A-Infos (en) Amendment and update US, SCOOP from Pine Ridge

[Kaidi Al-Muntaqim Allah <gda7@yahoo.com>]

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> From: "craig hymson" <chymson@hotmail.com>
I have just gotten off the phone interviewing one of
the tribal members
occupying the building. I don't have much time now,
since I want to get this
story up and on the site ASAP(I need help by the way
since i have to be at
my day job in 3 hours). The details are complicated
and I need to sort them
out. Here is a very brief synopsis: I spoke with
Eileen Janis the PR
coordinator for Presidenty Sully, of the Oglala
Sioux tribe. Last Sunday at
2pm, tribal members entered the main tribal building
and have remained there
since. As of right now there are 50 or so tribal
members including youth and
elders inside. They are demanding that the tribal
treasurer, appointed by
the council resign immediately. It is complicated
but basically they charge
him with mismanagement of tribal funds and
corruption. The tribal president
supports the actions of the people and is at odds
with the rest of the
council. Eileen says the action was taken after the
people, meeting in their
own districts, decided that they have had enough.
They did not force their way in. Staffers at the
building went to work and
then opened the doors for others to enter. They ARE
NOT being attacked or
harassed by the FBI. Tribal police are standing
guard out front protecting
them. The council has threatened to remove them by
force but thepolice have
said that they will lay down their badges and
prevent that from happening.
Yesterday, they won the approval of the tribal court
to appoint an alternate
signatory(currently only the treasurer can sign
checks). The building
occupiers who Eileen refers to as the People, are
guarding and  monitoring
the financial records. They refuse to leave until
the Treasurer, Mr.Jacobs,
is removed from office and an independent audit is
conducted of tribal
accounts. They have given some records to the FBI,
who is holding them until
independently  audited(this is still a little fuzzy
for me). Additionally,
they are demanding a traditional way of
governence(in contrast to the
current council system). They also place blame on
the
Federal Govt.s Indian Reorganization Act, which "set
us up to fail...they
never took into account our culture, our way of life
or anything else. They
just said...this is how you are going to run...there
are(in the current
system) no traditional ways to make people
accountable, to get them out(of
office)...we just have to do what we say." She also
told me that the Council
has been slandering the people inside on television
and on radio(locally,
she says that there has been a regional and national
media blackout on their
action), saying they are "stupid fullbloods" who
"don't know anything" and
"don't know what they are doing".    That is all for
now. I hope to set up
an interview with the tribal Prez and the IMC later.
  Craig Hymson



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