“A whistleblower complained that the bureau in Sacramento erased records within an Interior Department database and altered spreadsheets in an effort to hide mismanagement of collections under the agency’s control…”
Thank you to whistleblower Patrick Williams: “They more or less wanted to sweep it under the rug,” Williams said in an interview. “They were telling me to change things they didn’t want to see in the record and not to record information that tribal members might want to see as part of a repatriation request.”
A Department of Interior agency is being investigated for breaking the law. We need to wait to find out the results of the investigation, but it is of concern that databases and spreadsheets could be, and may have been, altered within the Department of Interior. Sally Jewell, what assurances do American taxpayers have that this isn’t a widespread practice? What steps can you take to make sure this doesn’t happen?
Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell (Photo: Tami Heilemann)
SOURCE: santafenewmexican.com
Agency accused of violating law on remains, relics
By Susan Montoya Bryan the Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, — An independent federal agency is calling for an investigation into allegations that U.S. officials ignored a law requiring them to catalog, preserve and ultimately return human remains and relics to American Indian tribes.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has directed the Interior Department to investigate whether U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials have violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act while managing collections of remains and artifacts amassed during the construction and management of dams and waterways throughout California and parts of Nevada and Oregon.
A whistleblower complained that the bureau in Sacramento erased records within an Interior Department database and altered spreadsheets in an effort to hide mismanagement of collections under the agency’s control, resulting in hundreds of remains and artifacts being lost, boxed up for storage or loaned to museums and universities without the ability to track them.
The watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it hopes the inquiry will be expanded to cover more agencies and more parts of the West.
“These are relics that do not belong to the American government,” said Jeff Ruch, the group’s executive director. “The point of the law is they belong to the tribes from which they came. If these were your ancestors’ remains and they were boxed up someplace where you couldn’t get any information about them, you’d be pretty angry.”
A spokesman with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific office could not immediately comment, saying he was unaware of the whistleblower’s case and the call for an investigation.
The federal government’s handling of Native American remains and artifacts has been criticized for years. Following a critical report by the Government Accountability Office in 2010, the Interior Department asked for more money and at least eight years to bolster compliance with the law.
But progress has been slow and frustrating, and communication with tribes is still lacking, said D. Bambi Kraus, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. “It’s encouraging that this is being investigated,” she said.
A filing with the Office of Special Counsel shows Patrick Williams, who used to work as a museum specialist in archaeology in the bureau’s Mid-Pacific office, raised concerns with his supervisors that the agency was not complying with the law’s requirements once it stopped keeping detailed records of remains and relics. He also said the office was not filling out the proper paperwork when loaning out artifacts, essentially making the items untraceable.
The office routinely failed to notify tribes of long-stored and newly uncovered remains and funerary objects, Williams said. Some of the collections date back to the 1970s, when the federal government was building the New Melones dam and reservoir in California.
“They more or less wanted to sweep it under the rug,” Williams said in an interview. “They were telling me to change things they didn’t want to see in the record and not to record information that tribal members might want to see as part of a repatriation request.”
Williams said his supervisors told him creating detailed files of the remains and artifacts to comply with the law was “too complicated and required too much time and effort.” He said his concerns resulted in hostility and threats of termination.
“I’m not about to break the law for anybody, and they wanted me to go along with it,” Williams said. “I would rather step out, and that’s what I did.”
A combination of budget cuts and the low priority assigned by bureau managers resulted in responsibilities under the law falling by the wayside, Williams said.
While it’s unclear how widespread the compliance problem is, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said it wouldn’t be surprised if similar things were happening elsewhere given that budget shortfalls and other priorities are challenges found throughout the agency.
“This is a statutory duty they feel they can ignore,” Ruch said. “The most important part is tribes aren’t being consulted, so there’s nothing to prevent this from going on for years and years.”
The Office of Special Counsel has given the Interior Department 60 days to investigate the allegations and report back.
Categories: Horse News
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Wow.
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With an agency as monstrous and cumbersome as the Department of Interior, this information is sad, but certainly not stunning.
The running policy is to hide those things that have become inconvenient, while making bold and utterly empty blanket statements to address Public concerns.
As it regards policies governing the Wild Horse and Burro Act and Program, this is evident in continuing to mouth ancient rhetoric and information that has been repeatedly disproven by the independent Public – and even by science-based research commissioned by the BLM itself. In the four studies presented by the NAS, much was acknowledged but little adopted in policy.
That’s a little off-subject, but it’s relevant in cementing that this entire agency is running on air – and arrogance. It’s well past time to clean that house, or raze it entirely.
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I thought Sally Jewell gave an emotional speech post-appointment about trying to right the past wrongs the US Government inflicted on our Native American peoples. Why is she silent on this issue now? Silent Sal again… I am disappointed a woman of her obvious intellect and talents seems to be no better than any of the good ol boys. Our world deserves and needs much better leadership.
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GOd, this is. BAD news!
Hey, wait! This will be good for their internal law enforcement – I think this same person has worked at BLM, in the wild horse and burro department! Wow!
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This is unbelievable but not surprised. We can’t trust our government and their dept. with anything. What is our poor country coming to. We rely on our government to be trusting, protective. They constantly getting caught dong the absolute wrong to the people, the animals, our country.
