{"id":33721,"date":"2022-01-25T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T04:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/yankton-sioux-elders-advisory-group-concerned-about-tribal-constitution\/"},"modified":"2022-01-25T23:59:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T04:59:01","slug":"yankton-sioux-elders-advisory-group-concerned-about-tribal-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/yankton-sioux-elders-advisory-group-concerned-about-tribal-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankton Sioux Elders Advisory Group concerned about Tribal Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>

Yankton Sioux Elders Advisory Group concerned about Tribal Constitution<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By <\/em>Clara Caufield, <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Native Sun News Today Staff writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Elderly Advisory Group of the Yankton Sioux Tribe recently voted to have Godwin Weston, one of their members.\u00a0 Contact Native Sun News Today to share some concerns about what they believe to be violations of the tribal constitution on their Reservation.\u00a0 The Elderly Advisory Group is elected by their peers to provide advice and guidance to Tribal officials, especially the Business and Claims Committee, but as Weston noted \u201cthey don\u2019t take our advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Yankton Sioux Elderly Advisory Committee include:\u00a0 Sharon Drapeau, Chair, Anita Sanchez, Vice-chair, Godwin Weston, Treasurer, Janice Provost, Secretary and Macine Pouse, Member at Large.<\/p>\n

The core of their concern revolves around the Tribal Constitution.\u00a0 \u201cYankton is not an IRA (Indian Reorganization Act) Tribe\u201d, Weston said.\u00a0 \u201cOur constitution requires a General Council, consisting of all enrolled tribal members of legal age (21 years old) which is supposed to approve all drawdowns of monies, and legislation\u2026\u00a0 At a minimum the General Council is to meet every August, however special meetings can be requested by five tribal members to discuss any matter.<\/p>\n

It provides for a Business and Claims Committee (the officers and five other members) but for major decisions they are supposed to come before the General Council, which is the people.\u00a0 \u201cWe are set up to be a democracy. We are different than IRA Tribes and the Elder Advisory Committee wants to bring awareness about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weston\u2019s contention is backed up by Article 1. Section 2 of the Amended Constitution which states:\u00a0 It is specifically recognized by the Constitutional Committee and the Tribe at large that this Amended Constitution is not subject to the provisions of the Howard-Wheeler Act of 1934, which is the Indian Reogranization Act, Public Law. No 383, of the 73rd Congress of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

The IRA basically established a representative form of government, placing the power and authority for administering tribal affairs into the hands of elected officers and Tribal Councils, usurping the role of traditional councils and\/or chiefs.\u00a0 Not so at Yankton Sioux.<\/p>\n

The amended Tribal Constitution, first passed in 1932, Article V. Section 3 reads \u201cThe judicial power shall remain in the Tribal membership and upon request of five members of any just cause, such cause shall be submitted at any regular Tribal meeting for action. The legislative branch shall be comprised of the nine Committee members, however any legislative action shall be first submitted to General Tribal Council and subject to Tribal amendment, repeal or ratification.<\/p>\n

Also Article V., Section 4 states Compensation shall not be paid to any Committee member, Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer or any member of the Tribe without the approval of the Tribe and Secretary of the Interior.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the Elder Advisory Group is concerned about a Referendum vote held in 2012 regarding compensation for tribal officials and employees which passed overwhelmingly.\u00a0 That was initiated by a petition signed by 101 people, far more than the required minimum of five required by the Constitution.\u00a0 According to Weston, those election results were not presented to the BIA.\u00a0 Just last year, Weston says that he personally presented the Referendum vote to the Area office, which has not responded to him.\u00a0 The BIA called the matter a tribal dispute\u201d. Weston explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people voted on this and our officials need to abide by that\u201d Weston emphasized.<\/p>\n

The Elders group also questions the expenditure of COVID funds, approximately 40 million. While the tribal members each received Covid relief payments of $2,000, Weston contends that the tribal officials and employees received much more without approval from the General Council, in violation of the tribal constitution.<\/p>\n

The Elder Group also questions the tribal Law and Order Code which Weston contends has not been brought to the General Council for approval. \u201cWe want to bring out that we are a democracy,\u201d Weston stressed.\u00a0 \u201cWhen tribal members ask for a General Council meeting, our officers are supposed to set the date and time without question.\u00a0 They are not supposed to ignore us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are kind of at a stand-still\u201d Weston summarized.\u00a0 \u201cThe BIA treats us like an IRA Tribe, only wanting to deal with the elected officials\u201d.<\/p>\n

Neither Chairman Flying Hawk nor Vice-Chairman Jason Cook could be reached for comment, not returning phone calls as of press time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Clara Caufield can be reached at acheyennevoice@gmail.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The post Yankton Sioux Elders Advisory Group concerned about Tribal Constitution<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>

Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/div>

Yankton Sioux Elders Advisory Group concerned about Tribal Constitution By Clara Caufield, Native Sun News Today Staff writer \u00a0 The Elderly Advisory Group of the Yankton Sioux Tribe recently voted to have Godwin Weston, one of their members.\u00a0 Contact Native Sun News Today to share some concerns about what they <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> January 25, 2022<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":33722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5627],"tags":[10105,6658],"class_list":["post-33721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resource-directory-blog","tag-archive","tag-more-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}