Tribal Documents Detail the Saginaw Chippewas’ Engagement of Seminoles

[Susan Bradford]

After Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff’s relationship with the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan was severed through a contrived scandal, the incoming Chief, Fred Cantu, an ally of Sen. John McCain, proceeded to engage the Seminole Tribe of Florida, whose lobbyists had orchestrated Abramoff’s downfall for collaborative business deals.

As Tribal Council Minutes report, in October of 2008, the tribe made a “one time exception to the normal tribal policy” to authorize six interested Council Members to attend the Seminole Nation meeting in Hollywood, Florida.

Cantu, who was accompanied by his wife, Denise, met the Seminole’s Assistant Chief Larry Harrison.

Once the Seminoles were engaged, the Michigan tribe established a Migizi Economic Development Company, liquidated its billion dollar portfolio, and injected the money into the new company for the purposes of establishing joint businesses with the Seminoles through the Hard Rock franchise, a financial advisor close to the issue said. The Migizi accounts were subsequently looted, he said.

Once the Seminoles were engaged, cocaine began to arrive on the Saginaw Chippewa’s reservation in the dark of night in black helicopters, tribal sources said. Whistle blowers reported observing the shipments and even filmed one of Cantu’s representatives pick up what appears to be a cocaine stash dropped off at a nearby church.

During the Seminole’s engagement of the Michigan tribe, whistle blowers, who were also concerned about the lies their Council had circulated about Abramoff, reported being besieged by tribal police. One Native gentleman caught tribal police ransacking his home. On another occasion, tribal police slaughtered his cherished pet rooster in an effort to intimidate him.

Another activist, Gary Sprague, the brother of the tribal dissident who appeared in McCain’s hearings, had for decades challenged the take over of his tribe by whites from Flint with ties to Congressman Dale Kildee. The tribal controllers had tried over the years to silence him, even going so far as to pray over a Ouiji board that his body would succumb to cancer, he said.

The retaliation against him became particularly brutal during the Cantu Administration. For example, after he criticized the leaders in a private meeting with his doctor, he was arrested at gun point for “threatening the Council,” which then attempted, but failed, to have him incarcerated for three years. Police were overheard saying, “Now that we got Gary, we’re going to get the rest of them,” he said.

Sprague was spared by the new Council, which was sympathetic to the Indians’ grievances.

The tribe’s most outspoken whistle blower, Delores Jackson, who challenged the tribe’s dissident and was investigating the alleged fraud surrounding the Seminole deal, succumbed to cancer after a doctor misdiagnosed her and treated her improperly. As she lay dying, the doctor laughingly informed her that he had mistakenly prescribed her the wrong medication.

The children of whistle blowers were also targeted, with Indians reporting that tribal police took to pointing guns directly at their heads during interrogations, tribal sources said.

Recently, tribal members produced documents which reveal that the Captain who presided over the tribal police department during this period of brutality was David Crockett, who allegedly remains unprosecuted for the rape of an Indian girl, Gary Sprague said.

In 2007, the Cantu Council approved a personal services contract and limited waiver of immunity for Crockett for three years, Tribal Minutes report.

Tribal documents also reveal that the motion to select Crockett was made by Bernie Sprague, the tribal dissident who appeared in McCain’s hearings to offer false testimony against Abramoff, and was seconded by Audrey Falcon, who worked with McCain’s fundraiser, Scott Reed, to set up Abramoff for a federal investigation.

Crockett had presumably given instructions to tribal police to silence and intimidate the whistle blowers, tribal sources said.

Police brutality has subsided on the reservation since the Saginaw Chippewas withdrew from their engagements with the Seminoles and tribal leaders, like  Bernie Sprague, have been sidelined on the reservation.

Susan Bradford is the author of Lynched! The Shocking Story of How the Political Establishment Manufactured a Scandal to Have Republican Super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff Removed from Power. For more information, please visit: www.susanbradford.org.

© 2012 Susan Bradford