Man’s dignity, our dignity, lives in our thoughts. Thereby we rise. Only thereby. Not through space; and not through time. Never can we fill either. So we take pains, such pains as we can, to think well. For therein lie all morals and all principles.
Pascal, 1623-1662
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First I’d like to relate to you a story that I was told by Ben Pease. Ben is a Crow Elder, and we have become good friends. He was located elsewhere while I worked for BIA, so he learned about my experiences there after the fact, and he was deeply disturbed about my situation.
The story Ben tells is about himself, as a child enrolled in the small rural public school in Lodge Grass, Montana . The location is in the heart of Crow Country, but his story could have happened anywhere in any school, Indian or non-Indian.
The time was in the 1930’s, when the country was in a deep depression, and most people were financially hard pressed. It was a day set aside for high school graduation, and was planned with the usual speeches, a lunch and then a formal graduation ceremony. Parents were present, and Ben sat at a desk, with the chore of checking in text-books and collecting fines that had been assessed on damaged books.
A few days earlier there had been an argument between two boys and a bully had thrown the books of his victim down a stairwell, which resulted in one book with a broken binding. For this a maximum fine of two dollars had been assessed, much higher than the usual pennies for torn pages. The State school board had an absolute rule that all fines had to be paid before students could take part in the procession and graduation ceremony, so it was no small matter
As Ben sat at his desk collecting nickels and dimes and pennies, the two sets of parents came together to his desk, and they were arguing. The victim’s parents stated that since their child did not cause the damage, the bully’s parents should pay the fine. They in turn responded that since it was not their child’s book that was damaged, they had no responsibility and would not pay. The argument continued and got louder, so at last Ben (who had some money from part-time jobs) said, “if you’ll just stop this arguing, I’ll pay the fine myself.”
They did stop arguing, and Ben paid the fine. He added, “of course they all hated me.”
Ben’s story shows his understanding of the whistleblower’s plight. Although you’ve done nothing wrong, many people see you as having a “holier than thou” attitude, and are angry that in some way you are demeaning them by pointing out that they are less noble than yourself. A common reaction people have to this story is that the parents would feel cheap or inadequate, and they would project the blame for that onto Ben, when actually Ben was the only person who behaved well in this situation. This leads to responses like “get off it” or “just who do you think you are,” and anger at the whistleblower.
The next step in this chain of events is that if your whistleblowing act was found to be commendable, then people expect and demand perfection from you in all things, else your other failures are held against you to discount the action that was good. Witness the fault finding where our national heroes are found to have feet of clay, and our attempts at myth making such as “George Washington never told a lie.”
To be clear about myself, I am a very ordinary person with plenty of faults and failures, and I have gone through painful episodes of my own, caused by reflecting on my many shortcomings. The episodes in this book are something that I take pride in, but I believe there are many, many people who would have done the same or better if they had been in my shoes. I don’t believe my future should have been ruined through reprisal by the federal government, yet it was, and I do rebel at that injustice.
I am not ashamed to be called a whistleblower. To some the word means troublemaker, an angry person out to cause harm to others. That includes violating the privacy of others or searching through personal files to discover something negative to report. As to problems in government, people just don’t want to hear that, because the knowledge would require them to do something, and they certainly don’t want to hear that! You’re different, because you’re reading this book, and I appreciate that fact.
Rather that hide from the truth when the truth is unpleasant, I believe it is better to have the facts, even if they cause you to feel uncomfortable, so that as a citizen you can make informed decisions based on fact rather than myth. We need to take human nature into account as it really is, containing both strength and weaknesses.
It’s no big deal for an accountant or auditor to issue an honest report. In the business world this is done routinely. The system has self-policing rules. If the report is not honest and if people are injured by relying on it, for instance shareholders and investors, the injured person can take the accountant to court. Accountants soon learn to be careful and reliable sources of information, and the public is well served. Accountants and CPA firms are held responsible for what they do.
