In this week’s White-Mansplaining file, Senator Marion Michael Rounds tells us why he thinks Congresswoman Deb Haaland, member of the Laguna Pueblo and now confirmed Secretary of the Interior, isn’t fit to lead the federal department that handles Indian affairs:
Her opinion on tribal members seeking to take their land out of trust status or putting fee-simple owned land into trust status.
“Interestingly, her response here seemed to undermine a basic understanding of who really owns the land,” said Rounds, a new member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. “Ms. Haaland stated that (tribes and tribal members) don’t actually own the land as an explanation for why the federal approval process matters.”
“This is fundamentally false from a legal trust standpoint,” tribes and members own the land while the federal government is the trustee, he said. Tribal governments and members “should have a greater say in the development and decision-making process with respect to the land they own.”
“I voted against the Haaland nomination because she lacked a basic understanding on the vital role tribes and tribal members have in making decisions that impact their own lands,” Rounds said. “Specifically, her perspective that they don’t own the land was very troublesome” [Arielle Zionts, “Sens. Thune, Rounds Cite Policy Differences for Opposing Haaland’s Historic Confirmation,” Rapid City Journal, 2021.03.16].
Well, I guess white privilegists have to come up with some good excuse not to put Indians in charge. What better twist than to claim that tribal member Secretary Haaland doesn’t understand tribal affairs as well as the white man?
As further evidence of her lack of understanding of tribal affairs, we offer this part of her background: “Haaland became the first chairwoman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, a Laguna-owned business created to strengthen the Laguna Community and its economy.[18][24] As chairwoman, she oversaw business operations for the second largest tribal gaming enterprise in New Mexico[25] and successfully advocated for the corporation to create policies and commitments to earth-friendly business practices.[25] She served as the tribal administrator for the San Felipe Pueblo from January 2013 to November 2015.[13][19][20]”
Boy, Senator Rounds is very limited in his understanding of land tenure, and how different cultures understand “ownership.” In the United States there are 50 different interpretations of “land ownership,” though most of the states have laws that center around some basic themes.
I supposedly “own” mineral rights to some oil producing property that I inherited in North Dakota. What does that mean? I have no right, apparently, to prevent XTO and Amerada Hess from sucking up “my” oil from “my” small share of severed mineral right through their fracking wells. How I got those severed mineral rights is another question. I “inherited” them, which is another can of worms in how ownership is determined. At any rate “my” mineral property is “force pooled,” which means essentially that I have no right to stop oil companies from taking “my” oil, charging me for doing that and then spitting me whatever remains. And I am supposed to be happy with the few dollars I get, when what I actually want is for “my” oil to be left in the ground that I don’t own.
I think it is Senator Rounds who doesn’t understand “ownership.”
“should have a greater say in the development and decision-making process with respect to the land they own.” See broken treaties by whitey.
Incidently Dusty said “I’m grateful HHS and IHS took my request seriously and revoked his pension.”
Where would we be w/o his deadly insight? Waiting for the rest of the story.
Judging from verbose Mitch McConnell’s threats/warnings from under his turtle shell, the Republican caucus seems to have started yet another war on Democrats. So glad “ gelflings” Rounds and Johnson got the message. Thune is all about self-professed truth in leadership, as he recently told us after the Republican attack on Congress 1.06.21. He and McConnell in lock step are complete disinformation tools for the GOP in its full-on “death spiral”(c)-Mike Rounds. Does Rounds still live in his trophy house that he understood, as Governor, that USCOE “flooded-out” on his muddy Missouri view-lot?
These three SD jokers are irrelevant to the concept of truth. Bought and paid-for. Koch clones.
Did Mike Rounds really say this;? “vital role tribes and tribal members have in making decisions that impact their own lands,”
Does he know about Dakota Access and the struggle the tribes had with it crossing through their own lands and under their own river? And what about Keystone XL? He had better not be saying anything about it being canceled because it seems that the tribes and members are just deciding what they want on their own lands. I was wondering if he could be that ignorant and then I realized he is hoping we are.
Hey, Mikey! STFU!
Haaland is 1/2 right. The entirety of the lands of the US are held under sovereign title by the various states, with few exceptions. Neither the Feds nor the tribes “own” the land/ The state(s) do. However, the Feds have a special “management” role in the various tribes lands by virtue of their overarching sovereign responsibility for preserving ALL of the state’s in the union security. Tribes and tribal members are sort of caught in the middle of this state vs. Fed relationship wherein the trust lands (and other Federally managed lands) are exempt from the fee simple structure that applies to other state “owned” land. Rounds evidently doesn’t understand the nature of sovereign authority any better to the typical private “land owner”, and almost non of us truly understand that we do not own any land – but we own a transferable title in fee simple – a piece of paper – that is essentially a LEASE agreement with the state (the landlord).
