University Dally Kansan
Thursdav. June 27. 1974
5
Government Treatment of Indians on Trial in Kansas
By NANCY SMITH
Kansan Staff Reporter
The federal government's system of dealing with American Indians is, in effect, a form of forced assimilation.
A civil suit brought by three Prairie Band Potawatomi Indians, who contend their constitutional rights were violated by officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA) was taken under advisement by the U.S. District Court in Kansas City.
Attorneys for the Potawatomi Indians the U.S. government argued their briefs in court May 15. A ruling by O'Connor is expected in August.
The case deals specifically with alleged BIA suspension of the Potawatomi's tribal constitution in October 1972 because of the attack on the tribe and misspelling of tribal funds.
Implications are wide-ranging and complicated, partly because Indian tribes have historically been treated as quasi-foreign nations by the U.S. government, individual Indians are considered citizens of the United States by art of Congress.
Support for a clear, judicial decision on the extent of government power appears to be growing as disenchantment with federal policies spreads among Indians.
Indians say a growing awareness of minorities' rights among white Americans and the Indians' own demands for their citizenship, leading government authority into question.
The plaintiffs in the Kansas suit, Lester Jessepe, Frank Battesse and Nelson Pots, contend that BIA officials violated their rights to sue in connection with the protection of the laws and due process.
The alleged violations stem from a series
of actions taken by the defendants that
occurred during the association of the tribal
constitution Oct. 10, 1972.
The defendants are Louis R. Bruce,
former commissioner of Indian Affairs;
Jack Carson, superintendent of the Horton
District; and Roger B. Morton.
Secretary of the Interior.
The plaintiffs say an Oct. 4 memorandum from Bruce "pursupried to and illegally did suspend the tribal constitution, dissolve the Business Committee and supplicant tribal-government with BIA control of tribal affairs."
Richard L. Meyer, U.S. attorney for the defendants, said last month, "Our official contention is that the memorandum withdrew recognition of the constitution."
The memorandum, as quoted in the plaintiff's court brief, stated: "While the
Funds available to the business committee were a portion of the annual interest earned by the trust fund, according to the court brief.
The federal government is holding a half million dollars in trust for the Potawatomi,
Jessepe said recently that the tribe was not ultimately allowed to conduct its own business without BIA interference, it wouldn't be because he didn't try.
"We're trying to stick to die process," he said, "and all good things take time."
The complaints in the upcoming court action were originally Filed Dec. 11, 1972.
Jessepe said he thought the case would wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court because of the basic constitutional questions in the trial, which a lot of attention had been focused on it.
"We have an obligation to protect the resources of the tribe," Jack Carson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs said.
Indian Affairs said.
tribe is without a constitution, the administration of tribal affairs will be handled by the Bureau in its capacity as trustees."
A letter from Carson, dated Oct. 10, 1972, was also quoted in the brief. It said, "Also since the constitution has been withdrawn, the state authority to authority to call and conduct a constituent meeting
Carson said that over $16,000 in tribal travel funds had been spent without proper permission from the tribe and that the tribal business committee, of which Jessepe was chairman, was divided into two factions to meet together to solve the problem.
Carson in May that since recognition of the tribal constitution was withdrawn, the Potawatomi have continued to participate in all BIA programs. The BIA office in Horton has been handling all the tribe's financial duties.
awatm and others with less Indian blood—those more assimilated in white ways—worked with Carson but didn't move publicly.
He said, "We have an obligation to protect the resources of the tribe."
Besides the two factions on the business committee, there are several other groups with differing opinions within the tribal authority, according to Carson and Mever.
Jesape said that disent among tribal members was caused by "assimilated
He said that some half-breed Pot-
Jesseme also implied that he thought a few Potatowam们 were more interested in the notoriety that could result from conflict with the BIA than in helping the tribe.
Carson said all seven members of the business committee were informed several times before Oct. 4, the day the constitution was suspended, that if differences could not be resolved, Bruce could suspend the constitution.
Malcolm Wheeler, attorney for the plaintiffs and associate professor of law at the University of Kansas, said last week that the government's charges were true was not proof.
"The point is that it was none of the government's business," he said.
Meyer said that one of the defendants' contentions was that, given the state of affairs, the defendants had the right and duty to protect the tribal members.
The plaintiffs brief states, "It certainly cannot be seriously argued that just because the United States has control over the responsibility for trust funds, the United States must state to the tribe the manner in which they must conduct their internal tribal affairs.
"Even if funds were being spent in contravention of the tribal constitution, the defendants requested to employ any of the tribes for such expenditures further such expenditures", the brief states.
Carson said members of one faction, AShoptee, Sh丽月屠 Joz, Joe Nice and Ernest Nice, signed a resolution calling for suspension of the tribal constitution before
He said Battese agreed orally to sign the
Indian Offender Program Planned
Potawatomis Hope to Base Project at St. Mary's College
One program the Potawatomi Indians hope will eventually be housed at St. Mary's College, returned to the Indians in 1972, is the Indian Offender Program.
