JONATHAN WINDY BOY TO HOLD JOBS SUMMIT IN ROCKY BOYMontana State Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy plans to hold a jobs summit, Monday, December 7, 2009 in Rocky Boy at the Stone Child College. The community of Rocky Boy has been in turmoil for several years due to infighting in the community. Reports from members who have fled the community tell Urban Native the difficulty lies in the Chippewa Cree Business Committee itself, of which Windy Boy leads. Members complain council members deal drugs out of the tribal headquarters.
Tribal members note it is not uncommon for council members to travel regularly outside the reservation for the sole purpose of "partying." Members complain there is a rampant pill epidemic in the reservation community; noting Loratabs are the pill of choice. Loratabs sell for $10.00 a pill in the reservation community. This environment is fostered by council members themselves, according to UNV informants. These informants state tribal council members often are the ringleaders of community "pill parties" that occur throughout the reservation.
In the past, community members who raised concerns about the Business Committee were threatened with"tribal banishment" by Windy Boy himself. The anti-slander law had broad reaching effects of disenrollment, this disenrollment effort was sponsored by Jonathan Windy Boy. The practice of disenrollment is ingrained in the Chippewa Cree Business Committee. The Chippewa Cree Tribe is not really a tribe, the Rocky Boy Band of Chippewa were first recognized by an Act of Congress in 1908, and then again in 1916. The Department of the Interior threw out the original band roll of 1908, after it was certified by that very agency. In its place, there was a 1917 roll--which has been the subject of legal controversy since.There is no historic treaty tribe called the Chippewa Cree in the annals of American history. The Chippewa, or Ojibwe tribe has a long established history of contact with both the British and American governments. Perhaps no other "tribe" in the U.S. has enjoyed the unfettered ability as the Chippewa Cree Business Committee to alter the tribal roll, and at the same time, fail to enact blood quantum laws requiring enrollment in the original recognized, treaty band.
A CASE OF CHIPPEWA SCHMIPPEWA.......
Windy Boy's own lineage is subject to speculation; UNV has found the Montana State Legislative website at one point carried Windy Boy's web page, identifying himself as an Assiniboine Cree. That would of course make him ineligible to serve in the "Chippewa Cree" tribal government, as the original recognized tribe was Chippewa. Windy Boy's legislative page was later corrected to cite his lineage as Chippewa Cree. He conducted several interviews and press junkets, identifying himself as an Asiniboine Cree; and was endorsed by INDN's list as a member of the Chippewa Cree tribe, and identified in yet another INDN's list web story as Asiniboine Cree. These discrepancies do not seem to raise eyebrows in Montana and national political circles.
Windy Boy has become some a fixture in state politics, he serves in the Montana Legislature, his is a part of the Indian caucus, he is on a chummy first name basis with several of Montana's politicians. Windy Boy served in the capacity of the Montana tribal effort to elect Barack Obama. Urban Native Magazine will continue to follow the Curious Case of Jonathan Windy Boy for the reason, Montana politicians have been doing their part to erode the concept of tribal sovereignty for decades. Jonathan Windy Boy is the poster child for Tribal Sovereignty Destruction. Windy Boy has never been responsive to efforts to correct the tribal enrollment mess in Rocky Boy, and so long as he does not, UNV will bring his activities to light.
Stay tuned here for regular updates.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Obama Jobs Summit UNV Coverage
Commentary: The Obama Jobs Summit Just a Starting PointCommentary: The Obama Jobs Summit Just a Starting PointThe Obama Jobs Summit got started today at 1:30 pm EST, with President Obama declaring that the government has limited resources, and the private sector must step up to create jobs. His brief opening statements marked the beginning of the much anticipated jobs summit, he has promised to do more to work to create jobs and will convene a similar gathering in January. This all leads to the question as to how jobs can be created at a time of record unemployment.
Will there be a need for a second piece of legislation? Some Democrats are leaning toward the creation of a jobs bill, and work for this is taking place by Sen. Durbin (IL) and Sen. Dorgan (ND). Congressional Democrats are hesitant to call the jobs bill what it really is: a second stimulus. The need for jobs among the urban Native American population is urgent.
