It’s been one year since long-term Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Chairman Mike Jandreau passed away amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds within his administration.
Jandreau’s replacement Vice-Chairman Kevin Wright says, since then, little progress has been made to get the tribe on track.
Meanwhile, the tribe has been the focus of a new round of negative press over misspent federal funds that came to light during a recent federal audit.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General conducted an audit of tribal spending between 2009 and 2012. Officials found the tribe had over $900,000 in unallowable, unsupported or unreasonable expenses during this four-year period.
“Lakota George” Estes is spokesperson for grass roots elders of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He says many tribal members are still in the dark on the $900,000 in misspent federal funds.
“We have yet to see any finances,” Estes advises. “There’s 25 bank accounts our tribe has. We wanna’ know what’s in it. What’s going on.”
Estes says no progress toward government transparency has occurred since Mike Jandreau’s death. He says Jandreau’s supporters who are still on the tribal council refuse to work with Vice-Chairman Kevin Wright. The Vice-Chairman agrees and adds that even he can’t get answers to how the tribe’s money is being spent.
“It seems like (they’re) dancing around the whole subject and no definite answers as to what is our current situation as a tribe,” observes Wright.
He notes that he’s been unable to access financial information about the tribe since Mike Jandreau died last Spring.
Wright alleges that remaining members of the tribal council who were Jandreau supporters won’t show him tribal financial records. Nor will the tribe’s business manager. Wright also alleges these individuals won’t work with him during tribal council meetings.
Multiple phone messages left for these tribal officials over the span of a week were not returned.
Arvind Ganesan is an attorney with Human Rights Watch, in Washington, D.C. The organization initiated an investigation into the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in 2013 at the request of grass roots tribal members.
AG: “There are at least 3 other investigations into funds of Lower Brule in addition to the Department of Justice audit that came out last month. So…there’s still a number of inquiries into what happened with funds…particularly during Chairman Jandreau’s tenure. And those still haven’t concluded and they haven’t come to light. And on the reservation, there’s still a stalemate between people who are trying to reform the government and those that would constitute the old guard.” 29
As for the $900,000 the Department of Justice audit found was misused, Ganesan says the federal government and the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe are determining whether the tribe needs to repay the funds, better account for them or some other alternative.
“The bigger issue, “explains Ganesan, “ is that this was money that was meant for the criminal justice system, for tribal youth programs, for troubled youth and other things and it’s really unfortunate that that money was used for something else.”
Arvind Ganesan doesn’t see the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe’s in-house political issues resolving themselves until this Fall’s elections.