Bradford: Saginaw Chippewa activist faces sentencing date

Abramoff Scandal | Opinion

Monday, May 31, 2010

"Tribal activist Gary Sprague, who has challenged fraud and corruption within the Tribal Council of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, will be sentenced this Thursday after a jury found him guilty of one count of “threat or intimidation.”

Sprague's legal woes began last year after he told his personal physician, Dr. Daniel Radowski, that he was outraged to hear that the Tribal Council of Chief Fred Cantu had added more fictitious tribal members onto the membership rolls into order to secure seats for illegitimate tribal members in an upcoming tribal election. In the past, fictitious Indians had managed to prevail in elections by doling out tribal memberships to non-Indian applicants. Since members receive per capita payments, or a percentage of the profits, from tribal businesses, tribal leaders have essentially traded money for votes, inside sources say. “The majority of my detractors don't belong to this tribe, as we have proven with documentation,” Sprague said. “They think our money is theirs and are trying to remove the real Indians from their own tribe.”

After the private exchange with his doctor, tribal police arrested Sprague at gunpoint and then proceeded to hold their weapons to the heads of his terrified adolescent Indian daughters who remained in the car.

Despite their best efforts, the fictitious Indians lost their quorum in the tribal election after they awarded themselves $250,000 tax-free incentive bonuses.

Radowski became embroiled in further controversy after witnesses observed him laughing over having misdiagnosed and prescribed the wrong medication to another prominent tribal activist, Delores Jackson. In the face of rapidly declining health, Jackson was rushed to the emergency ward where doctors discovered that tumors had spread throughout her body. Up to this point, Radowski had been treating her and dismissing her physical ailments as problems associated with growing old and being a woman, inside sources said. Within days of discovering her tumors, doctors pronounced Jackson dead. A memorial service was held for her last week. Tribal members believe that if she had been treated properly in time, the cancer might have gone into remission. What makes these two cases even more ominous is that after Sprague's arrest last year, activists overheard tribal police say, “Now we got Gary, we are going to get the rest of them.”"

Get the Story:
Susan Bradford: Abramoff Activist to Be Sentenced for “Threat or Intimidation” of Tribal Council Members (The Conservative Camp 5/29)