Interior Department Seeks Tribal Comments on New Consultation Policy

On Nov. 25, the Department of the Interior announced the launch of a new effort to develop a department-wide policy on tribal consultation. The new policy will be developed with input from the nation’s 564 federally recognized tribes.

The action follows President Obama’s Nov. 5 executive memorandum that directs all federal departments and agencies to develop a “plan of actions” to implement the policies and directives of Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, issued by President Clinton on Nov. 6, 2000.

DOI is seeking tribal comments via e-mail, regular mail and in real-time meetings by Jan. 15, 2010, regarding what parameters a comprehensive Interior Department-wide consultation policy should include.

To view “Tribal Consultation, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies” and “Executive Order 13175 – Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments,” visit www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/AS-IA/Consultation/index.htm and scroll down to the section “Presidential and BIA Tribal Consultation Documents.”

DOI May Change Rule on Where Tribal Casinos Can be Located

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Obama Administration may reverse an Interior Department regulation that tribal casinos must be within commuting distance of the tribe’s reservation. If the directive, issued by the Bush Administration, is reversed, it could spur a new wave of casinos in Indian Country and assist state governments, some of which receive payments from the tribes based on casino revenue. George Skibine, deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, told the WSJ that he expects a decision on whether the policy will be changed "fairly soon".

Budget has $4 billion for IHS

President Obama’s 2010 budget, released at 11 a.m., includes over $4 billion for the Indian Health Service. In a 140-page budget overview, Obama said the $4 billion would build on the $500 million in economic stimulus money already headed for health care in Indian Country.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will see a $100 million increase for law enforcement and education. Additional funding through the department of justice is available. The budget overview also said there would be an increase in funding for tribal colleges and scholarships. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is also getting $490 million in stimulus money.

Obama is also proposing a 2 percent cap on pay raises for civilian federal employees and a 2.9 percent cap for the military.

Tribal Police Will be Able to Make Arrests on Federal Charges

By Monday more than 50 tribal police officers from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation may have earned special law enforcement certificates that will allow them to enforce federal laws on Indian reservations, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

The officers are about to complete a three-day training program with the BIA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. Pending the successful completion of an exam being given today, the officers will be able to make arrests on federal charges, including federal misdemeanors and felony violations. 

Sisseton Family Sues Feds for Wrongful Death

The family of a Sisseton man who killed himself during his 2006 arrest is suing the federal government for wrongful death. 

A Bureau of Indian Affairs officer arrested 20-year-old Kenneth Block at his home in April 2006, according to the complaint. The police officer allowed Block, who was told he was being arrested on a felony warrant, to go back into his house on his own. 

Block shot and killed himself while the officer waited in his car, the complaint states. The family is seeking $2 million.

Read more about it here.

Worker-Starved Welding Industry Woos Native Americans

Despite climbing unemployment rates, some trades still face worker shortages, one of them being welding. As others have done in the past, this industry is turning to Native Americans to increase its pool.

As reported by Industry Week on Nov. 1, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting, a trade union, has joined forces with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to recruit and train Native Americans. Together, they created a fast-track, 16-week apprenticeship welder program to move more into the field quickly. Late this summer, 19 Natives had enrolled in the program, which is being run by Local 597, the union’s Chicago-area chapter. The program is expected to expand, with one already in the works for the Phoenix area.

BIA Closes Pine Ridge Jail

The Bureau of Indian Affairs closed down the jail at Pine Ridge Thursday, saying it was unsafe for inmates and staff, the Associated Press reports. Prisoners were transferred to a newer facility operated by the tribe. Tribal officials said they received little notice that the BIA planned to close the jail. Last Thursday, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., released a draft study on the state of BIA jails. “The report confirms what so many in Indian Country have known all along—the tribal justice system is unbelievably broken,” Dorgan said in a statement announcing the release of the report.

