Walt Big
Crow told six big lies against me
By Jeffrey Whalen
In this article I’m going to have to defend myself against some unscrupulous attacks that former Oglala Sioux tribal council member Walt Big Crow has leveled against me. After reviewing my article last week concerning the tribal selection of its new treasurer apparently Walt decided that he had to write false and misleading statements totaling 6 lies concerning my work as a former transportation director for the tribe.
In the April 6th, 2011 Native Sun News-Letters To The Editor section Walt claims that I drafted 4 road construction contracts and awarded them to C&W Enterprises without going through the bidding process. My first question is; where does this guy get his information from and why does he have such a short memory? These are all federal construction contracts and must be processed using the Federal Acquisition Regulations including the bidding procedures. We go through the committees first starting with the EB&D committee of which Walt was a member. Check the record, you will see that all of these were awarded correctly and you will also see that Mr. Tibby Kocer who is a former acting transportation director did the request for proposals for the first three contracts. All of the contracts were announced in the construction journals, Rapid City Journal and in the local papers correctly: That is lie number 1.
The second lie is where Walter claims that I granted a waiver of sovereign immunity to the contractor and allowed disputes to be arbitrated in court without filing in tribal court first. The fact is program directors cannot waive any sovereignty at all, that is solely the tribal council’s job. Another fact is in US District Court Case No. 07-5024 Mr. Warren Barse, who is the owner of C&W Enterprises, wrote a notarized affidavit for the court and in item #2 stated; “I have been told by Tribal Council member Walt Big Crow that the Tribal Council affirmatively waived its sovereign immunity and voted to forgo tribal court adjudication of the Base & Blotter contract in favor of litigating all claims in a single action before the American Arbitration Association.” So Walt has a short memory and cannot remember that he was a tribal council member at that time and it was during his watch that the sovereign immunity was waived by he and the rest of the council, not by Jeff Whalen as Walt claims in his misleading letter.
Walt’s third lie is where he claims that I allowed construction to start without getting a legal review and full council approval. WOW! Where does this guy get his information from? I don’t even know how to respond to that outright lie. Contracts cannot move forward without gaining tribal council approval, it’s the law, why would Walt even suggest the process was not done properly? As a council member, he was the one who voted to approve them!
The fourth lie, Walt claims that the EB&D committee directed me to be at a meeting scheduled to negotiate a settlement with C&W whereas Walt suggests that I opted to take my family to Las Vegas instead using OST-DOT funds? Can Walt produce a requisition and accounts payable voucher that specifically states I’m taking my family to Las Vegas for a vacation using tribal money? Can he produce a document stating that I was reprimanded for not attending a meeting? He cannot and he is spouting nothing but lies, so again I don’t know how to respond to lies other than telling the truth with documentation.
Walt claims that I failed to show up to State court and invoke the tribe’s sovereign immunity status, but is this my job or the job of the tribe’s attorneys, its President and its tribal council members? If you go through the record you will find that the tribe itself, through its tribal council members of which Walter was a member, directed the attorney to not show up at the State court hearing. We were directed by tribal council not to show up. Get it straight Walter because you were a part of the council then.
Walt’s fifth lie is where he claims that I lost 1.5 million dollars worth of Motor Fuels Money. Ok, if that is true then why did I defend the Tribe every step of the way until you as a council member kept getting involved to screw it all up? I not only had to defend the tribe against C&W Enterprises, I also had to defend the tribe against you because you were giving information to C&W’s owner all along that ultimately gave away our position in litigation. This is called “treason” and you, Mr. Big Crow, should have been removed from tribal council forever for that act. There are two sworn affidavits by Warren Barse which contained references to “Tribal Council Member Walt Big Crow informed me” a total of 8 times. Walt Big Crow’s involvement in passing information to the person who the tribe was in litigation with was the reason why we had such a hard time with that case. Walt did not defend the tribe when he was a council member; rather he opted to defend the party who was suing the tribe. This is why Walt should never be elected to a tribal council seat again. Walt Big Crow, you flat out dishonored the tribe.
The sixth lie is that
Walt claims the Tribal Council terminated my employment. This did
not happen. Instead an equally unscrupulous person who was
illegally appointed into the tribe’s executive director position took
action against me concerning unproven allegations. If the tribe
would follow its own laws, people could get DUE PROCESS and people like
Walter Big Crow could finally go stick their heads in the sand where
they belong.
My article last week was about
the selection of Oglala Sioux Tribal Treasurer and Mason Big Crow who is
Walter’s son and who was nominated as the tribe’s
treasurer. Mason only needs to prove to himself and to everyone
else that he can be the best treasurer there ever was, let’s hope he is
not a “chip off the old block.”
(Editor’s note: As he always
does, Whalen supplied Native Sun New with the documents to back up every
claim and denial he has made in this column)
(Contact Jeffrey Whalen at
Jeffrey.whalen@gmail.com)