Feds tell tribe to pay St. Marks

The U.S. Interior Department has ordered the Chippewa Cree Tribe to pay former, elected business committee chairman Ken St. Marks a total of $648,430.35, but he doesn't get his job back.

The tribal government has 60 days to appeal to the department.

In addition to this payment, the department has also ordered the Chippewa Cree Tribe to stop any further reprisals against St. Marks related to his work with the department or any investigative authorities who are looking into corruption of funds on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

St. Marks was removed from office several times throughout his term since he was elected in 2012. The members of the Chippewa Cree Business Committee impeached him for a series of allegations that include misappropriated funds, harassment of employees, violating the tribal constitution and other charges.

The original number of allegations were seven, but those have now grown to 15.

A press release from St. Marks' attorney says that "the Final Determination ordered the Tribe to stop any and all reprisals against St. Marks, awarded him back pay, front pay for the remainder of his term, travel costs, and attorneys fees and costs."

The breakdown of the total payment to St. Marks is:

• Back pay award of $277,333.30

• Front pay award of $202,666.54

• Travel costs of $2,955.60

• Legal fees and costs of $165,474.91

Front pay includes the salary St. Marks is entitled to from now until the end of his term in 2016.

"This is way out of hand, and yet the United States has continued its government-to-government relations with these nonelected members," St. Marks is quoted as saying in his attorney's press release. "That isn't right."

"I'll say this much," committee member Dustin Whitford wrote in a text-message response to a question from the Havre Daily News. "It's a devastating blow to tribal sovereignty. Not only for the Chippewa Cree, but for tribes throughout the United States."

Whitford said a written statement from the Rocky Boy tribal government will be issued but did not know when that statement would be released. He also said he was never interviewed or contacted by the Interior Department.

The department refused to order the tribe to reinstate St. Marks, as St. Marks had requested them to do. In the official document from the department, they state that they declined to make the order as to not "inject the Department into an issue concerning tribal leadership further than is absolutely necessary."

St. Marks is quoted in the press release from his attorney as saying, "I am happy my name is cleared but it is unfortunate it took so long. Thankfully, the tribal members and the Havre community continued to believe in me despite such an awful smear campaign. Nevertheless, there is still more that the Department needs to do. The Final Determination expressly stated it was concerned for 'the welfare of the CCT government and its members' but as a trustee, it hasn't addressed that whatsoever. We have non-elected (sic) persons purporting to act as the Tribe's Business Committee, while the elected Business Committee members can't get sworn in."

By nonelected, St. Marks refers to holdover members of the council who continue to serve after their terms expire while tribal courts decide the validity of the council election.

"Those non-elected members are using public funds to go after tribal members, even jailing one of our members most recently," St. Marks continued in the release.

This latest document from the department is in response to a finding they published in December that stated they found that the tribe had acted against St. Marks for his whistleblowing activities with the Office of Inspector General, which was heading the Guardians Project Indian reservation corruption

The department's stance is that St. Marks was wrongfully acted against by the tribe, and that the tribal Business Committee has not given them enough evidence to prove it was not the case.

"We concluded in the Reprisal Determination that St. Marks' protected disclosure was a contributing factor in his removal from the Business Committee and that CCT did not overcome that showing with 'clear and convincing evidence' that it would have take the same removal action in March 2013 against St. Marks absent the disclosure," the Interior Department document says.

In the December statement, they asked that St. Marks outline what he wanted from the tribe and asked for information from the tribe itself. In January, St. Marks, through his attorneys, requested three retributions: that certain restraints be placed on Business Committee actions, reinstatement as chairman of the Business Committee and compensation of salary and funds.

The tribe submitted documents that maintained St. Marks "was removed pursuant to the tribe's constitution based on his extensive history of wrongdoing and fraudulent conduct." The tribe alleged that St. Marks defrauded the tribe and federal government by inflating equipment rental rates in his company, Arrow Enterprises, and inflating costs on the Sewer Lagoon Project.

The tribe also alleges that St. Marks harassed employees, abused, wasted and misused tribal funds by giving money to friends and family, failed to perform contractual obligations in his company and took improper actions with the tribal checking account.

The allegations against St. Marks put forth by the Business Committee were not strong enough to sway the department's decision, since they were proclaimed too long after they allegedly happened.

"Accordingly, (Chippewa Cree Tribe's) attempts to include post hoc evidence of St. Marks' alleged misconduct are unavailing and are given no dispositive weight," the Department of the Interior wrote.