Wotanin wowapi 1988-12-15

              jQ� < < " 3� < 1
IB
m :
HSi
rat
o.
7fte Gathering � page 4
Read about how the Alaskan Natives draw near to each other as a people...
Wotanin Wotvapi �^40q
"Serving the Fort Peck Reservation"
Vol. 19 No. 49
December 15, 1988
Docket 74
claim upheld by Appeals Court
On Nov. 23, 1988, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment for $40,245,807.02 in Docket No. 74, the 1868 Treaty case. One judge dissented.
Of the eight Sioux tribes involved, only Pine Ridge and Rosebud appealed the judgment, while the other six - including Fort Peck - were willing to let the judgment be paid.
Docket 74 was first filed in 1950 by eight present-day Sioux reservation tribes in a representative capacity before the Indian Claims Commission. After 35 years of litigation, the Sioux were awarded $43,949,700, with the government allowed $3,703,892.98 in offsets.
Pine Ridge and Rosebud did not challenge the award as inadequate, instead they conten-that their counsel of record acted without authority in obtaining the award on their behalf. They sought to have the judgment vacated and the case dismissed with respect to them to facilitate their attempt to obtain a return of the land reefed >� Kovernrxient 120years ago.
According to Fort Peck tribal attorneys, with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the judgment, this ordinarily would ena the case. However, Pine Ridge and Rosebud have 60 days to ask the Supreme Court to review the decision and that could take up to a year before the Supreme Court will even make any decision.
According to the tribal attorneys, that year would cost the eight tribes about $3,521,000 ($9,648 per day) in lost interest. If Pine Ridge and Rosebud do not ask for review, the money would be paid within six weeks and begin to earn interest by January 1989, the tribal attorneys state.
Fort Peck Sioux General Council chairman Leland Spotted Bird said the two tribes' appeal is a delaying tactic, however he is working with three other small Sioux tribes to develop a bill on the percentages each tribe would receive.
Spotted Bird said Fort Peck, Santee, Lower Brule and Crow Creek took action to go after the money, however they have to work with the federal government and it is a slow process.
He said the other three tribes are working on this full time, and here, he is working voluntarily as the Sioux Council chairman, and doing it by phone. Using the Santee Sioux tribal lawyer John Pebbles, the four tribes developing a bill to take to Congress to have the judgment money put in an interest bearing account until the it is decided how each tribes' percent of the judgment is determined.
Unofficially, Fort Peck's share is 5.9 percent of the*award. This figure is based on a census used by the Claims Court, said Spotted Bird.
However, the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux wanted the 1980 census used which would drop Fort Peck's share to 3.1 percent of the award, he said.
The four smaller tribes decided to use the 1890 census, which is closer to the taking of the land, and develop the percentages from that.
A report was done by the BIA in 1984 using the 1890 census in which Fort Peck's share unofficially went up to 9 percent, however Spotted Bird said they haven't been able to get this report as they have been told it is an "internal document." He said the four tribes may have to send someone in to the National Archives to get those percentages, he said.
(page 2� D 74)
Second attempt for a per capita is defeated
POPLAR�Shown is Donnie Moran with an extra large stocking donated from Tande's Grocery for the Toys For Tots project going on to gather toys for Christmas. Moran also had a pickup load of toys donated at a Toys for Tots dance last Sunday. In an effort to help give a Christmas to the kids on the reservation, the Tribal Executive Board also approved $300 to a Poplar group and $200 to the five other communities on the reservation for Christmas. WPCO is planning their annual Christmas party this Saturday.
Tribes explore water marketing
By Garrett BigLeggins
BILLINGS - The Fort Peck Tribes looking i� 1 ks* of ^'qtor.in tb'p Missouri Basin, aiot of people with water rights, but a soft water market, John Musick said recently at a two-day tribal water marketing assessment workshop in Billings, December 8-9.
Musick, an attorney who practices in the water courts of Colorado, said there are not very many customers willing to enter into a lease agreement to buy large quantities of water, but the Tribes can begin to raise the money for future projects that will make water available when the demand is present.
Musick's proposal calls for the leasing of water to a tribal water company, setting up class A stock owned by the Tribes who would receive 50 percent of the profits, and Class B stock which is sold to the "public with the option to release rights to dividends in return for water delivery under the plan.
