W.S. Adamson and Associates, Inc

W.S. Adamson and Associates, Inc.

MEMO

Subject: 10/26 New Goshute Officers Press Conference

I attended a press conference today at the City & County Building held by Marlinda Moon, Sammy Blackbear and Maranda Wash. They held it to claim they are the new Goshute tribal leaders and discuss some other issues. Also present were Anne Sward-Hansen, Jason Groenwold, Chip Ward, Duncan Steadman and a few others I did not recognize. Several media members were also there.

Marlinda Moon said she had a cold, so Sammy was the spokesperson. The following are claims made at the conference by the alleged new officers:

They claim on Sept. 22 an election for chairman and vice-chairman was held. Sammy said something about it originating as an election for secretary, because Rex had resigned. I think he was trying to say the election was originally for secretary, but the tribe members present wanted to elect new leaders, so they did. He was not very clear on this topic.
They claim to have had a quorum of 37 people at the election. They also claim they have no documentation of the actual number of tribal members, so they really don’t know how many people make up a quorum. They claim to have met all of Leon’s requirements for a quorum.
Sammy was asked if the people on the reservation supported the new leaders and he said yes.
Sammy emphasized several times that the new leaders have had many problems with the BIA and they have had to, “put up with the BIA’ s antics.”
Sammy claims the BIA asked him for proof that they were legally the new officers. He said they provided the proof, but David Allison had already made a decision two days before favoring Bear. Sammy also said that Allison had publicly claimed he had not made a decision on who the real Goshute leaders were, but then Allison sent documentation to the NRC claiming Leon was the real leader.
As far as the money, he said the banks were cooperating with them. They money had not left the bank, but has been frozen so they can conduct an investigation into misuse of tribal funds. He also said Leon has no access to any tribe money, federal funds or otherwise.
Anne Sward-Hansen made several comments during the conference. At one point she said she was going to present an illustration of tribal accounting under Leon and then pointed to blank screen. Basically, she was jokingly saying there is no documentation of what Leon did with tribal money.
As far as the project, Sammy stated the “new” officers have not taken a position. They want to see tribal documents about the project before they take a stance either way. Sammy was asked how the tribe felt about the project and he said some were in favor and some weren’t.
When asked about what they have discovered about the misuse of tribal funds Sammy said, “I don’t want to get into detail, but there were withdrawals of $700,000 and $80,000.” He was then asked if Leon misused tribal funds and he said, “When someone has 7 or 8 vehicles in the front yard, then personal withdrawals are self-explanatory.”
Sammy was asked about the allegation that Leon paid off tribe members. He responded that he was “unaware of payoffs.”
Duncan Steadman made a few comments at the conference. He said that, “this is the Goshute tribe’s press conference, but I will answer any legal questions.” He also said, “I find it interesting the David Allison asked for an FBI investigation into the misuse of tribal funds and then he told the NRC that Leon is the official leader.”
Sammy was asked who was supporting the new leaders and he said, “The public and some organizations. People and organization come to us and tell us not to lie down and to keep it up. This work we’re doing isn’t easy.”

That’s basically what was said. The following two pages are the press release they handed out at the press conference.

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(Press conference hand out)

October 25, 2001

Oversight Review of Utah Bureau of Indian Affairs: Superintendent David Allison

.Refusal to investigate Goshute tribal charges of mishandling of tribal monies, corruption and bribery allegations as well as lack of disclosure and accounting of federal trust money to the General Council, therefore failing in fiduciary duties.
.Acting against Federal mandates by interfering in Goshute tribal affairs and tribal elections. .Refusal to define and submit BIA criteria, procedures or rules in making BIA judgments and determinations concerning Goshute elections to NRC and other entities.
.Refusal to apply the same rules of procedures and criteria to all tribal factions for BIA judgments and determinations thus allowing for the continuation and support of the Bear faction and for the alleged bribery and corruption to persist.
.Refusing to acknowledge the traditional ways and customs of the Tribal General Council, the Goshute legislative body.
.Acknowledging the unlawful Bear-Executive Committee's resolutions without full tribal General Council authority. The BIA acceptance of the Bear Executive Committee to act alone without General Council authority or consent.
.Unacceptable behavior of Superintendent Allison's by using an admitted personal opinion, to dictate a biased political position

Tribal Funds unaccounted for:

