Re: Ho-Chunk Blocked from Badger RAB

[hdqrs@worldnet.att.net]

The following e-mail post shows the same thing that the Army Commanders
Representative attempted to do with the United Tribe of Shawnee Indians at
Sunflower Army Ammunitions Plant (SFAAP), De Soto, Kansas, when the Army
formed the RAB for SFAAP.

Laura thanks for posting to all.

Jimmie D. Oyler, Principal Chief
United Tribe of Shawnee Indians

At 08:44 AM 5/5/99 -0500, Laura Olah wrote:
>
>---- Please distribute and publish
>
>Today's Date: May 4, 1999
>
>PRESS RELEASE
>For Immediate Release
>
>For more information contact:
>William Boulware Ho-Chunk Department of Justice, (715) 284-3325
>Laura Olah, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, (608) 643-3124
>
>
>                                Ho-Chunk Blocked from Local RAB
>
>SAUK CITY -- A majority vote blocked a motion to allow the Ho-Chunk
>Nation to become a voting member of the Badger Environmental Board of
>Advisors (BEBA), a federally-funded Restoration Advisory Board (RAB)
>formed in 1993 by the U.S. Army at Badger Army Ammunition Plant,
>prompting one board member to suspend her membership. Badger Army
>Ammunition Plant was one of the first bases in the country to establish
>a Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) receiving more than $80,000 of
>support from the Army.
>
>A motion to change the BEBA by-laws, allowing the Ho-Chunk Nation a seat
>on the BEBA, failed in a five (5) to three (3) vote at a special meeting
>on Monday evening, May 3, 1999.  Opposing votes included Town of Sumpter
>supervisor Kenneth Meier and Sauk County Board representative Darlene
>Hill.  Hill cited disagreements between Sauk County and the Nation on
>other issues as a reason she opposed their participation as a voting
>member.  "We were all born as citizens of this country; no one
>government should have more power than another," she said.
>
>Other board members explained that the Nation has a vested interest in
>the cleanup at Badger as it is a stakeholder and may eventually own part
>of the property.   The Ho-Chunk Nation has requested the transfer of a
>portion of the BAAP land in trust for restoration as prairie and bison
>habitat and for the preservation of historic and cultural sites.  The
>land comprising the Badger plant lies within the territory that the
>United States recognized historically held by the Ho-Chunk Nation.
>Ho-Chunk has patiently waited since June 1998 for a vote on its petition
>for membership on the Badger RAB.
>
>The Department of Defense informed the Ho-Chunk Nation at the DOD
>Defense Environmental Restoration Task Force (DERTF) Meeting in February
>1999 that the Tribe's participation is required under the RAB protocols
>and DOD guidance on consultation with tribal governments. The BEBA was
>originally formed according to the recommendations of the Federal
>Facilities Environmental Dialogue Committee (FFERDC), a federal advisory
>committee formed by the EPA in 1992.  The stated goal of the FFERDC was
>to improve the process by which federal facility environmental
>restoration decisions are made, such that these decisions reflect the
>priorities and concerns of all stakeholders, including tribal
>governments.
>
>It is unclear whether BEBA is organized under the Federal Advisory
>Committee Act. Yet the 1996 Final Report of the FFERDC recommended
>maintaining balanced membership, open meetings and public notice. BEBA
>is to serve as the site-specific board of advisors for environmental
>restoration at Badger Army Ammunition Plant. RABs are intended to focus
>on the protection of human health, cleanup, waste management and
>technology development issues and should reflect the full diversity of
>views, ethnicity, race and income in the affected community and be
>composed primarily of people who are directly affected. According to
>FFERDC, tribal governments have standing as stakeholders in federal
>facility environmental restoration activities in instances where tribes
>are affected. FFERDC specifies "tribes and tribal members have interests
>that are equivalent to those of any other affected stakeholder."
>
>Assist Secretary of Defense Environmental Security, Sherri Goodman, was
>advised of Ho-Chunk's petition for membership in July 1998 at the
>Skokie, IL DERTF meeting by William Boulware, Ho-Chunk Nation Attorney.
>Mr. Boulware provided testimony at the DERTF meeting in San Francisco in
>February 1999 and received a letter from Deputy Assistant Secretary of
>the Army, Raymond J. Fatz recognizing the potential impact clean-up
>would have on the cultural resources and the Ho-Chunk Nation's interest
>as a stakeholder. Now, the BEBA and Ho-Chunk are faced with the dilemma.
>An Indian tribe and stakeholder has been affirmatively denied the
>opportunity to participate in light of the Presidential Executive Orders
>on Environmental Justice and the RAB regulations.
>
>Boulware stated that "This was supposed to be an opportunity for people
>to be unified behind cleaning up contamination left by the Army and Olin
>Corporation. Now, this vote distracts from the real issues and the real
>work, i.e. protecting the land and our health.  People sometimes forget,
>that it is not "us and them" or "you people," it is genuinely we, as a
>collective working improve our lives in a community that owes its
>existence to the ceding of lands by the Ho-Chunk Nation to the United
>States. The Nation is not asking to be the sole decision maker, it
>petitioned BEBA in order to be a part of the process."
>
>Following the failed motion, Laura Olah, Executive Director of Citizens
>for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) immediately stepped down from the
>board.  "CSWAB's board voted unanimously to suspend our participation in
>the BEBA until this is resolved; continuing to participate is completely
>contrary to CSWAB's by-laws and our environmental justice principles."
>
>WDNR representative Mike Degen emphasized the important contribution the
>Ho-Chunk Nation has made to environmental cleanup and funding issues
>related to Badger over the past year but was noncommittal on whether or
>not the Nation's participation should be approved.  "I don't have strong
>feelings one way or another," Degen said.  The Army reported EPA
>representative Robert Egan, absent at the Monday meeting, was also
>neutral on the issue saying the BEBA "should decide membership issues
>themselves."
>
>After Olah took her seat in the audience, all remaining board members
>but one voted to offer the Ho-Chunk Nation a non-voting seat on the
>board.  Mary Carol Solum, an at-large member of the BEBA, dissented.
>"The Nation is government entity -- as is the Town of Sumpter, Town of
>Merrimac, Village of Prairie du Sac, and Sauk County. They have standing
>as a sovereign nation and therefore should be a voting member as a
>governing unit."
>
>The board has 18 voting members, seven representing local government,
>labor, and community organizations. The remaining ten (10) voting
>members are area residents.  The Army, regulatory agencies (WDNR and
>EPA), and Sauk County Environmental Health Department representatives
>are non-voting members of the BEBA board.
>
>*   *   *
>
>The following is from CSWAB:
>
>Letters may be sent to:
>Ms. Sherri Wasserman Goodman
>Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security
>3400 Defense Pentagon, Rm. 3E792
>Washington, DC 20301-3400
>
>Courtesy copies to:
>William Boulware, Jr.
>Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Justice
>P.O. Box 667
>Black River Falls, WI  54615
>
>--
>Laura Olah, Executive Director
>Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
>E12629 Weigand's Bay South
>Merrimac, Wisconsin  53561
>olah@speagle.com
>Phone (608)643-3124 Fax (608)643-0005
>Website  http://www.speagle.com/cswab