Urban Native American families exist in a weird, out of whack no-man's-land. These families have come to the urban areas to escape deteriorating economic realities that are on the reservations. When they leave the reservation; they leave behind a social structure that is to varying degrees--accommodating of their political, economic and cultural realities.Life in the urban centers is a stark reminder of how unwelcoming urban life can be. There is high unemployment; it is not clear just how state and tribal governments crunch data on urban Indian unemployment. This is a major barrier to any urban development taking place. One simply cannot accurately measure the degree of unemployment. The only indicator is on the street level. Everyone is out of work! Native Americans are a low priority; it is not clear as of yet--whether the first stimulus has been made available to urban Indian populations.
Complicating this reality is the lack of infrastructure that can lead to lasting economic development in both urban and reservation settings. The non-profit sector is virtually non-existent. There is also lack of cohesive leadership in the urban setting; we can all agree everybody cares. Getting everyone on the same page is proving to be very challenging. There is a need for community collaboration of unprecedented proportions to create the kind of economic growth needed throughout native communities.
The political, economic and cultural institutions for too long have created an us v. them mentality. This itself is a barrier to effective job creation. This is as true in the political leadership on down to the local level. The need for local leadership development is evident in urban Indians inability to advance their own interests. The state and federal goverments seem open to ideas; the basic message stated by President Obama was to solicit ideas and innovation. This is certainly a good start, it is time to organize local leadership councils to begin the dialog and state their needs. Community forums are needed to support every good idea out there that will lead to what we all want: economic security.
Will there be a need for a second piece of legislation? Some Democrats are leaning toward the creation of a jobs bill, and work for this is taking place by Sen. Durbin (IL) and Sen. Dorgan (ND). Congressional Democrats are hesitant to call the jobs bill what it really is: a second stimulus. The need for jobs among the urban Native American population is urgent.
Urban Native American families exist in a weird, out of whack no-man's-land. These families have come to the urban areas to escape deteriorating economic realities that are on the reservations. When they leave the reservation; they leave behind a social structure that is to varying degrees--accommodating of their political, economic and cultural realities.Life in the urban centers is a stark reminder of how unwelcoming urban life can be. There is high unemployment; it is not clear just how state and tribal governments crunch data on urban Indian unemployment. This is a major barrier to any urban development taking place. One simply cannot accurately measure the degree of unemployment. The only indicator is on the street level. Everyone is out of work! Native Americans are a low priority; it is not clear as of yet--whether the first stimulus has been made available to urban Indian populations.
Complicating this reality is the lack of infrastructure that can lead to lasting economic development in both urban and reservation settings. The non-profit sector is virtually non-existent. There is also lack of cohesive leadership in the urban setting; we can all agree everybody cares. Getting everyone on the same page is proving to be very challenging. There is a need for community collaboration of unprecedented proportions to create the kind of economic growth needed throughout native communities.
The political, economic and cultural institutions for too long have created an us v. them mentality. This itself is a barrier to effective job creation. This is as true in the political leadership on down to the local level. The need for local leadership development is evident in urban Indians inability to advance their own interests. The state and federal goverments seem open to ideas; the basic message stated by President Obama was to solicit ideas and innovation. This is certainly a good start, it is time to organize local leadership councils to begin the dialog and state their needs. Community forums are needed to support every good idea out there that will lead to what we all want: economic security.
The Ojibwe Tribal Summit
SPECIAL COMMENTARY & BREAKING NEWS: NORTH AMERICA'S LARGEST TRIBE ANNOUNCE 2010 TRIBAL SUMMIT IN DC
Missoula--In Montana, the urban Native American population is a voting block with growing local, state and national relevance. United Native Voters, located in Great Falls is a growing force effecting local campaigns at the city and county level. The bulk of the Montana urban tribal population are the Chippewa of the Little Shell band and the disenrolled/displaced Chippewa of the Rocky Boy Band of Chippewa. It is time to restore recognitiion and affirm status clarification respectively. It is time for Montana politicians to stop playing political football with Chippewa recognition. I can only urge the Montana urban Indian population to register, vote, and make your vote count.
