive to the specific needs of the nation involved. Tribes have the opportunity to actively participate in the process, which will improve the program’s effectiveness and efficiency while minimizing administrative costs. Agreements will allow for resources to be provided to each tribal government to facilitate outreach and education, solicit interest from owners, and further identify tribal priorities.
“This is a program that will not be implemented overnight, but we will be thorough and tailor opportunities for the benefit of each nation,”
said Kevin Washburn, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.
“We must have the flexibility to learn from each buy-back effort and provide transparency for each successive tribe.”
Establishment of Purchase Ceilings and Base Payments
Two key decisions flowing directly from the Department’s nation to nation consultations relate to purchase ceilings and base payments. To ensure that the Land Buy-Back Program will be implemented at as many locations as possible (including less fractionated locations), purchase ceilings will be used to protect against premature exhaustion of funds. Also, the Land Buy-Back Program will provide landowners with a base payment of $75 per offer, regardless of the value of the land, based on estimates for the time and effort required for individual land owners to proceed through the acquisition process and to facilitate sales.
In addition to base payments, the Department discussed the allocation of funds toward Indian educational scholarships as a further incentive for participation. Up to $60 million from sales will be designated for the Cobell Scholarship Fund for American Indians and Alaska Natives. The fund will be controlled by a board of trustees nominated by tribal governments and administered by the American Indian College Fund in Denver, Colorado with 20 percent allotted to the American Indian Graduate Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Transparency & Availability of Resources
The Department is committed to ongoing consultation with tribal nations and full transparency as it continues to implement the many steps associated with the Land Buy-Back Program, which had been referred to as the Cobell Trust Land Consolidation program.
In addition to future consultations, personnel will hold a workshop prior to remarks by Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell at the upcoming National Congress of American Indian’s Mid-Year Conference later this month. The workshop will further discuss the development of cooperative agreements, the ongoing, independent review by the Appraisal Foundation of the Department’s appraisal process, and the pilot efforts and ramp up plans for the acquisition of land at initial locations.
The ongoing leadership dispute at the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians has put the tribe at risk of defaulting on its bonds for Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York.
A $250.4 million agreement was reached last year when Chukchansi’s economic development authority restructured its financing after the tribe struggled to pay its debts.
But the tribal dispute over who controls the Coarsegold casino’s funds left the development authority unable to make its full May payment.
“The actions of the tribal parties and individual defendants endanger the collateral (casino revenue) and place the financial well-being of the casino in danger,” the suit filed by Wells Fargo Bank said.
The suit is against the tribe, its casino-affiliated corporations and commissions, competing tribal council factions, as well as three financial institutions that hold proceeds from the casino.
Wells Fargo holds the note for casino investors. The Chukchansi Economic Development Authority agreed to a 9.75% interest rate to restructure its debt.
The tribe was supposed to pay off $310 million in loans last year, but couldn’t make the payments. Instead, the tribe arranged an agreement with bondholders to restructure its debt to be due in 2020 and allow a longer-term payback for much of the remaining loan. The previous interest rate was 8%.
Wells Fargo declared itself “an innocent bystander” in the tribal dispute between two factions that contend they represent the tribe — one led by Reggie Lewis and the other by Nancy Ayala.
The bank’s lawyers said Wells Fargo has “done everything it can to resolve the issue consensually, but is left with no choice but to seek the court’s intervention” by filing the suit.
The Ayala group took control of the tribal business complex and casino after a February referendum the Lewis faction contends was unconstitutional.
The Lewis group then took control of a Rabobank account used to pay off casino debt. Rabobank officials didn’t recognize the Ayala group’s leadership and the Ayala group refuses to deposit money into the Rabobank account.
Since the last week of February, “presumably because of the disputes,” the tribe stopped depositing revenues and cash into the Rabobank accounts, which violates the agreement with Wells Fargo and the tribe’s bondholders, the suit said.
The Rabobank account is designed to use proceeds from the casino and make twice yearly bond payments of $11.93 million.
