Tribal leaders voted down a proposed educational leave policy to be added to the Tribes Policies and Procedures.
At the February 13, 2023 full board meeting, several council members said the policy is restrictive and can limit an employee’s options later in life.
“We don’t want to be crushing peoples dreams,” councilwoman Marva Chapman said.
The measure, if passed, would have required tribal employees attending classes to take courses only pertaining to their job.
“We’re telling people they can go to school for the education they want,” Chapman said.
Councilman Justin Gray Hawk said there are many people who are uneducated, and the Tribes pay scale is based on education.
If a person is working maintenance and wants to become a teacher, this measure would restrict what kind of education a person can receive based on employment with the Fort Peck Tribes.
“That’s discrimination,” Gray Hawk said.
Chairman Floyd Azure said the majority of the programs that receive federal funding won’t go along with this policy either.
According to committee minutes, the Tribal Executive Board had no problem with this resolution as it passed five for, two opposed.
At the full board, the resolution was defeated by nine voting against it passing, and two not voting.
The following highlights are from the February 13, 2022 full board meeting.
New Tribal Court
The Tribal Courts will be getting a new home.
Tribal leaders approved of using the ARPA Revenue Loss to cover the remaining amount of $378,978 for the New Justice Building.
At a previous Tribal Council meeting, a resolution to take the $378,978 out of the Land Buyback money was rejected. Councilman Terry Rattling Thunder was especially vocal against it, because it was agreed that money in the land buy back only goes for land only
The new Justice building is going to be near or connected to the new Tribal Jail.
Emergency Money
The Tribal Council voted against raising the amount of money for emergency meetings for the Wolf Point Housing Board. .
The proposed resolution was to raise the $125 for all scheduled board meetings to $200 per meeting and $50 for emergency meetings.
Councilwoman Patt Iron Cloud said this $200 is in addition to the $200 for regularly scheduled meetings.
Councilwoman Chapman said the resolution doesn’t make sense because this could be abused by declaring an emergency meeting just to get another $200. What about when there is an actual emergency, she asked.
Chairman Azure said tribal employees from across the reservation make a daily journey to Poplar and back home and they dedicated enough to where they don’t need extra money incentives.
The motion was voted on and the final results were five for, seven opposed.
Food Bank
Racist implications from the people at the Culbertson Food Bank toward Fort Kipp resident using the services made the Tribal Council question further assistance.
The motion was to add an additional $25,000 to the Wolf Point Food Bank, which passed without objection.
Before approving, councilman Rattling Thunder said he was getting flack from Culbertson, all of them complaining that “you people” were exhausting the food bank resources.
The Culbertson Food Bank is part of the Montana Food Bank Network. A very large number of users come from Fort Kipp because it’s closer to Culbertson and easier than driving to the Wolf Point Food Bank.
Councilman Bryce Kirk said they need to look into working with Tribal Transit to set up transportation to Wolf Point.
Rattling Thunder did not like the racist attitude toward Fort Kipp and Brockton users.
Iron Cloud said the Tribes offered to donate buffalo to the bank but they rejected the donation.
Chapman said they need to make people know not to go to Culbertson’s Food Bank.
Councilman Wayne Martell said he supports both banks and this is based on his experience in using both banks. They hand out a lot of food and do good services for the community, he said.
Accounts
A motion approved authorization to set up an online banking and allow read-only access to the TurnKey account to Paula Rankin of Central Finance.
Councilwoman Iron Cloud said this was going to be with Opportunity Bank in Wolf Point because they do great online banking.
Dress Code
Tribal board members could not decide on a dress code policy for all tribal employees to follow.
The motion came up when there was another proposed addition to the Tribal Policies and Procedures. The final vote was six for, five opposed, one not voting. (see separate story)
Job Reclassified
Human Resources were approved to reclassify a job position with the job position for a student advocate position job that will be under the education department.
Land
An enrolled member’s new home site lease was approved for David Smith.
A modification for the Fort Peck Housing Authority was approved to change legal description of the Walking Eagle Addition.
The Natural Resource Program to advertise range units for lease, with bids opened on February 21.
Fee land acquired by the Tribes were put into trust status. This was about 280 acres.
The council voted to declare interest and request an appraisal for Charlotte Rowe for an undivided third free interest, 37 acres, located three fourths of a mile east of Brockton.
Another vote to declare interest and request an appraisal of 320 acres by the Buffalo Ranch.
Range Unit 82 was given 46 AUMS at the rate of $16 per AUM.
Natural Resources were allowed to revise the funding source from the Land Buy-Back account to a separate account on land purchases.
The TEB approved a Professional Services Agreement with Lark Environmental.
