Opinion

Jeffrey Whalen: Oglala Sioux Tribe guided by uneducated leaders

Friday, July 22, 2011

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.

Pine Ridge is in for a big funding squeeze in the very near future because of all the issues connected to the recent worldwide financial melt-down. This means the feds are going to be looking at greater spending cuts than usual.

With our 89 percent unemployment, we are more than likely going to be hit especially hard. Now the leaders that you put into tribal office will have to take crash courses in the economy and in finances.

Ramon Bear Runner reminded me the other day that he has a degree in Economics. Ramon is a local guy who currently stays in Pine Ridge and who has a wealth of information and statistics that the tribe could use to get through this financial nightmare.

But I’m willing to bet that the tribe will contract with some non-Native, pay them an enormous amount of money and listen to them instead. They have an opportunity to use our own home grown resources right here, someone who knows the landscape and who knows the local economy. If they contracted with Ramon to see his data and ideas, there won’t be any second guessing and he can guide them down the right path.

Although the rest of the world is experiencing a financial meltdown we here at home have been experiencing this same financial meltdown for decades and we don’t even notice it because it has become our way of life. So when the stock market crashes, we enter into recession here in the United States and the rest of the world experiences economic failure, we at home in Pine Ridge just yawn and say, “Whatever!!”

Right now we have a Tribal government who is practicing out of control spending at the worse possible time and it must be stopped immediately. Those leaders all have to get a grip on what is occurring nationally and around the world.

They have to anticipate how heavily the federal spending cuts are going to impact our tribal members. They have to start looking into the future, start thinking outside the box and look for innovative solutions to insure folks do not literally starve.

Even worse, our weather has been mostly rainfall nearly every day for the whole year. What if this keeps up into the winter months and we have massive snow blizzards on our hands? Is the tribal council prepared for that?

We have a whopping 89 percent unemployment rate here which means only 11 percent of our members actually have employment. When the new administration rolls in next year some of those are going to lose their jobs and become pitiful. Those folks have to put a personal financial package together and anticipate their future because that same future does not look good.

Tribal council members must quit traveling period. Last administration allegedly spent around $2 million dollars on travel expenses. This administration vowed to be financially transparent as a campaign promise so we could get the total travel figures and other statistics from any administration.

We are eight months into this administration and we still have not seen any monetary figures at all. Getting those numbers is still like pulling teeth. We all have a right to see them because we are all owners and members of the tribe and this is all public information.

The tribal leaders' only answer to the financial solution is to “borrow” more money and go deeper into debt. They don’t seem to know anything else. This is why I put the figures together on how many council representatives are actually educated beyond high school.

Those figures were reported at few weeks ago in Native Sun News and are very dismal. We only have 24 percent of our current council members who are actually educated. This is the biggest reason why they only know how to borrow money to pay their bills. When you only have 24 percent of the voting swinging toward financial intelligence and 76 percent of the council vote unaware of financial activities, the educated folks will get out voted every time.

Quit borrowing money tribal council!! Quit depending upon the federal government for handouts and start using our local human resources to build our economy correctly!!

If we want out of this mess then we must push the voters to identify new, educated individuals to run for tribal council. That solution makes the most sense. There are folks with Masters and Doctorate Degrees in every district.

Those are the folks who should be on tribal council. They won’t make big ugly mistakes every time there is a council meeting. Even more so, there are hundreds of folks who have Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration who should be running and voted into office as well. These folks understand finances, the economy and understand how we should be operating to become financially successful.

Next election season don’t vote for your neighbor because they are your best friend, look and compare their education, experience and knowledge and select the best qualified. This is our only chance of changing our economic landscape for the better. Find someone within your district who can actually understand economics, finances and tribal government and who is educated.

Our current tribal council cannot handle the meltdown on their own, they need assistance. They should host listening sessions in each district and find out how the voters want the tribe to get out of debt.

This is very serious folks, they may want to freeze spending or at the very least minimize spending to 20 percent or so. They may have to cut working hours to 32 hours per week. They must quit taking all the stupid holidays and quit sending the workers home every time in rains. The tribe is losing massive amounts of money when this is done.

Where does it leave the rest of us 89 percent unemployed when tribal offices close for the day and we can’t get our needs full-filled? They can eliminate travel for the rest of the fiscal year. They can start to realize that we are losing an average of 190 million dollars annually and initiate measures to retrieve that lost revenue.

If the tribal council does not tighten their financial belt immediately, we the Oyate are going to feel the pain later on through the loss of our current meager benefits. Some council members might say; “Let’s go to D.C. to get more money."

Wrong, wrong, wrong on too many levels people! You don’t need D.C.’s money; you only have to understand how to manipulate our small economy to create a much larger one that will benefit us all.

We have folks right here at home who can do exactly that, Lloyd “Luff” Goings, Ramon Bear Runner to name a few. There are tribal members who are very well educated and ready to retire from their federal jobs who understand economics like the backs of their hands.

These are the folks who must be placed into tribal council during the next election season. Remember, when the rest of the world suffers financially we experience a double impact in Pine Ridge, let’s reverse that trend permanently and together. Stay strong.

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