Wotanin wowapi 1988-07-28

              Tribal Board Accepts Removal Charges Against Councilmember
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1988 Iron Ring Celebration
�Results and Photos�
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Tribal Board Action
Morning Session July 18, 1988
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'Serving the Fort Peck Reservation"
VOL. 19 NO. 29
JULY 28, 1988
ASTI employees makecomplaints at hearing set by chairman
bxoansion - I\!AES College, Wolf Point, is expanding their educational facilities with the adaition of more classrooms. There are 35 students presently enrolled in the accredited college that awards Bachelor of Arts degrees in Community Services. Many tribal members working in various tribal programs have earnedtheir degrees while working for their tribe.
Tribes will provide graduate awards
POPLAR � At their board meeting on Monday, July 18, the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board approved of a plan to award graduate and professional students an Achievement Award. These awards will be provided out of the FY88 year end monies in the Scholarships and Awards line item of the -Tribal Education budget.
Applications procedures are as follows:
DEntering graduate students need to submit a copy of their Letter of Acceptance, and a copy of their registration card for Fall Quarter/Semester 1988.
2) Continuing graduate students need to submit a copy of their grades from the 1987-88 academic year, and a copy of
their registration card for Fall Quarter/Semester 1988.
Once these documents are submitted to the Education Department, the students applications are complete. Since the funds utilized for these awards are FY88 monies, students MUST apply for the award by September W 1988. After that date/these graduate awards will not be available. No exceptions can be made.
These awards will be made after October 1, to ensure all applicants who meet the September 30 deadline will be serviced. Also, the amount of the awards will be set at that time to ensure servicing all applicants who meet the deadline. This timeline would call for the graduate students to
Fire Season � Ft. Peck Crews sent out
POPLAR � On Sunday, July 24 four crews from the Fort Peck Reservation were sent to the Monument Peak fire in Hays, Mt. On Saturday, a replacement crew was sent to the staging area on stand-by status in Miles City, closer to fire locations.
The stand by crews take care of details such as emptying garbage and cleaning, fixing fence or whatever needs to be done while they wait for the main office to call. The Fort Peck stand by crew consists of four women and fifteen men.
According to Mitch Headdress, the Fire Management Officer for Fort Peck, nineteen-member crews are selected on a first come, first serve basis, and there is no problem filling the crews. Each individual is required to read the Fort Peck Agency Dispatch Policy, which includes a disciplinary action be taken in these cases:
1) Personal threats, interference, or assault of persons in authority during dispatch (written document required). Action: Lifetime suspension and possible criminal prosecution.
2) Intoxication at a dispatch office. Action: No dispatch and possible arrest for disorderly conduct.
3) Disorderly conduct during a dispatch. Action: first offense-automatic three season suspension; second offense-lifetime suspension.
No drugs or alcohol from point of hire to point to return.
4) Abandonment of position (walking away from crew). Action: Automatic three season suspension; individual will have travel cost deducted from pay check.
5) Initiating a release from a fire under false pretenses. Action: three season suspension; individual will have travel costs deducted from pay check.
6) Poor physical condition (written documentation of problem required). Action: Retake physical and the step test or run. Continued problems: board will make recommendations.
7) Fighting Action: minimum
three years suspension tor instigator. (Physical contact must occur-assault and battery.)
8) Inappropriate conduct by any MIF. Action: Board discretion.
9) Poor ratings for individual firefighters. Action: first offense-warning letter; second offense-individual ineligible for fire dispatch.
10) Fired for performance on fire. Action: Individual has right to appeal to Board.
Note: 1. Time stops im-mediatley. 2. Individuals will have travel costs deducted from pay check.
Drugs or other Debilitation Substance:
Drugs are perceived as presenting the same problems as alcohol abuse but are dealt with separately because in most cases they are illegal and their use constitutes a criminal act. Because some drugs may be used to treat a medical condition, they will be addressed as follows:
1) Absolutely no illegal drugs, controlled substance, or substances that may impair or debilitate its user will be possessed or consumed by a MIF firefighter.
2) Drugs that are necessary to treat a medical condition will be by prescription only and the crew boss must be informed of the presence of drugs prior to going on a dispatch. If crew boss has a medical condition, he must inform the F.M.O. prior to going on dispatch.
3) If a firefighter is observed to be in possession of or using illegal drugs while on fire dispatch, he/she will be suspended for life.
4) Suspension will be enforced regardless of the level of legal prosecution or action taken by Fire Overhead as administratively set forth. Personnel Review Board will review the case and may recommend he/she be fully reinstated or may call for special
provisions to be fulfilled such as completing the Basic Firefighting Coursp.
