Betty Jo Moore
Tribal judge files discrimination suit against Sitka Tribe
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Health & Environment Editor SITKA, AK. – Tlingit & Haida Central Council Delegate Betty Jo Moore hoped to be reinstated as an associate tribal judge by the time the annual council assembly rolled around in April. But the federal discrimination complaint she filed against the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) was still hanging fire, unanswered after its 45-day response deadline had passed. It was not until May 13 that she was granted the requisite interview with a federal official to move the case forward. In order to return to the bench and “to get this cloud that is hanging over me in Sitka cleared,” Moore said, she is seeking a determination from the U.S. Labor Department about her claim of racial, religious and gender discrimination, as well as retaliation against her for the claim. The law provides that “it is unlawful to harass, intimidate, threaten, coerce, or discriminate against any individual because he or she has filed a complaint” over incidents in federal programs such as those that fund tribal activities. Moore was appointed as an associated tribal judge for STA in 2009 and re-appointed in 2010. The Tlingit & Haida Central Council elected her as an associate tribal judge in April 2012. But she lost her position and her income as a result of taking a stance against racial discrimination, she claims, adding that the experience has had a bad effect on her health. An enrolled tribal citizen of the STA with a paralegal background, Moore said she filed a complaint with the STA in 2011 when her supervisor interrupted her courtroom examination of a juvenile offender by remarking on the juvenile’s status as a Haida, a minority in the STA. The issue is not only about her civil rights, but also those of other tribal members, she says. Like so many cases around Indian country, she says, hers points out changes needed in equal employment opportunity and the multi-tiered justice system. “What has happened to me as a woman in year 2011, 2012, and 2013 is awful and no one should ever have to go through what has been happening to me,” she told the Native Sun News. Moore said she first began to experience discrimination and retaliation in 2011, when a non-Indian supervisor employed by the tribe to train judges like herself made a disparaging remark about a minor’s ethnic affiliation, identifying the youth’s hometown, and disparaging her family and herself in passing. That year she filed a series of complaints with the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. But she said, “STA has refused to take proper action to ensure any kind of justice and equal protection of my civil rights since March 2011 when I filed my first written complaint.” Worried about the precedent her case sets for other women and for children, she went on to beseech Labor Department Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Director Patricia Shiu in an April 8 letter: “Your assistance is extremely needed so that all tribal citizens will be ensured that from now on no one will have to be discriminated against and everyone will have their civil rights protected.” Shiu referred Moore to a deputy who on April 30 blamed Moore for the case languishing in the bureaucracy and told her in no uncertain terms: “Unfortunately there is no good cause shown for the untimely filing to continue investigating your complaint against the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Therefore, I must deny your appeal, which concludes the processing of your complaint filed in OFCCP,” Deputy Director Marika Likas told Moore in a letter. Moore has yet to cave in, claiming, “I did file within the 180 day timely filing period.” She is asking for an extension, if it is necessary in order to obtain due process. She resigned her associate tribal judge position in April 2012, due to “retaliation” for filing the March 2011 complaint over the perceived racial slur. “I knew it was best, rather than continue to get bullied, harassed and sabotaged,” she said of the resignation. Yet, she told the Native Sun News, “It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve won in court hearings or any kind of hearing, meeting, etc.: The bullying and bashing of my name has not stopped.” After failing to obtain a response at the Sitka Tribal Council level from her complaint about that and from another about language found in her personnel file that she considered “shocking”, Moore said she contacted the federal authorities with little better result -- including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, then Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Alaska Congressman Don Young, and Alaska senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich. Young made headlines March 29 with a public apology after Latino advocacy group Presente.org Executive Director Arturo Carmona called for his resignation over a racial slur and an insensitive term he used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska. “Yet, here I have been calling on my cell phone, writing letters since April 2011, asking U.S. government officials who and what department has jurisdiction to protect an Alaskan Native Tlingit Indian’s civil rights,” Moore protested. “Where is equal protection for us in the United States of America?” Moore contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after receiving a copy of her STA personnel file in October 2012, and was directed to another agency. After many phone calls and considerable research, she said she was able to connect with the OFCCP, having “realized again that STA was refusing to do anything regarding my complaint,” she said. “Not only does my complaint and the contents of my Sitka Tribe of Alaska personnel file cause substantial harm to me but also to other tribal citizens,” she said. “Many women are being discriminated against regarding employment at STA,” Moore added, because “what starts out as bullying, described as teasing, turns quickly into full-blown discrimination against women.” Among the resolutions presented to the 2013 Tlingit & Haida Central Council Assembly was one on “Bullying Awareness.” (Contact Talli Nauman, Native Sun News Environment and Health editor at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
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