A small Juneau tribe took a larger Alaska tribe to court to settle a nearly $1 million dispute. The court’s response: wrong place.
On Jan. 13, a case between the Douglas Indian Association and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska was dismissed in the State of Alaska’s Superior Court based on a tribe’s sovereign immunity from state interference. It was a victory for one side and a hurdle for the other.
“We were very aware from the beginning there would be sovereign immunity, but our position is if they were so correct, why did they make three offers in three varying sizes?” asked DIA Tribal Administrator Andrea Cadiente-Laiti during a phone call Wednesday from Washington, D.C., with the Empire. “There was no way DIA’s story would be told unless we (went to court), and either way we’re out a million if we do nothing and out a million if we lose because of sovereign immunity.”
DIA council members filed a lawsuit in April 2015 against Central Council leaders for what they claim was an unfair withholding of nearly $1 million in Tribal Transportation program shares. Those funds accumulated from 2005 to 2012 when DIA was part of a transportation consortium with Central Council.
In 2013, that six-year partnership ended and DIA officials claim during that time, federal funds allocated for DIA tribal member needs were misused. Leaders from both sides, from former and present administrations, offered some repayment, but in the end a figure that satisfied DIA was not presented. The courts were a last resort, Cadiente-Laiti said.
Cadiente-Laiti admitted it was a gamble for such a small tribe with limited resources. DIA, although the first federally recognized tribe in the Juneau-Douglas area and the only one with historical land in the area, has a membership of roughly 700. Central Council represents 30,000 Indians worldwide.
Central Council President Richard Peterson said Wednesday in a meeting with the Empire he can’t explain why a smaller tribe would take on a lofty legal battle with limited resources.
“It was a calculated risk, one unfortunately for them that they lost,” Peterson said. “We’ve all put legal fees out there that we’re not going to recoup. Is that the best way to spend their monies, because they are a small tribe?”
It was because of continued legal fees that would put tribe funds at risk that sovereign immunity was used, Peterson said. Although he said he believes in accountability and transparency, a one- or two-year long battle was a roadblock to other business on the tribe’s agenda.
Cadiente-Laiti said their use of sovereign immunity was in poor faith with its original purpose, which she said is only to dismiss frivolous lawsuits that jeopardize the larger tribe, not to block smaller tribes.
DIA Tribal Council President Butch Laiti said in a press release Wednesday he was “appalled and disgusted” by Central Council’s decision to hide behind sovereign immunity.
Peterson said it wasn’t his place to attack one person’s understanding of sovereign immunity, whether it be a tribe-to-tribe issue or not.
In a press release by Central Council Jan. 15, Peterson called it a “shame” tribal sovereignty was tested in the court, and even worse that another tribe brought it forth.
Cadiente-Laiti said she doesn’t see shame in asking for what her tribe is rightfully due. The court system was the only way Cadiente-Laiti said she could imagine bringing to light Central Council’s transgressions. She said she hoped during discovery a record of DIA funds used for non-DIA approved projects would bring justice.
Peterson said during the Wednesday meeting he wished he knew exactly what DIA council members were looking for so he could present them that information. In fact, he said he assigned Tribal Transportation Manger William Ware to go back through an old accounting system to double check the validity of DIA’s claim and found that of the close to $1 million request, only approximately $150,000 could be reasonably given to them, though even that would be an act of generosity. Peterson and Ware said to help DIA council understand actions by Central Council during their stay in the consortium, a binder with any paper with DIA’s name on it was sent to the council members.
Cadiente-Laiti said she calls that binder laughable.
“The binder had a copy of the map, the resolution — no transportation project to speak of. Everything in that binder failed to answer a question. We don’t know if they filled potholes somewhere, built a bridge. It’s not in that so-called binder,” Cadiente-Laiti said. “It added insult to injury because those are records we already had.”
By press time Saturday, Peterson wasn’t able to respond to the claim that a list of projects DIA-specific was missing from the binder.
Peterson did say during the Wednesday meeting he and his team are confused by the council’s desire after pulling out of the consortium to retrieve funds that were pooled together in one bigger fund with other tribes, especially when every dollar spent by Central Council was spent on DIA’s behalf with their approval through a voting process.
“Tribal allocations need to go for that tribe’s needs, despite the consortium,” Cadiente-Laiti said. “Allocations are for that tribe.”
DIA officials wrote in their press release that they understood their involvement in the consortium to mean “(Central Council) will use their own funds for core financial, accounting, program management, compliance, and planning services” that were not DIA-specific.
Transportation Manager Ware said DIA’s funds were part of shared expenditures, such as funding for a transportation manager, a planner, trainings and travel. All of that is in line with federal policy, Ware said.
In fact, Ware and Peterson said several agencies — the Office of Federal Lands Highway, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Congressional Delegation — all heard pleas by DIA and all agreed Central Council was not obligated to make any repayment.
The two said they were sure the same would have happened in the courts, adding in a press release “DIA’s claims were entirely without merit.”
Linda Snow is a non-tribal citizen with 30 years of experience in transportation planning who works alongside DIA. She said what past entities such as Federal Highways and the Congressional Delegation “decided” doesn’t affirm or dispute the claim’s merit. The fact is issues surrounding sovereign immunity and consortium funds are “sticky situations” and those groups weren’t able to help.
Moving forward, Cadiente-Laiti said the DIA council will consider an appeal but that she and others in the tribe are still recovering from the setback.
“The newness of this disappointing information hasn’t worn off,” she said.
To further complicate matters, members of DIA are also members of Central Council creating more than a divide between two parts but a fracture of the whole.
Peterson said he wants to move past all of this and work toward unified projects again. Cadiente-Laiti said working with them is hard when trust is on the line.
“We were victimized, really,” Cadiente-Laiti said. “It all amounts to them telling us, we can receive federal funding, we can promise anything through a (memorandum of agreement), but if we fail, you can’t sue us because of sovereign immunity.”
Despite these consistent no’s, Cadiente-Laiti said pushing forward is a necessary pain: “We know we have to move on, and we will, but still the truth needs to be told.”
• Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or at paula.solis@juneauempire.com.
