Comment On Artman Post

I received a comment over the weekend concerning the Carl Artman post of last week.

The unedited comment is as follows:

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Approximately two years ago, Mr. Carl Artman made the following statement to Mr. Dave Dillenburg and Mr. Tim Carpenter, Village Trustees (elected official of the Village). Mr. Artman told these two elected officias that the Village of Hobart should "prepare to become extinct."

The Village is a local general purpose government located within the boundaries of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin (OTI). It is the government that that is elected to serve approximately 5,800 residents, and it is the government that has a Constitutional duty to protect the general welfare and public safety of all residents including enrolled tribal members residing within the municipal boundaries.

The OTI's governmental duty is restricted to its members only.

At the time of the statement, Mr. Artman was legal counsel for the OTI.

Ms. Cleary's term "extinguished" is close, but not quite accurate. What Mr. Artman said was "prepare to become extinct" to a local general purpose government.

This comment has been communicated to numerous congressmen by our elected officials, but was never published in a newspaper.

Elaine Willman,
Village Administrator
Village of Hobart, WI

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Because it was made anonymously, it is unclear to me if Ms.Willman was the person requesting the comment to be posted or if it was a third party who had this information and wanted it posted. In any case I appreciate the comment and didn’t want it buried in the comments section.

The problem I still have with this is that we went from one word being quoted.. a word it turns out probably wasn’t even used by Artman - “extinguished” - to 4 words -“prepare to become extinct”. We still do not have the entire statement in the proper context. Perhaps there is a reason these people don’t want us to know what that is.

Also, in Ms. Cleary’s letter she states that the "extinguished" comment made by Artman was made in 2002.. six years ago. The comment above states that this “alleged” comment by Artman was made two years ago. ???

Just more muddled alarmist propaganda.

Maybe I can provide a little perspective and perhaps try to put this in the proper frame of context.

Carl Artman, at the time the above conversation with elected officials of the Hobart was taking place, which from my research shows it was in 2006, was serving as chief counsel to the Oneida Nation, where he dealt with land-into-trust, land claims, gaming, taxation and other issues. He was and still is an enrolled member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin.

There is a long history between the Oneida and the Village of Hobart over land issues which have led to litigation.

The village of Hobart is located entirely within the Oneida reservation borders which have led to legal battles over who has jurisdiction over what and how the tribes sovereignty plays a role in it all.

In a recent case Hobart filed suit to condemn tribally-owned fee properties, claiming they are not Indian Country and a federal judge ruled in their favor which gave approval for Hobart to assert jurisdiction over fee lands owned by the Oneida.

So that is the time frame and the issues in which Mr. Artman may have made certain statements. He was working, as legal council which includes land claims, for a tribe who happen to have a general purpose government smack dab in the middle of their reservation….. and we still don’t know what he really said nor what Mr. Dave Dillenburg and Mr. Tim Carpenter may have said to Mr. Artman before Mr. Artman's words.

I am sure becuase of the struggle for land control in a situation like that, heated and emotional conversations were taking place constantly, but for some reason those four words are all we are hearing about.

Land control... hmmm basically what it boils down to in our valley between the Chumash and thier wealthy opponents.

One big fat land grab that is costing the rest of us.

Anyway, I do appreciate the comment above though as it helped me find more answers.

We still have the statement by Ms. Cleary that Artman, only a few weeks ago, said, “In meetings with community groups, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Carl Artman said he fully supports tribal interests and doesn’t care if Indian casino hosting communities are “annihilated.”

That is the comment I am really interested in tracking down because Mr Artman, in this case, is a public official.

Anyone with information on that ??


Sources:
http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/015229.asp
http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/007926.asp