Eastern Shoshone to maintain joint council

RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) – The Eastern Shoshone Tribe announced it will keep the Shoshone and Arapaho Joint Business Council alive on its own after the Northern Arapaho Business Council withdrew from the panel.

The Shoshone tribe said in a statement that it will “maintain” the joint council and provide oversight and control over all the joint council programs and that it rejects the Northern Arapaho’s proposal to act on joint issues independently and not meet for discussion.

The Eastern Shoshone Business Council also said it disapproved of the Arapaho tribe’s recently formed Cooperative Management Team, which would make management decisions on joint issues.

“Both our predecessors agreed to and operated JBC for over 75 years,” Shoshone council chairman Darwin St. Clair Jr. said. “The Shoshone tribe will decide how and when we make decisions regarding our sovereignty, treaty and reservation interests, and we agreed to do that with the (Northern Arapaho Tribe) in the JBC process.”

Both tribes met in the joint council to approve actions, payments and contracts for programs such as fish and game, minerals management, tribal court and Headstart. Under the joint council, each tribe’s highest elected leaders oversaw the joint programs.

“The idea that SBC could take over Arapaho interests and make decisions for both tribes in pretend JBC meetings really is troubling to me,” Northern Arapaho chairman Darrell O’Neal Sr. told The Riverton Ranger.

While the Northern Arapaho Business Council said its decision to leave the joint council would bring greater self-government and independence, the Eastern Shoshone Business Council said the “ill-conceived” change would instead affect its sovereign and treaty right to manage joint resources. The Eastern Shoshone explained there are “implications across the board,” and without the joint council, there will be a lack of productive and thoughtful planning.

Northern Arapaho Business Council members said that some government agencies did not recognize the joint council and that the Shoshone tribe exercised its sovereignty outside the joint council on some issues.

The Eastern Shoshone said both tribes must agree on eliminating the joint council, but Northern Arapaho officials said that would mean one tribe could assert sovereignty over the other.

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Information from: The (Riverton, Wyo.) Ranger, http://www.dailyranger.com