Impose sanctions on this local despotic regime

In recent history, the United States has supported economic sanctions against authoritarian regimes around the world.

However, in our own backyard there exists a tribal regime that has gone unnoticed for its undemocratic rule and repressive actions taken against its own people.  Congress has chosen to ignore the mounting evidence of corruption, fraud, embezzlement and the denial of civil rights by this regime.

The excuse is that “American Indian Nations are independent and sovereign, and we can’t touch them.” Recent actions by this regime includes impeachment proceedings against a tribal council chairman who was duly elected twice by the people, and voiding the elections and swearings-in of three new Chippewa Cree Tribal Business Committee members.

Indian people living on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation are not granted the same civil rights the rest of Americans take for granted, such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, open elections, trial by a jury of one's peers, legal representation of one's choice, and the right to due process in a court of law.

"Tribal sovereignty," actually benefits only a few individual tribal leaders and their families, and takes rights and freedoms away from the rest of the Chippewa Cree tribal people. The tribal business committee gets its authority from the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, not from the voters who elect them. And because the tribal government controls all tribal businesses, services, housing and most employment, it is able to rule nearly all aspects of reservation life.

There are no checks and balances in the CCTBC tribal system of government; no separation of the judicial, legislative and administrative branches of government. The Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Law do not apply at Rocky Boy. Neither does the Bill of Rights. In 1968 Congress enacted a separate "Indian Bill of Rights" in an effort to rectify this fact, but in 1978, a Supreme Court decision ruled that Indian tribal governments themselves could decide how and to what extent Indian civil rights would be applied, if at all.

The decision rendered the Indian Bill of Rights virtually worthless. Here the tribal chairman and council not only have full executive, legislative and judicial authority on Rocky Boy, they also decide if and to what extent their citizens have any rights or freedoms.

They have become dictators. They appoint and remove tribal judges as they wish and can control the outcome of judicial decisions and elections.

Recent events show that the self-imposed tribal chairman and council members can and do dictate if, how and against whom tribal laws are enforced. Four of the members have been voted out of office but have refused to step down, remain in control and are determined to force a new election in their favor.

In view of the recent indictments of previous council members on embezzlement charges and the violation of the civil rights of its people, it would seem logical that Congress would stop the flow of federal funds to this regime until the demand for a comprehensive audit, a guarantee for future transparencies in tribal government's financial dealings and assurances of the protection of civil rights to the tribal citizens is reached.

(G. Bruce Meyers is state representative-elect, House District 32.)