The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) enables corporations to exploit Native American resources, according to a new investigation by reporter Stephanie Woodard.
The BIA manages police departments, schools, and other services on Native American reservations.
The agency is also supposed to negotiate the best deals possible for Native landowners when corporations want to cash in on reservation land and resources. But Woodard found that the BIA often fails to do this, and works instead to ensure that corporations get what they want.
In 2013, representatives of Western Refining pushed Mary Tom — then 88 years old — into ceding land-use rights on her property for 20 years. Her niece recalled the meeting:
“They attacked my aunt like a bunch of coyotes attacking sheep in a corral. They were going, ‘Mary, Mary, just go ahead and sign it.’”
During the meeting, Tom was isolated from family members who better understood what was at stake. BIA agents, however, were there. But instead of helping her make an informed decision, the BIA allowed Western Refining to have its way.
In other cases, the agency and the courts often look the other way when confronted with allegations that corporations are harassing landowners. Natives claim BIA officials are being bribed to do so.
Corruption At All Levels
In 1996, Blackfoot tribe member Elouise Cobell discovered a pattern of improper record-keeping at the Interior Department, the agency that runs the BIA. Missing and incorrect records spanning over a century proved that the government had kept billions from Native tribes.
Cobell took her findings to court. The court discovered that on land managed by the BIA, the cost of an average corporate lease was 5 to 10 percent of the cost of a lease on similar land outside the reservation. The case was finally settled in 2009 with a $3.4 billion payout to Native peoples.
The companies that take advantage of this situation – including Koch Industries, Walmart, and others – are making a killing.
Mary Tom, for instance, accepted Western Refining’s offer after they gave her a $2,000 signing bonus. But to a company worth $6 billion, $2,000 is pocket change.
A Legacy of Abuse
Mistreatment of Native Americans by the government is nothing new. An 1887 law, the Dawes Act, divided reservation land into small parcels. The idea was to “civilize” Natives by turning them into landowners and making their land accessible to timber and agricultural interests. Woodard explains the impact of this and similar laws on Native American communities:
“[Today] Natives have the nation’s shortest life expectancy, lowest education level, highest infant-mortality rate and greatest exposure to violent crime.”
Poverty is so widespread on Indian reservations today that many people sign over land-use rights for just $20.
Woodard’s investigation helps explain how the current battle over the Dakota Access pipeline is just the latest in a long series of similar incidents. As in so many other cases, the authorities in North Dakota failed to properly consult or inform the Native Americans who are most affected by corporate actions.
Watch protesters fight the Dakota Access pipeline:
Featured Image: Screenshot Via YouTube Video.