To Montana's delegation; it is time to end Chippewa dispossession and to break away from threats and intimidation by those who have an interest in denying Chippewa members of both bands their lawful rights as secured by federal treaty and statute. Here is why; should politiicians act outside the interests of this growing movement, you will be defeated, and voted out of office.UNM will be unveiling shortly--the unified effort of the Ojibwe, or Chippewa tribe's goals to reiinstate a national tribal government. Breaking details of this proposal will be announced here.
The Ojibwe are the LARGEST TRIBE on the North American continent. This national government will comprise ALL Ojibwe bands, recognized and non-recognized; on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border. The bands will elect their own delegates to serve in the Ojibwe National Assembly--which will consist of delegations from the U.S. and Canada. This tribe will influence federal policy on both sides of the international boundary--and they will be able to greater address the need for both countries to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
THERES MORE!Breaking details reveal the Ojibwe tribe from the U.S. and Canada to host their own 2010 Ojibwe Tribal Summit in Washington DC to coincide with the annual White House Tribal Summit. The Ojibwe tribe, whose individual bands have a government-to-government relationship--intend to influence national policy affecting tribes in both countries. The tribe will sponsor an annual lobby day in each capitol to ensure its voices are heard in the national capitols. The Ojibwe Tribal Summit will become an annual event--the 2011 event will be held in Ottawa, the national capitol of Canada. Stay posted here for updates......
Missoula--In Montana, the urban Native American population is a voting block with growing local, state and national relevance. United Native Voters, located in Great Falls is a growing force effecting local campaigns at the city and county level. The bulk of the Montana urban tribal population are the Chippewa of the Little Shell band and the disenrolled/displaced Chippewa of the Rocky Boy Band of Chippewa. It is time to restore recognitiion and affirm status clarification respectively. It is time for Montana politicians to stop playing political football with Chippewa recognition. I can only urge the Montana urban Indian population to register, vote, and make your vote count.
To Montana's delegation; it is time to end Chippewa dispossession and to break away from threats and intimidation by those who have an interest in denying Chippewa members of both bands their lawful rights as secured by federal treaty and statute. Here is why; should politiicians act outside the interests of this growing movement, you will be defeated, and voted out of office.UNM will be unveiling shortly--the unified effort of the Ojibwe, or Chippewa tribe's goals to reiinstate a national tribal government. Breaking details of this proposal will be announced here.
The Ojibwe are the LARGEST TRIBE on the North American continent. This national government will comprise ALL Ojibwe bands, recognized and non-recognized; on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border. The bands will elect their own delegates to serve in the Ojibwe National Assembly--which will consist of delegations from the U.S. and Canada. This tribe will influence federal policy on both sides of the international boundary--and they will be able to greater address the need for both countries to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
THERES MORE!Breaking details reveal the Ojibwe tribe from the U.S. and Canada to host their own 2010 Ojibwe Tribal Summit in Washington DC to coincide with the annual White House Tribal Summit. The Ojibwe tribe, whose individual bands have a government-to-government relationship--intend to influence national policy affecting tribes in both countries. The tribe will sponsor an annual lobby day in each capitol to ensure its voices are heard in the national capitols. The Ojibwe Tribal Summit will become an annual event--the 2011 event will be held in Ottawa, the national capitol of Canada. Stay posted here for updates......
Thursday, February 18, 2010
COBELL SETTLES!
LANDMARK COBELL V. SALAZAR SETTLES
by Brock Conway
The landmark lawsuit on mismanaged IIM accounts by Eloise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe and on behalf of over 300,000 IIM beneficiaries reached the early stages of settlement this past week. U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announced the historic settlement at the Department of Interior in Washington DC earlier this past week. The settlement provides for 1.4 billion for IIM beneficiaries and 2 billion for land consolidation to address land fractionation. The settlement was far below what Cobell sought and likely, far below what is due IIM beneficiaries. UNM will provide details on needed Congressional approval of the settlement as these emerge.
