Tribal elders question Oneida Nation finances

By Ben Rodgers

Editor

GREEN BAY – A former Oneida Nation chairman has taken a plea for transparency to the streets in hopes of getting answers on tribal finances amid the pandemic.

In an effort organized by the Oneida Times, Ed Delgado, Oneida chairman from 2011-14, is holding a sign 4 p.m. daily at the West Mason Street casino, demanding to know where federal CARES Act funds are going, what the next budget holds and why payment has been slashed for elders.

“Being 74-years-old, I know how hard it is to survive on $1,200 a month – (my) social security – that’s hard for elders, that’s why the General Tribal Council some 20 years ago passed these resolutions creating up to $4,000 (annually) that tribal elders would receive when they retired,” Delgado said. “That $4,000 meant a lot. It meant the ability to be mobile if your car broke down, it meant the ability to pay your rent and feed yourself. Now that’s gone, and the elders are suffering. You won’t hear that from tribal leadership.”

He said the only notification he received came in the April 16 edition of Kalihwisaks, the tribal newspaper.

“The BC (Business Committee) took action at the April 8th Business Committee meeting to halt the General and Elder 62 per-capita payments for FY20 and FY21, defer the Oneida Life Insurance Plan Plus (OLIPP) and Elder Endowments trust contributions, and reduce the Higher Education Scholarship,” the chairman’s message on April 16 read.

Delgado said he wants more answers for something he deems vital for tribal elders, as well as what’s going to happen to the budget, a document set to go into effect Oct. 1, that he hasn’t found any information on.

“As an elder, it’s not my job or my responsibility to have to hunt and try and get information and work to get information,” he said. “It should be out there. There should be a way that as an elder I should be able open up our newspaper and somehow find out what they’re going to do in 2021 about the tribal budget, without having to make phone calls and trying to see who I know that could give me the information. It should just be part of the information that is available, to Oneidas. That’s part of being a member of anything, part of society, part of a nation.”

According to the Oneida Nation website, the tribe received $39,664,067 in coronavirus relief funds on May 7, $16,553,983 on June 15 and $5,227,573 on June 19 for a total of $61,445,623.

Of the $61 million in CARES Act funds, the tribal website states of $43.2 million went to economic support, but it does not explain where those funds went to specifically.

Delgado said the tribe’s main governing body, the General Tribal Council (GTC), has not been able to meet since the pandemic started, because the meetings draw around 1,500 members.

As a result, he said the Business Committee (BC), a body created to carry out the directives of the GTC, is now running the tribe though this pandemic with no input from the GTC as part of the state of emergency the tribe first declared June 10.

“If there needs to be cuts, everybody understands that,” Delgado said. “But if they’re going to be making cuts, shouldn’t they be making cuts in buying land at outrageous prices? Shouldn’t language and culture, what’s also emphasized as important, be getting cuts? Or is it just the poor people who are getting cuts?”

Lack of communication channels

Yvonne Metivier, a tribal elder, said the tribe has five ways of communication with members.

Metivier said the first is the GTC meetings, where members get the agenda and minutes if they are unable to attend, which have been halted.

She said the second way is the BC meeting minutes, which used to be published in Kalihwisaks, but are no longer printed there.

Metivier said the third way is the semi-annual GTC reports, which she hasn’t received.

She said the fourth and fifth ways are mailings and the tribal newspaper, which haven’t been helpful.

“I don’t count the Oneida Facebook or internet because most Oneidas don’t have any technology to access it, so if it doesn’t reach the whole tribe, I don’t consider that communication,” Metivier said. “We’ve had nothing.”

Metivier said she is relying on second-hand information.

News from friends on social media, she said, indicates the recreation program could be cut and jobs could be lost at the casino.

“Five-hundred workers are out,” she said. “It’s a huge, huge, event for the community, because the whole Green Bay community has a connection with the casino and the people who work there and their livelihoods. All of this is happening with people who have a history of not managing our money very well from 2016 to 2019. We know nothing, we have asked, of course.”

Delgado said this effort will likely draw criticism from tribal leadership, but it would also draw attention.

“We don’t expect them to listen to us,” he said. “They’ll probably laugh at us, but it’s a start and it shows there is opposition and there are questions. Because right now there’s nothing that’s really happening to say we want to look at our budget from 2020-21.”

When presented with these questions, tribal leadership sent the following message in an email to The Press Times.

“Oneida Nation servies (sic), programs, and benefits have been severely affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. The safety and well-being of our citizens and community continues to be a priority. The amount of communication coming from us has been at an unprecedented level. Information is available on our website, social media channels, weekly Facebook Live videos, multiple home mailings, and a designated call center. We encourage all Oneida Nation citizens to use one of the tools listed above to obtain current and accurate information.”