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[source: NativeNews; Mon, 07 Feb 2000 17:11:28]
 

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RAPID  CITY  JOURNAL
Sunday February 6, 2000

OGLALAS EYE TRADITIONAL GOVERNMENT
By Steven Barrett
Associated Press

PINE RIDGE---------On its surface, the three-week occupation
of the Oglala Sioux tribal headquarters building here is
about money.
The hundred or so American Indians who have kept
round-the-clock vigil at the headquarters since Jan.16 say
they are unhappy with the handling of the tribe's finances.
So far, they have succeeded in getting the tribal council to
suspend Treasurer Wesley " Chuck" Jacobs, whom they accuse
of mismanaging funds. They also have persuaded the council
to order an audit of tribal financial records from the past
five years.
But many of the protesters say the fiscal squabble is only
the latest manifestation of a form of tribal governance that
has not worked since it began more than six decades ago. And
they say the current government is simply resisting change.
Tribal council members counter that they are not opposed to
productive change. But they say the protest has taken an
inappropriate form.
Among the protesters' broader grievances is the tribal
council system set up after the 1934 Indian Reorganization
Act. Under the system, council members are elected from the
nine districts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. They
serve two-year terms.
The brief term of service on the council is part of the
problem, protester Webster Poor Bear argues.
"They are getting paid to limit their vision to two years,"
he said during a recent evening meeting of protesters in the
council room at the headquarters. The rapid change of focus
every time a new council comes in is contrary to both Lakota
tradtion and common sense, Poor Bear says. No business could
survive if it radically altered its goals and business
practices every other year, he said.
There is little hope for change under the existing system,
because council members have their minds made up about how
things should be done, Poor Bear said. He suggested that the
occupation has them nervous.
Floyd Hand suspects he knows why. He and others at the
meeting -- including some veterans of the 1973 uprising at
nearby Wounded Knee -- see this occupation as a defining
moment. It is a fulfillment of the promise of Wounded Knee,
Hand said, although the current battle is as much an
internal debate on the direction the tribe will take as it
is a reflection of Indian mistrust of Western institutions.
"When this thing was attempted in Wounded KNee 27 years ago,
we weren't quite ready," he said. "It's been spiritually
planned for 27 years... We have just begun to fight."
The 71 -day Wounded Knee standoff drew international
attention to the reservation when members of the American
Indian Movement seized control of the town to protest
reservation conditions and the federally backed tribal
government. When it was over, two protesters were dead and a
federal mashal was paralyzed.
JoAnn Tall, a protester from Porcupine, said the desire to
reconfigure tribal government has been growing for years.
Shannon County, which makes up most of the reservation, is
believed to be the poorist county in the nation.
"This... government hasn't worked, and it isn't going to
work," Tall said.
She does not claim that the transition to a more traditional
Lakota system will be easy or fast, however. "It's going to
take some time," Tall said.
But that's the whole point, according to Gerald "Jump" Big
Crow, a member of the tribal council.
He said he is not necessarily opposed to the protesters'
ultimate goal of greater self-determination. But
time-consuming constitutional procedures must not be
trampled, said Big Crow, who has served nine terms on the
council.
"I think we need some changes," he said. "But there's a
process we've got to go through. No matter how much you hate
this government, you've still got to go through this
process."
At any rate, Big Crow argues, jobs and money... not
philosophical differences----are driving at least some of
the protesters.
"A bunch of people started hollering and talking about
taking over and restructuring tribal government," Big Crow
said.
Many of the protesters are government workers appointed by
tribal President Harold Dean Salway, he said, and might not
be able to get jobs elsewhere on the reservation, where
unemployment is rampant.
Council members are frustrated because Salway has foiled
efforts to remove him from office.
They accuse him of misappropriating $30,000 in relief funds
for victims of June tornadoes on the reservation. Salway
maintains his innocence. Twice during council meetings,
members have made motions to suspend him, and twice
he has adjourned the meeting before a vote could be taken.
"He knows the votes are there," Big Crow said. "He's been
dodging the bullet."
Hand argues the protesters are not necessarily allied with
Salway.
If the audit approved by the council reveals financial
misdeeds on Salway's part, he must be removed, Hand said.
Marvin Young Dog, an Indian from Apache Junction, Arix., has
joined the protesters. He said the Pine Ridge activists may
be the catalyst for nationwide change in tribal government.
Floyd Hand smiled during a meeting of protesters as he
scanned the old and young faces in the room. "This is not
the tribal council," he said. "This is the first traditional
government council room."
 

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