Interior’s Norton insults tribes by rejecting their unanimous voice
Offering insults rather than consultation, tribal leaders say Norton is clueless about Indian country

 
By Brenda Norrell
Pechanga Net
 
ALBUQUERQUE – American Indian tribes unanimously rejected a proposed BIA reorganization crafted behind their backs, and were insulted when Interior Secretary Gale Norton said she would proceed with her plan anyway.
 
“Absolutely unbelievable!” Hoopa Valley Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall said in the audience when Norton announced she would not withdraw her proposal.
 
“Why are we here?” asked Marshall.
 
“We are simply asking to be consulted, not insulted,” Navajo President Kelsey Begaye told Norton and BIA Director Neal McCaleb during daylong testimony at the Hyatt Regency downtown.
 
Indian leaders from every corner of America rejected the Interior’s proposed BIA reorganization, from the villages of Alaska to the Great Plains, from the mountains of Washington state to the Sonoran Desert and streets of California, every tribal leader and every American Indian organization rejected it.
 
Norton said she would proceed anyway.
 
“Secretary Norton is in a big hurry to get herself out of trouble,” Ernie Stensgar, chairman of the Couer D’Alene Tribe in Idaho, said of the ongoing federal lawsuit of missing billions in trust fund dollars.
 
“Stop!” he said of the costly reorganization plan.
 
“ Pull back the $300 million!”
 
Dee Pigsley, chairwoman of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz in Oregon, summed up Norton’s approach.
 
In her address, Pigsley said the meeting was served up this way: “Do you like it? Well, it might be too bad.”
 
Soft-spoken Rita Martinez, Tohono O’odham from the border of Mexico and Arizona, asked Norton why she could not withdraw the proposed reorganization, which would create the Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management.
 
“Why not?” Martinez asked Norton.
 
Norton responded, “I made a good faith presentation to the court that we are committed to reforming the trust fund.
 
“I am going to stick by that.”
 
Susan Williams, attorney for Hualapai and other tribes, told Norton and McCaleb they are proceeding in violation of federal law.
 
 “Federal law requires you to withdraw your proposal until you have consulted with the tribes.”
 
The Navajo Nation presented the Interior with a Freedom of Information request to obtain all documents involving the proposed reorganization and requested that consultation be halted until tribes are given the documents. However, the consultation was not halted.
 
Tohono O’odham Chairman Edward Manuel said the consultation violated the true spirit of consultation and federal regulations and guidelines.
 
Jauna Majel, Pauma from Calif., said any mention of the meeting in the Federal Register classifying it as consultation must be removed.
 
“We can not have consultation without documents before us.”
 
Reminding the Interior of the sovereignty and history of Indian Nations, she said, “We have lived long lives of the theft of our lands.”
 
Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in Washington state, found the Interior’s approach unbelievable.
 
“You come here today with a proposal I can’t see or read.” Cladoosby said the picture hasn’t changed much in the past 140 years.
 
After tribal leaders said they have no documents concerning a BIA reorganization, Norton said, “We wanted to get you involved before we had all the details laid out.”
 
Norton’s comment dumbfounded most tribal leaders, attorneys and media in the packed ballroom at the Hyatt.
 
Oglala Sioux Chairman John Yellow Bird-Steele said the proposed reorganization without consultation smacks of the abrogation of treaty rights.
 
Yellow Bird-Steele, from Pine Ridge in South Dakota, issued a warning to tribal leaders. “We have heard the likes of this before when smallpox blankets were pased out.
 
“The weather was very cold.”
 
Adamant that reasoning with the Interior was futile, he said, “Let’s get unanimous in our opposition instead of trying to reason with them.”
 
Indian leaders reminded Norton of the realms of trust and the sacred responsibilities to the land and people.
 
“We stand here today and talk about trust and reforming trust, but we have not talked about what trust is,” said Mike Jandreau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
 
“A trust is not just money.” Dollars and resources are nothing without the cultural idealism necessary for American Indian survival, he said.
 
Shoshone Chairman Ivan Posey from Wyoming said, “We do not own the land, the land owns us. We are Caretakers of the land.”
 
When Walla Walla and other tribal leaders attempted to impress on the Interior the sacred nature of American Indian decision making, they were rudely interrupted with, “Your five minutes are up.”
 
“I’ve given you our best shot,” Norton said.
 
Teresa Montgomery, vice chairman of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone in Nevada, told Norton and McCaleb the process was an insult.
 
“It is an insult to my tribe and the tribal leaders present.”
 
Hualapai Vice Chairwoman Carrie Imus said Norton had also insulted her people. “Your proposed actions threaten our people, our tall pines, our lands in the canyon, and our precious Colorado River.”
 
Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, told the Interior, “We are greatly concerned that this plan is repeating the failures of past trust reform efforts.”
 
Hall said it offers only a “short term cosmetic change,” to the Interior’s long-term history of squandering tribal resources and dollars.
 
“Creating a new agency does not create trust reform.”
 
As for the Interior’s method, Hall said, “Announce and defend is not consultation.”
 
Jonathan Windy Boy, Chippewa Cree chairman of the Council of Large Land Based Tribes, faced Norton directly rather than the audience. Pointing out that his coalition represents 66 percent of the landmass of Indian country, he said the tribes are unanimous in rejecting the proposal and demanding an affirmation of tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
 
“This proposal has odors of termination,” said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam in Washington state, questioning if the Interior still has an interest in the empowerment of Indian tribes.
 
“This idea is a bad idea,” he said of the proposed reorganization.
 
Olney Patt, Sr., chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Ore., said of the reorganization, “This is simply a shifting of boxes.”
 
Hoopa Valley Chairman Marshall came right to the point about the proposed appointment of Ross Swimmer, seated with the Interior, who would serve as  a new assistant secretary on trust fund operations.
 
“Mr. Swimmer is not the person for this restructuring,” Marshall said.
 
“This proposal must be withdrawn. I will not step in front of a moving train.
 
“This proposal has absolutely no support from Indian country. Would it be possible for you to acknowledge this today and withdraw this proposal before you leave?” Marshall asked.
 
“This is not consultation, this is a scoping meeting,” said San Juan Pueblo Vice President Joe Garcia, joined by other New Mexico Pueblo leaders rejecting the proposal.
 
Many tribal leaders questioned just how familiar Norton is with Indian country.
 
In conclusion, Norton said, “I would like to hear alternatives, we haven’t heard a lot of these today.”
 
Norton said a task force to consider the reorganization, recommended by Hall, may be a possibility.
 
As a clincher, Norton said she strongly supports the self-determination option tribes have of withdrawing their trust funds from the Interior.
 
At the end of the day, Norton was resolute in her decision not to rescind the BIA reorganization presented to federal court in the case of missing billions in trust fund dollars where she is facing contempt of court charges.
 
But Norton admitted she had not known what she was up against.
 
“I understand it is going to be a much more difficult process than I thought it might be, but I do want to work with you.”
 
While Indian leaders nationwide were rejecting the reorganization, Senators Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle urged the Senate Select Committee in Washington not to approve the Interior’s request for reallocation of hundreds of million of dollars for the creation of the new Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management.
 
With the Interior’s website and e-mail shut down, following a federal judge’s orders to halt the possible theft of trust fund dollars, BIA and tribes across the nation found many services halted.
 
While some leaders called the Interior’s meeting a “dog and pony show,” others found it hard to believe that Norton would take no action based on the unanimous voice of Indian leaders and withdraw the BIA reorganization plan.
 
Hoopa Chairman Marshall asked, “If she didn’t want to hear us, why did she ask for our input?”

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