Poll shows 52% support merging of LCO and Wadookadaading; major issue at Membership Meeting

An LCO Today poll reveals that 52% of voters support the merging of the LCO K-12 School and the Wadookadaading Ojibwe Language Immersion School. 41% said they were against the merger while another 7% had no opinion on the matter.

The school merger became a very significant topic at the LCO General Membership meeting held on Friday morning with several members directing comments and questions to the tribal council. Council member Jason Schlender, who is liaison to the schools, answered questions.

Jeff Tribble asked why the K-12 school has a $652,000 debt that has to be paid back to the Bureau of Indian Education. Schlender responded by saying that there is no money that has to be paid back, but rather, it is money that the school doesn’t have. He said it is a budget shortfall due to the across-the-board education cuts Congress made in 2013 called “sequestration.”

Nearly $3 billion was cut from education resulting in less after-school programs, cuts to head starts, special education, and financial aid for college students, and has resulted in ballooning class sizes.

“We’ve had to make some very difficult cuts at the school,” Schlender said. Some of these cuts were the elimination of several teaching jobs which resulted in a student protest march in early May when students walked out of school and marched to the Monday morning tribal council meeting. Students were concerned that Native teachers are the ones losing their jobs while non-Native teachers at the school were retained.

The two schools were merged this school year because the Wadookadaading school, formerly a charter school through the Hayward School system, gave up its charter. Rather than close the school, which as Schlender pointed out, has produced over 80 Ojibwe language speakers since its conception in 2004. Schlender strongly believes in the importance of continuing to teach the Ojibwe language and says he will fight to keep the schools going, and that the success of the LCO School (including Wadookadaading) is at his core.

One tribal member, an employee of the school, told Schlender that prior to the merging of the schools, LCO School stayed within their budget and maintained their operations but now are at a $652,000 budget shortfall and having to endure these cuts. He said that the debt cannot be blamed on the school.

Schlender said that the real enemy is the federal government. “The money for our schools is just not there.”

Schlender also said in response to why LCO School doesn’t have an independent school board yet, and still operates with the tribal council acting as the board, is because statistics from the Bureau of Indian Education showed that most schools throughout Indian country fail when they have an independent school board.

The accusation of abuse of students by non-Native teachers and staff was also brought up before the council, which they didn’t respond to. A recent Sawyer County Record article about the protest march back in May mentioning the abuse accusations received a strongly-worded backlash from tribal council through a letter to the editor. The tribal council denied that such things occurred at our school but some tribal members have photographic evidence of punishments being doled out they said were unacceptable and shouldn’t happen at LCO.

Another issue brought up at the membership meeting Friday was about the retention of students at the school. It was asked why so many students are leaving the school and going to Hayward. Chairman Mic Isham said that they are concerned about it and that when students leave, they survey them. 

“The number one reason we’ve found why they are leaving is because we don’t enough sports programs. We’re trying to fix that by having co-op sports programs with area schools like Hayward and Winter,” Isham said.

ISHAM STRIKES AGAIN! Chairman tramples over your constitutional rights yet again

LCO Chairman Mic Isham is at it again. Last year he issued a direct order to all tribal employees not to post on social media, in an attempt to restrict political activity, because this order was done during election season. Of course, this directive only applied to his opposition because over the past year there’s been many documented instances of his supporters posting hateful things on Facebook during their working hours, with no repercussions at all.

Now this chairman has issued a directive to all employees that they must sign a consent form that basically gives up certain guaranteed rights to every American citizen, such as a right to a jury trial.

The tribal council amended their disciplinary action and appeal process on June 21, 2016, which effectively removed the Appeals Committee and Evidentiary Hearing process for any tribal employee who wishes to appeal being dismissed from employment. The new procedure will have all tribal employee appeals heard before the LCO Tribal Court, before Judge Mohr. The new policy states that no disciplinary actions are appealable anymore and that basically, the tribal court has the final say.