A PERSONAL VISIT WITH THE ORIGINAL WHISTLEBLOWER, DAVID HENRY.....ACKNOWLEDGING AN UNSUNG HERO
It was late 2002, I had the opportunity to visit with David Henry, the BIA accountant who originally unearthed the massive mismanagement while working at the Billings Area Office. I met the elderly Mr. Henry at the Billings Perkins Restaurant on 27th Street. Mr. Henry drove an old, beat up Suburban. After brief introductions, we took our seats in the booth and ordered a meal. Mr. Henry began to relay his experience working as a BIA accountant and the pattern of mismanagement that began to emerge before him. He began to ask questions, he contacted all of the people he was supposed to contact. He began a one man campaign to bring the theft of IIM funds to light. He contacted all of the appropriate federal agencies, the BIA attorneys, his supervisors.
It soon became clear to him this is not something the BIA powers wanted to address or even be made aware of. There was a coordinated effort to keep this information from seeing the light of day. David Henry continued to investigate, his own investigation revealed the IIM accounts were mismanaged to the tune of about 300 billion. He began to actively seek remedy of the theft of revenues and royalties off of Indian land. He became a one man crusade, he acted on his conscience.He began to meet increasing retribution from his superiors. He was threatened with termination, he was shuttled out of the BIA Area Office. As ardent of a whistleblower he became, so was the full force of the federal government to retaliate against him, and to quash what was becoming an increasingly apparent mismanagement scandal. Mr. Henry pressed on.
The federal government begain to label him as mentally unstable and began a series of actions that would destroy Mr. Henry's life. The Department of Interior destroyed Mr. Henry's credibility, his standing in his profession and his life. When I met Mr Henry, he was at a low for an accounting professional. He was old, and he was tired of fighting the government. He looked like a man who had taken on the most powerful government on earth--he somehow managed to maintain his dignity. He was an elderly man in his later years, tall, with a dignified bearing. He didn't look like an accountant. He dressed in simple cloths and spoke very knowledgably about the Indian trust accounts. He was disheartened Mrs. Cobell never gave him any credit for his work in unveiling the trust fund abuses. He mused how she had hired her own PR firm as the lead IIM plaintiff.
He sat with me, we ordered more coffee and he seemed grateful just to be able to tell his story as it had played out in his own life. The repercussions as a whistleblower of the IIM abuses impacted Mr. Henry's life in a profound and negative way. His professional life was destroyed as a result of bringing the IIM trust fund thefts to light. He paid a heavy price.
I will always be grateful for David Henry--not only for doing his job, but for putting his own life and well-being on the line for Indian Country. Eloise Cobell's efforts are most noteworthy and she has fought a great battle. Her work was based in the tragic story of David Henry. He too--truly is a hero.
by Brock Conway
The landmark lawsuit on mismanaged IIM accounts by Eloise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe and on behalf of over 300,000 IIM beneficiaries reached the early stages of settlement this past week. U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announced the historic settlement at the Department of Interior in Washington DC earlier this past week. The settlement provides for 1.4 billion for IIM beneficiaries and 2 billion for land consolidation to address land fractionation. The settlement was far below what Cobell sought and likely, far below what is due IIM beneficiaries. UNM will provide details on needed Congressional approval of the settlement as these emerge.
A PERSONAL VISIT WITH THE ORIGINAL WHISTLEBLOWER, DAVID HENRY.....ACKNOWLEDGING AN UNSUNG HERO
It was late 2002, I had the opportunity to visit with David Henry, the BIA accountant who originally unearthed the massive mismanagement while working at the Billings Area Office. I met the elderly Mr. Henry at the Billings Perkins Restaurant on 27th Street. Mr. Henry drove an old, beat up Suburban. After brief introductions, we took our seats in the booth and ordered a meal. Mr. Henry began to relay his experience working as a BIA accountant and the pattern of mismanagement that began to emerge before him. He began to ask questions, he contacted all of the people he was supposed to contact. He began a one man campaign to bring the theft of IIM funds to light. He contacted all of the appropriate federal agencies, the BIA attorneys, his supervisors.
It soon became clear to him this is not something the BIA powers wanted to address or even be made aware of. There was a coordinated effort to keep this information from seeing the light of day. David Henry continued to investigate, his own investigation revealed the IIM accounts were mismanaged to the tune of about 300 billion. He began to actively seek remedy of the theft of revenues and royalties off of Indian land. He became a one man crusade, he acted on his conscience.He began to meet increasing retribution from his superiors. He was threatened with termination, he was shuttled out of the BIA Area Office. As ardent of a whistleblower he became, so was the full force of the federal government to retaliate against him, and to quash what was becoming an increasingly apparent mismanagement scandal. Mr. Henry pressed on.
