Darryl LaCounte, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, became the permanent director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on April 25, 2019. Photo: Office of Public Affairs - Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs gets a permanent director, long after mysterious exit
Monday, April 29, 2019
By Acee Agoyo
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It's been a year since the Trump administration mysteriously disappeared the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs but the agency finally has a permanent replacement.
Darryl LaCounte, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, was announced as the new director of the BIA on Monday. His appointment at the Department of the Interior became effective two days prior.
“Ensuring that key leadership positions are filled is important for Indian Affairs’ success and the Department’s relationship with Indian Country,” Assistant Secretary Tara Sweeney said in a news release.
“Mr. LaCounte has done a superior job over this past year as the acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Sweeney said. "He is clearly committed to the trust responsibility and the further development of our vital workforce, which is the foundation for our ability to deliver services to the tribes.”
“When I was asked to step in to be the BIA’s acting director, I felt a strong responsibility to the people behind the work – the Indian Affairs employees, the tribes, and the Indian and Alaska Native people we serve,” LaCounte said.
“In accepting this appointment as BIA director, I want to thank Assistant Secretary Sweeney for her confidence and support," he said. "Because I believe in our mission, I am committed to improving the way we accomplish it and to upholding the federal trust responsibility now and for future generations.”
LaCounte, who started working at the BIA more than 20 years ago, became the "acting" director in late April of 2018. He stepped in because Bryan Rice was no longer around after being named to the post only six months prior.
“I know he’s going to do great," John Tahsuda, who serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said of Rice on the opening day of the National Congress of American Indians 74th annual convention in October 2017.
Indianz.Com
Video by Kevin Abourezk: That Was Then -- A new
director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs
But when asked repeatedly by Indianz.Com about Rice's status, neither the BIA nor DOI would comment about what they said were "personnel" matters even though top officials -- including Sweeney, former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and newly confirmed Secretary David Bernhardt -- all promised to be more accountable and transparent when it comes to high rates of harassment in the workplace.
"No employee should ever fear coming to work because of harassment," Sweeney
said at her confirmation hearing last May, during which Rice's absence was brought up.
But people close to the BIA, including an employee who later spoke to Indianz.Com about her experience, said his disappearance was in fact linked to multiple complaints of harassment. In one instance, Rice was accused of intimidating a female subordinate who handles Freedom of Information Act requests for the BIA.
The incident occurred in December 2017, in a hallway at DOI headquarters in the nation's capital.
Video clips show Rice, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, appearing to raise his hand toward Jessica Rogers, a citizen of the Cayuga Nation who provided the footage to Indianz.Com.
The footage lacks audio but it appears to show Rogers backing away from Rice, whom she said accused her mishandling FOIA records, a charge she denied. She was deeply disturbed by the encounter, she told Indianz.Com, and had to take time off from work in order to address the impacts on her well-being.
After returning to work, Rogers felt emboldened by Sweeney's commitment to addressing misconduct at the BIA, where harassment rates rank the highest of all agencies, bureaus and offices at DOI. But when she requested a meeting with the new Assistant Secretary in hopes of resolving her long-standing complaint, she was immediately shut down.
According to a September 6, 2018, email, Sweeney insisted that the matter was "now closed" and wouldn't be able to talk about it. She said the incident in question "occurred before my time," a description which Rogers believes minimized her ordeal.
"The information you have provided to me is in reference to an incident that occurred before my time, and it is my understanding that an investigation had been conducted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)," Sweeney wrote in the message, sent after Rogers requested the meeting a day prior. "It is also my understanding that, according to OIG, the matter is now closed."
"If this meeting request is to discuss a continuation of this matter, the matter has been closed as a result of the OIG investigation," Sweeney added.
Sweeney's characterization of the matter being closed conflicts with that of the Office of the Inspector General. Just two weeks later, the OIG told Indianz.Com that there was an "ongoing investigation" into a senior official at the BIA who might have "targeted, bullied, and physically threatened" fellow employees.
BIA Official Engaged in Unprofessional Behavior - PDF
As a result, the office declined to release a complete copy of a report about that senior official because doing so could "interfere with OIG's ability to effectively enforce the law," according to a September 17, 2018, letter.
Indianz.Com eventually obtained a copy of the report and Rogers confirmed that it was about her dealings with Rice. But his name -- as well as the names of at least two higher-level male subordinates who were told about Rice's alleged incidents of harassment -- was blacked out.
According to the report, at least one of these higher-level officials "did not document any corrective action" with respect to Rice despite being told of complaints against him, some of which were substantiated by the OIG's investigation.
Indianz.Com asked DOI to comment about the report, and about Sweeney's treatment of Rogers, but did not receive any responses.
What happened to Bryan Rice, the former director of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs? The Trump administration won't say what cause him to disappear from his post in Washington, D.C., in April 2018.. Photo: Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs
As part of documenting her complaint, Rogers went through the FOIA process at DOI to obtain footage of the incident with Rice. The footage was provided to her -- but in a series of very short video clips instead of a single stream. Altogether, more than 180 clips were provided.
After compiling the footage, Rogers believes it does not show the complete encounter with Rice. "It clearly had missing portions," she said, although the FOIA officer who handled her request said it was complete.
"The FOIA responsive record appeared to be in the form of a manipulation that sought to doubt my experience with Bryan Rice - his behavior was missing," she said. "It is disheartening to think DOI would help Bryan Rice question my own memory of that experience.”
Indianz.Com, separately, also pieced together the clips provided by Rogers. Overall, the footage appears choppy and disjointed, and it appears to jump ahead at a critical portion. That's the point where Rice appears to turn back toward Rogers and tell her something. But the next few frames do not appear to be present at all.
The footage consists of video taken by two cameras in the hallway on the 4th floor of DOI's main building in D.C. One is labeled "North" and the other is labeled "South" and each provides a different vantage point of this particular hallway.
In both instances, the footage appears to be missing the same portion, after Rice turns toward Rogers. He appears to be attempting to engage her again, even though it looks like their conversation had ended.
The next clips then show Rogers standing alone in the hallway, by a bank of elevators.
Rice is nowhere to be seen.
Video footage from December 6, 2017, show Jessica Rogers, a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, talking with Bryan Rice, who was serving as the director of the BIA at the time, in a hallway at the Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. Seen here in still images, the footage appears to show Rice raising his hand to Rogers, prompting her to back away. At what appears to be the conclusion of their conversation, it looks like Rice turns back to Rogers to continue the exchange. The footage then appears to jump forward, with Rice no longer in view. Rogers is seen standing alone by a bank of elevators before she walks away.
Recent Office of the Inspector General Reports into
Misconduct at Bureau of Indian Affairs / Bureau of Indian Education
