News Conference Confrontation
News Conference Confrontation
Representatives of two Indian organizations charged one another yesterday with misusing federal money as the debate among Indians themselves continued in the aftermath of the sacking of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building.
The accusations were made during an angry confrontation that disrupted a press conference called by the National Tribal Chairmen's Association (NTCA).
Members of the NTCA, composed of older, more conservative leaders of reservation Indians, were accused of being brought to Washington by the Nixon administration to condemn the dissident American Indian Movement (AIM).
"Who paid your way here?" demanded Herbert Powless, Milwaukee coordinator of AIM. "You are using government funds. You got $50,000 from the Nixon administration for your convention last year."
(A White House source said $50,000 "sounds about right" for the amount of support given to NTCA.)
Chief Bob Jim of the Yakima (Wash.) Indian Nation, a member of the NTCA's executive board, countered: "Tell us where the $66,000 came from."
He was referring to the money used to pay the return expenses of the more than 1,000 Indians who followed the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan to Washington last week.
The encounter, which came during a press conference at the National Press Club, capped a day of bickering and blame-placing for the destruction at the BIA. In other developments:
- BIA Commissioner Louis R. Bruce indicated he had been muzzled by the White House, lending support to speculation that he may be fired.
- Terms of amnesty for the protesters remained in contention, with demonstration leaders insisting they had a promise that no one would be prosecuted for "anything short of death" and White House spokesman saying the agreement did not cover "the extraordinary damage" or theft of documents.
- A third Indian organization, which shuttled the transportation money from the government to the demonstrators, complained that efforts to keep the protest peaceful failed "largely due to the apathy of the government agencies involved."
As tempers flared at the press club confrontation, Webster Two Hawk, president of the NTCA, asked that police be called. Order was restored without police assistance, however.
Another of the AIM leaders, Carter Camp, called out that "you are part of the establishment. You flew here first class, wear $200 suits, live in $20,000 houses and don't give a damn who goes to jail."
The latter was a reference to the NTCA demand that the protesters be prosecuted "for the senseless acts" of destruction that caused damage to the BIA building now estimated at more than $2 million.
In contrast to the NTCA members, who wore business suits and had short hair, the AIM spokesmen were attired in colorful Indian garb; several wore their hair in braids.
The NTCA leaders denied that their expenses had been paid by the government, or that they had been called to Washington to defend the Nixon administration.
"Some of us were here already, to talk about budget affairs, and others were meeting about Indian health care problems," said Chairman Wendell Chino of Mescalero, N.M.
Chief Jim charged that some of the Indians who came here to protest peacefully were stranded at the YMCA despite the acceptance of $66,000 by demonstration leaders.
Hank Adams, who has been AIM's chief negotiator with the federal government, said a full accounting of the money will be made, and denied that anyone was stranded.
He said some Indians who remained an extra night at the Y were given shares Thursday of $7,000 that remained after Wednesday night's distribution of travel funds. Only $300 remains undistributed, Adams said, "and I've got that in my pocket."
The accounting will be made at a public hearing that Adams said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has promised to call within 60 days.
When someone again shouted the charge that the chairmen's expenses were being paid by the government, Chief Vernon Lane of Lumni, Wash., nearly in tears, yelled back: "I paid my own way. We took up a collection on the reservation to get me here so I could try to get 250 acres of our land back because a Navy base was being evacuated."
Two Hawk repeated sentiments he first had expressed on Thursday during a tour of the BIA building, namely that the perpetrators of the damage should be prosecuted and federal officials who permitted the rebels to take over the building should be held accountable.
As the bickering continued, Chairman Nathan Little Soldier, from North Dakota, observed that "this is what the press and TV enjoys. We should work together. We will work together. My door and my hand is open to anyone. We should adjourn rather than make fools of ourselves."
The rhetoric slowly cooled, and after the session broke up, several of the participants shook hands and traded pledges of Indian solidarity.
Earlier in the day, also at the Press Club, the National Congress of American Indians issued a statement that criticized the government's handling of the protest.
Charles E. Trimble, executive director, said that while the NCAI "has never encouraged, condoned or participated in tactics of disruption or destruction in our quest for justice for Indian people," it also has been "ever aware that we tread common paths with the leaders of the organizations which comprised the Trail of Broken Treaties."
Trimble said that after study of the "deep implications" of the caravan's 20-point demands, his organization will "find itself in support of many of the issues."
Trimble charged that "in the most sinister atmosphere imaginable, the Bureau of Land Management, in conjunction with the Vice President's own National Council on Indian Opportunity, is working clandestinely to muster tribal leaders for the defense of the administration. Their efforts are to place the blame on the commissioner of Indian affairs."
Trimble said it was his organization that was used to channel the money, through NCAI's OEO-funded economic development program, from the government to the protesters.
"After receiving assurance that these funds would not be made as a pay-off at the expense of any existing or future reservation program or urban Indian programs, NCAI agreed to serve as a conduit to channel the amount of $66,650 to representatives of the demonstration. No NCAI funds were used," Trimble said.
He said the terms of the agreement, and the amount, were established in negotiations between the White House and the Trail of Broken Treaties.
Trimble's suggestion that BIA Commissioner Bruce would become a scapegoat in the incident is shared by others, including some BIA employees.
Bruce has been incommunicado since the building was evacuated Wednesday night. Interior Department spokesmen said Thursday that he was sick.
Yesterday, an aide said Bruce had agreed to be interviewed by The Washington Post in Room 4216 of the Interior Department at 2 p.m. when a reporter and photographer arrived there, Bob Gajdyp, director of planning for the BIA, said the commissioner had called and issued this statement: "Any statement from the commissioner will be issued from the White House."
Informed of the statement, a White House spokesmen who has been dealing with the BIA's troubles gasped, "The White House? That's incredible."
He then left the telephone for a moment and returned to add: "If any restrictions have been imposed upon the commissioner, they didn't come from the White House. We wouldn't do that kind of thing. The Interior Department is empowered to make those decisions."
Bruce's superior, Harrison Loesch, assistant secretary of the Interior for public land management said, "This department has not put the commissioner under any wraps that I know of, but I judge that he got his orders. He was on the negotiating team."
Loesch, who was one of the chief targets of the protesters, added that "I won't have any thing substantive to say myself for a few days. We consider it good not to stir the water."
The secretary on Thursday suggested that an amnesty agreement made by White House negotiations should be ignored. He said that his boss, Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton, planned to ask Attorney General Richard Kleindienst to "seek full-scale prosecution."
The matter of amnesty was still in question yesterday. AIM negotiator Adams said he had been assured by the White House "as recently as two hours ago" that allconditions of the amnesty agreement, written and oral, would be upheld.
A White House spokesman, however, repeated the belief that the agreement did not cover the "extraordinary" damage to the building or the theft of government documents.
Adams said he understands the agreement to cover "anything that happened between Thursday at 4:15 p.m. (Nov. 2, first day of the occupation of the BIA) through Wednesday at 10 p.m." when the building was vacated.
He said none of the documents that were taken from the building have been destroyed, and that he plans to meet Monday with White House representatives to begin negotiations for their return.