Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Tribal and national sovereignty should be bound by fiscal responsibility and financial transparency
graphic by/Castle Fox
I’m among several Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation citizens who recently filed a complaint – CV 2023-0469 — in the District Court of the Three Affiliated Tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Fiscal responsibility and accountability are key components. Anything I have to say about the complaint is in the complaint.
Meanwhile, here are some thoughts on fiscal responsibility, the act of creating, optimizing and maintaining a balanced budget. Fiscal generally refers to money. I’ll use it in reference to public money or government spending. Fiscal matters on the governmental level can range from revenue, income and expenditures to investments and holdings.
On the other hand, fiscal irresponsibility is what happens when a government fails to meet a balanced threshold. It is, more often than not, tied directly to a lack of effective financial planning and leadership. Poor planning or ignorance is in direct conflict and contrast to remaining financially cognizant to the macro/micro economic factors affecting an entity that can cause situations in which outgoing expenditures exceed the cash coming in.
Fiscal responsibility is a government’s assurance to uphold the good faith of its citizenry, and that it will judiciously spend, earn, and generate funds without placing undue hardship on its citizens. A basic tenet is steeped in the notion that representatives will maintain a financially sound practice and accounting for future generations. A functional society is difficult to maintain without financial security.
No government, business, or private citizen can thrive for long while operating with deficit spending. Debt can usually be floated for a while, but sooner or later, someone has to pay the Pied Piper.
When a government is fiscally irresponsible, its ability to effectively function is severely limited. Even with the best planning, situations can arise, emergencies can happen. A government in these situations must have quick access to reserve funds in order to mitigate damages and send help to its citizenry if, when, and where critical resources are needed.
A fiscally irresponsible government is not able to sustain programs designed to provide fast relief to its citizens. Depending on the extent of the budgetary problem, it may not even be able to fund its own programs during ordinarytimes.
Not only does poor fiscal planning and management create problems internally, but it can cause a lack of confidence on a much grander scale. Poor fiscal management through a lack of sound leadership can negatively impact everything from economic stability to a nation’s sovereignty.
This lack of fiscal responsibility can lead to dire situations such as economic sanctions being implemented upon a government which lacks self-discipline. Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by another external sovereign or financial institution against other sovereigns, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that attempts to get one party to change its behavior through the disruption of economic exchange. The concept is not new.
The following is an example of a secret series of memos Thomas Jefferson sent to William Henry Harrison in 1803. The letter was written Feb. 27, 1803. It sketched out a plan by which tribes in the Southeast could be disappeared.
“A functional society is difficult to maintain without financial security.”
Todd Hall, Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Citizen
Here is an excerpt:
In order to exchange lands that the Indians “have to spare and we want” wrote Jefferson, “we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands…
But in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we only have to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities (generosity) to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only.
Should any tribe decide “to take up the hatchet,” the only option would be to drive them off their land as an example to others.
Debt, dependency, threats, and force upon Indians were the thinking of the day. Jefferson wrote those memos while he was president of the United States. Some ways of thinking remain the same after 220 years for American Indians and the average U.S. citizen. Today, a chasm remains between the common man and the ruling elite.
Politicians, many of whom, appear to be bought and paid for are becoming the norm. Rather than having the best interests of their constituents at heart, they are beholden to the multi-national corporations, the revered “trading houses” Jefferson wrote about. Begging for funds is more of a concern than the governance of our great Nation.
Many politicians try to act tough and talk loud, yet the slightest slap might send them crashing to the barroom floor much like the Ponzi schemes they try to emulate.
Today, your average U.S. citizen is in debt. Student loans, credit cards, mortgages, rent, the list goes on. We work our fingers to the bone, trying to make ends meet. Yet, like the song Sixteen Tons, we’re all “another day older and deeper in debt.” Many of my fellow Americans working under the sun can probably relate.
Fiscal irresponsibility by those entrusted to safeguard its citizens can create a perpetual serfdom. For instance, while the politically connected and ruling elite enact policies to hike up the interest rates and raise taxes, we all make adjustments as cost-of-living expenses skyrocket. We adjust while the wealthy take rocket rides to space. We work more, pay more, but get less.
What can be done? People can get involved, vote, demand governmental responsibility, accountability, and transparency. Bringing order to a financial situation or budget isn’t as hard as it seems.
Any government, business or person can take steps to become more fiscally responsible. It begins with financial transparency, which can reduce waste, expose fraud, and highlight areas of fiscal inefficiency.
Transparency is essential to governmental spending. It begins with making facts and figures public. This can be done by enacting freedom of information laws and policies. Offering transparency and an inside look to government spending can offer a Nation’s citizens a sense of well-being and keep leaders honest.
Unless of course, they have something to hide.
Sourcing & Methodology Statement:
here is the Exibit, letter to Fort Berthold, and litigation preservation demand letter
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24003718-exhibits-a-j?responsive=1&title=1
THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE, Native America From 1890 To The Present by David Treuer.
What is Fiscal Responsibility? By Kelly Waterman Smartcapitalmind.com
ZZ Top – Sixteen Tons featuring Jeff Beck (Official Music Video).
Dateline:
MENOKEN INDIAN VILLAGE, N.D.