Although the subject was electricity, no representatives of National Grid or the state Power Authority attended a meeting held in a small room at the Tuscarora Indians' brand new $7 million community building.
Whether they were hiding in shame at the thought of publicly supporting the illegitimate tribal government that has apparently helped cover up cases of child sexual abuse, denied children the most basic health care at the tribal clinic and even the right to ride on school buses and, most egregiously of all, prohibited entire families from having National Grid -- the parent company of Niagara Mohawk -- hook up basic electric service to heat and light their homes.
Ostensibly, the meeting was called to discuss what to do with funds generated from the sale of low-cost electricity by the Tuscarora leadership to utilities around the country, even as they deny that most basic of human needs to their own people.
But even the majority of the ruling troika of the Tuscarora declined to attend. Neil Patterson Sr. and Leo Henry failed to show, leaving only the slow-witted Neil Patterson Jr. to bear the wrath of what amounted to an angry mob.
The sales have been going on for the past five years with the thoughtful assistance of National Grid officials, and no one on the reservation aside from Henry and the Pattersons has a clue as to where the money has been going.
Patterson Jr. hemmed and hawed when asked how many households on the reservation were benefitting from the low-cost electricity, finally giving the number as 130. But when asked for a list of those benefitting from the program, Patterson Jr. refused to produce one, saying it was too complicated.
There are around 700 households on the reservation, so even if Patterson's claims were true, the 130 number would represent less than a fifth of the Tuscaroras.
Spectators were left to wonder whether young Patterson's figure still included Minerva Bissell, who was said to be receiving low-cost electricity at her 2139 Upper Mountain Road home as recently as this past November, despite the fact that she passed away nearly 15 years ago.
Prominent Niagara Falls attorney John 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 become involved with the situation last September, when a group of Tuscaroras approached him initially 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 on abject human suffering such as that taking place on the Tuscarora Reservation today.
Bartolomei said he is putting the finishing touches on a wide-ranging class action lawsuit on behalf of numerous members of the Tuscarora Nation under the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations laws. In it, he will allege that numerous parties on and off the reservation have conspired to strip the Tuscaroras of both civil and human rights.
Few know of the hardships endured by Tuscarora families at the hands of Henry and the Pattersons better than Doug Anderson, a building contractor who has completed $400 million worth of projects in Western New York.
Over the past month, in an agonizing e-mail exchange that amounted to 40 letters, Williams was seeking to expand electrical service on two properties already served by National Grid.
The correspondence began amicably enough on Jan. 3, and actually got to the point where a National Grid work order was issued and a design planner from the company was assigned to do the necessary work.
Things took an odd turn on Jan. 19, when the company discovered that both jobs were to take place on property belonging to Tuscarora businessman Joe Anderson.
Anderson has long been a vocal critic of Henry and the Pattersons.
Patricia Pesaturo, a National Grid Commercial Connections representative, wrote Williams to inform him that both jobs would require a "letter from the Chief" of the Tuscaroras.
The problem, of course, is that none of the ruling troika of the Tuscaroras is actually a chief. Neil Patterson Sr. and his son were turned down in their bid to become chiefs this past April at a ceremony held on the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation, and -- under longstanding custom and tradition of the Six Nations that make up the Iroquois Confederacy -- may never again be considered for chiefdom.
Leo Henry, meanwhile, serves as tribal clerk, a job he picked up a half-century ago when he was made an under-chief of the tribe. The same custom and tradition dictates that an under-chief may never be elevated to the status of full chief.
To a modern-day contractor like Williams, the situation is completely unacceptable.
"When I do a job in Amherst or Niagara Falls, I call National Grid, they send me a work order, a design planner comes out and we get to work," he said. "I don't have to go to the city council or the town board or the mayor's office to see whether someone can get electricity at their own house."
The results of National Grid's inhuman policies anger the contractor, who doesn't mince words when expressing his feelings.
"You've got little children, elderly people freezing in dark houses, because they can't get electricity they want and can pay for," he said. "It's criminal."
Last month, Kendra Winkelstein -- a white attorney who represented Henry and the Pattersons for the previous 18 years -- abruptly resigned when allegations surfaced concerning a coverup of child sexual abuse on the Tuscarora Reservation.
While she declined to discuss the reasons behind her resignation, it is clear that the continuing revelations concerning the misappropriation of funds, criminal coverups and abuse of the most basic human rights became too heavy a load to bear despite what was, in retrospect, a pretty sweet job.
Perhaps one day executives at National Grid and other private corporations doing business on the Tuscarora Nation will have their own pangs of conscience when it comes to dealing with the likes of Henry and the Pattersons -- perhaps not.
It just might take a well-funded, wide-ranging and comprehensive investigation -- one with subpoena power -- like that contemplated by John Bartolomei before the lights are turned on what's been happening on the reservation, and the cockroaches responsible go scuttling to some dark corner of their own.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 24 2012 |