Williams is a Potawatomi and an innate at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing. The program was his idea and he has worked on it for about a year and a half.
The new project will be for "any Indian who becomes involved in the judicial system in Kansas." Paul Williams, executive director, said recently.
Williams began by setting up an Indian Cultural Group at Lansing, which he said had played a key role in taking Indians off the road and encouraging them in academic pursuits.
excessive sentences.
"Let's face it. This justice system is governed by the almighty dollar,
The Indian Offender Program is not only for Indians in prison, Williams said, but also for Indians in county and city jails across the country. The program helps staving out of trouble and Indian alcoholism.
"Penal authorities are reluctant to send Indian prisoners back to home communities because they know there are no jobs," the report says. "The warehouse for men and Indians are getting
The Indian Offender Program would establish a service center, temporarily in Topeka and later in St. Mary's. The center would be a like a half-way house for 15 to 25 men.
Williams was in Topeka recently on a three-day pass from the penitentiary to write a proposal for a state block grant of between $70,000 and $120,000.
The proposal will be submitted to the Governor's Committee on Criminal Adjudication.
Private funds are also being solicited, he said.
Only three of the 14 members of the Indian Cultural Group had a high school education when the group began. Now, all but two have taken the General Education Development test, a high school equivalency examination. Some are enrolled in college courses, according to Williams.
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Besides Prairie Band Potawatomu, there are Citizen Band Potawatomu, Sax. Fox, and Cedar Creek.
The arrest rate for Indians is seven times higher than the arrest rate for non-Indians in Kansas. For alcohol-related offenses, the arrest rate is 30% for Indian-population, according to Williams.
The offenders program will be moved to m. Mary's when enough funds are available.
About 100 Indians are serving shorter sentences in city and county jails and other smaller penal facilities across the state, he said.
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Lansing, and Leavenworth, and that their average age was 27.
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He said the Indian Offender Program would serve such a purpose for Kansas
"You're fighting the correctional bureaucracy in setting up a program like this. There are very few on the penal staff who know how to work with anyone rooftop the boat." Williams said.
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Prison education programs cease to be available when a prisoner is paroled or completes his term, and there is no formal education in the ex-convict adjust, according to William.
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Although no statistics are available, Williams said that he thought there were about 75 Indians in Kansas' three major penal institutions, which are in Hutchinson.
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Because the resolution, drafted by Carson, was not signed at a duly called meeting of the business committee, the plaintiffs say it was never properly adopted.
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Meyer said, "We admit there was no meeting, but we contend other items of business were handled that way and there were no objections."
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He said that he thought Jessepe's group wanted to do what was best for the Potawatomi but that they were not following the constitution to do it.
After receiving the Oct. 4 memorandum, Jessepe filed an administrative appeal seeking a hearing on the alleged suspension. June 27, 1973, without a formal hearing.
In the plaintiffs' brief, it states that the tribunal constitution expressly provided that the constitution and by-laws could be amended only by a majority of all qualified members of the tribe. Because suspension was made in violation of the majority vote was also required to suspend.
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Carson said that a government solicitor reviewed the contract and concluded that the clause would make it extremely difficult for the Indians to get a loan on the property.
Carson said that either the tribe or the U.S. government had the power to ter-
The reversionary clause, calling for return of the land to the Jesuits if the Indians ceased to use it, cast "a cloud on the title" of the property, according to Meyer.
"The warship status gave the government the right to act in the best interest of Indians as the government perceived it," Forer said, "so if Indian people have a dispute with the BIA, they have a very difficult time getting redress."
civil rights, broken treaties and tremendous poverty for native Americans.
---
At the turn of the century, the federal government allowed the Santa Fe Railroad to take two-thirds of the Potawatomi's original reservation, Forer said, and forced Indians to accept allotments they had traditionally resisted.
He said he was advised the Indians might lose the property if they ever decided to sell it.
Lester Jessepe Potawatomi said the tribe wants to conduct its affairs without BIA interference.
minate the constitution of the tribe at any time.
The Potawatomi and Jesuits were able to work out an amicable deal for the return of the land, but a reversionary clause in the contract created problems with the government, which was to hold the property in trust for the tribe.
Grassroots activism began to grow among the Prairie Band Potawatomi about 1970, when a tribal action committee was hunted and the band was hunted and fish on the reservation without benefit.
After passage of state legislation protecting reservation hunting and fishing rights, the committee became involved in the formation of a college, owned by Jesuit priests, for the tribes.
The 1,382 acres of land had been part of the original Prairie Band Potawatomi preservation, which stretched from just notch to the highest elevation and encompassed about 757,000 acres.
Today, only 559 acres of communal Potawatomi land remain.
Resisting what they called BIA efforts to gain control of the property, the Indians asked the Jesuits to hold St. Mary's in trust for them.
Forer said recently that the federal policy had always been to break up communal property and that lack of tribal control over Indian lands had resulted in violations of
The Indians were aided in their attempt to reclaim St. Mary's by interested persons at KU including Norman Forer, assistant professor of social welfare.
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