Sunday, April 5, 2009

Things new tribal council must do in Fall of 09'

1. Get new legal representation. Bye lawyers, you caused enough trouble and took enough of our money.
2. Raise percap back to $2,000. I'm also in favor of back pay from 6/08. For the hard times that we've been put through and the fact that we have been lied to.
3. Give percap back to the people whose percap was witheld from them since 04' plus back pay.
4. Fire some people who have been there too long. Investigate them.
5. Conduct a forensic audit going back to 96'.
6. Scrap plans for bank. The majority of the tribe says NO!
7. Cease all unecessary projects.
8. Let the people own their houses.
9. Build houses for women.
10. Tribe's constitution needs to be revised.
11. Tribal court... yay or nay?
12. More of the casino's profits need to go to the tribal members. Let them add more money to the savings account. Just in case.
13. Get more funding from the state. It's a way of making the government honor the treaties.
14. I'm worried about the children's trust funds. Investigate?
15. Need to hire more natives from our tribe.
16. Pow-wow needs to go a budget.
17. Free turkeys for every household on Thanksgiving or was it Christmas?

Why does the tribal police get new vehicles while the tribal members' get repossessed?
Should those on the tribal council receive a salary? It's lot of responsibility and it will give them less reason to embezzle.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous20.4.09

    2. Raise percap back to $1,800. I'm also in favor of back pay from 6/08. For the hard times that we've been put through and the fact that we have been lied to.

    -this will never happen.

    4. Fire some people who have been there too long. Investigate them.

    -who specifically?

    8. Let the people own their houses.

    -some people can't even take care of the houses they were given. i can understand ownership if the tribal member paid for all the costs to have a home built. just like per cap, a tribal home is a privilege not a right.

    9. Build houses for women.

    -there's no $ unfortunately.

    10. Tribe's constitution needs to be revised.

    -again, specifics please.

    11. Tribal court... yay or nay?

    -separation of powers must take place in order for the tribal court to work. i don't see that happening any time soon.

    12. More of the casino's profits need to go to the tribal members. Let them add more money to the savings account. Just in case.

    -in the form of per cap? distributed thru tribal programs?

    15. Need to hire more natives from our tribe.

    -Need to hire more QUALIFIED natives from our tribe.

    16. Pow-wow needs to go a budget.

    -cancel the pow-wow altogether. it's not as if we're really celebrating proclamation day. it's turned into a weekend for the local pow-wow people to brag about who they know on the trail.

    Should those on the tribal council receive a salary? It's lot of responsibility and it will give them less reason to embezzle.

    i'm not sold on salary but i do feel they should be paid for their time. something simple like $50 per meeting. obviously, the kinks would need to be worked out with something like that for it to not be taken advantage of. it's an option though.

    nice blog.

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  2. On the other hand, a salary of some amount would accomplish two (2) things. It would make council members more accountable. Secondly, it would give them the ability and compulsion to do alot more to educate themselves on the issues that confront them (us). That way they would not rely on an executive director for all guidance and advice. This is what is occurring now. It is not the directors' job to tell the council what to do. It is the directors' job to carry out the council's resolutions and orders with the administration and other staff. None of the problems happening now would be present IF the council was not so (and erroneously so) reliant on the director as they are today. And GET RID of that damn lawyer! We are paying way too much for him. We have people on foodstamps while he gets almost a million a year?? C'mon folks, we need to speak up..if for nothing else, then to make others aware of what is happening. So yeah, make a council person a paid position and straighten up that tribal center. A HOU!

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  3. 2. Hard times. Hah! You have lived on easy street for so long now you don't even remember what really hard times were. What did your parents go through to raise you without per cap? What did your grandparents go through to raise their children without per cap? They did what they had to do for their families and they did it all without per cap. You have all grown soft and turned into a bunch of crybabies.
    3. Why? There was a reason they lost their payments. 5 years is not all that long a period of time. How quickly you all forget.
    4. Who specifically and why?
    5. Why bother doing any audits when you wouldn't believe the results anyway.
    6. The bank is already a done deal. Somewhere down the road when the bank turns out to be a wise envestment, you will be lining up to take credit for it. We have our own flip floppers amongst us.
    7. Unnecessary to whom?
    8. Then let the people pay for them as well. You want everything just handed to you - and there are a good portion of people who have been assigned housing that don't even keep the required insurance on them. If you aren't responsible enough to even insure what is being handed to you, why should you be given ownership of it as well?
    9. Build houses for our elder women - let our young women make wise choices by doing what has always been tribally mandated - marry a tribal man who is entitled to a house. Either live by tribal customs or go live elsewhere.
    10. There is always talk of needing to revise the tribal constitution but no one says just what it is within the constitution that needs changing. I wonder if any of you even know what the constitution says.
    people.
    12. How many of you saved anything that was given to you already? You wouldn't save it - you'd use it to buy, buy, buy - and drink, drink, drink....... There have always been those that had enough pride in themselves to hold a job and/or become educated no matter how much tribal money they recieved but there have been many more that just became fatter and lazier - fine examples for the futures of our children.
    15. That's a joke. Any native on the settlement that wants to work can get work at the casino, trading post, tribal operations, ect... The problem is that not many want to work anymore and even when they get jobs - they can't keep them because they are too lazy to show up to do the job. Yes, more natives need to find work on the settlement but once they find that work, they need to grow up and get their butts in to work every day.
    17. Free, Free, Free. That's all some of you think about - what are they going to give me for free. What about the free housing so many of you get (and don't appreciate or take care of), what about the free medical care and prescriptions, or the free garbage pickup, or the free water, or the free education and meals provided to our children? How much more free stuff do you want added to the list? We used to be a strong people and we used to work for what we had. Now so many of us are just weak, sniveling women.

    Why can't we use this lull in per cap to reaquaint ourselves with what truly living is all about? Find a little pride in ourselves and stop asking for hand outs instead of working for what our families need. You complain because you are now ONLY getting $500 a month. Do you know how grateful people in other communities would be to have $500 just handed to them every month to help take care of their families? And you whiners just whine louder because you aren't getting what you want. You deserve to hit rock bottom so that maybe you will appreciate it when the good times roll back around - and they will. Too bad your short sightedness will prevent you from appreciating anything.

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  4. Anonymous6.2.10

    you are definitely not a true meskwaki because of the way you talk here! you talk about culture but look at how you talk to your fellow meskwaki's here on this blog.

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