Mike Myers: Roadblocks to true self-governance in Indian Country

At the heart of this problem are groups of people who have been elected into office to be the government of an Indigenous nation and territory and are absolutely clueless about how to be such a government. One day Joe is a laborer at a construction site or Amy was a waitress and the next day they are the governing authority with a multi-million dollar budget, hundreds of employees, millions of dollars of technology and infrastructure and no training or education on how to govern.

I remember a District Representative at a particular nation who has FASD. He got elected because he has a huge family and had the backing of one person on council who needed a third vote to swing the governing power over to them. He’s a nice enough guy with the equivalent of a fifth grade education and the lack of any impulse or anger control. That made for four really nasty years.

Within a couple of months of his going into office there were all sorts of complaints against him. Some made by his own family members. The complaints went nowhere because of the total lack of any consequences in the policies and procedures of the nation. And the complaints were thwarted because the council always hides behind “sovereign immunity” denying any accountability to their constituents.

The nation court is impotent because all of the judges are appointed by the council and their paychecks are signed by the council.