Here’s a quiet little story out of the Pierre Capitol Journal that gets a little more interesting when you take notice who some of the players are:
Heezen, contacted later by the Capital Journal, said the amount that is delinquent as of Dec. 31, 2014, for work at Wakpa Sica is $76,405. In addition, scheduled payments totaling $38,202 could become delinquent in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The payment due this year alone is $12,734. If nothing is paid over the next three years, the total owed the city in principal alone will be $114,607.
The first and only payment made to the city for the road and utilities work at Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place was in 2008.
Ward III Alderman Randy Seiler thinks the city ought to do what it can to get the money that it is owed for those improvements. Seiler, an attorney, made that point to the city council on Monday and explained his thought in more detail later to the Capital Journal.
“I think we need to look at our collection options,” Seiler said. “We need to look at legal ownership of the land, legal ownership of the assets, what assets are available. There’s a process through the court system.”
However, Seiler noted, if Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place has been converted to trust land – that is, federal land that is held in trust for the tribes – then the process becomes more difficult.
And…
It is trust land, according to Scott Jones, who was one of the Lower Brule Tribe’s tribal outreach consultants who worked with the project as it was first being organized. Jones said a 12-acre site, by act of Congress, has been designated as trust land.
and…
The facility is described in those documents as intended to serve as a “tribal gathering place” to house the Sioux Nation Judicial Support Center and the Sioux National Economic Development Council. It’s also intended as a site to display and interpret tribal history, culture and art.
You may remember Fort Pierre City Councilman Randy Seiler, who is advocating for repossession of the property for non-payment of bills, because he also had a big job promotion recently.
Next week, he becomes the acting US Attorney:
First Assistant United States Attorney Randy Seiler will take over the leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office upon the departure of Brendan Johnson. Johnson on Wednesday announced he’ll leave his job as U.S. attorney March 11 to open an office in Sioux Falls for a large law firm.
and…
He is a member of the Fort Pierre city council.
Now, please note that I don’t know that I disagree with Seiler in the least. It’s just not every day that you see a US Attorney advocating that cities take back trust land because someone wasn’t able to pay their bills.
And it’s also somewhat ironic, as if memory serves, Wakpa Sica was meant in part to act as a bridge between tribal courts and regular courts – with the differences between the two and the difficulty in collecting on bad debts acting as a barrier to investment on reservations.
I’m guessing this one isn’t going to be resolved there.
You are soooooo naïve!
“Reconciliation” means unilateral efforts to maximize white guilt and minimize responsibility!
silly people!
Incredibly enlightened comment. You must read a lot.
Care to respond with substance, or your usual baseless snark?
oligarch’s sarcasm is well placed. reconciliation is cultural bridge building, not gotcha-politics or anything like that. incidents like the rapid city hockey confrontation only serve to underscore the need for true reconciliation efforts to continue.
but leaders have to get their hands on the reconciliation process themselves, not keep shuffling it off to committees and ad hoc task forces.
“bridge building process”?
In this case, one side built the bridge, the other side either can’t or won’t to pay for it (after agreeing to do so).
That ain’t bridge building–that’s THEFT.
Sounds great, but lacks ANY foundation. It’s typical gobbly-gook arising from a bout of white guilt.
Nothing “gotcha” about it–just a clinical diagnosis.
waiting …
for..
the ….
“incidents like the rapid city hockey confrontation only serve to underscore the need for true reconciliation efforts to continue.”
Do incidents like Little Wound’s unsportsmanlike conduct after a basketball game serve to underscore the need for that same effort to reconcile?
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/little-wound-explains-unsportsmanlike-conduct/?id=55617
oh yeahhhh i forgot we’re supposed to go eye for eye, tooth for tooth on this stuff. never mind then.
You’ve made my point as I knew you would.
Your suggestion for “reconciliation” ain’t about reconciling or “building bridges”–it’s about assigning blame to one group and DESTROYING bridges, while ignoring another group–all founded in your white guilt.
case closed.
