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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2020)
2 JUNE 15, 2020 Smoke Signals General Council meeting 11 a.m. Sunday, June 28 Tribal Council nominations Tribal members can watch remotely through the Tribal website. NOTICE — Monthly Tribal Council Wednesday Meetings DATE TIME Wednesday, June 24..........................................................................10 a.m. Wednesday, July 8.............................................................................10 a.m. Wednesday, July 22...........................................................................10 a.m. Please note that these times and dates are subject to change if needed. sNok signflz PUBLICATIONS OFFICE 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347 1-800-422-0232, FAX: 503-879-2173 Website: www.smokesignals.org E-mail: news@grandronde.org Editorial.Board@grandronde.org Twitter: CTGRSmokeSignal www.facebook.com/SmokeSignalsCTGR/ www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDXdTzfGjzJ_j3NPpCrtcw Wyden questions CARES Act funding to Tribes By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden joined other Sen- ate colleagues in questioning the Trump administration’s formula used to allocate payments to Native American Tribes from the Coro- navirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act on Friday, May 29. In a letter, the senators asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to ensure that the disbursement formula is fully transparent and that all Tribes receive adequate funds to protect the health and safety of their peoples. A Harvard study found that the Treasury and Interior departments used Housing and Urban Devel- opment population data instead of enrollment data submitted by Tribes when it allocated the initial $4.8 billion in CARES Act funding and that might have resulted in an inaccurate and unfair distribution. According to the Harvard study, all nine Oregon Tribes received more money than they would have if Treasury had used Tribally sub- mitted enrollment numbers that were required to participate in the CARES Act funding. For instance, the Harvard study estimated that the Grand Ronde Tribe would have received $11.57 million instead of the estimated $32.94 million that Treasury’s al- location formula resulted in. On May 5, Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt an- nounced that the federal government was using Housing and Urban Devel- opment Indian Housing Block Grant population figures as the dataset for distributing CARES Act funds. “Since this announcement, we have received reports that call into question the validity … and raise the possibility that Treasury inac- curately calculated the first round of Tribal allocation payments,” the senators said. Treasury has not provided an explanation of how it accounted for Tribes not included in the IHGB population data or addressed its reliance on HUD’s population figures without prior consultation with Tribes. Treasury also had not released a list of Tribes and the amount of CARES Act funds they received. Congress allocated $8 billion to Tribes in late March, but a court ruled later that some of the money should be held for Alaska Native corporations in case they are deemed eligible. The ruling, however, allowed Treasury to start distributing 60 percent of the fund- ing to federally recognized Tribes. Treasury used population data from the Indian Housing Block Grant program to determine Trib- al allocations despite the fact that Tribes provided up-to-date en- rollment numbers in applying for CARES Act funding. Treasury requested that Tribes certify their enrollment citizen- ship populations as of Jan. 1 upon registering for CARES Act funds before the April 17 deadline. To qualify, Tribes were asked how many enrolled citizens they have, how many acres of land they own and how many people they employ. The departments of Interior and Treasury told Tribes that they needed the data to determine the allocations to each Tribe. “Given Treasury’s determination that ‘Tribal population is expected to correlate reasonably well with the amount of increased expendi- tures of Tribal governments related directly to the public health emer- gency,’ it is critically important that the population numbers it relied on are as accurate as pos- sible,” the senators wrote. “While Treasury has provided Tribes an opportunity to review the under- lying IHBG dataset, Treasury has not published any modifications to the dataset to allow Tribes affect- ed by the issues above to provide feedback and correct any potential errors or inaccuracies.” While Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes benefitted cumu- latively by more than $90 million in the initial disbursement of CARES Act funds, other Tribes received the minimum allocation of $100,000 because they did not participate in the housing program. For instance, the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma received the minimum disbursement of $100,000 because it was listed by Treasury has having zero citizens despite the Tribe having an en- rolled membership of approximate- ly 11,000 members, resulting in an estimated loss of $23.4 million in CARES Act funding. DEAN RHODES PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR 503-879-1463 DANIELLE FROST TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ STAFF WRITER 503-879-4663 PHOTOJOURNALIST 503-879-1961 dean.rhodes@grandronde.org danielle.frost@grandronde.org timothy.gonzalez@grandronde.org SAMUEL F. BRIGGS III JUSTIN PHILLIPS KAMIAH KOCH GRAPHIC DESIGN SPECIALIST 503-879-1416 PAGE DESIGNER 503-879-2190 SOCIAL MEDIA/ DIGITAL JOURNALIST 503-879-1461 samuel.briggs@grandronde.org justin.phillips@grandronde.org kamiah.koch@grandronde.org DEADLINE DATE ISSUE DATE monday, june 22 ...................july 1, 2020 monday, july 6 ....................july 15, 2020 monday, july 20 ...................aug. 1, 2020 wednesday, aug. 5 ............aug. 15, 2020 friday, aug. 21 ......................sept. 1, 2020 Editorial Policy smok signflz , a publication of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Communi- ty of Oregon, is published twice a month. No portion of this publication may be reprinted without permission. Our editorial policy is intended to encourage input from Tribal members and readers about stories printed in the Tribal newspaper. However, all letters received must be signed by the author, an address must be given and a phone number or e-mail address must be included for verification purposes. Full addresses and phone numbers will not be published unless requested. Letters must be 400 words or less. smok signflz reserves the right to edit letters and to refuse letters that are determined to contain libelous statements or personal attacks on individuals, staff, Tribal administration or Tribal Council. Not all letters are guaranteed publication upon submission. Letters to the editor are the opinions and views of the writer. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of smok signflz . Members of: Native American Journalists Association Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association 2020 Tribal Council tribalcouncil@grandronde.org Cheryle A. Kennedy Tribal Council Chairwoman — ext. 2352 cheryle.kennedy@grandronde.org Chris Mercier Tribal Council Vice Chair — ext. 1444 chris.mercier@grandronde.org Jon A. George Tribal Council Secretary — ext. 2355 Jack Giffen Jr. — ext. 2300 jack.giffen@grandronde.org Denise Harvey — ext. 2353 denise.harvey@grandronde.org Michael Langley — ext. 1777 michael.langley@grandronde.org Lisa Leno — ext. 1770 jon.george@grandronde.org lisaleno@grandronde.org Kathleen George Steve Bobb Sr. — ext. 2305 — ext. 4555 kathleen.george@grandronde.org steve.bobb@grandronde.org