Earlier this month, the Northern Arapaho Tribe decided to dissolve the Joint Business Council. It had been the major governing body for the two tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming since the early 1930’s.
Northern Arapaho Business Council Member Dean Goggles says the Joint Business Council was imposed upon the tribes by the federal government to make it easier for them to get consensus from both tribes. But instead, Goggles says, the Council was stripping the tribes of their autonomy, making it harder to work together.
“We’ve got a backlog of a lot of action items, things weren’t getting done. We weren’t hiring directors that we should. We had stalemate on a lot of those issues. To get 12 people in a room to agree on anything is pretty difficult.”
Goggles says government agencies expected the Council to make rushed decisions about important issues like oil and gas leases. He says for the most part there will be very little difference in the way the tribes are governed now since the two tribes will still collaborate on many committees. Goggles says it was time for the Council to disband because it was an archaic entity that wasn’t serving the tribes.
“Both tribes were consolidated into one single body back in 1938. But the members of each tribe elected their own business council. But the federal government continued to push the tribes to joint meeting. It was not created by the business council. It was for the U.S. convenience. So all we’re doing is taking a more active role in our autonomy.”
The Eastern Shoshone did not respond to requests to comment. But in a prepared statement said they did not approve of the decision to disband the Council. They say they are disappointed in the Northern Arapaho decision, which they say could jeopardize reservation-wide programs and funding.
