Chairmans Report

Floyd G. Azure, Tribal Chairman
Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes

August 29, 2012

PUBLIC NOTICE

Per Cap checks will not be issued until all the Community meeting recommendations have been tabulated, reviewed and voted on by the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board. The per cap amount has not been decided upon. This could be another three to four week process.

Floyd Azure, Chairman
Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes

April 9, 2012

Hello to all of the enrolled members of the Fort Peck Tribes, I am Chairman Floyd G. Azure with an update of the recent happenings with your tribal government. This past week has been a very exceptional week in that we had another meeting the Governor of the state of Montana Brian
Schweitzer. We had this meeting with personnel from the Department of Interior where we had an outing up at the new range unit that contained the newly acquired Yellowstone Bison. When we got to the range unit there were about seven protestors and only one of them had land on our reservation her name is Linda Prescott. The first thing that we did was take the personnel from the D.O.I. over to the pen enclosure of the Yellowstone Bison and showed them that we are serious about keeping these bison on our reservation and that we are very capable of taking care of these bison. Then when we were finished with that the Governor decided that we should go over and see the bison protesters. When we first arrived at the bison range there were about seven protestors at the site, the one we first encountered was Linda Prescott whose family has owned the tract of land that is right next to corrals that we have the Yellowstone Bison in.

The Governor and her were discussing her concerns over the transporting of these bison to our reservation and that she was very concerned about
them getting out of the containment area. That is when I interrupted and asked her " how long have you owned this land that is here?" She stated that it has been in her family for years and that is when I had asked her " How long have you been farming this land?" She stated that they have been farming it since they had owned it. That is when I asked her if there has ever been a bison in her wheat field?" She said no! I told that in that case she doesn't have an argument to that fact because this field has been thirty yards from our business buffalo herd since it was established and that she had just stated that there was never a bison in her field. She said that she had heard that they were out from Senator John Brenden from Scobey. That is when I said that he was a liar and that I don't go on hearsay and that she has to produce the facts for her accusations that the bison have never been out destroying her property. The discussion continued with the Governor explaining to them about brucellosis and how it is transmitted between the animals and that there has not been a reported case of Bison transferring brucellosis to cattle but that it has been transferred from elk to cattle.

That is when Ric Holden insinuated that we did not know how to manage our bison, I was very offended by that statement because basically he felt that he could talk down to us right in the middle of our reservation own our land and right in front of me like I wasn't even there. I told him that I resented that statement and that he isn't even from around here and doesn't know what he is talking about. He stated that John Brenden had told him that. I told him that he (John Brenden) is the biggest liar they have got backing them and that this is just racism. He told me that he resented that statement and that he was a quarter Chippewa. I told that I was also a quarter Chippewa and that I was still able to call a spade a spade! This person is Ric Holden is from the Glendive area and I have dealt with him before when he was an Insurance
Adjustor for Farmers Group Insurance Company and at that time he adjusted for Squires Insurance in Wolf Point Montana. He treated the Native
Americans alot different then the Non Native Americans, and I had an incident with him and threw him out of my shop and told him never to cross my threshold again and to take his business with him. He was also a Republican Senator out of Glendive but I don't know how long he had served
on the Senate. When we were done there we took the Governor and the D.O.I. to the range unit that the bison were going to be kept in which is further south then the containment area. There we showed them the solar powered water wells, the new fenceing, and the newly aquired 320 acre tract of land which increases the range unit to over 5000 acres of land. In all it was a very good day with the bison the Governor, and the D.O.I.

There are other issues that need to be dealt with
and there has been accusations towards this administration about us not being worried about the people here and their housing situation, stating that we are the reason that the FEMA trailers and a duplex owned by the tribes are being used as office space and that the remaining trailers that are at the airport should be given away. I first have to explain to you that the remaining trailers do not belong to the Fort Peck Tribes, they are individually owned. The duplex and trailers that are being used by the HPDP program and the trailer being used by the Diabetes program are both paid for out of there programs and that was authorized by the previous
administration not this one. Both of those programs are funded through grants and not tribal money.

The Fort Peck Tribe did not purchase any of the FEMA trailers they were purchased privately. We are fully aware of the housing situation on this reservation and Fort Peck Housing Authority is in the process of building twenty four new units utilizing State tax credits, starting this summer. That will not satisfy our housing situation, but right now that is what we are working on. We do not have the funds to build any more homes as we have not received the 75 million yet and until then we are to go on with business as usual.

