Elections for the Quinault Indian Nation tribal council will be March 31 and President Fawn Sharp has announced she will run again in the face of some criticism about her growing national and regional affiliations.
Sharp so far is facing one declared challenger in Gene James, the tribal operations officer and a tribal councilman.
“I have told folks that I run a traditional campaign: I don’t campaign,” Sharp said in an interview before heading to Washington, D.C., for the annual National Conference of American Indians.
“In our community we have had some who run a campaign and even do signs and that sort of thing,” Sharp said. “I firmly believe that people have known me their entire life. I don’t have to sell them on a conceptor idea. I don’t go out and seek political support. I am very open to people who ask me questions about my vision or direction or thinking.”
James, a lifelong resident on the reservation, declared his candidacy in the January edition of the tribe’s newspaper, the Nugguam, and has been active posting information about his positions on a Facebook page that advocates voting out all tribal council incumbents.
“The feds are broke. The states, counties and cities are broke! We need to empower ourselves with the tremendous opportunities available that are exclusive to Quinaults,” James said in a letter to the paper.
The key issues to James are the Quinaults’ “jurisdictional authority to self-govern ourselves and our natural resources.”
“Will the feds continue to fund Indian country? Should we bet our children’s future on that premise?” James asked.
Other candidates could emerge all the way until the General Council meets, at which time names will be offered for the positions and voting is conducted. The voting is open to adult members age 21 or over who either live on the reservation, or live away from the reservation and have attended at least three tribal council meetings within the three years preceding.
CREDENTIALS
Both James and Sharp have distinguished educational and tribal backgrounds.
Sharp graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 1995 and received an advanced certificate in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University in 2003. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Gonzaga University in 1990 in criminal justice and philosophy Among her many positions in tribal service are Managing Attorney/Lead Counsel, Quinault Indian Nation; Associate Judge, Quinault Tribal Court; Administrative Law Judge, Washington State, Department of Revenue, Tax Appeals Division; and, Counsel for the Aberdeen law firm of Phillips, Krause & Brown. She also worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Washington State Department of Corrections.
She is a Grays Harbor College Trustee and area vice-president of the National Congress of American Indians. In September, Sharp was elected as the first woman to lead the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, which consists of 57 tribal governments in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Southeast Alaska, Nevada, Montana and Northern California. In December, she was named to a national position as chair of a special Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform by Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar.
James’ mother, grandmother, and great grandmother were original allottees on the Quinault reservation. He said he previously operated a logging company that was devastated in the late 1990s, and was convinced to go to Grays Harbor College by an adviser for the Grays Harbor Timber Transition Center when he was nearly 50 years old.
He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Evergreen State College in 2001, and then became an inaugural recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which assisted with his continued studies until he completed his PhD at Oregon State University in 2007.
FOCUS ON YOUTH
Going into what would be her third three-year term, Sharp is proposing an ambitious program to bolster an endowment program for Quinault youth and students. It’s called “Preparing an entire generation.” She hopes to secure funding from the Gates Fund.
“It would require a $5 investment per hour into our students that work for the nation during the summertime,” Sharp explained.
The first dollar would be dedicated to a fund where the students would earn and save money for summer educational experiences. Those 10-12 years old would be able to go to a local or regional camp; 13-15-year-olds would go to a national camp; 16-18-year-olds would go to an international camp.
“So by the time a child graduates from high school, they have had local, national and international experience,” Sharp said.
Sharp maintains she has helped to increase internships with the nation, which had 15 interns last year. Two teens were sent to a recent governance camp in Arizona for the Native Nations Institute.
“This year, I sought out a training camp for business and finance, and we have a number of kids who have applied,” she said. “As part of their training, they get to go to on field trips to the Apple headquarters, Google headquarters.”
Sharp said that on one of her recent trips to Washington. D.C., “I was criticized by my opposition, that I was hardly in the office during the holidays. But on that one trip, I met a person who worked for a non-profit and I started talking about this need for an educational camp for private-sector development, business and finance.”
She helped find the camp for Sharp.
“It was a singular trip and I happened to meet with the President of the United States and happened to bring world-class educational opportunities home,” Sharp said. “When people try to debate that point, there are very meaningful things I do, and that’s the role of the president. That’s why there is an 11-member council to deal with issues at home.”
‘TRIBALIST’ MODEL
James has proposed what he calls a “tribalist” governing administration, and he said his key issues are protecting the Quinault’s treaty with the federal government as well as “demanding that the United States honor their trust responsibilities. Our treaty is the legal document that guarantees the Quinault Indian Nation’s sovereign status. … Our treaty is nonnegotiable.”
The issues on the reservation, he said, are “some of the same issues as our non-tribal neighbors.”
