Purpose of trip was to push for updated resolution from the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) to support the Grand Coulee Dam settlement and to encourage the members to write letters to their congressional representatives to support the settlement.
Tribes discussed Cobell v. Secretary on Interior. The case was filed on behalf of individual tribal member beneficiaries. The crux of the case is about the lack of accountability and trust responsibility with IIM accounts. There is a proposed settlement and there is concern that more dollars go to individuals, that tribes participate in planning, designing, and setting priorities for dollars to go towards fractionated land acquisitions, and that there needs to be a reserve to cover any insufficient or unfair claims.
A resolution was passed requesting that congress consider the concerns prior to passage of the settlement.
There was discussion on banning of oil or gas exploration, development, and drilling off the coast of western Washington because of what has happened with the Louisiana oil spill.
Northwest Area Director reported that the Asst. Sec. of Interior has sent an initiative out to all regions to streamline and catch up on fee land to trust land applications. This has been an on going issue with tribes.
There was an election held to have a tribal leader and an alternate to represent the Northwest region on what priorities tribes want the Dept. of Justice to focus on.
There was discussion on taxation, and it was decided to have a dedicated session on this issue. A plan with an agenda was put together to address the different issue that face tribes, and a list of who needed to be present to answer IRS questions or legal opinions.
Apr. 27th 2010
Worked out an agreement with the Tulalip Tribe which will allow them to - lease part of our machine allocation through our gaming compact. Through our compact we are allowed to have 975 machines in play, if we do not have all machines in play we have an option to lease the unused allocation to another tribe.
The period of time that the allocation will be in effect will be short term in order to work with our projected time frame for the West Plains development.
The return to the tribe for this agreement will be a little over two million dollars.
This will contribute to our budget short fall.
The spring general council meeting was conducted in a different fashion this year, the agenda started with concerns, questions, - on how the hiring practices are conducted and what the tribal council’s role is in the process, also to address feelings that the tribal council intimidates or threatens employees or tribal members in general. I believe this was necessary to clear some of the negative vibes within the community.
Attended Intertribal Timber Symposium with our forestry staff, this was very informative and gave me a good understanding of how the new generation of foresters see the future, how technology is available to offer options to work with the forest of today and how the forest is more than just timber. It was good to hear the need to understand that tribes have been here for centuries and how tribes know their lands and land marks that identify their history along with locations. The bottom line is that tribes can go the direction of their choice to meet their separate needs.
I was impressed with the fact that there is a push to establish a tribal timber marketing strategy on both the domestic and international levels. In the timber market today it is more evident that tribes need to work together to market and come up with ideas to maximize the resource.
I was pleased to see the Intertribal Timber Councils efforts to push education in the forestry and natural resource field. I was surprised at the number of scholarships that were given out to help students-- .and found it interesting to see the number of females interested in those fields. Scholarships are funded with the proceeds of a raffle conducted by the ITC Scholarship committee which is currently chaired by Spokane Tribal Forester Dale Sebastian.
March 2010
There is a reorganization occurring in the 477/TANF programs. The purpose is to provide the best services possible to the clients. The main goal is to increase energy (management) and time into; Case Management, Youth Programs, Fiscal Management and Employment Training. There will be a Director to over see the four managers.
A new agreement has been negotiated with MBI (company purchasing machines from) in order to increase the hold on dollars for the tribal budget. With the old agreement the main focus was to pay off the machines as soon as possible.The new agreement will allow the return of 107 machines, extend the time frame for the pay off, the ability to work with other vendors for variety in machines. Due to the recession and the slump in the timber industry it was necessary to move in this direction.
An agreement has been reached with Warner Gaming to work with us on our gaming at the Chewelah facility. Because the Indian Gaming Act requires approval of management contracts Warner Gaming will act as a consultant until the management contract is approved. Compensation to Warner Gaming will be based on profits that are earned and if there are no increased profits they will receive nothing.
Petition turned in and validated to amend the constitution. Amendment would change from a full time council to; One full time councilman, the chairman with the remaining four councilman to be paid a $75.00 stipend for regular or special meetings.
Two Rivers Casino will have a full time manager of the facility; it will continue to be a satellite from Chewelah Casino which means Accounting, Human Resources, Payroll and Marketing will be conducted in Chewelah. The manger of Two Rivers Casino will focus on daily machine play, customer service and any issues or problems that may arise.
Enjoy your family, friends and think of others during the holidays!
Have a Merry Christmas!!
Dec. 4th 2009 – Trip Report Coeur d’Alene Rez
Large Land based tribes
Attended meeting of Large Land Based Tribes. Tribes in attendance: Spokane’s, Coeur d’Alene’s, Colville’s, Yakama’s, Salish Kootenai’s, Shoshone-Bannock, and the Nez Perce tribes.
Purpose of this meeting was to discuss issues and concerns of these tribes and how it is important for tribal organizations such as Affiliated Tribes of the North West (ATNI) and The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) to remember that their duties are to represent all tribes and not to use the organizations for restricted tribal purposes. The discussion was clear, these organizations have been around for years and they have been very powerful when the direction of the member tribes is carried out.
There was a letter developed cooperatively by the tribes expressing that the concerns of the large land based tribes need to be adequately and appropriately represented within the ATNI and the NCAI organizations.
Dec. 9th and 190th – Umatilla Rez
13 Tribes – Columbia River Treaty (USA-Canada)
The first day was for each tribe to make a presentation on their issues.
The second day was spent on developing common areas of concern.
This meeting was to organize fourteen tribes that are impacted by the flow and storage of water from Canada.
Tribes were not taken in to consideration when the treaty was negotiated between the US and Canada back in the early sixties.
