______________________, 2008
Mr. Jerold L. Gidner, Director
Bureau of Indian Affairs
1849 C. Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20240
Dear Director Gidner:
As a duly enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, I am joining with many other Tribal members to notify you of the Constitutional crisis that is now facing our Tribe. We are aware of the Bureau of Indian Affair’s (BIA) previous decisions to intervene in crisis situations like this.
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is a federally recognized Indian tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. We gained federal recognition in 1972 by an administrative order of the Secretary of Interior and our Constitution was ratified in 1975. We presently have an antiquated and outdated constitution with no separation of powers or checks and balances. As you are well aware, with this flawed constitution, our government is ripe for internal conflict and strife with no reasonable internal remedies for violations of our Constitutional rights.
We are currently experiencing internal strife with a dysfunctional Board of Directors. Despite all of our attempts to preserve the rule of law, and to safeguard our Constitutional rights, the Tribal Board of Directors has violated them at will. We are seeking your immediate and timely intervention. At this time, it is absolutely imperative that you act decisively to prevent an internal and complete breakdown in our Tribal government.
There are several recent actions of our Tribal government which clearly violate our Constitution, as well as, the Constitution of the United States of America. Here are just a few examples:
1. In May of 2007, against the advice of legal counsel, the Tribal Board of Directors voted to institute mandatory drug testing of all employees, even those employees not in "safety sensitive" positions. This action, by our Tribal Board of Directors was in direct violation of the U.S. Constitutional 4th Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizures. As a consequence, the Tribal Chairperson refused to enforce this illegal search and seizure.
2. The Board of Directors routinely and purposely passes laws and amendments to our ordinances by Motion rather than by Resolution thereby depriving our rights as citizens to challenge the actions of our governing body via our Constitutional Right to Referendum. Additionally, Board members routinely and purposely add items to the agenda at the last minute in violation of the five (5) day notice requirement for placing items on the agenda. Given, the Tribal Board meets weekly, this is an unacceptable and deceptive practice depriving the Membership an opportunity to participate in the governance of our Tribe.
3. The Tribal Board recently took action to make Managerial changes to our governmental structure by Motion rather than by Resolution (which violates our Parliamentary Meeting Ordinance, as well as, our Tribal Constitution requiring such actions be passed by resolution), purposely depriving our Membership an opportunity to challenge their actions via Right of Referendum.
4. An illegal meeting of our Tribal Board of Directors was called on 12-21-07, in violation of the Constitutional requirement of (5) days notice, to discuss removing our Tribal Chairperson from office. The stated reason was for his refusal to follow Managerial changes made by Motion rather than Resolution. This has created conflict between the Chairperson's desire to uphold the Constitution and laws of our Tribe against a Board of Directors who would ignore our Constitutional rights and laws.
The Constitution of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is a flawed document. When there are violations of the Constitution, there is no remedy for the Membership to gain judicial review of the illegal actions of the Board of Directors. Recently, the Board of Directors announced their intentions to remove our duly elected Chairperson without due process, or without even following our existing laws or Tribal Constitution. This explosive situation is a time bomb waiting to go-off with many Members simply refusing to accept such illegal actions of the Tribal Board of Directors. As you know, with situations like this, there exists the potential for additional escalation and citizen response.
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians has over 37,000 members and is the largest tribe east of the Mississippi. We own and operate five (5) Indian casinos in the upper peninsula of Michigan and are the majority owners of a Michigan licensed casino located in Detroit, Michigan – the Greektown Casino. In all operations, we employ approximately 5,000 employees. Sixty percent of our governmental operations are funded through gaming revenue. As a Tribe who has expanded gaming to try to meet the needs of our Members, our Tribe has invested heavily in other gaming venues utilizing complex financing arrangements. The viability of our continuing operations depends a great deal upon our government stability and adherence to the rule of law – both Tribal, State, and Federal. The recent actions of the Tribal Board of Directors jeopardizes the financial stability our Tribe further warranting swift and immediate intervention by the BIA to preserve and protect the assets of our Tribe.
This situation presents an opportunity for your office to intervene to pre-empt an already dysfunctional situation from further denigrating into wholesale lawlessness. We are aware that the BIA has intervened in the past to prevent situations like this from getting worse. We ask that you monitor and evaluate our situation closely to determine whether or not you should immediately intercede to prevent the further disintegration and total collapse of our government.
Sincerely Yours,
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