THE HONORABLE EDWARD K. THOMAS, PRESIDENT BEFORE THE U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS I. INTRODUCTION GREETINGS FROM JUNEAU, ALASKA! My name is Edward K. Thomas. I am President of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Central Council). I am honored to present testimony on Self-Governance issues to this distinguished Committee and to support making the Self-Governance program permanent. My Tribe, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, has always been a strong supporter of the Self-Governance Demonstration Program. In 1986 and 1988 when Congress expressed interest in strengthening tribal government-to-government relationships with the federal government through a reduction in the bureaucracy, we were quick to jump on the "band wagon." By reducing just one layer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) bureaucracy, my Tribe and the other Tribes in southeast Alaska have more than doubled our program base. In 1991 our program base was $2.7 million; currently it is $5.5 million. This proves that Self-Governance works. We realize we have a long way to go for our people to be self-sufficient. We have, however, been put to the test at every level of implementation of this worthwhile project. I must begin by mentioning the travesty that the BIA has made of my Tribe's tribal government status in recent days. II. BACKDROP THE TRAVESTY OF BIA'S MODERN-DAY TERMINATION POLICY Last week, BIA republished a list of Tribes recognized as having general governmental powers. BIA removed my Tribe, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, from that list without due process or open discussion. Overnight, BIA acts as if its understanding of the nature of Central Council completely changed. We are appalled. No one can redefine our identity as a Tribe but ourselves. As an inherent aspect of our tribal sovereignty, our governmental identity is ours alone to shape. Even so, BIA's action seriously undermines what we can do as a tribal government because it is essentially an action to terminate the federal recognition of the general governmental powers our Tribe has had for decades upon decades. For years Congress and the federal departments have treated Central Council like a tribal government, dealt with Central Council as a tribal government, and called Central Council a tribal government with inherent and general governmental powers no less than other tribal governments organized under the Indian Reorganization Act or otherwise. TEL. 907/586-1432 FAX 907/586-8970 TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD K. THOMAS, PRESIDENT CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT AND HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA OCTOBER 20, 1993 SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS OVERSIGHT HEARING ON SELF-GOVERNANCE Congress has declared us to be a Tribe on numerous occasions dating back to 1935. Our rules of election under our Tribal Constitution were approved by the Interior Department. The Federal courts have declared us to possess sovereign immunity as a tribal government. We have actively exercised tribal government jurisdiction in Indian child welfare cases. We have operated tribal courts as a tribal government. There are many other examples, some of which I set forth in my September 29, 1993 letter to the Interior Associate Solicitor which I have attached to this testimony. Until last week we believed the Termination Era was embarrassing but ancient U.S. history. Termination by administrative action is as immoral and ill-advised as it was in the 1950s. It should be outlawed. We ask that you take the earliest opportunity to enact tribal restoration language for the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Despite the actions of the BIA last week, I will proceed here, as everywhere, with the understanding that I am the elected President of a tribal government with a solemn and binding Compact of Self-Governance agreement with United States government. In that Compact, the United States acknowledges the sovereign governmental powers of the Central Council as a Tribe. That is the acknowledgement I will honor, not the one issued last week. III. CENTRAL COUNCIL AS A PIONEERING SELF-GOVERNANCE TRIBAL GOVERNMENT My Tribe was one of the first ten Tribes to receive Self-Governance planning grants five years ago. We began operating all of our BIA-funded programs under a Self-Governance Compact on January 2, 1992. From the start, our main aim under Self-Governance was to transform BIA bureaucratic administration funds into tribal programs funds for our needy tribal members. As a result of our Compact, an entire BIA Agency Office has been abolished and some of the savings transferred to us put into direct services. BIA's termination action against us last week makes it clear that our Self-Governance goals have not made us any friends within the BIA bureaucracy. Every step forward we have taken under Self-Governance has been thwarted by barriers BIA officials have thrown in our way. The BIA's treatment of our Southeast Alaska Tribes' SelfGovernance Compact has seriously undermined the government-to-government partnership we have been trying to build with the Interior Department. Until last week, our latest and most costly BIAcaused problem had to do with us being shortchanged hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1992 contract support funding while nearly all other Tribes were fully funded. We and the other Southeast Alaska Signatory Tribes were forced to file a lawsuit against BIA simply to get treated the same as all other Tribes. Our first year negotiations were delayed because BIA would not release necessary budgetary information and would not schedule negotiations. Then BIA withheld all of our new Compact funds for the first part of our Compact year, forcing us to sue BIA just to get the money BIA agreed to transfer to us. BIA's termination action against us last week makes it clear that our unwillingness to permit BIA to thwart implementation of our Self-Governance goals has not made us any friends within the BIA bureaucracy. Mr. Chairman and Members of this Committee, I cannot help but ask -- why is my Tribe the one to pay for such costly BIA errors? What happened to the federal accountability and trust responsibility to my people? In all fairness, my people should not be asked to pay the price of BIA mistakes. - Page 2 TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD K. THOMAS, PRESIDENT CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT AND HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA OCTOBER 20, 1993 SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS Oversight HEARING ON SELF-GOVERNANCE IV. CENTRAL COUNCIL SUPPORTS MAKING THE PROJECT PERMANENT Central Council strongly