Thursday, September 11, 2008
Former Paiute President Charged with Stealing from Tribe
It was reported in the Arizona Republic that the former president of the San Juan Southern Paiutes was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on 65 counts of theft, money laundering and false statements. The information came from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Southern Arizona. Evelyn James, 53, of Tuba City, has been under investigation by the FBI for 15 months. Between 2003 and 2005, the indictment says, San Juan Southern Paiutes received more than $2.6 million in federal grants for law enforcement, health care and other programs. According to the indictment, James began writing checks on tribal accounts, embezzling about $300,000 in 2005 alone. The indictment says nearly $225,000 earmarked for police salaries vanished in 2004, and officers were never hired. The story goes on to describe a tribe in chaos -- disputed elections, corruption and embezzlement. James served three terms as tribal president. During her reign, opponents said, tribal members were not allowed to see budgets, expense records or other financial documents.
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This is an epidemic it appears in Indian Country, especially among the gaming tribes. The NIGC that is suppose to be over seeing that checks and balances are in place just look the other direction. This is a very serious issue that require prompt attention of the various tribal goverments. They do not seem to have any problems with the abusive spending of money that belongs to their tribes. Although it may be ear mark for a specific purpose, they go ahead and steal anyway. I hope there are persons out there who pays attention to this serious problem. this is the exact same problem we have in Taos.
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