In the federal government there is no comparison. Because of the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the injured do not have access to the courts. The idea of self-policing does not work, and federal employees take advantage of that fact.
In our federal system, whistleblowers could serve a valid function, but the system inhibits them from speaking. The price for honest words is too high. The reporter is often attacked personally and frequently destroyed.
Current whistleblower laws do not provide for damages to reputation of for punitive damages. The most a federal whistleblower can hope for is to get his job back with the same outfit that fired him. By these rules whistleblowers almost never win. Justice doesn’t have a chance.
Federal accountants who issue reports are not held to the same standards as independent accountants and CPA firms. Sovereign immunity protects them from personal responsibility. It should come as no surprise to you to discover that federal officials often make dishonest statements and federal accountants routinely issue misleading reports. There is no “fine-print” in the Constitution that says that freedom of speech does not apply to federal employees, but in reality it does not.
The system does not discourage fraud; it rewards those willing to corrupt themselves and discourages those who speak honest words. The system perpetuates itself. By getting rid of reasonably honest people and by rewarding those willing to corrupt themselves, the results are obvious.
All the work I did was required. I was ordered to do the work by my supervisor, Bill Benjamin. The job description signed by him said to review, report and recommend improvements using the independent judgment of a professional accountant. The professional work of a CPA has nothing to do with being a snitch or tattletale.
The records I worked with were public federal records available in the financial management department. I reviewed systems, not people. None of my reports placed blame on individuals. Accountants and auditors learn not to issue reports containing personal accusations. To criticize individuals is unkind as well as not productive. If there is only one person covered by the report, then the action is criticized rather than the person who performed the action.
Later I was to find that blowing the whistle was not just a figure of speech. After being fired, when I decided to stand with the Crow, I bought a bone whistle and hung it around my neck. As a white man, I needed some Indian symbol to mark me as a person who identified with their cause.
At a dinner in Billings I met William Tall Bull, the principal Priest of the Northern Cheyenne . If you don’t know the history of the Northern Cheyenne , you have missed one of the most powerful stories in American history. I call them the Children of Heroes.
Their heroic escape from exile, and the desperate flight to return to their homeland in Montana is an inspiring lesson in human courage. Most of the people of their Nation died, but a few powerful souls survived to pass on their heritage of great strength to the world.
Tall Bull laid his hands on my whistle, and told me I should not be afraid. When confronted with evil, I should blow the whistle and the evil would be driven away.
William Tall Bull is a traditional Priest, you would call him a medicine man, well thought of in white churches as well as within his tribe. Traditionalists say that power radiates out in front of a holy man, and when this man walks they move out of his path to respect the direction of his spirit.
Those who might think a bone whistle is a toy don’t know William Tall Bull, and they haven’t met the Children of Heroes, the Northern Cheyenne .
If you identify yourself in the past with the exploits of the U.S. Army as it directed its forces against American Indians, the story of the Northern Cheyenne is one of horror. They were being starved into submission, and the people in charge of this situation represented us; our federal government.
I suggest that is not the way to look at the story. You can choose who you identify with, and instead of relating to the Army in this story, picture yourself as a brother or sister of the heroic Northern Cheyenne . They behaved in a truly heroic and glorious manner, which rates space in any book on American history.
The act of identifying yourself with the heroes instead of the monsters gives strength to the good rather than to the evil. If you can accept your relationship to these Indians as your surviving American brothers and sisters, rather than to the Army, then you are part of the goodness in this powerful bit of American history.
In early July, 1992, I was present at a meeting at Plenty Coups Park , on the Crow Reservation, concerning the arrival of Columbus on the shores of America five hundred years ago. Heywood Big Day was one of the Crow speakers, and his son William Big Day, an artist, was also present.
Haywood is better versed in the Crow language than in English, but related to us in English some of the stories that are passed down from generation to generation by the Crows. During this, he stated that the Crow People make a strong identification about “who they are,” and they are taught role models from the lives of their past Chiefs and tribal heroes, including Chief Plenty Coups, on whose estate the celebration was held. That Chief is often forgiven his role in signing away huge chunks of tribal land, under pressure from the whites, although many see him as “the whiteman’s Chief.”
