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NCAI Prez Demands New Farm Bill After Blizzard That Killed 100,000 Animals

Christina RoseDead cattle await burial on the Pine Ridge Reservation after the record-breaking, rogue blizzard that hit South Dakota in early October. Newly elected NCAI President Brian Cladoosby is urging Congress to pass the stalled farm bill, which would help aid those who lost livestock in the disaster. — Christina Rose
Dead cattle await burial on the Pine Ridge Reservation after the record-breaking, rogue blizzard that hit South Dakota in early October. Newly elected NCAI President Brian Cladoosby is urging Congress to pass the stalled farm bill, which would help aid those who lost livestock in the disaster.

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Fresh from his election as the 21st president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Brian Cladoosby has made it a priority to get aid for tribal members whose homes or livestock were wiped out by the record-breaking, early-season blizzard that devastated South Dakota and the Pine Ridge Reservation earlier this month.

The government may have reopened, but in the wake of its 16-day shutdown, a key farm bill still languishes that would provide assistance to ranchers and landowners who lost millions when 100,000 cows, horses and other animals died in the blizzard, many of them on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

“As I begin my term, my thoughts and prayers are with the South Dakota tribes,” Cladoosby said in a statement, his first since being elected on October 17. “The Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes have been devastated by the recent storm that swept the Great Plains—and the federal government failed, again, to maintain treaty agreements that ensure disaster relief is provided when citizens are in distress. When the federal government neglects citizens in times of emergency, the effects can be long term.”

One of the bill’s provisions would be to make disaster relief available under the Livestock Indemnity Program, which would pay ranchers part of the animals’ market value, Reuters reported on October 8. The deadline to extend the 2008 farm bill was October 1—the very day that the government stopped working. Now the government is back in business, but a vote has yet to be held.

Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives are scheduled to meet next week to try and reconcile their respective versions of the bill, according to the Billings Gazette. It had already been stalled for months before the shutdown.

During the shutdown, livestock producers could not file the paperwork on their losses with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Agency, Reuters said. All that state and tribal authorities could do was tell them to carefully document the losses as they buried their cattle and horses in mass graves.

Cladoosby, who is also chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, said thresholds for assistance should be lowered for federal tribal disaster assistance and urged Congress to make Native issues a priority in the “post-shutdown calendar.”

Collapsing homes and widespread livestock losses are just the beginning, Cladoosby said, since the damage will cause tribal ranchers and farmers in South Dakota for years “as they will now have to rebuild their livelihoods from scratch.”

The first step, he said, should be to pass the farm bill.

“Allowing the current Farm Bill to lapse without action, coupled with the government shutdown, meant that support systems at the Department of Agriculture were unavailable to Native farmers and ranchers during this terrible storm,” Cladoosby said.

“Congress must pass a Farm Bill that will support tribal nations and others around the country who are in dire straits and it must keep nutrition programs with farm policies because there should never be a disconnect between food production and feeding people,” he said. “Congress must act immediately to provide rapid recovery for our tribes and work to ensure that political gamesmanship and inactivity does not harm Native peoples again.”

Help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can go only so far, even with the Stafford Act allowing tribes to apply in their own right, Cladoosby said, because aid doesn’t kick in at the amounts of money that people make, and lost in the disaster. The dollar amount triggering aid eligibility needs to be lower, he said.

“The high monetary damages threshold hampers impoverished areas because what is lost by low-income citizens often does not meet the required amount,” Cladoosby said. “The federal government has a fiduciary duty to protect tribal citizens, but without changes to the threshold, tribal citizens will continue to suffer from the consequences of disasters.”

He added the lack of action not only violated treaty and sovereignty rights but also cut off food supply to many tribal members.

“These failures of Congress prolong the claims process and inhibit Native food production and economic development,” Cladoosby said. “Further, with no Farm Bill and the lack of government funding for food assistance programs, many tribal citizens were left without access to food all while these vital programs are used as political bargaining chips. No one—especially our tribal citizens most in need—should ever have to go without food while being used as pawns in the lawmaking process.”

