Sex with underage girls, millions of dollars in misappropriated funding, no-bid construction projects, and public officials who name themselves to high-paying jobs for which they have no qualifications whatsoever.
Yes folks, it's the Tuscarora Nation of Indians, a place so removed from the 21st century that fraudulent chiefs backed by fraudulent clan mothers can decide whether or not their subjects can receive medical care or electrical service in their homes.
A place where small children wait by the side of the road for a school bus that will never come, because their father or mother or uncle said something one of the phonies in charge didn't like.
The Niagara Falls Reporter has been exposing the graft, corruption, nepotism and human rights abuses taking place on the Tuscarora Reservation for the past nine months. We've watched as support for the illegitimate regime has peeled away, to the point where even its tribal attorney of 18 years walked away in disgust.
Among those not walking away, however, are the federal, state and local governments that empower the phony leadership. Make no mistake, the decisions about who governs the Tuscarora people were made far away from the reservation, in Washington, Albany and Lockport.
Still, the regime now has little left but fear with which to prop itself up and impose its will on the Tuscarora people, though there can be little doubt that some remain afraid.
Prominent Niagara Falls attorney John Bartolomei will be meeting later this week with representatives of the overwhelming majority of Tuscaroras who want to see a change in the way the reservation is run.
To Bartolomei, there exists a criminal conspiracy to deny basic civil rights to members of the tribe, a conspiracy that not only includes individual members of the fake leadership, but private corporations like National Grid and governmental agencies that support it.
He is currently preparing a civil lawsuit based on the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law that, if successful, would constitute a landmark case in the history of Native American law.
The Tuscarora people deserve no less. For too long now, the shadow of corruption has hung over their nation.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 21 2012 |