During that talk, Haywood said “I even tell my son what he should look like,” and he held up a photograph for us to see. It was a picture of Heywood and his wife, both dressed in formal tribal regalia. Heywood wore a beautiful headdress of eagle feathers, and his wife wore a white buckskin dress decorated with fine beadwork. I looked over at William Big Day, and his eyes were shining, full of admiration, respect and love for his father.
It is not a bad thing to know who you are and what you stand for. We are not all Indian, and do not have a clear picture of ourselves as presented by Heywood to his son, but still we can choose which roles to honor and how we want to lead our lives.
At that same public meeting, Phil Beaumont, a highly educated and respected Crow Elder who I had never met before, came to shake my hand. He said “we love you for all you have done for us.” That type of kindness from the Crow People, often repeated by others, helped give me the strength to continue my struggle with BIA after almost a decade of financial ruin and personal hardship. Thank you, Phil Beaumont. (In Crow, aho!)
I did not find fault with supervisors or fellow workers. The purpose of all of my reports was to point out problems and suggest solutions. When I called attention to faulty auditing by OIG, my report was aimed at the audit, not the auditor. There was nothing about my work that was not direct and upfront, nothing that degraded any person.
BIA did not respond that way. Bill Benjamin in particular went for my jugular vein, and his reprisal was aimed below the belt, at the reporter more than the report. We’ll describe that in a following chapter.
Benjamin was relatively gentle with me at first. After all he had hired me and he appeared to want me to be a successful employee. As I made my reports to him, at first verbally, he told me I was wrong. He told me how I could change the reports to make them “correct.” For instance, don’t call the $7.5 million problem a cash shortage, simply call it a reconciling problem. I was told to “go look again,” and was offered the chance to re-do my reports. This happened at least six times. I was a little slow to catch on.
In studies of accounting ethics, this is called subordinating your judgment. Ethical accountants absolutely are not allowed to do it, and I would not. Missing cash is missing cash, not a bookkeeping error or reconciling problem.
It was my failure to take Benjamin up on this opportunity to redeem myself that made me insubordinate in his eyes. I was stubborn about refusing to corrupt myself and unwilling to issue soft reports about hard problems. As the only CPA in the organization I was not willing to subordinate my professional judgment to agree with the wishes of my department head for a clean bill of health.
Later, I was to blow the bone whistle twice for the Crow. It was requested; they asked me to blow it at BIA to reduce the evil there. They believed in the ancient Sundance legend of the Whistler who is commissioned to seek justice for the tribe, they believed in the power of the Eagle Spirit, and they hoped I could be strong enough to confront the evil that destroys them.
Benjamin repeated his offer to me many times, so I can not say that he was personally unkind during the first weeks of my employment. Later this was to turn into a personal attack, and what he was really up to was intimidation.
In the non-Indian sense of the word, whistleblowing means to call attention to a problem. The job of reviewing, reporting and recommending improvements in financial and accounting systems is a very normal job for CPA’s, and all auditors are (or are supposed to be) whistleblowers.
Towards the end of this book. I’ll describe the farewell party given by loving friends when I had to leave Montana , unable to face personal destruction any longer. A truly fine man, Joe Omelchuck, made an impressionist drawing as a gift for me. It was the Christ Crucified, blowing a bone whistle from the cross. It was not a joke, but was offered with love as perhaps the greatest personal tribute I have ever received.
My soul cries out to tell you there is a terrible truth in what that drawing represents, and as I write this there are tears streaming down my face from the pain of what I must say to you.
No matter what your religion is, the Christ story symbolizes a classic and true human paradox. Any person who refuses to yield in support of some ideal or principle will learn what agony is; he will discover the monster within his own soul.