supports making this Project permanent. Permanency is all the more urgent for us because of BIA's efforts to terminate our governmental status last week. Unless the statute plainly sets forth precise requirements, recent events have caused us to lose faith in any coherent or consistent implementation by the BIA. BIA's inability to properly implement the SelfGovernance project is the very reason Central Council and other Tribes proposed S. 550, the SelfGovernance Technical Amendments bill introduced earlier this year. S. 550 details in a highly directive fashion how the federal agencies should carry out their responsibilities under SelfGovernance. We think many of its provisions should be included in the permanent bill you are considering today for enactment this year, so that BIA is required to make decisions on SelfGovernance openly in an informed manner and in a timely fashion. So we urge that the following S. 550 provisions be included in the proposed bill: vesting negotiation and other Self-Governance authority in the Director of SelfGovernance; structuring the Self-Governance Policy Council to meet regularly, openly, and decisively; streamlining the funds transfer process and ensuring the full and timely funding of both direct program and indirect contract support dollars due us under our SelfGovernance agreement; requiring BIA to negotiate tribal shares of Central Office funds, line-by-line; directing that all funds be subject to negotiation of tribal shares, regardless of whether the Secretary could otherwise allocate them by competitive procedure, formula, priority list, or other mechanism; and mandating that BIA down-size as a result of the transfer of responsibilities to Tribes under Self-Governance agreements and transfer all of the resulting savings to us Tribes. Given our painful experience, I must high-light one of these areas. From day one of our Compact, my Tribe has had a very difficult time getting BIA to timely transfer the full amount funds it agreed to transfer to us. We have had to borrow from our own funds to keep our tribal government operations going and have had to twice sue BIA in federal court just to get what was our due. Varying amounts of funds have been sporadically transferred to us without explanation up to almost one year after they were supposed to be in our hands. Our tribal staff has had to spend countless hours figuring out what we have received against what we should have received, and then has had to hammer away at the many-layered BIA financial system for what is owed us. The BIA financial system does not have to be as complicated as it is made out to be by BIA staff. Self-Governance was supposed to simplify things. If anything, fund transfers under SelfGovernance are more complex than ever. Any private sector corporate board of directors would never accept the kind of financial management and accounting practices maintained by the BIA, whose guiding principle seems to be to maintain a perpetual state of confusion and crisis rather than - Page 3 TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD K. THOMAS, PRESIDENT CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT AND HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA OCTOBER 20, 1993 SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS OVERSIGHT HEARING ON SELF-GOVERNANCE simplicity and efficiency. Here again, unless Congress acts in this legislation the BIA will continue to make unnecessary work for itself and for Tribes like Central Council. V. CENTRAL COUNCIL SUPPORTS INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANT TRIBES We believe Self-Governance is a good and worthwhile initiative and commend it to all other Tribes ready to face the challenge. For that reason we support lifting the ceiling on the number of Tribes allowed to participate. Central Council also supports the request of its sister Signatory Tribes in Southeast Alaska who have asked that Interior negotiate separate Compacts with them. Central Council invited these Signatory Tribes to participate alongside Central Council from the beginning, with the understanding that once the Self-Governance Project is made permanent, Central Council would likewise support these Signatory Tribes' request to have separate Compacts with the United States. Our multi-tribal Compact in Southeast Alaska is unique and has certain advantages and disadvantages for all concerned, but if a participating Signatory Tribe wishes to have its own Compact, Central Council will continue to support such efforts. VI. CONCLUSION BIA's effort last week to terminate Central Council's tribal government status was taken despite our strong protest and that of members of this Committee. We covet your continuing support in our effort to reverse this miscarriage of justice. - Likewise, we seek your support in our continuing effort to make good on the aspirations contained in our Compact of Self-Governance with the United States that government to government relations between my Tribe and the United States will be fostered and enhanced, that our tribal government will be strengthened, and that vital services will increase so that the life of my people will improve. We believe making the Self-Governance Project permanent, with the changes I have suggested, will go a long way toward making these goals a reality. Thank you. THSG01 TST 0077/072522 - Page 4 This letter follows up on the telephone conversation we had last week on your department's progress in developing an official list of Tribes in Alaska. You indicated that my Tribe, Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (T&HCC), will no longer be listed as a Tribe but like any other non-profit regional corporation in Alaska. This is wrong! No other non-profit regional corporation possess the following characteristics nor have the following recognitions: Congressional Recognition T&HCC gained federal recognition through Acts of Tribal Enrollment The base roll of T&HCC was mandated by law to be approved and certified by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Although other regions had to identify persons eligible for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, it wasn't for Tribal purposes and the process ended December, 1971. T&H continues its enrollment today. Tribal Elections T&IICC as a regional Tribe is required to have its Rules of Election approved by the Secretary (including amendments). Sovereign Immunity T&HCC has successfully defended itself from suit in federal court using sovereign immunity as an argument. Non-Tribes do not have such protective rights. Trust Account T&HCC has Tribal funds managed by the BIA. Regional non-profits, who are not Tribes, may not put money into accounts managed by the BIA. Indian Tribal Tax Status Act T&HCC, and no other regional non-profit, is listed in the |