The practice of denying electricity to members of the Tuscarora Nation of Indians who have fallen out of favor with the tribe's illegitimate ruling clique of Leo Henry, Neil Patterson Sr. and Neil Patterson Jr. may be coming to an end.
Sources on the Tuscarora Reservation say that National Grid crews have begun upgrading service to individual Tuscarora households requesting the work, without going through the approval process previously required for such work.
Recently, power was extended to homes formerly lacking it, so long as at least one home on a given property -- parcels of land usually owned by members of the same family -- already has electrical service.
National Grid spokesman Steve Brady was on vacation and unavailable for comment last week, but National Grid sources said that all work done on the reservation is in accordance with guidelines set by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"Permission of the recognized tribal leadership is still needed for new service," the source said. "But there's nothing that says permission is needed for upgrades, which can include hooking up buildings not currently serviced, so long as they are included in the site plan for the property."
The near-total control over individual tribal members' rights to have electricity suffered a blow in November when National Grid refused to disconnect a customer at the behest of Leo Henry.
When a National Grid employee showed up at the home of Brandon Rickard with an order to disconnect based on an order signed by Henry, the Niagara Falls Reporter called the company to see how Henry could cut off electricity to a customer whose bill was paid in full.
It turns out that he couldn't.
Steve Brady said at the time that, while Henry and the Pattersons have the power to keep people from getting hooked up to power lines in the first place, they have no power to order shutoffs.
"There is nothing in that agreement (between National Grid and the Tuscaroras) or our existing tariffs to disconnect the service," Brady said. "Our tariffs are fairly specific about when and how we can terminate anybody's service -- safety, non-payment, and so on. Termination is a serious matter and a last resort."
Asked specifically about what happened in the Rickard case, Brady said an investigation is ongoing.
"It appears there has been some level of dispute between Mr. Rickard and another individual," Brady said. "The order to disconnect Mr. Rickard was canceled and we are going to look internally and see how the order was written in the first place. We are going to investigate this thoroughly."
Last month, brothers Alex Anderson and Joseph Anderson Jr. had their requests for permission to hook their homes up to National Grid power lines rejected by Henry and the Pattersons. Both men own their own businesses, and are the grown sons of longtime Niagara Falls Reporter advertiser "Smokin' Joe" Anderson.
Henry told the brothers that they needed to come up with information from their telephone accounts in order to be considered for electrical hookups, but the council's behavior in a large number of similar cases makes it far more likely they were rejected because of their father's longtime association with this newspaper.
The Pattersons and Henry have no authority on the reservation other than that given them by government agencies such as the BIA and the state Power Authority. The Pattersons have been rebuffed several times in their efforts to become clan chiefs, while Henry is a sub-chief.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 3 2012 |