If the abuse is heavy enough, at some point you find you are mortal and have limits. The monster I met was failure, and the face on that monster was my own. I went as far as I could go and I could go no further. I found the point where my strength of character failed, I could take no more. I can imagine no greater personal horror than this, and the collapse and breaking of your own inner strength comes to you in complete isolation. No other person can help you or decide for you what your limits are.
Earlier in this book you learned about the work I did and the problems I discovered. The whistleblowing part of the job was to report what I found to the appropriate people.
Who do you report to? Generally the next level higher on the chain of command. In this case Benjamin was not the next level since he was in charge of the department with the problems.
What if an engineer is ordered to build a bridge, but knows it will collapse? What if a physician is ordered to inject a drug that he knows will kill the patient? Obviously some common sense must be used when orders are received. Professional rules say that the engineer must refuse to build a structure that will collapse, and a physician may not do deliberate harm to a patient.
By this same logic, if an auditor is ordered to make a study and issue a finding of fact and opinion about what is found, then the report should be correct and the opinion should be based on fact. Facts are not smoothed out or revised to make them look nice or to cover up problems. When an apparent fraud is discovered, it must be reported at some level beyond that of the supervisor of the system in which the fraud is found. In this case, it had to be reported at some level beyond Benjamin.
Principles come first. They are more important than following orders, more important than self-interest. That is the whole idea of federal constitutions, of religion, and of professional ethics. Our country is based on that noble ideal.
This country is founded on religious ideals. We are free from domination by any specific Church, and simply borrowed for our Constitution the principles that are common to all religion. It is good and worth dying for, and still better it is worth living for.
You and I likely differ on just what it is that we call God, and yet I owe my deepest allegiance to That, and I simply could not do the fraud that Benjamin demanded. I’m convinced that millions of Americans feel the same way, that there are some absolutes.
There is a financial value in having information that nobody else knows. In the journalistic sense, you can only “let the cat out of the bag” once. If I had wanted to use this information for personal advantage, I could have kept my mouth shut and kept my job, or I could have joined the thieves and politicians to become a rich man.
The first time I blew the bone whistle for the Crow was at a gathering at Crow Agency, long after I was fired by BIA. There were speeches and a feast. I was to speak, and an Elder asked me to blow the whistle at BIA. I asked for better treatment for Indians from BIA, asked for the winds to blow the evil away, and blew four notes to honor the four directions.
That day a BIA man in Billings met with violent death. What can I say, I did not wish him dead, I saw no connection to the whistle and I greatly regret that he died. I had known Calvin Tillison only casually, and I liked him. Some of the Crow say that the Eagle Spirit determines its own path, and some believe the Eagle whistle caused this death.
Later in Billings I received several phone calls from people who thought the man had been murdered by BIA officials. The theory was that he “knew too much” and was a threat to those stealing from Indian pockets. I relayed that information to the office of the county Sheriff . The Sheriff was not interested and said the death was clearly a suicide.
I could have kept my job with BIA, and then I could have resigned when the book or story was ready to be published. Former President Reagan has called this “kiss and tell,” sort of a classic Judas story or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I did not do that.
Or, the threat of revealing it could have insured me the protection of a blackmailer - the information could have been held as a weapon (over the heads of my BIA employers) to insure me a safe haven. A guarantee of employment - I’ll keep quiet if you treat me right. I would guess that at least a few BIA employees keep their jobs in that fashion. I did none of those things. The reports were made public, as you saw in the previous chapter. They were given freely; no price was asked. Instead, a price was assessed against me by BIA and others. People ask if I worried about being killed; of course I did, and still do. The present system does not need to kill dissenters, you are simply driven to personal and financial ruin; nobody pays much attention to a man or woman who is down and out.
A second time I blew the bone whistle for the Crow. It was at an outdoor gathering at Crow Agency. Barney Old Coyote described the fact of the earlier death to the crowd, and there was nervous laughter along with shouts of “go ahead.”
