CHECKS AND BALANCES - CHIEF EXECUTIVE CONFERENCE FOCUS ON DIVISION OF POWERS

By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR

The Chief Executive’s Office held a conference on Thursday, April 20, 2023, to address several high priority issues of the Mille Lacs Band. Band members were encouraged to engage in conversations with Commissioners and staff and had opportunities to ask candid questions related to the topics at hand. Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin was the keynote speaker. Secretary Treasurer Sheldon Boyd, District I Representative Virgil Wind and District II Representative Wendy Merrill were also in attendance. Chief Executive Benjamin gave a brief history of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, tribal sovereignty, and the right of each tribe for self-governance. The Mille Lacs Band is governed by a three-branch government system that provides checks and balances within the equally powerful branches.

The day was broken down by four different sessions giving Band members the opportunity to attend all four sessions. The sessions included:

• Strategic Planning led by Sam Moose, Commissioner of Administration.

• Enrollment discussion led by Kelly Applegate, Commissioner of the DNR.

• Foster Care/Family Services led by Nicole Anderson, Commissioner of Health and Human Services and her staff including Rachel Shaugobay, Abby Waaraniemi, and Connie Matrious.

• Net Revenue Allocation led by Syngen Kanassatega with assistance of Mel Towle, Commissioner of the Office of Management and Business (OMB).

Each session included informative interaction between the staff and Band members. The discussions were lively and engaged with Band members offering extensive feedback and questions to the Commissioners, who listened intently.

Chief Executive Benjamin gave a keynote presentation with the focus on discussing the division of powers form of government. She presented a brief overview of the history of how the division of powers structure of government came to be for the Mille Lacs Band. She began with a brief introduction of treaties: timber companies taking land, homes were burned to the ground, and Anishinaabe were told to leave the homelands. “A lot of times you hear that the Mille Lacs Band is considered the ‘non-removable.’ That is because the people back in those days would not move. They would not be removed from this area no matter what,” she said.

She explained the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe created in 1936 is not actually a tribe, it is an organization created by the federal government. Federal representatives came in and instructed all Tribal Nations of Minnesota to come together under one umbrella, and called them the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The six Bands are: Mille Lacs, Fond du Lac, Bois Fort, Leech Lake, Grand Portage, and White Earth. Based on the Constitution, the MCT comes together for three key issues: land holdings, enrollments, and elections.

Each tribal nation under the umbrella of the MCT is a federally recognized Indian nation each with their own inherent right to self-government to protect the health, safety, and welfare of tribal citizens of their individual tribe.

The MCT Constitution, Article IV, allows for each Band to make laws and be governed by those laws, i.e. self-government retaining tribal sovereignty. “Once recognized as a political body by the United States, a tribe retains its sovereignty until Congress acts to divest that sovereignty.” (1-4 Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law 4.01.)

A Federally recognized tribe is an American Indian or Alaskan Native tribal entity recognized as having a government-to-government relationship with the U.S., with the responsibilities, powers, limitations, and obligations attached to that designation, and is eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Federally recognized tribes are recognized as possessing certain inherent rights of self-government, meaning tribal sovereignty.

According to the handout given to the audience, “The Mille Lacs Band did not give up or lose its inherent sovereignty or self-governance when it joined the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Any powers not expressly restricted by the Constitution or taken away by Congress are retained (reserved) by the tribe.”

Chief Executive Benjamin said that many of the tribes within the MCT are governed by a council made up of a small group of people elected by their band. “They make all of the decisions. They hire, they fire, they determine what grants to apply, whatever it is; they make that decision — the Mille Lacs Band doesn’t. We have what is called a division of powers. We have three branches. They are equal in their power, but their responsibilities are different…. We are all equal in our areas, but our responsibilities are different,” Chief Executive Benjamin said.

There are only specific duties based on the law that the Chief Executive can implement. The Legislative Branch makes the laws, and they must have concurrence with the Chief Executive for that legislation to go into law. Once it is law, the Executive Branch is responsible to implement that law. The Executive branch runs the programs and provides the services to the Band members in accordance with the law. If there is a conflict between the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch, the conflict can be resolved through court action in the Judicial Branch.

“As long as I can remember, we have never taken an issue to the court to decide. We work it out,” Chief Executive Benjamin said.

She went on to explain that the Chief Executive does not make all of the decisions on running the services provided to Band members. “The decision-making powers are divided up. That is why we have a Cabinet of members of Natural Resources, of Health and Human Services, of Education, Administration, Corporate Commission all of those powers have been divided up and the Commissioners have that authority. Even though a lot of folks come to the Chief Executive or the other elected officials to get their issues resolved, it always has to go back and follow the system,” said Chief Executive Benjamin.

At the invitation of the Chief Executive, Secretary Treasurer Sheldon Boyd stepped up to explain the Legislative Branch is made up of himself and the three Representatives. “Strangely enough, in this whole set up, I don’t have a vote,” he said with a laugh. He continued saying the Representatives represent their individual communities. But as the Band Assembly, they come together and they are stronger. “That is what the Band Assembly is. They are very powerful. The only check against that power is the leader you elect is the check against that power,” he said.

Boyd compared the Mille Lacs Band division of powers form of government to that of the United States Government whereby Congress and the House of Representatives make the laws and their powers are divided. “Our system is such a mirror of that. There is always back and forth.”

The basic concept of the separation of powers is a good thing, Boyd concluded. “When you see those bills, vetoes, and things going back and forth, that is just that power being held in check because they never wanted to give it to just one person….And that’s ok,” Boyd said.

The Chief Executive is hopeful to continue the discussions and hold more frequent conferences for the Band members. A second conference is tentatively being planned for District III in June. Watch for more details.