The federal government begain to label him as mentally unstable and began a series of actions that would destroy Mr. Henry's life. The Department of Interior destroyed Mr. Henry's credibility, his standing in his profession and his life. When I met Mr Henry, he was at a low for an accounting professional. He was old, and he was tired of fighting the government. He looked like a man who had taken on the most powerful government on earth--he somehow managed to maintain his dignity. He was an elderly man in his later years, tall, with a dignified bearing. He didn't look like an accountant. He dressed in simple cloths and spoke very knowledgably about the Indian trust accounts. He was disheartened Mrs. Cobell never gave him any credit for his work in unveiling the trust fund abuses. He mused how she had hired her own PR firm as the lead IIM plaintiff.
He sat with me, we ordered more coffee and he seemed grateful just to be able to tell his story as it had played out in his own life. The repercussions as a whistleblower of the IIM abuses impacted Mr. Henry's life in a profound and negative way. His professional life was destroyed as a result of bringing the IIM trust fund thefts to light. He paid a heavy price.
I will always be grateful for David Henry--not only for doing his job, but for putting his own life and well-being on the line for Indian Country. Eloise Cobell's efforts are most noteworthy and she has fought a great battle. Her work was based in the tragic story of David Henry. He too--truly is a hero.
The Editor in Chief of UNM:The Great Recession (Depression) of 2009: A Result of Separate and Unequal Financial Policy in the U.S.
Melinda Gopher is a paralegal, writer and Candidate for the U.S. Congress. Her philosophy is to democratize the law, so that the ordinary person can understand it. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Urban Native Magazine.
"I have a passion for social justice, and a lifelong commitment to the principle of equality. I worked in my early 20s on fair housing issues. In Montana, the principles of fair housing with the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, were slow in coming. By the late 1980s, Montana was one of a few remaining states lax in fair housing protections. We started out as a small organization, the Council for Concerned Citizens, in the south side of Gt. Falls, to work on housing justice."
CCC, under the leadership of Mark Good, began a controversial enforcement method called "fair housing testing." This involved using a white tester, and an Indian tester to apply for the same housing unit. The results were compared. The findings were pretty astounding; in 57% of all tests done, Native Americans experienced discrimination by housing providers. That is a high rate, far above the national average. The findings indicated that Native Americans experienced discrimination unlike any other racial group on America.
GOOD AND INCOMPLETE INTENTIONS FOR NAUGHT
As a result, CCC put in for HUD funds pursuant to the FHIP program. It took several years, but the funds made their way to Great Falls. By then, CCC had a gradual change in leadership. When the funds came down, CCC hired Toni Austad, who assumed direction of the organization as Executive Director. I had been hired as an Education and Outreach Coordinator, I worked the program in its first year.
What was significant about this time, in early 1994, mid-way through the first Clinton term, HUD sponsored a Fair Housing Summit in DC. I attended this and served as a panelist at the Summit. I spoke of the very issues on the right of this column; Hill 57. This is a timeless issue that never seems to have gotten better, it has never been addressed, always forgotten. I mention this time because it is significant to now. There was a lot of optimism in America-buoyed by the Clinton presidency, just as there had been this time last year.
It looked like things would be different back then, real changes would be made. I see this general timeframe of 1994 as a renewal in America's commitment for social justice. Maybe some things changed, but looking back I cannot help but think there was a Clinton dogma put in place in this nation's financial system with the clamour around the CRA, which was intended to provide fair access to credit. Instead, what became entrenched in this era, as far as I can see---was the subprime market. This marked the creation of a "separate-and-unequal" financial system in America. We must look at a general timeframe when the Federal Reserve failed to regulate lenders; paving the way for predatory lending. This became a significant issue toward 1998; the Federal Reserve initiated a quiet policy that ignored blatant discrimination by banks who charged higher interest rates to minorities. To put it bluntly, President Clinton either did not care or could not care; he was busy denying that he spent a good deal of time in November of 1995 masturbating Monica Lewinsky with cigars.
