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PRESORTED STANDARD Inside this edition – Sota Per Copy U.S. POSTAGE Tribal Council authorizes assistance to North Dakota flood victims; Dakota Magic sends bottled water and food for PAID flood workers, as well as volunteer workers from staff; TZTS sends high school students to assist in sandbagging WILMOT, SD Chairman Selvage accepts CITGO heating assistance on behalf of Oyate households from Joseph Kennedy III PERMIT NO. 1 Postmaster: Change service requested Community-wide suicide prevention training coming to Sisseton DOJ to fund tribal programs targeting violence against women Sota Iya Ye Yapi, P.O. Box 5, Wilmot, SD 57279 ¢ ESDS Community Education Staff awarded OST Credential Contents – Time-Dated News/Do Not Delay Next week: One-year assessment of Roberts County Jail This edition mailed at Wilmot, SD on March 30, 2009 75 Women’s Circle to hold “Respect Works” Walk on April 8th Serving the Sisseton and Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation since 1968 Vol. 40 April - Maga Okada Wi - “Moon When Geese Lay Eggs” - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 No. 12 Agency Village, SD – March 28, 2009 – SWO Tribal Oyate to help the flood victims. Mid-week last week, forecasters were saying the river The flood of 1897 reached 40.10 ft. Chairman Michael I. Selvage Sr. announced that the Sisseton- Dakota Magic Casino & Hotel sent pallets of bottled could reach 43 feet by Saturday. That did not happen; the crest For more information about on-going relief work in the Wahpeton Oyate Tribal Council has authorized assistance of water and food, including sandwiches, to help feed flood relief came to 40.80 ft. and then dropped to 40.69 ft. later in the Fargo community and elsewhere in the state, contact the N.D. $10,000 for the city of Fargo to help in its battle against the workers. And volunteers from among the casino staff have morning and 40.62 ft. during Flood Damage Recovery rising flood waters of the Red River and the aftermath. pitched in with sandbagging and other relief work. Saturday night. Command Center at (701) “Council also discussed the possibility of adding to that Tiospa Zina Tribal School bussed high school students to But the river can 205-0927. amount according to what happens during and following the help with sandbagging in the Fargo community. fluctuate up to a foot, due to Accompanying photos of flood,” he said. And David White, Lake Traverse District Emergency how ice floes affect the flow of relief work in Oxbow, Fargo, “The people of Fargo and the surrounding area,” said the Management Coordinator, put together a volunteer force of water. and Moorhead, come from Chairman, “are our neighbors, and we have learned to value Tribal members to go up to Fargo on Saturday to help. On Sunday, the Wild National Public Radio and them not only for being customers of our casino but as friends There is much concern for the extent of this major Rice River was “backing up,” sources cited in the captions. we’ve come to know better over the years.” flooding event. Several levees have failed, forcing evacuations putting more stress on the Red He pointed out how the Oyate have strong ties to the Red of hundreds of residents Friday and Saturday. River and the levees in and River. And weather forecasters are calling for another storm around Fargo. Historic photo of the Red River flood of 1897 “That is our ancestral homeland,” he pointed out, “home beginning Sunday and lasting until Tuesday. That 40.80 ft. mark is an at Fargo. to the Wahpetonwan Oyate in past generations.” The only good news is that cold temperatures have slowed all-time record height for the He also announced that other help is coming from the the earlier projections of the Red River’s crest. Red River at that point. In order for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribe to regain of receiving their annual budget up-front at the beginning of the ability to fully access federal grant funds for which it the fiscal year. But by working cooperatively with regional BIA qualifies, the annual federal audits must be up-to-date and officials, the Tribe expects to have that alert status lifted now. deficiencies, noted as “findings” in its audit reports, corrected. This effort has been a top priority under the Some examples of deficiencies are: travel by officials administration of Tribal Chairman Michael I. Selvage Sr. program managers, it was submitted on March 11, 2009. benefit from assistance to Indian country available in President and program staff not adequately documented; and federal The 2004 audit was completed and submitted to the That brings the audits current. Obama’s budget. program support money not documented as used for its federal audit clearinghouse on June 18, 2007. The 2008 