Last week my colleague here at SDP Jason mentioned an article from the Argus Leader which detailed some of the complaints levied against Pine Ridge Tribal Chairman Cecelia Fire Thunder. Friday's Rapid City Journal has another article which allows Fire Thunder to defend herself against these criticisms. It is only fair that both sides of the story get posted here at SDP.
Fire Thunder said that a small group of people continue a campaign to remove her but that their complaints don’t have anything to do with her leadership or administration.
“They’re a very loud handful of people,” she said.
Although it doesn’t affect her day-to-day administration of duties, she said the group needs to stop its agitating.
She also recommends that the tribe examine the suspension process.
Fire Thunder said if an executive were doing something that hurt the tribe, she would be the first to file a complaint. But the complaints without merit should be handled differently, she said.
“We need to create a process so that these types of complaints don’t come as far as it has,” she said.
When asked about the current complaint, specifically risking the tribe’s sovereignty and land assets, she said the tribal council approved a $38 million loan that used profits from the land leases and casino as collateral.
The tribe owns 705,000 acres of land, which generates about $2.3 million annual income for the tribe through leases. From that, $850,000 would be paid annually to Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community to repay the $18 million borrowed by the tribe for debt reduction. Profits from Prairie Wind Casino would pay for the $20 million borrowed for expansion and improvements at its casino.
“We don’t touch individual allotted land leases,” Fire Thunder said.
On Thursday, Fire Thunder released to reporters documents of the tribe’s approval the $38 million loan with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, an OST treasurer’s report that has been presented to the reservation’s nine districts leadership concerning the loan and her enrollment certificate, which contains Fire Thunder’s degree of Indian blood, enrollment number and birth date.
In the 10 months that Fire Thunder has been in office, the OST Council and executive office has been working diligently to control the financial crisis that they inherited from previous administrations, she said.
“We are addressing debt that goes back to 1997,” she said.
And she contends that the tribe has been on a constructive course.
A new $2.2 million mass transit system will begin services by summer, four road construction projects are in progress and more are scheduled to come.
Fire Thunder and Gov. Mike Rounds are negotiating an extradition compact. Rounds had not gotten back to Fire Thunder, but if approved, non-Indian criminals who have committed crimes on the reservation could be extradited to the reservation to appear in tribal court.
The tribe also brought in consultants to examine its accounting systems. Recommendations were made, and within 30 days, the tribe will move to a new accounting system.
Fire Thunder said she understood there would be challenges being the tribe’s president.
“It’s part of the job. I can’t take it personally,” she said. “But getting rid of people isn’t the answer.”
Though I haven't heard have all of the evidence in this dispute, at this moment my sympathies lie with Fire Thunder. I grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and consequently I have taken a handful of Indian Law courses out of interest. A few weeks ago in one of these courses I had the opportunity to hear from Lance Morgan CEO of HoChunk Inc. Ho Chunk Inc. has been enormously successful in creating prosperity for the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska.
In his discussion Mr. Morgan stressed the importance of continuity in tribal leadership. Without continuity any progress made on tribal economic development projects can be erased with each tribal election. Based on Ms. Fire Thunder's comments in the Rapid City Journal it would appear she believes many of the accusations against her center around a loan from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community for economic development purposes. Fire Thunder is correct when she says "getting rid of people is not the answer." Though impeachment should always be an option, it should not be used with great frequency. Without more information it would appear that this dispute would be better solved through the political process in the next election cycle rather than any removal proceeding.
I think it is also interesting to note that Ho Chunk Inc. is a separate entity from the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska. Because terms for tribal council members and chairmen are staggered (unlike a number of tribes throughout the U.S.) there is less likelihood that the entire council will turn over in one election cycle. This provides more protection for board members of Ho Chunk Inc. which allows them to engage in long term economic development.
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