And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] forwarded for informational purposes only..contents have not been verified... From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 17:11:39 EDT Subject: Report: Indian Tribes Need Help Report: Indian Tribes Need Help .c The Associated Press By MATT KELLEY WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite high-profile successes of a few American Indian tribes with casinos, most tribes still need hundreds of millions of dollars more each year to meet basic needs, a federal report says. The Bureau of Indian Affairs calculated that tribes get about a third of the money they need for programs such as child welfare, courts, land management and assistance to the elderly. In the 1998 fiscal year, federal funding fell short by about $1.2 billion in those areas, the report said. Meanwhile, 166 of more than 550 tribes had casinos in 1996, with 28 tribes losing money and only 54 tribes making casino profits worth more than $10,000 per tribal member. The basic BIA funding to those tribes is only about $10 million a year, or about $185,000 per tribe, the report said. ``The results of shifting federal Indian policies, coupled with limited resources and investments in Indian communities and Indian people, cannot quickly be reversed by a few good years of casino revenues,'' said the report. The report was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. Kevin Gover, the head of the BIA, and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt are scheduled to release its findings at a news conference Thursday. Congress had asked for the report - due in April - amid debate over whether the BIA should shift funding from successful casino tribes to more poverty-stricken tribes. A study by Congress' General Accounting Office found that some smaller and relatively affluent tribes got much more funding per person from the BIA than larger, poorer tribes. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., has criticized the disparity for years and made several attempts to force the BIA to shift funding from richer tribes to poorer ones. Gorton's spokeswoman, Cynthia Bergman, said the new BIA report is disappointing because it offers few recommendations. ``It's so frustrating,'' Bergman said. ``It sounds like they waited six months to opt for the status quo, and the rich tribes will continue getting richer and the poor tribes will continue to get poorer.'' Tribes have opposed proposals to redirect the BIA funding, arguing that they do not get enough money to begin with and that such funding is part of the federal government's constitutional and treaty obligations. ``The tribes hold a firm position that it's not your money, the money was there for the benefit of our people,'' said Ron Allen, president of the National Congress of American Indians. The BIA report agrees that the tribal funding should not be reallocated. ``The predominant view (among tribal leaders) is that all tribes are underfunded, and to take from one tribe and give to another is only trying to equalize the poverty,'' the report said. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is likely to hold a hearing on the issue either later this year or early next year, said Chris Changery, spokesman for committee Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo. AP-NY-09-08-99 1711EDT Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