That story is from eight years ago. And was a completely different set of circumstances. Not even close to the recent hockey game incident.
You are 100% correct.
So, what happened 100-200 years ago isn’t close enough in time to matter to genuine reconciliation, right?
Here it is. You are absolutely clueless about reconciliation, what it is and why it is needed. Of course, why wouldn’t you be cluesess. It’s not a concept you can fit on a bumper sticker.
Okay genius, how are the taxpayers of FP supposed to “reconcile” their costs of providing infrastructure with the tribe’s refusal to pay for it (after AGREEING to pay for it)?
that’s why we have courts and processes in place. what’s your point?
Tribal courts won’t do anything to help Ft. Pierre or any other non-tribal debtor–THAT’S THE PROBLEM..
if you knew anything about this project (instead of writing from your feelings of white guilt), you’d understand why it is where it is.
i have ample knowledge of things that don’t work well or work at all regarding the tribal governments. i realize there’s a problem, but your initial broadside partisan blasting of reconciliation itself couldn’t be left to stand unquestioned. it was not helpful or even partly accurate.
I just remembered this reconciliation center was the brain child of Tommy Dashole, supported by Tim Johnson and Steffy–ALL DEMOCRATS.
A perfect metaphor for what Dems bring to NAs and residents of FP alike: debt, weeds, and unfinished monuments to white guilt.
Custer could never have dreamt of doing what Dashole, Johnson and Steffy have done in the name of “reconciliation”. Thanks GOD they’re gone.
yeah, governor mickelson was such a crook. how dare he betray the state by devoting himself to reconciliation as governor until his untimely death.
This was funded by the feds–the state of SD/Mickelson had nothing to do with it.
care to make more misstatements?
oh, are you done talking about reconciliation? i thought that’s what you were criticizing, not a particular federal project. is there something wrong with your ability to stay on track?
regarding the center – get a wrecking ball. who cares.
Who acres?
The taxpayers of FT. Pierre (obviously) who are still owed thousands of dollars.
it’s the government officials of ft pierre doing cya. the average taxpayer could give a rip. who didn’t see this coming?
I talk about what I wish to talk about.
The “reconciliation center” is inextricably tied to federal funding…
and the reason for that is that no one else was willing to fund the center because of tribal financial & legal dysfunction then & now.
1. If the tribe(s) were/are so into “reconciliation”, where’s their money to finish it and pay off FP?
2. If the tribe(s) were/are so into “reconciliation”, why not remove the property from tribal trust lands, deed it to FP, and allow FP to do with it as they wish?
Answer: because there’s no impetus for “reconclliation”–just a bunch of [mostly] old white men feeling guilty.
It’s all rather simple, except when you act and type via feelings, instead of thought.
good thing we had janklow, barnett and others then pretending that reconciliation never existed. that helped a lot.
anonymous at 1:03 p.m., go back to your trailerhouse and have a beer or two. Or 10.
Man, so much talk about “reconciliation” and then the outbursts of anger, which we knew leads to division.
typical.
or some cannibus
re: wakpa sica – – this center was a piece of federal feel-good nothingness. the only thing that reassures the business community is solid and stable government banking, and the tribal banking center isn’t in fort pierre last time i checked.
Are you Jammer?
Oh my.
We wonder why there is no jobs or real econon the reservation.
Two parties freely enter into a contract. One party DECLARES it is on trust land and thus don’t have to live up to their commitment.
At some point, the Indian people have to take ownership of their leadership and demand a change.
actually they don’t. the onus is on us to limit dealings to those that take place with trustable entities. they’re out there, we can find them. write the rest of it off to hard knocks and move on.
amending my remarks, the federal government started this whole process off and if nothing else senator thune should directly get involved with resolving what has gone wrong here, since senator johnson hasn’t seemed to show a care.