Larry Rosenthal of Ietan Consulting.

SUSAN BRADFORD

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS

Scott Reed: Shaking Down Tribes for Big Business

Saginaw Chippewa whistle blowers have unearthed documents implicating lobbyist Scott Reed’s mentors in the take over of their tribe by fictitious Indians, which mirrors the non-Native usurpation of numerous other former and existing tribal clients of Chesapeake Enterprises’ Reed and his partner, Larry Rosenthal of Ietan Consulting.

“For a long time we have been asking why so many of the tribes associated with lobbyists Scott Reed and Larry Rosenthal are battling membership fraud issues,” tribal sources said. “Now we know.”

Tribes were created by the nation’s leading industrialists to siphon taxpayer money into private hands and generate lucrative, single source federal contracts for their businesses. Typically non-Natives with ties to big business, secret societies, and oil interests have been placed in positions of power as stewards of tribal wealth and executors of their vast political fundraising and corporate agenda setting apparatus.

Industrialist-backed lobbyists and attorneys established tribes as sovereign nations on land rich in oil and minerals where billions of tax dollars exchange hands behind closed doors without having to account for how the money is directed or to whom. Only an infinitesimal amount of that wealth is invested in the care of Indians. The rest disappears into the ether.

The takeover of the powerful Michigan tribe officially occurred in 1986. That year, Congress passed the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Distribution of Judgment Funds Act, which directed the multi-million land settlement money from the Indian Claims Commission to the Tribal Council, shored up the position of the fictitious Indians on the tribal membership rolls and within the government through a constitutional revision, and rolled back federal oversight of the money which was invested in a casino and other economic development projects.

Congressman Dale Kildee (D-Flint) ushered the bill through the House Resources Committee, which was chaired by Congressman Morris “Mo” Udall, Sen. John McCain’s political mentor. However, the bill was rushed through the Senate by Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), tribal documents reveal.

“Normally a bill must wait at the Senate Majority Leader’s Desk for a minimum of three legislative days before it can be brought to the Senate floor for a vote,” the tribe’s attorney wrote to the Chief and Council Members. “However, the State Director of the Select Committee agreed to and did ask Senator Dole’s office to make a unanimous motion on the Senate floor that the three day rule be waived and the bill be brought up immediately for a voice vote on the Senate floor. Senator Dole, the Majority Leader, agreed to permit the waiver motion and the bill passed the Senate without a hitch.”

While tribes awaited their settlement money from the Indian Claims Commission, the industrialists created the National Congress of American Indians to spearhead economic development on Indian reservations. Largely the fictitious Native controllers and their allies have taken direction and worked in tandem with this organization.

In 1996, Reed managed Dole’s presidential campaign while McCain urged the NCAI, which has embraced the industrialists’ vision, to endorse Dole’s candidacy.

“On November 5th, Americans like you and I will be faced with a very important choice – A choice between two candidates for our Nation’s highest office,” McCain said. “A choice that will dictate the outcome of future policies that will have a direct impact on the everyday lives of all Americans. But it is the impact on future generations of American Indians, that we are here to discuss today….I would like to take this opportunity to outline some of the reasons why I think Bob Dole is the right choice to lead Indian Country and the rest of the Nation into the 21st Century.”

Dole, he said, would “defend tribal sovereignty” – that is, make it more difficult for the federal government to hold tribes accountable for how they spent the taxpayers’ money. Dole also promised to “ensure that Indian tribal governments would be eligible for the first time in history to receive direct block grants of federal dollars,” McCain said.

The more members a tribe acquires, the greater the amount of taxpayer support tribal leaders can demand for their care. Yet, in reality, most of that money is redirected into private hands.

Why do so many wealthy tribes affiliated with the NCAI, which run lucrative businesses, need to receive welfare support when the whole point of self-sufficiency is to sustain their tribal populations without reaching into the public till? The answer is that the industrialist-backed agenda is designed not to improve tribal self-sufficiency but to use the tribes as a gateway for an endless stream of tax dollars.

When appealing for more federal revenue, tribes fare well by keeping the unwashed tribal masses impoverished and unemployed. All the taxpayer money in the world is not going to address these issues, especially since it was earmarked, even if informally, for the industrialists anyway.

Further keeping the power of the fictitious Indians leaders unchecked and enabling them to rule these multi-billion dollar fiefdoms without undue federal interference, “Bob Dole helped remove Federal obstacles to Tribal Self-Governance and Self-Determination,” McCain said, conceding that the Senator was also intent on helping the industrialists keep more of the taxpayers money. “Bob Dole has promised to oppose all new Federal taxes on tribal governmental gaming revenues,” he said.

Dole would also ensure that federal agencies were stacked with political cronies who could dole out taxpayers money at the discretion of his allies. “When he is President, Bob Dole will work with elected tribal officials to appoint only the highest caliber people to be in charge of the various Federal-Indian agencies,” McCain promised. “At the top of his list of candidates will be the many, modern-day, elected tribal leaders whose personal competency, ethical standards, and commitment to effective and responsible government are beyond question. As I look around the room today, I see many people here who meet these qualifications.”

Dole did not win the election, but four years later, Reed managed McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign in Arizona. When George W. Bush was elected instead, Reed announced that “it’s our turn” to make money in Indian Country, the Village Voice reported.

That effort involved sabotaging rivals in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, like Wayne Smith, who obstructed his clients’ agenda and setting up fierce competitors like Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff for criminal indictment on trumped up charges through kangaroo hearings held in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Among Reed’s chief lobbying contacts were Acting Assistant Secretary Aurene Martin and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who presided over McCain’s hearings on Abramoff, an ardent champion of authentic Indians. Afterward Reed, Martin, and Campbell cashed in and claimed the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe as a client following Abramoff’s ouster. In turn, they have largely supported the agenda of the industrialist-backed fictitious Indians who control the tribes.

Last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tapped Reed to run its pro-business lobbying operations in 2012 as the Chamber’s national political strategist. “The Chamber doesn’t always necessarily back Republican candidates, but in recent elections it has spent millions of dollars on behalf of candidates that it considers to support pro-business policies,” The Washington Wireblog reported. “Those candidates have been overwhelmingly Republican.”

Reed has withdrawn many of his interests from Indian Country since his self-dealing has been exposed. In his new role, Reed will no doubt enlist political donors with promises of taxpayer funded corporate welfare and possible access to lucrative tribal markets.

Susan Bradford is the author of Lynched! The Shocking Story of How the Political Establishment Manufactured a Scandal to Have Republican Super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff Removed from Power. For more information, please visit: www.susanbradford.org.

© 2012 Susan Bradford