article 16 Yakama Tribe as a public utilityAID Series - #16



Yakama Tribe as a Public Utility


The Yakima Herald Republic, on November 13, 2001, ran an article about the
fast developing Federally recognized Indian tribes that are becoming "public
utility"  providers. This article even stated how the tribes became eligible
to buy electricity directly from a federal agency. This eligibility became
the rule three years ago when the administrator of the Bonneville Power
Administration (BPA) , a federal government entity, re defined the term
PUBLIC and declared certain tribes were " public bodies ", and thus,
eligible to buy electricity directly  from the federal agency and re sell it
to the "public".

A quick review of Black's law dictionary reminds us that the term public is
an all inclusive term. I really think most of us understand what public
means - it is "the whole Body politic' ( of each separate State ), or 'the
aggregate of the citizens of a State, district, or municipality" just to
quote a small part of Black's definition.

So the question is how could the BPA administrator make such a definition
change and secondly, how could that administrator's legal staff and States
Attorney General allow such a crude and unjustified rule change take place?
These changes are clearly inconsistent with that agencies authorities  and
indeed not within the powers our Constitution gives the federal government.
Additionally, tribal governments are non republican in form, and actually
each is their own example of an oligarchy. This turn of events is just one
more example of federal departments failing to work within the powers our
Constitution gives them and clearly demonstrates the failure of states and
local governments to conduct oversight on federal actions that effect their
states and to take action to stop federal actions that adversely effect
their citizens and are unconstitutional.
J.A.F.