Letter to the Editor

Tribal Council’s open letter to the community in last week’s Indian Time left me with more questions than answers! I found it interesting that council stated numerous false statements are made in the letters but fail to acknowledge that there were proven TRUE statements also. I have already publicly acknowledged that I am familiar with the author of the second letter and my involvement with their right to public speech, but have no knowledge of the author of the first and third letters. However, even though I do not agree with the wording used in the third letter, I found no threats other than “I know what you did and I (am) going to tell.” To me the author of the first and third thinks that they have no other way of letting the community know things other than by these anonymous letters. I know that during my door-to-door campaigning while running for sub-chief and chief, I heard many many people tell me of things that they thought were wrong with how and what the tribe was doing. When I would ask why they did not come to the meetings and bring up their complaints the #1 response was “I couldn’t do that. My husband, wife, daughter, son, niece etc. work for the tribe and they would lose their jobs!”

So I understand why people would feel the need to be anonymous. So when council says that our actions and behaviors influence the environment in which children grow and learn are they thinking of the fear that they have instilled in their community!? Transparency was a word used in their letter which also makes me wonder due to the fact that for over 5 years I personally have been asking about our finances but have been thrown roadblock after roadblock. At February’s monthly meeting a motion was made and carried requesting reports on OUR LLCs and at March’s monthly meeting a roadblock was given to us instead. This Tribal Council is very good at NOT using the word NO but they are also careful not to say YES. I noticed that Council will be appointing members to the Elders Benefits Working Group to develop recommendations to answer the referendum question. What I see in that statement is not that they are going to find a way to start the program, but that they are going to find ways to stop the program from being started. Not saying NO but not saying Yes either! Is it any wonder that our community feels the only way to tell the truth is by anonymous letters!

Ruth Bell