Indians Got Kindly Agnew Memo
Indians Got Kindly Agnew Memo
One of the biggest prizes seized during the Indian raid on government files was a memo written by Vice President Agnew to Interior Secretary Rogers Morton in behalf of a banking tycoon.
The banker, George Olmsted, wants to establish an American Indian National Bank, which would have outlets on the major reservations. Agnew, before becoming Vice President, was a director of an Olmsted bank.
The story of Agnew's intervention to help Olmsted start an Indian banking corporation has been dug out of the looted files by the angry Indians who occupied and then sacked the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. They escaped with thousands of documents.
Among them are letters and memos showing that Olmsted approached the vice President in 1970 about starting the Indians in the banking business. Olmsted offered not only to put up $1 million to launch the bank but also to train the Indians to run it themselves.
He agreed to hold the stock in escrow for the Indians until they could accumulate enough money to take over the ownership as well. All Olmsted wants out of it is a modest management fee and a share of the profits for his banking combine.
The Vice President passed on the proposal to Morton in a memo dated Aug. 6, 1970. "Attached," wrote Agnew, "is a letter from General George Olmsted, chairman and president of the International Bank of Washington, wherein he sets forth a proposal for the creation of an American Indian National Bank.
"It would appear to me that this idea has considerable merit and that it would be desirable for an appropriate person in the federal government to explore fully with General Olmstead this concept."
Agnew Conflict?
The Vice President added carefully: "In view of my previous business connections with General Olmstead’s group, I do not feel it is appropriate for me to become personally involved in this matter. However, I do feel that it has sufficient merit to have full and complete consideration by the federal government..."
Despite Agnew’s reservations about becoming "personally involved," his office has continued to press for the project within the federal establishment. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, in response, has put together a task force of Indian leaders to form the bank.
At Olmsted’s request, the Vice President is also preparing to ask the office of Minority Business to help out the bank with a federal grant. But he refused another request from Olmsted to intervene with the Comptroller of the Currency to get a national charter for the bank.
Olmsted told us the proposed bank will bring financial benefits to low-income Indians, who have been unable to borrow money in the past. It’s part of his concept of banking for the "little people," he said. A spokesman for the Vice President stressed that the bank is precisely the sort of self-help that President Nixon has sought for the Indians. "We have done everything we could to assist this project," the spokesman said.
Agnew has taken the lead inside the Nixon administration in seeking better housing for the Indians. He has also tried to establish a special counsel, free of the Justice Department’s jurisdiction, that would fight for Indian legal rights.
Footnote: Other government documents, now in Indian hands, conform our earlier columns that white exploiters have cheated the Indians out of their water rights in arid areas of the West.