Minutes: April 5, 2019

SAC AND FOX TRIBE OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN IOWA

Tribal Council Special Meeting – April 5, 2019, 5:00 PM

Sac and Fox Tribal Chambers

  1. Meeting called to order at 5:08 m.
  2. Roll Call

Presiding Officer:  Anthony Waseskuk, Chairman

Tribal Council present:  Adrian Pushetonequa, Vice-Chairman; Delonda Pushetonequa, Treasurer; Troy Wanatee; Apollo Davenport

Absent:  Jarvis Bear, Harvey Davenport

Staff present:  Bessie Scott, Executive Director; Oliviah Walker, Deputy Executive Director; Yolanda Pushetonequa, Executive Assistant/ Tribal Council Non-Secretary; Christina Blackcloud, Fox Professional Services; Kim Clair, Sexual Assault Coordinator;

Visitors: Donnielle Wanatee, Hilda Youngbear, Beverly Roberts, Allison Lasley, Leigh Lasley, Leann Morgan, Lauryn Keahna, Jerry Youngbear, Jr.; Dina Keahna.

  1. Ascertainment of Quorum – A quorum was ascertained with 5 council members present.
  2. Agenda approval

The Chairman asked for any changes or additions to the agenda. Motion made by Delonda Pushetonequa to approve the agenda as presented. Adrian Pushetonequa seconded. Vote: 4 yes, 0 no. Motion carried.

  1. New Business
    1. Tribal Council Action
  1. Chairman states that we have received the resignation of Harvey Davenport and requests a motion to accept it.

Motion by Adrian Pushetonequa to accept the resignation of Harvey Davenport. Apollo Davenport seconded. Vote: 4 yes, 0 no. Motion carried.

  1. Election Committee Notification

Motion by Adrian Pushetonequa to notify the Election Committee of Harvey Davenport’s resignation and to hold a Special Election to fill the vacancy. Apollo Davenport seconded. Vote: 4 yes, 0 no. Motion carried.

  1. Tribal Employee Request – Complaint Filing
    1. Christina Blackcloud presents a letter to the Tribal Council. She wishes to have her statement heard in an open session. She is aware of the motion made earlier but wishes to read aloud her letter which has been filed with Executive Management. Her letter explains that she was sexually harassed by council member, Harvey Davenport, Jr. She detailed the thoughts and feelings she had as a result and read out loud the unwanted sexually explicit messages she received from him. She explains that the sexual harassment has caused her trauma and is negatively affecting her personally. She explains the difficulty she had carrying on with her regular work duties after the harassment. She stated that she quickly secured a no contact order against Harvey from the tribal court, and it was granted on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he contacted her again, violating the court’s order, and he was cited for it. Delonda Pushetonequa also reads out loud a letter that she has submitted to the Tribal Council today reporting an incident of sexual harassment from Harvey Davenport, Jr. The letter has also been filed with Executive Management. Delonda was unable to continue reading the letter aloud. Bessie Scott, Executive Director, finished reading the remainder of the letter on her behalf, including the sexually explicit message Delonda received from Harvey, to which Delonda did not respond. Delonda’s letter explains that she was upset, disgusted, physically ill, ashamed, violated, confused, and shocked. She stated did not know how to respond or what to do. She requested an early flight home from the travel they were on because she did not want to look at or be near Harvey and had since begun to avoid him as much as possible, not being in the same room alone and only speaking to him when necessary. She said she did not formally report him at the time and unsure of what she would do. She stated she had respected Harvey greatly her entire life. She expresses that she comes forward in support of another colleague who has reported the same harassment. She expressed immediate guilt she could have prevented another person from experiencing the same trauma if she had reported sooner. She states in her letter that her hope is that Harvey resigns and that the community is made aware as to the reason why and she stated, “This type of treatment of women is unacceptable and should be condemned.” Apollo Davenport shares that he is shocked and sickened and has lost respect for Harvey. Apollo states he would be in support of creating a letter to be signed by each member of the Tribal Council and posted. He feels it is important to let the community know. Troy Wanatee states that the Council should take action and this is something that should not be tolerated. He states that he isn’t sure if a resignation is good enough and if maybe we should do something more. Adrian Pushetonequa states that he was equally astounded. He stated, “this is not something you expect to occur from the Tribal Council.” He adds that this is a new type of thing to deal with, “there are things you are not supposed to do, but it has occurred. These texts don’t compare to what I’ve heard before. In our last meeting, I stated we no longer scold each other and nip it in the bud. We let things go. Long ago when we were young we scolded each other and got scolded by aunts and uncles.” Anthony Waseskuk states that he would like to express that he is extremely sorry for what has happened to the victims. “This is not supposed to happen and we are deeply sorry.” Christina states that we have a tribal value of respect. She would like to ask that if the Tribal Council could condone the respect in a true way. She would like to have new policies in place. Oliviah walker thanks the women for coming forward. Donnielle Wanatee states that she is concerned about whether tribal business has been influenced due to the harassment. Michael Keahna asks to speak. “I don’t know how it came to be that the men are in front of everything and we hold the women and children back, when the gods we pray to say that that the women and children are cherished.” He adds that he would like to see the Tribal Council be as committed to the Council, as he has been to ceremonies, for example only missing one ceremony due to being in the hospital. He’d like to ask the Council to be this committed to their roles. He states that the tradition of putting men first before women is something that has helped this to happen. Michael encourages that we look at how we rank the importance of things: children and women first before men should be our value. Bessie Scott, Executive Director, sates that when she learned this information last week from Delonda, she felt sickened. She stated she felt heartbroken to know that these women have suffered in the way that they described; and continue to suffer to this day. She explains her sadness and anger felt when looking back and realizing she was with Christina at the time Christina was receiving the messages from Harvey. She then expressed that she had received some messages from Harvey that while they were not harassing in nature, they began with the same wording as the messages received by the other two women. She read them aloud and they were similar to the beginning messages received by Christina and Delonda. Anthony Waseskuk states we will do what we can to help support these women who have come forward. Yolanda Pushetonequa states that she wants to thank the Council members for hearing these women right now because they come forward with a lot of risk and at this time the Tribal Council’s stance is going to influence or impact the community. Michael Keahna also would like to reiterate that he agrees with the Council members who suggested putting something out to print media. He also discusses the history of the community and the way violators were punished in the past with banishment. We used to banish our own if someone did something against one of our own. Michael would also like to emphasis the importance of following the religion and that it helps keep the people stronger. Adrian Pushetonequa would like to see the departments advertise more warnings about vices such as substance abuse, violence, etc. He states that we need to see this type of messaging more public, more informative and targeted at prevention. We are missing that value of enforcing safety and our values. Jerry Youngbear, Jr. would like to state that the time for talking is now done, it is time to enforce or act on these good ideas or this is just going to keep happening. Christina’s attorney, Mr. Marquess states that a helpful thing to do would be to publicly condemn this behavior and make stronger policies. He adds that the current infractions are more of a civil issue and not as much criminal. Yolanda asks the RISE Advocate, Kim Clair for the perspective from her program. Kim states that public sharing of this is a way to help.

Christina shares that the harassment had shaken her to the point that she had to leave her home for a little white, and couldn’t feel right telling family members. She stated that she is so grateful that she told Delonda and they were both grateful they told each other because they’d both be suffering silently. Chairman Waseskuk stated that we will work on this problem. We don’t know how extensive it is but we will work on this problem.

  1. Adjourn

Motion made by Delonda Pushetonequa to adjourn. Apollo Davenport seconded. Vote: 4 yes, 0 no. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 6:27 p.m.