“For example, employment, health care, and education are major concerns,” James said. “The imminent federal and state funding cuts appear significant. What do we do with our most vulnerable populations, the elders and our low income families with children if Medicaid, Medicare, Basic Health and other programs are severely cut or eliminated all together?”
James noted that many tribal member live outside the boundaries of the Contract Health Service Delivery Area and depend on those programs to survive.
In his statement announcing his candidacy, James was critical of Quinault business properties that “make little or no profit,” noting that few business are up and running on the reservation.
“The Nation continues to hire non-tribal ‘professionals’ instead of investing in our own people,” James said. “Why?”
He recommends that businesses should no longer be subsidized if they can make a profit and that new opportunities that are sustainable, generate revenue and create employment “must be implemented without further ado.”
“On the business end, becoming financially self-sufficient must occur,” James said. “However, the political will must be strong enough to reinvest into our own land and people. That is a worthy effort.”
NATIONAL STAGE
The elections have sparked a lively debate on the “unofficial” tribal Facebook site called “Vote No 2012,” which urges: “Open your minds to change. Vote no to the current incumbents. That new dream team can be you! Looking forward to new ideas … and real progression.”
Comments there aimed at Sharp contend she spends too much time away from the reservation and has hired too many non-tribal members to positions.
Sharp shrugs off such criticism.
“The opposition is there. I’ve tried to not argue that point. People are entitled to their opinions,” she said.
Sharp noted that the late Joe DelaCruz, president of the tribe for 22 years, also was criticized for spending time away from the reservation on trips to Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. DelaCruz served as president of the National Tribal Chairmen’s Association (1977) president of the National Congress of American Indians (1981), and was chairman of public policy at the Center for World Indigenous Studies.
“Many of the challenges he had, I’m hearing the same opposition,” Sharp said.
She ticks off the criticism: “I’m off in Washington, D.C., and my attention isn’t focused on the local issues. That I have hired a lot of non-Indians at astronomical rates.
“Joe was criticized for that as well, and his take was that you attract the best people for the job. We have an aggressive training program for our tribal members, but there are some skill sets that are highly technical, and we do need to have the best trained folks for that.”
Replying to a question about Sharp’s duties outside the reservation, James said that she “is my president.”
“She sits on boards and advisory groups at the federal and state level that could have a significant impact on Indian country,” he said. “We at the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) are very proud that she operates under the QIN banner when she leaves our QIN lands to participate with other tribal leaders at those levels. Her legacy will be determined by QIN membership.”
FUTURE PLANS
Although the Quinaults are one of Grays Harbor County’s largest single employers — between the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino and other tribal enterprises — the tribe has struggled to keep up with some needs, such as having to recently close a homeless shelter in Taholah for lack of funds, and the closure last year of the Quinault Tribal Enterprises cannery after a federal inspection found a number of food and safety violations.
James said the Quinaults can help create employment for “tribal and non-tribal neighbors in surrounding communities, such as with employment opportunities at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino.
“Quinaults have always been a giving people. Sharing is not a foreign concept to our people,” James said. “We have the resources to do better. I envision collaborative business efforts at the national and international level led by the people of the Quinault Indian Nation.”
James, however, does advocate continuing the recent action to close the tribal beaches to non-members. He said the action was caused by non-Indians “attempting to build on our beach front” and that the tribe needed to be “more aggressive.”
“We need to make a stand,” he said.
Other proposals by James include revamping tribal government somewhat, especially how the executive office operates.
The Quinaults, he said, have “outgrown the idea that the power to be president and executive director for operations can be accomplished by a single person. The executive director’s duties can be delegated to an individual.” Under his concept, the president, as the chief executive officer, would have day-to-day oversight duties over the government, tribal enterprises and government.
Sharp, on the other hand, envisions using her position to help find more resources, especially for long-term programs. She recently has been talking with the Gates Foundation about a program that would be combined with the tribe’s existing Taala Fund to help raise money for educational opportunities.
“We’re going to build the first blocks to this initiative. This summer, our kids from kindergarten through eighth grade are going to go through some financial literacy training. Those kids will be prepped entering into this initiative when they reach their 10th birthday,” Sharp said of the start to the program.
She noted it ultimately would benefit 371 children between the ages of 10 and 18. As it evolves, Sharp said the initial $5 investment in each child could be leveraged over time to help make as much as $30,000 available to each person to buy a home on the reservation if they completed incentives to get their education and work for the tribe during summers.
“It’s a chance to prepare an entire generation for a better future,” Sharp said. “By the time they graduate from high school, they will be well prepared and prepared on their own merit.”
James advocates for more of a focus on finding ways to make tribal businesses profitable and to stop subsidies to ones that are failing, as well as better job training.
“It is touted that the Nation’s annual budget is about $100 million. Ask yourself if the last six years made life easier or empowered your family,” James said in his candidate’s announcement.
