Tribal Lawyers “Cannot Be Fired”
Power within Tribal Councils is concentrated around tribal attorneys, many of whom are affiliated with the Native American Rights Fund, which receives funding from foundations, which serve as the philanthropic arm of big business. It should not come as a surprise, then, that tribal attorneys are frequently said to override the wishes of tribal members to advance the bottom line of private interests. What is surprising, however, is that once tribal attorneys burrow their way onto Tribal Councils, tribal leaders cannot fire them through successive administrations.
Within the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, for example, tribal members have vehemently disagreed with their counsel’s efforts to add individuals onto tribal membership rolls who allegedly are not genuinely Indian.
Increasing the number of tribal members guarantees larger federally subsidized tribal markets for insurance companies and other politically connected industries. When tribal members have requested that their leaders fire the attorneys or reverse the policies they have implemented, they are told that the tribal leadership cannot fire them.
Inside sources within the Osage Nation reported a similar dynamic. “I was talking to a Mineral Councils member one day when the suit was in progress,” inside sources said. “I said ‘Why has the Mineral Council not fired (Ietan Consulting’s) Wilson (Pipestem)?” The response was ‘because he tells we can’t’. I said, ‘You know what, Wilson is correct. You cannot fire him because you did not hire him!”
(For coverage of the politics surrounding the Osage Nation settlement, please follow this link:http://susanbradfordpress.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/osage-nation-reports-more-ietan-related-shenanigans/)
When the genuine Saginaw Chippewa Indians (the Original 39) reclaimed their Tribal Council in 2001 and retained Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff to represent them on Capitol Hill, the tribe’s attorneys managed to override the tribal leadership’s choice in lobbyist through a politically driven, contrived scandal.
These same attorneys have reportedly blocked efforts the tribal members have undertaken to enlist Congress to investigate the fraudulent take over of their tribe at the hands of fictitious Indians and revisit the Abramoff investigation.
The question is why are federally recognized Indian tribes, sovereign nations that receive billions of dollars in federal subsidies, required to retain counsel seemingly backed by big business?
Susan Bradford is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist. For more information, please visit:http://www.susanbradford.org.
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