Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele at the Ramah settlement announcement in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on September 17, 2015. Photo from Bureau of Indian Affairs / Twitter
Interior Dept. announces Ramah settlement
$940 million for contract support monies shorted by BIA
By Tom Crash
LCT Correspondent PINE RIDGE/ALBUQUERQUE – The Ramah lawsuit settlement was actually negotiated and agreed upon back in December but only now released by the U.S. Department of Interior, that the federal government had agreed to pay as many as 600 tribes a total of $940 million to make up for decades of inadequate contract support for tribes managing education, law enforcement, land operations, transportation and employment assistance. Following a meeting in Washington DC with the Department of Justice in early December, John Yellow Bird Steele, OST president and Mike Her Many Horses joined with tribal representatives from Ramah Chapter and Zuni and lawyers before a federal judge in Albuquerque and agreed on a settlement in the contract support lawsuit that was originally filed in the mid-90’s and had gone all the way to the Supreme Court in 2012. “We have a settlement that we’re OK with,” said both Steele and Her Many Horses about the terms of the settlement, “Terms of the settlement won’t be released until sometime in 2015 but all the parties are happy with the result of the negotiations that have stretched over the past two years.” The Ramah settlement monies are expected to arrive sometime in 2016 and the tribal council will make the decision as to where the settlement monies will go. Discussions have included creating development opportunities, pay down some of the tribe’s debt and setting aside monies for emergency situations with no attention given to per capita payments.
Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn at the Ramah settlement announcement in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on September 17, 2015. Photo from Bureau of Indian Affairs / Twitter
All amounts are only estimates, the settlement is set to be approved on Wednesday, September 23, during a federal court hearing in Albuquerque. Once approved, the settlement process moves on to the Dept. of Justice where they will determine a specific method of calculation, then there will be a comment period until the end of November; tribes could receive settlement monies in the spring of 2016. The Oglala Sioux Tribe is set to receive the largest amount of any tribe in the northern plains – OST just under $12.9 million, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe $6.9 million, Rosebud Sioux Tribe $5.4 million, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe $4.3 million, Turtle Mountain $2.5 million, Sisseton Wahpeton $2.2 million, Yankton $1.5 million, Lower Brule $1.2 million, Spirit Lake $1.2 million, Crow Creek $1 million and Flandreau $876,000. Navajo is set to receive the largest award at $50 million, Quinalt $20 million, Mississippi Band of Choctaw $16 million, Kawerak Inc. in Alaska $14 million, Bristol Bay Nation $14 million, Colville $12 million and San Carlos $11 million. In addition to tribes, tribal colleges and tribal agencies like OST Department of Public Safety are also set to receive settlement monies; Public Safety could receive as much as $11 million. United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck will receive $4.2 million, Oglala Lakota College is due $596,000 with other tribal colleges Sinte Gleska University, Sitting Bull College in Ft. Yates, Ft. Berthold, Turtle Mountain and Sisseton Wahpeton College also receiving settlement monies. “This settlement closes a chapter in our relationship that represented a time that was very adversarial. While negotiating over the last decade and a half, the BIA went through a number of re-organizations -- we were always dealing with new people who oftentimes were uninformed about the issue,” said Mike Her Many Horses who with John Steele helped negotiate the settlement. “There is a sense of accomplishment, we were able to provide some leadership, especially with the other two lead plaintiffs, Zuni and Ramah; we can look at economic development, find young managers who will lead new development and help us to dig our way out of poverty, I feel we are at that point today.”
Zuni Pueblo Gov. Val Panteah, Sr., at the Ramah settlement announcement in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on September 17, 2015. Photo from Bureau of Indian Affairs / Twitter
According to Her Many Horses, special thanks go to two of the lead attorneys, Michael Gross and Bryant Rogers who helped shepherd the settlement through a myriad of ups and downs as the settlement worked its way through government agencies and the courts, these two attorneys did some phenomenal work, emphasized Horses. The tribe spent probably between $400,000 to $500,000 on the process which should be reimbursed by the federal government. "The process stretched over several tribal administrations, we needed support from each administration and council to continue the process," added Her Many Horses. "It’s still an uphill battle, we need a legislative fix, we need legislation that will address contract support; right now there are two advisory committees, one from Interior and one from IHS that are charged with coming up with a fix for contract support at both Interior and IHS," stated Her Many Horses.
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“We need to seriously look at economic development, ventures that create jobs like the East Wind Casino or the Lakota Dollar store in Pine Ridge,” said Ivan Sorbel, executive director of the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce. "We need to invest in infrastructure, in roads and housing and we need to have money to buy land, the Land Buy Back program focused on fractionated interests and we need financial resources to be able to purchase a ranch or farm that comes onto the market.” “This very likely could be the final lawsuit that provides payment to the tribes,” said Michael. "We need to create development, to create jobs, we need to make the best use possible of these settlement monies.” Relevant Documents:
DOI Press Release | Ramah Navajo Chapter Press Release | Oglala Sioux Tribe Press Release | Zuni Pueblo Press Release | Attorneys Press Release | Settlement Q&A Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter.
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