The people recognized a runaway government in the last administration and took control when they voted former President Two Bulls and 13 of her council representatives out of office. Largely because of excessive spending concerning travel issues. Now we have a new administration and new Tribal Council. And we’ve recently seen the results of the latest Treasurers Report and have seen Mr. James “Tobe” Big Boy’s (Medicine Root District) comments on that report in NSN.

We have seen the mess that was left over from the last administration. It isn’t over yet and thanks to Tobe, there seems to be a massive cleanup underway and we are about to start getting on the right track in terms of financial accountability. There are six (6) council members left from the last administration. If you knew the following during the election, how would you have voted?

Have you ever wondered why the Districts have not gotten their district allocations from the Tribe’s casino during the last administration? Have you ever wondered why we have never seen any financial reports come out of the casino?

I have just recently found out that according to the Tribes Gaming Code, only Tribal Council members can get a copy of the casino’s annual audits. The newly elected members of the Tribe’s Judiciary Committee are taking big steps to regain control of spending on all levels and I’m going to venture to say that a great big proverbial “can of worms” is about to be opened concerning our casino.

Aside from the unaccounted for General Fund travel expenses ($780,000.00) that we already know about, the Two Bulls administration ran up another tab of over $265,000.00 in unpaid motel expenses at the tribe’s casino.

And they also ran up a tab in unpaid meals at the casino restaurant over $55,000.00. There is a connection between the unreported travel expenses and them staying at our own casino. They were living “high off the hog” while we, the people, remained living in poverty stricken conditions.

The result: the casino is unable to pay district allocations basically because of internal non-payment for the use of the gaming facilities and gouging the casino profits by former tribal council members.

Remember, I said the council members are the only ones who can see audit reports? Keeping financial documents under wraps can only be for one reason… to keep the general public and stakeholders (true owners) which are the members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, from identifying insider theft. Like I kept saying they were your leaders, not mine.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Law & Order Code in Chapter 29 (Gaming code), Sec. 3 Purpose, (d) the Oglala Sioux Tribe shall receive at least 70 percent of the net revenues of all gaming activities conducted. In Sec. 41 it goes on to describe the uses of the money and adds; “But in no event shall proceeds from such net revenues be distributed to individual members of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council.”

The council members found a way around this. They racked up huge personal debt in terms of unpaid motel and food expenses and left the casino holding the bag in the amount of $315,000.00. In other words, they made it so the casino could not collect what was owed to them and therefore reduced the casinos total net profits by a substantial amount.

What is 70 percent of $315,000.00? It’s $220,500.00. That money was supposed to benefit all the members of the Tribe, not just the select few former tribal council members. Oh yes, the casino is out $94,500.00 as well. Again, if you knew this before the election, how would you have voted?

The Tribe’s Casino is an investment vehicle for the people. In the beginning, we were all supposed to get per capita payments from the proceeds, but to this day it has never happened. There was a loan made to pay for the casino development. The payment is being made in the name of the members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The debt for that loan is all placed squarely on the shoulders of the tribal members, yet we are unable to view casino financial reports.

Therefore, we, the people acknowledge that we are the true owners of the Tribe’s casino and we, the people are the true owners of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. We, the people are above the Tribal Council, the Tribal President, the individual Tribal Districts and we, the people demand an investigation into former Tribal Council members’ travel activities and demand immediate accountability from the Tribe’s casino! Stay safe, be strong, fight for the truth and ignore the illusion.

Jeffrey Whalen: Oglala Sioux leaders misusing tribal gaming funds