Financial apartheid; one market for the haves--mostly whites, and a secondary market for the have-nots; mostly minority. The secondary market by 2008 that consisted of home mortgages that were higher than the value of the home, and adjustable teaser rates that left the homeowner unable to pay their mortgage. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were major players in this system. The objectives may have been good, but the effort misguided. Whether this was intentional or just was not well thought out by the Clinton administration, remains to be seen.
We had a Grants Monitor come in from the HUD regional office in Denver, near the end of my first year. We had received positive reviews.After I had left the organization, it did not last beyond a couple of years. CCC thrived for a couple years, but after a while, things went awry.I do not know all the details, so I do not feel qualified to elaborate in great detail. There were issues with Austad's failure to pay unemployement taxes for her workers when the program expanded to North Dakota, this story appeared in the Great Falls Tribune. After a protracted intra-organization and staff war, and loss of HUD funds, CCC shut down.
Even though the official record of numbers goes back a couple of years, the trending in federal policy, or the lack thereof, predates the actual meltdown by several years. And we can see this taking root back to the Clinton administration. Now, in a companion non-profit site: http://loudthunder.ning.com/, we look in detail at the recent article done by Matt Taibbi, a reporter for Rolling Stone. Matt details how Obama's team of Rubinites, leftover from the Clinton administration have hijacked the Obama White House.The progressive, native urban/reservation, women, youth, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, all have a stake in this. Fair housing efforts must be resurrected in Montana; there is a need for protection on a state level, as well as the strengthening of Title 49, the Montana Human Rights Act. The Montana Legislature at some point in the past; watered down the state civil rights law, Title 49, resulting in loss of HUD funding at the state level. The Schweitzer administration, nor the state legislature has not reversed this. It is time to put the pressure on.
I cannot stress enough, of the need of the Indian voting electorate to stay engaged in the process; especially in off-election years. This tends to be when politicians think the voters are not looking; this is when the damage is done. One only needs to look at the mess that is the stimulus bill, now the health care bill. We can point to the Cobell settlement; the Echohawk's, John Echohawk in particular. This man is very much a wannabe member of the Team of Rubinites, he is a wannabe limo liberal who was part of the Obama transition team. His brother, Larry Echohawk, is now BIA Assistant Secretary.
The Cobell settlement is outrageously low, about 3.5 billion (in legal terms, outrageous has added weight, meaning conduct so bad as to be unconscionable to the normal person). This is a direct result of the Indian community treating the Obama administration with kid gloves. This settlement is a swindle, the settlement calls for 2.4 billion for "land consolidation" it will result in landlessness of the average tribal member. Again, at the bargain basement price of 2.4 billion, this is chump change in comparison to the TARP bailouts and the stimulus.
In summary, it matters if you are a white person, this is the great recession of 2009. Your 401 (k) tanked, your stock portfolio has taken a temporary hit, your credit is or near maxed out. You will recover, the stock market is steadily buoyed, just this weeks, after passage of the Senate bill, health insurance stocks ran up 52% in one day.
But if you are a minority, this is in fact the Great Depression of 2008-2009. Unemployment, even in major metropolitan black communities such as Detroit--tops 50%. The state of Montana does not quantify urban Indian unemployment, there is no way to tell for sure, there is no official estimate. Times are tough, it has been a couple of years tallying now, in urban areas people had been selling scrap metal to stay alive. Then the recyling business hit with high gas prices in the summer of 2008, cut back--scrap metal stockpiled.
The people at the bottom of the ladder were hit, no one could even sell their scrap metal. People donate their plasma to Bio-Life in urban areas to put gas in their tanks, buy food, and try to survive. This has become daily life and reality for urban Indians dating back to the early years of the Bush administration. This, like the health care bill, which puts profits over lives, has a strange Orwellian feel of the commodification of human life. Its scary and creepy. The help for urban Indians was needed several years ago. It still has not arrived.
