Pandemic consolation prize: View from Indian country Tribal government ‘can help out’ with pandemic stimulus payments

OFFER leader Ronald L. Neiss urges tribal governments to “step up to the assistance plate to help those tribal members who have fallen through the cracks” of the stimulus payment system.

PART III
ROSEBUD – On May 28, Rosebud Sioux Tribal President Rodney Bordeaux said his government “can help out” with a grassroots effort to assist members in claiming elusive pandemic stimulus payments under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
His statement responded to a request for support from the Oyate For Fairness and Equal Representation, or OFFER, a voter empowerment group with a track record of enlisting tribal government backing for other actions to benefit Rosebud Indian Reservation residents over the years.
OFFER leader Ronald L. Neiss texted Bordeaux saying that he and OFFER colleague Rose Cordier have been “doing outreach and filing assistance” for tribal members who have had trouble obtaining the universal emergency aid of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child.
“We are hoping that the tribe can support a necessary wider effort. This should be a Rosebud Sioux Tribe project,” Neiss said to Bordeaux, adding, “I believe that the benefits would be tremendous to our local economy.” OFFER is willing to facilitate as needed, he noted.
Bordeaux told the Native Sun News Today that the tribe’s tax service has been discontinued and he has been “inundated” by the demands of confronting the coronavirus pandemic with just a skeleton crew allowed to work.
He said that obtaining the stimulus benefit is an “individual’s responsibility” but noted that his own relief money had arrived late. For cases of people in need, he stated, “We can help out with that.”
The tribal government imposed a partial lockdown on the reservation, when Covid-19 cases began to appear here. The government offices closed and only employees providing so-called “essential” services reported for work.
The lockdown — complete with stay-at-home orders, limited business hours, curfews, and highway health checkpoints – extends until at least June 30, but Bordeaux asked a minimal number of additional staff to return to work beginning June 1.
As in hundreds of other tribal governments nationwide, the Rosebud Administration has had an unusual burden of work in filing a lawsuit and compiling census data for its population in order to claim even a portion of the $8 million the U.S. Congress set aside for the tribes’ operations in the CARES Act.
Meanwhile, Neiss has been bugging the President and entire tribal council for more than two months, urging that elected leadership “step up to the assistance plate to help those tribal members who have fallen through the cracks” of the stimulus payment system.
“Mainly we’re just dealing with this virus crisis,” Bordeaux said, but now, he added, “We can set something up.”
While some tribal members have not received the individual stimulus payments as Congress directed on March 27, yet others died even before the pandemic’s outbreak and received it anyway.
After dropping behind schedule on delivering the aid, the Internal Revenue Service announced on May 27 that it has been sending the funds to some people in the novel form of prepaid debit cards ever since the middle of the month.
About 4 million people are slated to receive the cards, in addition to some 276 million obtaining the stimulus pay in checks via the U.S. mail or in direct bank deposits.
Neiss flagged the new plastic money as an additional hitch for tribal constituencies or others who could mistake the unexpected delivery for junk mail.
Such delivery challenges transcend Indian country, observed former South Dakota Legislator Liz May, from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, adjacent to Rosebud.
“The problem is logistical: 330 million Americans, and a bureaucracy that wasn’t prepared to take on this huge undertaking,” May told the Native Sun News Today.
Nonetheless, she recognized, her local constituency has its peculiar obstacles to clear. For example, the internet infrastructure in the rural reservation area has not been adequate to support a switch to online business provoked by protocols for precaution during the pandemic, she noted.
“Once Covid-19 took hold, our internet capability was also challenged, due to everyone moving to social media for work,” she said.
Sympathizing with public servants in that situation, she suggested that “it would be appropriate for tribes” to designate a portion of the $8 billion Congress allotted their sovereign governments in the CARES Act “to hire or outsource personnel to help individuals with the filing process.”
Facing her in the June 2 South Dakota Republican Primary, incumbent U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson logged his annoyance with the Internal Revenue Service’s failures in distributing the stimulus money, formally known as Economic Impact Payment.
He referenced essential employees “working overtime to meet the needs of this nation,” saying, “I do not see that same dedication from the leadership of the IRS, and it is time for them to get it together.”
Speaking on the floor of Congress on May 28, he said, “My patience has run low. My office has heard from hundreds of South Dakotans who are not only waiting on stimulus checks but are also waiting months for their tax returns. This is unacceptable.”
Johnson requested the IRS increase workforce capacity on April 1, and the agency has since hired 3,500 people to help with this backlog, according to his communications director, Jazmine Kemp. However, by press time, some 20 million eligible recipients were still waiting, he said.
His office staff has heard from hundreds of people who need help claiming their due, although “the data on how many of those calls and emails are from individuals on tribal lands or in underserved areas” is not sorted, Kemp told the Native Sun News Today.
The IRS operates a help line at 1-800-919-9835 and a “Get My Payment” portal on its website, However, reports are rampant of people’s failures to access vital information sources there.
Congressman Johnson’s offices “can accommodate casework requests for tribal members needing help with a federal agency,” Kemp said.
At press time, OFFER had designed, printed, and begun delivering an application form for Rosebud tribal members who need help filing for the stimulus pay. The letterhead dubs the outreach campaign “Project Stimulus,” and its slogan reads, “OFFER CARES”.
In a May 28 letter to editors of communications media, Neiss ventured, “On the Rosebud, I am sure that our tribal officials will get behind the effort to help all those needing technical assistance in filing for these virus relief monies. I encourage all brother and sister tribes to do likewise.”
Neiss may be contacted at ronaldneiss@outlook.com and 605-208-6136.