According to the story BISON ROUNDUP LEADS TO LAWSUIT reported in the Billings Gazette by Laura Tode, George and Nelvette Siemion have a lawsuit pending against the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

It may come as somewhat of a surprise that the notices that were sent to them from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) were not picked up; well if you live off the rez it may come as a surprise. I personally have had several mail items returned to the sender because I didn't pick up the mail in time. It's a fact of life for some people and post office boxes.

But that is a minor point in this scenario. So don't take the red herring! Stick to the point!

The point is that there was a sovereign governmental process for processing bids. The TRIBAL members (PEOPLE LIKE YOU) who already had a lease in years past on the Crow Reservation had the chance to match the bid put out by the new (shadow) tribal member bids.

What is a shadow member? Much like many small TIMBER-BUSINESSES, it's a false front that a tribal member is an owner of a small business. If they are a timber company, then it means that they get preference in timber bids. If it's a Cattle company, they get preference in Grazing bids.

How does it work?

"Well Zeke, ya see that Tribal Member over there chewing on bubble gum doing, nothing in particular?"

"Do I see him, heck I can hear him popping bubbles!"

"Well Zeke, ya go make him an offer to make money for nothing"

"OK I get it. I make him a majority interest holder in 'our lil ol cattle company' and promise to give him 1 dollar an acre ($4,000 dollars) for getting me a preferential-like bid on them there 4,000 acres right?"

"There's a smart boy Zeke..."

Aha! Timber, Grazing, Tree planting, any number of businesses can make the world seem much different if they have a tribla member partner with a majority interest in their enterprise. Which is ok, as long as it's above board. If anybody else is a fan of 8-A Status stand up and burp loudly! That isn't the part that's wrong.

The part that's wrong is when BIA steps all over sovereignty. The part that's wrong is if this couple George and Nelvette Siemion don't get to pursue the appeal process to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals if they need to.

When you appeal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are a multitude of areas where your appeal can be thrown out for seemingly small details. The death is in the details. Read your CFR very well if you're gonna sit down for a bout with the BIA. If you put the wrong words on the envelope or no words, THROWN OUT! If you fail to certify that you sent the appeal to all "parties of interest" THROWN OUT! If you fail to send to everybody in the world and their cousin, THROWN OUT!

Let's hope George Skibine will allow this appeal to follow it's natural route and if need be all the way to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals. Let's hope that this appeal gets taken care of before it reaches the Interior Board of Indian Appeals. If this appeal gets to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals then it means that somebody lower than them in the Bureau, the Region, the Area, the Agency, probably isn't doing their job. The Interior Board of Indian Appeals should be the last resort of George and Nelvette Siemion. But George and Nelvette Siemion should have every right to pursue this case all the way to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, and George Skibine seems like just the objective person to let it run its natural course. There should be none of this stepping in and pre-empting a case instead of letting the Interior Board of Indian Appeals do just what they're supposed to do.

George should, in his non-acting position, not get involved, but make sure that every step, every superintendent, director, manager, specialist, is involved and pursuing justice, whatever that decision may be. Justice is what every tribal member is looking for. Let's hope that in this case, the tribal members get their say. Let's not go for a repeat of past Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary's woeful decisions against tribal sovereignty and objective judicial inquiries. George Skibine, may we introduce you to George and Nelvette Siemion? They have a Native Land Issue to discuss with the appropriate levels of the Bureau of Indian Affairs? Could you see to it that, without influencing anybody in either direction, everybody knows that an objective, judicial decision with respect to Tribal Sovereignty is reached--and if it isn't that as a last resort the Interior Board of Indian Appeals can look this case over?

Thanks George.

Repeal of the Bennett Freeze

Now this is only my opinion and I gather that there are a lot of opinions out there on this subject-piece of land, and I'm sure the Palestinians and Israelis will also tell you that land is an issue for them in a similar way.

Read here to see what the Bennett Freeze is. Basically, in the opinion of myself and others out there in Cyberspace, it was a blockade of services to Dineh (Navajo Tribe) to force them off their aboriginal land so that the Federal Government could "give" Peabody Coal Company access to the land and the water there.

Indianz.com reports that this Thursday May 15, 2008, there is a U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing to repeal Sect. 10 (f) of P.L. 93-531, which is also known as the "Bennett Freeze." Robert Bennet was head of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1966 and he is "credited" with having created this policy.

The web page, Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, states that:

Observers at the time of this decision felt (and wrote) that it (the Bennet Freeze temporarily being removed) seems to have been influenced by the fact that the Navajo tribe could be expected to be more compliant and friendly to Peabody Coal than Hopis with newly-affirmed Navajo subsurface rights. The coal deals were the basis for the swift rise to power of long-term Navajo tribal chairman Peter MacDonald, who had been appointed (in 1963) to head Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity. MacDonald was elected to the first of his many terms as tribal chairman in 1970. MacDonald was recently released for health reasons from federal prison terms being served for convictions in 1990, 1992 and 1993 for racketeering and corruption charges in relation to land and financial dealings.

Peabody Coal was formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kennecott Copper. Many mergers later, it is now part of an empire of coal, owned by a British holding company, Hanson. Not only was the Black Mesa to be strip-mined, but the Mohave power plant, 275 miles away was to be -- and is -- fed by a liquified slurry of crushed coal pumped along a pipeline that uses 3,000 gallons a minute of precious desert aquifer water, laid down in the deep rocks millions of years ago, before this land was desert. This irreplaceable water is the most valuable of the subsurface rights Peabody acquired access to, and its profligate use is the most threatening to long-term survival of the entire southwest. The water pumping all takes place near the Black Mesa mine (though it can suck water from hundreds of miles away, the entire aquifer). The Peabody Kayenta mine feeds the power plant at Page with dry coal on coal trains. But for Black Mesa, Peabody counts only the cheaper method of delivery, which maximizes its profits, not counting the cost of stolen water to all life in the southwest.

Dirty Per Caps? Keep the Natives dependent, poor, denied of basic privileges, so that you can gain the most precious resources from under their feet for the cheapest of prices. Sounds like the policy was hard hitting all over Indian Country.

"It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit." (think: "money & bottom line")

Related Blog Posts:
"Good Indians"
"An Ammotment of Sorts"