Pubdate: Mon, 31 Jul 2006
Source: Argus Leader (SD)
Copyright: 2006 Argus Leader
Contact:  http://www.argusleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/842
Author: Terry Woster
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DEBT SUFFOCATING TRIBE

Chairman: More Police Needed To Fight Drugs

PIERRE - The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is $30 million in the hole and 
desperately in need of a cash infusion to beef up its anemic police 
force in the face of a surge in drug-related crime, Chairman Lester 
Thompson Jr. says.

Thompson, who took office in May, recently issued a report to tribal 
members outlining the severity of the tribe's financial woes. It 
included notice that the tribe owes the Internal Revenue Service 
almost $4 million in unpaid taxes and penalty fees.

The Crow Creek reservation has consistently ranked among the top five 
poorest areas in the United States. Unemployment tops 70 percent. 
Alcohol and other drug abuse is rampant. Education is sorely lacking. 
The tribe has long had money trouble as a result.

Thompson blamed the latest crisis, however, on the tribe's fiscal 
ineptness."Our tribe is broke, due to excessive spending," he wrote 
in the report dated July 16. "All together, the tribe as a whole owes 
close to $30 million."

That's a problem Thompson and tribal council members must work 
quickly to address, possibly by realigning or closing programs, 
cutting payroll and getting a loan to pay off existing debt, the 
chairman said. But he acknowledged that creditors are leery because 
of the tribe's financial past.

He said his most immediate concern, though, is what he sees as a need 
for more police officers and access to a jail.

"The jail has been shut down for quite a while, and there's no 
communication with the tribe," Thompson said. "I'm chairman of a 
tribe in the poorest county in America. We don't have the money to 
operate it, and the Bureau (of Indian Affairs) apparently is unable to do it."

He said the BIA police department is down to two patrol officers, 
"and that isn't enough to give us coverage for public safety, 
especially when the officers sometimes must transport prisoners to 
Eagle Butte or Chamberlain."

The federally funded BIA is in charge of law enforcement and other 
services on Indian reservations.

In a letter to the BIA Washington office in late June, Thompson said, 
"Crow Creek Agency being inadequately staffed subjects our community 
to be treated less than other citizens of the state. We, too, are 
entitled to live in safe communities."

Reliable crime statistics were not available, but tribal school 
officials and drug treatment staffers have said that methamphetamine 
is among major law enforcement problems on the reservation. Meth is a 
highly addictive drug, and its users often turn to burglary and drug 
dealing to feed their habits.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman