By Jim Mimiaga

In order to better comply with treaty agreements specifying self-governance for American Indian tribes, the U.S. government has lifted a one-year moratorium that prevented tribes from running federally-financed programs on their own.

At issue was the lack of administrative funding for tribes to run those programs effectively when they chose to take them over from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency responsible for providing vital resources to tribal governments. However, Fiscal Year 2000 budget appropriations hashed out this month for the BIA provides an additional $10 million for contract-support services, and a lifting of the moratorium, initially enacted to study the complex problem.

"The moratorium has been negotiated in the final agreement to be lifted; when the president signs the bill, which he has indicated he will do so, then it will become law," said Ken Reinfelz of the BIA Office of Self Governance Wednesday.

The money provides $5 million more for administration costs on current contracts, and $5 million more for those costs on future ones. The moratorium did not effect contracts that had already been entered into.

"Certainly I think that it is the intent of Indian tribes is to run their own programs," said Art Cuthair, vice chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe of the lifted moratorium. "But the BIA should not get the wrong impression that we want to take over all of the federal programs. That may be true 10 or 20 years down the road, but right now there may be one or two of them we would be looking at to possibly take over."

Under the Indian Self Determination Act passed by Congress, Native American tribes can contract to run community development programs such as social services, law enforcement, housing, education, public works, education, natural resources and others, independent of the federal agency. Those funds are then distributed directly to tribal governments from BIA coffers under a contract, or compact, to be used for the specific programs.

Doing so is essential for tribal sovereignty, but because of the lack of money available for administration costs after programs were handed over, many tribes said they were forced to give them back to the BIA in order to keep essential services afloat. To prevent more underfunded programs from floundering, the federal government banned any new contracts last year so that a solution could be worked out.

Tribal governments across the country argued that the massive BIA organization was unfairly in a position to handle the programs because of a more centralized administration that could better share expensive overhead costs. When the contracts were farmed out to smaller tribes, those costs were overlooked, tribes claimed, crippling the their ability to be successful. The federal government agreed and increased the $360 million BIA budget to help with the costs.

"Certain tribes were getting left out because they did have enough dollars to operate the programs -- the result of a cap by Congress on the appropriations available," Reinfelz said in a phone interview from the BIA Washington D.C. office. "We’ll see if the increase will be enough."

The BIA offices in Towaoc currently holds the contract for natural resources and law enforcement, including the police department, court system and the newly constructed $9 million detention center. Cuthair emphasized that ultimately it is up to the seven-person tribal council to make decisions on contracting federal programs now administered by the BIA. Although he indicated that there had been some interest to contract, and hence operate the ultra-modern 78-bed detention center, set to open next month. Law enforcement officials estimate those costs to be nearly one $1 million per year.

The reasons, Cuthair said, for wanting to operate federal programs directly is to provide more jobs for Ute Mountain Ute tribal members and to increase tribal independence.

"That way we can hire our own people, which is important because right now we have very high unemployment here, something like 30 or 40 percent. It puts us as a sovereign tribe more in control of our future. A lot of tribes nowadays are phasing out the BIA," Cuthair said, noting that the local BIA office has given tribal members good opportunity for jobs.

He points out though that more tribal jobs were created when the federal road maintenance contract was taken over from the BIA several years ago and absorbed into the tribe’s Weminuche Construction company.

Job-training programs already in place would be expanded to accommodate skills needed once new contracts were obtained, he said. That way actual positions would be available for tribal members locally upon graduation.