When a tribal government is run well, you can typically give credit to the person in charge.
The same can be said when things go badly. You can trace disorder to poor leadership and a lack of accountability.
A newly elected tribal chairman is seeking a federal audit of the $105 million debt amassed under the two terms of Tex Hall, the previous chairman.
Hall and I have a newspaper history. As a reporter, I wrote stories leading up to his first election. After they were published, some of his relatives called my editors and threatened to sue. It never happened.
Since then, I've also written several columns about Hall and his administration.
But I'm also a tribal citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and I - like many others - am concerned about our tribe's future.
“For all tribal members, the corruption and gross mismanagement reported is the worst it has ever been in the history of the (Three Affiliated Tribes),” Ramona Two Shields, executive director of an elders organization, wrote this month to the New Town (N.D.) News.
“Present documentation indicates that in the past eight years, the Tex Hall administration (and those in) other responsible positions” are to blame.
Tribal leaders set the tone for their administrations.
Past leaders have served our people well. They didn't need new trucks, cell phones or massive travel budgets. Previous tribal leaders looked to the future of the tribe.
Our past, as well as our future, have been tied to a $148 million trust fund, or JTAC - Joint Tribal Advisory Committee - economic recovery fund.
The tribe received the money as compensation from the federal government after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flooded 150,000 acres of our land along the Missouri River.
Fifty years later, our people are still recovering from the devastating loss of our economic infrastructure and culturally significant sacred sites.
The JTAC fund represents the pain and heartbreak of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people.
Hall started to use JTAC funds as soon as he took office. He was elected in the fall of 1998. The council authorized a $3.6 million withdrawal from the fund in 1998.
By the end of 2000, $25 million was withdrawn. Between 2000 and 2004, another $41 million was withdrawn. Hall's term ended in 2006.
It's not clear where or how the money was spent, hence the pending audit.
When tribal leaders began depleting existing money, they looked for new sources. Bank loans.
But in 2006, the only new line of credit extended to the tribe came from the Native American Bank, where Hall serves as board chairman for the bank's holding company, Native American Bancorporation Co.
Hall lost his bid for a third term in November - Martin Cross is the only chairman in the history of our tribes to serve three consecutive terms.
Marcus Wells Jr. beat Hall by 233 votes, leaving the former chairman to protest and file complaints with the National Indian Gaming Commission, tribal election board and tribal court.
All three failed to find wrongdoing connected to Hall's loss.
Now Hall, former president of the National Congress of American Indians, is turning to a regional tribal appeals court with hope of finding his way back to a council seat.
He recently lamented to a Minot (N.D.) Daily News reporter that his election loss is “burning a hole in my side.”
The reality: Under Hall's leadership, a deep hole was burned in the side of the tribes' financial future. Auditors have estimated it will take some 15 years to clear the debt.
Today, more than 500 employees are on the tribal payroll. A number of non-federal employees are set to be laid off on the reservation, where about 6,000 tribal citizens live.
“By the end of the day we'll have at least 40 letters that are going out,” Hugh Baker, a federal programs manager for the tribe, said Thursday. “It will be close to 80 by the time we're done next week.”
It's one thing to lay off employees, but what will the new council do to curb its own spending?
In 2006, the seven-member tribal council agreed on a $2.3 million budget to meet its needs, including cell phones, salaries, cars, travel, fringe benefits, donations and grants.
Instead, the price tag doubled to $4.5 million by the end of the year.
And questionable spending continues.
The new council entered 2007 by approving a $120,000 loan to a tribal cattle rancher. Financial statements show tribal members have a poor history of paying back the tribe. For example, the tribe expected $100,000 in small loans to be repaid in 2006, but only collected $11,000.
Will the new tribal chairman be able to define where Hall's administration ended and his begins?
Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers. She can be reached at (406) 523-5299 or jodi.rave@lee.net
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