U.S. tribal aid: one size fits all
Story-Date: 04:13 a.m. PST Sunday   , January 11, 1998

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U.S. tribal aid: one size fits all
No matter how small, each `needy' group gets $160,000

By Ben Stocking
Mercury News Staff Writer

Four years ago, Congress undertook an enterprise with noble intentions:
helping "small and needy" Indian tribes strengthen their governments and
become self-reliant. The effort has yielded some bizarre results.

This year's federal budget includes $160,000 for the Sheep Ranch band of
Miwok Indians, a Calaveras County tribe whose sole remaining member, Yakima
Dixie, is a convicted murderer.

The same amount has been set aside for the Viejas band, a 300-member
Southern California tribe that owns a thriving gambling casino, bought a
controlling interest in a bank and is building a $40 million shopping mall.

Nationwide, 310 tribes -- nearly a quarter of them in California -- are
eligible for this year's $160,000 payment. Rich or poor, one member or
1,500, they can collect the money as long as they fit the government's
definition of "small and needy."

Roughly a third of the tribes receiving the money own casinos.

"There's something wrong with this," said Nikki Symington, a spokeswoman
for the Viejas tribe, whose $40 million outlet mall is scheduled to open
next spring. "This is very weird."



Most tribes in need

Most of the California tribes on the small-and-needy list are genuinely
struggling. On the typical California reservation, unemployment averages 40
percent.

Most Indian leaders vigorously defend the program. They say it marks a
positive new chapter in federal Indian policy, whose history is riddled
with efforts to strip tribes of their land and obliterate their culture.

No amount of cash, they argue, can compensate Indians for the abuse they
have suffered at the hands of the U.S. government.

"I'll tell you right now, 95 percent of these tribes need this money," said
Harry Rainbolt, a budget officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the
federal agency that administers federal Indian policy.

But under the program, even the wealthiest tribes can qualify as "needy."
The U.S. government considers any tribe needy -- regardless of its income
-- if it receives less than $160,000 in federal aid each year.

All tribes with fewer than 1,500 members are considered small, but there is
no limit as to how small a tribe can be. Even tribal governments that serve
a single family qualify -- tribes such as the Buena Vista Band of Miwok
Indians in Amador County.

The tribe consists of Donnamarie Potts, her two adult children and six
grandchildren. Buena Vista's rancheria -- or small reservation -- is
located on 70 acres of rolling hills and meadows near Ione, in the heart of
California's Gold Country.

"Just about everybody died in our tribe," said Potts, who runs the tribal
government out of her house, a modular home with a commanding view of Mount
Mokelumne.

Potts plans to use Buena Vista's $160,000 for a variety of purposes: paying
herself a $30,000 tribal chairwoman's salary, hiring a part-time
bookkeeper, paying a tribal consultant, buying supplies for the tribal
office and commissioning economic development studies.

She's thinking of starting a bottled-water enterprise on the rancheria.
They might someday open a casino.

Potts said she had a good job at a state prison that would have paid more
than her chairwoman's job. But she passed it up, she said, because it
wouldn't have left her enough time to work on preserving her tribe and its
culture.

"It's a responsibility to your family, to your tradition," she said.



Self-determination

Congress began setting aside money for small and needy tribes four years
ago after a task force of Indians and government bureaucrats concluded that
a disproportionate share of federal aid was going to larger tribes.

In the interest of promoting Indian self-determination, the task force
said, small tribes should be granted money to support their government
operations. The minimum amount needed to finance the most rudimentary
government, the task force calculated, was $160,000 in the 48 mainland
states and $200,000 in Alaska.

In the first few years of the program, Congress provided just a fraction of
the recommended funding. In the fiscal 1998 budget, for the first time, it
set aside $16.5 million -- enough to provide $160,000 to each small tribe.

