tribes control their own economic, social and political destiny. This group has attempted to frighten tribal staff members into believing their jobs are in jeopardy. Despite Congress' directives, the B.I.A. has been reluctant to supply information requested by the initial self-governance tribes. Instead of open cooperation, the B.I.A. has maneuvered to retard self-governance planning progress. No appropriations were sought by the B.I.A. in either FY 89 or FY 90 to implement self-governance. The B.I.A.'s reluctance to cooperate has become a frequent and deliberate obstacle to progress. Internally, self-governance tribes have uncovered institutional obstacles contained in their constitutions, especially those tribal constitutions established under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Accounting and administrative systems imposed on tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or resulting from years of B.I.A. influence, have also proved to be obstacles. Instead of being designed to respond to community needs, elements of these systems are designed to respond to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' needs. A consequence of these conditions has been the realization that some self-governance tribes lack a fully working infrastructure responsible to tribal needs. Self-governance requires an infrastructure suited to the specific needs of each individual tribe. Participating tribes remain stead-fast because they know that the future of Indian tribes in the United States depends on tribes becoming self-sufficient and self-governing societies. Participating tribes seek to overcome obstacles and obstructionism by clearly demonstrating the inherent intelligence of Indian people and “their ability to decide for themselves what future they shall have.” Self-Government and Changes in the B.I.A. Two commissions, the American Indian Policy Review Commission of the U.S. Congress (1975 - 1977) and the Presidential Commission on Reservation Economies (1984) found that the Bureau of Indian Affairs and many past policies of the United States government stifle tribal efforts to achieve social, economic and political self-sufficiency. Both commissions also found that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should be restructured to focus on the "protection of Indian tribes" instead of "managing the affairs of Indian tribes." Both commissions found that the Bureau of Indian Affairs uses a disproportionate amount of Congressionally appropriated funds to support its own operations instead of providing adequate assistance and support to Indian tribes. Finally, both commissions found that transferring funds and functions from Bureau of Indian Affairs directly to Indian governments and correspondingly reducing the size of the B.I.A. bureaucracy would increase local tribal accountability through local autonomy and stream-line the Bureau of Indian Affairs into an agency which protects instead of manages Indian tribes. The Tribal Self-Governance Demonstration Project was initiated to accomplish a reduced direct Federal involvement in the management of Indian tribes. It is also designed to resolve problems associated with multi-tribe B.I.A. Agencies, reduce the size of the B.I.A. bureaucracy, allow more direct local decision-making by tribal governments, and a stabilize the level of B.I.A. appropriated funding. The federal burden for administering many social and economic programs to self-governing tribes would decline over a period of years as functions and resources are transferred through negotiations of a Self-Governance Compact. Correspondingly, the structure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its personnel burden should reduce with the conclusion of each Self-Governance Compact. This approach has the advantage of increasing local decision-making at the tribal level, reducing federal Indian Affairs management functions with a corresponding emphasis on trust protection responsibilities. The systematic transfer of resources and responsibilities from the B.I.A. to tribal governments is the next logical step toward achieving true Indian self-determination. APPENDIX A Conference Report 100-498 accompanying H.J. Res. 395 $4,000,000 has been restored for self-determination grants. Of this amount, $1,000,000 is to be used by the Bureau for a tribal self-governance demonstration project. The project will allow up to ten tribal governments, which were named in the Department's letter to the Appropriations Committee dated December 15, 1987, the opportunity to design their own budgets to address tribally determined priorities. The managers direct the Bureau to analyze all budgets and functions at all levels of the Bureau, and to formulate a proposal for the equitable distribution of resources and service responsibilities between these demonstration tribal governments and the remaining tribal governments in multi-tribal agency and area offices. The Bureau should also prepare proposals for reduction or transfer of personnel and consolidation of program functions to accommodate the eventual transition. The $1,000,000 shall be provided under the contracting and granting authority of P.L. 93-638, as a planning grant, to the ten tribes for legal and budgetary research, internal tribal government planning and organizational preparation, and the negotiation process. Each of the tribes shall document obstacles and proposed remedies identified with this planning process, to be consolidated into a comprehensive report to be submitted to the Appropriations Committees by September 1, 1988. As fiscal year 1988 will be the planning phase for the self-governance demonstration project, normal P.L. 93-638 programs and budgeting should be separate from the planning process. The negotiated agreements should also include a clear delineation of trust responsibility protections assumed by the tribes and retained by the United States government. To document tribal progress under self-governance, mutually-determined baseline measures are to be incorporated into each demonstration agreement between the Federal government and the tribes. Progress reports on this project shall be submitted by the Bureau by April 1, 1988, and September 1, 1988, documenting any problems experienced in the planning phase and proposed solutions. The managers expect the Bureau to work closely with the tribes involved in the demonstration project to ensure the success of this initiative, and will closely monitor its progress over the coming year. The balance of $3,000,000 for self-determination grants is to be added to the Indian Services-Tribe/agency budget, to be distributed according to tribal priority, for self-determination grants or other high priority activities within this program. A report on the changes that result should be submitted to the Committees as soon as possible. APPENDIX B TITLE III -- Tribal Self-Governance Demonstration Project Section 301. The Secretary of the Interior shall, for a period not to exceed five years following enactment of this title, conduct a research and demonstration project to be known as the Tribal Self-Governance Project according to the provisions of this title. Section 302. (a) The Secretary shall select twenty tribes to participate in the demonstration project, as follows: (1) a tribe that successfully completes a Self-Governance Planning Grant, authorized by Conference Report 100-498 to accompany H.J. Res. 395, One Hundredth