audit, covering the fiscal year ending September The ’08 audit is being conducted by Eide Bailey of Fargo, intended purpose under terms of the grant. The 2005 audit was submitted on June 19, 2008, followed 30, 2008, is due to be submitted to the federal clearinghouse ND. The BIA has had a level two alert on the Tribe for several closely by the completed 2006 audit on October 6, 2008. by June 30, 2009. Chairman Selvage said he expects the audit years due to deficiencies. That means programs funded under The 2007 audit has been completed, and after auditors of to be completed by that date. its authority are basically on a month-to-month basis, instead Joseph Eve & Company returned findings to be answered by The Chairman anticipates the Tribe is now qualified to WO Tribal Chairman Michael I. Selvage Sr., at the invitation of Joseph Kennedy, President of Statement by SWO Tribal Chairman sense of responsibility to help us for the second consecutive SCitizens Energy Corporation, Boston, MA, as well as Tribal Chairmen and/or representatives Michael I. Selvage Sr. year in a row. Of such acts, legends are made. of all the Great Plains Tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, held a meeting in CITGO Funding Presentation We are not strangers to Joe Kennedy and his family. We Pierre, SD last Monday, March 23rd, 2009. Purpose was to receive energy assistance funds for Pierre, S.D. remember today three members of his family, who also took low-income families on their respective reservations which had been provided by CITGO. Monday, March 23, 2009 the time to visit and meet with our Dakota-Nakota-Lakota During the noon hour gathering, Joseph Hau, Mitakuyapi Owasin: people in years past. John Fitzgerald Kennedy came to our Kennedy addressed all the assembled Great My name is Michael Selvage Sr., Tribal Chairman of the Oaye-Nation and asked for our support to become President of Plains Tribes, telling them that despite various Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. I am happy to be here today, on the United States. Ballots of hope from our Nations were cast obstacles, that CITGO had generously agreed behalf of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, to acknowledge and for him, and he became our beloved President. to provide second year funding for the Tribes of accept the donation of funds from CITGO, which will assist Robert Kennedy followed in the footsteps of his brother in the Great Plains, based on the extraordinary need our low income families in paying for their heating costs this coming to our country, and again we not only supported him, of low-income Tribal members in need of winter. We have had a severe winter, and their hardships were but also came to love and cherish him dearly. His family’s loss heating assistance during the harsh and severe many. We hence are very grateful and appreciative of the became our loss. winter. assistance which has been provided for our people today. Edward Ted Kennedy also came to our people, and we not Afterwards, Joseph Kennedy asked to meet In traveling here today, I am reminded of those days only joyously supported him and what he committed to do for individually with each Tribal delegation for when members of our community would journey to the our people, we also elected and sent convention delegates from purposes of hearing their concerns and to receive Agency to receive their Treaty mandated annuities, but in fact our Nations to back him and support him. To this day, we their energy assistance check. would receive a lesser portion of what had been committed, continue to wholeheartedly support his congressional initiatives Tribal Chairman Selvage met with Joseph in exchange for the millions of acres of land and resources in social and health care issues, and remember him frequently, Kennedy, who presented the Sisseton-Wahpeton that had been ceded. This story of inequity has continued, praying for his improved health and well being. Oyate a check in the amount of $192,500 and remains as a persistent pattern in our Tribal/Federal Now, today, the fourth Kennedy, Joe, has come to our to provide heating assistance to low-income relationship. Our impoverishment hence has become multi- land to bring us relief in these hard times, and most of all, to families on the Lake Traverse Reservation. generational in scope. provide motivation and hope for the future. As I see it, the Chairman Selvage then presented the In this time of hardship, however, a member of the torch has not been extinguished, the flame of life has not died, enclosed testimonial to Joseph Kennedy, and also Kennedy family has remembered us, and has brought us a it has only just begun. Again, we say, Wopida Tankan, thank presented on behalf of the Tribal Council, seven generous portion of relief for our people.