We have also been accused of using the funds from the settlement as a slush fund, we have not obligated one cent from the settlement because we have passed a resolution that has put a moratorium on the spending of those funds until we have a
business plan in place. I will be scheduling community meetings across the reservation as soon as we are sure that we have the money, what I want from the communities is their input on what they feel that we should do with the money and what they feel we should do to help each community. We have to be very frugal with this money and use it so that it will benefit us for along time. I would like to take this money and leverage it so that we can do more with what we have. This is going to be a very difficult time, because there are going to be some people that want us to give it all out in precapita payments. This would be very difficult to do because this is not trust money, and can and will be taxed, and if we don't do this right
we will end up giving some of it back to the Federal Government in taxes. Not only that but it will jeopardize alot of our people and that it will put them in a different income bracket, which will cause them to lose some of the assistance from the State and Federal Government.

The last issue we need to deal with is the full board meetings, we do not have surprise board meetings. The only way that we can change the date of a full board meeting is to have it approved by committee at least three days prior to having the meeting. These meetings also have to be posted in the Tribal Building three days prior to the meeting being held. This is the policy that has been established by resolution, it wasn't passed by this administration, it has been in effect every since I have been on the council, I have never heard of anyone complaining about it before, and it has been used numerous times before while I was on the council. I want to thank you for your time and I have an open office for anyone so come and visit me sometime Thank
you, Chairman Floyd G. Azure

March 26, 2012

Hello to all of the enrolled members of the Fort Peck Tribes, this is Floyd G. Azure Chairman of the Fort Peck Tribes, this has been a very exciting week for the Fort Peck Tribes as we have received a small herd of genetically pure Yellowstone Bison from the state of Montana. It has been a very long road in getting to where these Bison are finally on their original homeland where they had roamed for thousands of years and where our ancestors hunted them for those thousands of years. This has been a mission by Tribal Executive Board and our Fish and Game Department have been trying to accomplish with the State of Montana for over five years. This just didn't happen over night as the Senator John Brendan, Senator Rick Ripley and the opponents of this Bison transfer have stated. They have also made statements that our other bison herd that we have here at home have been basically doing what ever they want to do without any supervision from the Fort Peck Tribes. They have absolutely no facts to back this up, and I would like them to provide the evidence that this has been happening regularly as they have stated. They also don't have any facts to back up their accusations that these bison are the ones that have been transferring brucellosis to the cattle herds here in Montana. Where the cases of brucellosis have been recorded in the cattle herds there were no bison around them, and the cases that were resolved were reported to have been caused by elk. The only reason that they are not blaming the elk is because they make alot of money on them by allowing the rich out of state hunters to hunt these elk on their land.
They are also in fear that eventually these bison will be found in all the federal and state public lands and they won't be able to get the public land dirt cheap for their cattle like they are now. These negotiations to have these bison moved to our reservation has been a very long process in that we have had community hearing, numerous meetings with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officials, and hearings in Helena. The last hearing I went to was in Helena and in that hearing we were to have an MOU between the Fort Peck Tribes and the State of Montana that would protect everyone during the duration of the MOU. We had alot of meetings and conference calls between Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, the Governor, and our attorneys until both parties were satisfied with our agreement. So on the 16th of March we finally agreed to the MOU and I signed it and sent it off to the Governor to sign. The Governor and I both knew that in order for this transfer to take place we had a very narrow window in which to transport these bison. The reason being is that these bison are about to have their calves, and if we moved them any later we might have caused them to abort their calves. If we waited until after they had their calves there would have been a chance that some of these calves would have died of stress in transportation.

I also have to comment on Senator Brendan's comment that he made when he was being interviewed on the radio talk show 'Voices of Montana,' in which he insinuates that if any of our bison get out of their range unit that they will not get very far. I take that as a threat aimed at the Fort Peck Tribes, he is suppose to be a person of high integrity and be a person that represents the state of Montana. I don't think that we as citizens of the state of Montana definitely do not need people like this that are making very important decisions for us in our state legislature. Representatives like that are the ones that cause a divide in the people of Montana, and when the people are divided and not working together we get nothing done. Working together is what creates great nations and societies, that is how this nation was formed and how it will stay a great nation.

Speaking of working together I have got to tell you about your new Tribal Executive board- this group of elected officials have put their differences aside and have been doing great things by working together. The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes would not have been able to receive the $75,000,000.00, or the Yellowstone Bison without us working together. Both of these projects would not have been completed without the numerous special meetings and discussion that took place for us to come to the right decisions. We have also been working on many numerous other projects where we are all involved with the decision making. One thing that we are all aware of is that we only have a two year window to accomplish these projects and we have been putting them on the fast track. One way that we are doing that is all the business people that come in have to come through my office first so that I and the Economic Director can have all of the initial dialogue with them and get their personal information so that we can get their background checks taken care of. In doing this we are to weed out the companies that are not really legitimate, so the Tribal Executive board will be able to do more important business. When we have completed the necessary safe guards and made sure that these are businesses that we possibly will be able to work with them. Then we allow them to meet with the Tribal Council and have them make the final decision on whether they want them here.