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Janwindsong, are you saying Patrick Williams worked for BLM in the Wild Horse and Burro Program? Maybe he can tell us the Truth about the BLM’s plans to kill-off the Wild Horses and Burros?
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SHELDON WILDLIFE REFUGE where
Federally Protected Wild Horses and being captured and removed
ECONOMICS, POLITICS, LAW AND HISTORY OF GRAZING (Continued)
http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/og5c.html#E
Part [E7] Grazing Laws National (US) Wildlife Refuges
National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), administered by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, are the only federal lands in the US where wildlife has officially been given higher priority than recreational and commercial activities.
Federal law states that no recreational or commercial use shall be permitted on these lands unless the Secretary of the Interior determines that these activities are compatible with the primary purposes for which Refuges are established.
As of 1991, 156 of the 368 NWRs in the 17 Western states and Pacific Islands allowed commercial livestock grazing and/or haying ((91J1) p. 470).
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Did the Secretary of the Interior “determine that these activities are compatible with the primary purposes for which the Refuges are established”?
NON-FEDERAL OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYSTEM
Here is the link to the notice posted on the Federal Register
Fish and Wildlife Service/Department of Interior
Monday June 9, 2014
Click to access 2014-13303.pdf
Non-Federal Oil and Gas Development Within the National Wildlife Refuge System
Pages 32903 – 32903 [FR DOC # 2014-13303] PDF | Text | More
Federal law states that NO recreational or COMMERCIAL USE shall be permitted on these lands unless the Secretary of the Interior determines that these activities are compatible with the primary purposes for which Refuges are established
http://home.windstream.net/bsundquist1/og5c.html#E
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WHAT!?!?!?!?
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well , o.k. does this mean that the whole debt will be under more supervision and maybe pushing the issue of an actual eyes on count of wild horses .! or is it just that little piece of that debt. being looked at??? man, i hope that there is something in this ray of light that we may use ? i hope so..
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Reblogged this on cindymendoza47.
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Great article. I have wondered whether or not these federal agencies have perhaps removed horse bones, teeth, and pieces of Native American pottery from the areas in the West where they are known to have existed. For example, Equus lambei has been found in the La Brea tar pits, so it would stand to reason that other areas of CA would also have horse fossils.
Efforts to remove wild horses and burros from federal lands may have contributed to the need that Wild Horse Annie saw when she realized the horses were disappearing. Published attempts to remove species FWS and its NGO partners did not want to be on public lands began in 1970’s though the plan may have been in the incubator in the 1960’s.
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Fry them all, they lie about everything investigate them about all their lies and deceptions………..
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The stealing of Native American cultural artifacts for years and general mistreatment and genocide isn’t different from what was done in Nazi Germany.
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HH, some of my research points to a shared time span of nearly 40,000 years between Native American people and Native American horses. One of the points mentioned in my investigations was that so many sites had been disturbed it makes it very difficult to fully grasp the history of the Americas. Some archaeological sites were thought to reveal the oldest ever known artifacts…until someone dug a little deeper in the same hole and found even older ones. So your reasoning is sound; it is probably more likely there are were horse fossils everywhere than that there weren’t before the arrival of Europeans.
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Ida, one big difference is it is still happening here, though in more subtle ways.
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The civil servant is redefined by their moral and ethical value “set.”. Accountability is nondescript and elusively employed. But like the wily turkey, hunting is simple when its key is found. If you allow this government bank of losers to sanctify our historic achievements, you have unfortunate risks of desecration. Real scientists are not employed by civil service, not even as vendors. Take a lesson from the revelation of the Pharisees. Real scientists are on our side.
Just today an article was published which reveals the DIRECTIVE by the White House to punish those who set aside science to allow political forces to control. There is a zero tolerance based on Sally Jewell’s own agenda of fighting climate control.
It is tragic that our ancestors’ beautiful works were destroyed and the written records lost. This sounds like McCarthyism, burning of the books, etc. All signs of a lower level intelligence attempting to gain control over the forces of good for their own short sighted benefit.
Wherever you stand on the issue of the wild horses, be advised – your International human rights are being violated. You are not a functioning member of society – you are an obstacle.
Make up your mind, how you feel about that, given this is Amerca. Decide if you are an American. The dilution of our right to petition the government is underway. The story of the Nazis was laid at the feet of the neighbors and friends. I’m beginning to understand that propaganda was bulls#*t. It was the forces of Nazis, ignoring the inquiries and petitions by the people, carrying out their personal plans notwithstanding the requirements of the rule of law.
The story I related above ended with the supervisors who had punished the whistleblowers, destroyed records, and falsified reports regarding the Keystone Pipeline being promoted and given jobs in the private sector. The whistleblowers are still caught up in petitioning their agency to reinstate salaries and repair the damage to theoir professional credibility.
It is way past time.
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this is probably only the tip of the iceberg
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12765729
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http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12765729
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https://www.hcn.org/issues/369/17663/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C
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This man gave up a lot, but maintained his integrity and self respect, which is something on which you can’t put a price tag.
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Only proves that if these agencies (because there are many on Native Peoples’ land, but the head abuser being DOI) are treating humans, dead or alive this way, what do you think they are doing to the wild equines and other wildlife and natural resources??????
No brainer for me.
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