Records Suggest Massive Waste at Native American Charity Group Story-Date: 07:05 p.m. PST Sunday , July 20, 1997 Records Suggest Massive Waste at Native American Charity Group BY K. MARIE PORTERFIELD, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY, RAPID CITY, S.D. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News RAPID CITY, S.D.--Jul. 21--Things aren't what they seem at the Native American Heritage Association in the generic-looking gray building on West Chicago Street. The place is anonymous. No signs direct visitors to the headquarters of the charity that last year brought in $4,087,141 in revenues derived mainly from phone solicitation. Brief, framed testimonials from William Kindle, president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Arvol Looking Horse, keeper of the Sacred Pipe for the Lakota, and Wilbur Between Lodges, former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, hang just inside the entrance. The letters thank NAHA for helping Indian people. These men, along with Lloyd Carl Owl, Abraham Begay, Johnny Tiger Jr., Maisie Shenandoah and Clarence Skye sit on NAHA's board of advisors. The organization's avowed mission is to ``create employment of Native Americans in areas of high unemployment and discrimination, both on and off the reservations.'' The charity also attempts to meet the social needs of American Indians for food, transportation, clothing, medical supplies and equipment. NAHA is planning and constructing an American Indian cultural museum in the Black Hills south of Rapid City. After four years of telephone solicitation, NAHA has managed to pay -- in full -- the $250,000 cost of the site for the museum. According to Native American Heritage Pow Wow coordinator, Norman Roach, NAHA has built a $60,000 arena on 26.4 acres of prime Black Hills land where the Second Annual NAHA Pow Wow was held last month. Attempts to meet the social needs of American Indians have been more modest and, until recently, focused almost entirely on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. They include a donation of 2,000 turkeys to residents of the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota at Christmas and a budget of $5,000 a month for food vouchers for Rosebud residents. The vouchers are distributed through the tribe's social services agency. ``People can get $30 to $35 a month,'' said Joe Mustard, NAHA's secretary/treasurer. ``This helps out the last two weeks of the month,'' he said. ``They can get it once a quarter,'' he said. ``Sometimes people get upset it's not more, but with extended family, people are actually getting more than it appears.'' NAHA also sends used clothing to Rosebud and helped to sponsor the soup kitchen on Pine Ridge reservation ``before,'' according to Mr. Mustard, ``it got too political.'' Currently, the organization has begun working with United Sioux Tribes, the organization which advisory board member, Clarence Skye heads, to start a social needs program in Rapid City. According to Roxanne Apple who helped found NAHA and who trains NAHA's telemarketers, NAHA pays the bill for an emergency phone at UST's Rapid City office. The phone is available to American Indians in the community. ``It probably averages 130 calls a month,'' Mr. Mustard said. ``The month of May's bill was $330,'' he said. NAHA has also donated a van to the field office and pays the rent for UST's building on Lombardy Drive. According to Wayne Amiotte, field office manager for UST, the bill is from $2,200 to $2,500 a month. ``We have nothing to hide,'' Mr. Mustard said. ``We get audited once a year,'' he said. ``We're approved as non-profit by the Internal Revenue Service and our financial statements are open. ``Thirty states require charities to register and we're approved by every one of them,'' he said. The National Charities Information Bureau, a watchdog organization, believes NAHA is hiding something. The April 2 rating of NAHA was prefaced: ``As of the date of this report Native American Heritage Association (NAHA) has not responded to NCIB's requests with sufficient information to prepare a regular report about NAHA's recent activities. ``An organization's willingness to supply information voluntarily is a demonstration of its belief in the importance of public accountability.'' Neither does the charity rating organization think NAHA has helped that many American Indians. According to information from NCIB, in 1995 NAHA raised $3,449,842 and used only $78,831 for ``grants to American Indians for food, housing, child care and winterization programs.'' A whopping $1,309,225 was spent for ``fundraising'' and $1,081,437 went to pay phone solicitors. Mr. Mustard, who is Pawnee and Basque, disagrees. He said that the money paid to phone solicitors comprise the organization's employment program for American Indians. ``We employ 68 enrolled American Indians,'' he said. ``They start at $6 an hour and get sick leave and paid vacation time. After two years, they get life insurance and can participate in a retirement fund.'' ``This is a drug- and alcohol-free environment,'' he said. ``We take a chance on people and hire people who have been in the prison system.'' ``The salaries we pay do help Indian people, they are passed to relatives; they go to the families,'' Mr. Mustard said. In 1997, NAHA failed to meet several NCIB standards, according to Don Langan, a spokesman for the information bureau. ``Those charity rating organizations are like the Better Business Bureau,'' Mr. Mustard said. ``We get letters from them all the time. They want us to pay fees to them and join them.'' He said that unless fundraisers pay large sums of money to such charity rating groups, they are automatically flunked in the ratings. Not so, according to Mr. Langan. ``Since the beginning, membership in our organization has only been $35. Our ratings have nothing to do with whether a non-profit joins us,'' he said. ----- ON THE INTERNET: Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1997, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------