Feb 1, 2014 Saturday Mornings with the BC flyer
The February 1, 2014 ‘Saturday Morning with the BC’ meeting scheduled for tomorrow from 10 a.m. to Noon at Ridgeview Plaza Suite 4 is slated to address the topic ‘Building awareness of gangs in our community.’
On January 23, 2014 the Business Committee held an Emergency Meeting to be briefed on a proposal by Tribal Chair Ed Delgado to hire a consultant to focus on preventing gangs in the Oneida community.
It’s difficult to believe this sudden focus on gangs by the Tribal Chair and the BC is anything other than a pathetic political ‘Hail Mary’ to try to scare Tribal voters into thinking that they need the Chair and the BC to come to the Tribe’s rescue from something that is way beyond the BC’s control, rather than actually risk basing their upcoming re-election campaigns on the BC’s ‘accomplishments’ over the past three years which – let’s be honest – is an embarrassingly hollow record all around.
An important question, however, is this: Which gangs?
The gang that vandalized the Oneida Nation High School computer lab resulting in over $10,000 in damage, and of which the Oneida Nation High School Valedictorian was a member yet was somehow allowed to retain her honorary title and participate in graduation exercises anyway? (It probably didn’t hurt that her father is an Oneida Appeals Commissioner.)
Who decided to let her gang off the hook? None other than Principal Artley Skenandore whose shady and illegal business practices have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in judgments against him, not to mention the millions of Tribal dollars lost due to his role in the Nature’s Way fiasco.
When white-collar Oneida criminals cost the Tribe money, which could have been used instead for youth programs and educational opportunities, a breeding ground for anti-social youth is created, and when youths see people like Artley and the Oneida Seven Generations Corp. Board members & executives not only being able to get away with malfeasance, misconduct and/or negligence but be retained in or promoted to other positions of power in the Tribe, it’s perfectly understandable how youths could be misled into thinking they have no need to fear real consequences for their own actions.
Business Committee member Brandon Yellowbird Stevens was declared a “habitual criminal” by the State of Wisconsin for multiple acts of felony burglary and for domestic battery, yet somehow his ‘pardon’ by the Tribe allowed him to run for office, and once elected he is reported to have misused his Tribal credit card to purchase an expensive television for himself but was upset when the cost was deducted from his salary and his credit card spending limit was lowered.
The current Chair of the Oneida Gaming Commission, Mark A. Powless Sr., was found guilty of federal charges of illegal gun-running for the terrorist group known as the American Indian Movement (AIM) whose members murdered at least one Native American woman (Annie Mae Aquash), an African-American civil rights worker (Perry Ray Robinson Jr.), and FBI Agents among others.
When terrorist gang AIM – which is also believed to be affiliated with the Native Mob gang – held a conference to honor terrorist gang member and convicted murderer Leonard Peltier at the Oneida Casino & Conference Center October 2–4, 2013 they were actually welcomed to the Oneida community by Tribal Vice-Chair Greg Matson!
When Oneida youths witness a Native American terrorist group affiliated with a Native American gang being honored by elected Oneida Tribal officials such as Greg Matson; when they know that a (former?) member of that terrorist group is now the Chair of the Oneida Gaming Commission which decides if they are worthy of a Gaming License as is the case with Mark A. Powless Sr.; when they observe a Tribe member with a history of habitual criminality and violence actually becoming an elected Tribal official such as Brandon Yellowbird Stevens; when they hear that the Business Committee shelled out $750,000 from the Tribe’s General Fund to finance attorneys to sue the City of Green Bay (and lose) over the OSGC gang’s lies to the public and elected officials; and when they watch as their peers wantonly destroy Tribal school property yet are allowed to participate in school activities with honors by people like Artley Skenandore, is it any wonder why young Oneidas might not be fully convinced that there could really be meaningful consequences from being involved in illegal activities, whether violence, robbery, fraud, or vandalism?
Even if Tribe members who’ve been convicted of gun-running terrorist gang activity and habitual criminality receive a ‘pardon’ from the Tribe, can anyone really expect to continue to elect and appoint such people to positions of power and not expect Oneida youth to disregard well-intentioned warnings about engaging in criminal activity, if not lose outright any and all respect for authority and elders?
Speaking of which, later on Saturday February 1, 2014 from Noon to 10 p.m. at the Radisson Conference Center will be the 2014 ‘Honor the Youth Pow Wow’ with Emcee – you guessed it – Artley Skenandore.
Oneida Eye has heard from Tribe members that a young Oneida man stated openly in a Tribal meeting that he had been sexually assaulted as a teenage minor by someone who is now in a position of authority at Oneida Nation High School.
Perhaps Artley knows exactly who could have done such a dishonorable thing to an Oneida youth.
