OGLALA TRIBAL COUNCIL SUSPENDS MEMBERS REFUSING DRUG TEST

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council has suspended some members for
refusing to take a drug test, and a tribal judge in Pine Ridge upheld
the suspensions in a ruling Friday afternoon.

In the same ruling, Chief Judge Lisa Adams reversed the suspension of
the tribe's treasurer, Crystal Eagle Elk, saying the council did not
have authority to suspend her.

"My ruling was really simple," Adams said late Friday afternoon, after
a court hearing that lasted all day. It was not clear Friday how many
council members had been suspended for refusing the test. Adams' list
had six members, and possibly a seventh, but council members put the
number at four or five.

It was clear, however, that Eagle Elk was not suspended. The judge
said suspending her would have resulted in a "crisis" because the
tribe would have been unable to pay employees or provide vital assistance.

Adams also struck down two parts of a resolution to suspend council
members who refused the drug test. One of those provisions would have
required publication of the results of the drug tests in newspapers.
The other would have required members who failed tests to resign or be
impeached.

"The problem is, the council abrogated its own rights," Adams
said.

Drug-test results should be private, Adams said, in part because they
could expose council members to criminal prosecution.

Tribal Councilman Floyd Brings Plenty of Oglala, in the White Clay
District of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, introduced the original
resolution Oct. 18.

It passed 10 to 3, Adams said, with five council members
absent.

Brings Plenty said the measure was a response to federal charges in
New Mexico against Councilman Don Garnier.

Garnier was a passenger in a car with 21 pounds of marijuana in the
trunk, which authorities discovered during a routine traffic stop.
Garnier was suspended pending the outcome of that case.

Brings Plenty said his resolution would demonstrate the council's
commitment to a drug-free reservation.

The measure requires council members and other elected tribal
officials to take hair-follicle drug tests. Adams said an attorney for
the tribe argued Friday that hair-follicle tests were more accurate
than urine tests and could reveal drug use weeks or months before the
test.

Brings Plenty said Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Steele ignored
the council's original resolution.

Steele was traveling this week, so Vice President William "Shorty"
Brewer signed the order suspending the tribal members and the treasurer.

Tribal Councilman Tom Poor Bear, who was suspended, said he will fight
the measure. "That violates our constitutional rights," he said. "I
was elected by the people of the Eagle Nest District." Poor Bear said
drug tests should be reserved for paramedics, law officers and others
in similar positions.

Adams said six or seven council members had been suspended, but Kathy
Janis of the Wounded Knee District, who was on Adams' original list,
said she not only took the drug test, she voted in favor of it. "If we
want our employees to be drug free and take a hair-follicle test, why
should we be exempt?" she said. Her name was on the original list in
error, she said.

Garfield Little Dog Steele of the Wounded Knee District acknowledged
he was suspended. He said his hair was too short for the test last
month, but he did take a test this week and expected results Tuesday.

"I'm in favor of this," Garfield Steele said. He voted for the drug
tests, he said, and he said most people on the Pine Ridge reservation
supported a drug-free council that "policed themselves."

Garfield Steele and Janis said Austin Watkins of the Medicine Root
District also would be removed from the list.

Other council members on Adams' list were:

- -Jim Meeks of the Eagle Nest District

- -Kim Clausen of the LaCreek District

- -Cora Whiting of the Medicine Root District

Janis said those three council members remained suspended, but the
Rapid City Journal was unable to contact them Friday.

Adams said she believed the tribal council did have the authority to
require drug tests of members. "The goal is to promote a drug-free
council," she said. "And if you test positive, you probably should
step down."

Adams expected her ruling to be appealed to the tribe's three-member
supreme court.