Ernie Stevens Sr. was ‘a modern day warrior’
Mark Trahant
ICT
In August 1969, Interior Secretary Walter Hickel appointed Louis Bruce to serve as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Bruce, St. Regis Mohawk and Oglala, had served in government before and had operated a 600-acre dairy farm in upstate New York.
This was a new era in the federal government – and Bruce was bringing in a new team to rethink the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Bruce described the BIA as a “vortex of a surge toward true and lasting self-determination” for tribal nations.
“Although the commissioner preferred the name of ‘New Team' to describe his closest staff, they themselves took on the name used by their detractors,” wrote Charles Trimble in ICT a few years ago. “The Katzenjammer Kids, most of whom deserve their own ‘unsung heroes' praise, were an eclectic team of activists not well known in Indian Country. These included Ernie Stevens Sr., Oneida, as director of community services; Alexander 'Sandy’ MacNabb, Micmac, as director of operating services; and Leon Cook, Red Lake Chippewa, as deputy director for economic development.”
Stevens Sr. had been recruited by Bruce because of his work in Los Angeles with urban Indians. Bruce was passionate about services for urban Indians because the federal government’s “trust responsibility is to people” and that “extends to tribal Indians wherever they are.”
Stevens Sr. died June 1, 2024, on the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. He was 92 years old.
He was a veteran of the Korean War, serving four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, earning the rank of staff sergeant at 19 years old. He was awarded the Korean Unit citation and the Korean Service medal with three battle stars, according to the family obituary. “During his time in Korea, he was part of the well-known conflict, the Frozen Chosen. The Marines who fought there are known as “the chosen few” where nearly 2,500 of the US forces died, some froze to death. The wounded totaled 5,000 and 8,000 suffered frostbite.”
“My father was one of the greatest veterans who ever walked the earth,” Ernie Stevens, Jr., told ICT in 2012, when three veterans and directors of the National American Indian Veterans honored him and his father for their service.
After the service Stevens Sr. worked in Los Angeles and Tempe, Arizona, leading several community development projects. He was honored by the Phoenix Indian Center with the 2017 Leon Grant Spirit of the Community Award.
The BIA’s ‘new team’
At the BIA, Bruce’s new team focused on making the Nixon self-determination policy “operational.” That meant shifting the BIA repudiating the paternalism and termination era policies. That was a sharp dividing line within the agency. “This, of course, didn't set well with the colonialist 'old-liners' in the bureau who saw their power and control slipping away,” Trimble wrote. “They set out on a campaign, criticizing the new policy, ridiculing the commissioner and working among tribal leaders in the field to rally opposition against him and his new team.”
Stevens Sr. resigned from his BIA post in March of 1971. He told the American Indian Press Association that there was a lack of support within the Interior Department for reform. Interior “made the commissioner look weak, he isn’t,” Stevens Sr. said. “He’s strong but they refuse to support his decisions.”
Many tribal leaders opposed the BIA’s actions for a variety of reasons including a lack of consultation. Stevens Sr. said that there were misunderstandings at a time when the agency’s leadership was “trying to give tribes the authority they had always asked for.”
Stevens Sr. said that the reforms launched would continue. “It will work out,” he said, but without me. I don’t know what I will be doing but I’ll be vocal.” A voice he used as the First Vice President of the National Congress of American Indians.
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Congress ordered a comprehensive review of the relationship between tribal nations and the U.S. government in 1975 and Stevens Sr. was picked by the commission’s chairman, Sen. James Abourezk, D-South Dakota, to lead the commission as the staff director. Eleven task forces looked at policies ranging from the trust responsibility to terminated and non-federally recognized tribes.The commission had 33 task force members – 31 of whom were American Indian – which was unprecedented.
“Ernie was a trailblazer during a time when tribes had few advocates in Congress,” said Jana McKeag, Cherokee Nation. She worked with Stevens Sr. at the Policy Review Commission. “It was his personal crusade to make sure that tribes were not forgotten by legislators on both sides of the aisle.”
She added on Instagram: “I wish Congress had paid more attention to the recommendations.”
He went on to serve as the first staff director for the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.
Stevens Sr. would later join the Navajo Nation as the economic development director. In that role he was building a short-line railroad and would meet reporters wearing a striped engineer’s hat – something he said was an expression of sovereignty.
He returned home to Oneida and served on the Oneida Business Committee and as a senior manager for the Oneida Nation.
Stevens Sr. is survived by his children, Kelly (Shelly) Stevens of Oneida; Ernie (Cheryl) Stevens, Jr. of Oneida; Mike (Tommi) Stevens of New Town, ND; Toni (Doug) House of Oneida; David Stevens of Appleton; Pamela Stevens of Milwaukee; Jennifer Stevens of Milwaukee. He is also survived by 24 grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren. He is preceded in death by the love of his life, his wife Patricia, his mother Maria Hinton a community icon, and son Coleman.
His 24 Grandchildren include: Paul, Shakira, Anastasia, Natasha, Kelly Jr., Coleman, Vernon, Brandon, Ernest III, Margaret, Maria, Lois, Michael Paul, Thomas, William, Bernadine, Victor, Cole, Jasmine, Jessica, Conrad Jr., Justin, Alayna, and David.
He was a resident of the Anna John Resident Centered Care Community facility.
Stevens Sr. was elected to the National Native American Hall of Fame in 2021. “Ernie Stevens, Sr., was my personal hero and inspiration. He took an interest in me and told people I had potential when I was a young twenty-year-old with no direction, and he gave me that direction and encouragement. He was that kind of person, that kind of leader. A true giant in Indian Country has walked on,” said James Parker Shield, founder and CEO of the National Native American Hall of Fame.
“The passing of Ernie Stevens, Sr., a proud and accomplished member of the Oneida Nation located in Wisconsin, is a great loss for Indian Country. Ernie was a modern-day warrior who made a difference for Tribal Governments in the modern era,” said Richard Trudell, Founder and director of the American Indian Resources Institute and board member of the National Native American Hall of Fame. “In the 1970s, he played a major role in changing how Indian affairs were managed within the Department of the Interior, and he played a key role in laying the groundwork for federal-Indian policy initiatives that were recommended by the American Indian Policy Review Commission, a commission established by the United States Senate. He loved Indian Country and dedicated his life to making a difference for Indian people. It was an honor and privilege to know Ernie and to be his friend.”
A Facebook post from the Oneida Nation said: “The Oneida Nation extends heartfelt sympathy to all who knew and loved Ernie [Stevens Sr.], we honor the legacy of leadership he forged for his people. May his spirit enter the land of the Creator into everlasting peace. Skana.”
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