A sign at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo by Jimmy Emerson
Was raising travel costs by Tribal Council legal?
By Jeffrey Whalen
Native Sun News Columnist
nsweekly.com Lame Duck season is here for the Oglala. It seems like nothing gets done throughout the entire council term except there is a lot of travel, a lot of bickering, and a lot of worthless meetings. Then we enter into lame duck session toward the end of the council’s term…where nothing gets done. Most recently there was supposed to be a working session scheduled to be held at the Prairie Winds Casino, and then apparently the Acting Finance Chair Mr. Mike Her Many Horses or the treasurer Melonie (Atilla) Two Eagle rescheduled the location to Spearfish. So what got done? Besides the council running off to have a good time on the Oyate’s money, absolutely nothing of any substance got done. But that seems to be the norm anymore. Well I take that back, I guess something finally did get done recently where the council voted to increase their travel money by $10,000.00. The question is; was this legal? According to our tribal Constitution of which it is fairly apparent that some of the council actually understand it; there is a prohibition against the sitting council authorizing them a pay raise AND a raise in per diem. They can vote on it and approve it, but according to the constitution the action cannot take effect until the next term when the new council is seated. So let’s lay out the scenario and you the reader can be the judge. In the By-Laws of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and in Article IV-Salaries, Sec. 1., it reads; The salaries and expense payments of the councilmen and other officers of the Oglala Sioux Tribe may be paid out of available funds of the tribe in accordance with ordinances duly enacted, provided that no council shall enact any ordinance increasing the salaries or per diem expense payments of councilmen during the existing term of office. Well, that seems pretty clear to me. So we know that the council is prohibited from increasing their salaries during their existing term of office and we know that salaries are the same thing as wages, but what exactly is per diem?
Read the rest of the story on the all-new Native Sun News website: Was raising travel costs by Tribal Council legal? (Contact Jeffrey Whalen at jeffrey.whalen2@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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