A partial payment was made in May, which constitutes “an event of default,” the lawsuit said.
Wells Fargo lawyers say money was available for the full payment if not for the ongoing factional dispute.
Under its agreement, the tribe is supposed to put casino revenue into the Rabobank account once each week, but can hold out $10 million in cash to run the casino, the suit said.
When the Lewis group gained control of the account, the Ayala faction opened accounts with other banks. Wells Fargo contends those are illegal under its agreement with the tribe.
Rabobank, which is named in the suit, froze its account, leading the Ayala group to move casino revenues in the casino “cage” instead of a bank, the suit contends.
The frozen account has led to employees getting paid in cash or by cash vouchers instead of check or direct deposit, adding security and internal cash concerns, the suit said.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for Chukchansi Economic Development Authority to satisfy the daily cash needs of the casino, including payroll and the amounts required to maintain gaming operations,” the suit said.
Wells Fargo’s lawyers say the bank “takes no position with respect to which faction rightfully should be in control of the tribe and the tribal council,” the suit said. “But that does not change the fact that Chukchansi Economic Development Authority and the tribe have violated their agreements.”
Global Cash Access, which is named in the suit, is a company that reconciles all ATM cash dispensed at the casino. Wells Fargo estimates it holds $14 million in uncashed checks, the suit said.
The Rabobank account is supposed to have a minimum of about $14 million to make the twice yearly payment, tribe officials say. The suit said $10.55 million was in the account when the partial payment was made in May.
Wells Fargo also said the casino could lose its license because checks couldn’t clear through the Rabobank account and the casino was $551,250 in arrears to the California Gambling Control Commission.
Officials with both factions say they agree with the Wells Fargo action.
The Ayala group wants to get the Rabobank account out of the Lewis group’s hands.
“We have been operating the casino and taking care of day-to-day financial concerns,” said David Leibowitz, a spokesman for Ayala’s group. “The Lewis group has successfully sacrificed the biggest asset the tribe has and has ever had.”
But Lewis faction lawyer, Richard Verri, said the Ayala group can put money into the Rabobank account but refuses to because Rabobank recognizes the Lewis group.
“We have been waiting for this and pressuring (Wells Fargo) to get involved,” Verri said. “Now, the Ayala faction will be forced to make the deposits we are calling for.”
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/06/19/3351430/bank-tribal-dispute-puts-chukchansi.html#storylink=cpy
Anthropologist Paul H. Gelles Discusses New Book Chumash Renaissance
EYEING THE TRIBE: While working each summer for the tribe from 2003-2005, anthropologist Paul H. Gelles became fascinated with how much casino revenues had boosted the Chumash people’s cultural rebirth; so the Midland teacher spent the next few years researching and writing his academic study of that phenomenon. Paul Wellman
After 200 or so years of subjugation, discrimination, and poverty, it only took about a decade for the Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians to completely flip the economic and political tables of Santa Barbara County, where they’re now one of the largest employers, a major philanthropic force, and a lobbying heavyweight. Yet because that rise to prominence came on the back of the Chumash Casino — a large resort opened in 2004 amid much public outcry on the Chumash reservation at the center of the Santa Ynez Valley — the success story has never been without controversy. And with plans to annex land across Highway 246 for a cultural center, as well as desires to develop the recently purchased 1,400-acre Camp 4 property into tribal housing, the past, present, and future of the Santa Ynez Chumash will be at the forefront of Santa Barbara politics for years to come.
Against that backdrop comes Chumash Renaissance: Indian Casinos, Education, and Cultural Politics in Rural California, a new book from anthropologist Paul H. Gelles. After studying South American tribes and teaching at UC Riverside for many years, Gelles came to live in the Santa Ynez Valley in 2003 when he was hired by the Chumash as a cultural coordinator for their summer camp. He worked in that capacity for two more summers, and then — in between teaching classes at Midland School, where he remains a teacher — Gelles spent the ensuing years researching, writing, and self-publishing this first attempt to show how integral casino revenues have been to saving and restoring traditional Chumash culture.
