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In The Hoop
TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2002

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

Ranting and Raving
After scoring a hit for taking the The Wall Street Journal to task for a racist portrayal of Indian issues, Indian Country Today has struck out with its latest editorial on trust reform.

Telling tribal leaders they should work with Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and move forward with finding solutions to a century-old problem is a commendable position. Basing the recommendation on a couple of editorials her staff wrote (and to which objections were raised by a smart-thinking official who was worried about backlash) isn't.

At this stage in the sham consultation that has played itself out for nearly four months, In The Hoop hopes tribal leaders know better than to believe the hype. After insulting Indian Country during Congressional testimony last month, one would think she might apologize for her remarks.

But instead of reaching out personally, Norton hides behind the press. Call it divide and conquer for the information age.

It's not like tribal leaders are asking for her first-born. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) elegantly "mediated" a response that National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall said would encourage skeptical tribal leaders to continue working with the department.

Yet somehow, her aides -- for what reason is beyond explanation --- misunderstood Inouye's diplomacy. Although Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb nodded in blind agreement and said they would urge their boss to write a letter stating her commitment, what we got instead was more rhetoric in a non-Native publication.

This is not the behavior one would expect from a trustee who says she spends 60 percent of her time on Indian trust after letting out a heavy sigh. Either someone isn't taking her duties seriously or isn't being honest.

We suspect it's a bit of both.

And in the wake of her appearance before the House Resources Committee, what did she do to "clarify" herself? She had her staff rehash her testimony with a slight modification aimed at appeasing tribes.

"It was definitely directed at tribal leaders and Indian Country," a department official said of the response.

Norton must think tribal leaders are incompetent and don't know when they are being strung along. Or perhaps she's the incompetent one.

You decide which scenario is more fitting.

"The time to be honest is now, more than ever before," said Hall of Norton's salvos. "She needs to inform [us] before she goes to the press."

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