Congressman Mike Synar, of Oklahoma, stated that rather than making substantive changes, the Interior Department often finds it 'easier to simply discredit the bearers of bad news about the BIA,' exactly the position I found myself in. In some cases, money that belonged to individual Indians and tribes was deposited in slush funds through accounts set up under phony names. There are thirty recent incidents in which federal employees were allegedly involved in theft, embezzlement and fraud on Indian reservations, yet few were prosecuted. BIA sponsored Indian programs failed to improve the economies of reservations, and BIA failed to provide quality education for Indian children. Housing programs are riddled with scandal, and housing in many areas is shockingly substandard.
Indian health remains poor, with diabetes reaching epidemic proportions on some reservations.
The BIA cannot manage its own money, or account for millions in equipment and supplies. Although revenues for any individual Indian from oil are quite small, they constitute a desperately needed source of income to Indian citizens with an unemployment level which averages 25 percent and reaches 85 percent in some areas. I have written a book on this subject, which recently became available at the First Nations site. This site is maintained by JS Dill .