FROM THE ARCHIVE

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In The Hoop
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2002

Welcome to In The Hoop, Indianz.Com's occasional column about assorted Indian issues.

And the Emmy goes to...
When Department of Interior official Bob Lamb took the stand in defense of his new boss Gale Norton yesterday, he must have thought he stepped onto the set of Forgive or Forget.

Filled with drama, apology and regret, his performance was the type of testimony you would have seen on the daytime talk show. (Well, had it not been canceled after Robin Givens replaced original host Mother Love.)

All that was missing was former boss Bruce Babbitt on the other side of the door, waiting to come out to embrace Lamb after realizing how he had been set up during the Clinton administration's contempt trial. "I never like to say I'm operating totally in the dark here," said Lamb.

But I am in the Dark!
Oh, but I am in the dark, said Lamb, referring to Norton's controversial reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Even though he testified he had nothing to do with the plan, apparently because his name appeared on a contempt motion, he said he was all for it.

"I felt we needed a reorganization, a new fresh look, or something, or a receiver, or something," he said. "We needed something, that we had lost our own internal gyroscope and everyone was looking into protecting themselves."

So what does he think about all the opposition Indian Country has voiced to stripping the BIA of its core duties? "It think we're at a point where, you know, we have to get this done even despite those objections," he said.

Oh, by the way, Lamb has recruited a former aide of former Sen. Slade Gorton, the Republican from Washington who was a foe to many a tribe, to work for him.

Forget It
When Lamb testified that there was an "error" in the first report of court monitor Joseph S. Kieffer III, guess whose head perked up in response?

Court monitor Joseph S. Kieffer III.

During Lamb's little confessional, Kieffer was all ears to hear all about the "conspiratorial" report he drafted on the failure of the Interior to conduct an historical accounting despite receiving a clear mandate from Congress in 1994 and, an apparently not so clear order from U.S. District Judge Lamberth.

At times, Kieffer smiled and seemed amused about what Lamb was offering. But other times, he seemed a little bit annoyed by the affair.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise
By the time you read this, Native news reporter Jodi Rave Lee of The Lincoln Journal Star will have completed her interview with Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb.

Lee swept into Washington, D.C., yesterday afternoon, catching the end of Day 17 of the contempt trial. But her more important conquests include a 7:15 a.m. meeting with Mr. Krispy Kreme himself before he takes off to his next consultation session in San Diego, California, on Thursday.

As part of her trust fund investigation, Lee will also be interviewing former Reagan administration official Ross Swimmer. Oh and somebody by the name of James Cason.

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