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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2013)
Spiiyay Tymoo, Wgi-m Springs, Oregon Page 5 January 9, 2013 Local support for ‘Idle No More’ cause By Yvonne Iverson Spilyay Tymoo W a rm Springs community members gathered to show support to Chief Spence and ‘Idle N o More’ at the Com munity Center on New Years Eve. Carlos Calica'sent out the event notice on Facebook on Sunday, and by noon M on day a group filled the Social Hall to show their support. O n the day o f the event Chief Spence was on Day, 20 o f a hunger strike, w hich S pence w ould en d once granted a, meeting with the Canadian government and the Prime Minister. Prim e M inister Stephen H arp er’s office released a statem ent on Friday, Jan. 4, declaring that he would attend a meeting with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, as well as other Assembly o f First Nations (AFN) chiefs onjan. 11. As folks c o n tin u e d to g ath er d u rin g ¿heir lunch hour, Carlos Calica, event organizer, explained: I “O ur relatives are fighting for their rights given through treaty. We will sing two songs, one being the Chief Song, as I feel it appropriate as she is a leader for all Native nations N orth and South.” In an interview with Ca nadian news channel CBC, Cheif Spence explained that she is not directly related to ‘Idle N o More,’ although she is aware o f the grassroots ef forts to raise awareness for Treaty rights and environ mental protections. Kayla Tufti, who was in town from Eugene, explained her understanding o f how the Id le N o M ore g ra ssro o ts movement began: “Bill C45 is a omnibus bill (which means) it is a bunch o f bills compiled into one, so that they can’t focus on the details. They just pass it all in one. T hat stripped the First Nations Treaty Rights to wa ter and land.” According to their website, Idle N o M ore began w ith four ladies w ho felt it was urgent to act on legislation that not only affects our First N a tions people but the rest o f Canada’s citizens, lands and waters. M ore in fo rm a tio n and news about the Idle N o More e ffo rts a t th e ir w ebsite: www.idlenomore.ca Later in the ’Week, another support event was scheduled to take place in Madras on Highway 97. Yvonne Iverson photos. Changes in university diversity office questioned E U G E N E (AP) - Leaders o f Eugene’s Native Ameri can, African-Am erican and H ispanic com m unities m et last week to question the Uni versity o f Oregon’s decision to restructure its O ffice o f Institution Equity and Diver sity The contracts o f three as sistant vice presidents were discontinued and the office has been renamed the Office o f Institutional Equity and Inclusion. Top: Drummers sing an Honor Song and Round Dance Song. Above: Carlos Calica explains why he called the gathering. Right: Participants show their support with signs. Tana Atchley o f the O r egon Indian Education Asso ciation said it was disrespect ful to make the changes with out consulting tribes. T h e vice p re s id e n t in charge o f the new office, Yvette Alex-Assensoh, said the university is shifting to a “distributed model” in which matters o f equity, inclusion an d d iv ersity w ill be everyone’s work rather than the sole responsibility o f an individual. Per capita taxation issue resolving in tribes’ favor By Dave Palermo Advocate and author I t was during a September hearing o f the H ouse Sub com m ittee on In d ian and Alaska N ative A ffairs that Rep. D on Young, D-Alaska, grew a bit impatient with wit ness Christy Jacobs, director o f th e In te rn a l R evenue Service’s O ffice o f Indian Tribal Governments, At issue was an April let ter from the IRS P ortland office that stated per capita paym ents from tribal trust resources to citizens o f the C o n fe d e ra te d T rib es o f Warm Springs could be sub ject to taxation, reversing sev eral decades o f federal policy that per capita payments are tax exempt. A similar letter was sent to the Yakama N a tion. “Christy, I ’m a litde con fused,” Young said. “Where did this idea com e from ? W hich brainchild and w hat area o f the m oon did they come from? “D id we have some little e n erg etic in d iv id u al th a t thinks, ‘I ’ll go get those In dian tribes [and] they have to pay their money?”’ Jacobs acknowledged the letter was a massive mistake. " “I do not believe that per capita p ay m en ts m ade to tribal members pursuant to the Per Capita Act from trust resources are taxable,’’ she said. The very notion Treasury and the IRS would consider taxing per capita payments from tribal resources, exempt under the Per Capita Act o f 1983, struck Young as a gross injustice. “Per capita payments are not governm ent handouts,” Young said. “They are ben efits that belong to Indians secure in terms o f negotiated treaties and statutes whereby tribes ceded tens o f millions o f acres o f land to the United States. “If would be a grave injus tice to tax revenues originated from lands” held in tribal trusts, he said. A m erican In d ian tribes have for several years been monitoring and at times fend ing o ff efforts by Treasury and the IRS to revise or rein terpret the tax status o f tribal governments. Fortunately for indigenous communities, recent moves to alter the taxability o f per capita payments from tribal trust resources and re-exam ine the tax exempt status o f health care and social welfare programs funded by casino revenues have been resolved to the benefit o f tribes. A D e c e m b e r T reasu ry guidance d o cu m en t states that per capital payments to citizens o f som e 40 tribes arising out o f the recent fed eral trust,settlem ent lawsuit will n o t be included in the individual’s gross income for tax purposes. A n o th e r th re a t was averted Dec. 5, when Trea sury and the IRS unveiled a revised draft o f the General W elfare E xclusion (GW E) doctrine that, in effect, rec ognizes that m ost tribal gov ernm ent services are to re main tax exempt, even those funded w ith gambling rev enues. The draft GW E doctrine was the result o f m onths o f consultations between Trea sury, the IRS and the Inter tribal Organization Tax Ini tiative (IO T I), a coalition com prised o f the N ational Congress o f American Indi ans, N ativ e A m erican F i nance O fficers A ssociation (NAFOA), United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) and the California Association o f Tribal Governments. The GW É doctrine gener ally calls for the 1RS to con tinue to exempt from taxation m ost social service programs provided by state, municipal, county and trib al g o v ern ments. C om m ents on the draft doctrine are open till June 3. To their credit, Treasury and 1RS officials were willing to work with IO T I in settling the long simmering dispute over the tax status o f social programs for this country’s indigenous citizens, many o f w hom remain locked in cy clical poverty and unemploy ment. “ [1RS and Treasury] were very interested in w hat the tribes had to say,” said Lynn M alerb a, c h ie f o f th e Mohegan Tribe o f Connecti cut and U SET’s representa- tivè to IOTI. “This wasn’t adversarial at all. It was a very cordial ef fo rt and the 1RS and Trea sury ... incorporated a lot o f th eir com m ents in to their guidance.” “Treasury and the 1RS are now publicly com m itted to issuing new written guidelines on this subject,” Aaron Klein, Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for economic policy c o o rd in a tio n , said o f th e agency’s doctrine on the tax exempt status o f social ser vice p rogram s o ffe re d by state, local and tribal govern ments. “In doing so we will re main m indful b f the com ments and position thought fully articulated by tribes and tribal leaders.” £ T h e p ro g re ss m ade in tribal consultations with the 1RS and Treasury should be applauded. “The consultations with the 1RS have w o rk e d ,” said NAFOA Executive Director D a n te D e sid ario . “T h e agency is taking the tribal con cerns seriously.” But what remains discon certing is the apparently igno rance o f tribal self-gover nance and the economic state o f tribal com m unities that planted the seeds o f 1RS and T reasu ry su sp ic io n s and, eventually, the assault o f au ditors on tribal lands. 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