Delaware look to expand services, not just game

16 September 2013 LENZY KREHBIEL-BURTON, Native Times

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Contrary to published reports, the Delaware Tribe is not moving north just to open a casino.

Currently considered landless, the Bartlesville-based tribe is looking at relocating to its previous reservation in eastern Kansas in an effort to expand its services for citizens and business opportunities that do not necessarily involve poker chips and slot machines.

“We’ve talked about this for 20 years,” Chief Paula Pechonick said. “We want to get our 638 (federal self-governance) funds directly and be able to get out from underneath the Cherokee Nation.”

Under a 2009 memorandum of understanding with the Cherokee Nation, the Delawares cannot exert any governmental authority over land within the Cherokee’s jurisdictional area or take any land into trust in exchange for the Cherokee Nation not opposing the tribe regaining federal recognition.

The agreement, which was required thanks to an 1866 treaty that moved the tribe onto the Cherokee’s land in Oklahoma, does not extend to Delaware property outside the Cherokee’s jurisdiction. If the move happens, the Delaware Tribe’s proposed new service area could potentially include more than 15 counties in eastern and southeastern Kansas where its citizens lived before its forced relocation to northeastern Oklahoma.

The Delaware Tribe’s current capitol and its Chelsea office are within the Cherokee Nation. The tribe also has offices in Emporia, Kan., and Caney, Kan., and has been soliciting feedback from tribal citizens for potential service expansion in Kansas. The planned relocation would not disrupt services for the tribe’s citizens in Oklahoma.

“We’re going to leave everything at this building right here,” Pechonick said. “The complex is going to remain. The services will remain for our citizens still here.

“There are almost 50,000 underserved Natives in those counties. We’re like to be able to help those Native Americans as well, along with our own people.”

The casino rumor was partially sparked by a real estate transaction tied to the Kansas move. Earlier this year, the tribe bought an 87-acre tract on the north side of Lawrence, Kan., through its business subsidiary, LTI Enterprises, and is in the process of attempting to take it into trust. Despite published reports in Lawrence area media outlets, the tribe’s trust plans for the property do not involve gaming.

“Something we’ve envisioned to show people was to take an aerial photo of what we have here at this campus and transpose it up there,” Pechonick said. “We want to be able to tell them we can have housing, child care, government offices and everything else we have down here.”

Pechonick and other tribal officials are in the process of meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the four federally-recognized tribes headquartered in Kansas and the state’s governor, Sam Brownback. The tribe also plans to present a resolution at the National Congress of American Indians’ annual convention in Tulsa later this year asking for support for the move. Since the proposed relocation has to be approved by the BIA and would potentially involve switching which regional office the tribe falls under, there is not a timeline in place.

“There is a certain historical precedent being set that at issue, it isn’t just about getting federal funds, although that is a factor,” said Jim Gray, former chief of the Osage Nation and Pechonick’s senior adviser on government relations. “A tribe’s primary responsibility is to take care of its people. The purpose of a tribal government is to take care…of its people, to provide services to help ensure the safety, security and culture of its people. If you want to be sovereign, you have to start acting sovereign. If you sit on the sidelines and don’t exercise it for too long, you lose it. This is the Delawares exercising their sovereignty.”

Originally published in Native Times, September 16, 2013. Used by permission.