PINE RIDGE RESERVATION, SOUTH DAKOTA –– In an apparent combined case of duplicity and ethical misconduct, the current treasurer for the Oglala Sioux Tribe has had a formal request for impeachment filed against him.
Mason Big Crow, 38, was appointed chief financial officer of the tribe under the Theresa Two Bulls-William “Shorty” Brewer administration in February of 2010. However, the election commission, which is chaired by Francis Pumpkin Seed, initially disputed Big Crow’s appointment as he was not an enrolled tribal member at the time.
Big Crow’s more recent OST membership application was not filed until Oct. 27, 2010, and was not approved by the tribe’s enrollment department until Jan. 18, 2011 – almost a year after his initial selection by tribal council for the office of treasurer.
Big Crow’s almost two-year term as treasurer under false pretenses continues under the John Yellow Bird Steele-Thomas Poor Bear administration.
Pursuant to tribal regulations, candidates for administrative positions with the OST must be enrolled members at the time candidacy petitions are filed. As Big Crow was a non-enrolled member at the time he initially filed his petition for treasurer in October of 2009, he is allegedly serving as tribal treasurer illegally.
Past investigations into Big Crow’s apparently illegal selection as treasurer and a similar formal action filed last September have been largely ignored by the tribe’s current council.
A three-page request for impeachment of Big Crow was filed with OST administration by tribal and community member Jeffrey Whalen on Jan. 8. In the formal request, Whalen alleges that Big Crow perjured himself through written testimony presented to tribal council on Oct. 28, 2010.
Specifically, Big Crow claimed in his testimony that his mother, a member of the Northern Arapahoe Tribe of Wyoming, dis-enrolled him when he was a child. According to Department of Enrollment documents, however, Big Crow was still a member of the OST as of Jan. 24, 2002, the date he filed an enrollment request with the Northern Arapahoe Tribe.
Big Crow initially sought disenrollment from the OST at the end of 2001. At the time of his relinquishment request, he was 27.
Big Crow’s relinquishment request from the OST was eventually granted as was his request for enrollment as a member of the Northern Arapahoe Tribe.
Subsequent to his petition for tribal treasurer in October of 2009, Big Crow applied for reinstatement status as an OST member, apparently in direct violation of current OST enrollment ordinances.
“Because of the newer law in Ordinance 10-39, (Big Crow) does not qualify to become reenrolled with the Oglala Sioux Tribe,” Whalen said in his two-part impeachment request.
“This ordinance was activated as law on Dec. 28, 2010, and (Big Crow) was unlawfully allowed to reenroll on Jan. 18, 2011, based on false information that his mother dis-enrolled him when, in fact, he voluntarily dis-enrolled himself as an adult,” he said.
“In accordance with Ordinance 10-39, (Big Crow) lost his ability to re-enroll.”
According to Whalen, Big Crow further violated tribal law and ethics by hiring both his stepmother and his sister as tribal treasury employees.
The practice of nepotism on the part of tribal officials is strictly prohibited by OST ordinances on the basis that such a practice presents a possibly deleterious conflict of interest.
Whalen’s impeachment request calls for the immediate suspension of Big Crow as treasurer and his disenrollment from the tribe, as well as the removal of his stepmother and sister as employees of the tribal treasurer’s office.
Contact Jesse Abernathy at staffwriter@aol.com
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