The Tribe has traditionally distributed printed proposed and year-end budgets to all members annually. From the date Leon Bear took over the tribe in 1995, no budgets or financial statements have been distributed to the tribe. The Bear Executive Committee without any distribution of disclosure or printed material conducts and passes their own financial audits.
The Tribe has no knowledge of tribal bank accounts, placement of federal money; restricted money, alleged tribal corporate money, or PFS grant money. It may involve millions of dollars.
.Skull Valley has received more than $300,000 in federal MRS grants, but it is gone without a trace, no accounting of the money has ever been made to the tribe
.Skull Valley received a 7 figure settlement from dispute over the rocket test facility, no accounting of the money has ever been made to the tribe
.Skull Valley has received a 7-figure amount from PFS for the use of its Reservation, but monies are gone without a trace, no accounting of the money has ever been made to the tribe. Tribal members have received some of this money, in various amounts between $8 and tens of thousands of dollars each, depending on their support for Bear and PFS. BIA claims this discrepancy is based upon participation of tribal members, but there is no accounting of this alleged participation.
.Skull Valley has received tens of thousands of dollars in annual HUD grants, DMV records show dozens of tribal cars, trucks, boats and other vehicles have run through various Skull Valley entities. Leon Bear admits to 11 "tribal vehicles" but he alone is allowed to drive any of them and no accounting of these vehicles has ever been made to the tribe-
.Skull Valley bank accounts show more than one million dollars has passed through those accounts in the past few months. A single wire transfer was for $700,000. All gone without a trace, no accounting of the money has ever been made to the tribe.

.After the September 22, 2001 election, the newly elected tribal officers visited all of the banks they knew held tribal bank accounts. Certification of Tribal Elections were given to each bank. Three accounts were turned over to the new leaders. Three other accounts required court orders.
.The new officers contracted with an Indian court and an Order to Show Cause was issued and served on the new leaders and on Leon Bear, Lori Bear Skiby, the banks and BIA Superintendent David Allison. When all adverse parties refused to attend the hearing, the court received testimony and documentary evidence form [sic] the newly elected officers and issued its Order finding the election was proper and binding on the served parties. All remaining accounts accepted the Order, had it reviewed by their attorneys and released those accounts to the new leaders.
.No action has been taken by BIA Superintendent Allison to locate any of the missing funds, millions of dollars, the only action he is known to have taken is freezing the tribal accounts in the control of the newly elected tribal officers. Allison admits he has no jurisdiction over any tribal accounts that do not contain any federal money. Allison also stated that he is not aware of any federal money being in any of the tribal bank accounts he has interfered in.

Meeting of anti-nuclear group

HEAL

(Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah)

Wednesday, October 24, 2001, 7:00 p.m.

Sprague Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

By Ron Christensen, Adamson and Associates

The meeting was held in a private meeting room downstairs at the Sprague Library with 29 people in attendance. Approximately 6 of them seemed to be with the anti-nuclear storage group and about 12 of them appeared to be college students. Claire Geddes from Utah Legislative Watch was to have spoken but was absent due to an ill husband. Jason Groenewold opened the meeting with a skit where he played a chef “cooking up” a radioactive waste storage facility. He used Envirocare as the example and demonstrated what corruption and illegal maneuvers were employed to bring Envirocare into existence and how the same techniques are being used to expand the level of nuclear waste they intend to handle at the facility.

Mr. Groenewold then went into a sort of “how to” training session to teach those in attendance how to get results from their efforts to “keep nuclear waste out of Utah.” He covered all the areas where an individual could be effective:

MEDIA - Write editorials and letters to the editor of local newspapers; use follow-up phone calls to the editor; write e-mails or fax your opinions. Call radio stations during listener call-in sessions. Telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses were supplied.

ATTEND ORGANIZATIONAL MEETINGS - Attend any local meeting such as neighborhood council meetings, come prepared with flyers or other handouts, and attempt to get the council to write an official letter to legislators.

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE OR LEGISLATORS - Call and set up a personal meeting with the representative or a member of his staff to make your opinions known.

GRASS ROOTS - Distribute flyers or write letters, canvas your neighborhoods, use telephone calls, start petitions and talk to people on the street, contact all friends and relatives (since they are more likely to listen to your opinions).

In the case of PFS, Mr. Groenewold suggested that they should seek support from the Goshutes themselves by helping them personally with their needs. He said that PFS has a “ton of money” and is dangling it in front of those most impoverished to gain their support. He claimed that it could be counteracted by a one-on-one approach to help the needy Goshutes. He said that last winter they had helped the Goshutes on the reservation by supplying them with wood for their stoves and other supplies. He stressed that they should do all they can to help maintain the support of the anti-PFS Goshutes.

Mr. Groenewold then did an “interactive workshop” showing the do’s and don’ts of setting up a meeting with legislators or representatives. He used role-playing, where he was the person trying to set up a meeting and another member of his anti-nuclear waste group played the part of the representative. It was actually quite well done and presented some valuable training.

Mr. Groenewold talked about the challenges that lie ahead in fighting the PFS project, stating that PFS had a lot of wealth and was mounting a very expensive public relations effort.

Other interesting comments made by Mr. Groenewold included:

“PFS has stated that the project is completely safe and if something does go wrong they would just ship it back to where it came from.”

Great success was achieved by one member of their group, Rachael, who was able to get the Sugarhouse Council to write a letter to the legislators against the PFS project.

Another success was Jim Webster researching information that showed that the soil around the proposed site for the PFS Facility was highly acidic and corrosive to concrete, therefore making the project unsafe.

The meeting lasted about an hour and 30 minutes. Afterwards many of the attendees stayed to speak with Mr. Groenewold.