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.