“Chumash culture was there before the casino, obviously, but the casino revenues have helped the tribe revitalize it and even bring things back,” said Gelles, explaining that, among other triumphs, the Chumash hired a linguist to recover and teach them the old Samala language. “It’s so different from where I worked in Peru, where there was a very strong culture with very little money. Here is a tribe that has financial resources to focus on culture and reclaim what has been taken from them.”
Along with the cultural rebirth has come an educational revolution for the tribe’s 1,200 descendents — who can tap into college scholarships — as well as actual political power, too, which Chumash elders wield at local, state, and federal levels in ways that were unimaginable just 20 years ago. “For the 50 million indigenous people from the Americas, probably 98 percent still live in abject poverty and have very little economic or political power,” said Gelles. “It’s not like I love casinos, but the casino tribes are the only indigenous people out of all the Americas that have gained economic and political power.”
While the book looks very favorably on the casino’s impact, Gelles doesn’t give his opinion on future plans, and he agrees that people have a right to oppose development. But he believes that the opposition groups represent a “vocal minority” of mostly “elite, white people” — many of whom came to the valley in fairly recent times — and questions their tactics. “What I object to is the way in which they denigrate the tribal members in the process,” said Gelles. “They question authenticity, which is very insulting. It’s very different than what other developments face.”
Gelles believes that’s partly because modern society has trouble reconciling the image of pristine Native Americans with the reality of successful businesspeople. “We like to think of Native Americans as being representative of what we’ve lost as a people,” he said. “We don’t think about the living experience of flesh-and-blood people.” But in his South American research, particularly on a group of Peruvian migrants who traveled regularly between their Andean village and Washington, D.C., Gelles knows that 21st-century success does not wipe out tradition. “What you find are that social mobility and modernity can be compatible with indigenous identity,” he explained.
Gelles mostly hopes his book helps remind his neighbors that they live amid many different kinds of people, not just rich, white ranchers. “I’ve got a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old, and I want them to grow up in a community that respects cultural diversity,” said Gelles. “The public institutions haven’t done a good job of educating people about the diversity that exists in the Santa Ynez Valley. I’m hoping to force a dialogue and discussion about this, and tell what’s largely an untold story.”
Representatives from Six Nations speak to reporters. “Enbridge is operating in our territory without any consultation with us, and that’s outrageous. We’re here for all people and their children – It’s not just native people anymore.” Photo: @AdamCarterCBC
Swamp Line 9
Canada – As this statement is released, we are digging in and occupying Enbridge’s North Westover Pump Station in the Beverly Swamp. We have done this to stop construction in preparation for the reversal of their Line 9 Pipeline to carry toxic diluted bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands through our communities and watersheds, likely for export.
For the past year, we have organized in our communities across Southern Ontario to raise awareness of Enbridge’s plan to reverse Line 9. Increased awareness quickly lead to concern and to a desire from our communities to at the very least make our voices heard about our opposition to this project. What we found was a rigged game, where the political party most indebted to the oil industry had taken spectacular measures to remove the usual environmental oversights from Line 9 and other pipeline projects. The Line 9 reversal is, from the perspective of the powerful, a foregone conclusion and they have insultingly offered only the most meaningless opportunities for public engagement.
Of course, we understand that even if there had been a full Environmental Assessment, this project would still be going ahead. If anything, the federal government simply had the good courtesy to be honest that they just don’t give a shit what anyone thinks. Although we have few illusions about process, it is very much the case that the removal of the usual process is what has lead to this exceptional step of occupying a construction site. Deprived of all other options for dissent, the move to direct action to stop this reversal is obvious to even the most law-abiding of people. Perhaps we should thank the federal government for removing the usual sham of participation to make it clear that there is no pipeline debate – there is just a pipeline fight.
