Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Forensic audits let genie of accountability out of the bottle at Red Lake and Leech Lake

November 29, 2002
The forensic audits underway at Red Lake and Leech Lake should prove to the be incident that caused the genie to be let out of the bottle as far as accountability and open government is concerned. Once the people find out just how badly their financial affairs have been and are being mismanaged and misused they’ll be so outraged that they will demand changes in leadership and governmental structure to provide checks and balances so this can’t happen again.

It’s unfortunate that indebtedness of over $60 million at each reservation had to occur before their respective memberships woke up to demand a full accounting and change.

At Red Lake, the council had been able to hide its mismanagement and misuse of funds behind the veil of sovereign immunity while at Leech Lake there has long been a culture of corruption that has pervaded that reservation and permeated the tribal finances.

At both reservations tens of millions of dollars have been squandered that should have gone to address the needs of the people and to deal with the problems on the reservation. The real cost of this mismanaged money includes squandered opportunities, suffering of tribal members, and perhaps even the deaths of vulnerable Indian people.

Over the fourteen and a half years of this paper’s existence, our pages have been filled with stories of tribal corruption. With the recall ordinance in place at Red Lake and a newly-elected council committed to reform, Red Lakers have taken a big step toward attaining an open and accountable government. The recent hiring of a tribal member who is also an attorney as chief judge at Red Lake is also hopefully another big step in the right direction.

Leech Lake is still in denial with vested interests attempting to maintain the status quo, fighting the reform movement, and undoubtedly hoping to ‘cover their tracks’ before scrutiny of tribal financial records discloses what they have done.

Fortunately, and perhaps unfortunately, the forensic audits and the disclosures will reveal the full extent of mismanagement and misuses of tribal funds and will sweep away those who are attempting to maintain their own posh position at the top of the status quo. Unfortunately, far too many tribal members at both Leech Lake and Red Lake will have to bear the consequences of the mismanagement and misuse of funds by former and several current tribal council members. Ongoing consequences will include loss of jobs on both reservations. Tribal funds that should have gone to pay for tribal programs will have to be spent to service the enormous debts, and people who worked for those tribal programs are going to get laid off. There has been a shift in spending priorities on the federal and state levels since 9/11, there isn’t going to be a lot of extra money to fund tribal programs.

The genie is out of the bottle and we have to face the music.

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