Indian Law Attorneys’ Advice to Tribes: ‘Stay Out of the Courts!’

By Gale Courey Toensing, Indian Country Today Media Network

During a impersonation of President George Bush Sr. on Saturday Night Live some years ago, comedian Dana Carvey made the following joke: “We have learned well the simple lesson of Vietnam: Stay out of Vietnam!”

Indian law experts are giving the same advice about United States courts, but it’s no laughing matter.

At the National Congress of American Indians 70^th Annual Convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in October, Richard Guest, the Native American Rights Fund’s lead staff attorney in Washington, sounded the alarm.

Since John Roberts was made chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006, Guest said, “We’ve had one win and nine losses in front of the Roberts court. And our message as we sat in Reno at the mid-year [NCAI] meeting and we‘d just been handed the decision in the Baby Veronica case – that message is still true here today: Stay out of the courts!”

Guest, NARF founder and director John Echohawk, and NCAI general counsel John Dossett have worked together for years on the Tribal Supreme Court Project and updated convention attendees about their current work.

“The federal courts are not your friends anymore,” Guest continued. The majority of judges sitting on the lower federal courts were appointed by Bush II – very conservative, have no understanding of Indian country at all. No interest in your issues. And that can be said of the Roberts court as well. It’s a very difficult place for tribes to secure victories.

The NARF still wins about 50 percent of its cases in federal courts, Guest said, but the challenge is in determining which cases will go up to the U.S. Supreme Court.“There are a lot of cases to keep track of that may be headed toward the Supreme Court and that’s one of the things the Tribal Supreme Court Project does,” Echohawk said. The project works with the tribal parties involved to brief the issues and bring all the experts – Indian law attorneys, Supreme Court practitioners – together in the hope of changing the losing record, he said.

There was no reason for the Supreme Court to grant review in the Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl case, Guest pointed out. Although he did not claim outright that the high court’s decision to grant cert was politically influenced, his descriptions of the powerful players brought in by the plaintiffs suggest that the fix was in for that to happen. “The petitioners secured the assistance of a Supreme Court practitioner, Lisa Blatt, who wrote a brilliant amicus brief. She brought in Paul Clement, the former solicitor general of the United States, along with Gregory Garre, another solicitor general of the U.S. under the Bush administration. And they wrote amicus briefs on behalf of the adoptive couple, on behalf of the baby girl, on behalf of the birth mother, all indicating reasons why the court should grant review.”

Foremost among the amici’s strategies was to use the scare tactic of promoting the idea that the Indian Child Welfare Act, which seeks to protect Indian children by keeping them with Indian families, was unconstitutional – that Indians do not deserve special treatment or protections under federal law, Guest said. “And as soon as they got review granted they backed away from that position. But it was a case that should never have gone to the Supreme Court of the United States. Having those nine justices decide whether Baby Girl belongs with father or with adoptive couple in South Carolina – why is that an issue for the U.S. Supreme Court?”

The same goes for Michigan v. Bay Mills Community, Guest said. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a state can challenge a tribe’s right to open a casino in this case, which involves a three-year old conflict over an off reservation tribal casino in northern Michigan. The high court will not rule on whether the off reservation casino is legal; it will decide whether the state has the legal standing to challenge a tribe’s right to open the casino. The ruling can potentially impact tribal sovereignty throughout Indian country and be as devastating as the Supreme Court’s 2009 Carcieri ruling, which limited the U.S. Department of the Interior’s ability to take lands into trust for tribes recognized after 1934, Guest said.

“When you have states or local governments on one side [of a case] and Indian tribes or tribal interests on the other side, [the Supreme Court is] interested,” Guest said. “They’re interested in being able to define what state authority is going to be over Indian activities.”

The Tribal Supreme Court Project attorneys are asking tribes not to file individual briefs in the Bay Mills case but rather to sign on to the project’s amicus brief on the “strength in numbers” theory. For more information contact Guest at Richard.g@narf.org or Dossett at jdossett@ncai.org.

