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Articles
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| Lac du Flambeau Constitution Committee moving forward with series of workshops |
By Joe Morey
OJIBWE TIMES
The Lac du Flambeau Constitution Committee held an open Workshop for tribal membership at the Lake of the Torches Convention Center on Saturday, June 5, to discuss draft articles of a proposed new constitution for the tribe.
The committee presented drafts for the first three articles and a Preamble.
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Committee Chairman Mike Chosa said they will be holding a series of these workshops over the summer, the next one planned for Saturday, June 26, at 9:00 a.m. Chosa encourages more tribal members to come and help make decisions for a new constitution for the Lac du Flambeau Tribe.
“Our tribal members want a government they can call their own. They want to see what direction we go,” Chosa said. He also said any tribal members and their descendents are welcome to come to their weekly meetings held at the Tribal Center every Wednesday at 5:00 pm.
Joseph Chosa began the meeting with a prayer. Lawrence Wade, of Mille Lacs, did a welcome song with the hand drum. Wade is also on the Mille Lacs constitution committee.
Richard Jack, the LdF Committee Vice Chairman, said they would be sending out a letter that addresses all the issues the committee will be taking up in the drafting of a new constitution. He said the letter would have a questionnaire.
“Our members need to be involved. People need to know the importance of where we go with this,” Jack said. Jack added that the current constitution is a flawed document and that the issues can be fixed. “We need as much community input as we can get.”
Jack said that the timeline if to have a draft put together by October. This draft would go out to community members for their input. The goal, Jack said, was to have a whole new document for the tribal membership to approve.
Mike Christensen asked him why they couldn’t just vote on amendments to the current constitution rather than a whole new document. “Why can’t we take it one at a time and make sure that it flies with the people?”
Jack said there are already 23 amendments to the current constitution but said there is an amendment process.
Christensen said that they voted on amendment for separation of powers but that’s it’s not used.
Mike Chosa said that the 1995 amendment was not a true separation of powers because the council still appoints the judges.
An attorney that works for the Ho Chunk tribe, Rebecca Maki, who is an LdF tribal member, described the form of government in Ho Chunk after they rewrote their constitution over ten years ago. She said they have four branches of government. Ho Chunk has the normal three branches, executive, legislative and judicial, but they also have a fourth branch, Oversight. She said they have a General Council, made up of the membership that meets twice a year, which has oversight authority over the other three branches.
The General Council has their own powers that include the power to override a presidential veto, remove members and the power to overturn some legislative decisions. They also have a tribal court that consists of a Supreme Court and a Traditional Court.
“Ho Chunk had many of the problems that we are having, and they had an uprising,” Maki said. “The uprising led to a new constitution and they haven’t had any problems since.”
Maki said that the Ho Chunk are not Ojibwe, they have different customs and values, “So we may only look at certain things. Many tribes have revamped their constitutions, so we look at them all. The Ho Chunk constitution is not perfect but it’s functional.”
Christensen said that the idea of Maki being a young attorney and a tribal member of Lac du Flambeau, “This is a perfect example of our problems here. She’s working somewhere else when she should be working here. We’re afraid to hire back young educated women like this. She should automatically have a job back here. You want to change something, change that,” he said.
Maki said that the LdF form of government is a two branch, judicial and an executive/legislative.
“In our government the council doesn’t know who does what,” Maki said. “We should have an appeals court, the tribal constitution says we do, but why don’t we? Certain codes aren’t getting written because they are too busy doing business. It’s not clear and things are being overlooked.”
When the group began discussing the Preamble, Maki said that the current preamble of the constitution states that Lac du Flambeau is of Wisconsin. “We are a sovereign nation and we are not of Wisconsin. This constitution was given to us by the federal government.”
Maki said that Lac du Flambeau is, “Essentially, a state within a state and until we recognize that we are undermining ourselves.”
Maki said the preamble will define who we are.
Christensen once again suggested one piece at a time by changing just the Preamble and putting it up for a vote by the people.
Maki said that it says of Wisconsin throughout the entire document. “That’s the problem with doing it in pieces.”
Richard Jack pointed out to the people in attendance after one lady stressed concern about the tribal council battling any changes, and that the whole council was in support of a change. “Both factions of the tribal council are in favor of change. “ He said that they all supported appointing the Constitution Committee.
Kevin Maulson, a member of the committee, said now is the time to make the necessary changes because in the constitution it says, “We the Lac du Flambeau Band of Indians, not we the tribal council.”
Betty Jack, LdF Council Member, said that she told the council the committee is representative of the whole body of tribal membership. “This is what it’s all about and more people need to get involved with constitutional reform because we’re going to be responsible for our children’s children.”
Betty said that she had worked with Lac du Flambeau money to educate herself and spent 30 years in social services and came back to the Rez and was denied work because of the current political system. “I’m a victim of it too. We have to change it and make it so our people don’t have to live in fear.”
At the meeting many ideas were written down for suggestions to include in constitutional change. The committee also handed out documents on the article drafts and a questionnaire for tribal membership to have input in the future changes. They also handed out a letter describing what constitutional change means to the tribal membership and what self-determination is. If you would like to get copies of these documents you may attend the next workshop on June 26, attend a weekly meeting on Wednesdays at the tribal office or get a hold of committee chairman Mike Chosa.
The committee is also going to be doing fundraisers and meeting at the Fireside. Chosa said they would be meeting on Saturday mornings at 10:00.
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Posted on Jun 16, 2010 18:52pm by admin
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Copyright 2010, LCoTimes.com
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