The water company would involve the appointment of a Board of Directors, hiring of staff, and consultants.
In a letter to the Tribes, Musick outlined the benefits which includes leasing as an alternative to
selling water, which he said was
aU<.n fa ' �. . J I:      (yno'e hj'fth Pish?:"
His plan also allows the Tribes to design a water project to help on-reservation water users, employment of tribal members and immediate dividends from escrow interest and operating profits from the water sales.
With the right conditions and seed money Musick says the Tribes could have the project completed by the second quarter of next year. His plan, if the Tribes go along with it, would call for about $25,000 in seed money.
Musick said that he felt there was some vision on the part of those who negotiated the Tribes Water Compact with the State of Montana. The compact was approved in 1985 .and gives the Tribes the right to divert 950,000 acre-feet of water, and consume 475,000 acre-feet of the surface water. The Tribes can also consume an additional 50,000 acre-feet of the groundwater.
One acre-foot of water is the
BOARDING SCHOOL CHRISTMAS BUS SCHEDULE
The buses carrying Fort Peck students back home for the Christmas holidays will be arriving during the next two weeks.
The bus schedule for each school is as follows:
CHEMAWA INDIAN SCHOOL Dec. 16 - 9:00 p.m. (approximately) arrive in wolf Point December 16 - 9:30 p.m. (approximately) arrive in Poplar
FLANDREAU INDIAN SCHOOL
December 22 - 8:00 p.m. Arrive in Poplar December 22 - 8:30 p.m. Arrive in Wolf Point
WAHPET0N INDIAN SCHOOL
December 22 - 2:15 p.m. - Arrive in Poplar December 22 - 2:45 p.m. - Arrive in Wolf Point
Should parents or guardians have any further questions, they can call the Education office at 768-5155, or they can stop in at the office located
in the Tribal building in Poplar.
equivelent to 325,000 gallons of .water If k ,"nm'.->h to, rover one acre of lartd with one foot of water. The compact contains provisions which govern the marketing of water on and off the reservation.
The workshop also focused on the positive and negative elements of water marketing. The positive elements include a quantified right based on the compact. The fact that it is largely unused, marketing provisions within the compact, and the state's agreement to it.
The negative elements include the need for congressional action to market water, weak demand, lack of water storage, and certain compact constraints.
The workshop also included a brief review of the development of water marketing agreements in other states and elements of water management.
The presentations were made by Steve Shupe and John F. Williams of Western Network Inc., consultants who specialize in water resource management and policy
The Wotanin Wowapi will have one last issue out for
1988 on Dec. 22. There will be no newspaper printed on Dec. 29,1988.
POPLAR�A second attempt to get a per capita payment to tribal members failed at Tuesday's Tribal Executive Board meeting.
Councilman Arlyn Headdress, who was originally one of the six board members who voted to table a per capita this year in favor of planning for an annual one in the future, had a change of heart. He made a motion to rescind the board's action of Nov. 28, 1988 and to pay out a $75 per capita as soon as possible.
However, since Headdress' motion would overturn previous council action, a two-thirds majority of eight votes was needed. Headdress' motion was short one vote as 7 voted for a payment and 5 opposed it.
Councilman Merle Lucas was opposed to jeopardizing the council's action of Nov. 28. At that time, the council voted to table a per capita payment this year so that a plan for an annual payment could be developed and put into place.
Lucas made a substitute motion that if a per cap is paid this year, that it come from council pay and travel and tribal programs. "I sup-
port a per capita. Let's issue one on the condition that the Tribal Executive Board salary and travel is cut as well as program budgets."
"Let s ali make the- sacrifice tor those less fortunate," Lucas told the council upon making his substitute motion. If we want a per cap, we have to be willing to sacrifice, he said, proposing that council salaries be cut from $100 a day to $50 a day and individual council travei allocations be dropped from $5000 apiece per
year per board member to $2500. Tribal programs would be cut by an equivalent amount in travel, consumnables, supplies and even wages and would be for this fiscal year only, he said. At all costs, he does not. want to jeopardize the plan for an annual per cap, he said.
The vote on the substitute motion to cut tribal council and program budgets to pay out a per capita so that the annual payment plan would not be jeopardized and the main motion to rescind tabling a payment and making one as soon as possible were both done on roll call vote.