Historic Haida Gwaii totem raising celebrates protection from logging

By Damien Gillis, October 24, 2013. Source: The Common Sense Canadian

A new video from Parks Canada follows the carving and raising of a 42-foot totem pole on Haida Gwaii this past summer. The first pole raising there in 130 years, it commemorates the 20-year anniversary of the creation of Gwaii Haanas National Park.

The Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole was raised on August 15, 2013, at Hlk’yah GawGa (Windy Bay) on Lyell Island before a crowd of 400.

“Monumental poles are more than just art. They hold histories, they mark events and they tell stories,” explains artist Jaalen Edenshaw, whose design was chosen by a selection committee made up of a hereditary chief, two Haida citizens, a carver and two Gwaii Haanas staff members. Proposals were submitted without names attached, evaluated solely on their story and design.

In the video, Jaalen shows the different stories carved into the impressive pole, including one which symbolizes the 1980s blockade which protected the region from logging and led to the creation of Gwaii Haanas National Park. Another carved feature recognizes the formative influence of earthquakes on Haida Gwaii, which saw its famed hot springs dry up following seismic activity a year ago.

“The figure is ‘Sacred One Standing and Moving’,” Jaalen explains, “and as he moves, that’s when Haida Gwaii shakes and that’s what causes the earthquakes.”

The pole raising was a team effort, with dozens of Haida people and visitors pulling together on five long lines to erect it and lodge the base of the red cedar pole in a pre-dug hole for stability.

The whole process is captured from a bird’s eye-view via a small go-pro camera placed on top of the pole.

‘Dad, Are They Making Fun of Us?’ Being a Parent in the Age of ‘Redskins’

N7Fund.comWilson Pipestem — N7Fund.com
Wilson Pipestem

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Wilson Pipestem is reshaping the ‘R’ word name-change discussion by explaining why tradition should not trump racial sensitivities–especially when it comes to Native youth.

Pipestem, an enrolled member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and an Osage headright holder, joined MSNBC’s UP W/Steve Kornacki to discuss why Dan Snyder, the team’s owner, and Roger Goodell, should take the name-change debate suggestions seriously.

Wilson said that two of his children, in the 5th and 7th grades, came home from school one day and asked a profound question about the team’s name.

“Dad, are they making fun of us?”

As the father of four young kids, he knew it would be a discussion that they had to sit down and talk about.

“When you are an Indian parent and you are trying to teach your kids that it is a good thing to be an Indian and should respect other people who are different than us…and you try to teach them that the ceremonial use of paint, and the use of eagle feathers are sacred; and that these are good things, that it makes it more difficult when these sort of things are a part of a significant institution within our society,” Wilson told the panel on MSNBC.

Jacqueline Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians agrees with Wilson. “The welfare and future of our youth is at stake,” she said in earlier news release. “We are working every day to ensure they are able to grow up and thrive in healthy, supportive communities. Removing these harmful mascots is just one part of our effort to encourage our children to achieve their greatest potential.”

The NCAI recently released a 29-page report that explains, in part, the psychological effects that racial slurs and mascot imagery have on Native children. Wilson did not specifically reference the report, but spoke out as a Native parent.

He also said that the AP’s April poll results, which were flashed across MSNBC’s TV screen, would slight as people are confronted with George Preston Marshall’s racist background and the history behind the slur.

“Ignorance is a very powerful enemy. And it’s particularly powerful for Indian people who are fewer in numbers and many of us live in isolated places,” Wilson said. “But I think what we’re seeing is a moral change, and the public is becoming-the society is just becoming more educated on the issues.”

Ultimately, Wilson, a Native American Civil Rights Lawyer, who lives in Washington, D.C., told the panel that the football team would change its name as they become more educated about the team’s history.

“They will realize that when society is confronted with this truth, there is going to be change… ”

5 Cons From Obama’s First Year of Second Term

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

For President Barack Obama, the first year of his second term has been filled with plenty of ups and downs for the United States but also for Indian country.

