Ivan Star Comes Out: Our people are being micromanaged to death

Thursday, July 11, 2019  

The Lakota were a sovereign nation. Tiospaye (extended family) members chose their representatives for their integrity and standing. These leaders adhered to traditional law on their own.

In stark contrast, most of today’s “federally recognized” elected “tribal” leaders display an exaggerated officiousness and congress allows them to micromanage every resource from jobs to treaty lands.

Although this federal “governing body” is not trained or experienced, it is authorized to manage “tribal” enterprises via the 1936 federal “constitution.” “Tribal” council is inept at managing its service programs, but it does. Program directors (employees) are qualified, but political appointees abound. In other words, appointees are directly related to a council person.

In 1981 and 2008, I saw the anxiety among program directors when called before the council. These employees hardly ever get credit for doing the jobs they were hired to do, unless one is related to a council member. Some of these directors are trained, experienced, and competent, which does not amount to much in this environment.

Political appointees are part of authoritarian governments. As common as this debased practice is, it wastes everybody’s time. It sucks the life out of government service employees and destroys organizational integrity. Instead, favoritism, nepotism, cronyism, not to mention a domestic bigotry, is practiced as imperceptibly as possible by non-Lakota. Most Lakota do not have peace of mind here.

Historically, congress manipulated to control all aspects of native societies since July 4, 1776 with the intent of obliterating their sovereignty and subduing them. Then in 1936, tribal councils assumed that function under federal influence and scrutiny. This peculiar setup is still at work and has a weakening effect on us as we are now sadly dependent and reside in the “poorest counties” in the United States.

So, when council circumvents the law to hire a relative, uses a service program for personal gain, or takes one program’s funding to “bail out” another, it is because the federal “constitution” allows it. At any rate, when employees feel they can’t trust their bosses, they feel unsafe and they spend more time surviving than performing their jobs.

Curiously, resulting from “tribal” government corruption in the early 1900s, congress imposed a trust responsibility comprised of “moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust” upon itself (Seminole Nation V. United states, 1942). Government corruption remains prevalent. Reality for the majority of more than 17,000 members residing on the Pine Ridge Reservation has been difficult at best.

As such, the Department of Interior is now obligated with a duty to protect “Indian” lands, resources, and the ability of “tribes” to continue our way of life, except to exercise independence. The descendants of Lakota people no longer have control over their lives. As a culturally distinct group of people, we are being micromanaged or subjugated to death.

Ivan F. Star Comes Out can be reached at P.O. Box 147, Oglala, South Dakota, 57764; via phone at 605-867-2448 or via email at mato_nasula2@outlook.com.

Native Sun News Today: Oglala Sioux Tribe pressed to amend constitution (July 5, 2019)