Chapter 6: What I Found - General

The search for justice is the Christian message.
Bishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa
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I was fired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in October, 1986, for the stated cause of insubordination, but in truth for being a whistleblower. There is always a trumped-up cause, because firing a person for exercising the right of free speech (in an appropriate manner) wouldn’t sound good. . Nor would firing an auditor for issuing an honest report, while performing his assigned duties in an honest and forthright manner.

The events leading up to my being fired will be described in more detail as we go along, but it’s time to tell you about the underlying problems that led to the loss of my job a year after starting work at BIA. We’re jumping forward in time to see what those problems are, and then later we’ll back up and see how all this fits together, and organize the sequence of events for you.

One of the problems that I found at BIA made the front page of the Arizona Republic, a major newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona, about a year after my being fired by BIA. The newspaper had been investigating BIA for some time, as a result of many complaints from both Indians and other citizens. In October, 1987, they began a series of articles and editorials that were eventually reprinted in booklet form, titled Fraud in IndianCountry, a Billion Dollar Betrayal.

Editorials described BIA as “the worst-managed agency in the whole U.S. Government,” and both of Arizona ’s Senators (DeConcini and McCain) had scathing comments about BIA that were quoted by the newspaper. Congressman Mike Synar, of Oklahoma, stated that rather than making substantive changes, the Interior Department often finds it “easier to simply discredit the bearers of bad news about the BIA,” exactly the position I found myself in. The newspaper articles, among other things, reported that:

1. Information fed into the agency’s computer system is disorganized and erroneous.
2. An estimated $5.8 billion has not been collected (since 1979) from companies that pump oil and gas from reservation lands, thus robbing Indians.
3. In some cases, money that belonged to individual Indians and tribes was deposited in slush funds through accounts set up under phony names.
4. There are thirty recent incidents in which federal employees were allegedly involved in theft, embezzlement and fraud on Indian reservations, yet few are prosecuted.
5. Indian programs failed to improve the economies of reservations, and BIA failed to provide quality education for Indian children.
6. Housing programs are riddled with scandal, and housing in many areas is shockingly substandard.
7. Indian health remains poor, with diabetes reaching epidemic proportions on some reservations.
8. BIA cannot manage its own money, or account for millions in equipment and supplies.

Arizona is an oil producing state, and many of the stories concentrated on that particular issue, but the newspaper series as a whole produced a terrible picture of BIA. My case was about to be noticed by the Arizona Republic .

I had been struggling with BIA for about a year since being fired (in 1986), and there had recently been some local newspaper and TV news stories in the Billings area about my case. In early November, 1987, I had a call from Kennard Real Bird, a younger brother of Richard Real Bird, then Chairman of the Crow Tribe. Ken had told Chuck Cook, an investigative reporter of the Arizona Republic about my case, and in turn Chuck Cook phoned me.

Chuck wanted to come to Billings to interview me, and phoned to make an appointment for us to get together. I had dinner with Chuck on the evening of November 10, and the next day we met at his motel room, along with Julie Matt. Julie is another BIA whistleblower, and you’ll find her story later in this book. This was the first time I had met Julie, and together we were questioned by Chuck Cook.

On November 22, 1987 , the Arizona Republic ran a story about me on the front page of the Sunday edition. The story continued on page 6, with my photograph, and with a related article about the Crow Tribe. My story was headlined “Accountant Challenging BIA Firing,” and starts out with “The Bureau of Indian Affairs fired an accountant for insubordination and refusing to conform with government policy after he found a $7.5 million discrepancy in money the BIA handled for Indians.”

You’ve seen how the newspaper covered it, and now let’s look at what was behind that story. The first item we will describe is the “$7.5 million dollar” issue. Be aware that although this is the name of this issue, it does not begin to measure the much greater dollar amount of the money missing from Indian Trust accounts.

This book will support my findings with third-party evidence, analysis and audits. I’m providing that evidence because a favorite way to discredit whistleblowers is to label them as “crazies” who are lashing out in an unreasoned way with no hard evidence. There is clear and convincing evidence behind my claims; they are not vague slander.

I found fraud in every one of the several BIA financial systems I examined, and what can only be seen as criminal neglect in BIA accounting and auditing in general. The loss to Indians from fraud, and the liability to taxpayers to replace missing money in BIA trust accounts is more than a billion dollars. That’s the equivalent of a thousand successful bank robberies of a million dollars each.

Sometimes when I’m asked to speak in public about this, I say that the center of organized crime in Montana is located in the federal office building in downtown Billings . That’s a novel idea for the audience and usually brings some nervous laughter, but by the time I’m done talking, the idea is no longer absurd. It’s a substantial fraud that can no longer be swept under the rug, and every taxpayer will feel the bite from increased taxes or a larger deficit.

We, as well as our fellow citizens who are Indian, have been robbed.

Most of BIA’s services involve money. BIA collects money that belongs to Indians (Trust funds). It also controls federal funds (your taxes) that are budgeted and used for the legitimate needs of Indians.

Where possible I’ll avoid technical terms, and try to explain this in everyday language so you won’t need a business or technical background to understand the issues. If you have that kind of background, you’ll be able to skim lightly through some of the explanations. You will see here what BIA really does, and how it responds to criticism and complaints.

First we’ll take a look at the billions of dollars in trust funds maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.