Child and youth poverty is back in to what it was prior to President Johnson's War on Poverty. This is another failed legacy of the Clinton presidency. The Personal Work and Responsibility Act of 1996 cut welfare that was already annililating the poor, minority household. The Act time-limited life time benefits to five years--for many people who never had an economic lifeline, or was cut by the Clinton administarion that constantly was dogged by a Republican Congress--their lifeline ran out long ago. Welfare laws dictated that the poor and minority households MUST be headed by a single, female. This destructive policy has damaged the culture and fabric of Indian families.I urge the Indian communities, do not wait for anyone to throw you a lifeline. Organize yourselves and take action, be the change you seek, hold our local governments accountable, vote in any and all elections that come up. Run for office yourselves. We need leadership at all levels. If something is not right, take the time to voice your opinion. Organize for the Durbin - Dorgan Jobs Bill--the time to do it is NOW. Bring your ideas to Senator Tester, post them on our companion sites: http://loudthuder.ning.com/, and the Montana Jobs Coaliton, http://montanajobscoalition.ning.com/. We are staying abreast of this situation.
"I have a passion for social justice, and a lifelong commitment to the principle of equality. I worked in my early 20s on fair housing issues. In Montana, the principles of fair housing with the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, were slow in coming. By the late 1980s, Montana was one of a few remaining states lax in fair housing protections. We started out as a small organization, the Council for Concerned Citizens, in the south side of Gt. Falls, to work on housing justice."
CCC, under the leadership of Mark Good, began a controversial enforcement method called "fair housing testing." This involved using a white tester, and an Indian tester to apply for the same housing unit. The results were compared. The findings were pretty astounding; in 57% of all tests done, Native Americans experienced discrimination by housing providers. That is a high rate, far above the national average. The findings indicated that Native Americans experienced discrimination unlike any other racial group on America.
GOOD AND INCOMPLETE INTENTIONS FOR NAUGHT
As a result, CCC put in for HUD funds pursuant to the FHIP program. It took several years, but the funds made their way to Great Falls. By then, CCC had a gradual change in leadership. When the funds came down, CCC hired Toni Austad, who assumed direction of the organization as Executive Director. I had been hired as an Education and Outreach Coordinator, I worked the program in its first year.
What was significant about this time, in early 1994, mid-way through the first Clinton term, HUD sponsored a Fair Housing Summit in DC. I attended this and served as a panelist at the Summit. I spoke of the very issues on the right of this column; Hill 57. This is a timeless issue that never seems to have gotten better, it has never been addressed, always forgotten. I mention this time because it is significant to now. There was a lot of optimism in America-buoyed by the Clinton presidency, just as there had been this time last year.
It looked like things would be different back then, real changes would be made. I see this general timeframe of 1994 as a renewal in America's commitment for social justice. Maybe some things changed, but looking back I cannot help but think there was a Clinton dogma put in place in this nation's financial system with the clamour around the CRA, which was intended to provide fair access to credit. Instead, what became entrenched in this era, as far as I can see---was the subprime market. This marked the creation of a "separate-and-unequal" financial system in America. We must look at a general timeframe when the Federal Reserve failed to regulate lenders; paving the way for predatory lending. This became a significant issue toward 1998; the Federal Reserve initiated a quiet policy that ignored blatant discrimination by banks who charged higher interest rates to minorities. To put it bluntly, President Clinton either did not care or could not care; he was busy denying that he spent a good deal of time in November of 1995 masturbating Monica Lewinsky with cigars.
Financial apartheid; one market for the haves--mostly whites, and a secondary market for the have-nots; mostly minority. The secondary market by 2008 that consisted of home mortgages that were higher than the value of the home, and adjustable teaser rates that left the homeowner unable to pay their mortgage. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were major players in this system. The objectives may have been good, but the effort misguided. Whether this was intentional or just was not well thought out by the Clinton administration, remains to be seen.
We had a Grants Monitor come in from the HUD regional office in Denver, near the end of my first year. We had received positive reviews.After I had left the organization, it did not last beyond a couple of years. CCC thrived for a couple years, but after a while, things went awry.I do not know all the details, so I do not feel qualified to elaborate in great detail. There were issues with Austad's failure to pay unemployement taxes for her workers when the program expanded to North Dakota, this story appeared in the Great Falls Tribune. After a protracted intra-organization and staff war, and loss of HUD funds, CCC shut down.