I was careful to say I wished no harm to anyone, and called for reform and honest treatment of Indians by BIA in Billings . The whistle was blown. That day another BIA employee in Billings , relatively young at forty, died from a sudden heart attack. I had known Craig Olson fairly well, and enjoyed him as a person. I was sorry to hear of his passing.
Craig was a programmer, and when I was examining the trust accounting system I needed access to the computer programs, to look for flaws in the way trust money was accounted for. When I asked Mary Jo she refused, and the computer terminal she assigned me was blocked by her so I could not examine the programs she managed.
Auditors are curious when doors are slammed shut and money is missing, and no other auditor had taken a close look at these programs, so I tried to find a quiet way around her. Craig was willing to help, but feared his supervisor Mary Jo. He was no coward, but he was afraid to ask her permission or to go over her head. Later I would understand why.
I reported to work at BIA in early December, 1985, and was assigned a desk in a large room about six feet from the door to Benjamin’s office. As a new employee I had the usual questions about where various files and reports were located, and frequently asked questions. My very first assignment was to get familiar with the IIM system that was described for you earlier. There were other assignments, but by mid February, 1986 I was reaching some tentative conclusions about the IIM system.
On May 8, 1986 I gave Benjamin a one page memo recommending an improvement in the IIM interface, that would do much to solve the problems that had been reported above. It included a request for a minor change in the data processing department in Billings . He refused to approve this request, with the following verbal explanation to me. I made notes of what he had said immediately after talking to him, and here is what my notes say:
Benjamin described his reasons for refusing the request as follows, (as restated in my words).
There is a great deal of friction in working with Billings IMC [data processing] due to a romance between the Area Director (Richard Whitesell) and the department manager (Mary Jo Dimich). Mary Jo could be expected to complain to the Area Director when extra work was requested, and her complaint would be sustained by the Area Director. I also discovered that Benjamin was not interested in correcting the IIM problem.
On July 9, 1986 I wrote directly to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior (for Indian Affairs), Ross Swimmer. After introducing myself, the letter reads:
“When you spoke in Billings you said it was possible to contact you directly without going through the chain of command. I am choosing that route not because I am angry at someone, but to propose a solution to a problem that can’t be solved otherwise.” ...
The letter goes on to describe the IIM problem, and states that I had found “an apparent cash shortage of several million dollars.” I offered to design a new IIM accounting system to eliminate such problems in the future, and suggested I could complete it in four to five months time. I listed some similar computerized accounting systems I had designed and programmed, and gave him my home and office addresses and phone numbers. There was no visible response, at not least then, but a storm cloud was building.
The third time I blew the bone whistle was for a white man. It was after I had fled to California to take refuge with my mother.
Harold Bohnsack is an atheist who believes in God, but don’t let him know I told. He is a kind old man who rides a bicycle to church every Sunday morning in Billings . He says it is not logical to believe in God, and he recites the poems of Robert Ingersoll to prove it. Harold has the soul of a poet, and he and I are buddies.
His ears don’t work very well but he has a twinkle in his eye. Harold’s wife tends a garden, he invents things that never sell, and he brings candy to church for the kids. On nice days he rides his bike around town, and he delights in causing discomfort to stuffy people.
I was phoned by a friend in Montana , to tell me Harold was in the hospital with a bad leg that might have to come off. I felt sad; there was nothing I could do and I didn’t have the money to pay for a phone call to Harold.
There was an Eagle overhead when I went out to blow the whistle, and I knew it would be there. I prayed that kind spirits would hover over Harold’s hospital bed, and sounded notes to the four directions. It may sound foolish to put hope in a bone whistle, but I tell you the Eagle headed north like a shot, and in two days Harold was walking again.
Atheists are supposed to go straight to hell, but there must be a corner in heaven for old men who recite poetry and bring candy to kids. Harold has years yet to go. When his time comes I’m sure that God will listen to Harold’s poems with a smile, and the two of them will ride their bikes together for all eternity.