I agree with Newland. Short and “simple” Rounds needs to sit down and STFU.
I heard ‘Paycheck’s comments on NPR this morning during my commute and couldn’t stop laughing the rest of the way to work!
Marion was an insurance agent, who built a house in a floodplain. Enough said.
Haaland was correct. The US recognizes over 500 tribes. Laws governing those relationships can and do vary.
Richard is incorrect. The federal lands are owned by the sovereign US government for the use and enjoyment of the sovereign US citizens. If the state held title to lands federally managed then noem’s Black Hills cemetery transfer act would have the state transfer those parcels, not the federal government. Similarly for the land transfers that created Badlands National Park, consolidated parcels on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, etc. Consult the nation’s real estate agent, the Bureau of Land Management, formerly the General Land Office, whose roots date to the Land Ordnance of 1785 which established the Public Land Survey System, and the Northwest Ordnance of 1787.
Consult the GLO Records: https://glorecords.blm.gov/ and do not forget reviewing the Master Title Plats.
Marion Rounds, white supremacist in search of government salary and benefits.
All of our Senators have been white, with the exception of Jim Abourezk, who was born Wood of Lebanese American parents.
Since SD is 20% white, for every 2 senators, we should have .4 Senator being nonWhite and 1.6 being white, if it followed population count. Mostly, it’s 2 white guys with the R Frat suit on.
Joe Biden is showing what a diverse country looks like when we put people of all colors in Senior positions.
Let’s get a Governor who serves only 2 years at a time , a Leg that serves only one year at a time, let’s increase our vote turnout to 80% plus. Then we will get Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, Afro Americans, all into Big Spots in SD government.
Remember, the Plan is South Dakota Governors are Blue (Democratic or Progressive) from 2022-2072. The Legislature will be 20 senators Democratic and 45 Representatives Democratic for 50 years, 2022 to 2072 elections.
That is a perfect way to commemorate Dick Kneip’s 1972 election victory, with 50 years of South Dakota being Blue Progressive).
The SD Democratic Party does not enunciate this program. Message- Stop being losers and bipartisan caving hacks.
Let’s win 50 years in a row, really change the state !
Typos
Wood, SD
Sd is 20% nonwhite.
The title to my reservation land as recorded at the County Register of Deeds states “in the name of the United States of American in trust for….” when I converted the land from fee to trust. The same language is on Allotment documents issues during the allotment period in SD.
To me, Rounds is just a closet Indian hater. I wish I could find evidence otherwise. To me, if he isn’t allowing the stealing of Indian funds from programs like GearUp, he is making up tales to discredit Indians like the trust crap he used. We are stuck with him unless he decides to come back to SD and wants to drive around… but would not want to wish that outcome on any innocent citizen of the state.
Native people have been putting with this stuff from time immemorial. Now days Thune, Rounds and Johnson don’t even want to help their own kind when they voted against the stimulus relief legislation. Or maybe their own kind is no longer in South Dakota… might want to check that passenger list on America’s Governor’s place rides. Birds of a feather flock together.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t land ownership a wasicu notion. I have thought for a long time Natives didn’t own the land, they belonged to the land and revered it and all living things.
Iowa your long time thought was right up until Supreme Court Justice Marshall needed his stolen land title verified in the early 1880s. He decided Native occupied the land without title ownership. It’s be downhill since. Then non-Indians grab some theme or story dreamed up to by some white friction writer involving an Indian, horses, buffalo, tipis and wide open spaces.
“stimulus relief legislation” grudzick’s flat hairy ass. It is a bloated gravy train of waste and fraud with less than 1/10th of it remotely related to COVID. It it indeed a “fat-eater with special powers (wasicu)” bill. My grand-daughter’s great-great-grand-daughters will still be paying this slop off.
Thanks for the history lesson, RST Tribal Member. As for Grudzilla’s rant, it is a nearly verbatim magat talking point spewed by Fake Noise and all the magats that voted for it.
“stimulus relief legislation” grudzick’s flat hairy ass. It is a bloated gravy train of waste and fraud. In Iowa, this will go down well.
Marion: hows the bigoted white supremacist thing workin out for you and the rest of the GOP clan-members?
You and I went to the same schools apart but we both got the same pitiful excuse for our local history and cultural education, apparently that is where it stopped for you.
The ridiculous dramedy that takes place in the nations capitol whenever the actors have had their make-up applied and have rehearsed the talking points, is laughable.