At the previous Tribal Executive Board meeting there were two motions that I wanted the Tribal Council to take action on. The first one was to take the TERO Directors position and take the hiring of that position by the Tribal Chairman, and make it so that it is like every other directors position in that it can only be done by the Tribal Executive Board. The second action I needed was to make it so that in order for the Tribal Chairman to terminate a director from his office it can only be done with concurrence from the Tribal Executive board. The reason for requesting these actions is to make our tribal government more stable. The hiring of the Tero Directors position is and has been a political fire storm and trying to get some one in that position that will do the job properly and to its full potential has been very difficult, because that position can change with every new administration. The reason that I had the terminations of the directors position done with concurrence from the Tribal Executive board is because they are the only ones that can hire them, I feel that they are the only ones that should be able to terminate them. I have sat on two previous administrations, and I have seen both of those chairman fire directors for no reason what so ever and that is what makes our government so unstable. When you fire a director of a program it puts you at a disadvantage, in that you have now got a program with no authority figure and now you have to go through a lengthy process to find a replacement. We have seen that happen during this administration not through termination, but through the resignations of those employees, and it has put us at a disadvantage for the previous five months. The thing that should be done is that you make everyone do their job and hold them accountable, if they don't do their job then you take corrective action so that they will do their job, and if it does stay the same then there is a policy that has to be followed before they can be terminated.

Your Tribal Executive board has been working together very well for this past five months and we have done alot of good things together. I am not saying that we are all rubber stamps and agree on everything just to agree, because we have had some times that have turned into some very long and contentious discussions during full board, and this last full board meeting had one of them. There was a committee recommendation to basically bypass the Fort Peck Inc. Board. I would not put this to the floor, because there was opposition to this by the two Councilman that we appointed to that board. They said that if this board was going to take action against the Fort Peck Inc Board that they should have been at least been notified of the action and been part of the discussion. I agreed with them, because that is why we put them on that board so that they can be our liaison and that they can communicate our wishes to that board and also inform us of that companies progress. I tried to explain that this is the reason why we have to handle our businesses this way, so that politics doesn't interfere with progress. This is one of the reasons why businesses are in fear of working with our Tribe, we allow politics to interfere with our business ventures. We have to learn to allow these boards to work with these businesses and let our liaisons do their job. What ended up happening is that it started to get a little contentious, and I as the Chairman ruled this motion out of order, because it didn't follow the right protocol. We as a government have to realize that we have to become more business friendly and learn to compromise with these companies that we form.

One last and final issue that needs to be cleared up and that is the issue that was in the press that we had over spent our budget. No we didn't- what had happened is that we had the money in our budget and what needed to happen is that we had to make a budget modification in order to transfer funds to the budget to cover our expeditures. We were never in the red and you can thank Councilman Terry Rattling Thunder for keeping us on our straight path. I want to thank you for your time and God Bless you Chairman Floyd G. Azure

February 27, 2012

Hello to all the enrolled members of the Fort Peck Tribes, The first thing that I would like to do is apologize for not keeping you informed on the happenings of this new administration that you have elected to serve you for two years. What I must say about this new administration is that we have been able to put our differences aside for the majority of the time and work together to get our work done. I am not saying that we agree on everything, we have had our differences but we have been able to work them out and compromise on certain issues.

What I would like to say to you is what ever you read in the paper, only believe half of it and take the other half with a grain of salt. That editor hasn't gotten anything right yet, she needs to apologize to Councilman Anketell and this administration for accusing us of trying to bring radioactive fracking sand to our reservation. We are very diligent in our endeavors to bring economic development to our reservation. We will not jeopardize the health or welfare of our people over a dollar. I also believe that the editor needs to apologize to the Council and I for the way that I was treated on the telephone when she asked me about what was so secretive about what we were doing in Washington D.C. last week. I tried to explain to her that I couldn't tell her anything until what we had been doing was finalized by the attorneys and the Dept. of The Interior. She keep on pressing the issue and was becoming more upset, because I wouldn't give her any information and I asked her to at least give me some respect because of the situation that I was in and not being able to give out any information to anyone.

She would not have it and the real reason the phone went dead was because she hung up on me, and I had two people in my office at that time who witnessed the conversation that I was having with her that morning. This editor is bound and determined to try and give this administration a black eye at whatever cost whether it is a lie or not. If you have any questions about what we are doing here please don't be afraid to call me at the tribal office (768-2301). What we did in Washington D.C. was only to benefit this tribe and I truely believe that when the whole story comes out, you will be very happy with what your new administration has accomplished for you. The reason the majority of the council went is because I asked them to go with me, because we needed to show the government that we were all on the same page and that we were there to represent our tribes in full strength. I believe that in doing so we had accomplished exactly what we wanted, matter of fact we accomplished exactly what we set out to do.

