Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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By Francis Blake
NEWS Correspondent
The United States Government has at least eighteen (18)
bureaucrats governing every Indian.
This includes an enormous bureaucracy in several branches of the
executive department, as well as committees and committee staffs in
both the
Senate and House of Representatives.
Some of the government agencies are listed in the directory
below.
The
House of Representatives Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs claims jurisdiction over “(6) Measures relating to the
care and
management of Indians, including the care and allotment of Indian lands
and
general and special measures relating to claims which are paid out of
the
Indian (Trust) funds ...” and (6) clause 3(e) with respect to all
programs
affecting Indians and nonmilitary nuclear energy and research and
development,
including the disposal of nuclear waste.”
This Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs does not have any
subcommittee which mentions Indian people as a jurisdiction; we are
included
unmentioned in the Committee for Insular and International Affairs. The U.S. Supreme Court rules in a group of
cases, including De Lima v. Bidwell, Downes v. Bidwell,
Hawaii v.
Mankichi, and Dorr v. United States, that insular territory is
territory
in which only the fundamental guarantees of the Constitution are
binding on
Congress; but not those, like equality in taxation or indictment and
trial by
jury, which are “procedural, remedial, or formal.”
These
are the colonizers that run tribal government. This
is why everything that’s passed by the
Tribal Council has to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior or
his “duly
authorized” agent. This is colonialism. Don’t be fooled that the Tribal Council has
any authority. It’s time that we found
out who is really running the show.
Listed
below is a directory of some of the Federal
bureaucracies which are responsible for the “exercise of special
guardianship
over the economic, educational, and moral welfare of Indians, ... which
acts as
a trustee for Indian property, ... and which assists the Indian when he
seeks
to leave tribal ways and become assimilated to American culture outside
the
reservation...” The acts of Congress
which established these and all the other bureaucratic agencies which
control
our lives, and which direct the colonial red-man puppet governments
“recognized” by the United States subject to the approval of the
Secretary of
the Interior, are all violations of Traditional Indian civil, human and
natural
rights, as well as of International law and the U.S. Constitutions. However, a copy of these names, addresses
and telephone numbers may be useful. We
encourage you to keep this page for future reference, and to find out
how to
write a Freedom of Information Act request letter if you don’t already
know.
It
is said that “secrecy begets tyranny,” and it is also
known that colonial dictatorships must hide what they are doing behind
a
smokescreen of public relations, secrecy, and lies.
In the 99 years that the United States government has occupied
the Red Lake Indian Nation in force, the U.S.A. has tried to hide what
they are
doing. Records that should be public
are kept away from the Indian community either through the “privacy
act,” or
are concealed in a tangle of bureaucratic “White tape.”
The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act Tribal
Council holds secret meetings, and their minutes are not made public. Deals are made in the backrooms—although in
the Indian way, issues are supposed to be discussed publicly and the
entire
Indian community has a say in the decisions that are reached.
The
United States Government’s tactics of secrecy in Indian
Affairs have gone unchallenged for too long; but they will not work any
longer. The Ojibwe News is
publishing a political forum for the people of the Ojibwe Indian
Nations. The goals of these pages are to
discuss
important political issues, to make public information which should
never have
been secret, and to provide a forum for the community discussion which
is a
part of our Indian traditions.
Since
the beginning of European occupation of Indian nations,
Indian people have been denied access to the media.
The Ojibwe News is dedicated to bringing truth to the
Anishinabe Ojibwe people. We expect
that continuing publication of this newspaper will create a howl of
protest in
some places, including among acculturated Indians under the control of
the
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1324
Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-2761
Jurisdiction: (1) Forest reserves and
national parts created from the public domain; (2) Forfeiture of land
grants
and alien ownership, including alien ownership of mineral lands; (3)
Geological
Survey; (4) Interstate compacts relating to apportionment of waters for
irrigation
purposes; (5) Irrigation and reclamation, including water supply for
reclamation projects, and easements of public lands for irrigation
projects,
and acquisition of private lands when necessary to complete irrigation
projects; (6) Measures relating to the care and management of
Indians,
including the care and allotment of Indian lands and general and
special
measures relating to claims which are paid out of Indian funds; (7)
Measures
relating generally to the insular possessions of the United States,
except
those affecting the revenue and appropriations; (8) Military parks and
battlefields; national cemeteries administered by the Secretary of the
Interior, and parks within the District of Columbia; (9) Mineral land
laws and
claims and entries thereunder; (10) Mineral resources of the public
lands; (11)
Mining interests generally; (12) Mining schools and experimental
stations; (13)
Petroleum conservation on the public lands and conservation of the
radium
supply in the United States; (14) Preservation of prehistoric ruins and
objects
of interest on the public domain; (15) Public lands generally,
including entry,
easements, and grazing thereon; (16) Relations of the United States
with the
Indians and the Indian tribes; (17) Regulation of the domestic nuclear
energy
industry, including regulation of research and development reactors and
nuclear
regulatory research. In addition to its
legislative jurisdiction under the preceding provision of this
paragraph (and
its general oversight function under claus 2(b) (1) of House rule X),
the
committee shall have the special oversight functions provided for in
clause
3(3) with respect to all programs affecting Indians and nonmilitary
nuclear
energy research and development, including the disposal of nuclear
waste.
Key
Staff Aides — Majority
Staff Director/Counsel . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stanley
Scoville
Associate Staff
Director/Council . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roy Jones
General Counsel Lee McElvain
Consultants:
Environment, Energy & Public Lands. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . Mark Trautwein
Mines, Minerals & Public Lands . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . William L. Shafer
Water and Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . Michael D. Jackson
Science Adviser . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry R.
Myers
Budget Officer . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .William M. Anderson III
Public Affairs Director . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ken
Burton
Indian Affairs (522 HOB Anx.
1, 226-7393)
Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .Frank Ducheneaux*
Assistant Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .Alexander Skibine*
Staff Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . Debbie Broken Rope*
Calendar Clerk . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary
Stowe Boyd
Finance Clerk . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .James W. Henson
Records Manger . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra M. Metcalf
Staff Assistants . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mary Ann
Denning
Marie
J. Howard
Linda Gordon
Stevens
Miriam
L. Waddell
Printer . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ralph Hollingshead
Documents Clerk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John
Peterson
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