Seventy-four of those tribes are in California, where Indians have been
subjected to especially brutal treatment over the years and few large
tribes remain. During the Gold Rush, a bounty was placed on Indians to
encourage their removal from valuable land. They were hunted like animals.

Officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Washington recently
sent out a news release heralding this year's "small and needy" allocation
as a breakthrough. They listed the California tribes that would benefit --
six of which have fewer than a dozen members.

To outsiders, it might seem hard to imagine why a tribe with such a tiny
constituency would need its own government. But Indian officials point out
that all federally recognized tribes, no matter how small, have a
government-to-government relationship with the United States.



Same for all

It is well documented in federal Indian law that "a tribe is a tribe is a
tribe," said Mike Smith, deputy area director of the bureau's
Sacramento office.

"I guess somebody could make the argument that if you only have a tribe of
eight or 10 people, surely their costs would be less than a tribe of 1,500
people," Smith said. "But that's not a call anybody made."

And so the Sheep Ranch band, with just one member, wound up with the same
allocation as all the other small tribes.

The Sheep Ranch band owns just under an acre of land at the end of a long,
winding road that snakes through the hills of Calaveras County and ends in
a spot where deer probably outnumber people.

The house -- a tiny blue structure with white trim -- is empty now. Its
owner, Yakima Dixie, is locked up in the county jail, where he is being
held on a firearms conviction.

Dixie has been in and out of jail for much of his adult life, serving time
for crimes that occurred while he was drunk. His most serious conviction:
second-degree murder.

According to documents on file at the Calaveras County court, Dixie shot
his one-legged uncle to death after a drunken argument in December 1977,
then stabbed him repeatedly. He was released from prison eight years later.

His latest offense involves brandishing a gun at a neighbor. He is still in
jail on that charge and will soon be sent to a court-ordered alcohol
treatment program.

During a recent jailhouse interview, Dixie's tired eyes lit up at the
mention of the program for small tribes. He had never heard of it.

Pleased as he was to hear that Congress had set aside $160,000 for his
tribe, Dixie was perplexed to hear that tribes with lucrative casinos would
receive the same amount.



Requirements not met

Dixie may never get the money that Congress set aside for the Sheep Ranch
band. The money is in an account controlled by BIA officials in
Sacramento. They say a tribe must submit a budget and enter a contract
with the U.S. government before it can take possession of the funds.

Because Dixie hasn't organized a government or filed the appropriate
paperwork, he can't receive the money, said Doug Rollins, acting
superintendent of the BIA's Central California agency.

Agency officials plan to scour Dixie's family tree to see whether they can
locate any relatives who might be eligible to enroll in the tribe,
establish a government and claim the money, Rollins said.

Like Dixie, most California Indians have few resources. John Bergersen, a
social worker who assists tribes in four California counties, said most of
his clients live in abject poverty.  "You drive onto the rancheria, and
you're in slum city," Bergersen said.

But 26 tribes on the California list own casinos, including the Agua
Caliente, the Rumsey Rancheria, the Sycuan and Coyote Valley. Some of the
casinos generate millions in revenue.



Means test rejected

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., argued during last year's budget hearings that
wealthy tribes should not benefit from programs intended to aid
impoverished Indians. But when he suggested that the programs be
"means-tested," he ran into intense opposition.

Tribal leaders argue vigorously that federal Indian programs are
entitlements -- that all tribes should be eligible for them, regardless of
income.

When the federal government entered into treaties with the tribes, tribal
leaders point out, they took on responsibility for providing various
services to Indians, such as education, health care, the protection of
natural resources.

"It's something that the U.S. government agreed to do in exchange for
taking our land," said Virgil Moorehead, who served on the task force that
recommended the $160,000 allocation.

"It's not a freebie," said Moorehead, chairman of the Big Lagoon Rancheria,
a 17-member tribe in Humboldt County. "It's a right."

To limit such aid to poor tribes is to discourage them from achieving
economic success, Moorehead said. "Is IBM penalized for being successful?"

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