Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye hands the keys to a newly constructed home to Elvira Bitsilly and her husband Irving Tsosie on July 6, 2018. The couple's home in Mexican Springs, New Mexico, burned down in March 2017. Photo: Navajo Nation Office of President and Vice President

National | Politics

'You know, Andrew Jackson': Hearing scheduled into Trump reorganization

Friday, July 13, 2018

Key lawmakers are looking into the Trump administration's controversial reorganization at the Department of the Interior amid ongoing complaints in Indian Country.

Tribes have expressed near unanimous opposition to the proposal, which initially called for doing away with the existing regions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and replacing them with a "unified" system for the entire department. Many say the reorganization was drawn up without considering the federal government's trust and treaty responsibilities.

"The plan appears to be, to put into place chaotic measures so that Indian Country will become chaotic, and then it is easier to conquer and·divide," President Russell Begaye of the Navajo Nation said at a tribal consultation last month. "Those are age-old scenarios that have been played·upon by the president, who's portrayed in the Oval Office, you know, Andrew Jackson."

The seventh president of the United States probably did not play a role in the initiative but comments in the mainstream media play into Begaye's concerns about divide and conquer. The second-in-command at Interior told The Albuquerque Journal that an even newer plan calls for the BIA regions to remain intact.

“We will leave the regions for BIA alone,” Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt told the paper.

Maps released by the Trump administration originally showed the Bureau of Indian Affairs being placed in a new system of "unified" regions, along with other agencies at the Department of the Interior. A top official now says the BIA's regions won't be changed but that tribes can still choose to participate in the reorganization. Source: Maps of Proposed Unified Regions [May 13, 2018]

But he also said tribes, on an individual basis, will be able to decide whether they want to join the reorganization, which aims to consolidate services across all agencies, bureaus and offices at Interior. Tribes don't seem to like that idea either.

"I don't feel like mixing all these other agencies ·with what we, the sovereign tribes, want," Govenor Gilbert Suazo of the Taos Pueblo said at the June 25 consultation in New Mexico. "It just doesn't ·seem to fit together."

Secretary Ryan Zinke has previously suggested that tribes, perhaps on an individual or collective basis, can decide whether they want the reorganization. So Bernhardt's comments aren't a complete surprise.

"The nations, they're sovereign," Zinke told key members of Congress in April after they asked why the BIA's regions were being broken up in the draft maps released by the administration. "We are beginning consultation, and whether or not they adopt this model is really up to them."

But keeping the BIA's regions intact while redrawing other agencies at Interior still poses problems. Governor Rick Vigil from the Pueblo of Tesuque said the reorganization could force his tribe to deal with more levels of bureaucracy.

"The uncertainty is the transformation," Vigil said at the consultation. "What if Southwest regional area gets closed? Now, we as tribal nations here in the state of New Mexico, have to travel to other areas to have a dialogue with the regional administrator?"

Under some sort of opt-in system for the reorganization -- which Begaye has derided as a "take it or leave it" approach -- only one tribe's views would be considered for the BIA's Navajo region. It's the only one in the system dedicated to a single tribe.

Other areas aren't as straightforward. The Southwest region, for example, serves 25 tribes with lands in three different states: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. The region is further sub-divided into eight agency offices, some of which deal with multiple tribes.

The Trump administration's plan originally envisioned putting Texas into a new region and bringing in Utah and Wyoming into a region with Colorado and New Mexico. Tribal leaders in the Southwest have said they don't think that's a good idea.

"Combining Navajo Nation, Ute, Pueblos into one region will not benefit or better serve any of these populations, as the structure, capacity, government operations and priorities are different," Governor Anthony Ortiz of the Pueblo of San Felipe said during the consultation.

Amid the concerns, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is holding a hearing next week to exercise "oversight" regarding the reorganization at Interior. The reorganization at the Department of Energy, which hasn't drawn as much attention as Interior's, will also be examined.

The hearing takes place Thursday, July 19. A witness list hasn't been posted online yet.

Tribal Consultation

The BIA began talking to tribes about the reorganization in June. So far, one listening session and four consultations have been held.

Four more consultations are on the schedule. Written comments are also being accepted through August 15.

Tuesday, July 24, 2018
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Morongo Band of Mission Indians Tribal Chambers
11581 Potrero Road
Banning, CA 92220
Thursday, August 2, 2018
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Juneau, Alaska
Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall
320 W. Willoughby Avenue
Juneau, AK 99801
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Embassy Suites Oklahoma City
1815 South Meridian
Oklahoma City, OK 73108
Thursday, August 9, 2018
1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Philadelphia, Mississippi
Pearl River Resort, Golden Moon Hotel & Casino
Hwy 16 W
Philadelphia, MS 39350