Tribal leaders in the Southern Plains region as well as tribal leaders throughout the country condemn Chairman Don Young’s sales-tax amendment as strongly as they did the original bill.
They say they will remain vigilant for any more “resurrections” of the proposed legislation.
Tribal leaders in the Southern Plains would like to see the bill tabled permanently. But Mamie Rupnicki, chairwoman of the Prairie Band of Potawatomi, warns the bill could be slipped through in the middle of the night. Rupnicki went to Washington in her efforts to help defeat the bill and sat in on the Resources Committee vote about the legislation.
Chief Gregory E. Pyle of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is leading his people in a fight to defeat the bill and any proposed amendments. Pyle sent out letters to tribal members urging them to write their representatives in Congress to let them know how they feel about the issue.
“As you know our sovereignty is under attack from many sides. One very important aspect of our efforts to become less dependent on federal funding and provide for ourselves is the revenue we earn from tribal businesses,” Pyle wrote.
Judy Allen, media relations representative for the Choctaw, said tribal members are responding to the call for action. The response has been overwhelming Allen said. “They’ve been great. Some of the tribal members have even sent us copies of the letters. They love our chief, he’s a wonderful person and he takes an interest in everything, so they appreciate it and they help.”
The Choctaw rely on the revenue from tribal businesses to fund programs which assist tribal members – higher education scholarships and college clothing allowance, relocation assistance, emergency assistance, a mail-order pharmacy, a housing loan program and Choctaw language classes and social services, to name a few. Allen said that many of the programs could not be funded through any other means and have made life better for the Choctaw people.
Thirty-one tribes in Oklahoma have entered into compacts with the state to share tax revenues and they don’t see any reason to bring in federal legislation.
“While the Young amendment-substitute might be seen as an improvement over the original bill introduced by Reps. Visclosky and Istook, there is no need for this bill in any form. It is trying to fix something that is not broken,” said Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby
Anoatubby said, “States and tribes have been dealing with this issue on a case-by-case basis with very good results, as the more than 200 successful state-tribal agreements on the issue demonstrate. … It just doesn’t make sense for the federal government to complicate a process that is working so well.”
“We are renewing our lobbying efforts against it, we believe we have a greater chance of defeating it in the Senate than we do in the House of Representatives,” said Chief Chad Smith of the Cherokee Nation.
“The Oneida Nation certainly applauds the bills’ defeat,” said Mark Emery, the nation’s director of media relations. “It was ill conceived and really no one has demonstrated a need for the bill.”
Many tribal leaders have asked how the small percentage of tribally owned businesses throughout the United States can be a threat to the much larger number of non-Indian owned convenience stores and gas stations.
Many tribal leaders had asked for an investigation by the General Accounting Office to see if the proposed legislation actually had any merit. With the committee defeat, it is unclear whether they will continue to push for an investigation and hearings.
Rupnicki said, “It got defeated in committee. They said, ‘Why should the feds step in and do anything, it is a state issue. Out of 500 and some tribes, there are only 26 tribes who don’t have compacts.’ But we have to be leery of this; it could come up in the middle of the night. Don’t go to sleep, it will come back up.
“My thing is, these people are pushing this, they say we’re not on a level playing field. They are so full of s—; we’ve never been on a level playing field. People just need to get out and vote, vote, vote to stop this.”