Mr. Swimmer did not acknowledge or answer my letter. I later discovered that Benjamin was informed immediately by Swimmer’s Washington BIA staff about my letter, although Benjamin said nothing about that at the time. Later my letter would be used against me, never mind what Swimmer had said in his talk to us about no reprisal for contacting him directly. Swimmer would make me pay for that.
Two days later, on July 11, I was called into Benjamin’s office. He had prepared my efficiency rating for the previous six months. I was sure I had been doing superior work, and was shocked to find he had graded me as just “satisfactory,” which in government jargon means barely adequate.
Benjamin told me he had downgraded me because I was “failing to work within the system.” I responded that I thought my work to date should rate as superior, and that the downgrading was unfair. He did not like the complaint, and said he would add to the report that I “did not get along well” with his secretary, Jackie, and that the meeting was over. He added the negative remark because I complained about the grade, but there was nothing I could do about it. If you’re a federal whistleblower, you had better understand in advance how these methods will be used against you.
After reading about Julie Matt in another chapter, you may begin to see a pattern in Benjamin’s actions. When she made a complaint about his actions, he responded (with innuendo) that she was objectionable to other office employees within his department. Innuendo is a tough thing to disprove.
Work was not hard, mostly it was learn, study and review. The systems were a mess, so complex without necessity that at once you knew they were designed by someone without knowledge. Things that are beautiful are simple, even accounting and computer programs. This was a patchwork, with patches to cover errors in logic that again were covered with patches to cover errors in logic that again, and so on.
When I came across this sort of thing as a corporate controller, I would simply redesign the system so it would become both simple and beautiful. The words “creative accountant” are used as a joke to mean one who “crooks the books,” but in truth there is creativity and there can be beauty in all things. But there was little beauty at the Billings Area Office. The rule of the day was fear and suppression; just do what you’re told and keep your mouth shut so you can keep your job. If you’re Indian, you must use your intimate knowledge to turn against your brothers and sisters.
And what about the two men at BIA that died. If you have an uneasy emotional feeling about their untimely deaths, you are not alone. With $300. billion here and more millions scattered elsewhere, the stakes in this game are high. Let me tell you now that I cherish my life, my ancestors live long, my health is excellent, and I drive that old Jeep with great care looking back over my shoulder, and on occasion I keep a loaded pistol within reach. Still, a pistol has no soul. My real protector is the Eagle whistle, because it’s song blows evil away.
Does whistle blowing accomplish anything? Looking just at me, certainly it has brought nothing but negatives. I was attacked personally and caused financial ruin, and there have been no remedies. But what about BIA, has anything positive been accomplished by speaking out?
There is a long way to go before BIA can be called reformed, and not as much as I would like has happened, but some positive things have taken place as a result of my loud complaints. Let’s examine the results to date.
The press does have power. The story about me in the Arizona Republic was just one of several in a series, but taken together the series has had an impact. The U.S. Senate did form and fund a special investigative committee, documents have been gathered, and there have been public hearings. The publicity produced more public awareness of Indian problems.
My Crow friend Marlon Passes says that:
if you are fishing with a wooden spear, and you throw it and it sticks to the bottom of the pond, if you wait long enough the spear will come back to the surface. I take that as the Crow equivalent of “the truth will out.”
I have not seen any pressure from the Congress or the Senate for reform. They profit from the existing system, and there is no financial incentive for them to improve it. I see their motive in holding public hearings as part of a personal power struggle. By discrediting the executive branch, they can increase their own share of power and influence.
Still, public awareness will result. Popular demand by informed voters is what produces reform, and there is at least an atmosphere that could lead to improving life for Indian people. I will take some of the credit for that and I will continue to push hard in that direction.
BIA is very aware of the spotlight that has been placed on responsible trust accounting, and they can no longer conceal the problem. Something will be accomplished in this area before it’s over, and my complaints have stirred up things at BIA.
