Indian tribes try to kill change in federal aid allocations
Story-Date: 01:40 p.m. PST Wednesday, September 3, 1997

Indian tribes try to kill change in federal aid allocationsBY PHILIP
BRASHER
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tribal leaders are trying to kill legislation that
could cut government aid to wealthy reservations, but Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell says too little goes to the poorest tribes under the current
system.

``You know as well as I do that some tribes are much wealthier than
others,'' the Senate Indian Affairs Committee chairman told 200 tribal
leaders at a strategy session Wednesday. ``Maybe it's time to make sure we
don't leave some tribes behind.''

Campbell, R-Colo., is the Senate's lone Indian.

The tribal leaders are lobbying the Senate and running ads in major
newspaper this week to fight several provisions in an Interior Department
appropriations bill. One would strip them of their immunity against
lawsuits, while another seeks to base federal funding to tribes on need.

An Associated Press analysis of the BIA financing system found that
wealthier tribes with strong political connections and reservations near
urban areas often receive far more federal aid per capita than poorer
tribes in Arizona, South Dakota, Oklahoma and other areas.

In addition, records show that tribes with huge gambling operations have
qualified for extra federal money that Congress set aside for ``small and
needy'' tribes. One of those tribes, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux of
Minnesota, reportedly is giving $700,000 in casino revenues to each tribal
member this year.

Despite the opposition of some tribes, Campbell said he would propose
setting up an outside commission to evaluate the BIA financing system and
the needs of tribes. ``It's getting worse, the disparity is becoming
greater,'' he said.

He said he was opposed to redistributing money among tribes, but that's
what leaders of wealthier tribes fear would happen.

``They don't do studies on ... (states) to determine what their level of
federal funding should be,'' said Ivan Makil, president of the Salt River
Pima-Maricopa tribe. ``Tribes have been studied forever. We always end up
on the short end of the stick.''

His tribe received $3.3 million from the BIA this year, about $600 for
every tribal member on the tribe's suburban Phoenix reservation. By
comparison, the Navajo tribe in northeast Arizona receives about $200 per
capita, and tribes in parts of Oklahoma receive less than $100 per member.

``There needs to be a more equitable way of doing things,'' said Jo'e
Nakai, the Navajo tribe's Washington lobbyist.

``Our neighbors in other parts of the country get a lot more than we do,''
said R. Perry Beaver, chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma,
which receives $55 per capita.

Campbell's proposal to study the disparity has drawn support from both
parties. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota ``sees the
need to look at it,'' said spokesman Bob Martin.

The National Congress of American Indians ran ads in The Washington
Post, The Washington Times and other newspapers Wednesday asserting
that tribes were ``under unprecedented attack in Congress.

``Their rights to self-government and self-determination are at stake,''
the ad said.



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