Ruby Stump rests on her
front porch as members of mold remediation teams retrieve personal belongings
from her flooded basement on the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana in August
2010. Photo: Andrea
Booher / Federal Emergency Management Agency
Chippewa Cree Tribe loses bid to silence whistleblower
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Chippewa Cree Tribe remains on the hook for nearly $650,000 for retaliating against a former chairman who blew the whistle on corruption on the reservation.
The tribe was ordered to pay Ken St. Marks after he was removed from office more than five years ago. The Department of the Interior determined that he was a victim of "reprisal" when he came forward with evidence of fraud and abuse of federal funds.
The tribe, however, has refused to pay St. Marks even though he was repeatedly proven right. Audits have confirmed the misuse of millions of dollars and dozens of people have been convicted or have pleaded guilty in what turned out to be a widespread web of corruption on the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana.
Former president Bill Clinton, left, poses with Ken St. Marks, a former chairman of the Chippewa Cree Tribe who was the victim of retaliation for exposing corruption on the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Montana. Photo: Ken St. Marks
The tribe instead questioned whether St. Marks could be considered a whistleblower under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The federal law -- meant to rouse the U.S. economy out of the Great Recession -- brought tens of millions of dollars to the reservation, which suffered from severe storms and flooding in 2010.
But the law contains "robust" protections for elected officials like St. Marks, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded. A panel of three judges said the former chairman was indeed an "employee" of the tribe.
"ARRA rapidly distributed billions of dollars in stimulus funding to tribes, states, and local governments—most of which have elected officials," Judge Michelle T. Friedland wrote in the unanimous decision. "To safeguard those funds, Congress implemented 'a historic level of transparency, oversight and accountability,' including protections for '[f]ederal and state whistleblowers who report fraud and abuse.'"
Indianz.Com on SoundCloud: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals - Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Reservation v. Department of the Interior
The tribe also argued that its "sovereignty and powers of self-governance" were infringed by the federal government's review of the way St. Marks was treated. But if Congress wanted to exempt tribal governments from ARRA, it could have done so, the court noted.
And by accepting $27 million in federal recovery funds to complete the construction of a water pipeline on the reservation., the tribe "voluntarily" agreed to the oversight provisions of the law, Friedland wrote.
"Put another way, as much as tribal sovereignty 'rests in the hands of Congress,' it also rests in the hands of the tribe," the decision stated. "And when the tribe accepted $27 million in ARRA funds from the federal government, it agreed to certain procedures for safeguarding the use of those funds."
9th Circuit Court of Appeals on YouTube: Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Reservation v. Department of the Interior
St. Marks was initially removed from office in 2013 but was quickly re-elected by tribal citizens that year. Rivals on the business committee, however, kept retaliating, a pattern that repeated itself at least three more times in the following years.
Every time he won an election, he was blocked from taking office. At one point, he was even accused of stealing funds, which was used as a reason to prevent him from serving as chairman.
But that turned out to be farthest from the case. Federal prosecutors instead filed criminal charges against a slew of other tribal leaders, tribal employees and their associates, all of whom benefited from the influx of federal funds on the reservation.
Court papers once detailed the staggering amount -- $420 million that went to the reservation in just five years. Millions of dollars were siphoned off in various thefts, kickbacks and other types of schemes, the criminal cases showed.
By St. Marks' own count, he helped send nine of those people to prison by reporting the misuse of funds and by cooperating with federal investigators. In total, more than two dozen people -- including two former chairmen -- were indicted, putting Montana at one point on the top of a nationwide list of judicial districts with the most government corruption prosecutions.
"Corruption was rampant within the tribe," his attorneys wrote in a brief to the 9th Circuit. "The list of criminals itself is long, and numerous others knew enough to provide the United States with the basis to start its investigation, yet no one blew the whistle until Mr. St. Marks came along."
Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Reservation v. Department of the Interior .