This Dispatch Policy is in the office of Headdress and is sometimes ignored by dispatch members, he said.
receive their Achievement Awards during the first part of October. Students currently working on their undergraduate degrees are not eligible to apply.
Readers are urged to notify any relatives who are graduate students, and tribal members, about this program. Remember, prospective applicants have or.iy until September 30, 1988 to apply.
Application materials can be sent to: Spike N. Bighorn, Director, Fort Peck Tribal Higher Education Program, Box 1561, Poplar, MT. 59255, (Phone number: 406-768-5155).
The education office is located in the Tribal Building.
Suicide, drugs being
investigated
The BIA Special Officer Duane "Timmy" Smith released the following statements to the press.
"On the evening of July 23, 1988, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Branch of Law Enforcement, investigated the death of a 15 yr. old. There is no foul play and the investigation shows the cause of death was suicide."
"On the evening of July 22, 1988 four persons were arrested for drug related violations and charged in the Fort Peck Tribal Court system."
The last statement read, "On the evening of July 23, 1988, the Branch of Law Enforcement investigated a pedestrian/vehicle accident. A 3 yr. old child was run over at (the) camp grounds during the Iron Ring Celebration and flown to Billings, Montana. The incident is under investigation."
No other information was released by Smith, the only person in BIA Law Enforcement authorized to give statements.
According to Headdress, this past weekend two crews were sent home because of drinking, and only one person was drinking but the whole crew got sent back. A second crew was sent home because three individuals were caught drinking and again, the whole crew had to leave.
Headdress states that all individuals are aware that there is no drinking allowed but they do it anyway, and innocent members of the crew all suffer the consequences.
POPLAR � Working conditions for many production workers at A&S Tribal Industries is pretty frustrating, according to testimoney provided at a hearing set up last Saturday by the tribal chairman to hear and document their complaints.
Due to many complaints expressed by production workers to members of the Tribal Executive Board for a number of years, and because previous meetings with ASTI and the Tribal Board did not include production workers, tribal chairman Ray White Tail Feather set last Saturday's meeting to meet with just the production workers.
Following the hearing, White Tail Feather said he would be setting up a meeting between the Tribal Executive Board, ASTI board of directors, managers, supervisors and production workers to review the complaints.
The tribal chairman's office will continue to take complaints in writing by past and present ASTI production workers up to Monday, August 8, which is the tribal council's first regular meeting for the month. White Tail Feather said written complaints should be brought to his office at the Tribal Building in Poplar.
Noting that there was always a "hands off" attitude about ASTI employee complaints, White Tail Feather said, "If it doesn't go � apyp'ace this time, i-'U move off the reservation because it will prove to me that things in place can't be changed."
"People believe that it you question ASTI, we'll lose it and conditions will become worse. Maybe that's true if what we're doing is having a direct confrontation, but it's not what we're doing," the chairman stated.
ASTI was formed to provide employment and a better reservation economy, stated White Tail Feather, and it's done that, there's no question about it. ASTI is probably the best industry in northeast Montana and the state, but what is also needed is an industry providing a good, conducive working environment for the workers and for the workers to know that their concerns and complaints will be justly heard and they will not be intimidated, the chairman told the employees.
White Tail Feather said he feels that the managers are fearful that dissention among employees will
be caused as a result of any attempts to look into complaints. That's not the reason for this hearing, he said. In every industry, every business, there are problems, and if they aren't dealt with, the problems can continue to grow, he said, and if the workers have no way to deal with them, the situation can become oppressive.
Seventeen employees testified before the tribal chairman, his assistant Garret Bigleggins and the three Tribal Executive Board members who were present -Eugene Culbertson, Ray Eder and Leonard Bear, all from Poplar.
Complaints lodged included unfair hiring and advancement; lack of communication; cuts in benefits and incentives with increased job quote set; policy not adhered to by some; low salaries; bad working conditions in some areas; and unprofessional conduct by Supervisors and Managers.
The names of individuals testifying will be kept confidential, just the nature of the complaints will be used when dealing with them except when employees allow their names to be used, White Tail Feather said, and they will not be using information provided against individuals testifying, but to help them if the case warrants.
Each employee gave their nines, area and years working at ASTI, the nature of their complaints, and names of supervisors, managers or other employees involved.
One individual, ASTI security guard Lyman Crawford, said he was unafraid to speak up or to have his name used. Crawford said he was thankful for the opportunity to testify and for the chairman to call this hearing so tribal members could state their concerns. Married to a tribal member, and the father of 7 children who are future voting members of the Fort Peck Tribes, Crawford said he is speaking on their behalf.