BIA Sued for Buffalo Round-up on Crow Reservation

George and Nelvette Siemion, of Fort Smith, Mont., have filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for confiscating their buffalo off land they thought they had leased from the agency, according to the Billings Gazette. For almost 40 years, the couple has operated the White Buffalo Ranch on the Crow Reservation. This past spring they discovered the leases they thought they had been awarded through a bid process were awarded to other ranchers. They claim the BIA didn't follow fair bidding practices and bypassed rules that for decades had given Nelvette, a member of the Crow Tribe, preference on tribal land leases. Read more about it here.

BIA Limits Casino Locations

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Friday published a rule that says casinos should be located within 25 miles of a reservation headquarters. However it did allow for exception. Tribes may seek reservation status and permission to operate casinos on newly acquired land away from a reservation if tribes can show that a significant number of tribal members live nearby, can demonstrate a current connection to the property or if other tribal government facilities have been located on the land for at least two years before an application is filed for new reservation land. Read more about it here.

BIA Says Tribe's Court Order Invalid

The Bureau of Indian Affairs says a Seneca-Cayuga court order reinstating former Seneca-Cayuga Chief Paul Spicer is not valid. Last week Spicer attempted to take control of the tribe’s casino, citing the court order as the basis for his actions. Read more about it here.

Interior IG Accuses Trustee of Steering Lucrative Accounting Contract to Friend

In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Department of Interior Inspector General accuses a special deputy trustee with the Office of Special Trustee for American Indians in Albuquerque of pressuring members of a three-person team in 2005 to give a valuable risk-management contract to a friend, despite what some contractors called a superior and cheaper offer by another company.

The trustee’s friend was a partner in an Albuquerque accounting firm, which won the $987,000 contract. The contract was modified 14 times over nearly a two-year period and ultimately increased to $2.4 million. Read more about this in the Washington Post.

Government and NGS Sign Geotourism Agreement

Five U.S. governmental agencies, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the National Geographic Society have signed an agreement promoting geotourism. The agreement was signed Tuesday in Washington, DC, with the goal of preserving and enhancing the natural and cultural heritage of the nation’s public lands and waters.

Geotourism refers to tourism that helps sustain or enhance the geographical character of a place -- its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and well-being of its residents. Read more about it here.

Interior Leery of Strong Tribal Advocates

Personnel conflicts at Interior may have lead to Carl Artman’s early departure from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. His duties will be assumed by George Skibine, who will maintain his post deputy assistant secretary for Policy and Economic Development.

According to an article in Indian Country Today, Skibine won out over Artman’s heir apparent Majel Russell, because Russell’s strong advocacy for tribal governments did not set well with Interior Department officials. Artman too was viewed as too supportive of tribal governments, the article said. Hmm ... you’d think that would be viewed as a good quality for the assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. Indian leaders told ICT they expect Skibine to demonstrate the same commitment to tribes.

Skibine to Assume Duties of Assistant Secretary at BIA

We're still waiting for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to confirm, but it's already out in Indian Country that George Skibine will assume the duties of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The job was left open last week when Carl Artman's resignation became effective on May 23.

Skibine, an enrolled member of the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma, has served as acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary since April 2007. Prior to that, he was Director of the Office of Indian Gaming Management and acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development – Indian Affairs. His experience at the Interior Department includes having served as an attorney and later as Deputy Associate Solicitor for the Division of Indian Affairs within the Office of the Solicitor after having spent several years at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Skibine holds an economics degree from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

IBIA Sides with Tribe in Realty Transaction with BIA

The Interior Board of Indian Appeals dealt a setback to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in its effort withhold money from a realty contract with the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. On appeal by the BIA, the board upheld the administrative law judge’s decision that the BIA had not proven the duties performed by a Realty Specialist were functions that could not have been contracted to the tribe under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The BIA had withheld funding to the tribe because, it said, a portion of the available funding needed to be retained by the BIA to hire a realty specialist to perform duties that were federal responsibilities and that could not be contracted to the tribe. The tribe appealed to the Administrative Law Judge who ruled that the BIA's formula for calculating funding to the tribe was arbitrary and unreasonable. The ALJ also said that the BIA had not proven that the duties performed at the agency level could only be performed by federal employees. Therefore, the ALJ determined, the agency’s entire realty service budget was available for Self-D contracting.