There are other limitations in the policy, such as limiting the amount of witnesses you can bring forth on your behalf, another violation of the constitution. Here is the Consent to Grievance and Appeal Process they want you to sign;

I hereby consent, as a condition of my employment, to the Complaint Resolution Procedures set forth in Article 10 of this Personnel Policy Manual and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tribe’s Grievance and Appeal Procedure set forth in Article 12, and the jurisdiction of the Tribal Court for all disputes in connection with my employment with the Tribe. I acknowledge that my failure to comply with time limitations for resolving a complaint or filing a grievance or appeal will preclude further consideration of any matter. I hereby waive any right I may have to litigate in another court of law claims arising out of my employment, and hereby waive any right I may have to a jury trial, and agree instead to submit the claims to the Tribe’s Grievance and Appeal Procedure. I consent to the application of Tribal law, both substantive and procedural, regarding all proceedings, matters and things relating to my employment relationship.

Why do this? Yes, there were and always have been a lot of appeals within our tribe, justly so. Many times employees may have been unjustly removed from their positions, for many reasons, such as things that go on outside the work place between family members. This is a small community and everyone knows everyone.

The most likely reason that Mic decided to institute this new policy is because tribal employment is his SWORD! He may knight you by tapping you on the shoulders, meaning you’re all good, go to work and remain in his good graces. Or, he may strike you down, meaning you messed up, are no longer in his good graces and will no longer work for our tribe. It doesn’t matter where you are on the totem pole, whether doing dishes, sweeping floors or directing an enterprise, he will make sure you don’t work for this tribe.

It’s his way of controlling the voices of our people. He uses intimidation and fear tactics, for example, “If you complain on Facebook, you are in violation of Tribal Law!” Unreal.

With this new policy, he can now make sure there is very little those unjustly removed employees can do to get their jobs back. Once you’re fired, you’re fired, adios, see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!

But can he really do this? Isn’t this a violation of the United States Constitution? Simple answer… YES. So, how does he think he can get away with it. Well, his incompetent lawyers continue to give him this bad advice, well, probably even against their own wishes because of his arrogance, he insists. It probably goes something like this;

Mic: “Can we take away their (employees) right to an appeal?”

Kekec: “Weeelllll, Ummm… Not really.”

Mic: “That’s not what I want to hear.”

Kekec: “Actually, yes, we can, if we claim sovereignty.”

Just because our tribe is a sovereign nation within another nation we are still governed by the laws of the United States. Our tribal government can’t usurp the US Constitution. Jeff Tribble made a great post on Facebook in regards to this clear violation of your rights.

“TO ALL LCO TRIBAL MEMBERS... DO NOT SIGN THE " CONSENT TO GRIEVANCE AND APPEAL PROCESS" that the tribe has issued with your paychecks. This is another huge violation to your constitutional rights. They want you to give up your rights to " DUE PROCESS" by signing this paper,,,DONT DO IT> They cannot make this part of your employment agreements. They have in this agreement that you agree to give up your right to appeal to higher courts. NOBODY,,,and I mean NOBODY can legally take those rights from you, nor can they force you to sign as a condition of your employment!!! FIGHT BACK LCO!!!!!! FIGHT BACK NOW!!!”

Jeff added to his comment, “They even have in there that you agree to give up your right to a jury trial,,your right to a fair and impartial hearing. DONT SIGN THIS FORM!!!! In this form they have many violations of your rights. Sec (3) Tribal Court Appeal Hearing ---(iv) The employee is limited to 1 advocate and 5 witnesses. Federal Law prohibits such limitations as part of your constitutional rights. You may have an unlimited amount of witnesses and or evidence to prove your innocence. (v) All employees requested to testify at an employment hearing must do so or you will be fined and/or face disciplinary action. This is huge,,,This is a very bad violation of your rights. FEDERAL LAW does not allow for anyone to force you to testify in any kind of hearing. That is YOUR choice. DONT SIGN THIS FORM.”

Listen to that members… Don’t sign the form. They can’t fire all of you. Share this message and spread the word. Fight back now. Show up to the Membership Meeting on Friday morning, July 1, and make a stand together. We are a sovereign tribe, but we are not some third world dictatorship. I truly believe that if we were, many of us would have already been put before the firing squad!

Mic has gone mad. It’s that simple. He has the backing of the entire council, making them a bunch of puppets, because no one on that council is speaking up for you, the people. You have no voice right now. You have no real representation unless you are a part of their in-crowd. You fear losing your jobs, getting support when in need, or what’s next… losing your home. You have no voice, but together, if everyone shows up for that membership meeting Friday morning… you will have a voice!

