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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