Those voting on Lucas' motion were Lucas and Shields, with the 10 other councilmembers opposing.
Headdress' motion to pay out a per cap was 7 for - Headdress, Peter Dupree, Pearl Hopkins, Leonard Bear, Norman Hollow, Walter Clark, Levi Olson; and 5 opposed - Shields, Lucas, Culber-tson, Ken Smoker Jr. and Ray Eder.
While some of the board members spoke of tribal members in need of money this month for Christmas, those opposing a payment this year said they were only looking at the financial stability of the Tribes and looking at an annual payment plan.
Shields said it's easy to vote for a per cap now and forget about next fall, but he guarentees the board that next fall, during an election year, they will have to slash $500,000 from the tribal budget and that it'll be personnel who will be cut. He said the board members are all guilty of making the tribal budget bigger �each-year, and th* <s*ue new is to make it smaller.
However, if the board stayed with the Nov. 28 decision to plan for an annual per cap, and the Tribes' economic and financial picture remains the same with no other money coming in except what has already been projected, the Tribes could make at least a $50 to $60 payment next year, said Shields. If the Tribes get more than projected, court litigation goes in their favor, and the price of oil rises, the Tribes can earn more money to put in reserve to build up the annual payment, he said.
(Page 2�Per Cap)
Wolf Point man dies on highway
WOLF POINT - On the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 11, the BIA Law Enforcement, Roosevelt county Sheriffs Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated a hit and run accident which occurred approximately 1 mile east of the city of Wolf Point on U.S.High-way 13W, according to Duane T. Smith, Sr., Criminal Investigator at Ft. Peck Agency.
John L. Beauchamp, 22, an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Tribes, was struck and killed, according to Smith. According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the victim was walking on the high-
way when he was hit by a west bound car. He was dead at the scene.
Georgianne White Eagle, 31, of Wolf Point, was detained Sunday, Dec. 11, in the tribal jail in Poplar, said Roosevelt County Sheriff John Grainger.
She has been charged with Reckless Driving and Leaving the Scene of an Accident in the tribal court system in connection with the incident, according to Smith.
The incident is still under investigation and when completed will be presented to the U.S. Attorney for possible federal violation, according to Smith.
Tribal Employee Benefit Plan set for January
POPLAR - As of Jan. 1, 1989, all full-time employees will be covered by three different plans in the Employee benefit Program.
The Tribes will pay the cost of these benefits; $165,000 was budgeted for first year costs and was approved of in the tribes FY89 budget in September, 1988.
A representative of the insurance company and from the Billings bank who will be trustee for the Fort Peck Tribes defined contribution pension plan met with all employees last week to explain the Employee Benefit Program and to fill out necessary forms.
Clancy Merrill, Shawnee Mission, Kansas City, Kansas, represented the UNUM Insurance Company. Each employee working 20 hours or more per week will be considered full-time, active employees and will be insured for Life Insurance and for Disability Income Insurance. The life insurance provides abenefit to the employee's beneficiary in the event of the
employee's death while an employee of the Fort Peck Tribes. The disability insurance provides a guaranteed monthly income if an employee is unable to work due to an accident or illness.
In the pension plan, the Tribes will contribute 6.25 percent of each employee's pay to the plan and First Interstate Bank in Billings will invest tthe month for the Tribes. If an employee terminates employment, the vested benefits will be paid out at the end of the year following the year of termination based of years of employment.
First Interstate Bank, Billings, will administer the pension plan and, according to their representative Gary Schmidt, will make sure it is administered in the correct fashion and that money put in for the employee's benefit does not revert back to the Tribes. "It can only be used for retirement for you," he told employees last week. The bank also makes sure that the money is
immediately invested and earning interest.
The Tribes Employee Benefit Committee did a "top-notch" job in getting the best people and company for tribal employees, Schmidt said. They interviewed 15 different insurance agents on services and packages, and after a lengthy review process, Leonard Smith, a tribal member, made the best presentation. The committee also reviewed about 20 insurance carriers for the disability and life insurance and got the "top in the market," Schmidt said. In the pensionplan, four or five banks were looked at before First Interstate was selected. If the Tribes terminate the plan after it has started, all employees would get any money invested for them, it wouldn't revert back to the Tribes, he said.
The Tribes opted for an Employee Benefit Plan rather than any type of salary increases this year.