If the people that we voted for spent half as much time talking to each other as they do primping for FAUX news. They might be able to justify their existence
Rounds is a wanna-be flying billionaire who carries water for uber-rich. Early on after the Great Recession his passion has been to make life easier for fat-cats, hiding executive pay and perks, diluting Volcker Rule/Glass-Steagall Act banking regulations covering proprietary trading that cratered the economy world-wide. He is a bad dude, and Trump found a partner in crime in Rounds.
HARPERS, 01.2018 at 37 (editor Andrew Cockburn-coproduced 2009’s “American Casino”). cont….
John, Land titles are NOT issued by the Federal government. They are issued by the STATES, via their subordinate agencies – counties. In Federal Territories, (like Puerto Rico) the land is held by the Federal Government as the Sovereign. Once a territory organizes into and is recognized by the Federal Government, that sovereign title issues to the state.
RST Tribal Member,
Are you referring to Johnson vs McIntosh of 1823? One of the key points was Marshall’s use of the Doctrine of Discovery in determining who had a legally defensible title to the land. He seemed to claim title must be traced to European deeds. Not sure i have this exactly correct, yet it is clear The Doctrine of Discovery from Pope Alexander VI in 1493 was relied upon in this decision.
Snopes debunks Grudzilla’s talking point by pointing out what was left out oif the calculations, which is billions of bucks for covid related stimulus, unemploymentbpayments due to covid, etc.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/usa-rescue-plan-9-percent/
Mr. Snopes can have his opinion. I have mine. The wasicu-fat-eater-special-powers of this biggest waste of money in the history of mankind will rankle your progeny’s progeny in horrible ways. Belly up to the “Covid” trough, boys, and get all the free stuff you want. Nobody has to work, the next 20 years of kids are mostly going to turn out as ill-educated free-loaders toking the demon weed.
Yes Francis Schaffer the Johnson vs McIntosh was 1 of the 3 of the Marshall Trilogy
Case 1. Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) The Court decided Indians did not own land outright, but that they had rights to occupy lands and only the discovering nation (U.S.) could settle those land rights. Indians could not sell lands to individuals and states do not have legal standing to settle aboriginal land claims.
Case 2. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) domestic dependent nation concept started
Case 3. Worcester v. ( 1832) The last case of the Marshall trilogy involved a missionary, Samuel Worcester, who was preaching on the Cherokee lands, which was prohibited by the laws of Georgia without a state license to do so.
These 3 cases were without consent or knowledge of Native people.
Gee grudznick something sent you into a rage and rant, talking about your hairy backside and wasicu. Hope you took your high blood pressure meds or you might need the health benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
Rounds and Thune, take every opportunity they can to call attention, of IHS, especially of the CMS violations. Little was said about when HSC, had it’s CMS, Never Events, Adverse Events, and Do No Harm Events. Throughout the years, they sought to it, that SD Med. laws are protected by Confidentiality. Take for instance the Monument is of 61 violations, and 3 of which are Immediate Jeopardies. Though that’s never hit the media, it’s no different than the IHS ran facilities. Seems to me it sends the message by the Senators that they protect and deflect and focus on the dysfunction of the IHS. Its discriminatory.
hospitalinspections.org
The concept of People owning the Land was brought over from Europe.
Indigenous Cultures Teach that Mother Earth should be respected and she can not be owned, just as the Wind, Sky, and Water can not be owned.
Interior Secretary Haaland has a greater grasp of Indigenous Land Rights and Tribal Authority than the old White man from South Dakota. His Chief of Staff needs to bring him up to speed.
My 2 Cents
SD Rough Rider
Rounds makes me sick. His name fits him but his pants don’t. His “racist and sexist” pants got too big or got filled when he was one of the worst governors for this state.
On the other hand, I’m so proud of Deb Haaland I could cry!!!!
We should all celebrate her confirmation and be thankful because she is so highly qualified for the enormous job ahead of her.
Why are Republican men so threatened by women like Interior Secretary Deb Haaland besides the obvious racism and sexism?
I think it’s jealousy pure and simple. I use to pray for them but there are too many and they don’t want to change.
We know, we live in Indian country.
Finally, we have an interior secretary who loves the land and will not destroy or sell what’s left of our scarce resources.
Once again, Grudzilla’s little fantasy of people quitting work because the government gives them money is proven by scientific study(s) to be hogwash.
https://news.yale.edu/2020/07/27/yale-study-finds-expanded-jobless-benefits-did-not-reduce-employment
I always find it amazing these people in congress seem to think that workers pensions are no big deal.Ask a Senator or congressman how much their big pension will be.Wonder if you will get a answer.