The country has seen the Obama Administration deal with a government shutdown, and the Benghazi incident in the short span that has been this second term so far.

On October 10, Indian Country Today Media Network highlighted five positives that the administration has produced so far this year.

Not everything has been positive within Indian country as the administration has produced some negative effects as well. Below are five of them.

Just a Miscalculation

In March the National Congress of American Indians released a policy paper saying that tribal economic growth had already been thwarted; the National Indian Education Association said the cuts “devastate” Indian education; and Native journalist Mark Trahant estimated that the overall financial reduction for funding in Indian country totals $386 million—and that was just through the end of September. This all came out under the federal government’s sequester.

In all, the joint decision by Congress and the Obama White House, first made in 2011 and carried out on March 1, to allow an across-the-board 9 percent cut to all non-exempt domestic federal programs (and a 13 percent cut for Defense accounts)—known collectively as the sequester—amounted to a major violation of the trust responsibility relationship the federal government is supposed to have with American Indians, as called for in historic treaties, the U.S. Constitution and contemporary American policy.

While all of the cutbacks are troubling and difficult to bear, perhaps the most problematic of all were the ones happening at the Indian Health Service (IHS), housed in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. IHS Director Yvette Roubideaux and her staffers had said at various tribal meetings and in letters throughout 2011 and early 2012 that “the worst-case scenario would be a 2 percent decrease from current funding levels” for IHS, rather than the 9 percent forecasted. Then Indian country began to learn those predictions were wrong. IHS would be cut on March 1 at the same rate as every other non-protected agency.

Leaders Raise Concerns Over Budget Cuts

In April of this year, leaders throughout Indian country raised concerns about President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for 2014 and the lack of support at upholding the nation’s trust responsibility to American Indians as he has promised.

The budget, released April 10, was the president’s first time while in office to dramatically shrink his support for Indian programs in some key areas, including reductions in contract support services, education and school construction cuts, and spending on low-income housing.

Maintaining the Status Quo on Education

With President Barack Obama’s first term came hope for improvements across the board of Indian education, but five years later that hope has waned and now it’s gone to a “just hang on” mentality.

Indian education was still reeling in 2009 in Obama’s first term with No Child Left Behind under the Bush regime. Native culture, learning methods, and tribal language development were largely not on the minds of federal policy makers when the law was passed.

Since then successes have been small, funding cuts have occurred under federal sequestration, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind Act) has still not been reauthorized due to gridlock in Congress.

First Native Council Meets Sans Tribal Leaders

President Barack Obama announced the establishment of the White House Council on Native American Affairs on June 26. On July 29, the first meeting of the Council met without tribal leaders present.

According to the Obama administration the Council is intended to oversee and coordinate the progress of federal agencies on tribal programs and consultation with tribes across the federal government.

Instead of being present for the meeting, Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, appointed chair of the council by Obama, asked tribal leaders to provide input via conference call held July 26. The input from the call was used to guide the meeting.

Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, may have said it best, “That’s not a real government-to-government relationship.”

Cheating Tribes on Health Costs

According to the U.S. Supreme Court 2012 ruling in Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter the federal government must pay for the full contract support costs (CSC) incurred by tribes while providing healthcare and other government services for their tribal citizens through Indian Self-Determination Act contract agreements.

The White House shared with Congress late this summer a continuing resolution budget proposal that would allow the federal government to forgo paying millions of dollars worth of CSC to tribes. The proposal authorizes the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to limit how much each tribe would be paid for CSC. Leaving tribes to pay for any CSC funding not appropriated by Congress.

Tribal leaders who have reviewed the plan say it’s a tribal cap on a tribe-by-tribe basis that would wipe out tribal legal claims and put tribes in the difficult position of being required to spend money to administer contract support programs without providing them the funding to do so.

Chief Wansum Tail Seeks Pocahottie: Yes, It’s Halloween Again

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Sorry ladies, but we’re calling Halloween 2013 a win for the boys.

