Tribal Leaders Don't Trust Lobbyists At Tribal Nations Conference. Can Holly Cook Macarro Only Wear ONE HAT?

Holly Cook Macarro, a Principal at IETAN CONSULTINGis miffed at a story in Indian Country Today about some tribal leaders that don't trust that she can attend a national conference as a member of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe and not use some of her time lobbying for her clients.  Holly's firm gets $240,000 to lobby for her husband's tribe.  Do YOU believe she wouldn't mention his interests, even if he was there?

Many tribal leaders wanted Obama to put intense pressure on Democratic senators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), to drop their bids to use a Carcieri fix to limit Indian gaming, as these tribal leaders maintain that the two issues are separate—land-into-trust is not just about gaming, after all.  (OP:  Limited gaming means tribes can protect their market share at the expense of tribes who would benefit by gaming)

At the same time, some tribal lobbyists thought the best strategy was to bargain with Congress in ways that would protect some of the lobbyists’ Indian clients from competition from other tribes. In a flurry of negotiations with Congress in late-2012, those lobbyists began to add new ideas to the table. What if off-reservation gaming were limited just in some areas, like California, asked one tribal lobbyist—could that gain favor with the rest of Indian country? Ietan Consulting, founded by Larry Rosenthal, former legislative director for U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.),  and Holly Cook Macarro, wife of Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians Chairman Mark Macarro was one of the lead lobbying firms pushing for a Carcieri compromise. The firm represents California tribal interests that would benefit from a narrowing of Indian gaming.

So, NOT ONLY is Pechanga not satisfied with stealing per capita from members they disenrolled, they want to keep other tribes from gaining gambling.  Pechanga has stolen over $400 MILLION from terminated members.

Sources say Rosemary Morillo, chairwoman of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, couldn’t believe what had happened. Apparently, she felt tribal lobbyists with their own interests had been able to have more of an influence with the federal government than the elected tribal leaders of sovereign nations. And it had hurt Indian country’s economic and sovereign interests.

Sources have said that after the deal was dead, Morillo expressed her exasperation toward tribal lobbyists on a conference call set up by national Indian organizations with tribal advocates from around the country to assess the Carcieris ituation. She said they should be ashamed of themselves for their role in the failed Carcieri fix dealings. Their work had caused Indian country to lose its unity on an issue that should be a no-brainer, she said, since all tribes should be treated equally on land-into-trust matters.

Welcome to REAL WORLD Madame Chairman.  Other tribes don't see you as brothers, they see you as COMPETITION.  You are feeling the flea bites from the DOGS you lay down with.

More from Morillo:  Morillo thinks that if important Indian policy is going to pass Congress anytime soon, tribal leaders need to be present at such meetings.

“I think tribes need to take the time to send elected tribal leaders,” she says. “We’re making history here—when that invitation is extended, that’s a gesture that opens up a lot of doors. We need to make sure the doors that are opened help the tribal citizens, not the lobbyists.”

In an email that went out to many prominent Indian Leaders, Holly says:

Per Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain, Jr., I was appointed to attend the conference as a Red Lake Band member representative, not as a lobbyist.  Rob Capriccioso's off-base attempt to paint my attendance as anything other than as a representative of the Red Lake Nation is wrong.   I am concerned that Michael O. Finley, as an official of the National Congress of American Indians, would support a position that seeks to dictate who tribes can choose as their representative to a federal meeting.  Neither other Tribal leaders, the White House, nor the BIA should dictate who tribes choose to attend the Tribal Nations conference - that is an act of a sovereign nation and worthy of respect.  As I noted to Rob Capriccioso when he contacted me regarding this article, there were many non-elected tribal official attendees at the Tribal Nations conference.  VAWA activists, Law & Order Commission members, and many others - yet he chose to ignore those facts, which should have been included to provide Indian country with an accurate story.

Funny, it was HER HUSBAND, MARK MACARRO's Tribe, The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians that trampled on the sovereignty of the Ramona Band at a TASIN meeting, pulling out a Ramona Tribal employee, who was a terminated Pechanga Member and asking him to LEAVE the Pechanga Reservation as he had been banished.  Except they forgot to notify him.

Read about it HERE:  http://www.originalpechanga.com/2008/11/at-tasin-meeting-last-week-pechanga.html

Read the response to the banishment here:   http://www.originalpechanga.com/2010/05/airros-john-gomez-jr-responds-to.html

IETAN works for three tribes that have harmed THOUSANDS of Native Americans via disenrollment.  If you can't trust them not to harm their own tribal members, do you think you can trust their lobbyists?

Should all sovereign tribes be treated equally?? 

 http://www.originalpechanga.com/2013/10/treating-sovereign-tribal-nations.html