We are establishing a camp on Enbridge property in the middle of the Beverly Swamp, the largest remaining forested wetland in Southern Ontario. The health of this wetland is crucial to the health of the Spencer Creek, which feeds Cootes Paradise, the beautiful marshland that forms the western end of Lake Ontario. Protecting the water is vitally important — once water is poisoned, it can’t be undone.
This is also stolen Indigenous land and is the traditional territory of the Chonnonton people as well as of the Mississagi Anishinabec and the Onondawaga Haudenosaunee. This pipeline crosses the territories of dozens of Indigenous nations along its route, including the Six Nations of the Grand River who have taken an inspiring lead in building resistance to Line 9. “The whole thing about Line 9 is that it’s going through our territory and Enbride hasn’t consulted us or talked to us at all,” said Missy Elliot of Six Nations. “What’s best for the land is what’s best for our people. We have to protect the land – this isn’t just a side project for us, we have to protect our future. It’s our responsibility.”
If you want to support us, drop by the site! We will be maintaining an info point at the mouth of the North Westover driveway, on Concession 6 W just west of Westover Rd, in Flamborough. We welcome any donations of food, camping supplies, money, or whatever you think would be useful. We also encourage you to come join us, whether just for a few hours or for a few days. We are calling for our supporters to rally in the public park across the street from us on Concession 6 at 11am tomorrow morning, that’s Friday June 21, to show support for the occupation and to call for the Line 9 reversal to be cancelled.
Vince Schilling, Indian Country Today Media Network
On June 18 the Senate voted unanimously (94-0) to approve a tribal amendment to the S.744 Immigration reform bill that will add four tribal government officials to the Border Oversight Task Force that was established originally in the bill.
This amendment was offered by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and cosponsored by senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Begich (D-AK), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Border Task Force established in S. 744 which included representatives from local government and law enforcement, civil rights groups, business, private land owners and the Border Patrol, will now have input from tribal representatives from the Northern and Southern regions.
When introduced for a vote on the Senate floor, Sen. Tester lauded the potential contributions of tribal representatives toward the security of our countries borders.
“This amendment will include tribal representatives from the DHS Border Task Force. In this country, within 100 miles of the border we have 13 Indian reservations, some of them right on the border. If we really want to make sure our borders are secure on the North and the South, Indians need to be part of this conversation, our Native American friends.
“They have a unique government-to-government status and their input is critically important this amendment will not cost anything, it has bipartisan support and it will add to tribal representatives, two in the north and two in the southern region,” Tester said.
According to information provided to Indian Country Today Media Network by Tester’s administrators, the amendment would improve border security by improving coordination and communication between DHS and border tribes and by including tribal leaders on the DHS Oversight Task Force responsible for solving problems related to border security.
They also added that, “Indian lands are often desolate and remote, tribal law enforcement resources are spread thin; and communication is poor. In recent years, Indian Affairs Committee hearings revealed that a rising number of smugglers and illegal immigrants have taken advantage of these factors to travel – virtually unnoticed – into the U.S.”
In a recent report, GAO said, “… coordination challenges with tribes have affected the Border Patrol’s ability to patrol and monitor the border so as to prevent and detect illegal immigration and smuggling. Border Patrol officials … reported coordination challenges related to understanding and collaborating with tribes within tribal government rules. Specifically, officials … reported coordination challenges related to tribal government rules that hindered law enforcement in working together to secure the border.”
In a comment to ICTMN via e-mail, Tester voiced his thoughts as to the importance of an Indian voice in the DHS as well as expressing his appreciation for the unanimous support of the amendment.
“As we improve border security, we have a responsibility to make sure that those who live closest to the border have a voice in the process. With 13 Indian Reservations around the country within 100 miles of the border,” said Tester. “My common-sense amendment makes sure that American Indians have a seat at the table, and I’m pleased it passed with unanimous support.”
During today’s airing of the vote on c-span, ICTMN heard one unnamed Senator exclaim, “It’s a good day for Indians.”
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