Congress, first session shall be selected to participate in the demonstration project; and (2) the Secretary shall select, in such a manner as to achieve geographic representation, the remaining tribal participants from the pool of qualified applicants. In order to be in the pool of qualified applicants— (A) The governing body of the tribe shall request participation in the demonstration project; (B) such tribe shall have operated two or more mature contracts; and (C) such tribe shall have demonstrated for the previous three fiscal years, financial stability and financial management capability as evidenced by such tribe having no significant and material audit exceptions in the required annual audit of such tribe's self-determination contracts. Section 303. (a) The Secretary is directed to negotiate, and to enter into, an annual written funding agreement with the governing body of a participating tribal government which— (1) shall authorize the tribe to plan, conduct, consolidate, and administer programs, services and functions authorized under the Act of April 16, 1934 (48 Stat. 596), as amended, and the Act of November 2, 1921 (42 Stat. 208); (2) subject to the terms of the written agreement authorized by this title, shall authorize the tribe to redesign programs, activities, functions or services and to reallocate funds for such programs, activities, functions or services; (3) shall not include funds provided pursuant to the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act (Public Law 95-471), for elementary and secondary schools under the Indian School Equalization Formula pursuant to title XI of the Education Amendments of 1978 (Public Law 95-561, as amended), or for either the Flathead Agency Irrigation Division or the Flathead Agency Power Division; Provided, That nothing in this section shall affect the contractability of such divisions under section 102 of this Act; (4) shall specify the services to be provided, the functions to be performed, and the responsibilities of the tribe and the Secretary pursuant to this agreement; (5) shall specify the authority of the tribe and the Secretary, and the procedures to be used, to reallocate funds or modify budget allocations within any project year, (6) shall except as provided in paragraphs (1) and (2), provide for payment by the Secretary to the tribe of funds from one or m programs, services, functions, or activities in an amount equal to that which the tribe would have been eligible to receive under contracts and grants under this Act, including direct program costs and indirect costs, and for funds which are specifically related to the provision by the Secretary of services, and benefits to the tribe and its members; Provided, however, That funds for trust services to individual Indians are available under this written agreement only to the extent that the same services which would have been provided by the Secretary are provided to individual Indians by the tribe; (7) shall not allow the Secretary to waive, modify or diminish in any way the trust responsibility of the United States with respect to Indian tribes and individual Indians which exists under treaties, Executive orders, and Acts of Congress; (8) shall allow for retrocession of programs or portions thereof pursuant to section 105(e) of this Act; and (9) shall be submitted by the Secretary ninety days in advance of the proposed effective date of the agreement of each tribe which is served by the agency which is serving the tribe which is a party to the funding agreement and to the Congress for review by the Select Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the House of Representatives. (b) For the year for which, and to the extent to which, funding is provided to a tribe pursuant to this title, such tribe (1) shall not be entitled to contract with the Secretary for such funds under section 102, except that such tribe shall be eligible for new programs on the same basis as other tribes; and (2) shall be responsible for the administration of programs, services and activities pursuant to agreements under this title. (c) At the request of the governing body of the tribe and under the terms of an agreement pursuant to subsection (a), the Secretary shall provide funding to such tribe to implement the agreement. (d) For the purpose of section 110 of this Act the term contract shall also include agreements authorized by this title. (e) To the extent feasible, the Secretary shall interpret Federal laws and regulations in a manner that will facilitate the agreements authorized by this title. Section 304. The Secretary shall identify, in the President's annual budget request to the Congress, any funds proposed to be included in the Tribal Self-Governance Project. The use of funds pursuant to this title shall be subject to specific directives or limitations as may be included in applicable appropriations Acts. Section 305. The Secretary shall submit to the Congress a written report on July 1 and January 1 of each of the five years following the date of enactment of this title on the relative costs and benefits of the Tribal Self-Governance Project. Such report shall be based on mutually determined baseline measurements jointly developed by the Secretary and participating tribes, and shall separately include the views of the tribes. Section 806. Nothing in this title shall be construed to limit or reduce in any way the services, contracts or funds that any other Indian tribe or tribal organization is eligible to receive under section 102 or any other applicable Federal law and the provisions of section 110 of this Act shall be available to any tribe or Indian organization which alleges that a funding agreement is in violation of this section. SECTION 210. SAVINGS PROVISIONS. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as (1) affecting, modifying, diminishing, or otherwise impairing the sovereign immunity from suit enjoyed by an Indian tribe; or (2) authorizing or requiring the termination of any existing trust responsibility of the United States with respect to Indian people. If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any Indian tribe, entity, person or circumstance is held invalid, neither the remainder of this Act, nor the application of any provisions herein to other Indian tribes, entities, persons, or circumstances, shall be affected thereby. References American Indian Policy Review Commission: Final Report, U.S. Congress. Government Printing Office. (May 17, 1977) Report and Recommendations to the President of the United States, Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economics, The White House. (November 30, 1984) Fey, Harold E. and McNickle, D'Arcy. Indians and Other Americans: Two Ways of Life Meet, New and revised edition. Harper & Row, New York. (1970) Cohen, Felix S., Handbook of Federal Indian Law, U.S. Government Printing Office (1942), University of New Mexico Press (1974), Five Rings Corporation (1986). Termination, President Lyndon B. Johnson, The White House. (March 6, 1968) Indian Self-Determination, President Richard M. Nixon, The White House. (July 8, 1970). Indian Policy Statement, President Ronald Reagan, The White House. (January 14, 1983). N.C.A.L., Various published and unpublished papers from the Archives of the National Congress of American Indians. (1944-1984). DeLaCruz, Joseph B., Various published and unpublished papers of Quinault President Joe DeLaCruz. (1975 -1988). |