Isham a bad chairman according to 87% of voters

The results are in and 87% of those who voted in the poll decided that LCO Chairman Mic Isham is bad for LCO. Concerns over recent months about his leadership failures vary from mismanagement and corruption to restrictions on normal freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

In this blog I will share with you a list of some of these complaints coming from tribal members throughout the community. These complaints have been expressed through meetings. If you feel that there is something the chairman has done good for our tribe, or some major accomplishment, please feel free to make a comment at the bottom of the article.

There is a General Membership Meeting planned for Friday morning, July 1, at the bingo hall. Many of our tribal membership has decided that we won’t allow this meeting to be the usual brush over of BS that our chairman feeds us. We will demand answers to many questions and actions to certain problems that exist. I encourage everyone to attend this extremely important meeting of our people. The future of our tribe depends on it.

There is much division in our tribe right now and many of you won’t agree with what I’m writing today. Many of you won’t believe anything I say and you feel I’m lying and that I have an agenda. Many of you are part of the circle that benefits from this current leadership regime and absolutely refuse any sort of change. But, whatever your feelings, the fact remains that our tribe hasn’t witnessed this much division and suspicion in a very long time.

The people showed their frustration with our current chairman last summer when a movement was started and an overwhelming majority voted for all new council members. The incumbents were swept out of office, the first time a group of four had been swept since I was a kid. It said a lot. The four that were elected though, duped our electorate by convincing the masses that they weren’t for the current chairman and they were their own group for “change.”

Unfortunately, the group of four became a group of four puppets for the chairman and his two other crooks that were already on. Now, we have a council made up of 7 puppets all in agreement with each other, voting to support one bad policy after another from this crooked chairman. When you don’t have any opposition on a board, no voice for the other side, you have tyranny, a dictatorship and corruption that is allowed to fester. It’s a bad deal.

Here is a brief list of just a few examples of his poor leadership and great reasons for his resignation as chairman, for the good of our tribe. I only list them here and will go into more detail on different topics in future blogs.

Mismanagement of funds

Support for Jason Weaver accused of rape and assault of an Elder

Leaving a vacant seat on the council for nearly 5 months

Threatening Freedom of the press

Restrictions on freedom of speech for tribal employees

Non-tribal members getting directorships

Numerous firings, layoffs, reduced hours of tribal employees

Intimidation tactics by TGB using tribal attorneys

No communication by TGB with the people

People left in the dark about TGB decisions

K-12 School is in peril, debt and may be closed

Elder gifts were taken away or reduced

Has eliminated any authority for LCO boards, but yet blames them for TGB actions

Put up tribal lands for massive loans

The status of the Hideout is unknown

There are many other concerns, but these are just a few. If you are concerned about the future of our tribe, then attend the General Membership Meeting on July 1. Mark your calendars!

LCO Police now investigating me on trumped up charges

In another turn of events in what is the ongoing saga of our reservation, it seems that the LCO Police Department is now investigating me. An officer of the police department showed up last night at Gordon Thayer’s house to ask questions about me.

Gordon said the officer wanted to know about my past contract with the tribe in 2011 in which I defaulted on. They also brought up Hole in the Sky and are investigating whether I was raising money, in the tribe’s name, and using it for personal gain. Unreal.

First of all, here is a link to a past blog I wrote last summer airing all of my dirty laundry. LCO PD… if you have questions, you may read it and get all you’re looking for in regards to the tribal contract.

http://lcotoday.blogspot.com/2015/03/an-apology-towell-everyone.html

Secondly, Hole in the Sky was a very good cause that our chairman, Mic Isham, sabotaged every chance he got. Yes, I chose to walk away from the organization I helped start because Justin Gordon and I had two different ideas of where it should go. I wish him the best in whatever he chooses, but, in no way did anyone involved in Hole in the Sky over those few months I was involved do anything fraudulent.

We had a $1,000 drawing in which Hayward resident Sharon Orbeck was the winner, and Bambi Cross drew the winning ticket at the D & D Café. We only sold 31 tickets for the drawing raising up $610. We were going to cover the remainder of the drawing from our other funds raised, but Sharon, who knew we were short, out of the goodness of her heart only accepted $600. She donated the $400 back.