There is not a single financial employee working for BIA who hasn’t heard about reconciliations, simply because of my pressure. They have had training sessions and countless meetings on the subject. The problem at least is out in the open and a matter of record instead of being hidden.
Concerning audits of BIA, several auditors have spent several months examining and reporting on the problems with reconciliations and trust funds. The reason this happened is because of pressure from me, and the audit report specifically refers to my complaints. Montana’s Senator Max Baucus should get some credit here, he continued to push for me and did not give up.
As to the Office of Inspector General, I see better work. I won’t call it adequate yet, but their performance has improved in some of the exact areas I complained about. Their latest audit failed to mention that their previous audit (about Billings doing a good job in reconciling) was in error. Well, you can’t win them all. At least they had admitted it to me in writing (letter referred to elsewhere in this book).
Irrigation? There was an audit because of my complaints, and it adds evidence to what I had reported. Before my complaints were made, nothing had been done for decades. Now we have more exposure, public awareness is coming and improvements will happen. Public complaint and confrontation does force a response, and the truth, like a wooden spear, will come to the surface.
I believe that my complaints have had more positive effect on BIA than the combined efforts of the Secretary of the Interior and of Ross Swimmer. I don’t see where either of them have accomplished anything of worth during this period. The comparison of myself to them may not be fair, because I don’t believe they wanted to do anything positive or creative. They both sold-out. In June, 1993 I heard on the PBS radio that the Indian Trust Funds are now thought to be short by two billion dollars, and attention is being focused on that. I will take some credit - I was the first person to call attention to this problem in a forceful, public and positive manner, and it could not be swept back under the rug.
Swimmer worked to reduce Indian benefits, such as housing assistance, rather than to advocate Indian rights. He served well as a turncoat, the whiteman’s tool. BIA has resisted change and dragged its feet. Response has been slow, but at least my complaints have brought some modest improvement, and I have stirred up the hornet’s nest. Evilis diminished when exposed to light - I believe that.
There is one other episode of whistleblowing that I believe had some value, although it defies measurement. To tell you about this I’ll have to use some language that I would rather not use, but it is pertinent and necessary.
It happened after I was fired by BIA, and as I began to support the Crow. The Crow were having great problems with BIA. Funds had been cut off that were needed for the truly poor. There were aged people sick at home with no heat during the Montana winter, and there were nursing mothers and newborn infants without adequate food, and of course the Tribal Court had it’s funding cut off. BIA’s Area Director, Richard Whitesell had halted charity funds for the poor, and other federal agencies were following his lead. He has the power to do that.
The charity recipients could have their needed funds if they would simply agree to bypass the tribal government, and apply directly to BIA and other non-tribal sources. If you fail to recognize what this is, it is a classic “union busting” tactic to destroy the organization, tribal government, and funding was canceled for the Tribal Courts to reduce sovereign tribal powers. Was BIA following it’s mission statements? It speaks of recognizing the inherent right of tribal self-government, and of advocating the rights of American Indians. I tell you the mission statement is a lie.
BIA’s public reason was the usual “they can’t be trusted,” but I knew better and so did the Crow People. The reason was to weaken tribal government and encourage tribal members to bypass the tribal unity that gives them strength and identity. The motive behind that is age old. To divide and conquer, and get control of the Crow land. Try it, it fits.
I was invited to meet with a member of the Crow administration, DeWitt Dillon, over a cup of coffee at a downtown restaurant in Billings. We were joined by Steve Devitt, the news editor of the Big Horn County News, the Hardin city newspaper that serves the reservation area. DeWitt was going to tell us the results of a Crow meeting with Richard Whitesell that had just taken place at the BIA area office.
In August, 1987 the Crow Tribe, under the administration of Chairman Real Bird, sued the Bureau of Indian Affairs for withholding funds and financial information, and for mismanagement.
Note that this is the issue (Indian Trust Funds) that I had raised a public stink about earlier, and for which I was fired by BIA.
The federal government responded with armed men. They came to Crow Agency carrying guns, and raided the tribal offices. They seized the financial records of the sovereign Crow Nation.
