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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1987)
page 9 INDIAN LEADERS SEEK REMOVAL OF BIA HEAD Amid increasing opposition in Indian country and in Congress to policy plans of Interior Assistant Secretary Ross 0. Swimmer, Indian leaders have intensi fied efforts to remove the former Cherokee chief from his post as head of the Bureau. of Indian Affairs. Swimmer's initiatives drawing criticism include transferring the management of BIA elementary and secondary schools over to tribes or local educational agencies; imposing a $850 tuition charge at BIA post secondary schools, implementing a 15 flat administrative fee in lieu of indirect costs on tribal administration budgets, transferring $1.7 billion in Indian trust funds over to Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh ( a bank reported to be in financial trouble) , and transferring BIA management of for ests over to private companies. According to Swimmer, the initiatives . chancre and reflect "a different wav of doing business" in Indian Country. However, Tribal Indian leaders across the nation see the Swimmer policies as leading to termination and as an at tempt to getting the federal government out of Indian trust reponsibilities. Opposition to Swimmer's initiatives has grown stronger in the last few months. "He says he wants to teach us the les- enna ho Vaimari aa an olcred frlhal official," said National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President Reu ben A. Snake, Jr., "but he must have experienced the Reagan syndrome and forgot everything." On March 11, 1987 the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee marked up the FY 1987 Supplemental Appropriations bill. Items affecting the BIA included Rill lanmiarro nrnh 1 h 1 1-4 ner 'the charaincr of tuition fees at the post-secondary schools until action is taken on the FY 1988 bill, bill language prohibiting implementation of regulations estab- 'lUhlnn a 1RI flat- rats for indirect costs until action is taken on the FY 1O0O V411 Alii lanrmana nrnhthitinrf the Bureau from entering into the Mel lon contract until all accounting has been completed and until the tribes and the Congress are further consulted. As a result, the BIA announced in a news release on March 13, 1987, that it would reopen' competition for financial management services to handle the $1.7 billion or Indian trust xunas. swimmer also ordered the 12 BIA area directors to call "consultation" meetings with Indian tribal leaders. Swimmer set a date of April 3, 1987 to have comments regarding his initiatives sent to his office, but said he would accept tribal responses to the initia tives throughout the year. In a March 20 hearing before the House Comittee on Interior and Insular Af fairs, Swimmer characterized his ini tiatives as "budget driven" and that the budget was "directed by the tribes." Swimmer told the Committee Members that his schools-transfer pro posal was an effort to "get tribes in volved in the education of their chil dren" and that he had "changed the in tent of 638" to use the self-determination contracting law to encourage tribal contacts. Representatives Bill Richardson (D N.M.) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D.Col.) noted that it is Congress that changes the intent of laws, not the Executive Branch. s NCAI Director Harjo, the only other witness at the March 20 hearing, took exception to the suggestion that tribes have not been involved in the education of their children and emphasized that there had been no consultation in In dian country on Swimmer's initiatives. On March 26, the House Appropriations Committee approved the Interior Subcommittee's action to stop the Swim mer initiatives until the end of this fiscal year, September 30, by prohibit ing use of FY 1987 monies to implement them. On March 30, 1987 seven Tribes walked out on a meeting in Spokane, Washing ton, which was called by the BIA's Portland area office at Swimmer's di rection as part of his nationwide at tempt to prove to Congress that he was consulting with Indian leaders on his initiatives. One by one, the tribal leaders stated for the record that they were not part of the "consultation" and walked out of the meeting. ' The seven Indian leaders issued a statement from an emergency caucus of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest In dians (ATNI) after their walk-out, voicing "united opposition to the Ross Swimmer agenda" and citing his "attempt to restart" plans to turn over the $1.7 billion in Indian trust monies to Mel lon Bank, to turn over the management of Indian-owned forests to private com panies and to turn over the BIA schools to states or third parties. ATNI President Allen V. Pinkham, Sr. , who also heads the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and is an NCAI Vice President, said that the "privatization would merely transfer the bureaucratic red tape of the Indian Bureau to private companies which are. far removed from the Indians, rather than the BIA putting its own house in order." Chairman Michael Pablo of the Confeder ated Salish and Kootenai Tribes said, "With Swimmer, real consultation is non-existent," and Chairman Joe Flett of the Spokane Tribe called the meeting "an attempt to coerce the local (BIA) agencies into supporting (Swimmer's) terminus policies." Chairman Mel To nasket of the Colville Confederated Tribes called the policies "organized disorganization designed to confuse and divide tribes." "Ross Swimmer himself is the real is sue. Until we get rid of him, this fight will go on", Tonasket said. ATNI was the first intertribal organi zation to call for Swimmer's removal in August of 1986, citing his lack of ap preciation and respect for Indian cul tural and traditional values. In September of 1986, the NCAI member ship at the 43rd Annual Convention also called for Swimmer's resignation or removal, citing the initiatives known at that time and his "refusal to conduct more than superficial meetings with Indian and Native leaders." PRESERVATION CONF. Perspective II on the American Indian Heritage: Indians, Historians, and Archaeologists is the title of a con ference sponsored by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Associa tion of Oregon Archaeologists. The conference will be held May 7-9, 1987, at the Kah-Nee-Ta Resort on the Warm Springs Reservation. For information contact Dick Ross, Professor of Anthro pology, OSU, at 754-4515, or Dan Matt son, Tribal Archaeologist, Confed erated Tribes of Warm Springs, 553-1161. COW CREEK BAND TO RECEIVE $1.5 MILLION The U.S. House Interior and Insular Affairs Comittee approved a bill Wednesday that would distribute $1.5 million to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians in Southern Oregon. The Cow Creeks are to receive the money as a settlement for the loss of lands involved in federal recogntion of the tribe in 1982. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Oregon., is similar to a bill approved by Congress last year but which died in the final days of the 99th Congress. Included in the bill is language de signed to resolve a dispute between rival groups within the tribe that led the Bureau of Indian Affairs to with hold contract funds from the tribe ear lier this year. The bill calls for the interest on the settlement fund to be used for housing, education and economic development. The bill now goes to the House Rules Committee and is expected to come up' for a vote later this month on the floor.
