As members of the Tuscarora ruling junta scrambled to buy support for their regime with the promise of paltry individual payouts on the reservation last week, documents made available to the Niagara Falls Reporter show that a secret agreement being hammered out with the federal government threatens to keep the illegitimate leadership in power for years to come.
The document, a memorandum of understanding that would govern Washington's recognition of the Tuscarora Tribe, establishes for the first time the existence of two clans -- the White Bear and Sand Turtle clans -- that simply do not exist historically in the Tuscarora tradition.
Furthermore, clan mothers and chiefs from these fraudulent clans are named in the government organizational chart accompanying the document.
"This is a complete restructuring of government on the reservation," one prominent Tuscarora said. "They're changing our form of government and not telling anyone they're doing it."
Only three chiefs are recognized, Leo Henry, Kenneth Patterson and Stuart Patterson, who was removed as chief of the Beaver Clan on Dec. 29, 1987, according to a 1988 letter signed by both Beaver Clan Mother Hattie Williams and then-chairman of the Tuscarora Nation Jerry Chew.
"Mr. Patterson can no longer hold any title to the Tuscarora Nation," the letter states. At that time, Stuart Patterson was the road commissioner for the tribe, a position he lost along with the rank of chief.
Likewise, Leo Henry's legitimacy as a chief has been in doubt. Tribal records show he took a position of "runner," or sub-chief, nearly a half-century ago. Tuscarora law, which is not codified but is passed down orally from generation to generation, dictates that once a man has accepted a sub-chief's position, he may never be considered for a full chief position.
Francine Patterson, wife of Neil Patterson Sr. and mother of Neil Jr., is identified as a clan mother in the organizational chart, despite the fact that she was denied clan mother status at a Condolence Ceremony held on the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation in April of last year.
At the same ceremony, her husband and son were denied in their bids to become chiefs of the Tuscarora Tribe, a denial that -- under Tuscarora custom and tradition -- prevents them from ever again being considered for elevation.
The stakes are high. In addition to controlling the $100 million settlement the tribe received from the state Power Authority, whoever ends up running the Tuscarora Nation will also be in charge of the combined budgets of the Tuscarora Environmental Program, the Tuscarora Health Program and the Tuscarora School, institutions with millions of dollars in their combined budgets.
The proposed memorandum of understanding has been kept secret from the Tuscarora people for obvious reasons. It essentially amounts to a fat jobs program for members of the Patterson family and a few related families.
The document is dated July 25 of last year, well after controversy erupted on the reservation over the whereabouts of the Power Authority settlement money and questions arose about the legitimacy of the current Tuscarora leadership.
Just two months earlier, another document was created that shows the extent to which that leadership has entered into agreements with outside agencies and corporations.
Titled "Legal Needs of the Tuscarora Nation," the May 2011 document was presumably prepared with the help of former tribal attorney Kendra Winkelstein.
Winkelstein, who has served the tribe for 18 years, abruptly resigned in December after allegations of widespread child sexual abuse surfaced, centering on two members of the tribe related by blood to individuals in the ruling hierarchy.
Numerous reservation sources, including one former Niagara County Sheriff's Department investigator, told the Reporter that the abuse had taken place, and that an extensive coverup involving payoffs and threats kept the alleged perpetrators shielded from the law.
The document is now being used as part of the interview process for a new tribal attorney. Neil Patterson Sr., who holds no official position with the tribe, and his wife, Francine Patterson, whose fraudulent claims of being a clan mother have been exposed, have been conducting the interviews.
Among the items mentioned in the two-page memorandum are the tribe's contracts with the state Departments of Health, Transportation and Education, the state Power Authority, Memorial Medical Center, the county Water District, National Fuel and National Grid, but sources close to the interview process say that one question not contained in the document is the first one asked by the Pattersons.
"What are your feelings about (state Sen.) George Maziarz?"
The Pattersons detest Maziarz, who has repeatedly called for a full accounting of the Power Authority settlement money.
"You've got a situation where Tuscarora land was taken to build the power project, $100 million is being handed over for the benefit of the Tuscarora people, and yet there are many on the reservation who are not permitted to have electrical service in their homes," Maziarz said. "It's criminal."
Denial of electrical service is a favorite punishment used by the ruling Tuscarora clique, despite the fact that one megawatt of low-cost power is made available to the tribe every year by the state. That power, enough to provide heat and light to every household on the reservation at little or no cost, is currently being sold to interests off the reservation.
The sales have been ongoing for at least five years, but last week, Neil Patterson Jr. called a hurried series of clan meetings, at which he attempted to sell the tribe on the idea of $600 individual cash payouts, which he described as each person's share of the electricity sales.
"We don't even know how much we're getting from these sales," one disgruntled Tuscarora said. "These people have been lying to us all along, and now we're supposed to trust they're doing the right thing?"
Indeed. Until this newspaper reported it, the Tuscarora people didn't even know the true amount of the settlement, much less how much additional revenue was being raised by the electrical sales.
How long will it be before the U.S. Justice Department takes action on the Tuscarora Reservation? Federal agents in recent weeks have been quietly interviewing key members of the tribe who believe the current leadership has perpetrated a huge swindle on its own people.
Prominent Niagara Falls attorney John Bartolomei believes that an ongoing criminal conspiracy involving not only the Tuscarora leadership but also many of the corporations, non-profits and government agencies bound to the tribe under contract has resulted in human rights abuses on a massive scale.
Bartolomei told the Reporter that companies like National Grid need to be held accountable for their roles in the human rights abuses occurring daily on the Tuscarora Reservation.
"Clearly, Leo Henry and the Pattersons are the ones actually involved in this abuse," Bartolomei said. "But without the complicity of these outside companies -- and in some cases, government agencies -- they would not have the power to do so."
Bartolomei became involved with the situation last September, when a group of Tuscaroras approached him and asked that he look into the fate of a $100 million settlement the tribe received from the state Power Authority.
As he became more deeply involved in the case, it became clear to him that the targets of any legal action would have to include not only Henry and the Pattersons, but the greedy executives of multinational corporations, whose insatiable quest for profits allows them to turn a blind eye to abject human suffering such as that taking place on the Tuscarora Reservation today.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 31 2012 |