McCaleb says trust reform is "a first among some equals" on his priority
list and "deferred" to the Office of the Special Trustee on preserving 
the integrity of existing trust records.

At BIA, Seeking More For Tribes to Bet On McCaleb Makes Pitch for Energy 
Development

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page A19

Neal A. McCaleb did not always consider himself Native American, not really.
His father was Scottish-Irish -- with a trace of "undocumentable" Cherokee.
His mother, a Chickasaw, died when he was 5.
But now, as the Interior Department's assistant secretary of Indian affairs
and head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, McCaleb is the man in the Bush
administration charged with improving the lives and welfare of the nation's
1.4 million Indians and Alaska natives.
He knows that one of his prime duties will be to correct the government's
century-old mismanagement of Indian trust funds, whose neglect, tribes say,
has resulted in a government IOU of $10 billion and a legacy of mistrust.
The trust accounts were set up to compensate Indians for use of their land.
But McCaleb, an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, has another
significant goal: to bring economic development to Native Americans,
especially through the exploitation of energy resources.
"I want," he said, "to be a part of the solution to creating a
self-sustaining economy in Indian country." He expressed the hope that by
the end of his tenure, "I will have made a difference in the economic
emergence of Indian interests."
In a recent interview, McCaleb laid out an ambitious agenda that would
improve the dismal state of Indian education and strengthen public safety 
in Native American communities.
In some ways, McCaleb is a surprise pick, for his expertise is in
transportation, business and politics, not Indian issues per se. But
McCaleb, who has an easy laugh and an Oklahoma drawl, has a simple retort 
to those who doubt his qualifications: "Give me a chance."
Colleagues say it is precisely his experience in business and politics -- 
he was Oklahoma's first transportation secretary, served as minority floor
leader in the state house, and ran construction and engineering businesses
for 40 years -- that will serve him well.
"I don't have any doubt that he'll quickly be recognized as an honest
broker, and as an innovator," said Tom Cole, former Republican National
Committee chief of staff, who has served in state politics and government
with McCaleb and is Chickasaw himself.
Clearly, McCaleb's biggest challenge will be to restore the integrity of 
the Indian trust funds. Every head of the BIA, going back to the mid-1980s, 
has vowed to do so. And every one of them has failed.
Perhaps that is why McCaleb, who took office July 4, hesitated to make a
similar vow, although he called a full accounting of Indian assets a
priority that is "a first among some equals."
But he did not promise to resolve the entire trust fund issue on his watch.
"When you say resolve," he said, "there are two issues."
The first, to develop a computer system to handle Indian accounts from the
present to the future, "clearly will be done," he said. The second, to
achieve an accounting of funds that dates back to the trust's creation in
1887, is "obviously more challenging."
McCaleb, 66, is eager to show he is committed to the issue. But when pressed
for details, for instance, on how he will ensure that the existing trust
records are kept secure (there have been reports of records being lost and
destroyed), he deferred to the Office of the Special Trustee, created to
oversee the trust fund settlement and whose head reports directly to
Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton.
McCaleb is more comfortable talking about economic development. It is in
this arena, he said, that he believes Native Americans can achieve a
turnaround. He is thinking about planning a summit on Indian energy
opportunities.
"Billions of dollars have been invested in the gaming sector all over the
country," he said. "We can do the same thing in energy. A hundred-megawatt
plant comes with eight zeroes behind it."
Some were surprised that he did not seek a position in transportation in the
Bush administration, but, he said, he has had "an abiding interest" in
Indian affairs. He served on the first Oklahoma Commission on Indian Affairs
and on President Ronald Reagan's Commission on Indian Reservation Economics.
The Reagan commission report, which McCaleb said he still stands by,
recommended subjecting tribal courts to the authority of federal appeals
courts, imposing strict limits on tribal sovereign immunity and diminishing
the role of the BIA.
McCaleb said he believes in tribal sovereignty and that for governments 
"to be truly sovereign," they must have "economic self-sufficiency." As to
whether tribal courts should submit to the authority of federal appeals
courts, he said that is a decision best left to the individual tribe.
McCaleb began to embrace his Indian identity after college, when he
discovered "there was still a lot of racism in parts of Oklahoma" and helped
organize a group fighting for economic opportunity for Indians. He was then
a Democrat.
But as he entered the business world, he became convinced "that the Great
Society was not the answer" to achieving prosperity, and "the free market"
was. He became a Republican, and a self-described "apostle" of the teachings
of Adam Smith.
"The free market is one of the ideas that this administration stands for," 
he said. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to be identified with this 
administration."

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