Because Halloween in Indian country is always a horrorshow of snide stereotypes peddled to mainstream America as harmelss costumes. Usually — like, almost always — the stereotype is the playful “Native American women are sluts.” Oh, so fun. But this year we’re struck by the men in the Dreamgirl “Restless Wranglers”collection of Halloween costumes: Chief Wansum Tail and Chief Big Wood.

Really? Chief Wansum Tail is OK? Because we wonder whether the same company would dare market an African-American themed costume (we don’t claim to know what it would look like) with the name “Big [anything sexual] Jones.” And lest we neglect the American Indian women unjustly characterized as “Pocahotties,” let’s also wonder whether Dreamgirl could put out an Asian-themed costume called “Little Miss [anything sexual] Geisha.”

Here’s the complete collection of Native-themed costumes from Dreamgirls — and yes, we’re aware that most of them were available last year, if not earlier. No points for longevity. Dreamgirl has a Facebook page.

Chief Big Wood

Chief Wansum Tail

Hot On the Trail

Pocahottie

Rain Dancing Diva

Reservation Royalty

Tribal Princess

Tribal Trouble

Southern Leg of Keystone XL Near Completion as Opponents Lose Last Legal Battle in Texas

By Carol Berry, Indian Country Today Media Network

American Indians and others who oppose the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline have lost their last legal battle, enabling TransCanada to finish the project by year’s end.

While the northern part of the Keystone XL pipeline has been held up by controversy, the protests against the southern portion, known as the Gulf Coast Pipeline, have been to no avail. On October 9 a split federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s refusal to stop the pipeline’s construction because an injunction to stop construction, which is what the opponents sought, “would cost [TransCanada] at least hundreds of thousands of dollars per day,” the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling.

New York Times Journalists Threatened With Arrest While Reporting on Keystone XL Opposition

TransCanada has already spent at least $500 million on the 485-mile pipeline, which is expected to transport 700,000 gallons of crude oil daily from Cushing, in central Oklahoma, to Gulf Coast refineries.

The controversial Keystone XL extends through Sac and Fox territory. Other Oklahoma tribes that have spoken out about the pipeline’s impact on tribal patrimony include the Caddo, Choctaw, Southern Ponca and Pawnee, though none is party to the lawsuit.

The southern XL extension was formerly part of the full TransCanada XL pipeline, traversing some 1,700 miles of western and Midwestern states in its transnational route from Canadian tar sands, but vigorous opposition from Indian people, especially in northern areas, has delayed approval of the full section. The northern part must be approved by the U.S. Department of State, because it crosses an international line between Canada and the United States. The southern leg, purely domestic, was able to go ahead, despite a lack of thorough environmental reviews.

The Sierra Club and other plaintiffs had sought an injunction against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had signed off on numerous permits so that TransCanada could move ahead. TransCanada proceeded even though the Corps had to issue 2,227 permits for water crossings, with minimal environmental review.

“Considering the number of permits issued by the Corps relative to the overall size of the Gulf Coast Pipeline, it is patently ludicrous for appellees to characterize the Corps’ involvement in the subject project as minimal, or to maintain that the Corps’ permitting involves only a ‘link’ in the Gulf Coast Pipeline,” said dissenting District Judge William Martinez in the October 9 Tenth Circuit ruling.

But the other two members of the three-justice panel in the federal appeals court, Circuit Judges Paul Kelly and Jerome Holmes, both said that financial harm can be weighed against environmental harm and in certain circumstances outweigh it.

The Sierra Club had alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act and Administrative Procedures Act and contend that the pipeline constitutes a “major federal act” that requires NEPA analysis leading to a “hard look” at possible impacts.

Oarfish Redux: Another Dead Sea Serpent Washes Ashore, Creeping Out Californians

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

A second dead oarfish has washed up on the California coast, and marine experts say it is no coincidence coming five days after the first one.

They do not, however, go so far as to give credence to superstitions that such deaths portend a major earthquake, as Japanese legend has it. Neither do they say that the deaths are due to human activity. Rather, the animals were most likely caught up in a rogue current that dragged them into shallower waters than they are used to surviving in. The second one may even have been dashed to death in the swells, researchers said.

