Dear Chairman & Tribal Council Members
 
As the Three Affiliated Tribes aka Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation's Enrolled Tribal Members (Equal Shareholders) located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, we acknowledge our repeated concerns that have been brought to the Tribal Councils' attention numerous times. We have an outdated "Three Affiliated Tribes Constitution" that was created in 1935 that has caused a lot of barricades to the rights of the tribal members who are the equal shareholders of the land, it has brought a lot of unaccounted spending by our tribal council with no auditing, because the tribal constitution being very vague it cannot legally protect the tribal government's resources that it was created for. Today there are no updated laws, codes, regulations and procedures that meet our "standard of living" needs today. As a tribal member of the tribe, we have no true involvement and are left out completely as to how our tribal money is being spent. The tribal constitution is so "Vague" that it allows mischief and an outrageous spendthrift by these elected seats.
 
The oil boom has come, leaving our MHA Nation involved with large amounts of money coming in within the past decade, but there has been no transparency, accountability or audit reports given as to how it has been spent by our MHA Nation Tribal Councilmen. We as the equal shareholders of the land are seriously concerned on how we are not benefiting or profiting from the actions of our elected leaders.
 
We have had to petition, propose and request for disbursements in order to be even considered and it should not have been as we should be priority within our own tribal government, our needs are supposed to be met first.
 
We were disenfranchised, so we had to "request to be enfranchised" as Gas & Oil Royalties were coming in. It is a very disheartening thing to have to look like a beggar for something that is yours. After the distributions of very little were made to the tribal members the tribal council and employees directly under them decided to give themselves a raise without the consent of the tribal members and are giving other unnecessary amounts out to non-tribal members, organizations, or events.
 
We first received $500 disbursements a couple of times and then it went up to $1000 disbursements for about every three months where some were skipped every now and then, but now we are stuck in fear that we are not going to receive any other disbursement due to obvious mismanagement and unethical practices that are embedded deep into our tribal government system as common business practices today by our tribal council members. Why? What about the tribal members? Is there no more honesty provided for the tribal members by these elected seats?
 
The March 10, 2016 TBC Meeting denied our tribal members their disbursement for this month, but seem to have no problems sponsoring others who are not enrolled within our tribe with large amounts of tribal money. We feel our elected leaders are parading around for fame on our resources off of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, while the tribal members are being denied everything they request as a need. This meeting was a true disappointment by the tribal council as it was announced by a tribal council member at a New Years tribal event in public view that there would be disbursements given out this month. It is why we as the tribal members are bringing to the tribal council our concerns.
 
Meanwhile, we are being denied education assistance, medical assistance, housing, etc....even if granted assistance, we are granted only about half the amount that was requested. Where the tribal council allows only certain people they choose to constantly receive “non-needed money” and are unfair in giving it to them without making sure everyone is treated equally. The raises given, need to be explained as to why, to let the tribal members vote on them to pass it. High paying salaries, throwing large amounts of tribal money to gain self-fame to others other than providing or profiting tribal members do not make sense, especially when the tribal members voted in the tribal council where each sworn in to protect & serve are not doing so. We need separate powers so that our tribe can run according to a voted budget, efficiently and effectively.
 
Our tribal members are always in amaze in reading various news articles about how our tribal council members are making dressed up appearances in faraway events or meetings, yet there is really no reason for them to take the unnecessary expensive trip to begin with, because there is never a public report given as to why the trip was taken or how it benefitted our tribal members.
 
We as the shareholders who hold equal rights to the land are demanding that we receive transparency, accountability, & audit reports as a start that will be completed by non-conflict of interest persons or companies that we as the people will vote for, we hold authority over these disinterested persons conduct when it comes to our wellbeing and we demand privilege to see how our money is being spent, because we are not happy with being pushed on the back burner or kept in the dark when it is our right to know, we should not have to beg for these items as they are our tribal membership rights.
 
Every tribal election the candidates whether new or old to the tribal council elected seats always promise the enrolled members during their campaigns that they will see to it that transparency, accountability, audit reports, tribal constitution revision, ethics code implemented, probate code revision, etc, etc, etc....are all provided for if they are elected.
 
(The fact is, it is getting old and repeating over & over again like a broken record.)
 
The tribal constitution speaks for itself, it is going on 80 years now and everything written for us to use within the tribal constitution of our tribal government was not written by us, so it does not integrate the cultural values or ways of our people into it. We have never voted on a lot of the items that come into play within our tribal government today, we do not know what is in there or how our tribal leaders are altering it and we are not going to be left out any longer, so we are in demand to have these things needed & accomplished within a couple of years.
 
We have future generations to look out for and our own people who need jobs, housing, medical and especially their disbursements.
 
The worst fear for the enrolled tribal members who do get their own royalties is the control of the tribe as we were told by the oil companies that the tribe has control over tribal members royalty payments as it was found that all royalty payments go into a "one lump sum" check by the oil companies and is then decided how it is disbursed by the tribe/ost/onnr. This is unfair, a financial statement checked off by each verifying the amounts are correct should be given to all tribal members, including all content of all transactions that should be shared with all who are involved as it seems fraudulent to withhold facts to the rightful owners of minerals/land.
 
We want separation of powers, drug & alcohol free leaders and we want the dictation over our tribal government by the same seven tribal council elected seats to stop! Any tribal member who visits the MHA Nation Website page:
 
http://mhanation.com/main2/elected_officials.html
 
will find the “public display” of the dictation of our tribe that the tribal council provides proving this fact under the "Elected Officials" link . Causing our tribal members more neglect when there is no separation of power within our tribal government system, because of this dictation there is an unneeded overload on one person (tribal council member) and too much pay is given to these few, where we as the tribal members never get our issues resolved.
 
We demand that the tribal council take up their responsibility and duty, by protecting our people in making these vital changes needed that are so drastically affecting us negatively today. It is our right to know, to vote and voice on the actions, decisions and changes that the tribal council makes that involves our wellbeing in our tribal government.
 
We would like to see that we as "the equal shareholders" have the right to vote on all tribal government pay raises, salaries, contracts, employee pay grading scales, removal of seats, ethics, audits, etc....once we become involved we will set a lot of things in place as needed.
 
We would like to see that we as the equal shareholder have the right to vote on who sits in what seat to make the decisions needed for those specific tribal government branches, we want people paid according to their work and their presence in these office titles. We want a drug/alcohol free tribal government, professional advice given before big business decisions take place with large amounts of money where we as a tribe can decide together, equal voting rights for all tribal members, we want to be involved on revising and updating our tribal government elements to meet today’s legal requirements, our cultural values, etc....
 
We especially hope the tribal council works with us to make the difference and that we are not ignored, because we are addressing these concerns here appropriately, making our requests and demanding action as our right.
 
We would like to see our tribal members taken care of as priority, we have people who are suffering and it needs to be realized, taken care of and by the use of the tribal money for those needs.
 
 
Please reply by sending "Enrolled Tribal Members/Shareholders" a professional business letter responding to this petition appropriately by using the mailing list you already have on file or use when you send out our disbursements. If there is a meeting on March 30th, please make use of that time to address a letter providing answers to these concerns and if you are able to work with your tribal members on these long overdue issues.
 
"Keep in mind, change can be a good thing."
 
Respectfully
 
TAT Shareholders & Enrolled Tribal Members (AGE:18+)`