The Oglala Sioux Tribe announces it is withdrawing from two Native American advocacy organizations.
President of the Tribe, Frank Star Comes Out, posted letters to his Facebook account announcing the OST is withdrawing from the National Congress of American Indians and the Coalition of Large Tribes. The Oglala Sioux Tribe has more than 52,000 enrolled tribal members and is headquartered in the Pine Ridge Reservation geographically located in southwestern South Dakota.
Star Comes Out called the decision a difficult one for the tribe.
“But a much-needed decision to make a point to other treaty tribes that needs to change just because I believe it lost its identity of why it was established,” Star Comes Out said.
President Star Comes Out is referencing treaty tribes, or tribes that allow the federal government to administer their programs directly. Other tribes participate in limited federal government intervention.
He said he thinks the treaty tribes have “lost their momentum” over the years within NCAI.
“A lot of these tribes are fueled by money or influenced by money in the decisions they make. And for large land-based tribes, for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, we don’t have the funding resources that casino tribes, which are a lot smaller and have a lot more power or say-so than large treaty tribes," Star Comes Out said. "So, we need to, I guess, reset and stand on the treaties that we’ve made with the United States.”
Star Comes Out’s letter to the NCAI said the organization’s structure doesn’t allow for the equitable consideration of OST’s interests and that advocacy weighs “too heavily” towards self-governing tribes' interests. He said that includes state tribes.
“And that needs to be reset. Treaty tribes need to have a voice in this organization, and we don’t see that right now,” President Star Comes Out said. “We’re clearly outnumbered by state tribes.”
President Star Comes Out’s criticisms of the Coalition of Large Tribes were similar, but also more politically motivated at Washington D.C. He wrote that COLT’s messaging and priorities “appear increasingly aligned with the current Presidential Administrations.” He calls the administration’s actions disrespectful to Tribal sovereignty and said they have undermined treaty rights.
Neither COLT nor the NCAI responded to SDPB’s request for comment. However, ICT News, a nonprofit that covers Indigenous communities and news, reports responses from both organizations.
Leadership from COLT defended its stance, saying their job is to work with all presidential administrations and criticize all polices that hurt COLT membership's interests. For NCAI, leadership contended there are some discrepancies in voting tiers that could be adjusted based on tribal population sizes. ICT reports the current tiers grant 100 votes to tribes with up to 500 citizens, and "the largest voting tier of 180 votes for tribes with 7,500 citizens."
Click the audio player above to hear SDPB's full conversation between President Frank Star Comes Out.