Congressional pensions are a matter of public record and are easy to look up.
https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/ac0d1dd5-7316-4390-87e6-353589586a89.pdf
Richard Kappedal
2021-03-18
Indigenous Cultures Teach that Mother Earth should be respected and she can not be owned, just as the Wind, Sky, and Water can not be owned.
Neatly capsulizes my understanding of Natives not owning the land or any of nature. Gracias, fellow commenter.
Richard, your’re incorrect. The federal government issued a patent (title) under President Grover Cleveland’s signature that established my families Brown County farm in 1887 – before statehood. The rump, non-existent state of South Dakota had nothing to do with it.
I partook in issuing federal titles to private property holders in Sheridan and Campbell Counties (BLM inholdings and land swaps) and to the State of Wyoming (Ranch A parcel) in Crook County; in addition to others – even in South Dakota. Consider a visit to your register of deeds to look-up federal parcels and those that transferred in and out of federal title. Public land law is challenging, so much so that in my practice fewer than 1% of real estate agents and attorneys understood it.
Consider asking yourself why Gov Daugaard had the senators petition congress for his ill-conceived attempted fleecing of the US sovereign citizens when he ham-fisted tried to create a state park in Spearfish Canyon from federal parcels. Consider studying the US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. Do you think the state of South Dakota has title to the Bureau of Reclamation/Corps of Engineers ‘take lands’ along the Missouri River reservoirs, dams, etc., or Ellsworth AFB?
John, here’s the key “….before statehood…..” So, NOW, as in the here and now, what entity is it that collects the “rent fee” (the “fee” aspect of title in fee simple) otherwise known as property tax – on that same land? THAQT entity is to your “land lord”, your “sovereign” title holder – the OWNER of that land.. So called sovereign citizens in this country have not had a good time of it asserting the kinds of arguments you present here in Federal courts. Like Mr. Trump’s foolish election challenges – they (you?) lose in every case. Are you now claiming that the holders of those “federal titles” do so tax free? Really?
I already explained to you that the Federal Government has an intercessionary role when it comes to issues between INDIVIDUAL private citizens and the state(s). Should the Federal government choose to abandon control of those lands – to decide they serve no further purpose to the “common defense” (there is a reason the dams and reservoirs were controlled by the ARMY and not the BLM) they will revert to the sovereign authority of the state.
Richard: is this why the 1200 acres of Indian land in west RC was given to the city and consequently to various other non-Indian developers in the mid-50s via city-lobbied congressional legislation, despite the reversionary-like language that required the land continue to benefit the Indians (after the “Sioux San” boarding school closed in the 30s)? There is a land-swap settlement arrangement the city has that supposedly will finally reconcile that injustice, as Lakota Heather Thompson Esq researched.
During the name change hearing in RC, Custer voters asked: “where is it going to stop? Individual Indians in attendance said they could care less about Custer.” This may be reflected in the white well intentioned SD board’s minutes recording of the event. They eventually approved the change. But Gov Daugaard wouldn’t have it and SD’s deep racist reaction is catured in written objections archived by the eventual Federal board which did change the name at the DC level after the individual Tribe’s resolved to support the action.
Custer unfortunately reflects the racist deep South.
As I have commented here about Rounds “death spiral” messaging for years:
‘Thomas Patterson, a political scientist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, argued in his 2018 book “Is the Republican Party Destroying Itself ?” that, over time, the Party has set a series of “traps” for itself that have eroded its “ability to govern and acquire new sources of support.
The modern Republican Party was built upon the Southern beachhead that Goldwater established [ in 1964 ] more than half a century ago. [Lyndon Johnson rightly worried that his embrace of civil rights would lose the South for the Democrats for at least a generation.
[I once spent many days at his Austin TX presidential library, a fabulous historical trove. I worked for a Texan who I mistakenly believed, (from his often drunken braggadocio) worked in Johnson’s “law firm”. This was pre-internet. Johnson was never a lawyer.]
In 1968, Richard Nixon won the Presidency, employing the Southern Strategy—an appeal to whites’ racial grievances. By 1980, the G.O.P. had become thoroughly dependent on the white South. In 2018, some seventy per cent of “safe” or “likely Republican” districts were in Southern states….The South remains the nation’s most racially polarized region and also the most religious—two dynamics that factor largely both in the Party’s political culture and in its current problems. “The South,” Patterson writes, “is a key reason why the GOP’s future is at risk.”
