Sun Sets on state Indian panel. Chattanooga Times Free Press 7/15/01.

http://timesfreepress.com/2001/jul/15jul01/webmetroindiancommission.html

Sunday, July 15, 2001

Sun sets on state Indian panel
By Kathy Gilbert
Staff Writer

Toye Heape, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Indian Affairs, released the soul of the commission Thursday, as a Cherokee might word it, to walk to the western land of the dead.

"In the space of 10 days, all three branches of state government have come down on the Indian people of the state," Mr. Heape said as he announced his resignation.

Gov. Don Sundquist recently vetoed the $54,000 needed to run the organization this year. The Tennessee General Assembly upheld that veto. Also, a bill defining the makeup of the panel is languishing in the state House. And the last two commissioners' terms ended May 31, leaving the panel without any members.

"It exists in name only," said Clayton Prest, an outgoing commissioner from Cookeville.

The final blow was an appeals court ruling Wednesday allowing the state highway department to relocate American Indian remains to widen a Williamson County intersection, Mr. Heape said. 

The American Indian community has been in turmoil since lawmakers decided this spring to allow the commission to "wind down" until June 2002.

"It's turned into a political nightmare," said Tony Mack McClure, a Collierville resident who at one time was considered for a commission post.

Last year, the Commission on Indian Affairs was set for a regular six-year review, Mr. Prest said. 

A sunset review process was led last fall by then-Rep. Bill McAfee, R-Chattanooga. 

Mr. McAfee said Thursday he appointed an ad hoc committee of American Indians to advise his sunset committee, but factional differences split the group. 

"They could not come to any conclusion about what was best for the native Americans," he said.

The ad hoc committee recommended eliminating the legal requirement that a majority of commission members be of American Indian descent. 

A bill was introduced and passed in the state Senate to reshape the commission along those lines. That bill still awaits House action.

Some American Indians objected to the change, however.

"It's critical to have a majority of native Americans," Mr. Prest said. "You have to understand the people to work with them."

Mr. Heape, a systems analyst, had pledged to carry out his executive director's duties this year without pay, he said. But an attorney's advice convinced him to resign this week, he said.

Meanwhile, American Indians who support the legislation are holding statewide caucuses to nominate commissioners on Aug. 25, said Mark Caldwell, a Chattanooga resident and member of the Tennessee Native American Committee.

"We're going to have the commissioners in place in case the bill does pass," he said.

The Tennessee Commission on Indian Affairs was formed in 1983 to preserve sacred burial sites, recognize individuals and tribes of American Indian descent and promote American Indian welfare, according to its enabling legislation.

But in recent years Gov. Sundquist has not appointed new members to the commission. Eventually the panel could not get a quorum for its quarterly meetings. 

Mr. Prest said some people believe the governor's ire was triggered by a 1999 Williamson County court case shutting down a highway project to preserve an Indian burial site at Hillsboro Road and Old HIckory Boulevard.

But the governor's spokeswoman denied that charge.

"The governor doesn't govern in a retaliatory fashion," said Alexia Levison. "When we get candidates, we have to research those candidates. It's just a lengthy process and the budget has been our top focus for quite a while now."

Gov. Sundquist neither favors nor opposes an Indian Affairs Commission, Ms. Levison said. Nor does he take a stand on the pending legislation, she said.

"He would have to see the legislation in final form," she said.

The governor pulled the panel's funding this year because "the commission was in wind-down," Ms. Levison said. "And in a time of serious budget restraint it didn't make sense."

Some American Indians said the commission's demise was racially motivated. 

"The Andrew Jackson syndrome is good and well in the state of Tennessee," Mr. Prest said, referring to the former state senator and U.S. president who engineered the removal of Cherokees from the Southeast to Oklahoma in 1838-39.

"He did not want to recognize native people," Mr. Prest said. "And if they don't keep a commission, what they're saying is that Indian people don't exist, period."

E-mail Kathy Gilbert at kgilbert@timesfreepress.com