Tribal members get money
A reporter was kicked off Fort Hall Indian reservation when he attempted to cover a story about tribes getting money from the federal government.
Every member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes got close to $10,000 after the tribes won a $60 million settlement from the federal government earlier this year. They decided to split it up evenly among every tribal member.
Local News 8 had heard the distribution might happen Thursday. Reporter Jake Taylor called Fort Hall officials, and they told him it “definitely wasn’t happening today.”
Taylor went to Fort Hall to check and found the truth: Hundreds of tribal members were lined up to pick up their share. Distribution day was indeed Thursday.
Within a minute of setting up his camera, Taylor was politely but firmly told to pack up and get out.
“You have to stop,” a tribal representative told him. “You have to cut your film. … The council put a hold of any type of filming for TV on this. It’s just because we’re getting too much negatively from the outside about what’s going on. So we’re trying to control it.”
This large settlement comes from money owed to the tribes that Shoshone-Bannock officials said the feds mismanaged going back to the early 1900s.
In previous stories on this subject, tribal officials said they would hold financial workshops to give their members help on how to wisely use this money.
