The following opinion by Jeffrey Whalen, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, appears in the current issue of the Native Sun News. All content © Native Sun News.

A few days ago while surfing the web, I ran into an editorial which spoke about a person who was being labeled as a “hit man” for the Oglala Sioux Tribe. I read a column by Charles Trimble with interest and found that the hit man the author was referring to was me. Articles from Native Sun Weekly frequently appear on Indianz.Com.

Trimble didn’t mean to indicate that I was a real hit man in the sense that I use deadly methods to destroy people rather he meant that I am a person who will not hesitate to expose anyone who violates tribal/federal/state law or who commits white collar crimes in those governments.

He also spoke about how the tribal council does not necessarily need to be educated, rather they should be experienced, honest and informed. Many of the past council representatives were exactly that. They were honest individuals who were truly concerned about how the tribe operated and were also genuinely concerned about the tribal members themselves.

Thirty or forty years ago these elder tribal council members didn’t get much for wages and some didn’t receive anything at all. They knew the tribal laws, they knew the constitution like the backs of their hands and they were very well respected. If they had to travel, they did it on their own dime and didn’t depend on receiving travel advances from the tribe.

Today is different. The tribal council raised their wages so much that the only thing they seem to be concerned about is a pay check. About 12 years ago, when they increased their salary to $32,000 one candidate was asked why he was running for a tribal council position. His response was simply; “Because of 32 thousand big ones”!! He didn’t make the run offs.

, Since then it seems that some council members who are only running for the money have infiltrated the tribal council. And unfortunately some of them have been in office for quite a long time. They get a taste of the power and the money then things start to turn sour for everyone. They make decisions that only benefit themselves and forget about the folks who voted them into office. Sometimes even the elected officials who have good intentions in the beginning slowly start to turn toward the worst.

In terms only of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, some of the current tribal council members refer to at least ten (10) other council members as the “dark side”. So when it comes to hit man Whalen and his methods of exposing white collar crimes in the Native Sun Weekly paper, what most folks don’t know is that almost half of the existing OST tribal council has been feeding me information and I end up writing about that same information every week. The Oglala have long been known for not being able to keep a secret.

Other resources and documentation that I have comes directly from tribal employees, the rest comes from former tribal employees and former council representatives. What Trimble and his “hit man” editorial may not realize is that when I expose something, I will always have documentation to back up my claims. And as always, anyone who gets exposed has the opportunity to respond to my editorials to dispute the issues. Show the public that I’m wrong and the editor of the newspaper will gladly publish a rebuttal article.

Although using the phrase “hit man” is fairly strong language, I must respect the opinion of the author of that particular editorial because he is a very well respected individual and is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who just happens to attack the former editor of Native Sun News every chance he gets.

I still want to write something good about the Oglala Sioux Tribe but am having a difficult time finding the correct subject to write about. Most recently there was the issue of the Nursing Home and how the tribal council was proposing to fund that venture through a loan from another rich casino tribe. After the tribal councils method of financing that project was revealed I immediately wrote an editorial and disputed the entire financial package.

During this next week I’m going to have an editorial on an OST Chartered Organization that has collapsed and will expose extreme theft by the Board of Directors. This story is unreal, involves very high profile tribal people and plays out like a spy movie. The FBI, Attorney General, Inspector General were all notified during the last administration of at least two (2) million dollars in theft by a hand full of people, yet nothing is being done and nobody has been formally charged with anything.

The feds are busy chasing around drug dealers and bootleggers and are totally ignoring the white collar crimes that are happening right under their noses. And yes, I have the documents, facts and figures to prove everything that I’m going to write about it. And again, my source comes right from some of the tribal council members themselves who are not considered one of the “dark side” members.

There is an unwritten and unspoken of Oglala Sioux Tribe operational structure that reminds me of a strictly enforced organized crime organization. In the past I wrote about how the council controls the employees by threatening them with termination of employment if they provided negative information about the tribe to the general public or to the Oyate. Since there is 89 percent unemployment here and since jobs are extremely hard to obtain, most tribal employees fiercely obey the council and most just want to ride out the storm with each new administration.

In the hit man article Trimble spoke of not necessarily needing educated individuals on the tribal council. That may have worked in our historical past when they were genuinely concerned about our tribe. But in terms of today’s money hungry council members where most are uneducated, unethical, inexperienced and because they are flat out wrong in most of their decisions, it seems the only way to solve that problem is to raise the bar very high in order to qualify as a council member.

One current council member who has stood his ground against the “dark side” is the representative from La Creek District Mr. Don Fire Thunder. Although he doesn’t have a formal degree, he is very ethical and wants to do the right thing. He reminds me of a person who has the same values of the council representative in office 40 years ago. There are four or five others just like him on council today, but it is not enough. We need good, honest, informed, ethical and educated individuals to run for office and we should fill the council seats with those individuals during the next round of elections.

So I do agree with the author of the “hit man” editorial that sometimes we can find honest uneducated council reps, but they are rapidly becoming hard to find and personally I’m still opting to elect educated leaders preferably those who know how to read financial statements.

(Contact Jeffrey Whalen at jeffrey.waylon2@gmail.com)