When the officer came to Gordon’s house, Gordon told him that he didn’t appreciate LCO PD coming to his house for a political investigation, which he said this clearly was. The officer told Gordon that LCO Officer Twila Daly told him to go there and that LCO Legal instructed her to investigate me, but instead of her going to Gordon’s house, she sent that officer.

Gordon called me and told me about this at 8:30 last night. I immediately called LCO Tribal Attorney Jim Schlender and asked him about it. He said he did tell them to investigate me and that it was a civil matter and not criminal, saying I wouldn’t be arrested, but he wanted me to come in and fill out a statement. LCO Legal wants me to fill out a statement on myself. Unreal.

I then called LCO Police Chief Tim DeBrot and he had no idea this investigation was taking place. Our own police chief had no idea. Twila was conducting the investigation under instructions from LCO Legal, who was obviously under instruction from our tribal chairman, Mic Isham.

Why was our legal office using the tribal police to investigate a civil matter? I called Bill Morrow and he said that in no way should they be using our police force for a civil matter, only a criminal matter.

The only reason they are doing this is because of the pain in the arse I am to them. Simply because of the many past articles I’ve written exposing them for the corruption at the highest levels on our Rez, and now because of the two articles I’ve written about one of their own, Jason Weaver, being accused of rape.

Here are the first two Weaver stories

http://lcotoday.blogspot.com/2016/02/an-lco-tribal-council-member-is-under.html

http://lcotoday.blogspot.com/2016/02/history-of-violence-towards-women.html

You all should be very concerned about this. Mic Isham is trying to turn the LCO PD into his own goon squad and using LCO Legal to instruct them. This is very wrong. I’ve heard through the grape vine that Tim DeBrot, our chief of police, won’t get his contract renewed because tribal council tried to get him to give them a heads up for every time they were going to do a drug raid. Tim said no, so Mic now wants to put Twila Daly in as the new chief of police because Mic and Norma Ross have more influence over her.

And even scarier is who the district attorney for our county is. His name is Bruce Poquette and he is married to Norma Ross’s daughter. He makes special weekly trips out to meet with our tribal council to discuss tribal member cases in the Sawyer County court system. They are picking and choosing who they want to go easy on and who they want to throw the book at. If you stand against this good ole boys club, and you find yourself in trouble, they will go after you.

A goon squad police force working at the behest of a crooked chairman and the district attorney in their pocket. This spells disaster for anyone decides to speak out against the corruption.

Stay tuned folks, I will be reporting more on this.

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EDIT TO ADD: This article was submitted two hours ago and since then I have found out new information. I was just told that LCO PD already submitted a case to the district attorney for embezzlement or some kind of fraud charge for the tribal newspaper contract in 2011. This was just done recently and the district attorney refused to prosecute the case. If the tribe has any case against me in regards to the tribal contract, it is a civil case, not a criminal one. I knew this... they knew that... and the district attorney knows that. Now, they are attempting to find some other kind of fraud case against me. I tell you all now this is False. It is trumped up and only done because they are coming after me for the constant unwanted attention I have brought to these criminals.

I have so much against our chairman and that entire council who backs him up 100% and I will not stop bringing it to you. For example, the special narcotics investigator who our tribal council hired two years ago and then released once he had cases said last summer that his investigations pointed all the way up to the tribal council level. He said there should have been federal indictments handed out and the district attorney told him he wouldn't prosecute any of his cases. Why do you think Mic Isham wants a heads up from the tribal police department before any drug raids?

The narcotics investigator, said that a known Milwaukee heroin dealer was getting hotel rooms comped at our casino when he brought heroin here. He would then make drug transactions right on the casino floor. There is a whole lot more to this case, folks. And the truth will come out. It always does!

Everyone on this Rez needs to wake up and remove this chairman at whatever costs. Jason Weaver needs to resign from the council and Mic Isham needs to resign as chairman because all of this is happening under his watch. His time as chairman has been a disaster for our tribe. We now have an investigation going on at the clinic for the employee who took patient records from there. There are many other issues coming to the surface. Go back and read through some of my past blogs.

The remaining five council members should separate themselves from this and do the right thing. Remove Weaver from the council and ask Mic Isham to step down as chairamn allowing Rusty Barber to step in and see if he can salvage this mess. Do it now, because mark my words... it's only going to get worse!

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