Hopefully we will be able to give out a press release before Friday of this week so that it will show that we are working for you. This administration is working well together but we have had our ups and downs, and most of them are over following policy and procedure. I have had some objections on some of the councils actions that have been brought through committee and had been present to the full board for action and I have had to refuse to put them to the floor and we had them sent back to committee for further information and discussion. We also had a motion put to the floor this last full board meeting that came off of the floor and it was to remove the tribal ranch out from under the Fort Peck Inc. Board. My first question that I asked before I put it to the floor is if this motion was discussed with the Fort Peck Inc. Board? It wasn't discussed with them and that is why I refused to put it to the floor and started to discuss it with Councilman Clark and in doing so the discussion became intense and at that time Councilman Bauer called for a point of order and refereed the situation to me and my office to deal with it the next day.

I agreed to his point of order because that wasn't the proper forum for that discussion and to send it to my office was the proper move. The reason that I was opposed to this motion is because we just had to correct actions made by the previous administration where they pulled the rug out from the Housing Board and The Fort Peck Inc. Board without even discussing anything with them. That type of action is very cowardly and I will not tolerate it, we need to be fair to these people. What I can do now since it is Monday the 27th of Feb. and that we finalized the agreement with the Department of the Interior is that the secret is that we are going to receive a lump sum of $75,000,000.00 from the Federal Government for the mismanagement by them of our natural resources. I will send out a press release that will cover everything and how we came to that sum.

Thank you Chairman Floyd G. Azure

December 15, 2011

Hello to all of the enrolled members of the Fort Peck Tribes, I am Chairman Floyd G. Azure with an update on your government actions for this week. We got all of the paper work done so that we can move forward with our precapita payment of $225.00 for this year, so it is going to happen on schedule on the 13th of December.

My week at the office was cut short and I was only in the office for three days this week. I had to travel to Helena Montana starting Thursday morning because I had a meeting with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks on Friday morning, so Thursday was a travel day. While I was at the meeting there were alot of people that were there to speak for and against the moving of the Yellowstone Bison to the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Reservations.

There were more people for moving of the Bison to the reservations then against the move. I thought the meeting on the Bison was going to be first thing in the morning but it seems that most of the people that attended were more worried about what was going to happen with the elk hunting season because that took the entire morning. The issue with the bison only lasted about forty five minutes.

When it started the chairman asked for a motion for the action and a motion was made by our previous Chairman of the Fort Peck Tribes Rusty Stafne for the move. Rusty Stafne was appointed to the commission by Govenor Brian Schweitzer during Rusty's previous administration. The motion was seconded by Director Joe Mauier. When the Commissioner Chairman asked for discussion I asked him if it was alright if he allowed me to speak last so that I would be able to answer any questions. I was given permission to speak last which was a great advantage for me to do it this way. Most of the discussion was about how the Fort Belknap Tribe was not being responsible for their present herd of bison.

No one was there to speak directly against the Fort Peck Tribes but the feeling in the room was that these people that were speaking against the move were against it going to either tribe. I felt that they were saying that if they went to either of the tribes that there would be no control what so ever of the bison. When everyone was done I got to make my presentation and I told them how we have prepared for the bison, with all the work we had done to a range unit that was previously for cattle and how we had upgraded it so that it would be adequate for the bison herd. I also made my case for the bison with how much these animals had played a part in our survival, our religion, our culture, and our history. I also stated that we are willing to care for the bison by making sure that they will survive into the future for our children and our tribal members to utilize as our ancestors did.

I used Stoney Anketel's statement because I liked it and it is exactly how I feel "these majestic animals have sustained our people for thousands of years and it is time for us to pay them back." When I was done with my presentation I asked if there were any questions and the only question was who was responsible for damages it the bison got out and I stated that as long as I am Chairman we the Fort Peck Tribes are responsible for the bison. The commissioners had some more discussion on the way the agreement would be and that before it was implemented that they would have the chance to review the agreement and make sure it is what they want. The chairman then asked for the vote and it passed unanimously, so it looks like my trip was not in vain. We are going to get our bison soon, I have to thank Chairman Rusty Stafne for the part that he played in us getting this passed at the state level, he did a great job in helping this move forward. Thank you Rusty, and thanks to all the enrolled members for letting me represent you for this historic event.

Thank you from Chairman Floyd G. Azure.

fort peck assiniboine & sioux tribes

Welcome

Search This Site

Secondary Menu