The Kah-Nee-Ta Resort & Spa on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. Photo from CRITFC
The secretary-treasurer of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon was put on paid administrative leave after he raised concerns about financial mismanagement. Jake Suppah claims the tribe is about to run out of money for key programs and for per capita payments. But rather than adopt cuts that he suggested, the council suspended him in the middle of a meeting last month, The Bend Bulletin reported. “Our bank accounts were so low that if we didn’t make a change to our per capita distributions and senior pensions, those would have run out in February of this year,” Suppah told the paper. Some of Suppah's allies on the council have tried to get him reinstated to no avail. In the meantime, they are trying to get the Inspector General at the Interior Department to look into the tribe's use of federal funds. “Our tribe was one of the richest tribes in the ’80s and now we’re broke,” Carlos Smith, a council member who also serves as the general manager of Kah-Nee-Ta Resort & Spa, told the paper. Get the Story:
Warm Springs asks feds to examine funds (The Bend Bulletin 3/14)
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