Chapter 5 - BIA Summary

BIA controls Indians through the lack of accountability and the use of hierarchy to control BIA employees. It can and does veto the legislation of elected tribal officials, vetoes contracts, limits the use of attorneys to those approved by non-Indian politicians, and leases or otherwise controls land for the benefit of non-Indians. It withholds money and information about money (even tribal funds), limits sovereignty by tribal government and the authority of tribal courts, controls the police, undermines Indian self-government and democracy, steals from the poor, and hides behind phony words.

The non-Indian land operators (ranchers, miners, loggers, etc.) are politically active, and their organizations give financial support (PAC money, etc.) to the western politicians. Aside from the PAC’s, whose operations are open and legal, this can’t be clearly traced, but if you try the pay-off idea as a theory, it explains why this outrageous system is never reformed.

In the same way the non-Indian western public lands (or political lands) are looted. Like BIA, the Bureau of Land Management and U. S. Forest Service also rent land for grazing (at prices as low as one-tenth of market value) to white land operators. There are also subsidized timber sales, mining with no royalties, petroleum fraud, and the list goes on. The rules of capitalism and the market are trashed to produce a subsidy for politically favored classes, at the expense of all citizens. It’s a tax kick-back that got started before any of us were born.

The lack of improvements in federal accountability can be traced to this logic. If federal employees had to be responsible for their actions, they might refuse to do the “dirty work” for the politicians. Honest bookkeeping would make all of this traceable, so politicians don’t want internal controls, effective audits, or honest financial reporting.

BIA exploits and steals from Indians, and it manages to continue doing this because you and I let it happen. We have a collective responsibility to change this system, and this book will offer a specific way to get it done.