WYANDOTTE, Okla. — Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback has come under fire by the
leader of an Oklahoma tribe for allegedly taking money from indicted
lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is accused of bilking tribes out of millions of
dollars.
In a recent press release, Wyandotte Nation Chief Leaford Bearskin said he
was “outraged and so very disappointed to learn that Senator Brownback
reportedly received large sums of dirty money from Jack Abramoff, a
Washington, D.C. lobbyist who abused the political system for financial
gain at the expense of the Native American community.”
Brownback, who earlier this year authored a bill to issue a formal
government apology to American Indians for past depredations and harmful
policies, is said to have received more than $40,000 from Abramoff.
“We have always wondered why Senator Brownback has tried every possible
means to hurt the Wyandotte Nation. I guess Abramoff gave him 40,000
reasons to,” Bearskin said in the prepared statement.
Phone messages left at Brownback’s press office seeking comment were not
returned.
Abramoff, who is well-connected to conservative Republicans in the White
House and Congress, and his partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide to House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, received more than $45 million from
four newly wealthy tribes in the past few years for lobbying and public
relations work.
Abramoff and a New York business partner, Adam Kidan, were indicted in
August on federal wire fraud and conspiracy charges in Florida. The two are
accused of conspiring to defraud two lenders out of some $60 million in a
casino boat deal with a man who was later found shot to death near his Fort
Lauderdale home.
Federal investigators are also probing Abramoff’s relationships with a
former Interior Department official and members of Congress who accepted
large campaign donations from the lobbyist.
The Wyandottes have been trying to open a casino in downtown Kansas City
for about 12 years, Bearskin said in a phone interview with Indian Country
Today Sept. 9. The tribe owns a cemetery and about three-quarters of an
acre of trust land next to it where they would like to develop a casino,
Bearskin said.
“The Wyandotte Nation has had land in trust in downtown Kansas City, Kansas
since 1855,” Bearskin said.
“Senator Brownback has gone to great lengths to prevent the Wyandotte
Nation from using that land as Congress intended. He even went so far as to
include a restrictive rider on every Interior Appropriations bill since
reportedly receiving this dirty money from Abramoff,” Bearskin said.
Brownback’s apology bill — “A joint resolution to acknowledge a long
history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United
States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all
Native Peoples on behalf of the United States” — was the subject of a May
hearing in front of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
“What this resolution does is recognize and honor the importance of Native
Americans to this land and to our nation — the past and today — and
offers an apology to the Native peoples for the poor and painful choices
our government sometimes made to disregard its solemn word,” Brownback said
in testimony.
Referring to the proposed legislation, Bearskin said that Brownback “should
also include a personal apology to the Wyandotte Nation.”
In addition to Brownback’s opposition, the Wyandottes’ efforts have been
opposed by the governor of Kansas and other officials, and also by nearby
tribes trying to block potential competition from another casino. The
tribes are the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and
Nebraska, the Kickapoo of Kansas and the Prairie Band of Potawatomi
Indians. The opponents have taken the fight to federal court, where it
remains pending.
In a parallel situation, Abramoff and Scanlon tried to stop the
Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians from opening a casino
in Grand Rapids, Mich. that would compete with a casino owned by one of his
clients, the Saginaw Chippewa.
The Wyandottes opened a casino on their Kansas City property in 1994, but
it was raided by police and shut down.
The 4,000-member tribe used to occupy territory in Kansas, but was forced
to relocate in Oklahoma. The tribe has always maintained its trust land in
Kansas, Bearskin said.
“We don’t have a reservation in Oklahoma anymore. We originally had more
than 20,000 acres in northeastern Oklahoma. During the Allotment Act they
allocated each family a farm out of the reservation land we had. They gave
it to each family and broke up our reservation,” Bearskin said.
The tribe owns a convenience store and small casino located its remote
Oklahoma community.
The tribe was terminated in the 1950s, but had its sovereignty restored
later, Bearskin said.