Kempthorne Praises Artman's Leadership at BIA

Yesterday, Indian Country was abuzz with the rumor that Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Carl Artman had resigned. By the end of the day, the rumor proved to be fact, confirmed by an announcement from Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne.

In his letter of resignation, Artman gave no reason for his resignation, which comes just nine months before the end of the Bush Administration. At the regional directors meeting in Albuquerque last week, Artman said he was resigning for many reasons, one of them being a desire to relocate and settle his children in a new area before the start of the school year.

Artman, a member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, was confirmed to the post on March 5, 2007. Before that, he served as the Interior’s Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs. He also served as director of the Federal Affairs and Chief Legal Counsel and as chief operating officer of Airadigm, a tribally owned telecommunications company in Wisconsin.

Just last week, Artman and South Dakota Sen. John Thune unveiled their joint proposal for a South Dakota Indian and Tribal Business Incubator Project to help accelerate economic development throughout the state’s nine reservations, which the tribes are praising.

In a letter to Artman, Kempthorne praised him for "The Indian Modernization Initiative." The initiative, "developed and launched under Carl’s leadership, has upgraded communications between tribal leaders and the Department on a number of priority issues,” Kempthorne said.

Artman Resigns

Carl J. Artman has reportedly resigned his position as assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, effective May 23. A spokesperson for the BIA, Nedra Darling, could not confirm Artman's resignation, saying he was in flight and unavailable. But according to sources, Artman announced his resignation last week at a BIA regional directors' meeting in Albuquerque.

Students and staff endangered in structurally deficient BIA schools

Severe health and safety deficiencies at the Chinle Boarding School in Many Farms, Ariz., endanger the lives of close to 500 students and staff members, according to a report released by the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General.

Severe structural cracks and unstable foundations exerted pressure on natural gas lines, electrical wires and boiler room components. Escaping natural gas or electrical discharges from damaged pipelines or wiring could result in explosions and loss of life, the report said.

The report details the health and safety issues endangering DOI staff at a number of Department of Interior facilities around the country, including 13 elementary and secondary schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Bureau of Indian Education. Deterioration at the schools inspected by the OIG ranged from minor deficiencies like leaking roofs to major deficiencies like structural weaknesses, outdated electrical systems and inadequate fire detection and suppression systems. In fact, the BIE told the OIG that 69 of its 184 elementary and secondary schools and dormitories are in poor condition.

At the Shonto Preparatory School in Shonto, Ariz., inspectors found significant electrical deficiencies that increased the risk of fire and endangered the lives of the 550 students who attend classes there. Inspectors found duct tape placed over a circuit breaker to prevent it from tripping, electrical extension cords routed through brick walls and dangling from ceilings and fire alarm system that didn’t work. The school’s ongoing rodent problem poses a risk for hantavirus.

This latest report restates many of the same structural deficiencies cited last May when the OIG issued a Flash Report, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education: Schools in Need of Immediate Action.

Despite the dire predictions in that report and recommendations for immediate step to mitigate the issues, the BIE FY 2009 school construction budget was cut by about $30.5 million from 2008. Included within this request amount is $115.4 million for Education Construction, a reduction of $27.6 million from the 2008 enacted level. The FY 2009 request fully funds the replacement of the Dennehotso Boarding School, a K-8 on-reservation boarding school in Arizona, and replaces buildings at the Chinle Boarding School. The Education Construction request also includes funding for facilities improvement and repair projects including $50.7 million for annual maintenance. In addition, employee housing is funded at $1.6 million.

Indian Preference Expanded

The U.S. Department of Interior must give preference to qualified Indians for all positions within the Department of Interior that relate to the provision of services to American Indians, not just the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Indian Educators Federation v. Kempthorne (Civil No. 04-01215). The Indian Educators Federation argued that Section 12 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 mandates employment preference for American Indians employed in any position in the Department of Interior that directly and primarily relates to the provision of services to American Indians. In ruling for the organization, the court examined the Interior Department’s historical interpretation of Section 12 and the meaning of the term “Indian Office,” as used in the act. Though acknowledging that the term is ambiguous in the Act, the court determined that the ambiguity should be “construed liberally to favor the Indians.”