[ Home | Contents | Next | Previous | ]
From: Galen Crum
Date: 3/10/2006
Time: 10:03:38 PM
Remote Name: 65.162.221.93
This is a letter I sent to each Tribal council member a month ago. Many of you have already seen it. I was asked to post it on this site for those who may not have as yet read it. I feel the real value it might have now is to show that those of us that are opposed to the Proposed Counstitution are not just selfish shareholders that are fearful of change. Rather we welcome change and a new road for all our people, just not the rocky, dead end road we are being led down by the Reform Commission. February 8, 2006 Principal Chief Jim Gray Members of the Osage Tribal Council PO Box 779 Pawhuska, OK 74056 Dear Chief Gray and Members of Council: I write to you as an Osage citizen and a voting member of the Mineral Estate. I have recently acquired a copy of the proposed Constitution for our new government. I am very concerned about the lack of skill and word craft exhibited by this document. A Constitution should be a very carefully worded blueprint for how we want our government to be organized and administered. A document that should only on very rare occasions require a change or amendment. A living document that will serve our people for generations, giving guidance to our future governing bodies, but not tying their hands so that they cannot respond to changing times and needs. Such a document would allow the different branches of government to do their own respective jobs, but give clear guidance as to the will of the people they serve. This rambling, twenty page Proposed Constitution cannot possibly serve this mission. It goes into minute detail about many subjects that would be far better dealt with by statute. One example is the nearly full page devoted to how an Executive branch veto should be handled. It describes in great detail how the three types of vetoes, shall be administered, even down to what is to be done with a pocket veto at the end of a legislative session. It even makes a line item budget veto a part of our Constitution. A very controversial practice many feel gives the Executive branch the power to change the intent of legislation after the fact. I’m not saying we do or don’t want the veto power to work the way it is stated in the Proposed Constitution. What I am saying is if these types of issues are dealt with by the congress they can be studied and vetted more thoroughly as to how we want the nuts and bolts of our government to work. And when the inevitable changes become necessary they can be fixed by statute rather than a costly and more difficult Constitutional change. A simple statement to the effect that the Executive branch has the power to veto legislation and that the congress may override said veto with a two thirds majority would be a more effective and longer lasting way for a Constitution to deal with this subject. This is one of many examples I could give as to how this document will hogtie our Government rather than serve it. Pick nearly any Article or Section and there will likely be a simpler more accurate way of stating the underlying important principal that is trying to be conveyed. A Constitution should never get into a lot of unnecessary detail as to the nuts and bolts of how a concept should be implemented. This should be a job for the Congress. Because when it is realized that a mistake has been made, or a new need arises, it is so much easier for the needed change to be made by statute than by a Constitutional change. And of course the real danger isn’t in the problems we can see. Its’ the ones we can’t foresee that maybe the killers. The changing times and needs of future Osages will require their Government to be flexible enough to meet their needs. As a member of the Mineral Estate I am also very concerned with how the Mineral Council is intertwined with, and subjugated by, the new Tribal government in the Proposed Constitution. There are many ambiguous statements in the document. In one place it seems to limit the Mineral Estate to the current members and their descendents, and then in another it states something to the effect of “it shall be administered for the benefit of all Qsage people”. Such wording is bound to lead to lengthy, bitter and expensive lawsuits that may well tear our tribe apart. This Document is so long and poorly worded that I have been studying it for nearly a week and am still very unsure as to what it says, and even less sure what it means. I don’t know how anyone could be expected to read it in a voting booth and make an intelligent judgment as to its worth. I fear its only salvation would be to start after the flowery preamble and examine every Article with an eye toward discovering the basic concept trying to be expressed, then having a competent person rewrite it in a simple, legally correct way that will stand the test of time and the Court system. I am asking the Tribal Council as the only elected and working government we now have to take a leading role in either fixing this disastrous Constitution or defeating it until a workable Constitution can be crafted. I understand that the Reform Commission has taken the position that the Proposed Constitution is their finished product and any changes will have to be in the form of Amendments after ratification. I and many others are convinced that this document is so flawed in concept and content that it could never be made workable by amendments. I want a Constitution and a united Osage People, just not this Constitution because it will cause our people nothing but trouble and heartache. So I am calling on you, our Tribal Government, to lead our people in rejecting this Proposed Constitution. We’ve waited a hundred years for a Constitution, let’s take a few more months and get it right! Galen Crum roll number 1242