"In 1994 a meeting was held with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to discuss institutional discrimination against American Indian Tribes issuing Tribal Municipal Finance Bonds to pay for Tribal projects which created revenue to pay for the Tribes government operations. Such operations included employment for Tribal owned businesses located on Tribal reservations. The meeting had the SEC counsel to the Chairman, Head of Corporate Finance and the Legislative Counsel. The Tribes from Warm Springs Indian Reservation, BIA Economic Development Office, Senator Simons Staffer and their Bond Counsels from Law Firms: Carroll Burdick & McDonough, and Miller and Schroeder. The SEC stated that they would halt any discrimination and resolve the issue within their independent agency. We also met with the White House Domestic Policy office to notice them on the meeting results and SEC statement.

Since that meeting, the American Indian Tribes have issued Tribal Financial Bonds to pay for their government operations and economic projects to create jobs for the local Tribal members. The SEC has exhibited a benign neglect to the issue while the Internal Revenue Service has issued ITG FAQ #4: Tribes have constitutionally guaranteed status as sovereign entities and are not subject to tax based on this. However, Tribes that use their economic projects to pay for their government operations and to reduce poverty by seeking employment for their members has been subjected to an IRS ruling that their economic projects are to be deemed a Taxable issue and therefore require a higher interest rate than non-taxable issue. The Tribeocrat (those within Tribal Bureaucracies) can require their attorneys to challenge the designation of IRS conclusions and draft opinions that designate the revenue as essential governmental services as such revenue is used to operate their Tribal governments."

Get the Story:
Deni Leonard: SEC/IRS Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit and Stolen Tribal Assets (Indian Country Today 4/1)