Ex-Passamaquoddy leader says tribe broke

PLEASANT POINT – A former Passamaquoddy lieutenant governor said in a program that aired over the reservation’s cable network on the weekend that the tribe is broke and only a liquefied natural gas terminal at Split Rock would save tribal members from a life of spiraling welfare dependency.

“We’re constantly on what I would say – on the edge of bankruptcy,” former Lt. Gov. Eddie Bassett said. “The … money we’ve been surviving on since the beginning of the [Land Claims] Settlement Act is gone, no more. Where are we going to get our money to survive?”

And Bassett, 50, who works for the tribe’s environmental department, backed up his assertions with audio and videotapes that he said were from Joint Tribal Council meetings and other tribal meetings even though the tribe recently passed a resolution that prohibited such JTC audiotaped meetings from being released.

The Joint Tribal Council is composed of elected officials from Pleasant Point and Indian Township. The JTC has power over financial issues that affect both reservations.

During his taped presentation, Bassett also took issue with tribal LNG opponents. “I do not have any respect for the people who have declared a holy war, declared war against LNG. It’s kind of like the Islamic fundamentalist jihad. You know, when you get these people who declare war who said they will go the distance and they are just totally closed-minded and they will do anything they can … to go against something. That to me is extremist behavior,” he said.

And according to Bassett, opponents will do anything to get their message across.

“They will use every tool at their disposal to undermine the tribe, to undermine the tribe’s sovereignty.” he said. The tribal employee said that opponents had “incited fear” by talking about past LNG accidents and explosions that he said were not relevant to the current project.

Bassett used a video clip from a meeting at which opponent Vera Francis spoke. Francis was heard saying that she was willing to “go the distance” in her opposition to LNG. Bassett’s picture then popped up on the edge of the screen and he said: “Go the distance? Sounds like fighting words to me.” Francis could not be reached for comment Monday.

LNG opponents in Eastport who call themselves “Save Passamaquoddy Bay” made a copy of Bassett’s broadcast available to the Bangor Daily News on Monday. Group spokeswoman Linda Godfrey said she had received numerous telephone calls from tribal members after the tape had aired who offered to make copies available to her.

Two years ago the tribe voted to give its tribal leaders authority to build an LNG facility on tribal land. They entered into an agreement with the Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC that ultimately led to approval of the developer’s efforts to build a $500 million facility at Split Rock with three storage tanks in nearby Perry.

To bolster his assertions about the tribe’s economic problems, Bassett then played an audiotape from the March 2005 JTC meeting. He identified the speaker as the tribe’s accountant, who warned the tribe about its financial problems. “If you do not change the way you do business right now, you will go broke again,” the accountant warned.

The tape then dissolved into a shouting match between tribal leaders from both reservations over Indian Township Gov. Bobby Newell’s refusal to make Indian Township financial records available to fellow tribal leaders at Pleasant Point. During that discussion, Bassett flashed a slide on the screen that said, “Leadership and diplomacy in action.”

Newell then suggested that the Joint Tribal Council form of government should be abandoned. “If this existing tribal government doesn’t work, and if it stinks, change it. Let’s dismantle tribal government and have one meeting a year,” Newell said.

As the tape played on, television viewers also learned that the JTC owed the Bureau of Indian Affairs $500,000. Using yet another slide, Bassett suggested that the “$500,000, BIA’s forestry fund mismanaged by joint tribal council.”

That discussion also dissolved into finger-pointing, including a suggestion that the tribe might have to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “This is not a joke, this is serious,” a tribal councilor was heard saying. The councilors then agreed to repay BIA.

Bassett also played a film clip from former Pleasant Point Gov. Melvin Francis, who died earlier this year in an automobile accident. Two years ago, Francis warned tribal members that the tribe faced difficult financial times.

“The financial situation is far worse than he’s talking about now,” Bassett said. The former lieutenant governor said the tribe had about 18 months left before the rest of the money the tribe had made as a result of money it had invested from the Land Claims Settlement was gone

Interviewed Monday, Bassett declined to elaborate on his revelations about the tribe’s internal financial problems and possible bankruptcy issues. He did say, however, that if opponents wished to air their views on the tribe’s closed-circuit station, they could do so, but declined to help them put together a production piece. When asked who else on the reservation would have his production skills, Bassett thought a minute and then said, “I don’t know.”

Neither Pleasant Point Gov. Mark Altvater nor Indian Township Gov. Bobby Newell returned telephone calls Monday.