Oarfish number two washed up along Oceanside Harbor on Friday October 17 and measured nearly 14 feet long, which is four feet shorter than the 18-footer that was found in the shallows off Catalina Island on October 13. The smaller one was about to give birth, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.

Since oarfish dive below 3,000 feet, they are rarely seen, especially alive. An exception was the oarfish captured by oil rig video cameras in the Gulf of Mexico a couple of years ago.

The latest oarfish incident was witnessed by between 50 and 75 beachgoers, some of whom called police, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. Officer Mark Bussey responded and snapped a photo before a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to measure and retrieve it. It was cut into sections and divvied up for study, the newspaper said.

Milton Love, a research biologist at the Marine Science Institute, told the Los Angeles Times that the deaths are most likely linked. A current probably dragged them both from the still, deep waters they are accustomed to navigating into a turbulent area closer to shore, which they were not adapted for, he said.

The bottom line, though, is that scientists have no idea what killed these creatures, said Russ Vetter, director of the fisheries resource division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, to the Los Angeles Times. He helped dissect the more recent fish find.

“With a rare event like this, it is a bit troubling, but it’s a total mystery,” he told the newspaper.

The deaths brought Japanese legend to the minds of many. A good 10 of the creatures washed ashore in Japan in 2010, about a year before the March 2011, 8.9-magnitude earthquake that shook the northeastern part of the country and spawned the tidal wave that wiped out thousands of people, the Union Tribune reported.

Scientists cautioned against assuming that potential seismic activity undetected by scientific instruments could be picked up on by marine life. But they did not completely dismiss the idea that deep-sea oil drilling or climate change’s effects on ocean currents could contribute to cause of death in otherwise healthy animals.

“The number of oarfish that beach themselves worldwide in a year is typically either one or zero, so this is unusual,” Love told the Union Tribune. “It’s possible any of those theories are true. I think it’s a little early to say anything.”

Federal Indictment: Man Accused of Defrauding Nonprofit Dedicated to Natives of $4 Million

ICTMN Staff, 10/22/13

Brian James Brown, 56, the former president of a national nonprofit that addresses the critical issues and disparities facing Native Americans, is accused of conspiring to defraud that organization, National Relief Charities, of $4 million under the guise of using the money to fund scholarships for Native students, according to federal prosecutors. The indictment also accuses him of laundering proceeds.

On the morning of Sunday, October 20 at Portland International Airport, FBI and IRS agents arrested Brown when he stepped off a plane after returning from a month-long trip to Thailand and Japan, reported KPTV in Beaverton, Oregon.

In court on October 21, Brown pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. He was released pending trial set for December 17. He has been ordered to surrender his passport, wear a GPS-monitoring ankle strap, and not leave his house from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

“…[When] we became aware of a potential problem, we had our attorney conduct an investigation or initiate an investigation,” Helen Oliff, the public relations representative for National Relief Charities told Indian Country Today Media Network. “Based on the findings, we alerted the FBI. They took it from there.

“We also filed a suit in civil court in Texas, which is where we have headquarters. And that court issued a default judgement against Brown, requiring him to repay the funds with interest and legal fees,” Oliff added.

Brown stepped down from president of National Relief Charities in 2005, when he established a nonprofit of his own, Charity One, Inc., operating under the name “American Indian Education Endowment Fund.”

Brown reportedly convinced National Relief Charities to fund his nonprofit’s purported efforts to help cover the costs of higher education for Native Americans with $4 million from 2006 to 2009, reported OregonLive.com.

“Instead,” the government states in a news release, “Brown and unnamed co-conspirators allegedly used the entire $4 million for their personal benefit.”

The indictment alleges National Relief Charities mailed monthly checks of copy00,000 and $200,000 to Charity One, based in Beaverton, Oregon. Brown reportedly provided National Relief Charities with false financial statements, showing the money went to just causes.