Even though the official record of numbers goes back a couple of years, the trending in federal policy, or the lack thereof, predates the actual meltdown by several years. And we can see this taking root back to the Clinton administration. Now, in a companion non-profit site: http://loudthunder.ning.com/, we look in detail at the recent article done by Matt Taibbi, a reporter for Rolling Stone. Matt details how Obama's team of Rubinites, leftover from the Clinton administration have hijacked the Obama White House.The progressive, native urban/reservation, women, youth, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, all have a stake in this. Fair housing efforts must be resurrected in Montana; there is a need for protection on a state level, as well as the strengthening of Title 49, the Montana Human Rights Act. The Montana Legislature at some point in the past; watered down the state civil rights law, Title 49, resulting in loss of HUD funding at the state level. The Schweitzer administration, nor the state legislature has not reversed this. It is time to put the pressure on.
I cannot stress enough, of the need of the Indian voting electorate to stay engaged in the process; especially in off-election years. This tends to be when politicians think the voters are not looking; this is when the damage is done. One only needs to look at the mess that is the stimulus bill, now the health care bill. We can point to the Cobell settlement; the Echohawk's, John Echohawk in particular. This man is very much a wannabe member of the Team of Rubinites, he is a wannabe limo liberal who was part of the Obama transition team. His brother, Larry Echohawk, is now BIA Assistant Secretary.
The Cobell settlement is outrageously low, about 3.5 billion (in legal terms, outrageous has added weight, meaning conduct so bad as to be unconscionable to the normal person). This is a direct result of the Indian community treating the Obama administration with kid gloves. This settlement is a swindle, the settlement calls for 2.4 billion for "land consolidation" it will result in landlessness of the average tribal member. Again, at the bargain basement price of 2.4 billion, this is chump change in comparison to the TARP bailouts and the stimulus.
In summary, it matters if you are a white person, this is the great recession of 2009. Your 401 (k) tanked, your stock portfolio has taken a temporary hit, your credit is or near maxed out. You will recover, the stock market is steadily buoyed, just this weeks, after passage of the Senate bill, health insurance stocks ran up 52% in one day.
But if you are a minority, this is in fact the Great Depression of 2008-2009. Unemployment, even in major metropolitan black communities such as Detroit--tops 50%. The state of Montana does not quantify urban Indian unemployment, there is no way to tell for sure, there is no official estimate. Times are tough, it has been a couple of years tallying now, in urban areas people had been selling scrap metal to stay alive. Then the recyling business hit with high gas prices in the summer of 2008, cut back--scrap metal stockpiled.
The people at the bottom of the ladder were hit, no one could even sell their scrap metal. People donate their plasma to Bio-Life in urban areas to put gas in their tanks, buy food, and try to survive. This has become daily life and reality for urban Indians dating back to the early years of the Bush administration. This, like the health care bill, which puts profits over lives, has a strange Orwellian feel of the commodification of human life. Its scary and creepy. The help for urban Indians was needed several years ago. It still has not arrived.
Child and youth poverty is back in to what it was prior to President Johnson's War on Poverty. This is another failed legacy of the Clinton presidency. The Personal Work and Responsibility Act of 1996 cut welfare that was already annililating the poor, minority household. The Act time-limited life time benefits to five years--for many people who never had an economic lifeline, or was cut by the Clinton administarion that constantly was dogged by a Republican Congress--their lifeline ran out long ago. Welfare laws dictated that the poor and minority households MUST be headed by a single, female. This destructive policy has damaged the culture and fabric of Indian families.I urge the Indian communities, do not wait for anyone to throw you a lifeline. Organize yourselves and take action, be the change you seek, hold our local governments accountable, vote in any and all elections that come up. Run for office yourselves. We need leadership at all levels. If something is not right, take the time to voice your opinion. Organize for the Durbin - Dorgan Jobs Bill--the time to do it is NOW. Bring your ideas to Senator Tester, post them on our companion sites: http://loudthuder.ning.com/, and the Montana Jobs Coaliton, http://montanajobscoalition.ning.com/. We are staying abreast of this situation.
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