June 11,1999
To the Editor,
Louis Bad Wound and Larry Red Shirt would surely cry. Both Lakota freedom fighters have gone on ahead with the Creator. Both were part of the original group who worked so hard for the return of the Black Hills to eight Sioux Tribes.
As an enrolled member of the White Earth Chippewa Nation and the President of the oldest Native American-owned growth equity investment management firm, having registered with the US Securities & Exchange Commission in 1995, I thought I would show cause as to why Native American Tribes need to invest prudently in the equity markets and why Tribes should question the role of the BIA in managing their assets.
In June of 1980, a decade after I attended high school in Pine Ridge, South Dakota the Supreme Court of the United States upheld an award of $105.9 million to the Sioux for the value of land taken by the US Government plus accrued interest. Those assets have been held “in trust” by the BIA ever since. The money has been invested in bonds guaranteed by the US Government, the same Government that has violated almost every treaty agreement signed with Tribal leaders. That original investment, in bond investments “managed” by the BIA has grown to around the $500 million mark; not a small amount for any investment management firm today.
But, had the BIA been directed, asked, or instructed by Tribal or Federal authorities to invest that monetary award, in June of 1980, into the US stock market, into an unmanaged, passive index of United States stocks comprised of the largest 500 stocks in America (the S & P 500 index), that original $105.9 million would have grown to an absolutely staggering amount of $2,313,915,000 (2.3 billion) in April of 1999.
Think seriously about these numbers. The time it would take today to invest $105.9 million into the S & P 500 Index would be only minutes. Imagine the power these eight tribes would have with over $2 billion in assets in securing the 1.3 million acres of US Forest land they wanted returned. As a former Trust Officer for one of the largest US banks, I don’t call that a trust relationship. I call that a rip-off.
Stop asking what the BIA can do with your money, that answer seems obvious. Start asking what professional investment management firms can do for Native American money. How long can Native people wait, for if not today, when? The time is now to break the cycle of dependency on BIA financial mismanagement. For all the wonderful Sioux people who could be benefiting from these funds, think very seriously. I know Louis Bad Wound and Larry Red Shirt would.
Megwitch,
Dean T. Parisian
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