In addition, the G.O.P.’s steady drift toward the right, from conservative to reactionary politics; its dependence on older, white voters; its reliance on right-wing media; its support for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans; and its increasing disdain for democratic institutions and norms all portend increasing division and a diminishing pool of voters. Republicans, Patterson says, have been depending on a “rear-guard strategy” to “resist the ticking clock of a changing America.” Time […is] running out for the Party, as its base ages and dwindles. “Its loyal voters are declining in number and yet have locked the party in place,” Patterson writes. “It cannot reinvent itself without risking their support ….’
‘The combination of a base stoked by a sensationalist right-wing media and the emergence of kook-adjacent figures in the so-called Gingrich Revolution, of 1994, and the Tea Party, have redefined the Party’s temper and its ideological boundaries. It is worth remembering that the first candidate to defeat Trump in a Republican primary in 2016 was Ted Cruz, who, by 2020, had long set aside his reservations about Trump, and was implicated in spurring the mob that attacked the Capitol.’ NEW YORKER Feb. 2021
…new sources of support.”
[Lyndon]
Rounds hides ‘executive’ pay after Great Recession. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://duckduckgo.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1018&context=acctuht
leslie, Cities and counties are creatures of (created or organized under authority of) the state(s) when on land that is under state(s) sovereign authority. A gift of land to a city is essentially a gift to a state government’s “agent” or subordinate entity. The Federal Government has nothing to do with the organization of cities or counties. The “city” of Pine Ridge, for example is designated as a “census designated place” under the Feds. It is not organized as a city under state law. It may be under tribal law – but that I am not sure of. There is no county government in Oglala Lakota County, as in any sense other to the surrounding boundaries. It essentially is not a county organized under the state, as the state organizing authority for such subordinate entities is non-existent on federally controlled land.
Further, tribes and tribal governments are essentially the same sort of organizational creatures if the Federal government as are cities and counties under the state(s). Their existence as a LEGAL entity is entirely dependent on the laws of the United States. In that sense, they are a department, legal agent or subdivision of the Federal Government when it cones to land “ownership” issues. They can only exist within the boundaries that the Federal Government SAYS are their boundaries. The state(s) have nothing to do with it. Evidence the Standing Rock Reservation among others that exists within more to one state. Within the Standing Rock reservation, the boundary between North and South Dakota is legally meaningless – EXCEPT where any fee land exists within the reservation boundaries. Like wise with such things as National Forests (Black Hills for ex:), National Parks (Yellowstone for ex:).
As a former Republican, i see the decline of the Republican party as unstoppable. Republicans today are mostly angry white people led astray by the likes of Donald Trump, et al. As white America becomes a minority, (we are almost there), I fear the anger is going to worsen. Old entrenched white guys running the show are on their way out. Racial, environmental, fiscal, and gender issues are coming to a head and there is nothing that the ruling class can do to stop it. I view it as a mostly positive turn of events and look forward to it. Leslie has done her homework.
When one enters a National Park, one pays the “fee” (rent) much like one pays a tax (fee) on real property. Another aspect of “fee” property is that one who “holds title” to (is entitled to occupy and use)
fee property is obliged to obey all of the sovereign’s (“landlord’s) rules (laws) fore it use. Tribes’ “fee” to the Federal government for the occupation and use of “their land” includes following the sovereign authority’s (Federal Government’s) laws and rules for doing so. Those rules and laws are around respecting boundaries, organizing their governments, administering funds, and so on. John cannot tell us Federal Law does not apply on reservations – because Federal Sovereignty rules there – above all else – despite the flowery treaty language about Federally “recognized” tribes being independent sovereign nations. The reality is something less.
The Volcker rule is really a set of instructions to government agencies to write regulations protecting the future economy. However pliable senators like Rounds and Scott Brown welcomed waves of lawyers and lobbyists (like our own ethically challenged state version-Jeremiah Murphy who Cory fawns over) to ensure the regs were crafted to the financial/insurance industry’s liking. (Agencies were subject to 1400 such meetings!) Not surprisingly the rule sprouted “dense thickets of complexities, the true objects of the lobbyists’ efforts….An ambiguous word here, an obscure footnote there, could be worth BILLIONS down the road.” (emphasis added) Then, like Rounds whined of these regulatory millstones: OMG, this is SO burdensome! Harpers, 2018 (above).
You guys forget the “Bundy Klan Exclusionary Rule” on not paying for use of federal lands?
In the end it doesn’t matter what Rounds, Thune or Johnson have to say, the fact is she is new Department of Interior Secretary. It is what it is.
Little Ricky Sanitorium loses his cushy CNN gig for racist remarks about Native Americans. I can only wonder what took so long? The stoopid is strong in magats.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/22/cnn-rick-santorum-axed-native-americans