The fourteen tribes have different issues due to their locations, however! There are common areas of concern that the tribes can agree on;
Respect for tribal sovereignty of each tribal government
Tribal culture and Natural Resources
River management
Equitable benefits
Each tribe will identify their issues and express the goals that they would like to achieve.
Dec. 14th – Spokane
Upper Columbia United Tribes Policy Meeting
Discussed the budget for this year and what it looks like for 2010.
Reviewed the website that recently went on line.
Discussed the recent meeting that took place at Umatilla on the Columbia River Treaty (US – Canada) and how to move forward.
Recognized past Councilman Deb Louie from the Colville Tribe on his service to UCUT
Gaming Management
Council made the decision to move with a gaming management group. This decision was made to seek help with our present casino operations and to help with future gaming and financing at West Plains.
There was a Request for Proposals that went out and there were several that replied to the RFP, it was narrowed down the the two that looked best to fit our needs.
Warner Gaming Group from Las Vegas, Nevada was selected as the management group.
Trip Report
Tuesday November 17, 2009 Las Vegas, NV. Warner Gaming Group
The purpose of the trip to Las Vegas was to start the process to put an agreement together with Warner Gaming Group.
Met with members of the Warner slot department to discuss how to improve our slot play and to improve our player tracking system.
Wednesday November 18, 2009
We met the president of Warner Gaming Group and negotiated a letter of intent, because this is dealing in gaming it will be necessary to have the final agreement approved the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Also while in Las Vegas we ment with Multi-Media, the company that sold our slot machines to us. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss our concerns with the slot play, the need for a variety of machines, and the continuing problem with the player tracking system.
We advised Multi-Media that Warner Gaming will be working with us to identify all teh problems with our slots and the tracking system.
UPDATES
Tuesday Oct. 20th 2009
Trip report – National Congress of American Indians
The main focus was on the Health Care;
The budget for 2010 – the president is proposing 450 million above the present budget and there are recommendations for additional funding from congressional reps.
Congressional bill and amendments – there is a Health Care Bill that has been in the works for several years, this bill is finally getting closer to being passed through this new administration.
There was an interesting discussion on how soci – economic circumstances, rather than medical & lifestyle risk factors are the main causes to ill health& disease.
Taxing health benefits that are provided to tribal members through tribal gov’t. – There is a bill that is being pushed to address this issue. The bill basically asks to exempt the tax on the health care due to the fact that the Fed. Gov’t is not carrying through with their trust responsibility. I believe all tribes will support this bill.
President Obama to meet with Tribal Leaders – In keeping his promise to meet Nation to Nation President Obama will be meeting with Tribal Leaders November 5th.
Tribal Transportation – The negotiated formula and inventory for reservation Roads funding has become an extremely volatile issue. Discussions took place in Large Land Based Tribes meetings as well as Transportation
Census – the Census people where very visible, encouraging Tribes to have their people being counted.
Assistant Secretary to the Interior Larry Echohawk gave an extensive and moving speech to the delegates. Some of his statements included gaming – he has seen the benefits of gaming and now believes that any tribe that are able to, should be allowed to pursue gaming ventures. He has very quickly conducted regional meetings across Indian country and heard the issues of the people.
Travel to Affiliated Tribes of NW
Health Care was the topic of interest due to the push from Obama to increase the budget by 450 million dollars for the 2010 fiscal year. Congressmen from both parties have also talked of increases, so, between them there should finally be the beginning to bring the budget to where it should be, it is long over due.
Global warming was another topic that brought good discussion on how tribes are being impacted and how tribes need to start looking at what we need to do to plan for the future.
Tax Exempt Bonds was an example of how tribes have been left out and not treated the same as states. Now through the Stimulus Plan that Obama pushed, congress has changed the tribe’s ability for the use of Tax Exempt Bonds tribes will now be able to use Tax Exempt Bonds in the same manner as states. Gaming won’t eligible.
We applied for 30 million in Tax Exempt Bonds for four different uses that were eligible, and we received 20.6 million.
Projects;
1. Infrastructure for West Plaines development
2. Activated Carbon Plant at Western Nuclear site
3. Hotel at the Chewelah site
4. Housing
These Tax Exempt Bonds will be put out on the market to entice buyers to invest in these projects while receiving some good tax breaks.
The timber market and the industry was part of discussions of concern. It is clear that we are not the only one’s that are in a tough situation with this resource.
President Obama promised to meet with tribes on a national level. That meeting is being scheduled for November 5th Wn. DC.
The Affiliated Tribes of NW are pushing to have regional meetings if at all possible due to the fact that there are different issues in the different regions. The Affiliated Tribes will be working together to prioritize our issues.
Recent changes in the tribal structure.
SIRTP has been removed from the Enterprise Board.
Timber sales will be carried out through our Natural Resources and the
Tribal Forest Program. .
SIRTP had right of first refusal through a resolution, that resolution has
been rescinded.
The timber sale for Kalasten 2 was put out for bid (30 day) through the new process on Sept. 21st
The Nixon Rock timber sale was put out for bid before the Kalasten 2 sale and there were no bids to meet our minimum price, therefore this sale was shelved but will be ready to go if we receive a good fair market price.
Tribal Legal Dept.
The decision was made to streamline our legal department to make it as efficient and effective as possible.
There were two positions eliminated and we are looking at the other areas of legal to ensure maximum coverage while dealing with all of our issues. This is an overall reorganization.
The West Plains Development
We recently held our first public meeting that is required within the application process. This meeting was for the sole purpose of the letting the public know “what we are thinking” for the development of this property. As the process continues, we will consider, answer or work with all of the concerns that are raised.