BIA’s Area Office refused to approve the Tribe’s annual budget, which meant the tribe did not have access to its own money. (No, not federal funds but income from tribal land rentals.) Tribal officials had gone without their paychecks for months, and now even charity funds had been stopped. They could not even pay to bury their dead.
A Crow delegation arrived in Billings, with petitions asking for Crow funds to be released. Steve Devitt (the journalist) witnessed that Area Director Richard Whitesell yelled at them to keep their papers, because “I use them for ass wipe.” End of meeting. The Crow were stunned, and returned to the reservation, feeling like whipped dogs.
Richard Whitesell, as Area Director, is responsible for maintaining government to government relations with the Crow Tribe. He is the final and highest federal government official the Crows deal with. He used his authority to punish them for filing their peaceful petition, and to demean their leaders in public with abusive words.
The U. S. Constitution protects the right to petition the Government. Richard Whitesell, sworn to uphold the Constitution, chose to violate his oath.
The Crow were under the thumb of this abusive man, and I could feel that they were demoralized. The thousands of Indians in Montana and Wyoming knew about the abuse within hours, and they all had their pride diminished by Whitesell. Being shamed in public is no small matter for people who have a high regard for honor and pride.
I was an unemployed accountant with no authority, so there was nothing I could do about the tribal money. However, I had one advantage the Crow didn’t have. They and their families were vulnerable to further reprisal from Whitesell, but BIA had already done it’s worst to me, short of murder, and I was free to respond.
I could confront this man and get the Indians back their pride. I decided to go see Whitesell at his office. The man who heaped deliberate shame on the Gentle People would have to look in my eyes and see the disgust and contempt I felt for him.
To be very obvious and make a clear record of what I did, I prepared a single sheet of paper titled “Whistleblower Award,” and here is what that certificate said :
You have qualified for presentation of the Whistleblower’s teepee Award, in recognition of disservice to humanity:
1). For cutting off electricity to homes of the poor and elderly;
2). For undernourished mothers and infants;
3). For grinding down tribal self-government;
4). For cover-up, repression and reprisal;
5). For meeting the appeals of destitute Indian People with obscene words;
In the name of old people who are cold, mothers and children who are hungry, tribal leaders you refuse to hear, and for the truth and justice that you suppress, you are hereby awarded the Teepee Award. Your symbolic award is one roll of Delsey’s finest (toilet) tissue.”
There was no bad language, no abusive remarks; honesty was scathing enough. I signed the “award” and made copies at the local print shop.
At BIA’s Area Office I handed out copies to the employees. I was sure they would be reproduced, and copies would be mailed to all the Agency offices. News moves like a whirlwind through Indian Country, and BIA employees headed for their telephones with copies in hand to tell their friends. There were handshakes and laughter from the BIA rank and file, who all disappeared when supervisors were in sight.
When I reached Whitesell’s office, the door was open but he was gone, and I was told that he was hiding from me. I placed the certificate and award on his desk, made sure his secretary and everyone in the front office had copies, and left. The coup was struck.
Was this action cheap behavior on my part? Of course it was, and about as low as I go. Was it appropriate? I believe so. This low quality man, Richard Whitesell, deserved to be publicly confronted with what he had done. Seven thousand humiliated Crow Indians had their dignity uplifted, and no longer had to lower their eyes in humiliation. They could laugh at Whitesell’s discomfort. If giving the whistleblower award makes me look cheap and low class, then so be it.
A small coup was struck for humanity!
The suppression of honesty and free speech by BIA continues daily. BIA rank and file call their administrators “whores” regardless of gender. They don’t get the top jobs unless they “sell-out”.
One BIA contact, whose name I can not give you, is creating a personal list of recent BIA employees fired for honesty, and on that list (in September, 1993) I am identified as number twenty-seven. To remain in contact with that informant, I use the telephone of a friend. It’s good sense to assume that our phone calls just might be monitored.
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