This isn’t the first time Brown has been charged with misuse of nonprofit funds. In 1993, Pennsylvania’s attorney general accused Brown and the American Indian Relief Council, a subsidiary of National Relief Charities, of “exploiting Native Americans in South Dakota and caring Americans nationwide by collecting millions of dollars on the pretext of feeding starving tribes, while pocketing all but about 4 percent of the proceeds,” reported PhoenixNewTimes.com.

However, Oliff said, “there was no finding of wrong doing.”

National Relief Charities supports the initiatives of over 1,000 organizations located on reservations. In 2012, the nonprofit provided over $30 million in support of basic humanitarian needs to Native Americans in the Plains and Southwest, such as nutrition, education and training, preventative healthcare and emergency relief, states its annual report.

Yeah, the Government Is Open; How Come the News Ahead Is Worse?

By Mark Trahant, ICTMN

The government is back in business and now there are lots of questions. What was all that about, anyway? What’s next? And what’s the best course for Indian country?

To answer the first question you have to think on multiple tracks. Yes, the government was shuttered because of Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Mike Lee, and the House Republicans that combined to fight the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

But that was never really the fight. It was only a distraction.

The primary division is simpler: It’s about the role of government and how to pay for that government. This is the debate that Republicans – and some of their Democratic allies – have already won, the austerity framework. It starts with the premise that federal spending is “out of control” and therefore dramatic steps must be taken.

It’s a faulty premise but the results are a disproportionate impact on Indian country.

Indian country has an oversized and direct relationship with the federal government so deep spending cuts wipe out both investment and opportunity. That means less money for schools (which is future opportunity), less for economic development, and less money in general for local government (healthcare is a different story … more about that in a series I have coming soon on the Affordable Care Act & Indian country).

Beyond Indian country, the problem with austerity is that it does not work. It starts a cycle of general economic decline, instead of “saving” money for taxpayers (now or future ones). The government shutdown is a case in point: It cost billions of dollars in terms of economic output. It made the problem worse, not better. Ireland will soon be the first country to move past the austerity terms of its bailout. But the budget cuts continue and the damage to the country is severe. As Stephen Kinsella writes in Foreign Affairs: “The real threat to Ireland’s recovery is demographic. A recent survey found that young Irish people have no savings whatsoever. Their consumption levels are far below those of their European counterparts. With more babies born this year than in any other since 1891, Ireland’s only boom in the next few years will be in people.” This sentence could be Indian country. Only we have no where to go.

So what’s ahead? The deep divide over austerity remains. The Senate budget “fully replaces the harmful cuts from sequestration with smart, balanced, and responsible deficit reduction, which would save hundreds of thousands of jobs while protecting families, communities, and the fragile economic recovery.” While The House budget “cuts government spending to protect hardworking taxpayers.” So in order to meet in the middle, the two Houses will have to resolve their differences and (key word here is and) then get a majority of votes in both the House and Senate. Democrats will have to be happy with austerity and Republicans will have to live with more spending. There needs to be a resolution of these differences before January 15, 2014, when a new round of budget cuts will be required under the sequestration law (The Budget Control Act) that continues every year until 2021.

And, finally, what’s the best course for Indian country in this budget maze? The National Congress of American Indians report the Senate level of appropriations remain short of what’s required. The Interior budget, for example, accounting for inflation, “the Senate level is 11 percent below FY10,” NCAI said. “The House proposed level would drop critical tribal governmental services to 19 percent below the FY10 level.” NCAI said tribes are losing ground for critical governmental services.

The ideal would be for Congress to consider treaty obligations separately from the budget. A smaller scale solution might be trying to convince the Congress to forward fund more tribal programs, so that the money will not be at risk every time there’s another fight in Congress.

But forget the ideal in this Congress. We’ll be lucky to get a resolution of any kind. And that means more austerity for Indian country.

Mark Trahant is the 20th Atwood Chair at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is a journalist, speaker and Twitter poet and is a member of The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Join the discussion about austerity. Comment on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/IndianCountryAusterity.