Indians to Be Liable for Damage
Indians to Be Liable for Damage
An agreement signed by representatives of President Nixon recommending "no prosecution for the seizure and occupation" of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building "in no way" granted amnesty for the "extraordinary damage and theft of government property" which occurred during a seven-day seige of the building, a White House spokesman said Thursday.
The Justice Department reportedly is studying what charges should be brought, and against whom, after both the Interior Department and a group of tribal Indian officials asked that the offenders who left the building Wednesday be prosecuted.
Preliminary estimates of damage to the bureau building total nearly $700,000, with no price tag set on many stolen art objects and destroyed personal property of the building's 412 employes.
About a dozen members of the National Chairmen's Assn., saying they represented three-fourths of the nation's Indians and nearly all of those who live on federal reservations, toured the building Thursday and then met with three White House advisers and called for prosecution of the rebels.
Webster Two Hawk, president of the association, led the chieftains through the building.
He blamed "a small handful of self-appointed revolutionaries" for wrecking the building and the federal government for letting them get away with it.
"They have destroyed records so vital to our people–real estate, enrollments, leases–that it will take years to recover," said Two Hawk.
An Indian who attended the closed meeting said the White House representatives noted the agreement with the occupiers of the building was signed "to prevent bloodshed."
The White House representatives would not comment on the meeting, but one spokesman said that a decision to prosecute did not violate the agreement worked out with representatives of the American Indian Movement, which brought its Trail of Broken Treaties caravan to Washington last week.
"We're not going to welsh" on a promise to set up a task force to listen to Indian problems, and the prosecution for damages and theft "is not another broken treaty," the spokesman said.