As security guard, Crawford said he has worked on all three shifts and he knows what the employees are going through. "I can see and understand your feelings."
Crawford said he sees a lot of things that are not right, and he includes the managers and supervisors. "I can go down the
list and tell you what they do there. They cause a lot of misunderstanding among the employees."
Loansharking by a non-Indian supervisor is still being done even though it has cut down on the inside, said Crawford, who said he knows because he has carried the money between them. And one of the top Indian managers is involved, he alleges.
The chairman said he contacted the Tribes' legal counsel on this and if this concern can be documented, the person can be terminated. As an ASTI employee, this individual shouldn't do this in or out of the plant, the chairman stated.
"I feel the individual should be fired, is a bad influence in the plant and the management is protecting him. I have to say that, they're aware of it."
Councilman Culbertson told the employees theres no law against borrowing, but there is against loansharking.
One employee testified that the same non-Indian supervisor is now selling used cars, advertising them in the company newsletter and posting them in the plant.
An employee testified that loans are made in the supervisor's office to trusted employees.
When this portion of the I hearing was reported to the Tribal Executive board on Monday: couneitm?n Peter Dupree said that a woman he talked with this weekend told him she tried to borrow enough from the "loanshark" to pay her husband's DUI fine. However, she told Dupree, the individual told her he was "all tapped out."
The woman's husband works for the BIA, so employees other than at ASTI are borrowing from this person, Dupree stated.
Many tribal members have the qualification and years on the job for better positions within the company, but it is not to be because their skin is brown, stated Crawford. Two non-Indian supervisors were sent for specialized training in Japan, when all that training could nave went to tribal members, he said. =
Other employees testifying stated that later, a man from Japan came to the plant to go over again what the two non-Page 8 � ASTI Complaints
Tribal Board accepts charges against Olson, and passes Removal Ordinance
POPLAR - The Tribal Executive Board accepted a "Statement of Charges" against councilman Levi Olson at a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon. This is the first step in a removal of a board member. After 20 days, Olson will be
?ranted a hearing before the ribal Executive Board at which the authorized charges may be answered.
Since the "Statement of Charges", presented by councilman Merle Lucas, was done in a closed session of the board, the contents, vote and any discussion cannot be revealed, according to Roberts Rules of Order, which governs how the council conducts their meetings.
In the morning session of the special meeting, which was open to the public, the Tribal Executive Board adopted an ordinance outlining procedures in removing a board member.
'To my knowledge, never in the history of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation has the question or need arose regarding an ordinance for removal. To my knowledge, the board never had to consider a procedure for one," stated Lucas, who made the motion to adopt the ordinance.
At the request of the Tribes, a draft ordinance was telefaxed to the Tribes by their attornies last Friday, July 22. The Tribal Board
was presented with copies of the draft at their meeting on Monday, July 25.
In moving for adoption, Lucas also recommended three amendments to the ordinance. The draft was amended to have the secretary-accountant give the member charged written notice of the charges. The original draft had the Executive Board serving notice. The second amendment was to take out "secret ballot" voting by the board on the question of whether the member charged shall be removed from office. Inserted was "roll call vote". The third amendment changed a two-thirds vote requirement for removal and inserted was "eight".
The council vote 7 for and 4 opposed to passing the ordinance with the recommended amendments. Norman Hollow attempted to keep the secret ballot voting and the two-thirds vote in the ordinance, but his substitute motion was defeated 4 for and 7 opposed.
In moving for a roll call vote on any removal proceeding, Lucas said this is a very sensitive issue regarding the removal of a Tribal Executive Board member and is a reflection of the entire reservation and people have a right to know how the board members voted.
Hollow said when the board previously instigated removal of two tribal judges, they voted by
secret ballot and this same
Krocedure should be followed, le also said by secret ballot, the true feeling of the Tribal Board will come out. With roll call vote, board members are subjected to pressure, he said, and this shouldn't be the case. How board members vote shouldn't be used against them, he said.
Shields responded that judges are not elected officials and they are appointed by the Tribal Board.
According to the recently passed ordinance, any member of the Tribal Executive Board may be removed from office for four stated reasons. Olson is being charged under Article VI, Section I (b), "any course of conduct prejudicial to the Tribes."
Olson was involved with the Fort Peck International Pow Wow Organization held July 15-17 in which a guarenteed $56,000 in prize money was on posters. However, no prize money was awarded due to an expected lan-dsale deal not coming through for Olson. So called contracts promising winners they would be paid from 5 to 60 days was signed by dancers and was typed on the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board stationary, without their authorization.
Many people feel that Olson's
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