"The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs is getting hammered lately from a number of angles. The blows might look merciless. But they should be. The BIA is an agency in serious need of reform.

The freshest of several examples is the wrongful-death trial involving Lloyd Larson, under way in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Larson now is serving time after pleading guilty to killing two Nebraska couples in a 2002 drunken-driving crash. Larson was intoxicated when he slammed his BIA vehicle head-on into the couples' car while he was driving the wrong way down I-40. He was behind the wheel despite a record of nine previous DWI arrests while working for the agency.

The BIA has made adjustments, but it needs a genuine revolution. While the BIA ramps up its reforms on DWI, it should deal thoroughly with its other problems and become exemplary among federal agencies. The tribes - and the taxpayers - deserve no less."

Get the Story:
EDITORIAL: DWI morass bolsters call for BIA revolution (The Albuquerque Tribune 4/20)